Maikutlo Aka - My Views
Ikhaya Iphupho Lami: My Dream House
Posted Friday, July 27, 2007
Writing my essay for my Zulu class, Ikhaya Iphupho Lami, turned out to be a bigger project than I expected. I sat down and starting writing: eKusasa, ngizojabulile uma nginekhaya eMalawi...
In the future, I will be happy if I have a house in Malawi. I hope it will have running water and electricity, but it doesn't matter if the bathroom is inside or outside. I want to know my neighbours, to climb the mountains and watch the sun rise over the lake...
Maybe it's because I only know how to write simple concepts in Zulu. But it seems like a pretty simple future.
There are days, especially in the past six weeks, when I think about my decision to leave South Africa and chase an academic dream, and wonder what exactly I'm wanting to get out of it. I wonder whether or not, after four years in high-brow New England, I'll still want to live on Lake Malawi and eat fish or peanut butter every day, whether or not somehow even the sunset will change. Whether or not, once you cross certain lines, the ability to empathise -- or in some ways, the willingness to put up with different material standards of living -- go away.
I like to think my mind will change, but my material values won't. But I'm not sure how realistic it is. Now I have my Zulu essay to look back on, and hopefully the only revisions in four years will be to improve the grammar!
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