Travel generally eats up a day in these parts. We spent this one getting from Mulanje to Lilongwe by a combination of mini-bus, Axa bus, and taxi-cab. The mini-bus conductor remembered us from a previous trip and offered a better price since he also remembered us calling him out for charging us "Uzungu Price". Not much to report from a day spent staring out of windows. The landscape is beautiful, and not at all infertile. From my seat I watched a man sweeping dirt. In a place where there is so much idleness and deterioration, this seemed a profoundly futile misallocation of effort. I listened to and thought of music. I want there to be real music in the place, as there once was, and likely still is in places I will never be invited to see. I am yearning to meet some artists here, some intellectuals, intrinsic to this place and this culture, that can give me some hope; a demonstrable future, instead of just smiling out of habit and saying that there is so much. I am showing my bias; everyone is looking for doctors and social workers to gauge the health and future of this place and I am looking for artists. Cultures outlive individuals. If there is no culture there is only death.
PICASA PHOTOS
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