Now,
I’m in Zamalek, Alqahirah, Egypt, a man-made island on the Nile
river, and at the same time, I’m in Paris, I’m in Cape Town, I’m
in Punta Arenas, I’m in Harare and I’m in central Melbourne, more
precisely at the Docklands area. And, as it goes, I’m back in
Zamalek, Alqahirah, and thus, here I’m at some kind of pier by the
Nile river, this is, by now I must go around and find clients to get
aboard the feluccas, this is, recreational boats used to transport
tourists for perambulations up and down the Nile. And then, I’m
Paris again, currently going up the big stairs in front of the
Montmartre cathedral, and say, from the top of this emblematic
staircase it is possible to see almost two quarters of all the city
roofs, thus, well, tourists and tourists suckers of many types and
shapes, here ere are coming, onto this podium, I mean, not only the
paunchy americans and the chinese photographers, but also, the so
called low-budget travelers, backpackers, night-goers of all kinds,
some still attracted by that idea of Paris city of dead romantic
artists, I mean, the surrealist movement finished decades ago, but,
the sons of the Maghreb migrants are coming to replace it, this is,
here they are, already arriving through the side alleys of this
stars, inside sportive cars, like in the movies, and as they stop-by,
all the doors from their cars are actually being open, and so, a huge
hashish smell is arising accompanied by hip-hop beats with arabesque
melodies, and then, we also see some naked legs, this is, fashionable
ladies are also coming out from these cars, like in the movies, and
then, white youngsters that were at the bottom of the stairs, are
approaching these cars as well, and, as they approach it, they are
already doing some kind of waddle, like imitating the moves of the
maghrebins, And then I’m in Cape Town again, more precisely going
through the Khayelitsha, a slum village that extends from the suburbs
of the city itself until the dunes, by the seacoast. And at the same
time, I’m in Punta Arenas, historically known as Sandy Point, the
capital city of Chile's southernmost region, Magallanes and
Antartica, located on the Brunswick Peninsula, a peninsula almost on
the extreme southern point of the American continent. And I’m in
Harare, now following aboard a minivan, along the airport road, going
in the direction of the city center, and, as we advance, I’m
learning about the Ndebele and the Kalanga and the Tonga and the
Shangaan and the Venda, etc. And as it goes, in a while, I’m back
in Melbourne, this is, now advancing along La Trobe, a street that
passes over all the tracks from the Southern Cross station, a main
station in this city, and so, here I am, stopped, staring at the
tracks down there, and the trains coming over it. And then I’m in
Cairo again, already entering a felucca, this is, some sort of
recreational boat already loaded with small group of tourists me and
the boys picked up in the streets and alleys around the main hotels
of this Zamalek inland, I mean, hotels like the Om Kolthom, the Nile
Zamalek, the New President, the Flamenco Cairo, the New Star Zamalek,
the Cairo Marriott Hotel, the Nile El Gezirah, the Hilton Cairo etc.
And so, already departing, the tourists seated around in wooden
benches, Amon, the capitan, driving the engines there at the front,
Menes and Yussef, the cadets, walking through the deck, spreading
portfolios about this trip, and me, the public relations officer,
answering silly questions from the tourists, this while tempestuous
Arabic pop music is blasting from the cockpit, making people
impatient. And thus, as it goes, at some point, an Italian couple is
already asking me in bad English, how many stops we will make along
this trip, and I, well, in a mix of Italian, Spanish and English, say
“It depends… the first one will be already on the next Inland
just five, ten minutes from here, at the Manial Al
Rawdah
inland, I mean, there we will visit the Prince
Mohamed Ali
Palace and the Umm
Kulthum Museum,
and then, further, on the Giza side we will visit the Pharaonic
Village,
a thematic park showing five thousand years of Egyptian history, and…
some of the attractions of this park will be… the Tomb of
Tutankhamun,
the Mummification Museum, a Cleopatra's Exhibition, a Coptic
exhibition and the Nubia's History Museum,
and then… we will visit the Dahab
Island Palace and
at some point we will probably stop on this or that cafe of this or
that inland to come, depending on the captain’s mood. And, as I say
this, a japanese tourist asks me if there are or there are not
crocodiles to see in this river to see, and “well” I say “ if
you really wanna see the Nile crocodiles, you should go further
south, and get on the next boat that will take you to the border with
Sudan”. And as I say this, a couple of Americans are already asking
“aren’t we visiting any pyramids on this trip?”, “No” I
say, “there are no pyramids on the banks on the Nile, the closest
pyramids to see are in Giza mainland… for that you should get off
at Abbas bridge and take a minibus or a taxi there… I mean, it
isn't too far, only about ten miles from this bridge I just said,
and, you may go walking, as well… it’s a nice walk…” and then
some British guy also says, “so this is not taking us to Luxor, I
thought we were going to Luxor or Aswan, one of the guys that
recruited me on the hotel told me we would go to such places…”;
“no, we are not going that south, that is about five hundred miles
