Saturday, April 25, 2009

Vacation!!

Hello world. I just got back from an interesting vacation/adventure on the northern lakeshore. I took lots of awesome pictures so make sure you check those out using the link on the left (sorry I may not have these ones up for another months since this computer isn’t cooperating). I went with four of my good buddies; thus the official title for this sojourn was “Man Camp.”


(Perhaps you will want to look at a good map of Malawi while reading this)

The trip started of with me hitching up north to a small city/big town called Mzuzu. This was my first time being north of Lilongwe, and I must say that the North is way different than the central region I am from. In brief, there are a lot more trees and a lot less people up there. Coincidence, I think not.

The next morning the five of us took a minibus up to a small trading center on the lake called Chiweta. I can best compare this area, the northern lakeshore, to the lakeshore of Lake Superior-except with much different flora, more heat, and warmer water. From Chiweta we took a matola (large flat bed truck used for transporting massive amounts of goods and people over rugged roads) to Mlowe. From there we started hiking south the rest of the afternoon. That night we found an idyllic beach to camp on just outside of a small fishing village.

The next day we were all feeling lazy and out of it, and we didn’t get very far. Nevertheless, we did move a little further south, and by evening we were having a difficult time finding a camp site. A little before dusk we spotted a small beach that was just big enough for the five of us… so we set up camp. While setting things up, some villagers came by to inform us that we had to move because this beautiful little beach is where the local women bathe every morning (oops!). Luckily, these guys helped us find another spot to spend the night further down the trail. They also informed us that a boat going south would be stopping in the nearby village the next morning.



With this good news (good because we were collectively disgruntled with the trail’s rough terrain (which begs the question: Was this trip worthy of the title “Man Camp”?) and it’s a heck of a lot easier to sit on a boat rather than climb mountains), we awoke early the next morning to catch the boat for an hour long ride south to Ruarwe, a larger fishing village. Here we spent three nights at a nearby lodge called Wherearewe? (lake-paradise.com), which was absoloutely beautiful. It feels silly to try and describe it in words. You all will just have to come and see it for yourself (I will be happy to serve as your tour guide). Anyways, here’s a list of some of the stuff we did there: two hour hike up a waterfall with tea at the top, jumping off 50 foot cliffs, snorkeling with the colorful fish of lake Malawi, eating great food such as banana fritters; ravioli; and good old rice with beans, attempting to paddle to local dug-out wooden boats, and chatting it up with the local village folk. All I can really say about this place is that it is one of the top five most beautiful places that I have ever been too. Get there fast while it is still cheap; the owner has plans of turning it into a five-star resort!

After three days of relaxation, we were running out of money and time so we decided that we better head back to Mzuzu. To do this, we first had a six hour hike with cool weather and gorgeous scenery until we reached a place called Usisa. We were told that a matola would be leaving at 6pm to take us over the mountains and back to Mzuzu. Not surprisingly, we didn’t actually leave until about eight, but looking back on the whole experience the tardy departure was the least of our struggles.

I will never forget this dark, crowded, uncomfortable, slow, muddy, wet, and frightening four hour matola ride. First of all, the road over the escarpment was barely passable-muddy, steep and rutted out, as the rainy season in this area was just coming to a close. On three separate occasions all of us passengers had to get out so that the driver could wiggle the truck up an especially difficult section of road. Once he made it through these obstacles, there was always a mad rush to get back into the truck bed as everyone yelled “Place!, place!, place!”. The last time we all mounted to truck, I wasn’t quick enough, and I ended up standing on the outside, barely hanging over the railing as we barreled our way through the hills in the middle of the night. To add insult to injury, it was raining during the last hour or two of the trip until we finally arrived in the quite city of Mzuzu. I certainly didn’t enjoy this last leg of our trip, but I must say that it was very interesting and crazy. It is something I am glad to have experienced, but not something I ever want to experience again.

The next morning, after taking care of some business in the city, I started hitching south to Lilongwe. My first ride broke down about an hour south of Mzuzu. Luckily, we stalled next to a small village where I was able to quickly catch another ride with some guys in a truck hauling lumber south all the way to LL. This wasn’t the best ride (we probably averaged about 40 mph with a heavy load through the hills, and we had to stop ever hour or so to find water for the engine with a leaky radiator). It took us about eight hours on a trip that ideally lasts four hours. However, it all ended well with our safe arrival in LL late yesterday evening.

I’m leaving out a lot of juicy details here, but I can’t spend all afternoon writing this. My vacation’s over, and I have to get back to saving the world. Peace out.

"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Quick Update

I don't have time to write up a whole speal today, but I do have to things to tell you about. One, notice that my phone number (on the left column) now has a few more 9s. Two, you can now look at a whole bunch of my pictures by using the link, username, and password under "Links." Please let me know if there are any glitches with this. Perhaps I will have time to write a real post next weekend...

