The Choir

On Monday night I watched a documentary made by the son of a friend of my mum’s. Shot over six years, “The Choir” follows the lives of inmates in the choir at Johannesburg’s Leeuwkop Prison. I’m not sure how to get hold of a copy (I will find out), but if you ever get the chance, please see it. It is an incredible example of the healing power of music. It shows how valuable, a strong and positive leader can be. It is also beautifully filmed.

Lists

Lists, lists, lists. I am fascinated by lists. And, maybe I should warn the reader who has no interest in lists to stop right now. Read no further, this post will be dreadfully boring to you.

At this stage of my dissertation, much of my world consists of lists: to look up; to print; to do; to email; for literature review; for references; for acknowledgements etc etc etc. And a big part of the dissertation, I realise, will be managing to coordinate these lists. I need to juggle them. Make sense of them. I need to not lose any of them. Keep the number of notebooks with my lists in them to a minimum. Organise. Organise. Sort. Sort. Arrange. Systematise.

But what is most fascinating is finding lists you have made in the past. With all my sorting, I have come across some bits of paper with lists on them. “To do” lists can take you right back to a situation in your life and can be VERY interesting. They remind you what you were doing a few months ago. Some lists, however, are just puzzling.

• Secret Santa
• Wedding
• Gramsci

I found a document in the “blog” folder in my computer entitled “Toast and Honey”. In this document I found the following list:

• Toast and honey
• Name badges
• Biofuels
• Golden lion tamarin
• Agricultural subsidies
• Full moon
• Mushroom pizza

This list was obviously some ideas I was having for a blog post, but for the life of me, I cannot remember what on EARTH I was talking about. I must apologise to my readers for forgetting this, as I feel it would have been an interesting post.

I love randomness.

One more list. I typed something into the search box of wikipedia. They didn’t have exactly what I was looking for, but they did give me the following list of other pages that may help me. I will give a prize to whoever can come up with my original search words.

• Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment
• Jersey Zoological Park
• Biman Bangladesh Airlines
• The Late, Late Breakfast Show
• Bicycle Helmet
• Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance
• Doctor Who
• European Union
  

The decision

Decisions are funny things (can we call them things?). Some are easy to make – should I brush my teeth? Some are sometimes easy and sometimes hard – what should I have for lunch? Some are sometimes hard, but you know they are the right choice – should I go for a run? Some are easy and you know they might not be the best choice in all ways – should I stay out all night dancing? Some are very important and are very difficult to make – should I end this relationship? Some are very important, yet may be easy to make – who should I vote for? Some are unimportant, yet still seem to take much deliberation – what should I wear tonight?

You get my drift – our lives all full of decisions. Important, unimportant, difficult, easy, confusing etc. We make them everyday.

But every now and then, a decision comes along and surprises you; slaps you in the face and takes you unaware. Unaware that you even had to make this decision, that you were even thinking about it or that it was even an option. And before you know it you have made the decision without even thinking about it, without contemplation.

This happened to me last Sunday. While catching up with an old friend, discussing my next steps, living in London, my career – she asked me a simple question – “Why don’t you look for a job in Lilongwe?”.

And that was it. I knew that I was going to stay in Lilongwe and look for a job. Something inside me said YES. My state of mind changed. Everything felt right. The universe conspired.

So I am staying. Of course, if I don’t find a job, I will go somewhere else. But the positivity that I feel is overwhelming and I’m sure that I will find something.

2008 is going to be a good year.


A few snapshots of Lilongwe: (more to come)
Lilongwe River and the market

Area 2 market

A game of chequers

Old Town