Happy Holidays!

Since it's Christmas Day, I thought it might be nice to do a quick update posting to wish all of my faithful (and not-so-faithful) readers a very happy holiday season and fabulous new year!

As for me, I'm on my own with my boyfriend today, actually getting ready for my family's arrival tomorrow. My sisters and two nephews were kind enough to travel a bit of a distance to see me this year (as they did last year), to spare me the trouble/extra cost of flying to the midwest to see them after making the trek over the Atlantic a week ago. They'll stay with us until Dec. 30, so I'm really looking forward to that. My cousin who lives a couple of hours from here will also be coming tomorrow, and possibly staying the night.

Unfortunately, however, we made a special trip to a Japanese market in New Jersey (across the Hudson from Manhattan) Sunday (a 4.5 hour trip each way) and returned yesterday, but failed to finish cleaning the house before we went. Thus, at least part of our Christmas holiday will be spent cleaning up and organizing the house for our guests. Fun, fun! For us, Christmas really starts tomorrow, though, so that's o.k.

So, the schedule will be: clean, possibly visit some nearbye friends (if time allows), cook special Japanese food (Sukiyaki, to be exact) for our holiday meal, go to a movie (probably "Charlie Wilson's War"). Hope we can get it all done!

I must say I am missing Malawi lately, especially the weather. We'd planned to walk around Manhattan a bit on Sunday night, but it was literally pouring down rain, and so windy and miserable we just stayed in. We actually ordered in pizza, which is one of the 'simple' pleasures I missed while in Malawi. Though I rarely indulge in delivered pizza while here in the U.S., I suppose I just missed having the option. On a cold, blustery, rainy night, it managed to hit the spot.

One other adventure since arriving back has been the strangeness of driving here again. Ironically, staying on the RIGHT side of the road hasn't been the problem. Now, it's figuring out the opposite side directionals/lights/wipers again (wipers/lights on right (up for higher speed/down for lower speed), directional on left (up for right, down for left)-- Ya, I keep turning on the wipers when I need to turn, and confusing up from down and right from left. Eventually, I'll have to go back to the opposite way after arriving back in Malawi Jan. 7. Should be fun. As always, I'll keep ya 'posted.'

Another interesting observation is the silence. The place where I live in Malawi, though rather remote, is much noisier. If it's not the roosters, it's the random fish/vegetable peddlers yelling out the specials of the day, or neighbors/kids yelling "ODIE!" (similar to "Anybody Home?" in English), or dogs barking, or other signs of life that tend to seep into my windows. I really miss those noises (well, maybe not the dogs at midnight and the roosters at 4 a.m.), but generally, this place is too quiet for me. Perhaps the weather has something to do with it. Ya, the weather. Everyone's inside, and apart from the random car whizzing by now and then, there's very little sign of life here.

So, for now, it's just us and the cats. More signs of life arriving tomorrow. I can't wait! Tiwonana!!

Back in the 'Hinterland'

So, I promised an update once returning home, so here it is. Finally, after almost 11 hours at the FREEZING Detroit airport, I made it onto the one and only plane out of Detroit to Elmira, NY, which left at around 10 p.m. last night, arriving at around 11:30 p.m. Needless to say, I was exhausted, and freezing, but still didn't actually go to bed until around 3 a.m. due to the fact that it was 'wake-up time' in Malawi (around 7 a.m.) when I got home.

I pretty much spent the rest of my afternoon/evening yesterday wandering around the airport, much of it searching for a warm enough jacket to keep me from freezing to death. It's amazing how difficult it can be to find a good fleece jacket in an international airport. All I could find were cotton 'hoodies,' which is what I was wearing, and that wouldn't do. I eventually had to treck back down to the main terminal about an hour before the boarding of my flight, where ironically the only place selling anything warm enough was the PGA (Pro Golf Association) store. Luckily, they were having a 50% off sale, so I didn't have to drop a big wad of cash for the oversized, but very warm fleece jacket I bought. I'll have to figure out who gets it for Christmas, since it's way too big for both me and my boyfriend.

OK, well, that's it for now. I'm not likely to post every day while here, since I'm no longer in Malawi, so Tiwonana for now!

Ohmigod, I'm in another world...

Hello, faithful Malawi 'n Me readers! Sorry for my days-long hiatus. I actually have a very good excuse... When I tried to get online to post on Wed. and Thurs., I found that I could not log onto the internet. After a bit of investigation, I found out that Domasi College had gotten delinquent in the payment of the internet service bill, thus no internet access as of Wed. I'm not sure whether there was access Friday, but due to my need to leave by noon to travel up to Lilongwe, I hadn't planned to post after Thursday, anyway...

So, this is the first time I've been able to get online long enough to enter a new post, and you'll never guess where I am now, nor what I am doing.

