"All news out of Africa is bad. It made me want to go there, though not for the horror, the hot spots, the massacre-and-earthquake stories you read in the newspaper; I wanted the pleasure of being in Africa again. Feeling that the place was so large it contained many untold tales and some hope and comedy and sweetness, too -- feeling that there was more to Africa than misery and terror [...]"
-- Paul Theroux*, in the opening lines of Dark Star Safari (2002)
Thesis statement for the next two years, right there.
*Interesting side-note: Theroux (a wildly talented travel writer and novelist) was a member of one of the first volunteer groups sent to Malawi in 1963, and he became one of the most controversial figures in Peace Corps history after being declared persona non grata by Hastings Banda's regime. I don't intend on following in his footsteps.
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