Tanzanian Travels...

Well we are finally in Stone Town in Zanzibar!
The journey here was not for the faint of heart...30 hours of being beaten up by our bus (bumpy does not even come close to describing this experience), a 6 hour sleep in Dar, then 2 hour ferry over relatively rough ocean...and it is all worth it!
Delicious spiced coffee and great buildings here in Stone Town

Will try to write more later!

Second week of December

Time is now racing by at unbelievable speed....how did it get to be the second week of December? For that matter, is it actually Wednesday??? Halfway through the week I can't believe we have arrived at already???
We leave for Christmas vacation on December 19 - looking forward to the relaxation, snorkelling, beach time and spice tours we have planned for Zanzibar, but I am really feeling the pressure of the racing time.
Regan is desperate for cash, so she is helping me at work now that she has finished school, so her assistance is greatly appreciated. I have an ambitious plan, which, if executed smoothly, might actually enable me to finish everything by the 19th.
On other topics, our car is FINALLY fixed...yippee!!! Just in time to sell! Originally we were planning to sell in December, but now I think we will post the signs now and see if we can put a January availability date....so much to do before we go!
Since it is sunny and warm, there is no mall/coffee shop/store to listen to piped music in and there are no Christmas concerts and parties going on (though there is a party this weekend), it feels decidedly un-Christmassy, which I guess should have been expected. We are trying to remedy this situation tonight with a Christmas movie night at home...trying to think of what to cook to make it seem Christmassy this evening...any ideas?

Updates

NOTE - JUST REALIZED THIS NEVER POSTED...WAS SUPPOSED TO POST DEC 2

Just wanted to post somethig quickly since it has been a while...



I have been travelling a lot in the last month and will continue to do so for a bit more time...I am doing follow up training for all of the staff that attended my first M&E workshop back in August in Zomba. First up was Mzuzu, way back in the first week of November. After that, I was in Kasungu, not for the follow up training but for my second workshop, this one on Participatory M&E. During the third week of November, I went to Dedza and last week I ended up going to Blantyre and Zomba. So this week I will be travelling to Mangochi Thursday and Friday and Jules and Regan and some friends will be joining me there on Friday evening for a much needed weekend of relaxation on the beach.



Our car is still not fixed...the saga continues! First the story was that it was just the engine...the engine was fixed while we were in Cape Town. Then it was the gear box...and noone in Lilongwe (or Malawi actually) had the part. We had part suppliers looking in South Africa and Mozambique for the stupid thing....eventually (two weeks ago) someone found the part, so we agreed that the mechanic should come to our place and look at the car. Apparently we have engaged the services of the famous dissappearing mechanic. He does occasionally answer his phone (maybe once a week) and when he does, he promises to come and then doesn't show. Eventually he did come and take the part - now we are trying to see how he is doing....anyways, eventually we hope it may work again...my initial optimism definately suffered a setback.



On the 20th and 21st of November we went away for the weekend without a car...it was a fun-filled trip featuring HOURS on the minibus and a 4k walk in the heat, but eventually we arrived at Nkhotakota Pottery and Lodge. I can highly recommend the food and the accommodation was nice, the beach gorgeous, but DO NOT go there without a car! It is 4km off the road and then they charge extortionate prices just to get to the road (not even the closest town!).



Thats all for now...will try to keep posting - lately things have just been crazy. Even though we won't be back to Canada until February, our last day of work will be more like Jan 22, so we are both working at a crazy pace to try and finish up work from our mandates.

Car Rally

So the weekend after my last post...

On November 7th, our friends (we refer to them collectively as 'the pilots') had a goodbye braai, since they are leaving Malawi. Since they are an entire house of all boys, I must confess that we actually ate before going as a precautionary measure - what a mistake. Two of the pilots had their parents there and the food was fantastic. Jules and I made the mistake of going out after the braai (which ended at 2am) and went dancing at Synergy. My only comment is...it seemed like a good idea at the time.

At 11am on Saturday we were up and ready for Claire's car rally (organized for our friend Garry's birthday). The idea is that it is sort of a scavenger hunt, but in a car....and Lilongwe offers a lot of interesting challenges...

The highlights:

Regan had to sell bananas with a banana seller

We had to get a photo with each member holding a live chicken

Jules shaved his head for an extra 65 points!

The team in a mini-bus with one team member as the driver (well, she is 16 now!)

(and Jules is yelling 'town, town' and banging on the side of the bus)

The entire team had to switch clothing with each other - Heather and I switched, Terri is wearing Regan's outfit, Jules is wearing Terri's and Regan is wearing Jules's...

Anyways, the whole day was a total riot and in the end, team HAG-Q (the normal AGQ household augmented by Terri Hancock) won! Half the winnings were donated to charity, so we chose to give the money to MacDonald's family (MacDonald worked with WUSC Malawi and passed away in July at 29 leaving behind his wife and two small children).

Later in the evening we returned to Claire's for Garry's birthday party, but the AGQs were so wiped out by the hectic day (and the late night before) that we didn't last long.

Sunday featured lots of relaxation (and work for me) and recovery.

Whoa...

NOTE THIS WAS WRITTEN A FULL ON WEEK AGO AND NOT POSTED DUE TO TECHNICAL ISSUES...

Don't know how almost three weeks has gone by since I last blogged...have been in a work-obsessed fog....may be emerging some time soon depending on how this week goes.



Anyways, back to Oct 23 - Jules's pub night was a great success...we deep fried mars bars, cheese, zuchini, onions, tasty soya pieces and I think a few other things...most of our friends were able to make it and we had a great time.



Our car is still in a non-mobile state...apparently the gear box is totally wrecked and there are no automatic gear boxes in Malawi - we have sources looking in Mozambique and South Africa, but no luck so far! We now have to decide if we should replace the automatic gear box with a standard one but I am worried about it affecting the resale value - any comments on this one? We are mechanical idiots so no idea what we should do about it.



October 30 was a momentous occasion - Regan turned 16! We had a double celebration planned - dinner out on her actual birthday - it was really nice. On November 1, we hosted a party at our place with a DJ and tons of roasted meat (very Malawian). Most of Regan's friends from school were able to make it and the teens had the run of the house and front yard while we hid out in the back with some friends, doing occasional walk-throughs to ensure we provided some level of supervision. I think I can say that it was an unqualified success.



Last week from Monday to Wednesday I was working in Mzuzu doing follow up from my M&E workshop. I was scheduled to do the same thing in Lilongwe on Thursday and Friday, but only made it on Friday. On Thursday I attended my first funeral in Malawi - for my friend and co-worker Chris's dad. He was ill for some time and finally diagnosed with lung cancer. It was sad, but not unexpected. The funeral was in Chris's home village and was an interesting experience.

We were very late in arriving - we were supposed to take a mini-bus but somehow it left without us. Luckily we were able to catch a ride with the Health Secretary who had a meeting first...however we were quite late in leaving. In addition we got totally lost on the way, so arrived at 12:30 when the mass was supposed to start at 10. Being a popular family there were many many people there to pay their respects, so in fact, the mass didn't even start until 1:30 or so. We had some food, then listened to people make speeches and then headed to the church for mass. There were so many people we wouldn't fit in the church so we sat on the ground outside. The mass was all in chichewa, so no details about what was said...sorry! After mass, people accompany the body to the graveyard...my colleagues were in a hurry to get home at that point, so we just left after the mass.



This past weekend was relatively eventful but deserves its own blog...more later

Pub Night Tonight!

So since we went AWOL last week we rescheduled Jules's birthday pub night to tonight...I am pretty excited as it has been a while since we have had company and I do love to entertain.
The plan is for people to bring drinks or food that you would find in a pub, so I made chicken wings this morning and will be firing up a big pot of oil to deep fry everything in sight tonight...

In other news, both Jules and I are heavily back into work...I know we still have three months left but it just feels like time is FLYING by and I can't believe how fast everything is going. My next main challenge is to complete the draft of the M&E Framework for my organization - I have lots of ideas, but as usual, big tasks where you have to start from scratch really throw me for a loop...I have lots of ideas of what should be included and how things should work, but just need to sit down and pull it all together.

I am getting some research done while in the office, but I think this task is going to call for a full on weekend of immersion in work, the method I employed in pulling my workshop together...so even though the weather is great I have big plans to hole up on the weekend at home and just get it done. Part of the pressure is self-induced as I couldn't change my workplan to accommodate the extra week of vacation so the three weeks I left aside for drafting the framework shrunk to two. In addition, I am TERRIBLE at saying no to assisting my colleagues, so I have difficulty getting much done while in the office, as it is easy, fun and rewarding to assist them when they need it.

With the car still out for the count and no sign of when it might be operational again, we have returned to the car-less life we had before...it's not all that bad really, but things just take a lot of time...and dropping Regan anywhere can be a chore since we don't feel comfortable with her taking a cab on her own, so we have to get the driver to drive out and back everytime.

Luckily, my work has been accommodating and I am leaving early today so I can walk to pick up last minute items we need for the party - with the amount of hours I will be putting in this weekend, I don't need to worry about making up the time!!!

Anyways, wish me luck with the framework, as well as with my entertainment plans for tonight!!!

Back in Malawi!!