from here, we never told you we are going to Luxor, the boys may have
told you we are going to visit the Luxor gardens, here in Cairo’s
metropolitan area, if you wanna take another boat to Luxor they can
help you with tickets and connections…” And then some other guys
from Saudi Arabia just ask a few other questions more, but, as I
couldn’t understand their arab pronunciation at all, I had to call
the boys, Menes and Yussef. And then, here I’m, in Paris again, by
now going down the stairways on the side of the Montmartre funicular,
and, as I go down, I find some rickety musicians here, playing
across, busking, this is, one is playing a very untuned sort of
violin and the other is just blowing on a fat tube made of cardboard,
using it as some kind of didgeridoo, and as I pass by on their side,
I try to sing along with them, but instantly they send me away, and,
then, as I keep going down, I pass two other guys just wandering up
and down this staircases, this is, they are actually picking
abandoned drinks here left, one wearing a Pokémon’s t-shirt, and
the other, a semi-chubby guy with shaved head and a tricky kind of
smile. And yeah, as we exchange some words, I already can understand
that they must be Romanians or Hungarians, something like that, and
as it goes, they even want share some of their recycled drinks with
me… and, as I continue, further down, almost at the bottom of this
stairs, I find this girl sitting alone with some kind of cloth in
front of her, actually an apron filled up with different kind of
stones, some vulgar some semi-exotic, and also some pieces of broken
jewelry in the middle of it”, and yeah, here I stand. And now, back
in Cape Town, this is, I have walked from Monwabisi Beach to Gordon's
Bay, from where we can already catch sight of a series of craggy
rocks, more like crocodile tails entering the water, and further,
there are this swirling breezes moving around, more like a… a flock
of miniature birds, or, some sort of typhoons disappearing into the
sky. And then, after the breeze has passed, there in dunes, I catch
sight of some sort of a wrecked ship, stranded between the rocks and
the mounds of sand, this is, from here I already can envisage that it
has some kind of round windows all around, like a submarine, and the
roof is actually covered with enormous sails and other sorts of junk
all bouncing and tinkling together… And then, I’m back in Punta
Arenas, now going through Plaza Muñoz Gamero, a small, green sallow
square with the statue of Ferdinand Magellan in the middle, being
Magellan, or Magallanes, or Magalhães, a Portuguese/Spanish seaman,
that, it is said, the responsible he was for having planned and led
the first circumnavigation of the globe, despite having perished
shortly after his passage through these lands, eaten by natives of
the Philippine Islands. And so, back to Harare, now walking through
the city center, I pass the posh neighborhoods of Eastlea North,
Newlands, Gunhill, and then I see myself on the crossroad between
Churchill ave. and Borrowdale ave. where I meet a small group of
chubby middle aged ladies with the Zimbabwe flag over their backs and
some containers in their hands, and as the cars, mainly jeeps, stop
by on this crossroad, they move to their windows offering their
goods, a mix of ready male meals, american brand drinks, decoration
stuff for the cars and even some cosmetics, I get to see, when
I pass by on their side and they offered me something to soften my
skin and make my muscles grow. And then, I’m Melbourne again, now
walking along Collins Street, a major street in the central business
district, a street named after Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania, David
Collins, who led a group of settlers in establishing a short-lived
settlement at Sullivan Bay in Sorrento. And then, I’m Alqahirah
again, this is, by now we just moored on the banks of the Manial
al-Rawdah inland, known in Antiquity as Babylonian Island, a small
inland on the Nile river, still part of the Cairo’s old city, the
so called Miṣr
al-Qadīma,
and thus, after we have visited the Nilometer monument, that is said
to be one of the oldest structure built after the Arab conquest (20
AH/640 AD), we moved to the opposite extreme of the Island, where we
went to visit the Prince Muhammad Ali Palace was built in the
island's that survives in its original form, we moved to Prince
Mohamed Ali
Palace, a palace whose construction was ordered by Mohammed Ali
Tewfik, the Ottoman heir presumptive of Egypt and Sudan in the
periods 1892–1899 and 1936–1952. A palace featuring a blend of
various Islamic art styles, including Fatimid,
Mamluk, Ottoman, Andalusian, Persian, and Levantine influences. It
comprises three main structures: the Reception hall (Selamlik), a the
Residence Palace (Haramlik), and the Throne Palace. Additionally, the
complex includes a mosque, a hunting museum, and a clock tower,
resembling the Kutubiyya mosque of Marraquech, all surrounded by
gardens that host a rare collection of trees and plants, a mish-mash
of gnarling banyan groves, cedar groves, palm trees, and manicured
lawns… And I’m in Paris again, now advancing through the streets
with my gang, this is, accompanied by the musicians I found busking
on the top of the Funicular stairs, the guys that were actually
picking abandoned drinks on the side benches of this stairs, and that
girl that was selling stones at the bottom of these same stairs.
