We live at a time where there’s an ever increasing push towards the predictable. Towards a world where, as Kit Moresby laments in Paul Bowles’ novel “The Sheltering Sky”, “The people of each country get more like the people of every other country. They have no character, no beauty, no ideals, no culture-nothing, nothing.”

It’s a world which is safe… easily digestible. Like a lukewarm bowl of gruel.

For a short moment in September, 2024, I found myself in a country which has not yet fully succumbed to the grayness of Kit’s world. its identity is on full display across every inch of the country. It punches you in the face the second you arrive then swallows you whole. It’s the most chaotic, diverse, proud, heartbreaking, beautiful, unpredictable, harsh, and raw, place I’ve ever been. It’s one that feels like the final triumphant wail of a world which, once gone, may never return.”