Books

This is a post culled from my other blog that seems to make more sense here. My reaction to the unknown is always to read about it! Must be the historian in me: study breeds familiarity. Here is a list of some wonderful books on Africa and/or the AIDS crisis.

Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart by Tim Butcher - excited but upsetting. Granddads remember when cars were on the road and the kids have never seen them because of the total collapse of central Africa's infrastructure and tourist industry.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - fiction but beautiful. It changed the whole way I thought about the challenges facing Africa and the African people. Highly recommended.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - Stunning, experienced a bit of post colonel guilt to be honest. It's a very difficult issue because in some way there is almost no point in regretting it, its done, but it was awful to read of the traditional African beliefs from the point of view of them being ripped to shreds.

The Shadow of the Sun: My African Life by Ryszard Kapuscinski - Beautiful love letter to Africa by a journalist who covered 40 years of strife there. You are permitted little glimpses into these jewels of stories, sometimes never knowing how they began and sometimes not seeing how they ended. Seems to be a metaphor for the fragmented nature of being on the road.

HIV/AIDS A Very Short Introduction Does what it says on the tin, short and clinical but informative.

The Wisdom of Whores by Elizabeth Pisani - a very challenging read about the "business" of AIDS prevention and treatment in Asia. Her account of the fight for funding and ridiculous protectionist policies that cost lives and billions of dollars made my blood boil.

Have these books helped prepare me? I suppose that's a question I can't answer until I get there! What they have done is make me ask more questions of myself and my purpose in going away. I took my first malaria tablet today! One week to go.