We are finally back into our normal lives here in Lilongwe after a fabulous trip to Cape Town.
I can't believe how much the time spent in Lilongwe influenced our vacation plan!
I don't think I would normally even deign to GO to a mall while on vacation (Edmonton Mall excepted because it is pretty much the only tourist destination there (just kidding edmontonians!)). Anyways, how that changed in Cape Town!!!
We arrived on Sunday night and spent the first two nights at Ashanti Backpackers. It was clean and the beds were comfy. If you are not in a party mood, I wouldn't recommend staying there on a weekend, but the Sunday and Monday nights we spent there were fairly quiet.
On Monday, I went for an early explore and had one of the best cups of coffee I have had in MONTHS at a place called Arnolds, where we later returned for breakfast before heading to our number one destination THE MALL.
We went to Canal Walk, arriving only 20 min after opening (and only that late as we got lost), and headed directly to Cinn-a-bonn....heavenly. We then took in some shopping - Regan was pretty excited about that part of the trip! We then scoped out the movie theatre and decided to see one of the first showings at 12....we went to see Tropic Thunder - I have to say, it was pretty funny. After the movie, we went to my new favorite restaurant, the Cape Town Fish Market (it is actually a chain) - it was DELICIOUS....and so nice to have so much selection!!! This was followed by more shopping and then we went to see another movie at 7 - Jules saw the Dark Knight while Regan and I chose House Bunny (better than it sounds).
We actually left the mall after 9, having been there for the entire day and for almost 12 hours.
It was fabulous. I feel like I should be writing some heartfelt post about how much waste goes into a mall like that, but I am sorry to say it was just so nice to be there, I didn't feel that way (then). After the whole week away, those thoughts definately crept in.
The second day was supposed to be sightseeing, as we romped up and down Long Street - we went to the Slave Lodge - very emotional experience. We also did some more shopping and ended up finding a great pub (what we have been SO missing) called the Dubliner - the food and KILKENNY were great.
On Wednesday we planned to go to Robben Island, but the tours were completely booked and we were unable to go. We spent the day by the waterfront - it wasn't what I expected, more or less another giant mall, but it was nice. Regan nosed out the Hagen Daas store (delicious!) and we had lunch at Belthezar (known for its wine menu). The food was excellent, but the service and therefore the whole overall experience, was not as nice as the fish market.
On Tuesday we had moved from the Backpackers into the Ritz for a few nights in luxury. Unfortunately the pool was broken, no air-con was available and although they did have satellite, it didn't have So You Think You Can Dance - but they let us watch in the Executive lounge, so we didn't miss it (whew!).
On Thursday, we had booked an eco-friendly bike tour of the wine regions. To get to the wine region, you meet your guide downtown and then take a train. We met the guide, but then Jules ran to change some money and disappeared! We missed the train and the guide was getting worried...Regan and I were also completely freaked out by the time Jules returned almost 20 min later! Glad to have him back safe at any rate, I guess he was held up by a teller that took his passport and then disappeared into a back room and didn't come out again. Forsaking the eco-friendly train, the guide agreed we should just drive out to the region with him, so that is what we did. The wine tour was great - tastings were plentiful and it was SO nice to ride a decent bike again! The day was gorgeous and warm (up until Thursday, the weather had actually been quite chilly) and our guide was really helpful. Since we had driven, he recommended a scenic drive on the way home that was spectacular - taking us up to Gordon's Bay before returning to Cape Town and having dinner at a THAI restaurant (we have two chinese restaurants here and that is the extent of the asian selection in Lilongwe) called Yindees...it was delicious.
On Friday, we did the 'Cape Drive', driving most of the way around the southern cape...again, a ride loaded with amazing views. We stopped at Boulder Beach to see the famous Penguin colony, but unfortunately for us, penguins were not out for some reason, though we did view two poor little guys huddled up against a rock.
We also stopped for a little beach time - the waters are supposed to be a bit warmer than the freezing Atlantic waters closer to Cape Town - but 'bit' would definately be the operative word - it was pretty chilly! We ended the day by going back to the waterfront to go to the famous Mitchells pub, where they brew their own beer....and then went to movie #3 (My Best Friends Girl for Regan and I and an action flick for Jules).
On Saturday, we packed up our stuff and checked out of our hotel and then double checked the time on our tickets, realizing only then that we had in fact bought tickets leaving Sunday, not Saturday. Two hours of confusion and phone calls later, we finally managed to let everyone know that we would be back a day later than planned...unfortunately it wasn't really possible to change our tickets. We spent the afternoon in Clifton hanging on the beach. It was the first really hot day we had experienced in Cape Town, so it was a perfect day for it - it was even hot enough that we ventured into the freezing Atlantic for a dip. Although cold, the beaches in Cape Town are spectacularly gorgeous. We ate a late lunch at Wang Thai for a second taste of Thai food (I have to say, it was even better than Yindees). It was a great day lounging around in the sun. To save money, we booked into another backpackers, Cape Town Backpackers. It was nice and in a good location, but the blankets were a bit mildewy smelling...
We returned to the Dubliner for a late pub dinner, which was a great place to spend the last day.
Sunday morning we spent a few hours in the lodge while Regan studied and then returned to the Canal Walk mall for some last minute purchases and to sneak in another movie....The Love Guru - Mike Myers - cute, but I would have to say that I would rate the movies we say from best to worst in the exact order we saw them.
We arrived at the airport really early since we had to return the rental car (Budget - amazing, and SUCH a good deal!), and report that our jack knives were stolen from our luggage (only mishap of the trip besides Jules's brief dissapearing act). The check in guy laughed at us for being so early.
We flew Sunday night from Cape Town to Joburg, spent the night at another backpackers - Shoestring Airport Lodge - great value for money, and then from Joburg to Lilongwe on Monday (yesterday).
We were tired but refreshed after a fabulous trip and a nice break from reality....now....back to work!!!


Anyways

Quick update!

And I mean quick! I have 4 min left of this session!

OK - our trip started out really nicely - we flew to Cape Town on SAA. I wasn't experiencing anxiety before the flight (most of you know I HATE flying), so decided that maybe I was miraulously cured and didn't take my medication....BIG mistake. The first half hour of the flight was terribly unpleasant (only to me) while I waited for the pill I took after take off to kick in.

Anyways, Cape Town is lovely and we are staying at a backpackers hostel now but moving to a hotel tonight.

I will provide more details when not so rushed - but I can report that the showers I took yesterday morning and today were pretty much worth the price of the flight....

Cape Town here we come!

So we booked a last minute trip to Cape Town for this week and we leave this afternoon!
We are really looking forward to seeing a movie...and going to a Thai restaurant...and shopping in a mall...and airconditioned hotels...and...
Also, we are excited to be doing some sight seeing in Cape Town - everyone who has been there has told us how gorgeous it is!
Anyways - will try to update the blog while we are away if I get the chance - otherwise, I will post all about the trip when I return to Lilongwe Oct 19th.
Yippeeeee...........

Changes....

So last time I updated, I indicated that I would be at the lake, in Senga Bay for the next 11 days.
Apparently not.
We arrived in Senga Bay in the evening on Tuesday Sept. 30. The meeting that was supposed to start at 2pm started instead around 5, so I got to my hotel room around 7pm. The hotel I stayed at is called Horizons, and was really quite nice - very clean and new....though the ceiling fan didn't really make a dent in the muggy heat.
For some reason, it is much hotter by the lake than it is in Lilongwe (which makes for a great weekend there, but isn't so nice for a conference or training). Anyways, our participants were a bit sluggish in the hot conditions (no air-con or fans), but the conference went well. On Thursday we started wondering if the facility was really the best for the upcoming week, since it was so hot and most of our lunches and breaks were an hour (or more!) later than scheduled.
So at the last minute, the conference for this week was moved to Zomba, where it should be much cooler - in fact it is the same venue we used for my M&E workshop.
So instead of staying at the beach, the plan was that I should return to Lilongwe after camping with Jules and Regan and on Sunday afternoon drive to Zomba.
Heather was also in Senga Bay, so when we were both done our workshops early Friday afternoon we headed to Livingstonia beach to sit by the pool and relax until the rest of our camping group arrived.
Jules, Regan and Terri finally arrived just after dark, and we set our tent up and went out for dinner. The next morning was beautifully warm and we were up early reading books on the lounge chairs. We camped at a place called Cool Runnings, and I would definately return there - the grass for the tents was nice and soft and the prices were reasonable and facilities quite nice.
On Saturday morning, we were joined by more friends, Carmen and Francesco, and in the afternoon, Bryce (my volleyball captain) and Marie arrived. After an afternoon in the sun, we dragged ourselves up and made a delicious BBQ meal - baked potatoes, salad and steaks...it took a while to finish everything up at the same time, but it was well worth the wait!
Sunday morning was relaxing - more reading on the lounge chairs for me and Regan and a sleep in for Jules. We left at around 1 for Lilongwe, as I was supposed to meet my colleagues at 2:30. Alas, it was not to be, as the Arntz-Gray mobile decided to break down completely on the side of the road about 35 km from Lilongwe. Thank goodness for the help of friends!!! Carmen and Fran and Bryce were about an hour behind us, so Jules and I played yahtzee on the side of the road (to the delight of an audience of about 10 children), while Regan and Heather read and slept in the car. Fran is a mechanic and was able to tell us it didn't look good. A few minutes later, Bryce pulled over, just as Fran was saying 'It's too bad we don't have a tow rope', and guess what? Bryce had one.
We made an interesting caravan back to Lilongwe, Jules steering our Pajero while being towed behind Bryce, with the rest of us piled into the back of Carmen and Fran's pick up. We all made it home at least, though unfortunately Bryce's tow rope broke at the last minute (only 3 blocks from our house!). We tied it up and made it home in the end....but the engine needs a total overhaul, so we are back to the tight budget we experienced in September again - except this time, it will last for TWO more months....ah well, such is life!
Needless to say, I missed my ride to Zomba with my colleagues, but one co-worker has a father that is quite ill, so he ended up staying in Lilongwe also and will be driving up to Zomba tonight, so he has saved me from a 6 hour mini-bus ride.
Of course, that is if things go as planned....apparently we might leave tomorrow...
Life here just keeps you guessing!

Away again...

