07 February 2006 19:18:07
The Post Office Delivers Postcards to My Flat
I heard this week someone say: “the white man has the watch, the black man has the time”. This reminded me of a great description of the African conception of time in Ryszard Kapuscinski’s book “The Shadow of the Sun”.
Speaking of time, the postal office took a lot of it on its latest test. I asked 8 friends to send me postcards from around the world. Six arrived last week after three months. Despite some delays in this test and the previous one, I confirm that the postal office works.
Sydney (suburbs :-), Paris, Malmö, Montréal, San Francisco and Bergen arrived all at once in my flat. Strangely, I felt connected to the outside world.
Many others wanted to send postcards, so here's the address:
Kim Gerstad
34 Blvd 30 Juin
Gombe, Kinshasa
RD Congo
Send me more postcards. i will post them when i receive them.
Kim Gjerstad
34 Blvd 30 juin
Gombe, Kinshasa
RD Congo
TheMalau says:
Well, well, Kim, I am impressed. I just saw this at Elia's site, and came to check. I am also going to send you a postcard, for the heck of it.
EL, I am not sure if you are being serious in your question to Kim. If you are, he is reffering to (ad Kim tell me if I am wrong) to the fact that White people are obsessed with time, and being on time (hence they have the watch), and Black people, especially outside the US, tend to be take a bit more time, be a bit more mellow in terms of punctuality, and take the time (hence they have the time) necessary to enjoy life a bit more. I am actually from Congo, and living in the US, and sometimes I really do miss being able to get at 8:00 PM to a 7:00 PM dinner, and be early!
Olav says:
hey kim.
en fin side du har her. jeg kom akkurat hjem fra sjøen etter en måned hardt arbeid. endelig hjemme, men også sorg. Farmor sin bortgang setter oss alle et skritt tilbake Hvordan var oppholdet til Lina? Gikk alt bra? Jeg syntes det var kjekt å se henne igjen. Koser du deg i Kongo? Skulle ønske du var her nå.....
Hilsen Olav
kim says:
Dude, my address is 34 Blvd 30 juin, Gombe, Kinshasa, RD Congo.
Feel free to send me a postcard OR DVDs, books, magazines, Victoria Secret catalogue, chocolate, and whatever you think would be good for alleviate my boredom.
And by the way, I started wearing a watch the day I wrote this post! :-) My new year's resoluton? Be on time. Yikes!
EL says:
Strangely - you left New York out of the around the world postal card race. I feel "Strangely" offended. Na just kidding. I 'm still mulling over that quote" the white man has the watch, the black man has the time", since I'm black. Not African, but African American, or a Negro...na we don't use that word any more, nor do we used "colored", now that is reserved for South African, mixed race. OK I'll continue...since black is not offensive..ah..the watch..ah the watch meaning..the white man knows all since the world is running on his design, his design for the world..and we, meaning black...are what only given 24 hrs....hahahaha...help me out here.
kim says: