Other Issues…

by Dom on September 26th, 2008

Why’s Gmail so jacked? It’s been acting up for the past month now it seems. First had to go to the secure site or it wouldn’t load or act funny, now it just gives me an error and opens a new window and won’t send emails. I’d love to let them know but they conveniently don’t have a means of contacting them that I’ve see that I felt would be useful. Just a lot of FAQ’s.

Google best get it together.

Ruarwe Hike

by Dom on September 26th, 2008

Just got back from the Ruarwe hike as I call it. It’s actually a hike from Mlowe to Usisya. I arrived in Mzuzu at 5:30am. It’s been a long day and it’s only 8:30 but I figure now’s the time to tell the story. So Paige and I started on sunday I think. We hitched up to Chiweta, which is just past the escarpment in Karonga district in the north. We took a matola(small truck crammed with people) on a pleasant ride down a dirt road to a coastal town of Mlowe. There we just took a right down a road and kept walking for about four days. The road dwindled into a path pretty quickly and it mostly followed pretty closely along the lake shore. I had heard it can be hiked with two four hour days and a six hour day. We packed two loaved of peanut butter sandwiches and planned on inviting ourselves to eat with the locals.

The first day it was windy, really really windy. Clear and sunny but almost cold because of the wind. We hiked for about an hour, found a beach and went swimming. Stopped for lunch, got sima and goat! That’s pretty much how the story goes. We did that for a while the first day. Maybe 5+ hours. Ended up camping on a beach at Chisanga. It was a weird and beautiful place. Real secluded but apparently well off. I saw a lot of glass windows and iron rooves. While we sat on the beach recouping and waiting for dinner to be ready some kids swarmed. Some brought some tamarind and I found out that they are pretty good. Real sour. Like one or two will burn my tongue. I told them I liked them and they brought me a plastic grocery bag full of them. I still am eating them. We had rice and vegetables for dinner there. We also signed some guest book and heard stories about how other visitors stayed for weeks.

The next day the path got more treacherous. That’s the only word for it. It got a lot more narrow and sandy and high and rocky. I was using my hands to climb some hills, I wouldn’t say they were mountains. We would hike for kilometers on almost nothing but rock. Rock cut out of the side of a hill or placed there to maintain the path. We stopped and swam at a couple beaches ate some of our sandwiches for breakfast and snacks. This second day was overcast mostly. It got hot in the afternoon but soon the sun was behind the mountain so it wasn’t bad. We had gotten a much earlier start than other people who we had talked to so we had gotten further the first day and became ambitious the second day and tried to push through to Ruarwe(take some time figure out how to say it…now continue). We were starting to feel the wait of our packs and the Chaco sandals were starting to wear on our feet. After continously asking people how far to ruarwe and getting answers from three hours to one hour, though in no particular order and repeated multiple times we decided to stop. It was around 5:30pm when we stopped at Kandowe. We were beat and had probably done more like 6+ hours of hiking that day. I inquired if they had a resteraunt. They didn’t, however one of the guys we were talking to said he’d feed us. Awesome. He just lived at the top, the peak, the zenith, of this hill/mountain. I was again on my hands as I climbed up there. We had Usipa and cassava sima. I don’t mean to be an ingrate but I wasn’t pleased. Usipa is little fish about the length of your pinky and they let them dry in the sun and then they weren’t cooked. You eat them whole. I skipped the heads and left them in a little pile in the bowl. Lunch had been fish too, a little bigger different fish that was cooked. Though had still been left in the sun in preparation for the meal. Not the best marinade. Afterward we pretty much slid down the hill on our butts back to the beach and set up tents.