This afternoon, I am departing for Salima...or more accurately, Senga Bay (the beach) for 11 days. Don't get too jealous - I will be working for 9 of them.
We have two workshops in the same location so I thought we could tie the two together with a weekend of camping for Jules's birthday. I will be doing my best to access internet while I am away, but don't expect that it will be all that frequent.
In the first workshop, I am facilitating an M&E section, but in the second I am mainly a partcipant and am looking forward to being immersed in Disaster Risk Reduction concepts.
I will miss two volleyball games, which I am not excited about, though I do wish my team luck!
And also I might miss (but will be trying my damnedness not to) So You Think You Can Dance. For those that watch at home, I am sure you realize that the show has already shown in North America, but it just started a few weeks ago here, so I am avidly watching every second.
Wish me luck in finding a place in Senga Bay that will allow us to watch on DSTV!

Life in Lilongwe

I just realized that I haven't posted since last Friday! How does time pass so quickly?
Anyways...last weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday we had a chill night in. I have started watching Buffy again (SO addictive) so we watched a few episodes.
On Saturday we got up to go for a walk. Jules had a coffee while Regan and I had some beauty treatments at the salon and then we did some grocery shopping at the market. Since we have been walking everywhere lately, this whole procedure took quite a bit of time, so luckily we ran into Heather, who offered to drive us home. Before we went home though, we found a new restaurant (well, new to me - Jules's colleague had taken him there before). The restaurant is called Amina's take-away and serves local fare. What was remarkable about it was the size of the servings...Jules and I had decided to split a t-bone and rice - when they brought out the t-bone, it was the size of the whole plate! And the rice, veggies and beans were on a separate plate! Between us, we couldn't finish it all and we were stuffed. The whole meal cost $4, so it was $2 each....I don't know how they can stay in business.
After I got home I had to bake some cookies and arrange some flowers to add to my Martha Stewart costume for the Alter-Ego party. Before we left in the morning, I had sewn my apron and looked up Martha's actual number to put on a black and white striped shirt. Once the cookies were ready, I helped braid Heather's hair so that it looked crimped for her 80s rock-chick costume and helped Jules get his hair to stand up for his Einstein costume. I haven't downloaded my pics yet, so check out Heather's blog if you want a preview.
Sunday was sweet - we relaxed by the pool at the Capital Hotel (where the water is NOT green), while Regan spent the day hanging out at ABC and playing frisbee.
This week has been busy so far - I was able to work from home for two days (Monday and Wednesday) to try and finish up some followup activities from my workshop. I also had a tripartite meeting (these are meetings with the partner organization (CADECOM), the volunteer and WUSC), where we discussed what I shoudl focus on during the remainder of my time here. Although the goals are still very ambitious, I am happy that I feel they are acheivable. Some of the items originally included in my workplan have been removed and we will inclued them when we write a position description for another volunteer so they will get done eventually.
Last night, Chambo with Head won our first game of the season (and it's only our second time out!!!), so that is super exciting - we look forward to a better season than last, with a couple new players and a great core team.
Tonight Jules was invited to a formal reception - I am a little nervous that it might be a little stuffy, but we will check it out and see what it's like.
No big plans for the weekend - apparently the Portuguese Club pool is scheduled to be repaired and treated this week, so maybe it will be a good place to go on the weekend - we will see.

Random updates

So this week has been productive....I think September must be the only month so far that I haven't been out of town for work! My feet are even starting to get (a little) itchy.
Jules is actually out of town for one of his rare trips next week, so I am glad that he will get to see a little more of the north while he works with farmer groups in Ruimphi.
After finally getting everything under control for my workshop Aug 26 - 29, it has taken me most of September to finalize materials for sharing and working on the follow up from it....but the end is in sight - by the end of next week, I should have a good handle on the workshop follow up stuff and be working on the M&E framework for my organization....whew!
This weekend a friend of ours is having a birthday party, combined with another friend's housewarming...the theme is alter-ego - so you are supposed to dress up as someone you've always wanted to be...it threw me for a loop for sure - it really is hard to say!
I feel like I respect a lot of people, but I am not sure I actually want to BE any of them...finally I decided to take it a little tongue in cheek and go as Martha Stewart. Though I wouldn't want to actually BE her I was a former Martha addict....
Anyways, so our weekend is shaping up - we have been a bit hermit-y lately, partly due to lack of funds and due to the flu that I had, so it will be refreshing to get out to a party. On Saturday we have tentative plans to maybe do a bit of climbing as well as we have friends going to hike in Dedza, but the jury is still out on whether or not we will go...since we have constumes to finish!
Regan has been busy lately with joining an Utimate Frisbee team and studying for her upcoming ICGSE exams....she even has to write TWO exams on her 16th birthday, poor girl.
Back to preparation for the next M&E workshop (only 2 days this time, thank goodness!)...

Not too much that is new...

But I thought I would post anyways - since we had to pay Regan's exam fees this month, money is pretty tight - so we have spent a lot of time in Lilongwe with not too much to do.
Unfortunately the pool at the portuguese club (which we were so excited to join as it would provide countless hours of free entertainment once the membership was paid) is completely green. They ran out of chemicals in May and have not treated the pool since. It is totally gross and I don't want to go to the club and just hang out BY the pool because #1 - I like water and want to be in it, not by it and #2 - it is free to do that anyways - the only thing we were paying for was access to the pool. What a miserable situation....
But we have been going for lots of walks, so that has been nice - and we found out that a bakery I like stocks BRIE. So I think we might indulge in a little fresh bread, brie and procuitto on Friday night as a treat!
Today is the start of the hot season of volleyball, so Chambo with head will start the season off tonight at 6:30 - I am excited to be playing again but wishing we had managed to slot at least ONE practice in during the six week break!
Anyways...on the work front, panic is setting in as I look at the crowded weeks ahead - you can now count to the end of my contract in weeks (well I guess you always could - but the number was much bigger before) and there is SO much still to do. I am trying to come up with a reasonable work plan for my remaining time here, but as weeks pass - I am so busy with other things that my work plan items get pushed to the next week...a process that can not continue indefinately!!!
Anyways - wish me luck as I continue to plug away!!!

Where do I start???

Well, I have yet again to apologize for the length of time it has taken for me to get around to getting another post up. I think besides being busy, I was a bit intimidated by the fact that since I now know how to upload pictures, I should be loading pics into every blog...and I haven't had time to sort through my photos, so....
Anyways, as I am sitting here today, I figure it will be better to just get a darn blog up than to fiddle with pictures, since it seems to be a bit of a block!
So I never really did justice to Mom and Meghan's trip here with us - I know my mom kept great notes, so I am hoping she will do a guest blog and email me some of her details so I can post them.
Since my last post, I completed the daunting amount of work required in order to facilitate my week long workshop on M&E....it was a battle, but I got the job done in the end, and have recently compiled the results of the workshop evaluation - it seems that many people were extremely happy with their experience and learned some valuable lessons, so that made me feel great. I can see how teaching is a rewarding experience - one day we were doing a recap and people were all participating a lot, and I realized that they learned some of the things we were talking about from ME! I was pretty tickled.
Anyways, the week after the workshop was a bit of a blur - I arrived home on Friday night and Jules and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary (1 day late) with Regan by going out for dinner, and then Regan went to a party while we went home and crashed out. On Saturday we went to a friend's birthday/one year in Malawi party, which was really nice - we met some new people and had a brilliant evening. On Sunday, I started getting really puffy eyes - I used to get this occasionally in Canada - some kind of undiagnosed allergy I guess, so I wasn't too worried, but it did continue until Monday when I spent the afternoon at home to rest my eyes. The rest of the week was taken up with trying to capture the notes from my workshop in order to create my workshop report and thinking about the best way to divide the rest of my (too short!) time here.
I don't know if I ever reported that we were finally able to recruit a counterpart for my position here? Originally, they were hoping to hire an M&E Officer that I was to work with way back in February just after my arrival...unfortunately the recruitment was unsuccessful, and my colleagues decided to wait until new salary levels were approved before attempting to recruit again. The new salary levels were supposed to be approved in February, but in actuality were not approved until June! Then there were all sorts of administrative delays involved and we didn't actually make offers until much later. Finally we thought we had the candidate lined up and the position was filled - the officer was invited to attend my workshop as his first week of work. I am trying not to be personally offended, but in fact, since the workshop ended, he has not been seen again here at CADECOM. Sorry - slight exaggeration - we had his computer all set up Monday morning and he did pop in Monday afternoon (when I had gone home to rest my poor eyes), but since then, he has not returned.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, I asked my boss what he was planning to do, and his response was that we should give him to the end of the week!!! When he hadn't shown up for two days with no phone call or anything??? Anyways, it was not my call, but he didn't show up all week, so we are now assuming he is not interested. I wasn't too sure of him after the workshop (he was pretty quiet and I worried how we would get on), so I am not sure if I am relieved or dissapointed, but I am definately back at square one. Not having a counterpart here has severely limited the amount I can hope to get done in my year here, and now with a new recruitment scheme on the horizon, it seems unlikely that we will get someone in before Christmas.
Anyways, most of this month I will be focussed on rewriting my work plan to accommodate these new circumstances and trying to plan for my highest impact activities to be completed before I go.
This week there is a week long training in Nutrition, but I am staying back today and tomorrow to try an finish up some loose ends from my workshop...I will attend while the focus is on successful program design and indicator selection for nutrition.
This past weekend was super - on Saturday we walked around and did some errands on foot, which got us outside and also some exercise. On Sunday, unfortunately I had puffy eyes again, worse than last weekend, so I wasn't capable of doing much and just laid around watching movies - since this is something I rarely do, I have to say it was a pretty enjoyable way to spend a Sunday! I am better today, so that is good.
Anyways, have piles of work to do so I must get on with it - I promise (AGAIN - do you still believe me at ALL?) to try and update more regularly now that things are back to normal after vacations and workshops etc...

