I’m still around, I’m still around

by Dom on April 3rd, 2007

Baby, I’m still around… - Second shift I think? So yeah, here I am in Malawi. Still here, for a little longer atleast. I’ve had to come to grips with the fact that we aren’t here to try to come up with creative solutions to problems we see. We’re here to teach. And teaching is what doesn’t really interest me. So that is the dilema. I was told to think of this more as “study abroad for adults” and that seems to sum things up nicely. However having this greater understanding doesn’t make it satisfy me more. So yeah, we’ll see come what may.

Anyway, I’m here now using the free internet(sweet) and I’m off to do the bike training for the new environment group tomorrow. So that should be cool. Then we have our in-service training, then it’s off for a little touristy trip of the country. So I’ll be on here more often in the coming weeks.

Getting here was a pain. I went to Yorgos’ to try to cut the trip in half, but from there I only made it to Gretchen’s before it got to late to continue, so I had to call here up and stop there. Thankfully all went smoothly with that or I really would have been screwed.

So that’s all for now. I just got in and I’m a little tired and 2 days of traveling has caused me to need a bath and maybe a beer or two.

Shake shake shake

by Dom on February 28th, 2007

So I’ve been traveling a lot it seems lately. I had to go down to Yorgos’ site a few weeks ago for some more language training. Then I went to Mary Cate’s site to see how it compares to mine since she is the closest (It only takes 4 hours to get there). And now I’m here in Lilongwe.
I’ve come here to talk to Dale and Dora. I have a proposition to make that could shake things up here. I think it’s a really great idea. Basically I want to write a book to augment to the poor quality textbooks we all have to use here. Only the requirements to do that will challenge some of the norms here at Peace Corps Malawi. I’ll write more later, depending on how my meetings go.
Otherwise things are calming down. The crazy fantastic is becoming normal, the novelty is wearing off, and normal life, Malawi-style, is setting in.
The rides I get have been pretty awesome. I got one ride with the district administrator for the Rumphi district, who has apparently also picked up Yorgos and Leslie. I got a ride from a former physical science teacher, a ride from a landcruiser full of beer drinking malawians, world vision. All solid stuff.

Things

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.

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.