The Airport
Tracy Kidder writes, “On the outskirts of the capital, Bujumbura, there is a small international airport. It has a modern terminal with intricate roofs and domed metal structures that resemble astronomical observatories. It is the kind of terminal that seems designed to say that here you leave the past behind, the future has arrived, behold the wonders of aviation. But in Burundi in 1994, for the lucky few with tickets, an airplane was just the fastest, safest way out. It was flight.” The airport is contemporary based on the intricacy of its roofs and the dooms of metals that underwrite its construction. The airport splits history from the future because it is from where folks depart from Burundi (which embodies the past) to other locales of the world (which are illustrative of the future).
Smoke
Tracy Kidder reports, “He gazed down, face pressed against the windowpane. Plumes of smoke were also rising from the ground of what he took to be Rwanda-if anything, more smoke than around Bujumbura. A lot of it was coming from the banks of muddy-looking rivers. He thought, "People are being slaughtered down there." But those sights didn't last long. When he realized he wasn't seeing smoke anymore, he took his face away from the window and felt himself begin to relax, a long-forgotten feeling.” The voluminous smoke surmises that combatants are employing the blazing strategy that necessitates sweltering all commodities to guarantee the unqualified obliteration of the targets. The expression of smoke heralds a fire that will categorically annihilate existence.