OK, I'll give you 3 guesses... In the U.S.? Yes. At home? No. Stranded in the Detroit Airport in the middle of a huge winter storm? Yes! Wow, nice job with your guesses! I'm actually at an internet bar at the Detroit Airport which allows unlimited internet access for about $7.00 U.S. Not only that, but my favorite American football team (The Green Bay Packers) were pummelling the St. Louis Rams (33-14 final score--Yippee!!), so of course I had to order a couple of beers and watch them play. Today's brew is Sam Adams (my favorite Eastern beer, which I usually order when I can't get a 'Leini's'--only the Wisconsinite 'Cheeseheads' will know what that is... and, by the way, for the Malawians-- Carlsberg definitely is NOT the best beer in the world, as they like to claim on their billboards around Malawi--qualified by 'probably' for a reason (full slogan, for the 'Yanks': Carlsberg--probably the best beer in the world'... No way...it's Leini's all the way, baby!!)

I also had a portobello mushroom and cheese panini... something you can't find in Malawi (especially the mushrooms), but it wasn't as satisfying as I'd expected somehow... Could it be I've lost the taste for certain 'American-style' foods??? (though paninis are Italian)--- Hmmm....

Let me back up a bit. I flew in at around 11:30 a.m. this morning (Sunday, Dec. 16) My one checked bag did not follow me from Amsterdam, but I'm told it'll come here later. My 1:30 p.m. flight to Elmira (where I live here in the states... well, actually Horseheads, NY which is a little town where my boyfriend lives) was cancelled due to this crazy 'Noreaster' storm... (as they like to call them here... due to the fact that they usually move south from Canada, and generally pummel the Northeast U.S., though this one apparently came up from the south and through the midwest first...)

So, the next flight available to my little town is at 9:30 p.m. Ya, about 10 hours to kill... that's a lotta beer (now down to 4.5 hours). I'll have to pace myself. I'll be sure to keep you posted again tomorrow on the status of my travels. I'm really in another world... everything is white here, including most of the people ;-).... and COLD--- REALLY, REALLY, REALLY Cold!! How did I grow up in this place? It's nuts... Well, at least there aren't any big, hairy spiders crawling around (As my sister Heather kindly reminded me while chatting online today)-- I suppose everything has its silver lining, eh?

So, with that, Tiwonana Mawa!

Curios of 'Happiness'

This will be another short post, as I'm just getting started, and it's almost 9:30 p.m. already. I spent the day in Blantyre today, visiting the doctor for one final check-up before leaving for the states, and all is looking very good, so I'm feeling quite relieved. I also met with a new friend David, whom I met through one of the Blantyre guys we met at the lake (Juffah, the guy who lives in Canada). David is Juffah's cousin, and a very nice guy who seems to have taken some pity on me, being a Mzungu all on my own living in the middle of nowhere. I don't have a lot of opportunities to 'hang out' in the city, so it's nice to know someone I can do things with in Blantyre once in awhile. Hopefully next time I'll get to meet up with his wife and young daughter as well.

He also obliged me in visiting the 'Curios' area in Blantyre (also known as 'souvenirs' to my fellow 'bloody Yanks' out there...). I'd been told by Juffah before he left for Canada to ask for a guy named 'Happiness' (ya, that's his real name... a lot to live up to, eh?). So, I asked for 'Happiness', and he appeared. Ah, if only it were always that simple. Not much later, meeting 'Happiness' brought me some 'sadness' and 'regret', as I spent a good chunk of the money in my purse. But I got good stuff for my 'homies' in the states. Betchya wanna know what I got. Not gonna tell ya (last line should be read aloud in 'Dana Carvey imitation of Bush-Senior' voice--that one's definitely for the 'bloody Yanks'). Of course, I don't wanna spoil the fabulous Christmas surprises!!

Actually, I only needed a few things, as most of my purchases have already been made. But, now I have more stuff from 'Happiness' which will hopefully bring more happiness to the ones I love. Isn't that sweet? Tiwonana mawa!

Fuzzy bugs, Fancy prison

Hello, again... For those few faithful who may have noticed, I have to apologize for not getting my post in yesterday, but I when I actually did get online yesterday evening with the intention of entering a short 'blurb', the connection to blogger wasn't working... though everything else online seemed fine. Perhaps the site was down. So, not entirely my fault, but it was Sunday, and I was feeling a bit tired and 'out of it', so I guess I just needed a rest day anyway.

I did take a short walk (well about an hour, which for me is short) around campus yesterday afternoon, as the rains seem to have come back again (finally), so it was so much cooler than usual...heaven for me. I also felt a walk might do me good, since I'd been cooped up in the house all day trying to grade those research papers. Ya, fun stuff. Why did I give that assignment, anyway? Can't imagine what I was thinking...(Ya, all you students out there... the grading is the payback for the big projects, in case ya didn't know...)

