STOLL/Falling Uphill ©2005
3
smkstoll@yahoo.com
"You're a farmer -- a businessman. I see you have clothes and shoes." It is cotton harvest now. There
is so much cotton on the roadside blowing in the wind that I could weave several wardrobes; however, the
Zambians don't weave. He's wearing a mass-produced Beckham football jersey that an English
humanitarian donated when it went out of fashion. "You have clean air to breathe and clean water to
drink." The bottle caps slow their march. The boy has gotten his leg over my bike, but he is too small to
balance the weight. I watch the clouds morph for a moment, something I haven't been able to appreciate
for years. "Plenty of sunshine today." I poke him in the ribs playfully. "You have too much food to eat.
And, you have time to play draughts all day with all your friends." He acknowledges everything I say
with a glimmering grin. "I have nothing: no wife, no children, no job, no house. All I have is a bicycle
and enough money to go to Cape Town. You see how I suffer," I wince theatrically.
Everyone laughs and my opponent says, "You are very strong man. I can never do this." In fact, he is
rippling with muscles, whereas I feel like jelly melting in the sun.
"You could if you wanted. It is all in the mind." Which brings me to my point: "Are you happy?"
"I am very happy," he smiles, Africans have the biggest, whitest smiles in the world.
"You see, you suffer terribly." Everyone laughs.
"The problem, sir, is money."
"If you're hungry, you need food. Everyone must eat. If it is cold, you need clothes. If it is raining,
you need a house. Everyone needs a wife. You can't make babies by yourself." While everyone laughs at
my joke, I wonder if I am preaching too much and if he will understand. "Can I tell you a secret?" He
agrees eagerly. "If you have all these things, money won't make you happy. You will spend all day
worrying about your money and you will have no time to play draughts. Do you know the number one
rule in life?" His ears perk. "Life is full of suffering. It is the same everywhere, even in America. I think
we are the unhappiest people in the world because we have no time for draughts."
"Can you invite me to America?" He wants me to pay for his passage?
"It too late for you. You must stay here and feed your family."
"But I want to see America very much."
