The first time I traveled to Africa went to Malawi. He 21 years and for me the great continent was little more than an idea that I had defined before knowing. I worked in Antire, A town in Lilongüe, And my daily routine consisted of making mistakes very strong. That was my specialty. I remember that one morning I went to a town that "was not far away" to attend the funeral of one of the project patients. After an hour and a half walking I learned that the truths were substitutable, And that if I wanted to start adapting, I had to put aside the inflexible truths that had populated me during adolescence («Fence», en Malawi, It was not the same as "close" in Spain, course).
I was leaving Adobe Casitas behind straw roofs and people who greeted kind. Some children followed me and were teaching me words in Chichewa. When we arrive at the town, The first thing I saw was men with masks, with skirts made of leaves of a tree that I could not recognize, and with machetes. I got scared. I was very scared. I felt completely alone and lost somewhere in the world. Two men guided me to some wooden banks that they had placed in a circle and I sat down. After a while many more men, all dresses in the same way, They started running behind a group of children giving machetes in the air. The children ran laughing, And men were really threatening.
I felt completely alone and lost somewhere in the world
Someone who spoke English explained that men played death, and that they were teaching the children to flee from her. I remember my terror every time a machete passed near a child; I wanted to think it was a game, A metaphor, A ritual ... But the machetes were so real!
When the ritual ended they took me to see the dead. They did not know, But he was the first dead person I was going to see in my life. The woman lay in a wooden coffin, Inside your adobe house. Inside the house there were candle light, And above the body they went from time to time chicks or ducks, And nobody seemed to be surprised. They explained that I had to put a coin in my hand, as an offering to pay food to the guests to funeral, And I remember perfectly that I just wanted to get out of there. I thought I was going to vomit by smell, because of the humidity, For the entire situation. But I placed the coin in his hand and came out. I left quickly, almost running.
They explained that I had to put a coin in my hand to the deceased, as an offering to pay the funeral food
I made the way back in a very short time and I got home with a terrible stomach pain. William James He said that emotions are not located in the brain, but in the viscera, And at that moment I was totally convinced that the terror was born in my stomach and blocked me, I blocked me totally.
I had been in Malawi for a long time and had only worked. That night I decided that I would accept the invitation of some Canadian friends to go on the weekend to Salima, TO THE GREAT MALAWI Lake. I needed to take away the bad body and the feeling of being very silly that I had for a long time, And looking photos in a guide of Lonely Planet I convinced myself that it would be the weekend of my life.
We got on the back of a "pick-up", We were about twelve adults and at least two children
The next day we took a bus at the Lilongüe station that took us to Salima. I remember the landscapes, Beautiful, I remember enjoying the curiosity that opened my eyes, I remember the total feeling of freedom, As if it had gone beyond the map, beyond any factual space. Every stop we made was a party, The fruit sellers of each town ran and gathered against the bus windows to sell their products. At the last stop we buy bananas; They were really rich.
Once in Salima we got on the back of a "pick-up", We were about twelve adults and at least two children. There were a couple of goats, chickens, and fresh fish. One of my Canadian friends took a photo before starting, I felt really excited about the adventure. I remember the air on the face, the moisture of the proximity of the lake, heat.
And suddenly, the silence.
It seems that the right front wheel broke out, And the "pick-up" gave three bells. We shot out, clear. When I regained consciousness I was lying on the road. I looked right and I saw my shattered and swollen hand. I didn't feel anything. I was fine, I believed. I took my left hand to the ear, I checked that I was bleeding by the ear and thought coldly that it was not a good sign. People spoke to me and I smiled a lot. Someone said it was very bad, But I was foreign, Nothing affected me, It was fine.
The right front wheel exploded and we turned three laps of bell. We shot out, clear
When the ambulance arrived, What was a matatu, The doctor started cutting my clothes and I thought it was a luck that would wear beautiful underwear. The man who was by my side in the ambulance died along the way. Yo vomited.
Five people died on the spot. They died more later, because they had no medical insurance and could not be transferred to a good hospital. They evacuated me in a medicalized plane to South Africa, After passing the first 24 hours in a Malawi hospital where they gave me extremeunciation. South Africa had to resuscitate, they did it, I'm alive. But I have never forgotten the people who were with me that day, I could have lived, perhaps, if I had health insurance that I had.
Five people died on the spot and more later, because they had no medical insurance and could not be transferred to a good hospital
That is why the NGO. That's why I continued traveling. Because I have a debt that I will not be able to pay in life, And all I can do is try to make the world a bit fairer. In Malawi I learned fear, I learned that dying is very easy and that it is not so tremendous, I learned disgust. I learned to learn and put aside truths. I learned to smile with a paralyzed half face (that went over time), I learned to be again. And sometimes think that, actually, It was lucky to mature in a country like Malawi. Hopefully one day come back.
