The Roller Coaster of Life in Malawi continues...

***NOTE: I'm having trouble compressing the video promised in the early part of this posting, but I'm determined to figure this bit of (likely simple) technology out so that I can either upload the thing here or onto a website so that I can provide a link. In any case, it will be up, I promise, before I leave this country, so please keep checkin!!

First of all, I want to apologize profusely to the remaining 2 or so faithful readers for my two-plus week break without posting. As usual, the primary reason is lack of reliable internet here. Ironically, each time I'm about to start writing a new post, I either lose the connection or there is a power outage. Welcome to my life in Malawi! Always a new surprise around the corner.

Luckily, when the internet connection is working here at Domasi, however, it is quite good. I'm counting on that fact right now, as I finally upload my FIRST video onto this site! Finally, below is the video taken back in January that I wanted to share with all of you. I'm not going to tell you exactly what's going on here, as I want you to figure it out for yourself. Then, I want you to ask yourselves (especially those of you from outside of Malawi): What's WRONG with this picture? And then ask, what's RIGHT with this picture? And then, just send me some comments. I'm curious if your initial reaction to the sight depicted in this video is at all similar to mine when I stumbled upon it one afternoon. Once I get a few comments, I'll explain what's happening here a bit further (especially to the non-Malawians out there...).

(VIDEO HERE--when I can figure out how to bloody compress it, that is...)

On a sidenote, I'm very embarrassed to admit that uploading a video onto the blog is REALLY REALLY easy. I just had to click on a 'movie' icon for the new post... my excuse for not realizing this earlier is that I upload pictures outside of my posts using the 'layout' function, rather than uploading them directly into my posts. That's why all the photos appear at the left side. It's also what makes my blog particularly unique, interesting and fabulous, don't you think? ;-)

OK, post your comments NOW! I really wanna see your reactions to this! BTW, more video to come soon (providing this one works), so STAY TUNED!!

So, now that I've finished my fabulous video opening, It's time now to elaborate on the title of this post.

You may recall a posting some time ago which focused on highlights and lowlights of my life here. This one will be somewhat similar, as I will recall the ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ (actually, ‘downs’ and ‘ups’) of the roller-coaster ride I call my life in Malawi. Luckily this time, much like a real roller-coaster ride, for each ‘down,’ there is an immediate ‘up’, hopefully not followed by motion sickness... we shall see…

OK, so here we go. My last posting was March 6, so I’ll try to recall the major events since then...

ROLLIN DOWN I: Chancellor College continues on a stalemate. The last news I heard (about 2 weeks ago) was that the University Council (i.e. ‘government’) were taking 5 of the ‘ringleader’ lecturers to court for violating an injunction ordered against the lecturers’ strike back in Nov. ’07. This was the very court action which forced them to return to work in late Nov. Apparently, by holding the grades, they are currently violating that injunction order; thus, breaking the law. Jail time could result. However, I’ve not been able to find more news on this since two weeks ago. Students have also held a few protests of their own in the major cities here, including a ‘sit in’ outside the council offices, which seems to have had little effect so far.

CREEPIN BACK UP I: On the upside, the impasse at Chanco has allowed me to focus my energies on my teaching at Domasi College, as well as the Village to Village Reading room project (more on that later). I’ve come to realize that had I been teaching at both places this term, I would likely have been quite overwhelmed, considering the fact that I’ve got 95 students in my class at Domasi. This is a record number for me in my teaching career thus far. Let’s just say the marking (grading) alone keeps me off the streets most of the time.

ROLLIN DOWN II: ESCOM!! The dreaded electric company saga continues. This time, I had to bring two gentlemen from Domasi College into the office to help me argue. Let’s just say my ‘Ugly Mzungu American’ line of questioning/ argument was getting me nowhere with these people. Though the 3 of us attempted to meet the ‘guy in charge’ on Friday, Mar. 14, of course we hit the office right at lunch hour, from which he never returned. So, we arranged a meeting for Mon., Mar. 17th… Erin Go Bragh!

CREEPIN BACK UP II: We indeed met on Mar. 17th, and there was a bit of power in our numbers. Just having two relatively calm Malawian men with me to back up my claim of the bogus MK5,800 charge on my bill, seemed to produce some sort of result with the man behind the desk. Let’s just say it’s now ‘under investigation,’ with me vehemently suggesting that ESCOM absorb the costs for irregular billing of its customers (ya, they claimed that my exhorbitant reading back in Sept. ’07 right after I arrived was the result of ‘underbilling’ a previous customer…). Now, he’s investigating who was underbilled, and how long ago, and then if we can locate this person the bill might get paid. Hmmm… I think we’re breakin them down slowly… this reasoning cannot hold up… but then again, this is the powerful power-producing- and hoarding electric company. I have a love/hate relationship with bein the underdog. I think we’re gonna win this one… We shall see… Hopefully the ‘luck o’ the Irish’ was with us…

ROLLIN DOWN III: My friend David discovered he will not be able to buy my car after all, due to the RIDICULOUSLY INFLATED duty tax! It’s MK500,000 (about $3500 USD). This is about ¾ of the price I paid for the car. Looks like I have to find another buyer, likely a foreigner who doesn’t have to pay duty.

