Reflections
I’ve now been in Blantyre for
nearly a week, and starting to get used to it here. To begin with I found it very
strange to be an ethnic minority, and be stared at wherever we go. Saying this
though, I’m surprised to see as many white folk as there are. You have the
absurd feeling of wanting to say ‘hello’ when you see them. It was like when we
had our VW camper van, and if you see another one you’d beep and wave at each
other.
While we’ve
been here, there’s been a lot of discussion about the presidential election
that was held here just before we arrived. There have been problems getting the results agreed,
and a lot of people were getting very angry. After riots and a death in a town
further north, a new president was declared at midnight two nights ago to big
celebrations.
This was lucky for us, as everyone had calmed down and happy
the next morning when we were scheduled to visit one of the poorer areas of
Blantyre to teach some workshops. Mary, our contact, told us that she wouldn’t
have let us go to that area if the mood hadn’t lifted because it would have been too dangerous. It's something I hadn't
even thought about. We’d spent the day shopping and photographing in the city
centre and were blissfully unaware of any underlying tensions at all.
One of the
weirdest things here is simply that the sun goes down at 5:30pm. I know that this shouldn’t be
so strange, and it took me a few days to realise why I was getting so freaked
out by it.
I realised that
when we have a lovely sunny day in Britain, it will last well into the evening,
and everyone will sit outside, go for a walk, and do fun things after work to
enjoy the cool of the evening sun.
When it's dark by 6pm on a beautiful warm sunny day, it
feels very strange indeed.
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