The Great Out There

This a song by some random woman named Somethingorother Werner. Mark Bartels played it for us USP students in the beginning of the semester to get us pumped about being in a different culture. The girl its about is named Kate! (And there's a reference to you Martha, except you're in a different country too, not a flat state haha)


Catherine flew out to Senegal
In her Malian motley robes
In her voice were more colours than the rainbow she wore
And her cheeks were sweet Irish rose
She talked of dancing in bars in Dakar
To that African high-life jive
Her ma said, "Girl you're gonna get yourself killed"
She says, "I'm going just to be alive"

Oh when you get there, is there a there there
Do people care there, are people aware there
Do the boys and girls do more than
Break their toys and perm their hair there
Send an update, Kate, to your old roommate
From your big round world to my small flat state
Tell me what do you find when you open your eyes and your mind
To the great out there

She sent me a card from Zanzibar
From Khartoum and Marrakesh
And then later that year some letters appeared
From Nepal and Bangladesh
At first the words were laughter
The strange ways we live in peace
The next, the words were blurred with tears
The war, the famine, the disease

Oh when you get there, is there a there there
Do people care there, are people aware there
Do the boys and girls do more than
Break their toys and perm their hair there
Send an update Kate to your old roommate
From your big round world to my small flat state
Tell me what do you find when you open your eyes and your mind
To the great out there

I was born in Iowa
And that's where they'll bury me too
And the sacred things I hold near and dear
Are probably the same for you
So I'm glad I got my friend Catherine
'Cos she needs to know the new
Oh I spend my time wrapped up in my tribe
Well she brings the world into view

Catherine came back from India
With malaria in her veins
But the fire returned to her clear blue eyes
Just as soon as it whirled from her brain
I said, "Catherine who will you be
When you're finally who you are?"
She just smiled and said, "We'll see won't we
But there'll be more to be by far"

Oh when you get there, is there a there there
Do people care there, are people aware there
Do the boys and girls do more than
Break their toys and perm their hair there
Send an update Kate to your old roommate
From your big round world to my small flat state
Tell me what do you find when you open your eyes and your mind
To the great out there