CREEPIN BACK UP III: No upside yet, though I have talked with a couple of Mzungus who might be in the market soon. I’ve also got the car advertised in a newsletter in Lilongwe, set up by the Public Affairs people who are my contacts. No bites yet. Still creepin slowly…

ROLLIN DOWN IV: We had some trouble moving forward with the Village to Village Orphanage Reading Room project, due to the carpenter getting sick, and taking a much longer time to complete it than we’d planned. In addition, the painting phase was the opposite—a bit rushed for my taste, and I didn’t get to oversee as much of that phase as I’d hoped.

CREEPIN BACK UP IV: Upon starting the ‘book-stocking’ phase of the project, I’m having much better luck, as well as a lot of fun and renewed excitement for the project. Not only have I taken a couple of very successful trips into Blantyre to look at and order kids’ books—1st with Deliwe and her younger brother Movuto 2 weeks ago, then with Deliwe last week—but I’ve also solicited the help of a few friends back home via a spam e-mail asking for book donations. The most fruitful response came from my Godfather’s daughter-in-law Kimberly Gonder, who is a 7th-grade Geography teacher at Pine Ridge Middle School in Naples, FL. As luck would have it, her classes are currently studying a unit on Africa, so she managed to get her students to organize a school-wide book drive. My last e-mail from her put the book-count into the hundreds! Yahoo! Not only that, but several students at her school are getting involved in a pen-pal program with secondary school students in Mzuzu (in the northern region of Malawi) as the result of a request by one of my ‘distance-learner’ student teachers from last November. These two developments are the most exciting for me since I came to Malawi. I love the idea of getting kids back home involved with my project here, as well as communicating with Malawian kids. I’ve gotten all teary-eyed a few times while reading Kim’s e-mails! Thanks so much to Kim, her colleagues, and the students at Pine Ridge! You guys ROCK!!

ROLLIN DOWN V: I actually had an experience this past week which was a first for me. One of my students passed away due to liver failure. He was in his late 30s, and also a student at Domasi Demonstration Primary School. Needless to say, there is no upside to that one.

ROLLIN DOWN VI: I had to postpone a trip up north over the long Easter holiday weekend (they get Friday AND Monday off here, like the Brits) due to a change in the graduation schedule at DCE for the students who finished in Sept. ’07 (Ya, here they have to wait for exam results to come out months later before they hold the ceremony). It was originally set for Mar. 29, but was moved back to Mar. 22 due to the busy schedule of a certain VIP graduation speaker.

CREEPIN BACK UP VI: The graduation speaker at DCE was the President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika. So, for the first time in my life I got to see a Head of State in person, in the flesh, speaking live. Too bad they seated us on the stage behind him, so I mostly saw the back of his head (which, of course, made me wonder if they’d ever do this in the U.S. due to the obvious security risks… no friskin upon entry, btw, just in case you were wonderin…)

ROLLIN DOWN VII: Internet service is still spotty and unreliable. When it works, it generally only works for awhile, and then goes out. If the internet doesn’t go out, the lights do. Which reminds me—we’ve had a few more blackouts in the last couple of weeks as well… ESCOM IS EVIL ESCOM IS EVIL ESCOM IS EVIL!!!!

CREEPIN BACK UP VII: I was on the internet for a record 3+ hours Monday evening, though I didn’t get a posting up, since the video uploading was taking too long… (that was a bit of a downslide—I’m actually writing this posting at home—again—it’s becoming a trend now.)… In any case, I’m taking it as an omen that the service will be better this week. We shall see…

CREEPIN BACK UP VIII: After several weeks of REALLY HOT weather since I arrived back in January, we finally had a MAJOR cool-down last week! Ah, I thought it'd NEVER come, but it did-- finally. It was funny how I was so energized in my classes, while many of my students were shivering under sweaters and down ski jackets... Ya, I'm not kiddin, and it was probably in the low 60s on the Fahrenheit scale (about 17 degrees Celsius). The students (as usual) thought I was nuts, wearing short sleeves, a skirt, and sandals (my usual daily attire here). They were also annoyed by my energized, giddy, happy attitude. Funny how perceptions of and reactions to weather/temperature are so subjective. Since last week, the weather has continued to be relatively cool, especially at night. YAAAHOOOOO!!!

ONE LAST CREEP UP: I bought a bike last week, and finally had a chance to ride it today!! Good times… I’d forgotten how much ridin’ improves my mood… ironically, I bike a lot in the U.S., where most people drive everywhere. However, now that I’m living in a country where many people ride bikes just to get around, I never get to ride one myself. Now, I’m hopin to ride around more often, while providing more ‘crazy mzungu’ stares/stories for the local Domasi people. After all, that’s part of my job here, isn’t it?

With that, ending on a 'high roll,' I’ll sign off for now. Tiwonana soon!! (Internet-God-and-ESCOM-Devil-willing, that is… ;-)