Chapter 9 Summary

As he had promised Laurence, Frank takes Zanele out for dinner at Mama's while Laurence works. There is quite a bit of activity there because there are many soldiers present. Zanele is uncomfortable and Frank has too many whiskeys. She tells him that her real name was Linda, but when she'd come to Sudan she took the name Zanele. She was one of seven foreign volunteers working in Lesotho. They hoped to build a library, a literacy training program and other infrastructure. Zanele teaches children from age six to sixteen. Frank has the same distain for her idealism that he does for Laurence's idealism. Zanele tells Frank a number of things about Laurence, including that Frank is the first friend he's ever had. She also corrects the false history that Laurence told Frank about his childhood. It turns out that his parents were...