I was accompanied on my walk by a young man named Chikuni (the guy we met at Liwonde National Park who played the 'Bawo' game with Deliwe). He was in the area, and is a driver by trade, so I wanted to talk with him about helping me with my trip to Lilongwe on Friday, as I need to drive there (4 hours away) for my flight to the U.S. on Saturday. He agreed to help me with the driving both ways (I was especially worried about coming back in January, as I'll likely be VERY jet-lagged).

As we walked along, there were two VERY interesting things we spotted. One was this very strange, but beautiful bug. It looks like it's made of felt, or velvet, and is shaped a bit like a deer tick. It's a bright orange color, and when you pick it up, it compacts itself into a little tiny ball. We kept seeing them everywhere, and Chikuni picked all of them up and carried them around for awhile. I also did, but felt badly about the little guy all curled up like that, so put him back. Chikuni joked about eating them later. I think it was a joke (???) I saw one in our garden the other day as well... they're so interesting... they don't actually look real. I'll try to get a pic next time of one of these little guys. Maybe one of my faithful Malawian readers can help me with the name of this creature??? (Chikuni didn't seem to know its name, and I likely would've gotten it wrong here, anyway...)

The other interesting thing was the Domasi Prison. Though I knew where it was, I had never actually walked near it before. It actually looked like a pretty nice place to be. I didn't realize it was a prison until Chikuni told me it was. There was a guard sitting out front, talking with a young woman and her young daughter (maybe about 7 years old). Of course, they both lived there at the prison, and Chikuni told me the woman must be an inmate. He also said that there are serious criminals there, accused of crimes as serious as murder, though you'd never know it from looking at the place. It actually looked like nicer accommodation than many people enjoy in this area. It was a brick and concrete structure, surrounded by very nice landscaping and gardens, very green and lush. The building itself looked quite pleasant from the outside, and the only true security (besides the one guard) seemed to be a metal perimeter fence made of wire with coiled barbed wire at the top. That's it. I wonder if I should be worried about that at all... hmmmm....

I'm not sure if the woman inside was a convicted murderer, but had I been alone, I would never have suspected she was a prisoner, or that the place itself was a prison. Maybe the inside looks much different from the outside. I suppose I'll never know. At least I hope not.

So, that's my story for today. Tomorrow, I'm off to Blantyre for a quick doctor's visit and to buy a couple of things in preparation for my trip home. It'll be good to get out of town for a day. Been feeling a bit 'cooped up' lately...Tiwonana mawa!

Grading meeting evaded (ooh that almost rhymes...)

Though I know many of you out there are waiting with great anticipation for the exhilarating story of the grading review meeting scheduled for today, I'm afraid you'll be overwhelmingly disappointed to find out that in the end I didn't make it there after all. I came to the office with the full intention of attending (though fashionably late by 15 mins., which appears to be somewhat standard here), I found the conference room locked. As I was walking away, a colleague from Social Sciences by the name of Sane (yes, as opposed to INsane, as he kindly obliged me in confirming) let me know that the meeting was postponed a few minutes due to a transportation scheduling issue involving the bus sent to collect faculty living off-campus. I then ran into the Dean, who said the department printer had run out of toner, so they were arranging to make copies in another office, but the meeting would begin 'at any time.' That said, Sane then assured me he'd check back in the conference room later on, and come to my office to let me know when the meeting starts.

So, I went back to the office, started my e-mailing/checking up on the world news daily ritual (some shocking stuff going on these days..), and as time went by, no Sane. Then, I started to think: "Should I check to see if the meeting started, or just wait for someone to come?" Hmmm... though I knew the responsible thing to do would be to go back and check, the other side of me really wanted to stay in my office and catch up on communications, as well as work on some of the Chanco research paper's I'd brought in with me. "Maybe just 5 more minutes," I thought. Then, about 20 minutes later, I realized, "Hmmm... some time has passed now... it might be rude to show up so late in the meeting. Maybe in a couple more minutes..." This went on for a good hour or so, until I decided it would be WAY too rude to show up that much later, not to mention I'd already committed to some other work, plus a much-needed international 'Skype' telephone conversation with my boyfriend back home.

Thus, I never made it to the meeting. In fact, I don't know whether the meeting actually took place, as Sane never did come over to my office to let me know. Not to say I'm too relieved, but well, I'm not a big fan of meetings... Is anybody? In a way, though, I was interested in how this one works, as it's culturally something new for me. The department faculty (in this case, Humanities) actually gets together (in this case, long after the end of the term which ended in September) to review the final grades for each course and make decisions based on whether the overall grade spread is too high or too low. If a course grade-spread seems to lop-sided, the faculty may recommend changing some of the grades in this meeting. Shocking, eh? Well, at least for me...

