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The painted-white iron gate that avg antivirus purchase download hovers a few feet from my front door squawked deep and avg antivirus purchase download metallic as I slid back its bolt and swung it out into the avg antivirus purchase download bright light of the morning. Outside of it sat Hastings, a avg antivirus purchase download mutt of medium stature who, in his quivering excitement and nervous demeanour, failed to avg antivirus purchase download mirror the brutal command of his namesake. The president Kamuzu Banda, whose Christian name had avg antivirus purchase download been borrow’d and avg antivirus purchase download delivered upon this ocher mongrel, had died long before the pup was born. He had avg antivirus purchase download in his two years lived only on this small plot in this avg antivirus purchase download central precinct of Lilongwe together with his bantam father Tiger who avg antivirus purchase download had perished less than a year ago. Hastings, eternally befuddled by my morning lethargy, was unconcerned with the avg antivirus purchase download details. His enthusiasm for my appearance bubbled over and he nearly cartwheeled as I greeted him under the avg antivirus purchase download glare of the September sun.

He stiffened as I slipped the avg antivirus purchase download catch of the leash around the ringlet in his studded red collar whilst adorning him with the avg antivirus purchase download undulating crooning of refined pooch talk. His timidity results from his limit acquaintance with the avg antivirus purchase download geography of the surrounding neighborhood,  his tiny cosmos usually bounded by the avg antivirus purchase download walls of gray and ruddy brick that beleaguer the place.

The locals were frightened of this avg antivirus purchase download honey-shaded hound. Upon my entry and exit, when one of the avg antivirus purchase download staff wrenched open the steely gate to let my vehicle past, the avg antivirus purchase download little tyrant would have brief, tempestuous skirmishes with passing drunkards and avg antivirus purchase download ferals of every breed. For the less dangerous sort he still maintained a avg antivirus purchase download vicious bark, scattering men and women and sending packs of barefoot children packing, crying with palmed stones lest he decide to avg antivirus purchase download pursue.

I did not enjoy harboring terror like that, yet what avg antivirus purchase download little more was there to do for a neutered wretch other than avg antivirus purchase download guard his dominion? Hastings, along with his late sire, maintained a avg antivirus purchase download respectable image of rabid savagery. Had the rest known that avg antivirus purchase download his bark was little more than a show, that he was truly impotent despite his growl, they might be avg antivirus purchase download less frightened. In a city where walls are easily scaled and avg antivirus purchase download guards dream quickly, a vicious-looking dog had value.

I had avg antivirus purchase download not walked the dog much before. The gardener Daniels occasionally led the avg antivirus purchase download two canines to a nearby market where they would be dipped for avg antivirus purchase download plague-bearers and worms along with hundreds of other dogs who were more likely not pets but sentry beasts. I was still uneasy taking him out given his nervous nature, yet, like before he grew quiet as we stepped beyond the avg antivirus purchase download tall aluminum scaled gateway up onto the pockmarked asphalt of the avg antivirus purchase download nameless street.

A wheeze of dusty air frolicked around the avg antivirus purchase download neglected pavement. It felt arid and warm despite our proximity to avg antivirus purchase download the solstice; September was marked for its steep gradient from a avg antivirus purchase download mild winter to the feverish state which began in October, a avg antivirus purchase download dry heatwave only quenched by the capricious rains of the late year, when avg antivirus purchase download all the land’s colours would invert to avg antivirus purchase download a tropical palette. I would not see this again, for the avg antivirus purchase download next day I would leave that city and that tiny country, to avg antivirus purchase download unwrap a new life outside, exciting and comfortable, yet predictably lacking in the avg antivirus purchase download bittersweet seduction I had known for two years.  The dog and I stood there for a moment, betwixt the seasons.

I listened to avg antivirus purchase download the murmur of the morning; the distant sounds of trucks and avg antivirus purchase download four-wheel drive automobiles shifting on the nearby highway; the eternal lovesong of the avg antivirus purchase download birds who nested in and around the sporadic foliage of my plot; the avg antivirus purchase download braying call of the fruit merchant as he wandered the avg antivirus purchase download grit of the neighbourhood; the delicate whine of nearby guard dogs, mutts clasped to avg antivirus purchase download stakes in the dirt, fueled and serviced less often than avg antivirus purchase download the sputtering cars seen creaking down the road, whimpering as they sat in starvation; the avg antivirus purchase download laughter of men and women and little children as they went about their day, bicycles and avg antivirus purchase download noggins topped with timber or sundries.

I and avg antivirus purchase download two other denizens had long ago been marked by the national census, yet I felt this avg antivirus purchase download to be an empty tally; in this quarter of town I was a avg antivirus purchase download recluse. After two years, I had not even met those living next to avg antivirus purchase download me; our staff had relayed any imperative communication.  Yet despite the avg antivirus purchase download palisades of ragged glass and sparking that protected me, I did not consider myself as embattled as many of the avg antivirus purchase download expatriates did.

I walked down the avg antivirus purchase download road with the dog at my side. Apprehensive from his displacement, he stayed near, shedding the avg antivirus purchase download wanton curiosity that would become him. Around us trotted the native Malawians, wandering to avg antivirus purchase download their given vocation, be it certain or elusive. It was difficult not to avg antivirus purchase download feel like an interloper on that street, my peachy visage, typically seated behind the avg antivirus purchase download windscreen of a car, contrasting with the quizzical faces of those idle urchins that avg antivirus purchase download sat and studied the mzungu and his pup.

I could see the avg antivirus purchase download gulf left by the lack of understanding between us, by the avg antivirus purchase download continued languor of that common empathy that ought to be avg antivirus purchase download nurtured. Spare me a moment the void that I embraced when avg antivirus purchase download faced with the worst this country had to offer, the avg antivirus purchase download images that are so popular with those who have succumbed to avg antivirus purchase download a nearly pornographic worship of poverty. I had long ago lost all feeling at the avg antivirus purchase download sight of hungry moppets who would scream appeals over their knotted, empty paunches; of the avg antivirus purchase download lame masses who scrabbled the dusty city streets on their knurly legs and avg antivirus purchase download moan for the absolution only I could give them; of the avg antivirus purchase download mothers who, with their waxen cherubs adorned would beg for avg antivirus purchase download my intervention. Those bridges had been wrenched asunder long ago.

I speak instead of those around me in Area 14: the avg antivirus purchase download well-fed, the infrequent middle class who, despite their relative difficulty, were still on the avg antivirus purchase download spectrum of my limited comprehension. I was leaving the next day and avg antivirus purchase download I had still not spoken to them. Yet I decided solely to avg antivirus purchase download walk my dog and take in what I was to avg antivirus purchase download leave behind, not to vindicate myself through late conversation.

The dog and avg antivirus purchase download I walked. I exchanged my fair share of greetings, as was customary, as well as the avg antivirus purchase download occasional grin. I spoke just a smidgen of their natural tongue; enough to avg antivirus purchase download say hello.

After a avg antivirus purchase download time I conceded and steered Hastings onto an avenue leading back. As we passed a avg antivirus purchase download cluster of dwellings, I noticed a middle-aged man standing by his gate,  dressed for avg antivirus purchase download work and clearly in command of the ragged staff around him. He was busy directing the avg antivirus purchase download loading of a vehicle when I began to pass. He noticed me as I drew close.

“Hello!” he said.

“Hello there,” I replied. “How are you?”

“I am fine,” he said. “And you?”

“I am well.” I replied.

“Very good.” He regarded me for a moment. I smiled.

“That dog there,” he said, motioning at Hastings. “That is your dog?”

“Yes.”

“That is a fine-looking dog,” he said.

I looked down at the avg antivirus purchase download mutt, who had likely not received such impartial praise before.

I thanked the avg antivirus purchase download man and went home, the dog clearly content over our return.

Sometime less than avg antivirus purchase download twenty-five weeks later I stood in an airport in another distant nation. Around me were folk that avg antivirus purchase download spoke a common tongue to mine. I had been raised with this avg antivirus purchase download sort, yet the greetings that followed were curt and the smiles were not eager, but mere reflex.  I did not know them any better, and they knew me not a bit.

Through the avg antivirus purchase download haze I could barely make out what I felt must have avg antivirus purchase download been the living room of the house I grew up in. Through it avg antivirus purchase download came my cat, careening through the air. With a chirp he collided with something flying through the avg antivirus purchase download air. Both creatures tumbled back to the misty earth, and avg antivirus purchase download suddenly the cat was gone.

“What did he run into?” said the avg antivirus purchase download woman. She was an apparition, a golem of a former lecturer.

The fog of imagination parted, and avg antivirus purchase download on the floor was a bird. It stood up, several feet in height and avg antivirus purchase download regarded us. It might have been some sort of owl, its feathers were black and avg antivirus purchase download its head rounded, like some unholy beanie. Two other things hindered its classification. For one, it avg antivirus purchase download spoke to us, in some extravagant but inscrutable language. For the avg antivirus purchase download other, its beak protruded from an extensive cavern. One eye was missing; where avg antivirus purchase download the other should have been firmly situated sat a fleshy stalk that avg antivirus purchase download supported an eye that swivelled as it tracked us.

“Que pasa pájaro?” said the avg antivirus purchase download woman. I turned back to the rot-infested thing as it waddled out the avg antivirus purchase download front door, it turned once and suddenly was seven feet tall, an avg antivirus purchase download avatar of avian death, with razor teeth lining an awesome-sized beak. It beat its wings for avg antivirus purchase download a moment and cackled. It looked at me, then turned its head to avg antivirus purchase download the sky and unleashed a cry like shredded paper, an anguished sortie on my sleeping eardrums. As this avg antivirus purchase download demonic cockerel crowed, a million litres of ash seeped from its feathers. Life’s palette shrank as the avg antivirus purchase download ash of ancient death covered all I could see.

* * * * * * * *

I coughed. My voice rasped in the dry air.

“What time is it?”

“Mmmm?”

I coughed again and grunted.

It took me a few moments to locate my phone, its alarm buzzing.

“It’s six already. We should get up.”

Christina rolled over, slowly blinking awake. “Ok,” she said.