Thus, together we go up the Blvd
Marguerite de Rochechouart,
and the Blvd
de la Chappelle,
passing in front of a series of sex-shops, bakeries, barbers etc.
with their roller shutters pushed down, shutters graffitied with
different kind of tags saying things like “Awa Hype”; “Banana
Hypoo” “Sex, Crocodiles & Hipnosis”; “Je ne sais pas
quoi”; “Vive la fièvre jaune”; “Haute couture made in
Bamako”; “Le Bon Shit”; etc, and then, as we reach the Barbès
Rochechouart metro entrance, there are piles of mushy fruits and
other stuff piled on the sidewalks, under the rail tracks, and so, as
we pass by it, Nadja is already producing a couple of plastic bags
and there she goes, rummaging through those fruit piles, choosing the
best ones, this is, filling her plastic bags, and then, further,
still under those same rail tracks, there are also other piles of
different stuff, things like, broken furniture, plastic wares,
miscellaneous trash, and even some lacy underwear on the top of it,
and so, there they go, the boys now, already picking up some of this
underwear, blowing on them, making the species flow around, and then,
even dressing it on the top of their clothes while following each
other. AndI’m in Cape Town again, I have reached that wrecked kind
of ship thing and managed to meet some dwellers. Names like Luan,
Mieke, Amahle, David, Michael and Annika have come into the air. And,
it looks, they are all into some sort of radical recycling
environmentalism. Plus, they say that the submarine,
this wrecked kind of ship into a hostel converted, is a project by
some of the ex-residents of the Johannesburg Cape Town favelas,
plus some outsiders, from the savanna, and as it goes they give me
the invitation to get in. So, here we go now, already advancing
through the cracks of light coming off the gaps between the sails on
the ceiling, cracks of light that are actually producing drawings on
the skin of our semi-nude bodies, as we advance. And so, while moving
around, I can see those wavy wooden walls, covered with what we can
call as fauvist paintings, and also I take a look at some black and
white photos by the rack, of what I think to be figures of old
pirates, males and females with thin mustaches and strange beards…
and now walking over to look closer some of those faces, staring at
the photo of a black woman with a thin mustache and a minuscule
captain hat laying a bit on the side… and then, while looking at
that, someone explains me that “here on the ground floor it’s
where our rooms are, this is, the residents’ rooms… and there, on
the first floor it’s the communal area where there are also some
rooms for guests…” and so, up we go, already advancing through
some spiral stairs. And then I’m in Punta Arenas again, still here
by the Ferdinand Magellan statue, this is, I just met some people
from croatian offspring and by now, they tell me that the fathers of
the fathers of their grandfathers frt came here to settle on the so
called “Tierra del Fuego”, that is the southern province of South
America itself, this is, they came here attracted by "the gold
fever", after the discovery of gold on the island of Lenox. And
then I’m in Harare again, actually going up the Borrowdale ave.,
the main road crossing, Borrowdale, a rich residential suburb in the
northeast part of Harare. And as I follow on the road side of this
avenue, I see many brand new villas, and others still in
construction, and also a bunch of outdoors announcing a range of
cosmetic products, building companies, sunglasses, toilet furniture,
and bank loans that will give you free medical care for you and for
your pets. And then, back to the Collins Street, in Melbourne, a
street that goes across all this central part of the city, therefore,
by now, I’m actually passing in front of the Café Eurasia, where I
see a lady in a knee-length skirt actually massaging her ankle, and
as she does that, her glasses actually fall on the floor, and then,
there I go, this is, after the entrance to the Melbourne SkyHigh
Apartments, I pass the Daniel's Donuts shop, the Breadtops bakery,
the Miss Siam Thai ice creams, the Adoria Jewels, the Rockit Barber
Shop, the Pulo Pool Parlour, the Mercedes me Store Melbourne and
finally the M.J. Bale, a men's clothing store, just on the side of
the InterContinental hotel, actually a building with some sort of
neo-gothic architecture, and so, here I stay, watching the people
getting in and getting out of this hotel. Back in El Cairo, still
aboard this recreational felucca, after passing on the side of the
Jazīrat al Qurşāyah, we disembark on the Giza bank this time, in
front of the entrance to the Pharaonic