I learned from Mr. Mwanza (Deputy Principal at DCE) the other day that this is something the Malawians adopted from the British, who take pride in standardization, as well as keeping grades on the lower side. You really have to be extremely brilliant and exceptional to receive an 'A' in the British system. However, in the American system, this is not always the case, depending on the institution (and sometimes the region). It's one reason (among many) that our post-secondary institutions are sometimes accused of 'grade inflation.' In addition, the system here is very focused on end-of-term evaluations, rather than continuing assessment (i.e. projects, homework). In the U.S. (at least in my field), we tend to weigh more of our grading on work done throughout the term (i.e. homework, projects, periodic quizzes/exams etc.), and a bit less on final exams, which may account for only 20-40 percent of the final grade. Here, the final exams account for 60 percent of the final grade. Ya, for me, this is an extremely different approach to evaluation, reflective of an equally different view/theory on education/learning.

So, from that point of view, perhaps I missed out on something useful, at least in terms of how I approach my grading, as I must consider this as I finalize my grades this week with my Chanco students. I am finding, however, that the research paper (also being considered their final assessment, an exception approved by the dept. head at the end of the term, as I mentioned in an earlier post) has proven quite challenging for some of my students, so seems to be evening out the grades so that the curve should be acceptable enough to avoid any type of 'high' or 'low' general results.

Standardizing. Wow. This is tough for me. I like to give them what they deserve, not base it 'on a curve'. Ooh, I rhyming couplet. We were due for one of those...

Better end on that high note. Tiwonana mawa!

Road to Recovery

Today it appears that I'm on the road to recovery. Hallelujah! I was starting to lose hope. Though I woke up with a feeling of light-headedness (Which I also had Wed. while at the hospital--all hospitals do that to me...), that eventually passed late this morning, and for the most part I'm starting to feel 'normal' again. This is a very good thing, as I'm now getting more focused on the work I need to do before departing the country next Saturday, Dec. 15 for a visit home over the holidays. Due to my sorry physical state this week, I have been unable to work on marking those research papers I assigned my Chanco students as their end-of-semester assessment. Each paper is an average of 10 pages typed, so I won't be doing much more than marking those for the next week. Hence, my postings may be a bit lacking in excitement, but I'll try to do my best at embellishing and exaggerating for the benefit of my 4-6 faithful readers.

One of my observations yesterday is something I've been meaning to write about for awhile. I had to make a quick trip into Zomba to run a couple of errands, and Sister Anastasia (remember her? My next door neighbor) needed a ride to the bank, so she came along with me. Of course, I wasn't feeling so great, so I wanted to make it a very quick trip... American style-- zoom in, zoom out... This is difficult to do in Malawi, as whenever I go anywhere (in Zomba, especially), I get stopped by groups of people (sometimes blocking the car door, ironically--the 'Celtel' girls who peddle pre-paid cell-phone cards are most skilled at this method) wanting to sell me various things, and sometimes begging for money. Usually I can handle this situation in stride, kindly telling them I'm not interested, sometimes buying something, and quietly going my way.

Yesterday, however, I just was not in the mood. After dropping the Sister at the bank, I went up to the local PTC (People's Trading Center--one of the common grocery chains here), where this occurrence is rather common. I managed to get through it without incident (i.e. no money exchanged, few words spoken), walked over to the pharmacy, stopped at the PTC on my way back, and then decided to give some biscuits to a crippled man and some children who were asking for money. I generally try to give people food when I can.

Happy to then make my escape, I headed down to Chancellor College to pick up some materials left by a student who was ill towards the end of the semester. I then went to pick up the Sister at the bank, hoping we'd then be on our way. Not so. After getting in the car, she informed me that she also needed to go to the PTC to get some meat. Though I had mentioned that I'd planned to go there while she was at the bank, she never let me know that she also needed to shop there. I think this may be a cultural difference, as I never asked her directly whether she needed to go. As soon as she told me, I made 'a face,' and said, "Oh, no... You know, every time I go there, people surround my car trying to sell me things and beg for money. Do you really need to go there?" Of course, her answer was, "Yes. They have the best meat." Actually, I think she said it more politely than that, but my state of mind yesterday influenced the way it sounded at the time.

Of course, wanting to help her out and not be so selfish in my fragile physical and mental state, I agreed to go back. Of course, once I got there, I decided to stay in the car, thinking that would discourage too many people from approaching me. Not so. The same people still came by, even though they'd just seen me a few minutes earlier. The kids asking for money, followed by the guy selling strawberries, followed by the guy selling mangoes, and the guy selling bananas. In fact, one guy came to the car 3 times, selling all three of those things (if I'm not mistaken... though I was pretty hazy yesterday, so maybe I just imagined it was the same guy...)