Radio Silence....Continued

Well, I am sorry for the extended radio silence on this end, but I am sorry to report that it will likely continue for another week - but I do hope to get another post up before the end of the month (fingers crossed).
Mom and Meghan and the Arntz-Grays had a fabulous trip around Malawi. We viewed the majestic tea fields south of Blantyre, found out that it rains. Hard. In dry season on the Zomba plateau, saw TONS of elephants, hippos, warthogs, waterbuck, crocs and birds in Liwonde National Park, went snorkeling at Cape Maclear, and visited Senga Bay. Mom and I also discovered a great little place called Ntchisi Forest Lodge and went hiking in the temperate rain forest there.
With only one day of rest, we were back into travel gear and heading to Zambia, where we had a fabulous safari (food excepted) in South Luangwa National Park, viewing giraffes, zebra, lions, hippos, crocs and even the elusive leopard.
With spectacularly poor foresight I planned my major Monitoring and Evaluation workshop for this week, and Mom and Meghan just left on Friday...the result being that I have been working all weekend to try and finish due to my lack of focus last week...
Since I am (still) preparing, and the workshop is out of town in Zomba (we are leaving today at three), I will likely not have access to internet. It will be a hectic week (last workshop involved many 12 hour days and it was just a three day workshop whereas this is FIVE), so I expect to crawl into bed on Friday night and not emerge for some time. Hopefully I can pull together a better post with pics on Sunday - chat with you then!

Visitors!

So my Mom and Regan’s friend Meghan arrived safely on Monday. Thanks to my roommate Heather, we found out that there is a viewing platform at the airport from which you can watch the plane come in. Regan and I each paid 5 kwacha to go up and waited excitedly. The plane was pretty much on time, and we could see well enough to watch our guests come down the ramp. We waved excitedly and they saw us waving down at them.
We had thought they might be too tired from their trip to do anything, so had nothing planned, but they got a second wind and we took them down to the big vegetable market, then Regan and Meghan went out for chips with Regan’s best friend from school, Hawah, while I took my Mom to see where Jules works.
On Tuesday, the girls had some sleeping in planned and an afternoon shopping trip. Mom and I attended the Rotary Club of Lilongwe lunch meeting – it was my first Rotary experience here and it was very nice. Afterwards, we went to my workplace to meet some of my colleagues, though I hope we will visit again as there were many people away.
On Wednesday we were scheduled to drop off a donation of medical supplies that my Mom arranged at Madisi hospital, about an hour north of Lilongwe. We met the Hospital Administrator, the Matron and the doctor who will be working with the drugs. The drugs were very gratefully received and I think my Mom was inspired to make a presentation to her Rotary Club upon her return to see if more assistance can be given.
Thursday was the monitoring trip I had planned to take my Mom and Meghan along for so that they could see a Malawian village. Jules and Regan joined us for the trip, since neither of them has had an opportunity to see a village yet. The day started in the regional CADECOM office, where my colleagues briefed us on the work being done under the I-Life DAP program – a program being delivered throughout Malawi by a consortium of NGOs. In Mchingi, it is delivered by CADECOM. The strength CADECOM has at accomplishing work on the ground was apparent – CADECOM’s I-Life beneficiaries are the only ones (of the seven I-Life NGOs) to succeed in motivating their beneficiaries achieve self-sustainability in an irrigation scheme, as well as in a warehouse building project.

Since we were going into a village, we dressed in chitenges, traditional wear for females:

The event we were there to witness was a bicycle handover – the community members who volunteer to be leaders of actions in their communities receive bicycles in order to complete their work (they also act as an incentive). Nine bicycles were distributed and the event was attended by the local parish priest as well as the Traditional Authority (chief). At the village level, each village is represented by a village head, and a group of village heads will be organized under a GVH (group village head). A group of GVH’s will then be organized under the TA (Traditional Authority) – so you can imagine his importance. It was thrilling after the event for my Mom to formally be introduced to the chief and to sit for a short chat.
After the handover, my colleagues took us around to show us some of the work completed under the program. We met with a Village Savings and Loans committee that had saved up 104,000 kwacha, a marketing group who had completed building a warehouse and a group involved in an irrigation scheme. It happened to be the day a new chief was being inducted, and the gulewankulu (masked dancers) were out dancing as part of the celebration. It is a rare even to happen upon gulewankulu and from our cultural training we learned that outsiders are not always welcomed into the ceremony. I don’t know if it was because we were with CADECOM staff who are known to the community or if these dancers were just more open to outsiders, but we stopped the car and got out and were encouraged to take photos and mingle with the dancers – it was an incredible experience. Once we got back into our car, dancers jumped onto the back for a ride…again, very unusual and exciting. It was a very long and tiring day, but worth every minute….what an experience for us, and for Mom and Meghan as well.
Last night we invited all the WUSC volunteers to dinner at our favorite restaurant, Blue Ginger. The food, as always, was delicious and the company was great – Mom got to meet almost everyone we know here in Lilongwe in one night.
Now it is Saturday morning and we are finalizing our packing to leave on our big trip today…not sure how often I will have internet access, but I will try to keep you up to date!

What a workshop!

Now, I am not saying that I expected an easy ride here in Malawi, but I must say, the work ethic here has taken my by surprise. I guess its not even so much a work ethic, as a willingness to put up with hours and expectations that could be considered pretty unreasonable.

I have gotten used to the fact that when you go into the field, you should expect a lot of waiting around, a lot of wasted time and long days. I guess I thought that attending a workshop would be different for some reason, since you are in one location the whole time...

Monday last week started pretty much as expected - we intended to leave at 1:30pm, but didn't leave until 4. And then had to stop for gas. As a result, we were left driving a good deal of the time in the dark, which is substantially slower than driving when it is light. We arrived at the hotel at 9:40pm. Fortunately, my friend Vi, another WUSC volunteer (but in Zomba instead of Lilongwe) was also attending the workshop and arrived at 9, so she was able to order dinner before the kicthen closed.

On Tuesday, we were supposed to meet a half hour before the workshop was scheduled to begin, in order to set up. I was the only one who showed up at 8. But, by 9:30, we were ready to start. The day was considerably behind schedule and ended after 6pm - I just don't think in Canada that people would stand for it??? But anyways, by 8, we had dinner and were ready for bed. On Wednesday, a field visit was scheduled for the afternoon (we were supposed to leave at 12:30pm). Anyone could see that there was not enough time scheduled...the field visit was scheduled to be in a village over 2 hours away from the conference location. But anyways, we didn't leave until after 1:30 - arriving in the village at 4pm. There were two sites to look at - at the first, we viewed an afforestation project, as well as a manure pit. At the second, we were looking at charcoal stoves - an energy saving initiative. The sun sets early in Malawi, especially in the cold season, so we left the second site just before 6pm, in the dark and drove back to the conference center, arriving at a quarter to nine. We had planned a get together for Wednesday night, so dinner and drinks and dancing ensued until about 3 in the morning - don't know how I lasted until 2 - must have been the Malawi gin.

Thursday morning I was among the first to arrive at the conference hall and one of three who arrived on time (out of 30). Anyways, most participants managed to drag themselves in for another half day of the conference. Scheduled to end at 11, we ended at 1:30. I ended up with a lunch meeting, followed by another meeting in the afternoon. By 4:30, we were done, and I managed to drag myself over to a beach chair to lie in an exhausted stupor until 6:30, when Vi and I ordered dinner. I think I was in bed before 8pm - heaven!

On Friday, we drove back to Lilongwe. Since you can buy food at the markets on the road much cheaper than in Lilongwe, every trip involves several stops for people to buy things. I used to get annoyed at how much longer it made the drive back (On Friday we took over 6 hours to complete a 4 hour drive)...but now I am out there with my colleagues bargaining away and crowing about the number of tomatoes I managed to get for 200 kwatcha.

I was ready to fall into bed on Friday night but was persuaded to attend a Century Club party (but I did NOT do the century) - it was a lot of fun, and we met up with Isaac, who we met at the hostel we stayed at when we went to Vic falls after Easter. On Saturday, we had a lovely BBQ at Melissa and Shawn's. Sunday featured a lot of working on a new quilt, and another BBQ (where the focus was on dessert as it always it at Jessicas) after Regan's ultimate frisbee match.

Reading through all of the above gives me some insight as to why I still feel exhausted today!!!

Oh, and in other news - the countdown to Mom and Meghan's visit is ON!

6 days and a couple hours to go!

I didn't manage to download photos from last week off my camera yet, so I will leave you with a photo of my FAVORITE hand washing sink in Malawi (so far...):

On the road again

This week I will be away all week (again - seems like I am out of the office almost 2 weeks of every four!) in Mangochi - I will be attending the mid-term review meeting for our Integrated Food Security Program. Through the program we work with communities to promote crop diversification and new agricultural practices. It is a three year program and we are half way through implementation.
Last week was fun and relatively calm. We had dinner guests on Wednesday and had just greeted everyone when the power went out....we made due though (getting used to coping with power outages here as they are fairly frequent) and used the BBQ to make our stirfry by putting the veggies in tinfoil.
On Friday night we went to a play called Roj of the Antarctic – it was a one woman show about racism, homosexuality and climate change – kind of a bizarre combination but it was an incredible show – the woman was quite amazing. Basically she connects the themes by saying that the same attitudes that permit discrimination based on sexual orientation and race permit the destruction of the environment. Afterwards we went for dinner at Mama Mia’s with some friends – great night.
Saturday, Jules and I went hiking with our friend Jessica – she took us to Nkhoma mountain – we had never been there before – great find! It only takes about an hour and a half to get to the top, so it is sort of a perfect sized afternoon hike – strenuous, but not ridiculous.
On Sunday, I had another day of sewing all day and have now completed my first two African quilts!
One for Regan:

And one for Jules and I:
Ours is made from fabrics that have all been made in Malawi – I tried only to buy Malawian prints for Regan’s as well. Unfortunately when I bought the blue fabric for Regan’s quilt, I was told it was made in Malawi, but now that I am more familiar with the companies that make fabric in Malawi (there are only two), I know that it was not in fact a Malawian print. But it is still pretty!

