Trafika Europe 11 - Swiss Delights

Trinité bantoue

don’t stay out in the sun for extended periods, limit physical exercise when the sun is strongest. I’ve been trying to follow these guidelines for several days now. At noon, I lower the shades in my room to keep it cool. When I get home in the evening, I open all the windows to let in the coolness off the lake. That ’s what I plan on doing later when I get out of bed. Dominique is gone. I fell into a deep sleep after he left. He left me a note on the kitchen table. He writes that he was glad to see me again. He said it was nice. Very nice, in fact. I smile. It ’s a shame, he adds, he’d have liked to see Ruedi, too. In closing he wishes me a happy National Day in Bantu and ends with see you soon. I rub my eyes sti l l puffy with sleep. I crumple his note and throw it into the kitchen wastebasket with the old bananas leaves in which the cassava sticks I stuffed mysel f with al l day had been wrapped. I open the windows in my room. I stand at the open window and smoke a cigarette. I look at the bui lding opposite. It has been decorated. In almost every window there is a red f lag with a white cross. But not only. There are also lots of f lags from other countries: Italy, Portugal , Spain, Albania, Kosovo, France, Germany, etc. But I don’t see any from Africa, much less Bantuland. And yet, it ’s a very

67