In the end, the Sister took a good 10-15 minutes to shop (though it felt like a lifetime), eventually emerging with 3 full bags of groceries (or was it 2? Again, haziness...sorry...). I'm not sure why she didn't tell me she was picking up more food than that. I certainly would've followed her into the store. However, once I'd committed to staying in the car, I decided I'd better stick with that commitment. Luckily, the car is well-equipped with decent air-conditioning, or I'd certainly have passed out... it was hot. Very hot. And I was hazy. But I survived, and the Sister was grateful for my help. I suppose that's all that matters.

And, I'm feeling better today. Perhaps the good kharma's returning again. One can only hope so. Tomorrow afternoon, I'm attending a 2-hour meeting here at DCE (Domasi College of Ed.) about end-of-semester grading. Ya, on Saturday. Isn't that against the law here? More on that adventure 'mawa'. Betchya can't wait, eh? Tiwonana!

Just checkin' in...

Hey, this actually may end up being my shortest post ever on this blog. I had the true Malawi hospital experience yesterday (ya, the one I really hoped NOT to have...). This time it was for me rather than someone else. Don't worry, it's not too serious... has to do with the infection I got at the lake, and really needed to see a specialist, which literally required waiting ALL DAY at the hospital. And that was a private hospital. The public hospitals are much, much worse. Luckily, I think I got the treatment I needed, but I'm on lotsa antibiotics, and some painkillers now, which are makin me a bit woozy, so not up for a long post. Let's just put it this way. It's about 5:30 p.m., and I'm thinking of going to bed by 6:00. Hopefully things will get better tomorrow. Tiwonana mawa...

Day in Court...

Ya, you read it right. I made my first court appearance EVER today. Ya, leave it to me to save my first time in court for a time when I'm living overseas. Luckily for me, I was not the defendant, though. I was actually a witness for the defense.

To be honest, I cannot remember whether I'd written about this story on the blog, as it's a bit sensitive, so I'll just leave the names out to protect the innocent. I do believe this person is innocent, which is why I testified in his defense. He happens to be a driver by trade, and I had run into him in Zomba one day while shopping for a mosquito net for my gardener Harold's family, who had just moved into the servant's quarters behind our house. Their little girl was already suffering from malaria when they first moved in, so the net was a crucial addition to the home.

After looking around at the 2 shops at which I'd found the nets before (South African Dept. store 'Pep' and Shop Rite), and having no luck, I ran into this driver friend of mine, who kindly helped me to find a shop which sells the elusive nets (ya, much more elusive than they ought to be in this malaria-ridden country... but I digress...).

He quickly led me to one of the many Indian-owned shops in Zomba where we found a net, and as we were walking back from there, it happened. We're having a nice conversation, and about 3 or 4 traffic cops come walking across the street, headed our way. I didn't realize they were actually aiming towards my friend, but then one of the officers looked at me, and said, "I'm sorry, madame, but we are arresting this one..." My friend then had a look of complete shock, as they grabbed his arms, and man-handled him away from me. There was a bit of a struggle, but to me the whole thing was shocking and seemed excessive. I really didn't know what to do about it, as they slapped him around a bit in a way that seemed quite forceful, especially considering that this is not a big guy, and he was surrounded by at least 4 police officers (more came later) who were a lot bigger than he was.

Eventually, the officers took him away, while he meanwhile looked back at me in a very desperate kind of way. I really didn't know what to do, so I just stood there with my mouth hanging open (ya, literally...). At one point, the situation prompted a few guys standing nearby to come to my friend's aid, as it appeared the officers might really beat him up. One of those guys came to me and explained that the officers were arresting my friend for failing to stop at a police checkpoint. Remember my story a few weeks back about being stopped and asked whether I had 'triangle plates?' It was one of those types of checkpoints. At such checkpoints, the officers do not have vehicles, so apparently if someone fails to stop, they walk along the streets until they find him and then arrest him in the way I'd just witnessed with my friend.

Of course, this situation is flawed in so many ways, as there is no real proof at all of the crime, and of course there is a 'beca' system (as they call it in Mexico), so anyone with a bit of cash can pay off an officer who threatens to arrest him (something I think might've happened when I was stopped, but being a 'clueless Mzungu' helped me escape the situation).

In any case, my friend insists that he never drove through the traffic stop, and that these officers are simply corrupt, and were targeting him, possibly for personal reasons (though I'm not sure if it was entirely personal, or just plain bullying). I hate bullies, and to see this kind of thing take place, so I agreed to testify in his defense for the charge of 'obstructing a police officer,' which is the 2nd charge he faces (besides the alleged traffic stop drive-through).

