Africa

Ragnfrid and I are going to Africa this afternoon. We will be gone until December 10th. This is sort of our summer vacation. Neither of us got a proper vacation this year, so we're taking it out now. I feel rather like the annoying sibling or friend who saved his candy for days just so he could eat his when you were out.

On our trip, we will be going to countries where life expectancy at birth is lower than the sea-level temperature (in Celcius). We will be visiting the last absolute monarchy on Earth and we will be visiting the place with the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS on the planet. And all that's just Swaziland! We're also going to Mozambique and South Africa.

Here's the latest news from the Times of Swaziland, the paper of record in Mbanbane. In case you were wondering, it is a government newspaper:

Political parties are terrorists - PM

MBABANE- Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini has listed four banned political movements as terrorist formations.

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Cops reveal five-year plan

MBABANE - Lawbreakers in the country are warned! Royal Swaziland Police Service is now eliminating crime with military precision. The statement was made by the acting Police Commissioner Isaac Magagula during the end of year for senior officers and senior civilian staff conference held at the police headquarters yesterday

Swaziland's state motto is "we are hidden away". But I'm sure our plane will find Mazani airport.

As always, when I'm about to ship out to the colonies, I think of Rimbaud:

Let cities light their lamps in the evening; my daytime is done, I am leaving Europe. The air of the sea will burn my lungs; lost climates will turn my skin to leather. To swim, to pulverize grass, to hunt, above all to smoke; to drink strong drinks, as strong as molten ore, as did those dear ancestors around their fires.

I will come back with limbs of iron, with dark skin, and angry eyes; in this mask, they will think I belong to a strong race. I will have gold; I will be brutal and indolent. Women nurse these ferocious invalids come back from the tropics. I will become involved in politics. Saved.

Now I am accursed, I detest my native land. The best thing is a drunken sleep, stretched out on some strip of shore.

Anyway, all irony aside, communication infrastructure is spotty in some places we're going. I don't know how much I'll be online, but I'll try to post every now and again. But don't hold your breath. You'll get all cyanotic. See you all in December, at least.

Cheers,
Martin