Chishimba – a memory

here’s a little story about this photo –

it was taken in april 2009, just under ten years ago, when we were still living in zambia. the four of us had just spent a beautiful week on the shores of lake tanganyika and faced a 12-hour drive back to lusaka. i had my nintendo DS lite (in pink, obviously), loaded up with an animal crossing cartridge, so i was all set for the road, but we decided to stop about three hours in to do a little more sight-seeing before stopping in kasama for the night.

It Should Be Announced That Metal Can Burn

It was small and unassuming, yet when the flat burned down, Mother searched frantically through the rubble, her eyes wild with fear.

It was a tin teapot. The body that once had been quite round was flat on one side from where cousin Hua-Xiong dropped it. Mother had twisted his ear, hard, before disappearing to coax the teapot back into shape. The spout was too short for anything to pour without dribbling onto the table, and the lid had to be held down to stay in place.