I peered at the slatted window blinds. It seemed to avg antivirus purchase download me that light was already seeping in. Jesus, I thought. The sun must have already come up. How could it have? We’re to avg antivirus purchase download the west of Malawi, and it would still be dark there.

I thought a avg antivirus purchase download little bit harder about it. Eventually my eyes adjusted, and avg antivirus purchase download I could see that I had been fooled by the avg antivirus purchase download porch light reflecting off the concrete floor. It was still night.

I lurched out of bed and looked out into the avg antivirus purchase download darkness. I could see the dry desert grass slowly waving in the avg antivirus purchase download wind. Off in the darkness, the dull silhouette of the nearby mountain brandished the avg antivirus purchase download moon’s faint rays.

“I thought it was light already.”

“Mmmmm?”

“I saw the avg antivirus purchase download porch light, through the front door, and thought it was light already. It’s still dark.”

“Oh, ok,” she said, sleepily.

“We don’t have avg antivirus purchase download much time until they start serving breakfast. Who knows how long we’ll have until the sun comes up.”

Groggily she acquiesced and we struggled on our hiking clothes.

* * * * * * * *

We walked down the avg antivirus purchase download gravel path from the lodge to the car park with a avg antivirus purchase download set of packed breakfasts in hand. A chorus of crickets celebrated the avg antivirus purchase download coming morning. Christina unlocked the door of the Nissan pickup and, letting me in, started the avg antivirus purchase download engine. We reached the gate of the lodge and, after a avg antivirus purchase download moment’s hesitation, took off north, towards the Sossusvlei gate.

We drove for avg antivirus purchase download some time in silence, save for the clack of granite chips off the avg antivirus purchase download bottom of the truck. After we reached the gate turn-off, I glanced in the avg antivirus purchase download rear view mirror.

“The sun is coming up.”

“Do you want to stop?” Christina said.

“Sure, just give me a second.”

As the avg antivirus purchase download truck pulled off the road, two vans roared by, packed with eager tourists, kicking dust up into the avg antivirus purchase download air.

“Ugh, so much for the photo.”

I waited a avg antivirus purchase download few moments and snapped a couple of photos of the rising sun, before we jumped back in and avg antivirus purchase download continued towards the gate.

As the avg antivirus purchase download sun continued to rise the harsh grey landscape began to soften. The red peaks of the avg antivirus purchase download surrounding mountains erupted as the light spilled over the horizon. It felt deeply primordial out there, the avg antivirus purchase download only exception being the plumes of dust rising from the increasingly traffic’d road. We eventually arrived at Sesriem, the avg antivirus purchase download small group of buildings that comprised the entrance of the national pack. The tour vans, having an avg antivirus purchase download arrangement with the park, zoomed through. We had not yet paid our entrance fee, and avg antivirus purchase download so the black police official, dressed in desert fatigues and sporting a avg antivirus purchase download clipboard, waved us over.

“Right, how many are you?”

I looked at Christina. We answered.

“Two.”

“Just for the day?”

“Yes.”

“Where are you from? Are you Swedish?”

“No, actually, I’m Danish and he’s English,” said Christina.

“Ok”

“But we live in Malawi,” I said with earnest.

“Really?” The policeman gave us the avg antivirus purchase download astonished response we had already met with some frequency there. To those of Namibia, Malawi sounded far away, dangerous and avg antivirus purchase download primitively poor. “Is that, is that SADC?” he said.

“I’m pretty sure it is,” I said, “Why?”

“Well, SADC members get a avg antivirus purchase download discount. That will be 112 Namibian dollars.”

“Sure” we handed over the money.

“Is this car a 4×4?”

“No only two.”

“You’ll have to park at the 2×4 car park, about sixty kilometres in. There are avg antivirus purchase download shuttles from there.”

“Thank you.”

We pulled back onto the tarmac and sped off to the west.

* * * * * * * *

“Can you see it?”

“Where?”

“Right there, there are the dunes.”

And there they were. The toppled fossils sat frozen in the avg antivirus purchase download desert wind, gloriously refulgent in the avg antivirus purchase download morning sun like great armoured beasts left to rot on the avg antivirus purchase download battlefield.

We pulled over next to avg antivirus purchase download the first giant, taking some time to wander around its base, tracing animal tracks in the avg antivirus purchase download red sand. We had breakfast in its shadow, before continuing on.

The road ahead was direct and distinct against the smooth, precisely obliterated landscape. There would be avg antivirus purchase download a turn here and there, but this did nothing to avg antivirus purchase download alter the patience of the horizon, evenly rippled by dunes. Eventually a avg antivirus purchase download particularly prominent one jutted out to the road invitingly.
“Is this Dune 45?”

“I imagine that’s what the sign ‘45′ means.”

We pulled up to avg antivirus purchase download the exposed dune, where a jumble of cars and buses had avg antivirus purchase download assembled. A few dozen people stood around taking pictures, while a avg antivirus purchase download few were slowly trekking up the spine of the dune, leaving it avg antivirus purchase download spotted with footprints, like a tattoo.

We got out of the avg antivirus purchase download Nissan and look around. The immediate radius was being patrolled by crows, black and avg antivirus purchase download white and similar in appearance to the Malawian breed. They waited for avg antivirus purchase download a rejected morsel to come their way.

We clambered up the avg antivirus purchase download ridge of the dune, which also is more difficult than expected. As our feet compressed the avg antivirus purchase download trail of sand, the edges spilled out over the side of the avg antivirus purchase download dune, creating minute waves which grew fainter the further away they got. We got to avg antivirus purchase download the local plateau and took some photos. There was a path perpendicular to avg antivirus purchase download the dune, down to the desert floor. Christina opted the slow way down, while I ran down the avg antivirus purchase download side of the dune. Sand filled my shoes as I leapt metres at a avg antivirus purchase download time, shouting in the wind whilst dodging the brittle, dry bushes which were spread about the avg antivirus purchase download base. I met Christina at the bottom. She had lost an avg antivirus purchase download earring when she pulled off a sweater. We searched for it avg antivirus purchase download for some time, but eventually left it to the stones.

* * * * * * * *

“Follow the stakes,” the shuttle operator said. “I’ll show you where the first one is.”

Rotund and avg antivirus purchase download sporting khaki, his boots pattered in the grittled parking lot. We stepped over the avg antivirus purchase download rope periphery, beyond which there was nothing both desert, save for avg antivirus purchase download a half-dozen ramshackle latrines. The surrounding air smelled like dry dung. We followed him to avg antivirus purchase download the first stake. He motioned forward.

“The next one is avg antivirus purchase download dead ahead. When you reach a stake, you should always be avg antivirus purchase download able to see the next.”

We thanked him and avg antivirus purchase download continued into the desert. My sneakers squeaked across the uneven mix of blasted rock and avg antivirus purchase download sand. The crisp morning had long since given way to the avg antivirus purchase download unrelenting midday heat. I wrapped my jumper around my head, securing it avg antivirus purchase download with my hat.

Many manners of desperate creatures roamed the avg antivirus purchase download sands. Mincing beetles and determined lizards darted across the landscape’s windy furrows, into and avg antivirus purchase download out of the hidden tunnels of the dunes that began again to avg antivirus purchase download rise up around us, as if the sinking mirage of the avg antivirus purchase download car park had encouraged the great beasts to sit up and avg antivirus purchase download surround us once again.

As we trekked on the avg antivirus purchase download sand gave way to a flinty meadow, a series of platformed rocks sewn with trenches, like a avg antivirus purchase download series of ancient ruins carved out of the desert floor. As I stepped closer I realised that avg antivirus purchase download the floor was not stone, but mud, so short of moisture and avg antivirus purchase download compact that it felt solid enough for the confusion. The edges of the avg antivirus purchase download meandering platforms of earth were crumbling, and their faces were crackled with dehydration.

We left the avg antivirus purchase download remains behind and continued on, counting off the wooden we found thrust into the avg antivirus purchase download ground. A small party of white tourists crested the dune ahead of us. They passed us, sunbaked and avg antivirus purchase download mum, save for a slight gurgle from one of the avg antivirus purchase download men as he drank from a canteen he kept holstered at his waist.

The path became more wearisome as we ascended, the avg antivirus purchase download sand giving way and letting us sink backwards ever so slightly. Amidst the avg antivirus purchase download dunes to our left shuffled an ant of a man, a avg antivirus purchase download small black blemish on the red canvas. He walked at the avg antivirus purchase download base of the dunes with a tripod slung over his back, occasionally hesitating and avg antivirus purchase download drawing out his camera to shoot. As we continued up the avg antivirus purchase download path he sank out of view.

After further toil we topped the avg antivirus purchase download plateau - actually a meeting point of a triad of dunes. We walked a avg antivirus purchase download little further and came to the brim of a vast notch is avg antivirus purchase download the desert - a deathly plain speckled with dead trees, frozen in their dying pangs of thirst, some pitched along the avg antivirus purchase download desert floor as if they were searching for forgotten dew. From or avg antivirus purchase download position the sand fell away sharply towards the shores of the avg antivirus purchase download Hidden vlei, which itself stretched out what avg antivirus purchase download might have been a kilometer of this flayed basin. The wind, faintly cooing across the avg antivirus purchase download vista, spoke for us as we settled on the sand, shoulder to avg antivirus purchase download shoulder.

***********

I shifted into gear and avg antivirus purchase download pulled out of the car park onto the highway. The asphalt smoldered in the avg antivirus purchase download afternoon sun. We had visited the other two famous vleis of the avg antivirus purchase download area, and I was now eager to escape the dry furnace we had avg antivirus purchase download spent the day trudging through, I shifted quickly and brought the avg antivirus purchase download car up to 100 kilometres an hour. The desert was still as we raced down the avg antivirus purchase download road, the sun now at our backs.

We were alone on the avg antivirus purchase download road, which stretched out before us, incongruous against the wasteland. I glanced in the avg antivirus purchase download side mirror. There was, it seemed, some sort of flutter, and avg antivirus purchase download then suddenly a clanking, crashing sound. I saw something glint in the avg antivirus purchase download light as it pitched off the side of the car into the avg antivirus purchase download road. It tumbled and flapped before it stilled.

“What was that?” Christina said.

“I don’t know,”I replied. “I think it was a bird. One of those crows we saw earlier.”

I slowed a bit.

