Groovy Tuesday...

I just realized that I continue with these daily entries, coming up with funky titles to lure my readers in is going to become more and more challenging. But, since it's 9:42 p.m. on Tuesday night, and I plan to devote just 20 minutes to this in order to get home at a decent hour, "Groovy Tuesday" is the best I can do. I'll try better next time.

So, let's see. I realized last night after getting home that I left out an important detail about yesterday, so I'll start with that. I actually had my first meal at somebody's home yesterday, so that was a bit of a milestone for me. It was Sydney, the director of the Languages and Communications Dept. at Chancellor College in Zomba (the town 20 mins. drive from here). I needed to visit the college yesterday after my fun visit at the telephone office, so he kindly invited me to have lunch at his house with his wife and young son.

The house was very interesting. It was one of the big, white-washed adobe-style houses once owned by the old British colonials back in the day. Luckily, many upper-middle class professionals have the means to own these properties now. It was a beautiful estate, with a large carefully-landscaped garden area, complete with palm and papaya trees. In fact, Sydney admitted they had taken some trees out because the area was "getting too dark" due to an over-abundance of lush vegetation. The sheer variety of plant and tree life here is a paradise for botanists.

Inside, the house was nicely furnished and decorated, and the ceilings were incredibly high. The color scheme was interesting... primarily pastel, and reminiscent of some of the houses I'd seen in Mexico years ago. It's funny how the more I travel, the more similarities I notice between places that are oceans away.

The most interesting part of the meal, of course, was the food. We had a very typical Malawian meal of smoked fish, nSima (a cornmeal based porridge) and rape. Yes, that's right, rape. It's actually a green, leafy vegetable cooked in a manner very similar to collard greens. The fish was small (sorry, I can't remember the name), and of course, complete with heads and eyes and all. I stuck to the body portion of the fish, but I noticed Sydney and his wife ate a lot of the head, too, including the eyes. This is also common in China. Another parallel to another place very very far away, proving that the more things seem different, the more similar they become.

It was a very nice, very filling meal, and I felt honored to be kindly invited into Sydney's home on the mountain. Once I buy a car (hopefully starting with a trip to Lilongwe this Thursday), I plan to visit more of Zomba mountain, as it really is an amazing place.

As for today, it was mostly back to work. The good news is that I now have a lovely office space (which I think I mentioned yesterday), and today I figured out how to configure my computer to hook into the internet connection here so that I don't have to write all my blogs in the lab. I was actually kicked out of the lab last night, as it was after 10:00 p.m. (equivalent to about 2:00 a.m. U.S. time). I am almost positive that I was told several times last week that I could use the staff computer lab "at any time, day or night." However, last night, when I was finishing up my blog posting (putting all those pictures up takes the most time), the security supervisor came in to ask me to shut down, as the guards like to close the room at 10 p.m. So, I guess "anytime" ends at 10 p.m. here. People are very much early-to-bed-early-to-rise. Clearly, I'll have to adjust my nocturnal habits.

So, the best news is that I can now write at my liesure from my new office desk, without being disturbed.

In other good news for today:

--I was invited to join a team of instructors who will be observing student teachers in their classrooms in Lilongwe (the capital) for a week in late Oct./early Nov. I'm really excited about this, as I'll have the opportunity to experience different classroom environments, plus explore Lilongwe a bit more, and get to know some of my colleagues better in the process. The bad news is that I have to go to a marathon meeting tomorrow to discuss it, from 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. (ugh... luckily, they're feeding us lunch in the middle of it...)

--I finally got to meet 2 of the other new U.S. volunteers working in the area, for a program called IFESH (Institute For Educational Somethin Happy)--- he he.. not sure about the last two words... too much information, runnin round my brain, too much information, drivin me insane! (only the "Police" fans 'll get that one...) I've got so many names and acronyms to learn, I just have to make 'em up now... Anyway, there are 2 women here: Betsy, who's also based here in Diomas, and Leah, who's based outside of Blantyre. They've been around since Friday, but we haven't been able to find each other until today... (probably because I was too busy wandering around the villages, river, and fisheries to be found by anyone...) We had a nice chat, and I think we'll get along really well. Leah's also really into outdoor adventures like hiking and camping, which is also my thing, so hopefully we can get some of our own little eco-tours together before too long. I imagine once I get a car, I'll be pretty popular with the isolated foreign volunteer contingent... That and my "winning personality" should get me far 'round here...

Oh, and last piece of info. I wanted to share is that my DOG is NOT my dog... I just found out today from Deliwe that the dog actually belongs to my next-door neighbor, who is also the guy in charge of the student-teacher observations... I was looking for my doggie after work today, and Deliwe told me they took him to get immunized. OH, the shock! I guess even dogs with owners tend to resemble strays here, considering the wounds he seems to have. Oh, well... He was hanging around my house when I came home later this evening after hanging around with Betsy and Leah, so I guess I can still pretend he's my dog. I think he just likes the eggs and milk I always give him. I thought he just loved me for me (ah, the story of my life...) I'll have to ask my neighbor (can't remember his name... aaah!) what to call him, since I'm sure he already has a name!

In the meantime, Betsy's very sick, very skinny dog Buster seems to be following me around, so perhaps I can nurse him back to health, and steal him from her. We'll see how that plan works out. He actually followed me to the office this evening, so maybe his loyalty has shifted. I just hope he makes it awhile, as he seems pretty sick these days.

OK, I'd better get back home... big meeting in the morning! Mwa Swela!