Multi-tasking women

TIA - This is Africa. A Malawian woman glides down the sidewalk. She is on a mission. She has a basket of bananas curiously placed on her head and she carries a plastic bag - bursting at the seams with cassava roots - in her left hand. Her baby is sleeping soundly on her back; he is wrapped up snugly in his mother's brightly-coloured chitenje. Incredibly, the lady is also holding a cell phone in her right hand as she speaks fervently in Chichewa. TIA.

TIJ - This is Journalism. A young Canadian girl walks at the pace of a turtle (which is still faster than most of the Malawians she is passing). She is squinting through her glasses, which were improperly-prescribed, as she studies the ground for rocks to avoid tripping over. With two newspapers tucked under her left arm and her cell phone firmly placed in her bra, the young journalist has her hands free to carry two styrofoam cups of coffee. They are filled to the brim without lids. She regrets not taking up the store owner's offer to carry them to work for her, as the coffee drips down her hands, slowly burning her skin. TIJIM - This is Journalism in Malawi