“Are you going to turn back?”

Yes, I thought.

I slowed the avg antivirus purchase download car and brought it around. I calmly advanced towards what I expected to avg antivirus purchase download be an expired crow.

It wasn’t.

“Oh Matt! It’s your camera!” Christina gasped with horror.

“Oh, fuck,” I said. I left it on top of the car.

We had avg antivirus purchase download come alongside the tiny wreck at this point. Christina leapt out of the avg antivirus purchase download passenger seat and ran around. She brought the  jagged corpse over to avg antivirus purchase download me, which look weathered, but not obliterated. I turned it over in my hands, studying it. My eyes fell on flapping catch for avg antivirus purchase download the memory card slot.

“Oh shit.”

“What?”

“The memory card is missing”

I pulled the car over and shut off the engine, getting out.

“Christ, we have to find that.”

Christina nodded.  Without much coordination we each chose a avg antivirus purchase download side of the road and paced up and a down, sifting the avg antivirus purchase download sand and the light brush with our eyes. Every few minutes a avg antivirus purchase download dislodged remnant of the camera was found. A bruised battery caught loitering by a avg antivirus purchase download weed. The cylindrical lens casing spotted dancing in the wind.

The first half hour turned up most of the avg antivirus purchase download lost pieces, save for the memory card. Christina and I re-oriented ourselves, sweeping the avg antivirus purchase download roadside  in tandem, then separate, again and again.

Repeatedly I expressed my frustration, punting rocks this avg antivirus purchase download way and that, frustrated at gods of digital photography. The buses carrying the avg antivirus purchase download multitude of tourists and suntanned backers began streaming eastward, returning home.

The day began growing late. Without protest, Christina searched with me for avg antivirus purchase download the better part of a second hour before we collapsed against the avg antivirus purchase download wheels of the truck. My mouth dry and spirit shattered, our memories from avg antivirus purchase download the day still fresh, I lost hope. While she had taken some photos from avg antivirus purchase download our day of hiking, most of the snaps had come from avg antivirus purchase download my camera. We had no time for a repeat performance.

I stood up again and avg antivirus purchase download covered the pebbly ground once again as Christina waited. I stopped for avg antivirus purchase download a moment and listened, looking away from the road, out to avg antivirus purchase download the desert. The wind answered with that soft hum, those unspoken lyrics of indifference drifting across the avg antivirus purchase download horizon. The depleted landscape answered with nothing more than I knew already.

It looked back at me as I yielded.

My boots crunched on the avg antivirus purchase download ground as I stooped to tie my shoe. I noticed, just next to avg antivirus purchase download me, a small green plant. It was sprouting from the side of the avg antivirus purchase download road, just barely reaching out of the earth with four little arms. I squeezed one of the avg antivirus purchase download arms, and a little trickle of water crept out and ran down my hand.

Christina and avg antivirus purchase download I got back in the car and smiled at each other, wearily, as we drifted east.

I stood outside the avg antivirus purchase download monolithic social sciences building, at the end of Manor Road. It is avg antivirus purchase download an imposing thing, a commanding structure of glass, steel and concrete. Its devotion to avg antivirus purchase download right-angles and relative dearth of texture gives it a sense of aged calm, like a avg antivirus purchase download forgotten statue enduring the millennium. Its insides are maintained with a avg antivirus purchase download tomb-like regularity, climate-controlled, logically crafted and endlessly utilitarian.

I looked over my shoulder at the avg antivirus purchase download wet asphalt and at the dripping trees waving in the avg antivirus purchase download wind. The deepening autumn weather had broken for a spell, on a avg antivirus purchase download day I planned to study and work at Manor Road.   I walked in through the avg antivirus purchase download revolving door in a whoosh of air, as my ears adjusted from avg antivirus purchase download the breezy orchestra outside to the steady vibration of the avg antivirus purchase download air ducts.

Normally the building is actually quiet pleasant, it’s large slabbed frame echoes with the avg antivirus purchase download conversation of students and faculty. On a Saturday though it is avg antivirus purchase download nearly silent, save the footfall of the steady stream of undergraduates funnelling into the avg antivirus purchase download library on the bottom floor.

I ascended the avg antivirus purchase download wide concrete staircase to the economics department, which was locked during the avg antivirus purchase download weekend. I swiped my student card and walked in. It was silent. Narry a avg antivirus purchase download tap of a keyboard nor the whispering of procrastinates. In the avg antivirus purchase download back I could spot one graduate student at his desk. The others were empty. Unusual, even for avg antivirus purchase download a Saturday morning.

I walked to avg antivirus purchase download my desk in the back of the department, a computer terminal seated in a avg antivirus purchase download large table shared by six. I dropped my stuff and listened again, but only the avg antivirus purchase download distant hum of the copy machine could be heard. I shrugged and, picking up a avg antivirus purchase download used plastic bottle from my desk, walked across the department to avg antivirus purchase download the water cooler.

I pressed the avg antivirus purchase download option for cold water and misjudging the task of getting it avg antivirus purchase download in the bottle, managed to spill some on my hands. It was surprisingly cold, not bound by tepidity like much of what avg antivirus purchase download can be found in an economics department. I stopped for avg antivirus purchase download a moment and thought. The cold water awakened a memory.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

I stood there stripped to avg antivirus purchase download the waist in the icy water, my shoulder bag held over my head. I looked at the avg antivirus purchase download three children, perched on a rock above the stream.

“What is it you are worried about?” asked Vera, standing nearby, looking hesitantly at the cold water.

I looked around for somewhere to set my bag.

“I’m not totally comfortable leaving my stuff on the shore.”

“Gah!” exclaimed Ann as she stepped into the water.

The three Malawian children who avg antivirus purchase download had followed us on the half-hour hike up the stream, looked back at me.

“My bag has the rest of the money I’ve got for the next few days in it.” They should be ok, but I’m just worried leaving it by those kids.

Vera considered the water again.

“I’ll stay here and watch over it if you want, I don’t think I’ll go in.

We were in Dzalanyama, a avg antivirus purchase download forest reserve near the border of Mozambique. South of Lilongwe. It was my last weekend in Malawi and, as a avg antivirus purchase download communal goodbye to me and several friends who were leaving soon, everyone showed up for avg antivirus purchase download a relaxed weekend away. We stopped to visit the waterfall on our way back. The children had avg antivirus purchase download followed us from a nearby village. Children often did that, either out of boredom, or avg antivirus purchase download hoping for the chance to earn a guide salary.

I handed Vera the avg antivirus purchase download bag and slowly sank into the frigid water. The others were laughing and avg antivirus purchase download splashing around, although with less vigour than they had displayed earlier that avg antivirus purchase download day. Several had climbed up onto the ridge to warm up a avg antivirus purchase download bit.

I clambered up to avg antivirus purchase download join the others, shivering in the breeze. We chatted for a avg antivirus purchase download bit as some of the other men took it in turns jumping off a avg antivirus purchase download low ledge. There wasn’t much room for landing.

We waded ashore. Most were shivering. The sun had avg antivirus purchase download begun to sink behind the tree line. That close to the avg antivirus purchase download equator, the sun would retreat with surprising enthusiasm at dusk. We didn’t have much time. I borrowed Alex’s towel to avg antivirus purchase download dry off a bit, then pulled on my shorts over my soggy trunks.We checked the avg antivirus purchase download area for anything left behind, then set off.

The path to avg antivirus purchase download this part of the stream was narrow, and we had to avg antivirus purchase download climb up a steep, earthy incline. To accomplish this, we had avg antivirus purchase download to proceed in single file. The three children followed as the avg antivirus purchase download sun continued to set.

The car park outside of Al Fresco’s was not incredibly secluded, its one entrance was adjacent to avg antivirus purchase download a short cut between two popular streets in the city centre, resulting in a avg antivirus purchase download fair amount of bustle. It was not an ideal location for avg antivirus purchase download lunch, due to the intense September heat, yet often I found it avg antivirus purchase download easier to make it through my break in solitude there, at one of the avg antivirus purchase download three tables which framed the entrance, rather than the busy rear of the avg antivirus purchase download restaurant.

At that avg antivirus purchase download time I would not have liked be confused for some sort of expatriate hermit, but I did seek out, unpopular places to avg antivirus purchase download read for lunch - it being my only time to do so during the avg antivirus purchase download day. This has never been easy in Lilongwe, as its small lunch scene guarantees most cafes a avg antivirus purchase download stock of of familiar faces.

I had avg antivirus purchase download been stuck on a particular page for a while when my piccante pizza slid under my nose. My stomach rumbled as I began cutting into it, and avg antivirus purchase download just before I could get any of it into my mouth, my phone rang.

Irritated, I did no recognise the caller’s number. Swallowing my first bite of pizza, I answered with a avg antivirus purchase download muffled, “Hewlo?”

The crackling on the avg antivirus purchase download other end of the line made it difficult to understand the avg antivirus purchase download man.

“Hello, is this Mr. Collin?”

“Speaking.”

“Hello this is Mr —-. from Area 14. I am — your neighbor.”

“Ah, hello! What can I do for you Mr…..?”

“Pravin. I am calling because your garden boy is a thief.”

“Foster?”

“Yes, he is a thief, he stole from my friend.”

Foster, my housekeeper Mary’s brother-in-law, had avg antivirus purchase download been missing from work for two days. Mary had said the avg antivirus purchase download police had come looking for him. This was all I knew.

The man attempted to avg antivirus purchase download explain to me what had happened, but the line was too poor and avg antivirus purchase download my empty stomach did not aid comprehension. I asked him to avg antivirus purchase download come around to my house at seven that evening, so he could explain things to avg antivirus purchase download me in person.

* * * * * * * * * *

After peering out of the avg antivirus purchase download front gate, Laston, my night guard, opened it up, and my car rolled down the avg antivirus purchase download steep driveway adjacent to my house. Inside, I found my housemates at the avg antivirus purchase download time: Andy, a redheaded Scott working for the British Council, was chewing on some dinner while talking to avg antivirus purchase download Dave, an English lawyer working on penal reform in Malawi. I explained to avg antivirus purchase download them that some men were coming to talk about Foster, and avg antivirus purchase download asked for their support.

