Today I woke up after a night of torrential rain. The rain was so hard at times I thought maybe I was just dreaming or having an anxiety attack because the rain on my tin roof was so impressively loud. The rainy season is over which reinforced the apocalyptic feeling I had when I woke up. Its not supposed to rain that much in this season and it had stormed all night, I know it sounds ridiculous, but part of me thought the flood was coming, time to load up those cats of mine and brave the end of world waves.
I started cycling to Rumphi and it was weird how when it’s rainy, Africa looks that much more familiar. Maybe it’s because of the lighting, how darkness is more uniform and clouds all look the same whether they hover over mountains of Colorado or the mountains of Malawi. I started an early morning cycle to reach Rumphi for Internet and that feeling of “apocalypse” was lingering with me as I put my earphones around my neck and started to play some tunes. As I was riding there was this breaking of clouds and the sun was pooling over a particular mountain and its valley. It was beautiful and it reminded me of so many pieces of cloud breakage I had seen before. It reminded me of looking desperately at the sky in Maine when my family and I were camping and I was desperate not to sleep in the midst of a thunder storm, it reminded me of Colorado when my sister and I used to cycle in a race against thunder clouds, it reminded me of how the orchard I used to work at smelled in the morning before I climbed any apple trees, and rain was still present among the trees. And my ipod was doing a good job shuffling and as the sun pool let me let out a sigh of relief that I wasn’t going to have to build a boat, I was struck by the global mash-up my ipod was giving me.
As I cycled on into expansive mountains Cascada’s “Evacuate the Dance Floor,” threaten to convince me I was not in Africa, but in a club in the U.S. Then Modest Mouse came saving me from thinking my outfit was not dance club appropriate. Many favorite artists followed grounding me in a vision of the world beyond its ending and instead in an excellent re-mix mash up of Africa and her mountains. And heres the playlist!
Cascada - Evacuate the Dance Floor
Modest Mouse - Birds vs. Worms
You Can’t Hurry Love - The Supremes (mixed feelings about this song, sometimes its motivating other times, I want to tell Ms. Ross: “ I know you can’t hurry love, but I am tired, and right now I don’t care what your mother says I don’t just want to wait. These feelings of frustration may have been exasperated by the fact a cow wouldn’t get out of my way, because you apparently you can’t hurry love or cows. )
While you Wait for the Others - Grizzly Bear
I’m an Animal - Neko Case
The second track from Regina’s Spektor’s new album
That’s What It’s Made For - Usher
Wildcat - Ratatat
Blindsided - Bon Iver
You Dream Flat Tires - Joni Mitchell
What is Life - George Harrison
Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart - Alicia Keys
Drivin’ Me Wild - Common featuring Lily Allen
Tags: africa, iPod, malawi, music, peace corps, re-mix, songs