I also got a picture of a guy painting lines on the street by hand:
Hope you will see more photos more often on my blog now that I am more in the habit of keeping current with the photos...and I know how to shrink them also!

Have a great week!

Updates! July in Malawi

I can't believe it has been two weeks since I last posted! Many apologies for the lapse. Work has really been picking up - after a month of freaking out about the impossibility of completing my mandate, I finally feel like I have a plan that will enable me to be successful (I hope!). But it is a lot of work, and I am still waiting for my counterpart to be hired (hopefully within the month now), so I have been pretty busy.
We had donors from Australia arrive in Lilongwe on June 28. We had a meeting on the 29th (Sunday???) to explain our progress to date on our Floods Response Program with the 31 year old female representative from Caritas Australia, Sandya. The meeting concluded with a lunch of local food made by the sisters that live on-site here at the Catholic Secretariat. Afterwards, my colleagues hadn't planned anything for our donor to do, so I offered to take Sandya to the market. She was really sweet and fun, and we ended up inviting her to join us for dinner at Blue Ginger (mmm....daal makhani) and then the Euro-cup final game at Chameleons.
We met Monday morning at 9 to depart on the monitoring trip we had planned to Mangochi, Blantyre and Chikwawa. Unfortunately, Carsterns (my boss), was not able to depart from the office til 10, then we were further held up by a fuel shortage (frequent event - travelling on time takes a lot of ahead planning!). We ended up leaving Lilongwe after 11, and stopping in Dedza for lunch at around 1. We ate at a place called Dedza Pottery Lodge - I had never been there before - the pottery was amazing. I am definately planning on making some purchases when we return there on the trip I am planning for when my Mom and Megan (Regan's friend, not my sister) come to visit!!!
All this meant that we didn't arrive in Mangochi until 5:20pm rather than 2pm as originally intended, so our meeting didn't start until 6pm!!! Talk about a long day....seems there is no taboo in Malawi about expecting people to stay late with no notice. While in Mangochi, I was also able to visit the little boy who was involved in the accident and he is recovering well, though still in hospital.
The next day was the second food distribution in Mangochi (all together there are three distributions of a one month supply of food for each household). It was much more subdued than the launch I attended in Mzuzu, but it went smoothly and people were glad to get their distributions. We also toured the site of an irrigation project which was very interesting, and we were welcomed with friendly, singing villagers.
On Wednesday, we drove to Blantyre and then down to Chikwawa for a meeting. Since we arrived in Blantyre three hours before the meeting (and Chikwawa is only an hour away), we decided to use our time to find accommodation. After a couple of sketchy lodges, we passed a sign that said ‘Hostellerie de France’ and decided to check it out. Our first impression was of the toilet seats that were on the front porch. Once we entered the place, we were welcomed with a booming ‘Bonjour Mes Amies!’. The character that owns the place definitely belongs in my memory as one of the strangest people I have met in Malawi….with his moustache waxed into curls and long graying hair and French accent. We booked rooms pretty much on the basis of the owner – and also because the dining room and backyard were amazing looking.
We drove down to an uneventful meeting in Chikwawa and returned to lounge over a couple of MGTs (Malawi Gin and Tonics) while our French dinner was prepared.
On Thursday, the food distribution took place in Chikwawa. Chikwawa was the site of my first field visit and it was just as memorable on my second visit to the south. The villagers (well the female ones) danced and sang and acted for us – many of the songs were portraying the hunger people experienced and the relief brought by the program and the need to work in the fields to ensure that food will be available after these distributions are finished. Sandya also interviewed some recipients to find out their response to the program. We were disappointed to learn that the food rations were often only lasting for 3 weeks as opposed to a month (the supply is based on government guidelines about the minimum requirements of an average household).
Heading back up to Blantyre, we picked up another WUSC volunteer, Sarah to join us for dinner and I also stayed with Sarah that night – it was a blast.
On Friday morning, I was informed of a sudden change in plans – we had planned to take the donors to the lake for a relaxing end to their busy visit, but it seems that one of the vehicles had to return to Lilongwe, so I went back on Friday morning. I didn’t mind, as we had plans to go to the lake anyways, and I had missed Regan and Jules!
The change in plans enabled us to quickly pack up and get to the lake Friday instead of Saturday in time to celebrate the fourth of July with some of our American friends. Friday night was a great party, and Saturday was filled with lots of beach volleyball followed by swimming and reading by the lake – awesome. On Saturday night we braaied up some veggie sausages and then hung out with some friends. Sunday, we decided to leave in order to still have a day at home (As Sunday was Malawian independence day, Monday was a holiday).
I spent most of Monday sewing (my idea of a pretty awesome day!) after a walk in the Nature Sanctuary. In the afternoon we were invited to a last minute braai at our friend Jessica’s (she is an American, here doing PhD research). Although there was some meat (and veggie alternatives) involved, the focus was definitely on dessert as Jess’s baking is excellent! Nice way to end off an afternoon.
We also bought some videos on Sunday – if I had known these things existed, I wouldn’t have brought so many with me! You can buy DVDs with 9 – 80 movies on them (note – I have never purchased one with more than 18, though my roommate Heather has one with 63). The videos can be a bit of a crap-shoot as they don’t all work, but I think we got our money’s worth. I bought a horror collection with all three Final Destinations, all three Mummy’s and another one I was excited about at the time but can’t now remember….we also got the Tom Cruise collection – mostly for the Mission Impossibles – though it also has Top Gun…Regan got a romantic classic one with a somewhat odd collection including the Break Up and In Her Shoes…and the last one was a crime and action collection with all three Ocean’s and the Italian Job.
OK – I may be revealing a bit much in here about my love of bad movies…

Where I have been

I realize it's been a while since I last posted.
I had a bad accident two weeks ago...it didn't involve another car, but it involved a little boy who ran in front of my vehicle. There are always people lining the sides of the road in Malawi and it is everyone's greatest fear, including my own, that one day you will hit someone.
You don't think it can happen to you though, really - I mean, I am so careful. I honk. I slow down. But it did happen to me.
I was driving for the first time without a driver on a business trip to my favorite diocesan office, Mangochi. I saw a group of children running alongside a bike and honked my horn (as is the custom here) to let them know I was coming. They moved further over to the left (you drive on the left in Malawi), so I went to pass. All of a sudden, just as I was overtaking them, one of the boys in the group veered to the right and ran straight across the road. The only thing I can think is that he was trying to beat the car across the road. There was no time to react enough and nowhere to go - I braked and swerved, but could not avoid hitting him. It was definately the worst moment of my life...I was pretty much completely disbelieving what had just happened and I got out of the car, totally panicking.
Thank God, a driver from the other direction stopped and assisted me as well as a few other people - we got the boy into the car, drove to a clinic for first aid and then to the hospital, where he is now recovering. I am so glad that he is alive and expected to fully recover.
The police did an investigation (again, I am grateful to the two witnesses that were able to explain the circumstances to the police) and declared the collision an accident.
I am still dealing with the post-traumatic stress of the incident, and am also realizing how many other thoughts I have are wrapped up in my emotions about the accident....how accepting the boys parents have been (everyone is so friendly whenever I visit the hospital), and the fact that when I do visit the hospital, the boy gets more attention....I feel a lot of this has to do with race and priviledge and I find it even more upsetting.
Anyways, I recognize that the stress of this will still be with me for a long time (well, forever really), but I am feeling much stronger this week and decided to post this.
It took me a while to decide to blog about the experience, but the purpose of the blog (besides letting you all know what is going on while we are away) is to document my year here in Malawi, and good or bad, all of my experiences here are forming this incredible adventure, so this experience belongs here along with the stories of parties, funny incidents, dancing in villages and my thoughts about our year here in Malawi.

CADECOM gets down

But first,
Since I mentioned volleyball in my last post, I should update...
Unfortunately, despite a valiant effort and in the absence of our 6'6" captain Bryce, Chambo with head could not pull into a 2 wins for 6 situation. We lost the first game, came back to win the second and played well through the third but were beated by the Undutchables. 9:45pm time slot sucks. We pulled the early spot for this week, but I will unfortunately miss the game as I will be out of town for work.

On Friday, I was invited to attend a good-bye party for one of my co-workers, Father Nampimba. It was my first invite to a work event. I am also looking forward to the pre-wedding lunch we are invited to the week-end after this one. Anyways, we pledged what we would bring (mainly drinks) and I guess there was a budget for food. I expected a couple of drinks and maybe some snacky food, an hour to an hour and a half of polite conversation and then leaving. Elizabeth and Jessica had invited me to dinner with them at Blue Ginger (Indian restaurant I hadn't tried before), so I accepted and asked them to pick me up at work at 8pm, figuring 6 - 8 would be sufficient socializing time.
At 6, I arrived at the party with my little offering of cheese and crackers to hear Sexy Back playing out of an impressive sound system...I was a little taken aback - I mean, is Sexy Back appropriate music for a priest's party? I got out to where the bar was set up, and there was a box of red wine, white wine, Malawi gin, altar wine and vodka. Yes, I said Altar wine....on the bar. It was a bit surreal and I couldn't resist texting Regan and Jules (family don't attend work functions here) to let them know what the party was like. Throughout the night I was impressed with the dance club music selection until I finally asked the DJ (my co-worker Paul) whose CDs they were. They belong to my boss's boss, the Secretary General (head of ECM), Father Joseph!
Anyways, after I arrived and Father Joseph and I had gotten our glasses of wine, another coworker took the floor to open the event with a prayer. During the prayer (as I stood there with my glass of wine), they didn't turn off the music, they just turned it down...it was truly a surreal experience. Anyways, after a glass of Altar wine and tons and tons of amazing food (my cheese plate looked so SAD), it was time to open the dance floor. They let the guest of honour, Father Nampimba, choose his dance partner (me, of course!). This was awkward - they played that kind of song that always led to awkward confusion in highschool (is it fast? is it slow) - add to this the whole priest complication and you can see what I mean....anyways, it was OK - we took it as a fast song and enjoyed the dancing.
When Elizabeth and Jessica came to pick me up, I wasn't ready to leave, so they came down for a glass of Altar wine and to see the whole spread. They were just in time for the dancing out of the cake. It was awesome - the whole of ECM formed a line behind the cake and danced it across the floor. During this, the SG came up to me and asked me if I wanted to hear my Kanye song now (I had heard 'Stronger' come on while Paul was testing all the CDs and said "Oh I love this song"). So I said "sure" - I mean, why not???
After Stronger played, Elizabeth, Jessica and I sadly had to leave...next time I will know not to make plans after a work function, since Malawian catholics party very seriously!!!

