Bawo

by Dom on November 25th, 2006

So there’s this game called Bawo. Apparently it’s claimed to be the national board game of Malawi. I can’t verify. Either way it is pretty sweet. It’s similar to mankala, however, I don’t know how to spell or play it so I don’t know if it’s better or worse.

I did find a free download version of it that I’m curious about. I can’t download and install here, but if any of you give it a shot I want to know if it actually teaches you the directions and if it is any good at all.

Pictures!

by Dom on November 24th, 2006

So I finally got some pictures up. I appologize for the amount and the graininess and the lateness but I’m sure you will all get over it. Maybe I’ll get a picture of the A-team up one of these days…or maybe not. Anyway, I probably won’t be around the internet much next week, so take it easy.

Thanksgiving

by Dom on November 24th, 2006

So Thanksgiving was pretty awesome. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures so even when I do finally get some up, they won’t be from there.

It was a really good time. We all agreed rather quickly that the ambassadors (oooh at ambasa) house seemed like a level from Bond. With all the glass, dark wood and gardens. Gazebo’s, pools, grills, furniture, etc. It was a very nice place. It actually help set in the fact that I’m living here in southern Africa. I haven’t seen anything like it in America. Crazy nice. The pool measurements were in feet, which was novel.

The food was really good. They barbequed a whole pig. There were like 7 different mashed potato dishes, sweet potatoes, breads, stuffing, deserts, and it just goes on and on. I got so full after one plate I went and tried to take a nap under a tree in the shade. Very pleasant.

The ride home was a lot more lively than I expected considering the days activities. We had a fleetwood mac’s greatest hits tape cranked, and I was tapping out the beat on the 13 passenger minivan’s snorkel. Under the second most red sunset I’d seen here in Africa yet.

The absurdity level was astronomical considering that a little over a week ago I was in a mud hut with a thatch roof eating sima, and then I am in some palatial mansion of wood and glass gorging on pig and pumpkin pie. Speaking in English to everyone, no less.

All in all, it was a grand time, and I definitely apperciated the break from the status quo that seems to have been achieved.

*edit* I got a mohawk the night before.

Chichewa and Chitumbuka

by Dom on November 22nd, 2006

So the region I live in now speaks Chichewa and I am moving to one that speaks Chitumbuka. That’s why I have a little bit of both. I want to go ahead and give you guys an idea of what it would sound like and what the definition is for words I may just drop in because they are more appropriate.

Vowels:
“a” sounds like lobster
“e” sounds like ehh
“i” sounds like feed
“o” sounds like oh
“u” sounds like moo

Chichewa:
Abambo - Dad, Mister, Old man
Amayi - Femine of above
Achimwene - brother
Achimwali - sister
Tionana - See you later
Zikomo - Thanks, Excuse Me, Your Welcome
Madzi - Water
Kwambiri - Very much

Chitumbuka:
Badada - Dad, Mister, Old man
Bamama - Femine of above
Bakulu - Same sex sibling
Balongosi - Opposite sex sibling
Tionanenge - See you later
Yewo - Thanks, Excuse Me, Your Welcome
Maji - Water
Chomene - Very Much

Same in Both:
Chonde - Please
Boma - City center of a district. Basically the biggest city in the area
Pepani - Sorry
Chifukwa - because
Chimbudzi - Toillet or hole in the ground, also called Chim
Bafa - Shower, or bucket bath

I may try to amend this in the future so if I write something you don’t understand or just have a question let me know.

Packages

by Dom on November 22nd, 2006

Alright, so I’ve had some people asking me what they could mail me so I figure I’ll just put a list up of stuff. It’s mostly little things that would always be appreciated, but even if you don’t want to get any of that, letters are greatly appreciated. Especially in the coming months when internet won’t be so readily available.

• wool socks
• hammock
• Bic Click pencils
• Charcoal pencils
• Dictionary
• Thesaurus
• Harmonica*
• Guitar Strings**
• Good Obscure Books***
• Good pens
• Starcutout picks, or Mediums.
• desiged journals****

*I gave my harmonica to Nerodi(pronounced Melody with an N) it was a MS Blues Harp in C
**My personal favorites are elixir mediums monofilament(I think those are the slick ones. I like the slick ones)
***I can find a lot of commonly good books here, especially in the P.C. libraries.
****So a friend of mine here had his friends buy the Moleskine Cahiers, which come three to a pack, and put a design on the cover. Painting, drawing, gluing, writing, etc. I thought that was cool. He also has a friend leaving one in the bathroom and writing whatever he notes he would say to his friend if he was there. I thought it was a cool idea.

Basically anything along those lines, or anything would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

*edit* the POBox in the mass email is the address most have used it seems, but either is fine.

