I’ve barely landed. The darkness is disorienting. I’m not completely sure of where I am at present, emotionally – as if the three months spent in West Africa have a too strong hold on my mind yet. Everything is just surreal.
But I’m about to leave for a New Year’s dinner, I have painted my nails and am wearing a pair of Burkinabe earrings. I haven’t done much, culturewise, this year, so I don’t really know what to summarize, but there’s always something.
Like, the best song was probably Stay High with Tove Lo. Which is so unoriginal of me, because it’s even become an international hit now, but, I guess I’m not that original. I was addicted to it in the spring, needed it to wake up in the mornings. There’s also been some really great album releases of old favorites, First Aid Kit, Hello Saferide and Damien Rice. Amazing music, all of it.
The best book was, without question, The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing. I read it over Christmas in Elmina, and it’s one of the finest examples of fiction that I’ve ever encountered. She really did deserve her Nobel prize in literature, Lessing. Otherwise, I haven’t read much at all this year. Like, not even 20 books. It’s embarrassing.
As to movies, I have no idea. I saw Wish I was here in the theater together with dad just two days before I left to Burkina Faso. It was a really nice movie, and I like Zach Braff. So, I’ll pick that.
And with the photographs, I haven’t had time to go through all the Africa ones yet, which means I don’t have a comprehensive idea of what good photos I’ve taken this year. Therefore, I think it’s best if I wait with picking one. I’ll get back to you about it in a week or so, when I’ve landed and I know what I’m doing and where I am and have had time to go through the huge mess that is my files from my three months in West Africa.
So, happy New Year (I think)!
Katja Malmborg 