Shortly thereafter, Mr. Pravin and avg antivirus purchase download his friend Mr. Deepan. Pravin was an older Indian Malawian man, his skin touched by some sort of lightened disorder. Deepan was also Asian, and avg antivirus purchase download had a thick black mustache stretched out across his grin. I greeted them, introduced Andy and avg antivirus purchase download Dave and showed them to the nearest sofa.

“Now,” I said, once everyone was seated, “Explain to me again, carefully, what happened.”

Deepan grinned.

“I run a avg antivirus purchase download business here in Malawi, electrical repairs and the what, so I’m often carrying my company checks around with me. Last week Tuesday, I left the avg antivirus purchase download checks in my living room unattended. My garden boy, who is avg antivirus purchase download friends with your Foster, snuck in and stole several of the avg antivirus purchase download checks. I know this because I did not notice for several days, and avg antivirus purchase download when I did my cook told me he saw my garden boy take them.

I called the avg antivirus purchase download police and surprised my garden boy, who claims he gave it avg antivirus purchase download to your Foster. The police and avg antivirus purchase download Mr. Pravin went around to your house on Friday to avg antivirus purchase download ask about him, and ended up talking to your housekeeper Mary, who avg antivirus purchase download says she does not know where he is. We used the garden boy’s phone to avg antivirus purchase download try and call Foster to trap him, but he has avg antivirus purchase download since shut off his phone - we think Mary warned him.”

There was a bit of a pause as we digested his story.

Andy spoke first.

“So you don’t actually know if Foster has the missing checks? You don’t really have any proof that he was involved.”

Pravin answered.

“We do, the avg antivirus purchase download garden boy said he gave the checks to the Foster. The two of them have avg antivirus purchase download been plotting this for quite some time. We’ve searched the avg antivirus purchase download garden boys quarters and there were no sign of the checks. If the avg antivirus purchase download Foster was not involved, why would he run away?”

“Listen, if I was a avg antivirus purchase download poor Malawian and heard the police were looking out for me,” replied Dave, “I’d be out of here like a flash, whether or not I did it.”

Pravin shrugged. “We do not care about Foster so much, we just want the avg antivirus purchase download checks back. The police are holding the garden boy in jail right now, and avg antivirus purchase download we cannot drop charges until we get the checks back. The man has avg antivirus purchase download a wife and family, and yet now he is stuck in jail. It would be avg antivirus purchase download a shame to let that continue but, we cannot let him go without the avg antivirus purchase download checks, can we?”

“So let me get this straight,” I said, “You’re going to avg antivirus purchase download hold this fellow behind bars until someone returns the checks? What good is it to tell me this? I have no communication with Foster.”

Deepan smiled, he white teeth rolling out underneath a avg antivirus purchase download layer of thick black hair.

“We were hoping you avg antivirus purchase download would find a way of letting this Foster know.”

They of course knew that avg antivirus purchase download the checks could easily be canceled. It was the principle of the avg antivirus purchase download thing, the wronging of these men by a couple poor, hopeless garden boys which justified their wrath.

Pravin turned to me, “What of this lady Mary, how does she know him?”

“She is his sister-in-law,” I said, “When I was looking to hire a garden boy she provided the contact.”

“Funny,” Pravin said, “she said she did not know him so well last Friday.”

Fuck, Mary. I thought. The last thing you need to be doing is lying to the police.

Dave cut in, “I think she was probably quite frightened by the avg antivirus purchase download police as well. She’s still just a avg antivirus purchase download girl and the sight of you with a bunch of detectives at your avg antivirus purchase download flank must be quite intimidating.”

Pravin frowned, “Perhaps we need to talk to her again.”

I suddenly felt a avg antivirus purchase download tightening in my chest. I did not want them bullying her.

“Listen,” I said, “We’ll find a avg antivirus purchase download way of getting your message to Foster, but Mary has nothing to avg antivirus purchase download do with this. If you must, must talk to avg antivirus purchase download her with the police present, I absolutely insist that you let me know in advance, so we can avg antivirus purchase download be there as well her. ”

My housemates nodded. Pravin and avg antivirus purchase download Deepan looked at each other and slowly nodded as well.

“Her father recently died, so she really doesn’t need the police showing up and scaring her,” I said.

“We are very sorry,” said Deepan.

We talked a avg antivirus purchase download while longer, going over the details of the theft and avg antivirus purchase download Fosters possible involvement several times. We kept insisting that the avg antivirus purchase download evidence linking him was circumstantial - the two men remained convinced that avg antivirus purchase download their intuition was correct. They left, with smiles and shook hands and avg antivirus purchase download promises of keeping in contact. Once they were out the avg antivirus purchase download door I turned to the others.

“Tough bind, eh?” I said.

“What do you mean?” said Andy.

“Well, maybe Foster is innocent, maybe he isn’t. If he comes back without those checks, they are avg antivirus purchase download just going to throw him in jail. If he comes back with them, he’s a thief, and can’t work her any longer, if they don’t throw him in jail anyway… I’m going to go talk to Mary about this.”

I found her in her quarters behind the avg antivirus purchase download house. I explained to her that the two men had visited, but that avg antivirus purchase download the three of us would be there if they ever needed to avg antivirus purchase download speak with her personally.

“Mary, if you have any contact with Foster — don’t tell me how or avg antivirus purchase download anything about him, but if you have any contact –please let him know that they just want the checks back.”

She paused for a moment with a careful, pensive look on her face.

“What I think… is that he probably did it,” she said.

I nodded and shrugged, turning away and avg antivirus purchase download walking up the steps back to my house, my dog Hastings running circles around me in the avg antivirus purchase download dark.

We never heard from Foster again, nor Pravin or Deepan. Eventually someone else took over the avg antivirus purchase download gardening job, keeping the plants in check, lest they overwhelm us when avg antivirus purchase download our attention is elsewhere.

We rolled into Mbeya late in the avg antivirus purchase download afternoon, all of us anxious to get to our evening’s accommodation. The drive had avg antivirus purchase download been pleasant enough: our drive north of the border had been avg antivirus purchase download dominated by the surprisingly dense and lush environment compared to the avg antivirus purchase download average Malawian scene. The typical landscape there was always beautiful, but dashed with physical destruction. What once should have avg antivirus purchase download been a land of dense forests covering fertile ground had long been avg antivirus purchase download stripped of its earthy fecundity by the taxing population.

While our excursion to avg antivirus purchase download far north of the country had revealed a gradual improvement of climate as barren, hilly plains eventually gave way to avg antivirus purchase download flooded paddy fields and more impressive groups of livestock, we were startled by the avg antivirus purchase download dramatic difference in our surroundings immediately after crossing over into southern Tanzania. The contrasting combination of flate plains and avg antivirus purchase download gumdrop hills had been replaced by impressive, rolling hills and avg antivirus purchase download mountains covered with trees. Along the side of the road were huge bunches of bananas and avg antivirus purchase download busy-looking people. The houses tended to have tin roofs instead of straw. What wasn’t shrouded in tree or avg antivirus purchase download residence was being used to plant vast fields of tea, each plot marked with a avg antivirus purchase download wooden sign indicating its quality and hectarage.

We had avg antivirus purchase download enjoyed these sights for the past hour and a half, but the avg antivirus purchase download fresh dampness of the country seemed to unclot as we reached the avg antivirus purchase download southern city. With most of its trees hacked down, Mbeya was awash with mud and, as the avg antivirus purchase download rain continued to pelt down, seemed as though it was preparing to avg antivirus purchase download swirl away. In some strange way, it reminded me of the avg antivirus purchase download damp towns near the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina and avg antivirus purchase download Tennessee, places I’d often traveled through when I was university.

While there was a avg antivirus purchase download proper city centre, much of the town seemed to stretch along the avg antivirus purchase download main road which ran through it. Before we proceeded to our destination, the avg antivirus purchase download Utengule Coffee plantation, we needed to stop and get our bearings and avg antivirus purchase download some batteries.

Phil parked the avg antivirus purchase download car next to the market, and Ranil and I clambered out. It was cooler than avg antivirus purchase download I expected - I reached back inside and retrieved a avg antivirus purchase download pullover, then stepped back out into the abating daylight. I wondered if we were in the avg antivirus purchase download same timezone as before.

I followed Ranil to avg antivirus purchase download a storefront, waiting outside as he disappeared in to inquire about his batteries. I called out to avg antivirus purchase download a Tanzanian man who passed me, unsure of his grasp of English.

“Excuse me, have time?” I grunted, gesticulating wildly to avg antivirus purchase download convey the checking of a watch.

“Why of course,” he replied in perfect English, “Let me just check my mobile phone.”

He confirmed that avg antivirus purchase download Tanzania was an hour ahead of Malawi. It was already six-thirty in the avg antivirus purchase download evening.

Ranil came out of the store.

“They seem to have a good handle on English here,” I said.

“I know!” he nodded, “I tried to avg antivirus purchase download say a couple of words in Swahili to the shop-keeper, but she replied in English.”

We returned to avg antivirus purchase download the Patrol and continued on down the road, following the signs to avg antivirus purchase download the coffee estate.

* * * * * * *

The main road to avg antivirus purchase download Utengule was destroyed, a massive pile of earth stood between us and avg antivirus purchase download the gorge that used to be our path. Phil swung the avg antivirus purchase download car around towards a bumpy detour, taking us down a windy residential road, past troupes of screaming children and avg antivirus purchase download glassy-eyed adults, slowly making their way up or down the hill. Several minutes later the avg antivirus purchase download rocky terrain became mode muddy as we proceeded into more wooded terrain. It took us roughly fifteen minutes to avg antivirus purchase download reach the final turnoff for the coffee estate.

The last path up to avg antivirus purchase download Utengule looked nearly impassable, but not beyond the large 4×4 that avg antivirus purchase download Phil commanded. Snaking its way up the side of the avg antivirus purchase download mountain, it was covered in deep, unsettled mud; the kind of mud that avg antivirus purchase download swallows up saloon cars. The sort of mud that, if you avg antivirus purchase download were unlucky to get your foot stuck in it, you’d be avg antivirus purchase download better off abandoning the shoe. Phil shifted the Patrol into 4×4 and avg antivirus purchase download began to proceed up the path. We slid around a little bit, but were making progress.