The appearance was quite interesting. It was a small hearing room, not much unlike those I've seen in the states (Yes, I've seen some because my good friend Joy is a lawyer in Chicago, and I got to see her in action once... plus, I covered the 'police/crime beat' during my short stint as a newspaper reporter in New Mexico.... so ya, I've been inside courtrooms, but never actually testified before.)

This part of the case was the defense, as the prosecution had made its case in another hearing. After the judge entered, I was sent out of the room so as not to be influenced by my friend's testimony in his own defense. After about 30 mins., they called me in to testify at the witness box (standing up, in this case), and take the honesty oath (though with no bible, interestingly). The judge then asked me to relay what I had seen, which was basically what I just described above. After that, the police officer handling the case asked me a few questions regarding my understanding of 'obstruction.' I basically replied that to me it means excessive force used by someone to resist arrest (as would be my understanding of the law in the U.S.), but in this case that did not happen. My friend did react a bit when he was grabbed by the arm, but just as a reflex, and no more. I was also asked how I would react if I were told I were under arrest. Of course, I replied that I wasn't sure how I'd respond in this particular situation, but I would certain ask why I was under arrest.

After that, my friend testified that he did ask why he was being charged in Chichewa. Apparently there was a question as to whether he had been told he was under arrest before the officers strong-armed him. Of course, I wasn't a 'prepared witness', and I wanted to tell the truth. I was worried then that my testimony may have hurt him, as I'd mentioned that the officers looked at me saying they were arresting him. However, they did not say anything to him, and his reaction led me to believe that he had no idea what was going on or why.

After my testimony, I was thanked graciously by the judge, and off I went. I called my friend later, who was very thankful, saying my testimony was very helpful to him. I hope he's right. I must say the whole experience was a bit disturbing, but again I'm trying to do my part to help someone out. I really hope it works out, as I'm certain this person is innocent. I'll keep you posted on the results, though I'm not sure when that will be. Another witness will testify for my friend on Friday, so perhaps a decision will be made that day, but my guess is that it may take quite a bit longer (if traffic court in the U.S. serves as comparison...)

So, that was the highlight of my day. Ya, always an adventure here in Malawi, eh? Tiwonana mawa!

Ah, the Lake Malawi Story... Making up for a LONG silence...

Hello!! I'm back, after a 2-day hiatus... wow, feels like a lifetime, doesn't it? As it turned out, after Friday, we had major server problems here at Domasi College of Education, which prevented me from updating this blog over the weekend. I'm eternally sorry to my faithful readers, and I'll do my best to make up for this lapse during this coming week, especially today (as you'll see...). Since my weekend was relatively uneventful (due to not feeling so well on Saturday, thus not attending the wedding after all), I'll cut to the chase, and tell you all about my fabulous weekend on the lake, Nov. 23-25). I'll try to get a few pix posted today as well, but I may need to save that portion of my post for tomorrow, as I'm getting started a bit late this evening (6 p.m.--ya, this is late for me in Malawi, ;-), and this posting itself could take awhile.

So, without further ado, back to the details of our weekend on the lake. Let's see how much I can remember one week and one day later???... Hmmm... Well, first of all, I can say that this excursion went a million times better than the weekend before (Remember? Got lost, then car trouble, then accommodation trouble, but then got our new kitty Willy, some baskets, some fish, some baskets of fish, yadda yadda yadda). This time, I arranged things with my class at Domasi College so that we completed our class meetings on Thursday night (rather than Friday morning), which freed me up to leave first thing after lunch on Friday. Thus, we got a much earlier start than the previous weekend. Instead of leaving at 4 p.m., we actually got out a bit before 3 p.m. (though I was hoping to get out by 2 p.m., but oh, well...)

Of course, this time we knew how to get there, and I had also received directions to our hotel via e-mail from the manager. This time, it looked like we'd made all the right choices... better accommodation, new battery in the car, detailed directions. What could go wrong? Nothing, right? I know what you're thinking... This is the part where I tell you about some big problem we had, and I get into all sorts of gory details, making it sound embellished and exaggerated (though none of my stories ever are--especially here in Malawi... here, you'll find the truth, and only the truth, so help me Great Spirit...)

HMMM... that was a good digression, even for me...

But seriously, we had NO PROBLEMS!! Not-a-one! We never got lost, we never had car trouble, we never felt like we were going to die out in the wilderness. Even the "terrible road" we were warned about by Simon, the hotel manager, wasn't half as bad as I suspected. Based on his description, I thought it would be wrought with huge boulders, potholes, and sheer drop-offs (all of which I'm somewhat accustomed to navigating on the roads in the Zomba area). No, no... it was just basically a loose dirt road that was not very well-graded, so extremely bumpy in parts, and some recent rains had caused major drainage 'arroyos' (the word is better in Spanish-- what is it in English?)-- I'm trying to describe those gullies that are created in sand or dry dirt when it suddenly rains heavily. Anyway, those things were running through several areas of the road, so it required a bit of maneuvering to get around them at times. But really, the entire time, I kept saying to myself, "I wonder where the bad part of the road is..." I guess this means I'm "Africanized" now. No goin' back, so I hear... I'll keep ya posted.

