Tuesday, August 20, 2013

From Malawi to Montana

The day after leaving Lilongwe, Malawi we found ourselves in the Heathrow Airport facing a ten hour lay-over.  What else to do but hop on the underground and check out London?  This was my first time in the city, and of course it is beautiful, clean and bustling with energy.  But the cloud of colonization loomed over our heads as we tried to enjoy the sites.  How strange it was to travel from Malawi, the former British colony to the capitol of the colonizers.  How vast the disparity was, a truly unfathomable gap in development, dignity and basic human needs.  Although Malawi has been independent for nearly 50 years, I could not help but think of the paternalistic, pillaging history that Britain and other colonizing powers (including the US), have lead while leaving behind their occupied territories in a disheveled wake of poverty and foreign dependence.


From London we returned to Denver, and although I swore to myself I would not set foot in an airport for some time, a day later I was on a plane to Montana to visit my family and friends.