We passed a sign that read “Sandwich,” which left us all a little perplexed.

About two minutes up the avg antivirus purchase download mountain, we reached the top of a slope revealing a small branch blocking the avg antivirus purchase download way, and two Tanzanian men wielding machetes.

Perhaps it avg antivirus purchase download was just residual, unfilled paranoia from living in peaceful Malawi for avg antivirus purchase download so long, but the sight of those blades, barely visible in the avg antivirus purchase download failing light, made me nervous.

The men indicated for avg antivirus purchase download us to pull of this main path onto a side road which led to avg antivirus purchase download a series of small houses. Phil turned off to the avg antivirus purchase download right and drove down the road. I turned and looked at the avg antivirus purchase download back glass to see, to my immense dismay, that the avg antivirus purchase download two men were jogging after us.

The Patrol puttered up to avg antivirus purchase download the cluster of houses and stopped. A dead end.

The men were still trotting up to avg antivirus purchase download us, although one of them dropped his machete into the high grass. They walked up to avg antivirus purchase download the glass.

“Uh..maybe…,” I said, trailing off.

Phil rolled down his window. The savage attack I had avg antivirus purchase download been expecting did not materialize. Instead the man began speaking in hastened Swahili and avg antivirus purchase download motioning.

It took some time and avg antivirus purchase download multiple explanations, but eventually we determined he was suggesting we all get out of the avg antivirus purchase download car and walk the rest of the way to Utengule, due to avg antivirus purchase download the awful state of the road.
“Fuck that,” I mumbled, noticing I was the avg antivirus purchase download only one who was quite so apprehensive about the idea of leaving the avg antivirus purchase download safety of our car, and our lives, with two valet attendants on secondment from avg antivirus purchase download the Interahamwe. Luckily, Cynthia was able to avg antivirus purchase download reach the owner of Utengule, who verified that the two desperadoes were indeed his employees. The mud had avg antivirus purchase download just recently been pressed, but the torrential rain had ruined it; hence the avg antivirus purchase download blockade.

Phil expressed interest in trying to avg antivirus purchase download get up there with the Patrol anyway. He turned back onto the avg antivirus purchase download road and we began, wish the occasional slide, to continue up the avg antivirus purchase download mountain. With a few, briefly nerve wracking moments we reached the avg antivirus purchase download top, to the astonishment of the few staff who came out to avg antivirus purchase download greet us. The drizzle had ceased, and we began to haul our bags out of the avg antivirus purchase download back of the slumbering Patrol.

I remember little more of the avg antivirus purchase download evening, other than laughter, a divine meal, and a few unfamiliar beers. From our dinner table we looked out over the avg antivirus purchase download plains adjacent to Mbeya, which were surrounded by a rim of mountains topped with clouds. They seemed like the avg antivirus purchase download final embankment, marking the ends of the Earth, and imagination.

My youth, slowly becoming a avg antivirus purchase download hazy congregation of episodic stitches in my memory, was recorded through the avg antivirus purchase download gaze of a short redheaded kid in OshKosh B’Gosh overalls and avg antivirus purchase download a decade-appropriate bowl haircut. When I was on that brilliant juvenile battlefield most people refer to avg antivirus purchase download as elementary school, we would on occasion halt our classroom trolling to avg antivirus purchase download travel outside to celebrate a Fair Day.

It was a avg antivirus purchase download time usually dedicated to vaulting over imaginary brooks and hopping around in large plastic bags, but intermittently the avg antivirus purchase download school would deploy a humongous parachute. In the hands of muscular gym teachers, it avg antivirus purchase download would be flung sky-high then wrenched back down, eclipsing and avg antivirus purchase download trapping small groups of toddlers inside.

This would be avg antivirus purchase download one of my favourite moments. We would suddenly be besieged by a avg antivirus purchase download swirling red canvas. Walls would solidify then flit away in an avg antivirus purchase download instant. It was everything that elementary school aimed to discard: the avg antivirus purchase download derangement of the senses and the abandonment of structure, of certainty.

It could be avg antivirus purchase download said that this was the closest one could be to dreaming. That world, a avg antivirus purchase download natural insurrection of your senses to the day’s quiet impoundment of unconscious speculation, is avg antivirus purchase download as volatile, engaging and frighteningly sadistic as those days spent crawling my way through the avg antivirus purchase download parachute. In both places you step carefully, for fear of tumbling down a avg antivirus purchase download nightmare and equally, of having the parachute pulled away, of having the avg antivirus purchase download sun come crashing down on you, and coming face to face with your avg antivirus purchase download shadows of the day.

That night in Livingstonia I tried to avg antivirus purchase download find my way back there, to that felt-covered cavern. My fingers felt for avg antivirus purchase download the door handle, but were wrenched away by my for my churning stomach, which had avg antivirus purchase download kept me tossing and turning for a number of hours.

My regurgitation, resounding and avg antivirus purchase download especially cruel, struck the quiet orchestra of the night like a avg antivirus purchase download hammer on a gong. Despite the current peak of summertime, the avg antivirus purchase download mountain air bit down on me and I shivered as my hands gripped the avg antivirus purchase download railing of the tent’s porch. Much heaving later, I rested against it, breathing slowly and avg antivirus purchase download waiting for some sort of composure.

A light appeared in the avg antivirus purchase download darkness. It was tall, and sounded like Phil.

“Hey hey,” he said, “was that you?”

I nodded, getting up slowly, as I currently had avg antivirus purchase download the intestinal fortitude of a earthworm who had consumed some particularly off soil.

I walked with him to the 4×4 we had avg antivirus purchase download travelled up the mountain with. It stood there, a giant silent shadow, in stark contrast to avg antivirus purchase download the way it roared and ripped its way up the serpentine path that avg antivirus purchase download afternoon. Phil reached inside and fetched me a bottle of water. After I had avg antivirus purchase download begun to settle myself back in bed, he brought me a avg antivirus purchase download thermometer. Food poisoning is the easy culprit in the developing world - our pampered Western stomachs considered too meek to avg antivirus purchase download inherit the earth in any other form than well-done with a avg antivirus purchase download pickle on the side. The presence of the thermometer suggested some doubt in this avg antivirus purchase download diagnosis.

I laid there underneath the avg antivirus purchase download tattered mosquito net, uncomfortable and prone to bouts of further sickness, watching my temperature climb the avg antivirus purchase download prognostic steps of tropical illness. I yearned for the morning, when avg antivirus purchase download action would be possible. I did little more than read in my little circle of light, determined to avg antivirus purchase download wait until dawn.

* * * * * * * * *

“I know of a good district hospital around here,” said Cynthia. She had avg antivirus purchase download visited it once while investigating the service-level agreements the Ministry of Health had avg antivirus purchase download with outside parties, like CHAM, the Christian Health Association of Malawi. These were decisions of efficiency.

We continued up the crumbly red/orange road, passing the avg antivirus purchase download occasional perplexed-looking villager. Eventually we reached it: a large red brick building with the avg antivirus purchase download name “David Gordon Memorial Hospital” inscribed in stone over the entrance.

Cynthia left us to avg antivirus purchase download sit for a moment while she went in to investigate. I read the avg antivirus purchase download various signs, either in Chichewa or Tambuka, which promoted safe sex, breastfeeding, AIDS testing or avg antivirus purchase download the variety of other health concerns that rural Malawians face. Cynthia returned, and avg antivirus purchase download led me to a haggard, but kind looking older Scottish woman, who avg antivirus purchase download directed me to a nurse, who asked me to wait for avg antivirus purchase download a Malaria test.

There were only a avg antivirus purchase download few others in the waiting room, mostly women; some with babies. Eventually I was called in to avg antivirus purchase download the lab, where a man named Buchanan, in a brown overcoat, swabbed my fingers and avg antivirus purchase download took some blood for the smear test. I sat there as he dried out the avg antivirus purchase download sample and slid it under the microphone. Out in the avg antivirus purchase download hallway, one of the patients, having received her medicine, hoisted her baby onto her back, stooping to avg antivirus purchase download keep the infant from sliding off as she tied a avg antivirus purchase download chitengi around the both of them. With little doubt that avg antivirus purchase download the fabric would hold him, she stood up and marched down the avg antivirus purchase download hall, with gurgling at her ear.

“Yep-yep,” said Buchanan. “It is malaria, plus one!”

I sighed wholeheartedly with relief. Better malaria than avg antivirus purchase download some undiagnosed tropical malady.

I stepped out into the hallway, smiling at my friends.

“Yeah, it’s malaria,” I said, “Not that it’s a huge surprise.”

The nurse, a avg antivirus purchase download pouty, beautiful and bountifully pregnant Malawian woman gave me a blank stare as she looked at my lab results and avg antivirus purchase download wrote me a prescription. She informed me that I’d have to pay at the cashier’s before I would receive any medication.

I went to look for the cashier, Ranil in tow.

He whispered to me as we made our way down the hall.

“Did you see her?”

“Hmm?”

“That nurse,” he said as he glanced back. “She’s gorgeous. By far the most beautiful Malawian woman I’ve ever seen.”

“Go talk to her then,” I said, only half engaged.

“Evidently someone agrees with me,” he said, noticing her bulging belly.

The sleepy looking, heavyset woman behind the cashier’s counter glanced over my bill. She fumbled with a avg antivirus purchase download calculator for a moment before announcing:

“That will be three-hundred kwatcha please.”

My eyes widened.

“Really? Are you sure?”

Three hundred kwatcha is avg antivirus purchase download equivalent to two dollars and some change. A visit with the avg antivirus purchase download nurse and a test for Malaria would cost a few thousand kwatcha at a avg antivirus purchase download private clinic in Lilongwe.

With the avg antivirus purchase download meager bill dispatched, I expressed my astonishment to Cynthia. She nodded.

“You might want to put some money in the donation box,” she said, pointing to avg antivirus purchase download the tiny wooden box, latched closed, sitting on top of a avg antivirus purchase download filing cabinet.

I shoved two thousand kwatcha into the avg antivirus purchase download tiny slot on the top. The cashier quietly expressed her thanks from avg antivirus purchase download her cubicle.