The other lucky bit of this tale is that we arrived at our destination without making one wrong turn, and just before the sun snuck its little way behind the horizon. This meant that we were able to arrive at the lodge, order a beer, sit in the open-air lounge on the beach, and enjoy the sunset. Wow. Finally, a trip going without a hitch!! At this point, I was getting nervous, waiting for the sky to fall. Still, it never did (not yet...).

While enjoying the sunset, we had a small chat with Simon, the manager of the lodge (called 'Gecko's), who informed us that they offer services to travelers, and try to employ local people who will charge reasonable rates, and who are trustworthy. This of course is a concern in a place like Lake Malawi, as many of the villagers (The village is RIGHT on the BEACH... very cool) have their own boats, and want to make an extra buck, but not all of them are qualified or experienced enough to take travelers around the lake. So, of course we agreed to talk with one of the tour guides who works with the lodge by the name of Peter. The trip we were interested involved a short boat trip across the lake to a small island off the shore, where we would be able to snorkel and swim around see the various species of fabulously-colored, famous Malawi Cichlids (Ah! What's the Chichewa name for them? Help me, Malawian readers!), eat a fish brai (which is an open-fire barbecue--mmmm--no, we didn't eat cichlids, don't worry!!), and feed the diving fish-eagles... all for only around MK3,500 (about 25 bucks). That was an awesome deal. Not only that, but they'd fill a cooler with drinks (beer, sodas) for us, and we'd only need to pay for those drinks we actually consumed. Ah, my dream vacation had finally arrived. They couldn't sign us up fast enough.

After booking the boat trip, we had a quick bite to eat (the place was a bit pricey, so we went for the old grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches and chips--er fries for the yanks), and called it a night. I think we were sleeping by about 8 or 9 p.m. We were exhausted, so much that we had to pass up the 10:00 p.m. 'boogie' that some of the lodge staff had told us about earlier. Maybe Saturday night would do.

Our accommodation was interesting, as we'd decided to book a dorm, rather than the much more expensive chalet rooms, which are really set up for 4 people. Luckily for us, there were no other guests in the dorm either night, so it was essentially like being set up in our own room, but much, much cheaper. We did find out later on that there was an even better set-up down the beach (Gaia Lounge), which I think I'll try the next time I go down to "The Cape."

So, the following morning, Deliwe was up with the sun as usual, and had a nice swim before I even cracked an eyelid open. We then got our swimming gear on, and headed to the lounge area for a light breakfast. Actually, we had our own food, as Deliwe had cooked up some fabulous potato samosas for the trip (they're very popular here, a favorite Indian import--did I mention many Indians also live in Malawi?). We still had about 6 of them left, so that was our breakfast. Again, considering the prices at this place, we were glad we'd brought those along.

So, at around 9:30 a.m., we headed out on the water with Peter, and 3 other guys (the boat conductor, and 2 other staff from the lodge--Leonard was the only one whose name I remember... I think it's because he really liked Deliwe, so he was talking to us a lot.) I'm not sure whether I've mentioned how Deliwe could be a hands-down winner of one of those 'phone number collecting' contests people sometimes have when they go out on the town. Everywhere we go, some new boy is asking for her phone number. She's quite popular with the young men in Malawi, but also very careful, and keeps a distance at the same time. She handles all this attention quite well, I must say. Anyway, it's always a big joke between us... anytime the phone rings, I'm always saying to her, "Which boyfriend is that?", to which she always replies with hysterical laughter, and then of course tells me who it is. It usually is some boy who's been chasing her for awhile. They appear to be rather patient, however, so I'm not too worried, as I know she is a strong person who will stand her ground and remain cautious. Another quality I highly admire in her.

Wow, that was a REALLY long digression, even for me.

So, we got on the boat, and had a short trip (about 10 mins.) to the island, where we unloaded, and then quickly jumped into the rocky, slippery water. No, this wasn't a sandy beach, which in this case was a very good thing, as it would mean the likelihood of seeing the cichlids would be minimal. Once I got in, those little guys surrounded me like I was a big piece of bread. Wait. Maybe that's what they actually thought I was. My bright, white skin likely resembles some type of favorite tropical fish cuisine... maybe a huge brine shrimp? Hmmm... I'm bankin' on the bread.

