Letter from Switzerland #5
My dear Nsenga,
In my previous letter, I told you about the girl who, fortunately, helped me out when I was lost in the city of Geneva. I’m trying not to think about her now, I know I won’t see her again, but the day she gave me a hundred francs I went to the institute, where another girl gave me a warm welcome, as if she knew me: it was as if I were condemned to only meet beautiful girls! I just got here, I told her, as if my arrival had been previously announced to her. Then I asked for a proper tour and to be shown to my room so that I could rest, because I wanted to be fresh for my first classes on Monday. I’m sorry, said the beautiful lady, but student services are closed on weekends, you’ll have to spend the night at the youth hostel next door. You can move into your room on Monday, when student services are open…
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Letter from Switzerland #6
My dear Nsenga,
Last time I told you about the lukewarm reception I received at the institute: I was treated like any ordinary person. “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” I realized then that most men are without honor except in theirs. I live at 2 rue Hugo-de-Senger, close to the Plaine de Plainpalais, which is a large public square. I’m taking several very interesting courses: economics and global ecology, in addition to the general introductory courses on international development. Most of the students at the institute come from the so-called Third World: Africa, Latin America, and, to a lesser extent, Asia. I’m friends with some of the Latin Americans: the Mexicans Carlos, Matilda, and Javier, and Alice, the beautiful dark-skinned Colombian who, strangely enough, resembles Aloys’s cousin, Alice de Rusumo. Next time I’ll tell you about my plans to visit France. My first destination will be Savoie, the French department next to the Swiss canton of Geneva.
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Letter from Switzerland #7
My dear Nsenga,
I just received your letter in which you express your frustration with everything I have told you about Switzerland so far. You ask, for example, if I have already visited Sion, the region where Archbishop André Perraudin was born. You ask if I have already visited Savoie, like I said I would in my last letter. You also ask if I have already visited every region of Switzerland. And many other questions besides. Suffice to say that I did not come here to be a tourist, I came to steal fire from the gods, but to answer some of your questions: I have already visited many parts of Switzerland, I have visited Basel, Bern, and Lausanne, I have visited Fribourg and Neuchâtel. And everywhere I have been, I have visited the universities, because I love higher education, as you know. I have spoken to you many times about my plan to become an itinerant professor.
During my travels around Switzerland, I didn’t have enough time to properly document the habits and customs of the Whites, like you asked me to. You already know that they eat eggs and cabbage, which our elders refuse to eat, since the former are chickens and the latter is food for chickens! The Whites also love dogs and other animals. But they “do not have a monopoly on the heart…”
In Savoie, I greatly enjoyed Aix-les-Bains, where I spent three days and nights in delightful company. Alice, a beautiful German woman, likes to join me on my travels. Germans, and German women in particular, are generally strong, beautiful, energetic… and alluring. I gave Alice the second name “Uwera,” which as you know means “pure” or “white.” We are used to people’s names having a personal meaning, but here they almost never mean anything. Take “Charles-Edward,” for example. Alice Uwera is proud of the name I gave her. But back to Aix-les-Bains. Like I said, we spent three days and nights there, and I’ll never forget that eventful stay. I recall the beautiful words said by Professor Simon during one of his lectures on Epicureanism at the military academy in Kilarge: “I do not know how to define the good if it must be separated from the pleasures of love, the pleasures of eating and drinking, and all that is charming to the ears and the eyes.” We had a wonderful time in Aix-les-Bains. I’m afraid people might take me for an Epicurean!
Translated by Louis Greenwood Lüthi
