Archive for the Overall category
LA&ACCD
by Dom on October 28th, 2008
Hory Clap, I’m back. In GA that is. Just got back from LA. It was surprisingly cool. Of course that could be because of the short length of my trip and the locations I was, but who cares, I liked it. Jenn’s doing great. Except that whole number 2 business…hehe. The first day we just went for a ride on the boardwalk and Jenn made a dinner of tortellini alfredo. Good good stuff. The next day we actually went to the beach and hung out. Water was quite cold. Like one of those backwoods streams you find in the winter. I made her get in with me though, it was nice having company! Hit up some cool restaurants that day too, fish tacos and crab cakes and the like. Friday we checked out the Art Center. Cool school, however I was an idiot about visiting and didn’t make an appointment with the dept. chair and he wasn’t there. It really shook up my views of what I want to do and what I expect form a school. Then again, I think it’s pretty cool a visit to a place can do that. We went to Jenn’s parents house that evening after a very late lunch at Panera bread. Jenn’s dad made some pretty good steaks for dinner and we just went to bed. It was a long day. Saturday morning we went wake boarding. I’m still sore. Sergio came, yes that one. Serdhyo. It was a lot of fun, we were out there all day pretty much. I got a jump off and superman face-planted straight into the water. It was pretty awesome. Later that day there was a little party and a lot of family friends came over. I got to meet a lot of people and they got to meet me. I had brought some skupernong wine (I doubt I spelled that right, that’s just a kind of white muskadine though). It was a big hit. The next day we went to Disneyland! Jenn has a friend that dances in the Lion King section of the play. As a tiger…Yeah. It was cool though. I had never been to the land before and it was a lot of fun. Didn’t make it to the Tiki room though. Apparently one of Jenn’s favorites; however we did do the tea cups! Heck yes. I ate over half of this obscenely huge pizza there too. It’s a bit sickening to think of, but I couldn’t stop. It was good and the first pizza I’ve had back. Overall it was a great time and it was great seeing Jenn again and meeting those friends. That school really intrigues me.
Continuing transition
by Dom on October 20th, 2008
So yesterday I started to get some stuff done, like a pretty serious nap. One of those ones you don’t wake up from. Crazy. More seriously, I got my bike put back together. Spent two hours before anyone else was awake looking for my spare parts box. It was out in the shed. Forgot how much quality stuff I had. Anyway, once other people woke up I was able to find it. It all went pretty smooth except that apparently I did myself a favor and ruined my chain before I left. It was snapped in half and tied in a rusty knot. Never seen anything like it. After spending a few hours on it with a pair of pliers and a blow torch, well no blow torch but carb cleaner. I was able to get it untied and get my half link and power link off it. Spent another half hour cutting and installing my new chain just in time to test ride it and then get in the car to take Chloe back too school. That took hours.
It was a nice trip through some backwoods south though. Small town USA. It was funny Chloe kept yelling at me when I crossed the road because I wouldn’t wait for the little white man to tell me it was ok, or I wouldn’t even be at a cross walk. She claims the cops are that bad. Ridiculous. Had a buffalo chicken sandwich with fries that had spices like those arby’s ones…They were pretty good. Finished everyone elses food too. Then went and got a huge waffle cone dipped in chocolate and peanuts with two scoops of that good hard American ice cream, snickers flavored. Quite quite good. We stopped at this little shop on the way back and got some muskadine and black berry wine. Two different bottles. Pretty sweet, literally. Pretty excited about the bike still though.
Overall the transition seems to be going a lot smoother than I expected. I keep waiting for the rage to hit but it hasn’t. Maybe once I get a new phone and actually start driving places like stores or bars where there’s more people doing their normal(stupid) things. Eh, until then.
Ha.
by Dom on October 19th, 2008
Alright so I’m back. Been back for over 24hrs now. I think it’s going pretty well. I haven’t had diarhea yet. Only solids and pretty regular at that. I’m impressed if I do say so myself. I know I’m back in the states now so I should probably stop discussing these things but old habits die hard.