Even though we had snorkels, we almost didn't need them, as you could see so many fish just from the surface (see pix at left). Still, I took the honor of trying to figure out how to fit the snorkel tightly onto my head (It's been a couple of years since I've snorkeled, and I've only tried it twice before)... so, it was a bit slow-going at first, but eventually I got the hang of it, and got some great views of big groups of amazing, brightly-colored fish. Incidentally, I found out from our tour guides that the American guy who was exporting the Malawi Cichlids to the U.S. (and maybe elsewhere) for fish-tank lovers just died in September. Though his passing is sad, of course, it got me thinking... who's taken over that enterprise? Hmmm... I guess there's a widow involved, but in any case I'm thinking about looking into that... I'll keep you posted...

So, we spent the afternoon floating in the water, enjoying a few drinks, eating our fish brai (this was a much bigger fish than chambo... Kamparo (???)-- eek... I'll need to check my Malawian sources for the correct name and get back to you)-- very very tasty, and beautifully cooked (see pix at left).

After our meal, I of course attempted to lather on a bit more sunscreen, as I was starting to "feel the burn." My experience told me at that point that it could be too late, but I still jumped back in, had a few more snorkels, swims, and beers (don't worry... not all at the same time), and eventually decided to put my T-shirt on as my shoulders were definitely getting crispy... I'd really feel it later, as all you mzungus out there can attest... the real curse of sunburn is the fact that you don't really feel it until it's too late, and then you suffer for days, and I did.

In the meantime, Peter had hooked up with some of his buddies on the other side of the island, who came over to chat with us for a bit while we hung out in the water. A couple of these guys were living in North America... one in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Ya, that's in Canada for the geographically-challenged), and another guy had lived in Chicago for awhile, (which is near where I grew up--well, sort of). It was nice to talk with a couple of Malawians who'd lived in North America, especially to get their perspective on what it's like for them to adjust to our culture... Of course, somewhat opposite to what I've been experiencing. So, all of us shared a few beers, about 3 or 4 of the guys in the group flirted with Deliwe, and off they went. They'd invited us to go dancing with them later at our lodge (the 'boogie' place), but in the end we were too tired to go, and due to my sun-scorched state of being, I was in bed by about 9 p.m.

Shortly after the group of guys left, we also headed out, and got to feed the eagles. Basically, this consists of throwing small dead fish in the water, and watching them dive for them. One of the eagles actually resembled a North American Bald Eagle... I tried to get a pic of it (at left), but it's a bit hard to see. In any case, these guys were a lot of fun to watch.

So, all-in-all, it was a pretty good day. In the morning, we saw a few of our friends from the boat trip the day before again walking up the beach, so we decided to have a bit of breakfast together (see pic), and since they had traveled from Blantyre, we had a small 'convoy' on the way back. This time, it wasn't my car we were worried about. It was the car Juffah (the guy living in Canada) was having with the car he'd borrowed from a friend. One of the tires was going flat, and parts of the car seemed to be falling off (kinda like the old police car driven by Jake n Elwood in the 'Blues Brothers', but again I digress)... In any case, they showed us the car, and we offered to let them borrow our spare tire just to get into Mangochi (the nearest town) to get the tire fixed. It was then I learned an important lesson about tires--not all have the same number of bolts... ours had 5, and theirs had only 4. So, they couldn't use our spare. Luckily, they did have a (very old, very bald) tire to use as a spare, so they put that one on, and then off we went down the road.

At first, they decided to follow us, but we changed that plan right after their rear bumper fell off, and I lost them in the dust before I realized they weren't behind us anymore. Wow, that was a sight to see... I stopped to wait for them, and received a call from Juffah on my cell phone explaining the problem. Luckily, MacDonald (his friend sitting in the back) had seen the bumper fall off, or they wouldn't have known at all. When they caught up to us, MacDonald was sitting in the back with this huge bumper. We then decided it would be best if we followed them to pick up any other spare parts that might drop off along the way.

Eventually, about 1/2 of the trip into Mangochi, we stopped the cars to see how things looked, and I offered to put the back bumper into my car, since we didn't have anyone in the backseat, and my seats also fold down, so we could put the bumper into the trunk and lay it on the back of the backseat. This was a much better situation. As we continued down the road, no other pieces fell off, so all was good. Then, when we got into Mangochi, we stopped to have the tire patched, bought some Chambo to take home, and off we went.

When our convoy reached Domasi, we returned the fated bumper back to the three guys (Juffah, his younger brother Titha, and MacDonald), and sent them on their way. Juffah later told me his friend's uncle (if I remember correctly), a typical Malawian who can fix any car from birth (just something I've noticed about most men here), managed to re-attach the bumper without too much trouble, so all was well in the end.

So, there you have it. A bloody good trip. No major mishaps, and we actually helped a few locals avoid their own near-tragic meltdown in the middle of nowhere. So, I guess kharma was on our sides this time, and we still have some good stories to tell...

With that, I leave you for now. Tiwonana mawa! (Ya, I'm BAAAACCKKKK!!)