Things

Posted in Site, Overall, Lilongwe, The Lake by Dom on December 12th, 2006

So I’m using the internet now in Lilongwe. Tomorrow we swear in and become real volunteers, and then it’s off to site. Thursday that is. The schedule is pretty slammed and the internet was down the entire last week at the training site. So I guess a brief recap is in order.

Site visit. Well I can honestly say I know what the craziest experience of my life is. So I hitched with Mary Cate, since her site was on the way, to my place. It was an on-and-off trip of great fun and a lot of walking. Well maybe 7km total. We ended up doing most of the time in the cab of a truck with a driver named Simian that’d been driving for 9yrs and hoped to go to America one day to drive tractor trailers. Or so he says. I guess only time will tell. One thing I found amusing, when people flash their lights at you it isn’t because a cop is right around the corner. It’s because they know you and are saying hi. That’s how many people drive trucks here.

The adjective I decided my site merited was pleasant. I can see Zambia on the horizon and the sunrise from the other side. There are tons of fruit trees, orange, lemons, mangos. Mmmm, mango’s. My school has less than 150 at any given time, and my class size is pretty much the total divided by 4. So quite reasonable compared to what was previously expected. My house is nice too, four rooms, with a courtyard, an outdoor kitchen, a baffa and a chim. The standard set up. So much so actually that Chris and I have the same layout and we’re in two different districts.

After site visit, I went to see the summer school put on by first year education volunteers, which we will be in a year or so. Then I decided to take the lakeshore road south because it seemed like the same distance, M1 or M5. I was warned that the M5 was slower and that there weren’t many cars. I figured I had all day and there should be some tourists. No tourists. I left Mzuzu at 8:30am and got into Lilongwe at 10:30pm. That includes the hour I spent in Salima, which is probably the worst hour of my life. Bar none(that I can think of right now). The ramen noodles Jessie let me have were thoroughly appreciated.

Then it was back to training to process our visit and have our headmasters come so they could find out what we are actually suppose to be doing at their schools. It was a good time.

Now I just got my passport, which is awesome because I live so close to Zambia. And I just bought a guitar, which is also awesome because I’ve been playing Chris’ so much recently. I paid about $140 US, or like K19.5 Malawian. It’s no sparkly red sub-fender awesomeness but it’ll do. Hopefully if someone comes to visit they will walk mine over as a carry on. It’s possible, that’s how Chris got his here.

Speaking of visiting. Come. Seriously, I can show you around, you can stay at my house, we can go see the sites. However, my site doesn’t have running water, power, or cell phone service, so make sure you send the letter or email way in advance if you want me to be waiting for you at the airport. However if you feel comfortable using Malawian transport, have at it. I do like surprises.

One last thing, I have some updated addresses for people. I’m going to send an email. If you don’t get the email, ask someone, they may have, if no one got it, still use the old one. It will always work.

Oh and if you want to send me stuff, besides the stuff already below, gray shirts, decent flip flops(that fit), and wash clothes would be awesome. I guess frisbee’s and a yoga mat, and other trivialities would be nice as well. Oh and cheese products of any kind. Really anything you send is greatly appreciated.

After this don’t expect to see much up here for a while. Thanks.