I decided not to hang out in Amsterdam airport. I had like a three hour layover so I bebopped it out into town. It was a bit hairy but I handled it. I first had to figure my way around this, the busiest, whitest and most first world place I had been to yet. Fortunately Dutch people tend to speak English like they were English. I found a forex and learned a little about the Euro. So I had a $20. Pretty good I thought. Nope, there was a $5 fee for exchanging money and it cost like 3.20 one way to or from town. So I changed $15 and got like 7.10 in euro coins. As most can tell, that barely covered me. the train was more like 17 minutes to town; when I was told it was 15. The ticket kiosk was a bit confusing. They had special English ones for tourists people like me, but wait they didn’t take coins and so I had to go to the Dutch ones that I found had an English option but not an easy ticket option. I almost bought tickets to belgium or prague or whatever a few times. I got it figured out though and made it into town with like two hours to spare. So I just picked a road and walked down it. Took a few photos and headed back. I was there at the convenient time of like 6-7, when pretty much everywhere was closed. The architecture was nice. I think I found the redlight district. It all worked out thought. I made it back with like 10 minutes to spare. Until the official boarding time that is. However I did just sit there for another hour or more. I wasn’t aloud to take the Nali I bought at the Lilongwe airport and had in my carry-on, they took it. Annoying. Anyway, I got home. Atlanta kind of sucked. I’ve heard it does that though. I had the gate changed on me 3 times, we were told the plane was on the ground 5 different times, and it was delayed so much they just stopped alerting us via intercom. Oh and they downsized the airplane and had to take 20 volunteers to wait until the next day to take the stupid half hour flight. I was suppose to arrive at 5:18pm I think I arrived around 8 or 9pm. Most of the family was there. That was nice. They had a pretty sweet characature of me drawn on one of the posters.
In terms of my first foods…I did eat moe’s. Except after Amsterdam I could only afford the vegetarian burrito. It wasn’t bad though, don’t be mislead. At the house I had two or three different sandwiches. I dipped them in mustard. Mom made pans of little ones. Some little reubens and little ham and cheese ones and I think there might have been others but I forget. Had a blue moon and some champagne and some seasonal pumpkin brew. All quite excellent. Tried some cheesecakes too. They had bought a variety one with like chocolate and carmel and regular and swirl. Oh yeah, she made potato salad too. Quite good. For breakfast I had a ham and cheese omlette, pepperjack cheese that is and a bowl of fruit. Strawberries, kiwis, grapes, cantelope, bananas and oranges. Pretty good. Left over sandwiches for lunch and went out for Mexican for dinner. I got the chicken chimichangas and a huge strong margarita and a glass of sweet tea. I pounded chips and salsa before hand and pretty much just drank cheese dip. I appreciate that my stomach is treating me well so far. Hopefully it will continue!
I got my electric guitar up and running yesterday too. Thats nice. Haven’t really got the feel of it again yet though. My fingers have no precision and while power chords sound good tuning the amp to the tone I like to get the notes hearable too while still liking it has been difficult too. I’m so used to playing the acoustic it’s got me biased on what my electric should sound like I think. Not a bad thing though, just something to get used to.
Anyway, it’s four am and I’m hungry, enjoy that sima! Tumbuka4Life!
This is the end
by Dom on October 16th, 2008
My only friend, the end.
I still have to see the GSO, AO, CD, Cashier, AI, Dr. Rollin’ north at 11. And then my new journey will begin. See you all soon. I’m getting ready. You should too.
Today, and many other days like it.
by Dom on October 13th, 2008
I feel the boredome creeping up on me. It’s like warm feeling right between the eyes. I’d like to do something about it, but, eh, it just seems so futile. So here I sit. Slowly being overtaken (not overtook just learned) by this warmness. It moves slowly like a highly viscous fluid. It seeps. I have enough time to tell it’s happening but it’s already taken my mind and my ability of thought with it. Now I can only sit and let the thoughts fall out of my head all willy-nilly. If only it wasn’t an American holiday and the office was open. Then I could get motivated to do something. Otherwise it’s all been done or scheduled for another time. I guess I should have scheduled this time for boredom. Why can’t Lilongwe be a more interesting city?
