住在一个人保持沉默，无言地在街上彼此过来的国家，仿佛对对方的想法或说的话感到恐惧，这将是很奇怪的。这不是非洲的方式，人们会从道路的相对侧或宽阔的灌木丛中互相呼唤并互相交谈，对听到的人不小心。这样的对话可以是通过朝不同方向行走的人们进行的，直到声音变得太微弱，太遥远而无法正确地听到，而言语被天空吞没了。这是与朋友分开的好方法，这比告别之后是沉默。
(It would be strange to live in a country where people were silent, passing one another in the street wordlessly, as if frightened of what the other might think or say. This was not the African way, where people would call out and converse with one another from opposite sides of a road, or across a wide expanse of bush, careless of who heard. Such conversations could be carried on by people walking in different directions, until voices grew too faint and too distant to be properly heard and words were swallowed by the sky. That was a good way of parting from a friend, so less abrupt than words of farewell followed by silence.)