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Hello everyone-I'm still alive. I know it's been a while since my last post, but I haven't had internet access for a while. Nevertheless, I'm here now, so without further ado, please allow me to give you the lowdown on my life the past month our so.

The rains were supposed to end a few weeks ago. However, thanks to those industrialized countries; in the developed world; with their SUVs, power plants, technology, smoke, smog, plastic bottles, fossil fuels , and Al Gore with his climate change; the weather has been slightly different this year. We have still been getting a lot of rain. The farmers in the area where I live (which I guess includes just about everyone, including myself) have all been telling me that these late rains will cause problems with the upcoming maize harvest, as a large portion of the crop may be rotting. I remember a few months ago when everyone was complaining that we weren't getting enough rains. Now we are getting too much. I guess farmers are the same all over the world: they are never content with yesterday's weather or tomorrow's forecast. But I shouldn't make it sound like we are having monsoons all of the time because we do still have some beautiful sunsets.

On a different note, Friday was the last day of Term 1 at my school. I'm now at the capital, and this afternoon I will be headed back to Dedza College of Forestry (the place where I had most of my training last year) to spend 10 days doing something called a Reconnect. I will be meeting back up with everyone that I went through training with, and we will have the chance to complain and joke about our first few months on our own, develop our language skills, and learn about other useful things like grant writing and such. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again (I've already been seeing a lot of old faces today). During this time, I should also have an opportunity to visit the family I was living with back in November. I have a nice framed picture of us to give them, and I'm hoping they'll give me another sack of spuds or maybe some peanuts like they did when I left Dedza in December. After that, a bunch of us are planning on taking a multi-day hike along the northern lakeshore. I haven't done a lot of traveling so far, as I have been busy with school, so I pumped to finally have a chance to get out and see more of Africa. I should have some cool picks from this little adventure in a few weeks.

As I said, I am now done with school, and we will begin Term 2 in three weeks. All in all, things have been going well for me. The two boys that I have living with me are now like my little brothers, my students appear to at least be learning something, my Chichewa is getting better everyday, I have lots of IGAs (income generating activities) lined up in the community, and Chadabwa is truly beginning to feel like my home. Two weeks ago, the boys helped me triple the size of my garden. It's looking pretty good, although the maize we planted is having some trouble (They keep trying to convince me that we need to apply fertilizer while I tell them we just need to make more compost. I have a feeling they're going to put down some fertilizer the next couple of days since I won't be around to stop this from happening. This country's addicted to fertilizer, but it appears to be the only immediate solution to feed everyone because there are simply too many people living here and there is not enough land to feed everyone.). It will be nice to have a break from village life for a few weeks, but I already miss everyone back home in Chadabwa.

Before I go I should tell you about the funeral I went to a few weeks ago. In the area where I live, the predominate tribe is Chewa while the predominate religion is Christianity (especially the Catholic and Presbyterian flavors). At this point, I don't entirely understand how these two cultural aspects-tribe and religion-coexist (there does appear to be some tension between the two, perhaps analogous to the superficial feud between science and religion), but both are very important parts of the Malawian culture. Anyways, this funeral was strictly of the Chewa variety, without any Christianity added. Certainly it was different than any funeral I have seen before, and although it's difficult for me to explain it in words (I will have some pictures in the future (this time around the chiefs wouldn't allow me to bring a camera) after I am "initiated" into the Chewa tribe (a friend has told me that this "initiation" will consist of spending a few consecutive nights at the village's manda (graveyard)-obviously I will have more to say about this in the future))), let me try to highlight some of the more interesting parts. The entire village community was, or more accurately-was expected to be, present. There were also many people from outside the community (they were all very surprised to see me, a white man, that far away from Town at a funeral in the village). I would estimate that there were about 300 people present. This was a surprise to me because (I say this with no intention of disrespecting the individual) the man that passed away was only an ordinary person in the village. The highlight (yes there is a highlight to a Chewa funeral) of the ceremony was the Gule Waukulu, which means Big Dance in English. This consisted of three traditional dancers, in elaborate costumes with disturbing masks, putting on a ten or 15 minute performance in which they danced while collecting money from the crowd. If I interpreted everything correctly, the idea is that the dancers represent spirits, and these spirits have the responsibility of escorting the deceased into the afterlife. The funeral definitely involved mourning, but the Gule Waukulu was more like a celebration with people laughing and enjoying the dance. I will have more to say on Chewa culture in the future since I find it fascinating, and I am becoming good friends with a guy that is always telling me that he will teach me things “DEEP into Chewa culture.”

That’s all for today folks, but I will leave you with a word of wisdom. The next time you are disgruntled with the “economic crisis” just think that it could be a lot worse if you were living in immense poverty like the people I see here every day. As Eric the Midget likes to say, “Buy for now.”

"Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another." Hermann Hesse