Night

Last night after supper and a bath, Bryan and I pulled one of the rope beds out of the guest room and set it in the space behind our tent, on the side of the compound closest to the big hill. One blessing of this time of the year is the absence of mosquitoes, so we laid outside in our pajamas for a long time enjoying that rare, almost daring feeling of bare skin against night-time air. The moon was full just a few nights ago, but it has been rising well after we are in bed lately so the night sky was still deep and dark. If it weren't for the glow of the UN camp on one edge of the sky's hem and the dying embers of a grass fire against the other, it could have been hard to tell where the horizon neatly divided earth and sky. But even with those lights, the stars were breathtaking. I'm wondering if there was a meteor shower too, or if we were just lucky because we ended up seeing several falling stars burn across the sky before we finally just couldn't keep our eyes open any longer. It was so beautiful. We could even hear our owl up in a tree somewhere on the hill for a while, but I feel like whenever I try to figure out where it roosts it falls completely silent.
I confess, day to day life has a way of wearing the charm off this place very easily. But believe it or not, it is also the day to day living that sometimes catches you off guard and feels every bit as romanticized and it might have once looked from far away.