Village,
some sort of Disneyland made in Egypt, a thematic park showing five
thousand years of Egyptian history, composed by a Mummification
Museum, a Cleopatra's Exhibition, the Nubia's History Museum, and so
on. And
then I’m in Paris again, still accompanied by my gang, we pass the
surroundings of the two big rail stations, Gare
du Nord
and Gare
du Lest,
where some other homeless guys dwell during the night, we go across
the Saint
Martin canal,
where we recycle some more stuff, and then we go down the Boulevard
de la Villette
carrying a lot of bags, some furniture items, and, as we go, we have
to make a lot of stops here and there for resting and for rearranging
the position of the staff we are actually carrying on our backs.
And then I’m in Cape Town again, at the top deck of that wrecked
ship converted into a hostel, under the tinkling sails, I got to Know
James and Magda, he from Australia and she from Ireland, both well
traveled. And as it goes, he is already telling me that “I have
traveled the world in order to watch, discover, and experiment
peculiar sorts of rocks” and she “I have traveled the world in
order to watch peculiar sorts of flora”. So, he is, let’s say, a
do-it-yourself petrologist, and she, a do-it-yourself botanist, let’s
put it like that. So, they would recount their stories about
traveling the world. Just now, James begins by saying that “I ended
up here because I wanted to see the Karoo area, where many kinds of
crystals like the garnet, the topaz, the tourmaline, the rose quartz,
or the aquamarine can be found. And she would follow “here I came
to wander through the Bushveld areas and look for particular kinds of
aloes and mesembryanthemums… plus the Crassulas, a genus of
succulent, and the euphorbias, the stapelias, the desert ephemerals
and of course, the different kinds of proteas…”, and by its turn,
James is already enumerating the places where he has seen some
spectacular rock and mineral formations worldwide, places like the
“Giant’s
Causeway
in Northern Ireland, the Moeraki
Boulders in
New Zealand, the White
Desert
of Egypt, the Reed
Flute Cave
in the Guangxi Province of China, the inlets of the “Mono
Lake”
of California or the Devil
Towers
of Wyoming, also in the United States”. Then, he tells us about the
“Cave
of the Crystals”
in Naica, Mexico and the “Door
To Hell”
in Turkmenistan; the “Chocolate
Hills”
in Philippines; the “Salar
de Uyuni”
in Bolivia; the “Stone
Forest”
in China; the “Fairy
Chimneys”
in Turkey; the “Jeita
Grotto”
in Lebanon; the “Yellowstone''
also in the United States; the “Eye
of the Sahara”
in Mauritania; the “World
of Ice Giants”
in Austria, the “Babene”
in Romania, etc. And so, after hearing all these names, she doesn't
make it for less, and there she goes, also listing places she has
been only to watch some miraculous flora. Starting with the “Corpse
Flowers”
in Indonesia; the “Dragon
Arum''
in Creta and other Greek islands: the “Giant
Water Lily”
in the Amazonian forest of Brazil. The “Elephant-Foot
Yam”
that can be found in Papua New Guinea, Australia and Madagascar; the
“Welwitschia
Mirabilis”
one of her favorite plants, that can be found in West Africa, mainly
Namibia and Angola; the “Marble
Queen”
from Sri Lanka, and the “Nepenthes”,
a carnivorous plant from Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia that looks
just like a pitcher, also called monkey cups coz monkeys often drink
their stored water. And then she tells us about the Cape
Sundew,
that can actually be found here in South Africa, “it has strap-like
leaves” she says, “tentacles that capture glistening dewdrops
which entices insects… a hardy carnivorous plant, used to treat a
range of ailments, everything from warts and sunburn to tuberculosis,
coughs, and syphilis.” And then, she comes with the “Hammer
Orchid,
scientific name Drakaea,
a
kind of orchid that also can be found in my hometown in south-west
Australia… but here, in this precious country, is one of strangest
flowers I have heard about… common named “African
Starfish Flower”
or “Stapelia
Lepida”,
that is a big pink flower with a foul smell” she says, “so much
foul smell that it’s known locally as carrion flower, this is, it
smells like rotting meat, and also has a coloration and hairs that
actually look like a decaying animal… also called toad plant, or
starfish cactus, although it is not related to cacti at all, and
unfortunately, this is a threatened species that has been compromised
to degraded habitats, and a prey for the collectors of
eccentricities… plus, the Zulus has been using it as a remedy for
hysteria...”; “and do you think that it works?” James asks.
