Jon and Emily Are Having a Kid!

by Dom on January 12th, 2009

Just wanted to say congratulations to Jon and Emily(see the gallery).

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.

TJ, he gone

by Dom on August 11th, 2008

So TJ came. We had a good time. Though it started out a bit hectic. See he had decided he wanted to do something famous while he was here and after talking him out of climbing Kilimanjaro he decided he wanted to do Victoria Falls so he bought his tickets to fly out of Lusaka, Zambia instead of Malawi. So that made a lot of plans a bit awkward. I had wanted to do the lakeshore hike and maybe camp in Liwonde national park and hike Mulanje but there would be no time to get to Lusaka after all that. Once he got here he thought he wanted to go really far north but then there wouldn’t have been time for Victoria falls, we would have just had a few extra days in limbo killing time. Not the best way to vacation.

So what happened was after he flew in we stayed in Lilongwe a night and then went up to my house for a night and tried to strategize. We woke up deciding to skip Malawi and go straight to Zambia so we would have time to do both Victoria falls and South Luangwa national park. See one of our hitches just came from the park and claimed it was like being in the middle of National Geographic. So that sold TJ. We walked out to hitch around 9, a lazy morning, and then decided, yet again, that we would let fate decide. I stood on the northbound side of the road to flag at the traffic towards the lake and he stood on the southbound side to flag at traffic that would take us to Zambia. I got a ride and off to Nkhata Bay we went.

We stayed there a couple days, got a discount on a chalet because of booking confusion, sweet! Swam a lot, ate a lot, walked a lot. It was cool. We then left early to try to get to Zambia in a day. We made it. We got a hitch down the scenic lakeshore road with a South African. He had something to do with the Uranium mine in the north. He was difficult to understand. He got there in enough time to hitch out to the border and on to Chipata though, so that was cool. Chipata was cool, like a big Mzuzu, except I broke my sunglasses Jenn had brought me pretty much the instant I got there. I did find some pretty sweet replacements though as you’ll see when I can post some photos.

Anyway hung there for a night, met some people, drank some beer, the usual. In the morning we hitched out to South Luangwa. Got a truckbed ride down a 100k dirt road for a couple hours. It’s pretty hot there too for it being winter and all. This is where we encountered the only problem of the trip. The place we got dropped was booked, it being busy season and all. So we had them call around and find us someplace else, and then because there were like elephants and hippos blocking the path to the bar and everwhere else, they had to drive us to this other place the booked for us. It was called croc valley or croc farm or something. There weren’t many crocs where ever it was. We stayed there one full day, did two drives and saw pretty much everything but cheetahs and rhino. We saw elephants, hippos, crocs, buffalo, giraffe, lion, leopard, hyenas, etc. Pretty sweet. The hyena laugh still haunts my dreams, it was pretty creepy. It worked out because TJ had decided he needed to stay until we saw some lions and we saw some the second ride. Convenient when trying to get to Vic Falls. So we made some friends and got a ride back to Chipata in the back with luggage. We got there it was no hassle which was nice.

Again, stayed there a night, met some people, drank some beer, the usual. Then we hitched to Lusaka. Got a free ride with some nice locals and found the suggested hostel with open beds. Stayed there one night and decided to take a bus to Livingstone, the Zambia border town closest to the falls. It wasn’t the best choice. The 8hr bus ride was not very pleasant on the rough roads. So much so that when we left we reverted to our hitch hiking ways. But we got there and again found the suggested hostel with available beds. It was a pretty cool place. Colorful, informative, except there was a lady there that was quite rude. I heard rumors that she didn’t like the busy season. She more seemed to not like her life, but that’s just what I saw. We never spoke about it though. That place had an interesting policy of not keeping your bed unless you had paid for it; which made for some worrisome days when we forgot to pay. Fearing we would return with our stuff in the office and some random traveler in our bed. It never happened though.

