The Daily Dig: Bob Marley & The Wailers' "Three Little Birds"

Yesterday, I mentioned I was on a reggae kick. So here's another tune I've rediscovered as part of that.

Bob Marley was a big part of my university years, especially when I went on a trip to Rwanda and Uganda in 2007. I was there as part of the Rwanda Initiative, working at what was then Rwanda's only daily newspaper, The New Times.

On weekends, I spent time going up to Gisenyi, which is near the border with the Democratic Republic Of The Congo, and was the centre of a lot of strife during the Rwandan Genocide (in Rwanda, they capitalize "genocide").  (Gisenyi is now peaceful and pretty serene, despite being just across the border from Goma in the DRC, which is exactly the opposite.)

One of those jaunts took me up to Uganda. I took a 12-hour bus ride from Kigali, Rwanda to Kampala, Uganda.

Two hours in, my friends and I reached the Rwanda-Uganda border. Of course, we had to stand in line at customs and get our passports stamped. After that, we walked to our bus, which was by then waiting on the Uganda side of the border. While crossing over, I sang this song at the top of my lungs.

It remained in my head all that day, and the next two days after. During our last day in Uganda, we took a trip to Jinja, which is the source of the Nile and the place where Gandhi was cremated. So, yes, I stuck my hand in the Nile at the site of Gandhi's cremation with "Three Little Birds" in my head.