I heard somewhere that walking around barefoot actually
makes your feet more sensitive over time and you end up having a fuller
experience because you’ve stimulated the sensory receptors - or something like
that. I feel a little bit like I’ve been metaphorically living barefoot these
last few days, and it’s been really good.
I’ve moved into the mud-hut now, and it’s great, but I won’t
start there I’ll start with the journey. Because in one day I experienced just
such a volume of stuff, it almost felt profound. So I got a couple of buses
(catching a Malawian bus is an experience in itself but we won’t get into that)
and while I was waiting for the second bus to go, the conductor ripped his
T-shirt trying to load someone’s bicycle on. And after a while he turned to me
and just said, “Could you give me a new shirt?”! And he showed me the rip and
pointed at my bag and asked me again, and now he’s kind of grinning and I look
around for some kind of idea about what to do, and the other Malawians are kind
of laughing too – so I laugh with them – and in the end we shake hands on the
deal that I’ll give money to a charity rather than just giving him a shirt.
Then once that bus got going I had a great conversation with a
pin-stripe-suited, walking-stick-carrying septuagenarian school teacher, who
was just one of those lovely old people who ooze kindness and all of that. Then
I got off that bus and walked along the road for a while – and there was a
moment that really looked like art, with one man doggedly cycling up a steep
hill in the road, completely alone, with blank grassland stretching out on
either side. Then I got picked up by my new host, Richard Hewitt – in a way
that reminded me really weirdly of getting lifts back from town with Dad.
Except it was a lot hotter. And the car was filled with a pleasant selection of
African sculptures, which Dad’s usually wasn’t. Also, in the car, we were
giving another guy a lift, and I was eating some custard creams (interesting
they actually taste of custard here) and I offered him one, he said, ‘No, no
you keep them’, so I had some more and offered again a bit later. He said,
‘Thank you!’, took the rest of the packet and put it in his bag! I tried to
hide the look of mild confusion. Then I had a beautiful moment standing in a
car park in Lilongwe, when I looked up and saw the moon, and it struck me that
it’s the same moon that I could see back at home. I don’t think that’s as
profound as it felt at the time, but there we go. And then on the next leg of
the journey we stopped off for cold drinks and I got a bottle of ‘Peach and nectarine
juice’ which contained mainly sugar but also milk and I probably would have
thought it was disgusting in normal circumstances but after a hot day is was
the sweetest nectar that ever passed my lips. (Excuse the poetry.) And then
there was the most incredible sunset, and it reminded me of something I read
the other day – the guy was telling a story of trying to woo this girl by
making a 6 foot cardboard valentines card and delivering it to her office, and
was sort of wondering if all the waterfalls, and sunsets, and deep sea fish
with electric lights on their heads, aren’t a little bit like God making us a
six foot valentines card in the hope of getting our attention. And that made me
happy. Oh and I also saw a man cycling with a dead goat tied to the front of
his bike.
That was just part of one day – loads of cool (and some less
cool) stuff has happened since then. Current status update would probably be: very
very tired, but really excited and loving the way God’s challenging me and encouraging
me all at once.
This isn’t the most coherent piece of writing I’ve ever
created – but I think I used up my artistry and wordsmithery on the short story
I wrote the other day before I left Domasi, so you can have a read of that too
if you want!
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