Now for the Sense of Smell

I want to first make a disclaimer. This entry is NOT meant in any way to disgust or insult or offend. It is merely what I have observed through the sense of smell.

As I open the gate to leave home every day the sweet scent of flowers mingling with Omo detergent fills my nostrils. I proceed through the wafting of animal manure from nearby chicken coops and goat pens. If there is a breeze, fresh clean air brushes by me. Around the corner just behind a hedge the strong sent of urine burns my nostrils as the heat of the African sun increases the ammonia odor. Somewhere around 1PM acrid smoke creeps into the Resource Center as the wood fires are stoked in the school kitchen preparing lunch for students.
Walking around campus as students and staff pass the scent of Lux and Imperial Leather soap trails behind them. Oftentimes the scent is that of body odor from the perspiration of manual labor. In the evening the charcoal fires are accompanied by the scent of evening meals cooking. I can pick out tomato, onion, groundnut, sometimes shito (their spicy sauce similar to a salsa). As I open the door to my room warm air brushes past me filling my nostrils with a stale, musky smell. I reach for the air -freshener turn on the ceiling fan to stir in the sweeter smell of lavender. Later after my evening “baf” my bathroom picks up the scent of clean soap and the night air joins. Once in a while as I climb into my mosquito net cave the smell of insect repellent is stirred up and settles in to do its job. Reclining at days end the clean, fresh sometimes herbal sometimes fruity scent of lotion on my arms is the last scent of the day as I close my eyes and breathe in deeply.