After 2.5 months of intimacy with the Dark Continent, I am keen to say that if such thing as love exists, I am falling in love! When I think about the departure day, which is set to be on April 30th, I feel the knot in my stomach. I don’t mean to imply that my life has been without challenges. On the contrary, every day is a struggle here. However, as the hackneyed saying goes, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger! Indeed.
I did have low moments that sometimes turned into low days and I couldn’t go to work for a week. All I wanted was to abscond from interacting anything interact-able. “Lately, I have been feeling unwell, sluggish yet significantly voracious, partly because of the soporific weather, and partly because of the haunting memories of the past. I admit. I feel slightly homesick or remarkably homesick. What’s the difference? Then I ponder where my home is….my Turkish has become unbelievably rusty. My French is having an incessant existential crisis. My Bemba is confined to two phrases and my Nyanca is not doing any better. I still haven’t bought a mosquito net. Not that I live in a mosquito free zone. I wish. On the contrary, every night, I put up a fight with mosquitos” is what I wrote a month ago in an attempt to describe my emotional, mental, and physical state, despite all the elusiveness. How would I know all I needed was some quality time with...
Et Voila- Malawi: an unforgettable break from so called reality, the land of funny stuff, tea, Kuche Kuche -local beer, Sobo -cherry flavored soft drink-which, according to a very wise friend, tastes like ‘sex in the mouth’, cab drivers craving ‘deep love’ with white women, and a gateway to joyful intimacy with South Africans. And I shall repeat-the VIBE was good.
If you think you can pull off:
• sitting in a cab with a hand break in your ass so that four people could be seated in the front (including the driver),
• travelling by cramped busses-70 passengers seated with another 70 standing in the aisles; not to mention the luggage loaded onto the bus or the chickens who, apparently, can endure the traumatizing conditions of the ride and manage not to suffocate,
• standing on the bashed up busses for hours, and if you’re lucky, sitting on the engine, very close to the front window, ready to fly out with a sudden jolt,
• not wondering what could happen in case of an accident, (‘Don’t worry, God is with us’ is what I was told),
• having to listen to crazy tracks for HOURS (while sitting on the engine or standing and trying not to think about accidents),
• patiently waiting for hours at the so-called terminals because the minibuses leave only when they are packed beyond their capacities,
• travelling with sacks of dry fish and the pungent smell
• getting rides on flat-bed trucks or pick-ups with loads of mangos, which nonetheless promises a souvenir-sunburn!
then, you can travel by public in Malawi. You should. Despite all the things we had to endure as mzungus (white person), if I had the chance to re-do it right now, I would do it without hesitation.
• travelling by cramped busses-70 passengers seated with another 70 standing in the aisles; not to mention the luggage loaded onto the bus or the chickens who, apparently, can endure the traumatizing conditions of the ride and manage not to suffocate,
• standing on the bashed up busses for hours, and if you’re lucky, sitting on the engine, very close to the front window, ready to fly out with a sudden jolt,
• not wondering what could happen in case of an accident, (‘Don’t worry, God is with us’ is what I was told),
• having to listen to crazy tracks for HOURS (while sitting on the engine or standing and trying not to think about accidents),
• patiently waiting for hours at the so-called terminals because the minibuses leave only when they are packed beyond their capacities,
• travelling with sacks of dry fish and the pungent smell
• getting rides on flat-bed trucks or pick-ups with loads of mangos, which nonetheless promises a souvenir-sunburn!
then, you can travel by public in Malawi. You should. Despite all the things we had to endure as mzungus (white person), if I had the chance to re-do it right now, I would do it without hesitation.
And ‘who let the dogs out?’ http://vimeo.com/18954337
Cheers.
No comments:
Post a Comment