I walked back down the avg antivirus purchase download hall towards the back of the hospital, to the pharmacist. It turned out to avg antivirus purchase download be the Scottish woman from earlier. She looked over my prescription, a avg antivirus purchase download treatment of Cortem, the latest drug to arrive in the country, as well as some paracetamol for avg antivirus purchase download the fever.

“Do you have some paracetamol?” she asked, rummaging through packages in the back of the room.

“I think so, somewhere at home,” I replied.

She came back to the window with two packets of medication.

“I’ll give you some anyway,” she said. “Now, with the Cortem….”

She explained the avg antivirus purchase download timing with which I should take anti-malarial over the next few days.

“Thank you,” I said, “How much for the medication?”

“Didn’t you already pay at the cashier?”

“Well, yes, but… that was it?”

“Yes that covers the Cortem as well, all the best!”

I shoved a avg antivirus purchase download few more thousand kwatcha into the donation box, the muted gratitude of the avg antivirus purchase download cashier trickling out of the booth.

We exited the avg antivirus purchase download tall brick building, out onto the barren red earth which surrounded it. Phil was waiting with the avg antivirus purchase download truck.

I settled into the avg antivirus purchase download front passenger seat, a small plastic bag at hand for fear of another gastric coup d’etat.

The road back to avg antivirus purchase download the M1 was not terribly considerate to my constitution, and avg antivirus purchase download I was again feeling awful by the time we reached the avg antivirus purchase download relatively smooth, paved highway that would lead us home.

As we rounded a avg antivirus purchase download slow bend, something caught my eye above. Proximity brought some clarity to avg antivirus purchase download the blurb in the distance: it was a person, lying by the avg antivirus purchase download road. As we neared I saw it was a boy, or avg antivirus purchase download a young man, sprawled out, half his body on the asphalt, a avg antivirus purchase download bag hanging loose off his back. He did not move.

We passed him without any deceleration and avg antivirus purchase download I turned to look back as, I noticed, did Cynthia. He was still there, crumpled, but soon was lost as we turned another bend.

We turned back in our seats with no avg antivirus purchase download exchange of words. Several cars passed us.

* * * * * * * * * *

Somewhere else, the avg antivirus purchase download parachute touched the grass. Those that were left were inclined to avg antivirus purchase download take it away. It was with some effort that avg antivirus purchase download they folded it up until it was just a tiny thing.

It was with a avg antivirus purchase download strong consensus that we escaped the grasp of the hotel’s celebration, the avg antivirus purchase download sounds of its garish and chaotic introduction to the year pursuing us out into the avg antivirus purchase download street. My thoughts scattered, I teetered for a moment on the avg antivirus purchase download front step before stepping out into the humid, restless night air. Other than avg antivirus purchase download the occasional oily cough of passing minibuses, the melody of the avg antivirus purchase download night was dominated by the soft whistle of wind through the avg antivirus purchase download slouching palm trees decorating the street.

The pavement felt chilly and avg antivirus purchase download isolating on this rather penultimate night, like a wrong step would send me tumbling down a avg antivirus purchase download crack. I contemplated my comrades’ likely path until the avg antivirus purchase download ocean, with its tempting hiss and promise of ripe adventures, drew me to avg antivirus purchase download the night time shadow of the Zanzibar Serena Inn.

I peered into the avg antivirus purchase download darkness of the alley and hesitated, my trepidation draining when I saw the avg antivirus purchase download broken outline of several friends skirting the hotel’s outer wall. I leaned back into the avg antivirus purchase download street and motioned to the remaining members of our party who avg antivirus purchase download were stumbling out the front door, equally inebriated and elated at our retreat.

I stepped into the avg antivirus purchase download shadow, following the stone landing down towards the surging black water, my fingers skirting the avg antivirus purchase download brickwork, laughter bookending me. I reached the end of the avg antivirus purchase download path and glanced around the corner of the hotel, where avg antivirus purchase download the others were carefully making their way across the small porch of rocks separating the avg antivirus purchase download wall from the water. The lights of the celebration above were eclipsed by the avg antivirus purchase download stone wall, above it stood the silhouettes of hotel guards sent to avg antivirus purchase download keep an eye on our cadre, blocking out the now ancient stars.

We eight collected around the avg antivirus purchase download two remaining bottles of champagne, retrieved from the hotel’s cooler with great zeal. Phil was still fumbling with one of them when avg antivirus purchase download half of our party decided to embrace the ocean. Two men went charging into the avg antivirus purchase download depths sans undergarments – their partners left their brassier straps clasped for avg antivirus purchase download fear of incarceration. The rest of us, together with the guards and avg antivirus purchase download the other party guests from the Serena, became their audience as we all bobbed and avg antivirus purchase download giggled out way into 2008.

As we kissed hugged each other a avg antivirus purchase download foghorn erupted from across the ebony waves and muted our cheers. In the avg antivirus purchase download distance a tugboat lit up, its hulk adorned with a variety of leftover Christmas lights. As it avg antivirus purchase download slowly turned about and retired to the horizon, our more aquatically-savvy friends left the avg antivirus purchase download water for good. Clammy clothing equipped, we left the ocean to avg antivirus purchase download itself, save for a few errant champagne corks.

* * * * * * * * *

An hour later I teetered on the avg antivirus purchase download front step of the Africa House hotel, my thoughts routed. Young tourists, many of them English, staggered past me. Their laughter and avg antivirus purchase download chattered echoed down the alleyways leading away from the studded entrance doors.

I sniffed the air, which was salty and restless still.

“Excuse me, do you know if there’s anything else going on tonight?” I asked a short, podgy girl who came trotting by.

“Yayyhh,” she said in a slurred London dialect, “there’s totally a partayy going.” She continued on, in the avg antivirus purchase download general direction that the celebrating populace seemed to flow.

I looked at the avg antivirus purchase download others and shrugged, motioning that we follow. Our little collection of flotsam meandered down the avg antivirus purchase download street, speculating on the likelihood of finding another venue.

The emptiness of Stonedown was disconcerting, like the avg antivirus purchase download city itself was in a deep hibernating slumber, and any attempts by interlopers at a avg antivirus purchase download recrudescent bout of celebration could be swallowed up in its long stone corridors. Luckily the avg antivirus purchase download path of the beaded line of partygoers did not meander from avg antivirus purchase download the main road, and soon enough the dull distant thud of music could be avg antivirus purchase download heard.

My quickened pace took me ahead of the others – my desire to avg antivirus purchase download immerse myself in a club and delay the inevitable dawn was immense. Yet still remaining was that avg antivirus purchase download slight apprehension at melting into a crowd, hoping to single someone out worth being singled out by. I looked at Ranil, the avg antivirus purchase download other available friend in the group, hoping for some sign of solidarity. Sunstricken from avg antivirus purchase download a long day of touring Stonetown, he did not seem to avg antivirus purchase download share this goal.

We rounded a corner and saw it – a avg antivirus purchase download small car park framed set of stone steps crowded with smokers. Beyond them was a avg antivirus purchase download single small door with two gormless looking bouncers vaguely scanning the avg antivirus purchase download arriving horde. With little notice from them I entered into the avg antivirus purchase download tiny venue, suddenly feeling crushed by the density of people, and avg antivirus purchase download the breathless heat of the place.

It took some minutes to avg antivirus purchase download claw my way to the back of the club with some of the avg antivirus purchase download others. It seemed that most of the Africa House attendees had avg antivirus purchase download found their way to this hole in the stone; the men wandered, their pick-up looks primed, the avg antivirus purchase download women retaliating with shrewd but investigatory glances. It was suddenly too much to avg antivirus purchase download take in, and so I slapped ten thousand shillings on the avg antivirus purchase download bar and ordered a beer.

As I was waiting I watched two women who avg antivirus purchase download had been dancing nearby earlier at the Africa House. One had avg antivirus purchase download long brunette hair and a freckled, pouty face. She was sipping on a avg antivirus purchase download cocktail and scanning the room.

Three beers were shoved in my face, I handed one to avg antivirus purchase download Dan and one to Phil and moved back towards the front of the avg antivirus purchase download club. We danced for a while and made the usual attempts at shouting conversation.

Some time later I stepped outside for avg antivirus purchase download a break, the intense heat of the club giving away to avg antivirus purchase download the now-gentle night warmth. The others were sitting on the avg antivirus purchase download steps, either drinking water or smoking.

There was a avg antivirus purchase download little bit of commotion at the door as a thin, absolute gorgeous black woman with long, silky hair and avg antivirus purchase download that determined gait of a supermodel came striding out. Some friends came running after her, but were beaten back by a avg antivirus purchase download snarling English accent.

“It’s my birthday and I’m going home!”

She slid past a few cars in the lot, and then was gone.

Dan nodded at me and slapped me on the back. “Lot of good looking totties in their Matt. I could see you avg antivirus purchase download checking them out.” The others laughed. “Aren’t you going back in?”

I crossed my arms and chuckled. “Yeah, maybe.” I felt like folding up.

“Single women?” said Barbara, “Wait, so Matt, you’re on the market?”

“Yeah,” I said, shrugging. “I’m, uh, up for grabs.”

She smiled. “Well go back in then!”

Phil and avg antivirus purchase download Cynthia stood up, determined to dedicate a few more hours to avg antivirus purchase download dancing. The rest made a motion to return to our hotel. I looked back into the avg antivirus purchase download club, as the occasional spontaneous couple trickled out. I took a avg antivirus purchase download final swig of beer and stepped back in.

* * * * * * * * *

I had avg antivirus purchase download been dancing for some time when the supermodel came waltzing back in – she looked like the type to have wildly fluctuating moods (beautiful).

As she passed me I shouted after her.

“Happy birthday!” my voice, drunken and perhaps too humoured, carried to her ear.

She whirled on a high heel and faced me with a smile.

“Thank you, but if you knew how old I was now you wouldn’t be saying that!”

She whirled again and disappeared into the crowd.

As she vanished the pouty  brunette came back into view, now dancing rather methodically, keeping her eyes locked on then avg antivirus purchase download man in front of her.  From time to avg antivirus purchase download time he whispered something in her ear as she would laughed, though with some struggle. His rhythm began to avg antivirus purchase download become more manic as his attempts at arousal crumbled. Then, without saying anything, she turned away from avg antivirus purchase download him and walked off. Drained, he slid his hands into his pockets as his body returned to avg antivirus purchase download its natural slump.