What a weekend!

This past weekend, our Regional Director came in to Lilongwe to visit with the volunteers. Since CIDA is here evaluating the Uniterra program (after the weekend), WUSC brought all the volunteers together from throughout the country, so our RD decided to meet with us all over the weekend. It was great to see some of the volunteers from all over the country that we don't get the chance to visit with all the time! And we met the one volunteer we hadn't met yet (though she is leaving Malawi in 5 days) as well.
All in all, there was a lot of time spent in meetings, but we also got a lot of free food (so none of the volunteers were complaining about that!). On Friday night we took it (relatively) easy in preparation for the I love Malawi party on Saturday. We had Melissa and Shawn home for a welcome home dinner from Shawn, as he has finally returned from 3 months in the Sudan working to get refugees safely out of the country. Melissa and Shawn hosted my birthday dinner just 2 weeks after we had arrived (and shortly before Shawn left), and I wanted to repay the favour. We found sweet corn (it was SO yummy!!) and pork spare ribs (pigs are not a big thing for livestock farmers here, so pork is relatively scarce...it was delicious and the company was great.
On Saturday, Heather's mom wasn't feeling that great, but she did manage to make it to our volunteer dinner at Claud's. Claud's is one of the two italian places in Lilongwe, and although I am committing sacriledge by saying this (to most Lilongweans), it is not my favorite place. They have an excellen peri-peri chicken dish, but whenever I have ventured off the peri-peri, I haven't enjoyed my meal (not for the price anyways)...unfortunately Saturday was no exception...but the gin and tonics were great.
After dinner, we headed to the I love Malawi party we have been excited about all week - it was a blast - tons of Malawians as well as Mzungus and we actually drank the bar dry (not me personally!!!) and then headed to Chezntemba - site of many past dancing excursions. Unfortunately, Chez had a band on outside and we had to wait forever for them to put music on inside...oh well...
Sunday was an all afternoon meeting with our RD, followed by a cocktail party with our CIDA evaluator. Heather's mom went to the clinic in the morning as she still wasn't well, and she has Malaria!!! And she was taking Malarone (supposedly effective prophylaxis)!!! Our friend Meilssa just got over a bout of Malaria as well, so it is odd, given that it is dry season.
We went home after the cocktail party and started a movie...I think I saw all of 5 minutes before falling asleep at like 7:30.
On Monday we had presentations for the CIDA evaluator, and were invited to join her for dinner at our favorite restaurant in Lilongwe, Babas Delhi Darbar - it was fabulous...seriously one of the best indian restaurants I have ever been to. Our Malawian guests did not feel the same way though and just picked at their food - I don't want to generalize, but on the whole, most Malawians really do not vary their diet and are not as interested in exploring new options.
Anyways, did I blog that 'Chambo with head' (my volleyball team) actually won a game last week!!! Changing our record from 0 for 5 to 1 win of 6 games??? Progress! Anyways, we face off again tonight and unluckily pulled the late game, so we don't play until 9:45...wish us luck!

Weird expression

Everything is pre-paid in Malawi. You have to buy credit for your phone and input it in order to make a call. You have to do the same for your power (we have run out twice now and had to go to the gas station in the middle of the night to purchase additional credit).
Once you put the credit in, it is very expensive to make phone calls, so people are sparing with their time spent on the phone and often we communicate only through text messages. In addition, when people really have hardly any credit, they call you and hang up, waiting for you to call them back. This procedure is called flashing, and resulted in our friend Elizabeth asking two guys the other day "Now, if I give you my number, will you flash me?"

Downsides to Malawi?

I think I have been firm enough in my ‘I love malawi’ posts to write this…I mean I love Malawi…there is even a party on Saturday with an ‘I love Malawi’ theme and I have had a custom malawi t-shirt made to wear to the party because I totally love Malawi..
The aforementioned love notwithstanding, I think it is OK then if I report some of the downsides…
1) Our stove is shocking. I don’t mean shocking to look at, or that the price was shocking (though it was - we paid $200, you wouldn’t pay $20 for this thing in Canada), I mean actually shocking. If you put a pan on the stove and touch the handle – shock. Touch a spoon in a pot –shock. It took a while, but we eventually figured out that if you wear shoes, the shock passes harmlessly though you to the floor and you don’t feel the shock – but that can’t be good for you???
2) Chickens. They may be cute and sound charmingly local but they are LOUD. And news to the city folk…they don’t just crow at dawn….they crow all the time. I am in the midst of a Martha Stewart attack and am baking cookies at 12:41am and they are crowing RIGHT NOW. Note that the sudden desire to bake cookies is also being affected by the shocking oven…in addition to being shocking, it has no temperature gauge, so it is taking approximately FOUR TIMES AS LONG to bake the aforementioned cookies!!!
3) Cockroaches….they aren’t pretty, and if you read my roomate’s blog, you know they don’t die easy. We have a daily battle protecting our food (and other items) against them and ourselves against the extreme heebie jeebies they can cause.
OK, seriously, I just had to make you all feel better that you aren’t here, since Malawi ROCKS.

Monday Morning

It is Monday morning and I am back at work - quickly posting on my tea break.
What a fabulous weekend. Kande Beach is simply beautiful, and Lake Malawi managed to meet expectations again by being warm and clear. There were even waves this time and it was fun playing in the gentle surf.
My roomate Heather's mom arrived from Canada last week, and Alexio, Heather's boyfriend, was scheduled to come and visit from Zimbabwe to meet her while she is here. By the way, I have FINALLY added a link to H's blog if you want to check out her view of our time here.
Anyways, unfortunately, Alexio missed his flight and wasn't able to arrive until Friday evening, so we took Heather's mom with us to the beach and decided Heather and Alexio would drive up Saturday morning and meet us there.
I was lucky enough to get out of work early so we planned to leave at 2, and weren't far off - finally getting out at 2:26. It was a bit longer of a drive than anticipated, as we had to detour into Salima to get cash, since we had forgotten to make a withdrawal in Lilongwe. Most of the drive was in daylight, but we still had about an hour an a half of stressful pothole and pedestrian avoidance after the sun departed. We arrived at 6:45pm and headed straight to the bar for a decompression drink and found a number of passengers from an overland tour bus enjoying themselves. Regan hadn't changed yet, and let me tell you, arriving in a bar in a school uniform certainly is a conversation starter!
Once we settled into our rooms, we went over to the restaurant for dinner. Since I had already been there for lunch during my business trip, I was able to let the others know some important things - like that the bean burrito is actually beans on a chapati.
Jules and I headed over to the pool table next for a couple games, but then realizing that it isn't the best spectator sport, we played yahtzee with Regan and Colleen (H's mom) until they went to bed and we could continue with the rubber match.
We had booked chalets on the beach and they were amazing...the only drawback was that they had no bathrooms, and while the walk from Colleen and Regan's chalet was quite short, ours was pretty long! The tradeoff was totally worth it though, and we fell asleep listening to the waves crash. The next day featured a great deal of hammock lounging, reading and swimming. I even got to play in the most random game of malawian volleyball, which was great fun...there was much excitement and unecessary dramatic diving for the ball. Out of the first two games, each team had won once, so the rubber match was competitive and exciting, and went 5 points beyond the usual game point since you have to win by two points....so a close one. My team won just as the sun was beginning to fade from the sky.
Jules and I also learned how to play Bowa - a traditional Malawian game played with marbles or stones on a carved wooden board. We ended up ordering a board from the guys on the beach who taught us how to play and it is really nice, so I am happy with it. Heather and Alexio arrived Saturday so we all had dinner together then played a game of Hoopla before bed. Sunday featured more hammock lounging and swimming until we had to go at around 12:30.
The restaurant was quite expensive, so we had decided that we would pick some chips (fries) up on the way home. When Jules got out of the car to go order them, he was approached by a very drunk man who aggressively asked for money. Jules told him no and went over to order some chips. The other Malawians present asked the man to leave, but he ignored them. When Jules handed his money over to pay, the drunk man snatched it and started to run away. Running on instinct, Jules chased him and managed to catch him and one of the other locals assisted him in prying the money out of the guy's hand. Jules gave the guy who assisted 50 kwatcha and we left. Later, I commented that it was a bit extreme to recover such a small amount of money, but then I came around and agreed with Jules that it was better not to let him get away with it - maybe he will think twice before trying such a thing again...it was too bad really, as we likely would have given him something in the first place had he been less aggressive.
So we have been in Malawi now for 4 months and lost nothing to theft - knock on wood!

Random things

I am so excited that we are going to the beach this weekend - as I mentioned, we stopped at the lodge we will be staying at on the way home from Mzuzu and it was amazing.
Yesterday I tried to buy a bathing suit but the only store I know of in Lilongwe that carries bathing suits had the same 6 suits I tried on last time and no new stock, so no luck there! (I left my only bathing suit at Sun n' Sand just north of Mangochi) Luckily I have a workout tank top and bike shorts that will suffice for the moment.
Since I couldn't buy the bathing suit, I had enough money to buy a painting from a guy with no hands. When I passed him on the way into the store I was thinking "Wow, you have no hands and you are not begging - I should totally buy a painting from you"
Anyways, I couldn't believe how dexterous he was with his arms - totally amazing - and the paints with his arms, mouth and feet.
This morning I had to go on a diesel hunt - there was no diesel at the first three stations I went to - just not a problem I would have to worry about in Canada! Anyways, I lucked out at the fourth station - what a relief - so I have enough fuel to get to the beach tonight.