“Some kind of reaction it may cause” she says, “coz it has been
used in Swaziland by sorcerers as a poison for killing… and so,
it’s said that the habitat of this plant is in the east part of the
country, close to Eswatini and the border with Mozambique, and I
wanna go there… And then I’m in Punta Arenas again, still
talking with this people from croatian offspring, I’m telling them
about my trip through the Balkan area, this is, how I was arrested in
south Serbia, because I had a stamp from the Kosovar republic in my
passport, they they would tell me that I should not have that stamp
in my passport, coz that country doesn't actually exist. And so, back
to Harare, again at Borrowdale, here wandering through some occupied
gardens in the middle of some posh European style buildings, where
there are people squatting in informal settlements, living in small
houses made of bulrush, with whom I stay. And then, I’m in
Melbourne again, this is, after following along the Collins Street, I
have just reached the Fitzroy Gardens, some public gardens located on
the southeastern edge of the city centre district, and so, while
wandering under some Bunya Bunya Pine trees, I get to know Krishna
and Malee, he is Chinese, she is Thai, and as it goes, after a small
conversion about Thai and Hindi cinema, they are already inviting me
to accompany them to their small restaurante, located on the next
neighbourhood, just after this park. what I accept. And then, I’m
in Cairo again, now mooring at the Maadi Island, this is, once more,
a thing made for the tourists, thus, on this island there are three
sections, being the first, a rural section, which is predominantly
popular, with carts of beans, koshary, and restaurants with open
ovens on the front.. The second section is Italian, and it serves all
Italian dishes, including sweets, meals and drinks, and is
characterized by green spaces in the style of the Italian
countryside, I mean, there are a couple of nerium oleanders here,
a shrub commonly known as rosebay, a thing typically associated with
Italy, but, in fact, I got to know, in the Sinai desert this plant is
widely used in traditional Bedouin medicine to treat… and then
there is the third section in this island, I mean, the Chinese
section, designed on the basis of the Chinese style, with a bunch of
restaurants displaying various Chinese and Asian dishes, chinese
traditional music being played in the middle of the plastic gardens.
And so, as the gardens melt, by now, I’m back in Paris, still with
my gang, this is, by now we are actually entering a narrow building
in the Belleville neighborhood, and so, as we go up the stairs, we
are actually carrying all those bags and furniture items that
we are bringing from the streets, and so, while we do it, we are
actually producing some inevitable noises as our stuff beats against
the surrounding walls or against the hand-rails, and so, as it goes,
we can then hear some voices, this is, some individuals inside their
flats are actually protesting because of those noises we are
producing, but as seen as we reach the top floor, these voices
extinguish. Back to False Bay, Cape Town, as I get out of the
submarine, I meet a group of guys that have just arrived in a convoy
of caravans and big trucks, mainly Germans accompanied by some
African ladies. So, as I get in touch with some of them, I get to
know that they came driving all the way from Europe until here, and
more I get to know that, they brought big sound-systems with them all
the way, and so, along their journey they have been throwing free
rave parties here and there, “in the outskirts of big cities, in
the prairies, in the desert and in the savanna” one says. Plus,
they say that have crossed “all middle east from Turkey until
Egypt”, and once in Cairo they “have participated in the
development of the so-called new wave of Shaabi music, also referred
as Electro
Shaabi
or Mahraganat…”
and
then they came to Ethiopia, “where we have also participated in the
“Ethiopiyawi
Scene”,
and we have made some good friends up there, one is here, his name
Abai, he plays the krar, a kind of bowl-shaped lyre and the washint,
a long flute similar to the middle eastern Ney”. And so, as it
goes, other German guy continues saying that, “after Ethiopia the
caravan followed to Somalia, where some members from the the caravan
got sick, nevertheless, the trip continued through Kenya and Uganda,
where we have also stopped for a while, collaboration with the local
Nyabinghi
drummers,
and then we have crossed into Rwanda and Burundi where one of the
members of the caravan got kidnapped but once more, we continued…
following in the direction of the congo river, we roamed west, and