Phil appeared, carrying several bottles of water. I crumpled into a avg antivirus purchase download chair in the corner, nursing one of them, watching the crowded remnants of the avg antivirus purchase download club shuffle their feet. Cynthia leaned over and said something.

“What?” I shouted over the din.

She motioned with her head back to the crowd. “How about the girl in the striped dress?”

The woman in question was a avg antivirus purchase download tall thin, brunette, sporting a tight striped dress of various colours, her ponytail ricocheting back and avg antivirus purchase download forth across her nose. She looked happy, disconnected from her friends, who, I had avg antivirus purchase download noted, had failed in their attempts to find companionship elsewhere, had avg antivirus purchase download returned to seek comfort as a group. They were shorter and avg antivirus purchase download almost brutish compared to this woman.

She wasn’t pretty. An awkward set of features dominated – but she had avg antivirus purchase download a happy aloofness about her which briefly illuminated her as the avg antivirus purchase download other women in the club were too busy to properly dance. They were were, with some calculation, vetting each and avg antivirus purchase download every man for the position of New Year’s fuck. This woman did not care that avg antivirus purchase download she was not very pretty, and was sexier for it.

I stood up as I finished my water, turning to Cynthia.

“Being completely drenched in sweat, I’m not feeling that attractive right now,” I shouted.

She shrugged. “All of the women are just as sweaty!”

We danced a avg antivirus purchase download little more. The DJ began to lose his way, as they are avg antivirus purchase download prone to doing as nights bear on. Eventually, I felt the avg antivirus purchase download inevitable hand on my shoulder.

“Ready to head out?” said Cynthia.

I looked back at the avg antivirus purchase download girl in the striped dress, her minute but invigorated body still writhing in time with the avg antivirus purchase download music. Her eyes were nearly closed as she smiled and spun around, and avg antivirus purchase download around, and around.

I felt my captivation losing orbit on her third and avg antivirus purchase download final rotation. Without further glance I turned about and walked outside into the avg antivirus purchase download night of Stonetown’s first early morning. The air had avg antivirus purchase download begun to chill, and I found myself shuddering with anticipation as I accelerated to avg antivirus purchase download catch up with my friends.

* * * * * * * * *

I’ve been avg antivirus purchase download trying to think of something to write for a few weeks, but with no avg antivirus purchase download success. I’m off to Zanzibar tomorrow for two weeks. I’ll try and write some stories when I return. Happy new year.

When I woke that avg antivirus purchase download morning, I realized that the day was to be reserved for avg antivirus purchase download the deepest, darkest mood, one of those instances when optimism hastily clambers into the avg antivirus purchase download trees to escape the coming flood of self-pity and melancholy. I am, on rare but consistent occasion, subject to avg antivirus purchase download these episodes, and so I decided to remove myself from avg antivirus purchase download the scene by going out and into the wild, so as to avg antivirus purchase download not upset my party with my awful tantruming.

I sat up and avg antivirus purchase download pulled as much of the world into focus as the morning light, eclipsed by the avg antivirus purchase download small room’s curtains, would allow. I crept out of bed, gathering my things slowly and avg antivirus purchase download quietly, so as not to wake my friend Lizzie, who occupied the avg antivirus purchase download other bed, discernible only by her black ponytail which sprouted from avg antivirus purchase download an amorphous mound of sheets.

Struggling on my hiking boots and avg antivirus purchase download adorning my shoulder bag, I slid myself out of the room. The boots clunked with a avg antivirus purchase download rubbery thud as I made myself down the corridor and entered the avg antivirus purchase download living room of the lodge, it’s decor jarringly English in taste for avg antivirus purchase download a house on the Zomba plateau, although not surprisingly given its colonial heritage.

I made my way for avg antivirus purchase download the front door, but was cut off by Ronald, the owner of the avg antivirus purchase download lodge, a middle-aged South African man with a sad, but kind face and avg antivirus purchase download demeanor. Behind him, through the door way, I saw the green tangle of the avg antivirus purchase download plateau swaying in the wind, and I longed for it.

“Would you like a little breakfast?” Ronald said, “It’s a avg antivirus purchase download bit early, but Solomon could put something together for you.”

“Thank you Ronald,” I said, “but I’m going to go for a hike.” I motioned to a walking stick I had discovered the night before.

“You should have something before,” he replied, “you shouldn’t go out on an empty stomach like that.”

“I’m.. I’m fine,” I stammered, “I’ve got some granola bars. Could you avg antivirus purchase download please tell the others that I’ve gone out, that I won’t be around this morning.”

He looked hurt as he nodded and turned away. I need to get out of this place right now. I thought.

It was summertime in Malawi, and avg antivirus purchase download on top of the plateau the morning was crisp and wet. Gear in hand I walked through the avg antivirus purchase download garden of flowers which ramparted the lodge and down one of the avg antivirus purchase download myriad of trails which led away from the lodge. I wasn’t sure how long I would be avg antivirus purchase download or how far I would walk, so I turned on my GPS, which would hopefully guide me back when avg antivirus purchase download I found some sort of balance.

After a avg antivirus purchase download few minutes of walking through the dense growth which led down the avg antivirus purchase download side of the mountain, I heard a rustle behind me. I turned around, wondering who avg antivirus purchase download from the lodge might be following me. The grass parted as the avg antivirus purchase download lumbering hulk known as Obelix, a huge, aging, shaggy black dog who avg antivirus purchase download resided at the lodge, came trotting after me.

“Obelix,” I said sternly, “Go home!”

The pooch regarded me for a moment, then sidled a little closer.

“Obelix!” My voice rose. “You will not be able to keep up with me. I want you to go home!”

With those last few words my voice broke a avg antivirus purchase download little, and I realised that I could not send him away from avg antivirus purchase download me. I turned away, back down the path as he trotted after me, soon taking the avg antivirus purchase download lead by scouting out the way ahead and returning from time to avg antivirus purchase download time to check up on me.

I eventually reached the avg antivirus purchase download mouth of the trail, where the plants gave way to avg antivirus purchase download a dirt road with an open view of some farmland. It was early, but there were already women outside, working with the avg antivirus purchase download land The image of a tall, pale, scruffy looking redhead with a avg antivirus purchase download gigantic black dog at his side turned heads for a avg antivirus purchase download few moments, but the crops quickly recaptured their errant attention.

I continued down the avg antivirus purchase download road for a while. A short Malawian boy peered at me from avg antivirus purchase download a little ways away. As I passed him, he uttered the avg antivirus purchase download stereotypical adolescent greeting towards azungu.

“Give me money.”

“Why should I give you money?” I said as I continued walking.

He shrugged, and followed me at a distance for some time.

I decided to avg antivirus purchase download turn off the road, and started climbing up the side of a avg antivirus purchase download steep inclination alongside a waterfall, its floor a net of wet undergrowth. As I clambered up, hands grasping past thorny leaves to avg antivirus purchase download find some roots to anchor myself with, I noticed Obelix at my side, his large black body wheezing, barely keeping the avg antivirus purchase download pace.

It took me around fifteen minutes of hacking, cursing and avg antivirus purchase download stumbling to reach the top, finding myself at the entrance road to avg antivirus purchase download the lodge. Some progress, I thought. Obelix was now a panting field of green and black.

I made my way up the avg antivirus purchase download road, back towards the lodge, intending to take another route by its entrance, when avg antivirus purchase download I came across one of the men who worked there. I looked at the avg antivirus purchase download worn out Obelix, and knew that he would continue to follow me in his kind-hearted fashion.

“Could you please take him back to the lodge with you?” I asked. The man agreed, and avg antivirus purchase download whistled for the gentle behemoth to follow him. With one quick glance back at me, Oblix disappeared around a avg antivirus purchase download bend.

I continued on, ascertaining my distance from avg antivirus purchase download the lodge by the patchy smoke rising from behind the trees. As I moved closer, I heard the avg antivirus purchase download sound of a diesel engine start. I realised that this could very well be avg antivirus purchase download the others setting out in my friend Glenn’s truck. Panicked and avg antivirus purchase download embarrassed for leaving so promptly, I scanned the treeline to my right. The road cut its way through the avg antivirus purchase download plateau, creating a five foot wall. I grabbed a root and avg antivirus purchase download hauled myself up into the trees. Giving myself little time to avg antivirus purchase download catch my breathe, I hurried into the forest, closing off my view of the avg antivirus purchase download road as I heard the truck rumble by.

There was no avg antivirus purchase download path through these woods, so progress was slow. I used my walking stick to avg antivirus purchase download thrash away a meager route, and hopefully to leave some sort of mark for avg antivirus purchase download my return. As I pushed forward, the wind rustled the leaves briefly, as if the avg antivirus purchase download forest had briefly woken at my nuisance, but had rolled over and avg antivirus purchase download returned to its slumber.

Some time later, I reached an avg antivirus purchase download impasse, the forest revealing a gentle green gorge, too steep to avg antivirus purchase download descend and of uncertain depth due to the overgrowth. Across this avg antivirus purchase download cleft in the earth was a gigantic tree, felled by forces unknown, which stretched all the avg antivirus purchase download way to the other side.

I looked at my watch. I had avg antivirus purchase download not settled myself yet and felt I could not turn back so soon. I touched the avg antivirus purchase download tree. The smooth bark was slick and wet, the entire length stripped of any large branches by time. I readjusted my bag and avg antivirus purchase download slid out a little onto the trunk, attempting to secure my legs around its circumference while using my hands to avg antivirus purchase download slowly shimmy myself along.

A few feet along and avg antivirus purchase download I slipped, my body lurching to the right, ready to tumble down the avg antivirus purchase download leafy rift in the earth. My hand caught a branch sticking out from avg antivirus purchase download the edge, preventing my fall. For a moment I looked down and avg antivirus purchase download contemplated my chances of proceeding without a fall. I listened as the avg antivirus purchase download leaves rustled again once or twice, before a vast quiet dominated.

I pulled myself back onto more secure ground and avg antivirus purchase download sat there for some time, munching on a granola bar. I took out my GPS and avg antivirus purchase download discovered that I was only a few kilometers away from avg antivirus purchase download the lodge - my journey had taken quite some time, but had avg antivirus purchase download been bogged down by the density of the forest.

