Summary

Part Two, “Gusimbura,” Chapter Twelve: New York City, 2006. Author Kidder continues his tour of Deo’s New York with a visit to the grocery stores where Deo once worked. Deo becomes concerned that one of them has gone, and then jokes about how over-sensitive to things he is. Next, he takes the author to Central Park, taking honest pride in showing him the progression of places where he had slept, each one an improvement upon the other. At one point he describes his memories of looking into the sky and of his grandfather, and then spends the rest of the trip through the park in a thoughtful self-isolation, which the author suggests was a reliving of his time there, down to the upset stomach.

Deo and the author then go through Columbia University, with Deo remembering details about the various places where he worked...