The first day we missed the free transport down to the falls from the hostel and so we walked and hitched and eventually got a taxi. We had a great time. We did the normal thing walking around the park taking picturing and getting wet in the spray. Then we hiked down this path to the run-off, the first rapid, called the boiling pot. It was rocky and wet and cool. Climbed around a bit, found a little somewhat calm pool if you will and took a swim. The water was pretty cold and every now and then a big rush would flood the thing and make me fear I was being washed out to swim the rapids. Which really did look like fun, especially after hiking around under that hot Zambian sun all day. After that we decided to try to figure out how to get on the other side of the falls. We had seen, before going, there was a pool at the brink of the falls that you could swim in. While we were taking pictures we saw some people over there so we wanted to check it out ourselves. We found a rasta guide to show us the way. He took us to some nice spots for photos and then showed us the pool. It was pretty crazy. Our guide showed us some points we could jump in. And we did. They were about five or ten meters up. A good jump. We waived to the tourists on the normal side and dove in, well feet first, clenching our butt so as not to be cleansed. Again the water was cold, but invigorating, especially being so close to the falls. I’ll definitely try to post some photos when I get a chance. The only downfall to that trip was that I lost my knife. A real bummer but I figure theres no better place to lose a knife than one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Once the swimming was done, I walked over to the Zimbabwean border and got ripped off for a ten million dollar note. I think I paid the equivalent of about twenty two cents. Oh well, it’s a nice souvenir I’m told. It has an expiration date on it. A smart idea, if a bit funny I thought.

After that we hitched back. The next day we did a rafting trip. It was probably the highlight of the whole trip. It wasn’t actually rafting, it was riverboarding, you just had to go with the rafters. I had never heard of this or seen it anywhere, but what it is is they give you short fins, a boogie board, a helmet and lifejacket and you basically swim the rapids. It really made regular rafting seem like a cakewalk. The water was cold and as anyone that’s been diving with me knows, I get cold easily, I was shaking the whole time. It was awesome though, just awesome! They would pick us up and raft us over the calm sections and drop us back in right before a rapid. We’d strategize a bit with out guide and then swim as hard as we could accordingly, which was normally against the very strong current. By the end of the trip my feet just flapped behind my legs my ankles were so beat. The next day my thumbs were sore from my deathgrip the deathgrip I had on my board the whole time. I only thought I was going to die about four times too, it was great. Saw some crocodiles, unfortunately they only stayed on the shore in the sun. I thought it would be pretty funny to see one of those things flopping it’s way down those crazy rapids beside me. That river was really deep and it was crazy to feel the currents underneath. They’d pull your legs all over the place. The whole thing was just intense. Afterwards they gave us beers and lunch which went well with the breakfast they provided before the trip. We watched the video they made and got ripped off buying the photos they took. I’ll post some of those when I can too. That was pretty much day two.

Day three, there, we just walked around and hung out and recovered. Nothing too special. Went shopping in the curios, watched the new texas chainsaw massacre, and animal planet while eating lunch, weird. Then we hitched back to Lusaka the next day and TJ flew out and I hitched again, back to Chipata. In all my wisdom I left my credit cards in TJ’s bag too, so I hope they enjoy their trip to Europe.

Overall it was a great time. Back in Lilongwe now sorting out my bank stuff and preparing for COS conference. Hazah! (oh yeah, my pink eye is better.)

Jon and Emily

by Dom on June 27th, 2008

So Jon and Emily came and went. It was a great time. We spent a few days at my house where they saw me teach and helped me get water. We spent some time in Lilongwe doing fourth of July stuff and we went to the lake for a few days as well. I was impressed with how they handled all the situations. Like they were old pro’s or something. They were so easy it was great. They even cleaned my house and filled up all my water buckets while I was teaching the last day we were there.

