Toto, we're not in Malawi anymore

Hi team: I wrote for a week or so prior to my trip, a sort of warm-up they'd say, so I'm thinking I deserve a cool-down as well. Don't want those well-worked muscles to cramp.

Do you think I use hyphenated words more than your average person? Do you think this means something? Just throwing that out there. I've always been acutely self-aware. 

I got home from Malawi two days ago. To fully disclose, yesterday's post I wrote in more than one sitting (my brain had quickly tarnished) and it clearly got a little wordy. I'll be swift today, then, to break even. 

Right now, I am at this behemoth of a store called IKEA. You've heard of it? Very good. Writing is a good activity for me in public places because it tends to take others (re: my mom) seventeen times longer than it takes me to survey a store's selection and the jury's confident that I'm one of the least patient shoppers on the continent. 

To remain relevant, I'll contrast IKEA to Malawi in the following way: there is nothing in Malawi like IKEA. I'm literally face to face right now with a wall of maybe 93 wall clocks. And now, advancing, hundreds of different sized and shaped picture frames. I've always marveled IKEA's philosophy and it's  clear to me at the moment how unbelievably at odds it is with Malawi way of life. Do you know IKEA flat-packs all their furniture because this is the most space and thus cost-efficient way to store and ship items and this keeps prices low? Same with why they have limited workers, prefer to not deliver, and don't pre-assemble their goods. 

Flat-packed

In Malawi, on the side of the Tarmac road, carpenters display their wooden beds and chairs and coffins pret-a-porter. Each with clear differences. Each with their own flourishes. Each with their own risks. The coffin shops always startled me the most. So confrontational and run of the mill and existed so in the scheme of things. Again, it's bizarre what became normal. 

Alright: I told you I was going to cut to the chase. Time to check-out.

Maybe I just add hyphens even when they're not required? The Oxford Hyphen?

Love,

R