The last countries, the last months.
Last time you heard from us, Henk was beachboying his way through Mozambique and Minne and Marten glavanted around in Malawi. All with the purpose to maintain ourself. Contrary to previous months, years even, not much happened in the past half year. or so we tend to think. We seem to forget, what makes the continent so special, we seem to blend in more and more in whatever country we are. The dirt, the poverty, the diseases and the ugly, we hardly pay attention anymore, consumed as we are with our own ego. Hower, let us not wallow in the mire, lets retrace our steps and see what made the last six months worthwhile.
For starters, Minne learned the hard way that doing business in Africa, how advanced you might be, is a pain in the ass. In this field the African culture and legendary feats come to light most anoyingly; Appointments are being postponed most of the time and if not, you find yourself waiting for people for ages, which is a postponement in itself. Deals are never really concluded, as everybody seems to be affraid of the risk, no matter how small they are. A thriving economy requires gut and risktaking and so we can say that Africa, or at least Malawi, will never ‘boom’.
Noflik gave birth to seven pups, after she was voluntary abused by some wretched-scum-son-of-a-b!tch-hasn’t-been-kicked-enough-streetdog. Over the weeks our guard traded her tight posture for a hangsack belly, dragging her ever expanding womb over the concrete of Lilongwe, a city more depressing than a suicidal teletubbie.
Marten, our crocodile dundee, basically hovered around in Malawi, conducting activities that nobody, including himself, could name, but somehow did supply for his food and accomodation. His main interests involves a story in which his hair is eaten by ants. Yeah, we know. It’s probably time for a major shock to get this boy back to the hero he’s ment to be. Working on it.
At the end of his two month visa, Henk kissed the beach of Tofo goodbye and left like a thief in the night. For he knew that when he tried to leave during daytime, when he was seen by so many people, bikinis and guru-seekers, they’d never let him go. Henk, however always fond of some glorifaction, grew restless and made no plans, but providence took him to Swaziland, where he was invited to help organize Bushfire, a fantastic festival. Too bad Henk misjudged the weather in his shorts and flipflops. This far south of the equator it gets freaking cold during summer and so, a cold was born.
After this brilliant week, Henk got a ride to Johannesburg, where he waited for Marten who finally decided to leave Malawi. Together they enjoyed to World Cup, visited two hames and never fell asleep on the beach. Minne missed this event, the idiot, and arrived in Johannesburg just in time to catch his plane. Our plane. “Plane?”, you ask, yes plane. Our money is completely gone and we need some time to do some fundraising. So, it is back to The Netherlands for now. Don’t think it’s over, we’ll be more busy than ever, so expect a more regular update as well!
For the last months, we would like to thank so many people, please don’t feel bad if we didn’t mention your name. Just know that you made a difference, you made us shy. Thank you, Mufasa, Tinus, Fat Monkey, Tofo, it’s surfers, crew and sometimes very special visitors, Thank you Diplomats, Leo and Athene, Bushfire and everybody on it, Thank you, Nel family, thank you Connely’s. Etcetera. Thank you all; without you we’d be suffering in some ditch now.
Tags: Henk, Lilongwe, marten, Minne, noflik, Swaziland, The Netherlands