arrived in Brazzaville, the capital of the Congo
Republique,
and Kinshasa that is the capital of Democratic
Republic of the Congo
and then, between this two countries, we got into some political
problems, things related with visas etc, and while we managed to sort
the issue, we arranged with a group of dancers to travel with us
further, and so, here they are…” the guy says while nodding to
that group of dark skin girls now by the entrance of the submarine
hostel, socializing with the locals. And then, I’m in Punta Arenas
again, now walking along Avenida Independencia just passing on the
side of the Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme Statue, that was the Chilean
independence leader who freed Chile from Spanish rule, actually a
wealthy landowner of Basque-Spanish and Irish ancestry, I instantly
got to know. Back in Harare, here I stay, on the side of some small
houses made of bulrush, with whom I stay, under a Mtukutu tree, here
eating monkey bread and drinking Kachasu, also known as tototo or
nipa, a kind of local alcoholic spirit, this while speaking with some
Goffals, I mean, persons of mixed race: Shona, Ndebele, Bemba, Fengu,
British, Afrikaner, Cape Coloured, Cape Malay, Portuguese, Greek,
Goan, and even Indian descent. And then I’m in Melbourne again,
Richmond area, this is, I’m actually inside this small restaurant
owned by this Hindi Man and this Thai woman that rescued me at the
Fitzroy Gardens, and so, by now, while she cuts some phak kat khao,
some sort of chinese cabbages, and he prepares the Kashmiri pulao, a
traditional Kashmiri rice dish that includes ghee, fried almonds,
cashews and raisins, we are actually talking about Richard Parker,
the bengal tiger portrayed in the movie Life
of Pi.
And, as it goes, I'm back in Cairo, but, by now, I’m no more woking
for that recreational boat transporting tourists up and down the
Nile, this is, by now, I’m at the Qarafa, also called City of the
Dead, or Cairo Necropolis, on the Mokattam Hills, an area that is
composed by a series of vast Islamic-era necropolises and cemeteries,
plus some parcels of slums in the middle of these cemeteries, and so,
as I dwell around here, I get to know that, since the old times, many
people came from the rural lands of Egypt to exercise functions here,
functions as tomb keepening, sculptors of mausoleums, gardening, and
then this rural workers would also bring their families and so, slums
would grow, and, other activities would come up, as, the multi task
petty thief, conveyors of many kinds, repairs of small contraptions,
sharpeners, bread makers, women selling flowers and plants with
spiritual properties, astrologers selling pots of strange smokes,
etc… And I’m in Paris again, already inside this flat in the
Bellville neighborhood, a flat filled with various pieces of trash
brought up from the streets, this is, there a lot of broken pieces of
furniture leaning against the walls, piles of books, old machinery,
etc, and in the middle of this items there are also some guys
stretched on carpets, some sleeping, some dozing, some drinking
tea, guys from Asian and Asian nationalities, I get to understand, as
it goes, I get to know Hugo, the only French here, actually the
renter of this flat, and as it goes he is already explaining to me,
that “all this guys you see here are illegals, I help them, this
is, they pain me no rent, and they help me, I mean, they bring me all
this products from the streets, sometimes not from the streets, and
so, I have a van, everyday we pack our van, and we go and sell some
of those items on occasion markets around the city, and thus, if you
wanna stay with us, tomorrow, you should help us loading the van, are
you ok with that?”; “Oui, oui, I’m very Ok with that!” I
say. And then, I’m in Cape Town again, swimming on the
needles sea now, and I'm in Punta Arenas, this is, I have passed Av.
Independencia and Av. Pdte. Salvador Allende Gossens, and I’m now
entering the Magallanes Nacional Reserve, and at the same time I’m
in Harare, still here on the side of some bulrush made houses, this
is, someone is telling me about the achievements of Shaka
kaSenzangakhona, also known as Shaka Zulu, and to finish it, I’m
back in Melbourne, Richmond area again, still inside this restaurant
owned by this Hindi Man and this Thai woman, now trying the food they
have prepared for me, and so, as I taste it, we are actually talking about Preta, some hungry ghosts of the Buddhist tradition
that have become part of the Thai and Hindi folklore, some kind of
ghost with many small mouths but an endless appetite.
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