• I’ve moved to a new house in Lilongwe. Anne returned from home leave with her husband Carl in tow. And so I have taken up an offer to move in with my friend Roger. This move was actually quite convenient as his house is located MUCH closer to City Center where I work and the minibus stops directly outside of his house (I can even walk sometimes if it’s not too hot). Roger is a ‘local’ of sorts as he has been in Malawi for at least 4 years and so his house is quite nice, it’s also a farm. In his lengthy stay here Roger has acquired all sorts of animals: goats, chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl, rabbits, turtles, cats, a dog and a HUGE garden! All this activity makes for a lovely wake up call in the morning…
Unfortunately Roger has gone to Ethiopia on a two month loan agreement with UNICEF and so I thought it would just be myself and the animals. Luckily an Irish girl named Laura needed somewhere to stay for a few months so I am not lonely. Life at the farm is good…• Prior to his leaving, I traveled with Roger to Blantyre to build a tombstone for his old housekeeper, the mother of the children that live on his property. Blantyre is very different from Lilongwe as it is very busy and the city has a proper central area (a downtown if you will) where you can walk from place to place. (I think I’ve already mentioned the spread out nature of Lilongwe and the complications that arise from lack of a car…). We ate some nice food, did a bit of shopping at Game (kind of like Target) and visited the township outside of Blantyre where the mother is buried. Now I must say, the cement and sparkly stone tombstones are lovely but I was a much bigger fan of the headstones used by the locals with much more limited funding. The cactuses were so beautiful scattered around the graves and I find something very peaceful in their natural place in the ground.
All in all Blantyre was very nice, oh, aside from being ‘Bingu-ed’ 3 TIMES in one weekend! *side-note: Bingu is the president, and to be Bingu-ed means to be stuck in traffic somewhere for 10-30 minutes while his procession of SUVs and trucks with men wielding AK-47s strapped to the back of the car pass by. Some might take this as a lucky opportunity to witness the leader of a country en route to somewhere important, I take it as downright horrible odds when it occurs 3 times in under 48 hours.**side-side-note: this has in fact occurred again in Lilongwe, bringing my running Bingu tally to 4
• Christmas came in August when I finally received the package that my brother Jonathan and his family sent to me several weeks ago. It was so exciting to open it to find new flip flops, shampoo and conditioner, dried fruit from Trader Joes, and TOYS!!! My nieces and nephew Andrew, Ali and Avery generously donated pens and markers, shoes, and toys to the children in Malawi. I must say that the toy galimoto (cars) are disappearing fast and generating smiles bigger than I thought possible! On behalf of the Malawian children I’ve met so far, Zikomo Kwambili Andrew and Ali!
• During the past few weeks I have filled my time with numerous athletic activities, football is back in session after a severe ankle sprain on my part and numerous absent players due to home leave and holidays. I have also started running the “hash” which is an activity comprised of a bunch of ex-pats running around a mystery course (set by the host), confusing the locals and arming ourselves with rocks when we run by that one particular house with all the wild dogs… quite fun, apparently this activity is taking place all over the world and they self-title the group as “drinkers with a running problem”, probably due to the crates of beer available at the host’s house after each hour-long run. Hmmm, beer and running… And, as of last week, I am taking Congolese dance lessons from a nice woman named Kaye and a Congolese musician named Gigi who are extremely patient and refrain from laughing at the mzungu-lack-of-hip- shaking-abilities. I’m excited to potentially improve as the musician said we could maybe perform at one of his shows! I’m always on the look-out for opportunities to make a fool out of myself, this seems like an inevitable chance for such an opportunity.
• And where am I now? I just happen to be working in paradise...
Literally. I have just traveled to Likoma Island with a colleague from the Ministry of Women and Child Development to provide some technical support to the district team implementing the scheme here. Wow. Likoma is a small island in Lake Malawi, closer to Mozambique (I’m actually looking at the hills of Mozambique across the water as I write this!) We traveled here by ferry, which was both the best method of traveling and also the absolute worst deboarding process in Malawi. We drove up to Nkhata Bay on Monday and boarded the ship around 6pm. Our 1st class ticket bought us rights to a space on the top deck, luckily we grabbed a bench and were able to rent a mattress for the night. There is definitely something about sleeping under the stars of Africa on top of the lake that makes me the luckiest girl alive. Now the journey was a bit long I’ll admit, due to a 7 hr stopover on another island our total water-trip took roughly 13 hours… whew, was I happy when we arrived to Likoma! Except, well we didn’t a
ctually pull up to Likoma but out in the water somewhere near Likoma. So that means that de-boarding and unloading all the cargo that was brought on required the use of small boats to ferry people back and forth between land and the ferry. Um, let’s just say it’s quite crowded down on the lower deck, and everyone wants off the boat, like NOW! So the 15 minutes that it took us to work our way to the door to board a small boat was crowded, and pushy, and smelly, and hot. And people with bags of maize flour or stereo equipment or huge bags of who-knows-what kept pushing their way through non-existent corridors. Also, anyone coming off of the small boat had to get through the mess somehow to get on the ferry. Needless to say it was the most cursing that I’ve done in Malawi and definitely the most irritated I have been with my physical situation since I’ve been here. Regardless of my discomfort we somehow made it off the ferry and on to dry land. Likoma is absolutely lovely and I honestly feel like I’m on a bit of holiday here as the lake and the sky and the people are just breathtaking (and you get used to that lingering aroma of fish that seems to permeate from every object on the island).
As far as activities in Likoma, when I wasn't camped out at the District Assembly office I was 1)swimming in the lake, 2) eating at my new favorite restaurant 'hunger clinic', 3)wandering around the island trying not to sweat through my clothes, 4)distributing galimotos, 5)visiting beneficiaries, 6)marveling at the recycling of surgical gloves at the hospital and 7) visiting my first traditional healer... (that story will just have to wait for another session as I have definitely already challenged your patience this time)
Okay, I’m sure I lost most of you a few bullet points back, but thanks tor those tough individuals that stuck it out. until next time!
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