Ride Ride Ride, Hitching a Ride

by Dom on November 22nd, 2006

So today we got to hitch. Basically they took us out to the side of the road, 4 pairs at a time. Dropped us off along with a trainer. Gave us a destination and then let each pair of us flag down whatever we could and head to the market, which was our goal.

Yorgos (my partner in the pair) and I ended up going to Dedza Pottery for a good meal before we headed back. It was pretty awesome. I got a ploughmans lunch and a sandwich and a coke. I ended up dropping about a KG (that’s a grand of kwach{so kwacha is the malawian currency and I’ve slangified it by dropping the a}). Anyway, after that we got another ride back to the boma. It was pretty sweet all in all, we rode in two minibuses, which are basically haggard old minivans and a ride from some NGO’s in a sweet SUV.

Oh and I feel like I should also mention this near by bar that gets hit up from time to time. Ed’s place. It’s really sweet with a dark wood checker board, a deck of cards, and a bawo board laying out, comfy chairs, african carvings and the greatest selection of carlsburg available. It’s pretty great. And so is the bartender. He taught me some bawo strategy. There’s a sign hanging inside, written in blue pen that says “Respect a fool to avoid noise.”

Explaination and then some.

by Dom on November 19th, 2006

Alright so I’m back here’s the situation. We are in training and they have decided to let us use the internet as a priviledge so I can’t say how much I will actually get to use it.

So I had some other stuff but then it got erased and now I’m mad. So anyway, hmm. Let me see what I can remember.

So the best story I think have is the one where Jessie and I walked up to this store on the highway to buy some absurd shirt. After the purchase we noticed the abundance of kids in the shop with us, not especially strange but what was was the fact that they weren’t looking at us. They were staring outside at the “traditional african dancers.” It was getting dark so we had to go but there was definite hesitation as they were all dressed up in pom-pom like things and canvas masks with clubs and machetes. So we tried to be discrete. It didn’t work. They immediately saw us and came over. I was quite apprehensive, but it was relieved when they stuck there hand out asking for five kwacha. I laughed, told them I didn’t have K5 and asked them to give me K5, so they asked Jessie. She did likewise right back to them. And so it began some stupid bickering fight between four people on the side of the highway in english and chichewa back and forth asking for K5 and telling them not to beg. Until finally we all started laughing at the absurdity of the situation and just walked away. I think my final question for K10 went over the line and we parted ways.

From then on there was a mutual ignoring. There would be children running screaming past us down a dirt path and here would come this random shirtless guy with a mask and a machete chasing them and our conversations wouldn’t skip a beat. I guess that’s Africa for me.

Some other things you might be interested in, Grass roofs make no noise in the rain, and washing clothes in the river stretch them out.

I’m trying to put some pictures up but right now I’m having issues, but I will definitely keep trying.

Africa Baby…

by Dom on November 18th, 2006

Yeah, so I’m here. I have been here now long enough that most of the things aren’t really new. So bear in mind this keyboard is not well and that I don’t have much time, so here we go.

We got dropped off for our homestay and I imediately picked out my “dad” by his crazy facial hair. He had sideburns that went straight into a mustache. So there was lots of singing and dancing.

The village was really neat. There is a small river that runs between it and another and that’s where we would wash clothes. It was really small and so we could hang out daily. Basically I would wake up at 5am, just because, hang out until 6, take a splash bath, eat breakfast of white/brown bread, or boiled potatoes or african cake, never at the same time. Go pile into the PC land cruiser to be shuttled to class. I taught math at a freshman level for about 5 weeks. It went well. After class we would come home for lunch and then language, I have to learn Chitumbuka. Which sometimes made the homestay extra hard because the village only spoke Chichewa, so I got a little of both.

There were some really sweet sunrises and sunsets and we hiked up a couple of nearby mountains, and went shopping in the market and had to shake a million hands.

That is all in past tense because I just got back from the village fairwell. I’m done. I lived in a mud hut in Africa, and spoke the language and ate the food. Sima, mmmm. The fairwell was really cool, we sang “Lean on me” and they did some singing, dancing, drum playing, acting, etc. etc. The ambassador came out as well as the country director. It was definitely a good time.

Again, not many details but have no fear I’ve kept a very detailed journal that I plan to transcribe digitally when I get back that will have more details than you could want.

Hey, and since Internet and definitely going to be scare, really great packages and letters are always appreciate. Honestly any letters are appreciated.

Ok so I really really appreciate all the comments. They keep me sane. I also know exactly the town I’m going to be in so if you want to know, you need to get in contact with the family. They should know. Tumbuka’s only spoken in the North fyi. Sorry there’s not more.