The Shadow of the Sun

I just want to start this post by telling you that I am reading a book by Ryszard Kapuscinski at the moment that is actually extremely relevant to what I did experience 6 years ago, and what I am actually experiencing at the moment. The book is called "The Shadow of the Sun, My African Life". Before going on to my experiences the last of couple of days, I would like to quote some of his paragraphs as I find them really good.

"The continent is too large to describe. It is a veritable ocean, a separate planet, a varied, immensely rich cosmos. Only with the greatest simplification, for the sake of convenience, can we say "Africa". In reality, except as a geographical appellation, Africa does not exist" (Kapuscinski 2001).

"We climb into the bus and sit down. At this point there is a risk of culture clash, of collision and conflict. It will undoubtedly occur if the passenger is a foreigner who doesn't know Africa. Someone like that will start looking around, squirming, inquiring, 'when will the bus leave?' 'What do you mean, when?' the astonished driver will reply. 'It will leave when we find enough people to fill it up."

My favourite is however his paragraph about mosquitoes:

"A mosquito will always manage to slip through (the mosquito net). It almost seems like these small but insistent aggressors establish each evening a battle plan meant to exhaust their victims, because if there are ten of them, say, they do not attack all together- which would allow you to deal with them all at once and have peace for the rest of the night- but one by one. The first to take off is, as it were, the scout, whose reconnaissance mission the rest closely observe. Well rested after a good day's sleep, he torments you with his demonic buzzing, until finally, sleepy and furious, you organize a hunt, kill him; you are just lying down again, confident of returning to sleep, just turning off the light, when the next one begins his loops, spirals, and corkscrews. After years spent observing mosquitoes, I reached the conclusion that this creature is possessed of a deeply seated suicidal instinct, some uncontrollable need for self destruction. Witnessing the demise of the predecessors does not discourage them, instead they hurl themselves one after another, clearly excited and desperately determined, toward an inevitable and quick death" (Kapuscinski 2001).

This book is almost too good to be true. Well, the last three days has been defined by an extremely bad internet connection. I tried to update my blog every day, without any success at all. I can't even read my e-mails. In the coming paragraphs I will tell a little bit about the last couple of days and the coming week.

The last night before I went to Zambia, on Monday, we went to a take away close to the Mufasa hostel buying some pizzas. Afterwards we watched a movie in the room of Yemi, Sophie, Olivier, Audrey, Karen and Lotte. It was a nice evening, and sad to say goodbye. I may however meet some of them again sometime in the near future.

On Tuesday I had to be up at 4, so it was a difficult night. Lilongwe is only about one hour from the border to Zambia, so we crossed into my 43^rd country quite early. The visa procedure was very straightforward, and the reason I had to be worried was soon proven wrong.

As expected the drive from Lilongwe to Lusaka took more than the 12 hours suggested. I came to Lusaka at 7:30, and took a taxi to Chachacha backpackers. It is not quite the standard of Mufasa, but it is fine. I am not here to sleep. It is freezing cold every morning, and who would have expected that? Fortunately the rest of the day is like a nice Norwegian summer so I am not complaining.

On Wednesday, I went for a walk down to Cairo Rd, The main street of Lusaka, to find the office where Ephraim worked. It was quite easy to find, but I had to wait outside for about one hour due to lunch hours. We made a plan for the coming Friday to have dinner and go out with his wife. Ephraim helped me buy a sim card for a Zain account, but it turned out that my phone is locked. Anyway, I bought a really crappy phone today for about 13 dollars that will be my contact with the rest of the world while I don?t have access to the internet. Unfortunately I don?t remember my number...

Yesterday I was at the Tanzanian consulate to apply for a visa, and that was no problem at all. Then I went to Cairo Rd. again to have breakfast and finally buy my Ghana football jersey. Let there be no doubt about which football team I am supporting in this World Cup. I just bought the jersey 6 years too late. Ghana is still my second home country, even though I just lived there for three months. The rest of the day I just hung around in Lusaka with my roommate Yannick from Germany.

Today is going to be an exciting day. I am really looking forward to have dinner with Ephraim and his wife, and to go out afterwards. Tomorrow at around 4, I will take the bus to Dar. This is the part of the trip that I am least looking forward to since it will be a 27 hours bus ride (at least). I will collect a couple of visas while in Dar, and meet up with Yannick again at the Jambo Inn. Will continue to Nairobi sometime around Thursday.

By the way this was written yesterday...

Until the next update, big hug.