Second Visit to Mzuzu

I have just returned from my journey north to witness the food distribution for our Emergency Flood Relief Program. It was an amazing (though LONG) journey.
We were unable to leave the office until 4:20pm – we had initially planned to leave the office at 1pm. Apparently the vehicle was having mechanical difficulties so we had to wait for it to be fixed. We arrived in Mzuzu at 9pm, much later than planned. I was able to stay with my friend Toni, and she (very sweetly) had pumpkin soup and a warm fire waiting (Mzuzu is COLD this time of year).
We had to get an early start the next morning to get to Karonga (3 hours north of Mzuzu) where the food distribution was scheduled to take place. My colleagues picked me up at 6am (only 15 min late – not bad considering the last time someone was supposed to pick me up at 5am they arrived at 6!) and we headed out. The road from Mzuzu to Karonga is windy and steep – Karonga is on the lake, whereas Mzuzu is at a bit of an altitude. We arrived mostly on time (well, at the same time as our Mzuzu colleagues) and headed on to the distribution – it was the furthest north I have been in Malawi and we were only 20km south of the Zambian border.
The program launch was entirely in Chichewa and Timbuka (the language spoken in the north), so I didn’t pick everything up, but the opening speeches – given by the Traditional Authority, Group Village Head, Government representative, Mzuzu CADECOM secretary and National CADECOM Secretary (my boss) were well received by the crowd of villagers. After the speeches we were treated to a number of dances . First the women danced, accompanied by their own hand clapping and singing – although the style is different than in the south, it reminded me of my first village visit in Dolo. Next, some drummers came out – one on a traditional drum, the other playing on corrugated aluminum. They began to play, and then four energetic male dancers came out – it was the first time I had seem male dancers in a village – they were amazing. I had my camera so took some shots but was unable to capture the dramatic movement. I wish I had thought to bring my smaller camera, which takes videos, along.
After the celebration, we headed to the food distribution site, where people collected their monthly allotment – a 50kg bag of maize, 2L cooking oil, 5kg of beans and a small amount of maize seed for planting. People receiving their rations seemed very grateful, though it was difficult to imagine how they would get those huge bags of maize home – some had strapped them on bikes (people manage to strap an amazing amount of things on bikes here), some would carry them, rest and start again.
After the distribution, the villagers had prepared food for us. I was internally rolling my eyes as last time I had food in a village, it was interested, but not very filling. To my surprise, we were treated to big plates of rice covered in steaming beef stew, with chicken and another type of beef as well – it was a veritable feast and we left feeling very full!
We arrived back in Mzuzu at 6 – a long but satisfying day. The next day, to my delight, my boss suggested we take the lakeshore road rather than the way we had come. It is a bit longer, but very scenic and I was happy to take the extra time. We stopped in Nkhata Bay – a legendary place amongst travelers blogs – we only saw the port and market but it was quite a neat little town. I also saw these huge fish in the market – apparently the lake is deeper in the north, so different fish are available. Next we stopped at a rubber plantation where I got to see how they tap the trees for rubber and many young men crowded around the car selling rubber balls (I bought one!). Then I mentioned our weekend plans – we are planning to leave Friday for Kande Beach – so we stopped there on the way home as well. I am SO excited for the weekend now – the beach there is beyond gorgeous and the lodge we are staying at is perfect for relaxing – chalets right on the beach with chairs on the porch – hammocks, pool and lounge chairs near the bar and sparkling blue water and soft sand on the beach (the sand ahas been our only disappointment at the lake – it’s a bit coarse).
We then drove through Salima (closest place on the lake from Lilongwe, so we have been there a few times) and home.

Emergency Flood Response

This afternoon (if a vehicle is ever ready for us), I am heading up to Mzuzu with a few other colleagues from the Flood Response Project Management Team of which I am a part.
Flooding affected varius districts in Malawi in January and February of this year due to unusually heavy rain fall.
Unfortunately, this disaster has taken some time to respond to - to the point where this week will be the first food distribution to the flood victims from my organization.
Though I am sure that the food and non-food items that will be distributed through the program may have been more effective had we been able to respond more quickly, the items are still needed and will definately still be appreciated by the beneficiaries, so I am excited to see the program roll out.
Since we don't have much equipment to capture these events, I am using my camera to assist my organization in making a photographic record of the launch of the program - I hope to share some here at some point as well!
You can read more about the flood program, funded by Caritas Australia and CRS here:
http://www.caritas.org.au/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Search&template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=3744
(though note that I am not sure how the mis-information was recorded but there are only 1000 beneficiaries)

Another weekend in Lilongwe

After my last post, my roomate Heather's mom arrived in Lilongwe!
We made her dinner on Thursday night to welcome her to the AGQ house (that is what the Arntz-Gray and Quinn abode is known as).
It has been neat seeing how she has reacted to a lot of the things we are used to around here and makes me excited to show all of these discoveries to my mom when she comes.
On Friday night, Heather had her second birthday party (despite the surprise party we threw her last weekend, she had her own birthday plans...). It was a blast - we had a friend offer to host and another bring a rocking sound system.
Saturday was a day of relaxation for sure! Sunday morning we were up early to enjoy breakfast before heading off to the launch of the 25th anniversary of the AIDs Candlelight memorial. It was a fairly impressive event - many booths were set up - I can't believe how many AIDs organizations there are working towards different goals - from abstinence and condoms to nutrition and ARVs.
The president arrived and toured all the booths (during which time we watched him tour the booths from the stands...a little lacking in action I must say). Afterwards, the ceremony was opened, there were prayers from different religions...Catholic, Sheik, Muslim, Evangelical...
We then lit our candles and observed a moment of silence. It is a very different experience attending an AIDs event in a country where so many people have been affected by this tragic disease. After the moment of silence there were performances by many different groups - dancers, choirs, dramatic performances. I was intrigued by the drama groups - they use these groups to go into communities and perform with messages inside the performances. When I first heard the idea back in Canada, I wasn't sure what to think (were the performances lame?), but now that I understand a bit more about culture and communication here in Malawi, I can better understand the importance of this powerful tool. The audience paid close attention and reacted strongly - I could tell that the message was being received.
The theme for the Candlelight memorial was Never Give Up, Never Forget. It was a great experience attending a memorial like that in a place like this where a message of hope is so important.

Catching Up

After we got back from Mulanje, I headed off to Mangochi to finish the analysis of the baseline survey I had started the last time I was there. As usual, I really enjoyed the laid back atmosphere of the town - people walking everywhere or taking bike-taxis, friendly faces and the lovely mosques and veils from the high population of muslims in the area.
While I was there, I had dinner with one of CADECOM's new volunteers, Lisandra. CADECOM has two new volunteers, though neither is to be based in Lilongwe. Lisandra is in Mangochi working on gender and HIV mainstreaming and Vi is in Zomba working on cooperative development. Since I am working to monitor and evaluate our performance in those areas, I expect we will be working together despite the distance.
In the morning, I walked to work - when I did this, I walked past the prison for the first time. The inmates gave me friendly hellos from the other side of the chicken-wire fence separating the prison from the sidewalk. Things are definately more casual in Malawi - people were handing things in through the fence while the inmates greeted walkers-by.
The next night, my roomate Heather joined us on her own visit to Mangochi, and Cole also dropped by on his way back from Mulanje. We had a nice dinner together and some drinks in the gorgeous back patio of the Villa Tafika (my favorite hotel in Mangochi).
Once I finished my work on Thursday, Cole and I headed back to Lilongwe, but my driver was nice enough to stop a couple times on the way back for us to see the lake. It was my first visit to Club Makokolo (most exclusive hotel on the lake). The beach there is breath-taking, and the pools and bar luxurious. Cole and I had a drink with a South African couple celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary (yay them!), and I bought some salt pots from one of the vendors that paddled up to the beach while we were there.
We also visited Cape McClear while we were up there - it is a little sliver of land that sticks up into the lake in the southern part. Since it juts out, you can see the sun set right into the lake, which Cole and I did while taking a quick swim. After that we drove back to Lilongwe.
Friday I was up early, as we were planning a surprise birthday party for our roomate Heather that night. I made a chocolate chip banana cake and picked up all the groceries we needed for the party, which was to be held at Claire, Cole and Heidi's flat.
The party was a huge success - we had told Heather that we were having dinner for Cole's last night, so she had no idea that the party was for her. We had a blast and went dancing later at Chezntemba - a dance club here.
Saturday was low-key. On Sunday we went for a drive to Kasungu National Park to try and see some elephants, zebra or giraffes. Unfortunately, we were only able to see 3 antelopes. But the lodge we visited while we were there is gorgeous (though expensive), which is good to know for future! Then we stopped in Kasungu town for a really nice lunch where the menu declared that they served 'English Food'.
On the way to Kasungu, we realized we were low on gas and not being sure of where the next station was, we contemplated turning back to Lilongwe. When we saw a transport truck on the side of the road, we pulled over to ask, figuring the driver would know all about where to find gas. He directed us 3 km back down the road, but when we got to the small trading centre, we couldn't see a station. We asked the locals and were led to a lot with a bunch of derelict cars on it. One of the people there went over to one of the cars and pulled out a juice bottle, asking if we needed 5 litres or 10. We went for 10, then I took some photos of these guys filling our gas tank with juice bottles of fuel! It was totally awesome - sometimes I just can't believe how much I love Malawi!

Mount Mulanje

Ugh - has it really been 10 days since I blogged? Work and weekends have been so busy! I keep thinking of blogs in my head - will have to work at getting them in writing more often!