The third day we set off with the knowledge that when we asked how far to Ruarwe we were told 2-3hrs or 1hr if you were strong. What does that mean. We ended up taking about 2.5hrs. I guess we weren’t strong, I’m ok with that. That part was equally if not more treacherous with more steep steep hills and rocky precipices. We made it to Ruarwe around lunch time. We found out that it is about six hours to Usisya from there and decided not to stay the night there but to knock some hours out later that day, beach camp again and finish the next day. Also I had heard(incorrectly) that Usisya was the better lodge. So we stayed for lunch at Ruarwe. I tried to nap and did some snorkling too. We stayed there about four hours. It was a nice break. My feet were really hurting then. We finally left around three. Pushed on through some of the most hilly and landlocked part of the hike. It was crazy seeing the hills and the people just marching up and down them carrying water on their head or whatever. We reached a beach and camped around five. Ate only our sandwiches for dinner and had some coffee. I played a little guitar and we guyed out our tents to some beach ivy because for like 40min there was intense wind. It stopped when I finished tying them down and I don’t think it came back all night. Annoying but still necessary, the wind was blowing our tents over with our packs and stuff inside them. It had to be done.

The next day we did about three and a half hours and made it to Usisya. Thats when we found out the inferiority of it. It was ok, we were glad to be finished. I had blisters and a sore heel and it was nice to not have to walk anymore that day. It felt kind of like when Jenn and I got to Likoma though. Just very unsatisfying. The kicker was when we found out the 5am matola out actually is a 2am matola. I decided not to sleep and made a liter of instant coffee. It didn’t help, I found this hanging bed, it was amazing. I slept. Only to find out that the 2am matola was actually a 1am matola and we were late. So we basically ran to the thing half asleep with my feet screaming and my pack half closed. I had heard stories of this matola. I was hoping to plan this whole trip around avoiding this matola. I envisioned a small brown pickup with about thirty people plus stuff in it skidding its way up this mountain ledge. I was pleasantly surprised. It turned out to be what we(and I think the UK-ians also) call a lorry. Like a big flat bed but with like two foot sides. So we crammed in this thing sitting on crates of empty beer bottles and usipa coming to the market in mzuzu and climbed our way up a surprisingly well maintained path/road. I was on a bag of fish, pinched between some luggage and a wall. Fortunately not the cliff side. I almost slept on the thing although it was cold and windy up through those hills and the constant honking to wake up any one who might want a ride didn’t help. The trail took us about two and a half hours through the mountains under a full moon and then we just appeared in Mzuzu at dawn. The road we came in on I didn’t think left town, just looped around. I was wrong. Now I’m here, showered up, sore and tired. I got some sweet photos though, of course.

Oh an amusing story. We were hiking past this house, there was a small dog(all the dogs are small), it was barking it’s head off. I turned my head slowly to look at it and it yelped and ran away inside. Just freaked out and ran off. I mean, I scare babies but dogs are a new one for me.

Stupidest Pre-PCV Action

by Dom on September 8th, 2008

So a bit irrelavent comment. Selling my free-ride bike before coming here was probably the stupidest thing I did. I keep wanting to ride that thing.

EARLY COS!

by Dom on September 4th, 2008

So I got approved for Early COS(close of service) my date is Oct. 17. I don’t know when I’ll actually be home though. Especially because I’m trying to leave again within the first week to go visit the schools I want to apply to.

Busy day

by Dom on September 4th, 2008

Oh it’s been a busy day. Packed. Posted scores for Form one’s presentations. Reviewed a past test for form two. Got three hitches into town. Saw the doctors. Talk to an APCD or three. Made sure my bank account stuff was on file. Returned my PC books.

The middle ride was with real cool Malawian. Possibly the coolest actually. He has a phd in business, as well as a masters and undergrad in that. However he’s an agriculture specialist. He has his own business with like seven subsidaries. Teaches part time at a private university in town. What we talked the most about however, is how he is heading this consortium of different churches wanting to help their constiuency. They are teaching people especially affected by droughts and flooding how to manage their farmland and resources better to not have such problems and not be so dependant on foreign emergency aid. He said when he first arrived no one wanted to participate because they knew they would just get relief aid. But now he has over three thousand households participating. Using new techniques for farming they are increasing their production. Varying their crops means different harvest seasons less dependant on rains. They are creating seed banks so if crops get ruined they don’t have to get aid to help they can just start again with their own seeds. And other such ideas. It sounds like a true success story. I guess that can only be seen in the years to come but right now I am really impressed.

Now time to go to the grocery find food for dinner and work on some paperwork for PC. yay.