It was nice for others to see the kind of things I get to face day in and day out. Like sweet random hitches and food that almost tastes American. We all actually thought it did taste American until Jon corrected us. Out of a room of 10 I think half did a double take when he said nik naks tasted nothing like cheetoh’s. Amusing. I got him hooked on bao. I just hope he finds people to play with besides Emily, cause I know she’ll get tired of it. If he doesn’t I just keep whooping him when I get back, well he did beat me two consecutive times and deemed himself the bao champion and started talking smack to Malawians saying he was the best. I don’t think he ever let them challenge his title though. He also was kind enough to bring a soccer ball for my school which was in desperate need of one. Though now, two weeks later, it’s almost unrecognizable from the bunch. It’s amazing how they treat things.

I think they had a good time. It was stressed by some of my previous engagements but they were good sports about it and seemed to make the best of it all. We made it to the lake and thats all I really wanted to do. Now they’re home safe. Back reliable transportation and food, and traffic jams, mcdonalds and headaches. Although I think traffic fume headaches are worse than sun/boredom ones. I’m extremely glad they came and I think everyone enjoyed meeting friends of mine.

Bike Training

by Dom on June 1st, 2008

I was approached over a month ago by another volunteer asking if I would lead a training or workshop on bicycle maintenance. He had some questions, thought it would be great if I could get some of the tools from lilongwe to show him how to fix his bike, and maybe invite some others. I said sure no problem, I’d love to, sounds great. So some time goes by and we figure a date, this friday, would be best for us. It was the earliest I wasn’t busy. So this week I’m down in lilongwe for my term break and I’m thinking “Great, I can get the tools myself and bring them up so I know we’ll have them.” My plan then is to leave wednesday for mzuzu so I’ll have thursday to relax, friday for the training and travel again saturday and sunday. Well I decided to take teusday morning off from school research and internet to try to think what I want out of a school. However the transit house manager then approached me to help them maintain bikes because it’s my holiday and I’ve helped before. That wasn’t the plan so I’m not really pleased, but I go. We make a plan on how to handle the returned bikes, which to maintain and keep and which to get rid of. And we begin some maintenance.

Right, so this makes me see, yet again, how large this problem repeatedly is. So I go to talk to the GSO, the person in charge of the whole bike program. We discuss the current situation but he’s also curious about my training. I tell him it’s nothing big I just need to borrow some tools. He’s like ok, could you just talk to your APCD(kind of boss) about it. Sure why not. And he asks if I’ll do it again next week when there are a lot more volunteers around in lilongwe. I tell him probably, though I have reservations since Jon will be here. We schedule but I’m still not sure if I’ll keep the appointment or not. We’ll see. I digress. I am then called in by my APCD to the GSO’s office to talk with them. See we emailed the CD to clear the second training and they had questions about the whole affair. So I’m called in and told that they’ve decided to cancel my training in mzuzu…

I sit and think…how to respond.*

So I go on to explain the utility of the training and they understand that. Which was great. We’ve worked out a plan for the future based on this idea; which is a partial answer to the bigger bike problem. Fantastic. However, I’m still going north, and people will probably still be there, so now they’ve just not let me have tools. Which means problems go unfixed until this better solution can be enacted and performed, which in all it’s bureaucratic honestly probably won’t be until long after I’m gone. Unless I decide to care about the office’s problems and push it myself.

See, this is an example of how a seemingly innocuous request can become a huge ordeal and then even get nixed. Truly inspiration is what it is. Just not in a good way. Ah, policy.

*What they fail to see is they are completely irrelevant. They knew nothing about it two hours earlier for a reason. We saw no need to explain it to them. We need nothing from them except tools. So their “veto” is effectively meaningless. But how to put that tactfully was the problem.