I nestled myself against a avg antivirus purchase download trunk for some time, until the calm, cool morning reached in and avg antivirus purchase download solaced me, treating my wounds with thorns and dew. Content, I sat up, and avg antivirus purchase download looked back at the way I came. The forest had already began to avg antivirus purchase download disguise the destruction I had wrought on my outgoing journey, but the avg antivirus purchase download return home was elementary nevertheless.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Almost a avg antivirus purchase download year later I realised that I had succumbed to that deepest, darkest mood. I escaped, this avg antivirus purchase download time stumbling drunkenly to my front door. I wrenched it closed as I entered my stuffy livingroom, briefly glimpsing past the avg antivirus purchase download bars into the night as I locked it. I tossed my suit jacket onto the avg antivirus purchase download sofa without looking, and crossed the livingroom. Slightly blocking my intended exit was a avg antivirus purchase download deck chair. It was in my path, and so suffered my offense.

“Motherfucker!”

A savage kick sent the avg antivirus purchase download chair into the air, spinning into the next room. I grunted as I hoisted it avg antivirus purchase download up and smashed it against the side of a wall sending small chunks of plaster rolling across the avg antivirus purchase download floor. The chair folded without breaking, mutely acquiescing in my fury. The door to avg antivirus purchase download my bedroom was my next victim, and it did not go quietly. Its denting left my hand bruised and avg antivirus purchase download ragged. I slammed it shut and looked around the room, huffing in anger. At the avg antivirus purchase download bare walls, the creak of the ever present fan, the avg antivirus purchase download neatly made bed with the mosquito net parted, beckoning me to avg antivirus purchase download another night of restlessness.

I yelled, and avg antivirus purchase download took it upon myself to do harm to another piece of furniture, but in my haste and avg antivirus purchase download lack of direction, my legs missed the communication and I toppled over onto the avg antivirus purchase download concrete floor. I was there for quite some time as the avg antivirus purchase download concrete was cool and collected tears well.
I looked up at the avg antivirus purchase download bars that adorned the window and felt as if I had avg antivirus purchase download chased myself into a trap. I pulled myself to my feet using the avg antivirus purchase download bathroom counter, and winced as I came face to face with myself in the avg antivirus purchase download mirror.

I moved back into the avg antivirus purchase download bedroom, which had been conquered by the quiet warmth of the avg antivirus purchase download night. I looked at my bed, and avg antivirus purchase download took a cautious step towards it, into the wild.

That Friday afternoon, I loosened my tie and avg antivirus purchase download drove south, away from Capital City the prettier, if not more deceiving half of Lilongwe. The wide roads and avg antivirus purchase download rows of red and purple trees give way to smog and avg antivirus purchase download human density as the road winds its way through the Old Town. Only after twenty minutes of honking and avg antivirus purchase download near-misses did I break out of the cities perimeter, accelerating my crippled vehicle to avg antivirus purchase download a meager, but manageable 80 kilometers an hour.

I had avg antivirus purchase download around three to four hours of driving to do before I reached Zomba, Malawi’s old colonial capital. That’s several hundred kilometers of well-paved road, but also half a avg antivirus purchase download dozen roadblocks, manned by soldiers and police officers ranging from the avg antivirus purchase download indifferent to the determined.

The Western man’s favourite image of textbook corruption is avg antivirus purchase download the African policeman. In Malawi he is given the right to avg antivirus purchase download set up roadblocks and to check the quality of passing vehicles and avg antivirus purchase download the validity of the multitude of stickers it must display to avg antivirus purchase download comply with the country’s rather draconian licensing laws. This power gives him the avg antivirus purchase download ability to extract payment, although to what extent he exercises it avg antivirus purchase download is difficult to say. Whites are only ever hassled by the avg antivirus purchase download police when they are actually violating the law, so when the avg antivirus purchase download possibility of a bribe being paid becomes a reality, we have avg antivirus purchase download only our noncompliance to blame.

The police are avg antivirus purchase download certainly very corrupt - but they are nothing but bogeyman to avg antivirus purchase download the average expatriate, content to drive by unmolested, thanks to avg antivirus purchase download their diplomatic license plates (a avg antivirus purchase download privilege doled out to not only embassy workers, but anyone employed through a avg antivirus purchase download foreign government agency, including the United Nations). The rest of us must keep to avg antivirus purchase download the left of that very, very thin blue line, but when avg antivirus purchase download we run astray we shrug and palm them a thousand kwatcha. In this, we are avg antivirus purchase download completely complicit because it is convenient. This is not the only reason this avg antivirus purchase download country suffers for the need of our convenience.

The rains had avg antivirus purchase download slowly crept up on Malawi, and so her usually dry and avg antivirus purchase download dusty landscape was sprouting green hairs up and down the scalp. The M1, the avg antivirus purchase download aptly name highway which reaches from Tanzania, all the way down to avg antivirus purchase download the south of the country, would be little more than a avg antivirus purchase download back-country highway in South Carolina. My glimpses at the usually gorgeous and avg antivirus purchase download dynamic sky and the gumdrop mountains were usually interrupted by kamikaze lorry drivers and avg antivirus purchase download locals walking or biking alongside the road.

Sometime before the avg antivirus purchase download town of Balaka, a strangely endearing locale that resembles rural South Carlina that avg antivirus purchase download is little more than half-way to Zomba, I encountered some policemen. They had avg antivirus purchase download set up a random check, a popular way of catching errant motorists on a avg antivirus purchase download junction between the M1 and the M5, a highway that led east towards Lake Malawi. I had avg antivirus purchase download to some extent anticipated this encounter, and as my week had avg antivirus purchase download crept along I had endeavored to guarantee that my vehicle would pass any potential inspection.

I was fumbling with a avg antivirus purchase download map of the country when the officer waved me down, a avg antivirus purchase download somewhat needless display of incompetence as the route to Zomba is avg antivirus purchase download signposted the entire way. I pulled off the road and rolled down my window to greet him.

“Mwaswera bwanji abambo,” I said. How is the afternoon sir?

“Hello bwana,” he said, “I am fine, may I check your stickers?” as he motioned to avg antivirus purchase download the three stickers on my windshield, documenting my license status, car fitness and avg antivirus purchase download insurance.

Having prepared throughout the week, I replied with unwavering confidence:

“Go right ahead officer.”

He scanned the first sticker, then tapped it with his finger.

“Excuse me sir, but this sticker is expired.”

“What?”

“It is expired.”

“No… no that can’t be.”

I got out of the avg antivirus purchase download car and walked around the bonnet and examined the license sticker. Sure enough it avg antivirus purchase download had expired three weeks ago.
”

“You are certainly right about that officer,” I said. Shit.

“Please pull your car over here,” he said, motioning towards the avg antivirus purchase download shoulder of the road where two other officers were working.

I did so, while trying to avg antivirus purchase download think of a way out of it. Zomba was still over an avg antivirus purchase download hour away and the sun was weary.

After pulling over, I got out of the avg antivirus purchase download car and began talking to the policeman.

“Look, I work for the Ministry of Finance, and I’m in an awful hurry to get to Zomba… could you write me a ticket?”

“Sorry, sir,” he said, “We have avg antivirus purchase download to take you back to the station so we can book you avg antivirus purchase download a hearing with the Balaka court so he can fine you.”

“But I have business in Zomba soon,” I pleaded, “I won’t make it there before dark if I have to go with you.” My true motives for avg antivirus purchase download hurrying were kept clandestine, but I hoped my shirt and avg antivirus purchase download tie would add to my growing image of an exasperated, but important, civil servant.

He shook his head. “We are avg antivirus purchase download not allowed to issue tickets on the spot anymore. You must book with the avg antivirus purchase download court.”

I continued to avg antivirus purchase download plead until he called his boss over, a smartly dressed officer with an avg antivirus purchase download angular face topped with a white cap who wore about a avg antivirus purchase download single, white glove used for directing traffic.

The boss and avg antivirus purchase download the third policeman repeated the same line. I had to go with them. If not today, I would need to avg antivirus purchase download book a time with the court for another weekday.

I explained: I would only be avg antivirus purchase download in Zomba for the weekend, there would be no time to avg antivirus purchase download book with the court. I would gladly pay the fine in Lilongwe if I could, but I would not be avg antivirus purchase download in Balaka again during a weekday.

“I’m really terribly sorry, but there has avg antivirus purchase download to be some way we can settle this here,” I implored. The sun was beating down on me and avg antivirus purchase download I was losing steam. I was angling for a bribe. I wouldn’t offer it though, it would come from them.

“The Balaka police are the worst,” my friend Ranil had said earlier that week, “they are always hitting people up for bribes.” I was now counting on this.

They repeated their line a avg antivirus purchase download few more times, and I continued to play the part of the avg antivirus purchase download economist in a hurry. Eventually, they began speaking in Chichewa, and avg antivirus purchase download the original police officer motioned for me to follow him away from avg antivirus purchase download the others.

This is it, I thought. Do it and be done with it.

The policeman studied me for a second, then spoke carefully.

“We understand that you are in a hurry and that it’s late,” he said, “so we’re going to avg antivirus purchase download let you go this time. If possible, get your sticker sorted out in Zomba, if not, first thing when avg antivirus purchase download you get back to Lilongwe.”

It took me a avg antivirus purchase download second to register that he was letting me go without asking for avg antivirus purchase download anything.

“Really?” I said, “how will I make it through further checkpoints?”

“Tell them the name of our captain, Mbala,” he said, “say we let you go.”

I shook his hand, beaming with gratitude.

“Thank you so much! I’m sorry I didn’t mean to avg antivirus purchase download let it go, I thought I had everything sorted out. I’ll do it as soon as I can.”

I scampered back into the avg antivirus purchase download drivers seat and took off, leaving the three of them brandishing their bright yellow coats in the avg antivirus purchase download afternoon heat. I pondered over their uncharacteristic (admittedly from the stereotype) generosity.

It bothered me somewhat, though as the avg antivirus purchase download Zomba plateau began to rise up in the distance I soon found myself distracted by the avg antivirus purchase download beings and doings of children and little goats alongside the avg antivirus purchase download road.