We went to climb Mount Mulanje May 1 - 4. May 1 was a holiday (Thursday) so we booked Friday off to extend the weekend. While we were climbing, I thought of many different blog titles - amoungst the finalists: How my I-pod got me up Mount Mulanje, Hiking, hiking and more hiking, and finally: How Mulanje kicked my ass.
The hiking was beautiful and the views were stunning. So so stunning. I definately want to go back, though next time we will plan a traverse hike rather than a peak attempt.
The first day started out wil lots of promise. All three of us like hiking, and there are porters available, so hiking with no backpack was quite a treat!! We made a group of 6 all together - Peter, our guide, Abdul and Alex, our porters, and the three Arntz-Grays. After about an hour and a half, we detoured to a beautiful waterfall - absolutely amazing. After a short refresh, we headed on up. Once you have hiked about 2 - 3 hours, you start breaking through the tree line and seeing the most beautiful vistas. Then we started to get tired. We had to choose to hike to Chambe hut (4 hours) or Chisepo (7 hours). We decided to keep trucking and go for Chisepo despite being tired. Lunch refreshed us somewhat so we made good time for part of the afternoon. All together it took us 8 1/2 hours to do what the guide called a 7 hour hike - not too bad all things considered!
The huts available to stay in are great - water is provided (we treated anyways though) and a fire is lit so you can cook on it. It was so nice to get up there and be able to take our hiking shoes off...that was definately the first order of business! There was actually beer and coke available for sale as well - I can't believe it is worth it to hike glass bottles all the way up that path just to sell them for 200 kwatcha ($1.50) - I would have paid 500! There was a big group hiking at the same time and sharing the hut, so there was a very celebratory atmosphere and lots of conversation.
The next day we tried for the highest peak in Mulanje (3001m), but the "hiking" was brutal. Mostly we were scrabbling up steep rock faces, often on all fours. I had several panic attacks going up while thinking about how we were going to get down. Finally, after three hours of hiking we reached the half way point and just had to admit that it was best to turn around. Weather conditions were not great, and it would have taken us all day just to get to the top - and the guide indicated it was to get steeper yet.
We headed back down and then hiked another four hours to Chambe hut so that we would have an easier hike down on the last day. The same larger group followed us again to Chambe, so it was nice to have company.
The last day included a lot of "was it this far? I didn't think it was this far?" on the way back down to the car. We also managed to meet up with our friend Cole, who was just heading up the mountain...his guide had recommended bringing up a live chicken to cook at the top! I guess then you don't need to worry about salmonella?
Anyways, it was a rewarding experience, and I definately want to return to that beautiful place!

Impressions of Africa

I just finished reading Stephen Lewis’s Race Against Time. It is a printed version of his Massey lectures delivered in 2005. It is a fast and interesting thought provoking read and I highly recommend it if you are interested. It made me very happy to be here, and to be working with a local organization. He is refreshingly pro-African (and I say that since we are constantly with development workers who, even though they are here, are sometimes negative about African structures, leadership, corruption etc.).
About corruption, Stephen Lewis makes an excellent point about throwing stones in glass houses – what about our own sponsorship scandals etc? He hates to see 53 sub-saharan countries lumped together because of the negative experiences of a few, and I wholeheartedly agree. He also makes some excellent points about the need to respect the local leadership and way of doing things. The IMF and World Bank Policies of associating access to funds with imposed conditions has done a great deal of damage to Africa, especially after colonialism.
To relate a personal experience, I am working with my local organization on a proposal, with which we are passionately arguing with our donors – they are insisting that staff be cut from the program where we as a local organization feel they are desperately required. How can a donor come in and tell local organizations what to do? They are not acting in the manner of a partner, but as a parent, and it is not right.
On the topic of cross cultural misunderstanding, I have to relate an experience from today. I was asked to facilitate the first section of a workshop a colleague of mine is running on Monitoring and Evaluation. I sucked. Spectacularly. I just didn’t have the audience, everything fell flat and no-one participated. I have a lot to learn in terms of what Malawians expect and their learning and participatory styles. My colleague then tool over and (though he took an hour to go through his section that was slotted for 15 minutes) he had the people participating, laughing and answering questions.
I think it would be helpful if I could learn the language, but though I started out strong, I am now so busy with work and out of town so often that I haven’t been able to fit a lesson in for 4 weeks – how frustrating.
I am also fluctuating at the moment through incredible highs and sudden lows – I love it here and am so enjoying working with my co-workers, living in the warm and beautiful country, and learning and growing. Sometimes I will just be walking down the street and then will stop to gape at my incredible surroundings and be so grateful to be here. Then at other times, all of a sudden, I will be gripped with a longing for home, for things familiar and comfortable, where even through there is great disparity between rich and poor there is just no comparison to the disparity here.

Colder

Well as it is warming up in Canada, it is cooling down in Lilongwe! It has only gone up to about 18 degrees in the last few days - I am missing the nice warm sunny days of March!
We will be staying in Lilongwe again for the third consecutive week and I am itching to get out and see another part of this country! I will just have to be patient though until next week - Thursday is a holiday, and we have booked Friday off, so we get a nice long weekend out of the deal. We haven't picked a destination yet, but were thinking of driving down to climb Mount Mulanje. I was thinking of waiting until we'd had the time to get a bit more fit, but I think we are ready enough, and our alternative plan of going to the beach on the northern lakeshore is a bit kaiboshed due to the chilly weather!
Any other ideas?

After Mangochi

Before anything else - I must take a minute to congratulate Jules on finishing his last exam - glad you persevered though my dragging you to Africa mid-way through a course - I am SO proud of you!!!!!!!!!!

I didn’t realize until my hasty post in the internet café in Mzuzu that I hadn’t blogged since my visit to Mangochi almost 2 weeks ago!
So I didn’t blog about our fabulous weekend after Mangochi! We had reserved tents in a resort on the southern shores of Lake Malawi – I had been there before briefly during a business trip, but Regan and Jules had never seen it. My first impression was that the shores are beautiful – the opposite shore is closer in the narrow southern part of the lake than in the middle, and so you can see the mountains on the other side more clearly. After dinner, we were shown to our tents only to find that they had reserved us two tents with broken zippers and no mosquito nets – obviously unacceptable in a country where Malaria is a frequent occurrence. We managed to argue our way into a room for the same price of the tents. It even had a TV, and a separate room for Regan and Wiley, so no arguing over leaving the light on to read – yay! We rejoiced over the TV – though I can’t bring myself to pay the price for it, and don’t miss it every day, it was amazing to find out how fun it was to have one for a few hours, even with 3 channels.
In the morning, we negotiated inexpensive breakfasts and then headed down to the lake. Unfortunately, we were told that we couldn’t have the room again for the same price and that no tents with zippers were available. For the price they were charging for the room ($12,000 KW – almost $90), I figured we might as well stay at a nicer resort. We headed down the way to Sun n’Sand, where we were able to finagle a room for $11,800 (should have been $15,000) and negotiated out of buying Regan and Wiley breakfast as we had brought cornflakes, so altogether got our stay for almost $10,000 less. Delighted with our (albeit tiny) room – TV with (gasp) 7 channels and (excited intake of breath) A/C – a rarely seen sight here in Malawi, we headed out to the Olympic size swimming pool. I must admit that though the view is breathtaking, the beach at both the first resort, Boadzulu, and at Sun n’ Sand was disappointing – the bottom was somewhat mushy and black in spots and there was a breakwater that kind of ruined the entrance for swimming…so we pretty much hung at the pool for the rest of the weekend – it was awesome and relaxing – reading books alternately in the sun and the shade, enjoying drinks by the pool, and watching a movie on TV. They even had African dancing after dinner in the restaurant! Arriving home on Sunday in Lilongwe, we felt relaxed and refreshed.
The following week was a busy one – on Tuesday we had a power outage and couldn’t make dinner until 9pm (oh what I would give for a gas stove!), Wednesday was my first volleyball game with my new team – unfortunately, we lost, but it wasn’t for lack of effort on behalf of our cheering squad – with our roommate, her boyfriend, Jules and Regan and other friends, I think there may have been more of them than of us playing! Anyways, we had pulled a late game, then stayed for drinks and an impromptu practice, making it a late evening. On Thursday, we joined the Portuguese club – after the great time in the Sun n’ Sand pool (I even got to do laps!), I decided I really would like to be able to have regular access to a pool in Lilongwe. The Portuguese club has a pool that is about 25m long, you can access it anytime, plus it has a fun high diving board (used mostly by shrieking children taking running jumps off the terrifying thing).
Thursday was also, sadly, Alexio’s (Heather’s boyfriend who had been visiting from Zimbabwe) last night in Lilongwe, so we went to a new place, Don Brioni’s. I have to admit to not being terribly impressed. The food was good, but portions were small and expensive – in fact it was the most we’d spent per person per meal yet, but weren’t wowed by it like we have been at other places. Friday, I stupidly agreed to join my friends Melissa and Heidi for a 2 hour yoga class. Tips for anyone who has not experienced yoga outside one trial class – you may not want to do 2 hours of advanced yoga with no training!!! Although it felt good afterwards, I think there were just too many poses I couldn’t do – think I will give it a miss until I can find a slower paced class.
The weekend was another perfect one – relaxing and all spent in Lilongwe. Saturday we got to go to a new superstore here – Chipiku – where we found some excellent deals, then to the Portuguese club for laps and sun and reading (and we managed to get our A/C fixed as well – yay!). Saturday night our new friend Carmen (who drove me to aerobics until I got my car) hosted a dinner party that was amazing – despite saying she couldn’t cook, she put on a meal to satisfy Martha Stewart and a dessert to match. We learned a new scrabble game and met new people. Inspired by the successful dinner party, we decided to host a BBQ Sunday at our place – it was so fun having friends over, and we have found some like-minded game playing people to hang out with for sure, playing Hoopla, eating, then playing Settlers and Pop 5 – a perfect night.