North East West South!

by Dom on May 26th, 2008

So apparently there was an attempted coup here! Ah interesting news at last…not. It seems there was just some plotting that happened. The former president was arrested though, so that’s serious. Apparently there were crowds of people doing raucous things but I didn’t notice. We went out looking for beer and it was a normal dead sunday. Today seems like a normal monday too. Oh well, I guess if I wasn’t here it’d be more sensational. Like maybe for you guys. Here’s some more reputable people telling the story. Well I say more reputable but…
Seattle Times - Nation & World
Reuters - Africa

Current News.

by Dom on March 3rd, 2008

So I’m down in blantyre for a party of the birthday kind. It was good. It’s over. I need to be heading back to site now. We played a pretty sweet game of charades the other day though. It was great, I love that game.

Term one is almost over. It’s pretty great. Now were just revising(reviewing) and preparing for the term tests that honestly don’t mean much in the scheme of things. Just a formality they enjoy. I guess I enjoy the relaxation they afford. Then I think I’m going to head to Zanzibar for the term break. That should be fun. I need to party a bit. Though I don’t think I’ll get my fill until I get home and can actually relax. Then term two begins and that’s my last big hirah. It’s extra long this year, 15 weeks, but oh well. After that it’s a couple more months and a ticket home. Crazy.

new head and other parts

by Dom on February 16th, 2008

so the shift key doesn’t work here. it’s obnoxious. i got a new headmaster. my old one was awesome but got transfered to a school that has just started. so i got some new guy. doesn’t really seem to know whats going on. i gotta say it’s really decreased my dedication to the school but it’s harder just not having someone that’s easy to ask questions to about culture or just the best carpenter. the deputy headmaster left to, so we’re a teacher shorter than we were. i think we’re at 6 with me. not too many. oh well.

did the science experiment thing at my school. had over 100 students and a few teachers there. it was pretty awesome. gonna try it again next week at yorgos’ site. he’s got a lot bigger school so things will be a bit different. i’m happy with how it’s turned out though.

i think some other things have gone down but i just don’t really remember them right now. my students are kind of pissing me off with how little effort they seem to give compounded with how little they seem to be paying attention in class too. i’ll go through a whole problem explaining it. one that i gave for homework - that no one did. a kid will say ‘i don’t understand any of it, can you just repeat it?’ wastes a whole class cause they can’t put effort forward. this of course also decreases my dedication. whatever.

just got back from a night at the lake though. it was needed. a nice relaxing party and swim. great weather too; we’re in a drought right now. the rains have stopped for a couple of weeks. might try to see this ex-pat today too who has a shop and keeps a lot of potentially useful trash. she said we could rummage through it to see if we needed any of it for the experiments.

MST and then some

by Dom on January 19th, 2008

So back in Lilongwe. MST was fun in a stressful boring kind of way. Glad it’s done, but wish we would have stayed in Dedza last night, as much as my dining room chair was I think my quiet bed would have been preferable. Back to site tomorrow. Yay. Atleast I got a hitching buddy. We’ll see how it all works out. So much going on.

Oh yeah, happy birthday Stephen. We went out for Indian last night. It happened.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

by Dom on December 31st, 2007

Back in Lilongwe. New Years is tonight I guess, woohoo. Almost forgot about it. I’m a bit more excited because Jenn comes back tomorrow. However right now I have a Gastro-Intestinal Tract Infection. Which means I have lots of cramping and other things that most people don’t like when I say.

Christmas at Paiges was good though. Played a lot of bored games, went swimming and had duck. Bought it off this lady who claimed she didn’t have any, but there were like 10 waddlin around her. So we got one, for K500 too. She said we had to pay more because we were white though and we did the whole, I’m-gonna-fake-walk-away-cause-I-know-you-want-the-money-more-than-the-duck trick. It worked. She buckled, we paid, but it was still over priced. Apparently ducks are like 3 or 4 normally. Whatever. It was good. We ate it with potatoes.

After that I went to visit Jessie for a bit in Nkhotakhota. We basically just ambled around town. Helped her turn an old chicken coup into a dog house. By that I mean I moved it into her courtyard. Her place was pretty snazzy. However I think that’s where I got my little belly viper, I mean GI Infection.

All that said, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.