The Dark Continent - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 356

“Much of my lecture was based on the novels of Alexander McCall Smith whose nov-
els are built around two women detectives, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi. Crime is
their business. Tracking down criminals and errant husbands, locating missing persons, and
keeping close watch on would-be wrong-doers. A light-hearted touch is provided by Mms
Ramotswe's husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, an auto mechanic who diagnoses problems by
speaking to ailing cars, and by his two apprentices who spend their time planning love af-
fairs that somehow always go astray. Our favorite novel is Double Comfort Safari Club .
The detectives' mission is to recover a large sum of money belonging to a guest at the club.
“Botswana's desert offered an opportunity for another of our outdoors pleasures, sleep-
ing under the stars, snug in our sleeping bags. And as always, far from city lights, the heav-
ens are bright with stars.
M ADAGASCAR (N OW T HE M ALAGASY R EPUBLIC )
“On our visit to Madagascar, the world's fourth largest island, we were pleasantly surprised
to find French as one of its two official languages. We made port on an offshore island,
Nose Be, and later took a small launch to the island itself.
“The natives are an admixture of Black and Indonesian, and exceedingly courteous
and friendly, helped no doubt by our speaking French. Places and people have mellifluous
names: Radima and Ranalova. With guide and jeep we climbed to its high plateau, 9,000
feet, where breathing was difficult for those long at sea. Our guide lamented the fact that
this once heavily forested island was now barren, the trees cut down for firewood. We ate
the local food, something of a mash built around peanuts. And for souvenirs there were T-
shirts.
Z ANZIBAR
“Zanzibar is an archipelago of low lying islands in the Indian Ocean. We forewent our usual
pleasure of wading in the sea: sharp coral! We were given an audience with the ruling sul-
tan after I identified myself as a professor who writes about democratic regimes. As a new
treasured souvenir, we now display on the wall of our apartment an antique print of the sea
front of Zanzibar, a single-masted sailing ship, customs house in the background.
“Cloves are one of the major exports of Zanzibar and the air is heavy with its fra-
grance. As we took our jar of cloves back to the ship, my wife recalled that in Egypt during
pyramid construction, cloves were part of the diet of the workers, to keep them healthy and
to give them strength!
T HE C OMOROS I SLANDS
“We landed on one of its lovely islands and attended Sunday church services. Black ladies
dressed in large hats and white gloves were singing. We joined in to welcoming smiles.
Afterwards, one of the lovely smiling ladies asked us how we had learned the tune. We said
it was a family favorite, not revealing that it was the song, Danny Boy !