Malawi Memorandum
Here is Chuen-Yen's weekly email. Sadly, there will not be many more as you see below; I will soon be thrown back on my own resources. In the meantime, however, I am pleased to present the following:
Greetings! Here's this week's memoir. There will be only two more after this since I'm leaving Malawi in August.
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Acquiring Malawian souvenirs prior to departure is a good idea. But sending Gift to purchase �the three most beautiful hippos in town� was a clear lapse in judgment.
For Gift, who can obtain curios at the �Black People price,� my fancy presented an entrepreneurial opportunity. In support of industriousness, I acquiesced to let him do my shopping and keep the Black-White cost differential. As an aesthetic precaution, we considered several prototypes. Gift meticulously examined the specimens I purchased a few weeks ago. Then we visited Blantyre�s vendors to evaluate available candidates.
I subsequently provided the funds and asked Gift to bring the carvings within a week. This time period seemed adequate for peddlers to forget our association. However, Gift immediately changed his clothing, went to curio row and returned with three deformed hippopotami.
Gift�s hippos do share a gestalt with mine. They are nearly the same size, of similar proportions and composed of wood. But the resemblance ends there. His are vicious, bedraggled swamp monsters now relegated to storage. Mine are jovial, handsome creatures that frolic blithely atop my dresser.
I should have known anyone who thinks all Black people are the same; that changing one�s clothes immediately transforms one�s identity; and that enviable individuals run high risk of being cannibalized, would be imprudent in choosing hippos. Contrary to popular belief, African villagers are not all big game experts.
We should all learn to do our own hunting.
Take care.
C
posted by Dr. Alice at #