Photos could be taken. Some have been but some still need to be. Knowing that they won’t take themselves is my only motivation. The sun, dirt, noise, distance and stench are my anti-motivation and they seem to be winning out currently if only from their strength of numbers.
The thing about boredom is it can only go on so long. So if I wait it out motivation will eventually turn it’s hat inside out and rally back. Then things will happen again just like they should. I’ve just got to wait…
It’s like punishment for an interesting life. Terribly vexed. I guess I’ll look up who won the first world series of poker, or how many spider species there are in Malawi. Something interesting you know.
*edit* look what I found…I dig it.
Peace Corps.
by Dom on October 8th, 2008
Yeah so Peace Corps being Peace Corps. It’s great. I think I’m coming home even earlier! They can’t connect me between Atlanta and Augusta on the 17th. So they said either the 16th or the 19th. Why not the 18th I asked. Apparently it’s all crazy, I’d have to fly through Blantyre and leave late or something ridiculous about money too. Whatever. I was curious if I was even technically allowed to leave a day earlier, but a short call to the country director relieved me. So now I just have to tell someone I want the 16th so it can be finalized before Peace Corps happens again. hehe.
Done
by Dom on October 7th, 2008
That’s what I’ve started signing in the log books instead of Dom. I looks pretty similar in my scribble. So I’ve moved in to Lilongwe yesterday and started my finalizing today. Sweet.
Saying good bye to my school was surprisingly easy. There were no last minute beggars. No super awkward gifts like a guinea fowl or something. Just a lot of people asking for penpals, so if you guys want a penpal…For real though it was nice. They mixed my farewell party in with the form four graduation so they could basically just add a few more lines into their speeches and cover all their bases. There was some good food and I had to give a speech as well. Took a lot of pictures, some with people, some just of people, some even just of things. I really can’t tell if I can speak/write well anymore even when I try.
The last night at site Yorgos and Mary Cate came up and we had a nice time. In the morning it was a bit weird when some, like 30, students decided to come up and just watch me pack and finish cleaning my house. I gave some last minute things away like extra toothpaste and matches and the like. I went down to the school when I was finished with my house and shook all the students hands, said some words and then got escorted out to the bus stage by a teacher and two students carrying my bags. It was nice. Then we sat for two hours waiting for a ride.
I won’t say my last ride into town was bad, just scenic. After the two hour wait we got a nice ride to Yorgos’ site and so that was nice to be able to hang out there with him for a little bit. Got some chips and a coke. Then MC and I rolled out, with a ride that we talked out of having to pay for, to Kasungu. Bike taxi-ed it from the middle of town to the junction and got a ride pretty quick that ended up buying us pizza and milkshakes at this first-world-ish place. Pretty awesome. And no truck bed rides at that!
Funny Stories
by Dom on June 1st, 2008
I remembered a funny story, and funny enough at the same time another funny story happened, to a lesser degree at least. First as I walked from a gas station there was a minibus filling up with fuel. It was empty of people but it was shaking. I didn’t know why. As I passed by the rear of the bus I saw the attendant with the nozzle in the bus and two guys beside him standing there heaving the bus back and forth. I didn’t even ask why, it’s almost normal. In a hitch once they used a piece of bamboo to hold open the little door so they could put gas in, I don’t know why. Alright so I can’t remember the story I started the post intending to tell. Sorry. I’ll try to think of some others then for compensation. Tonight was kind of a funny story I guess. I went to dinner with Danni and Ali and they ended up getting hit on. As we were leaving apparently they were talking about Danni so she said hello then they got to chatting. This super drunk British dude was like you look fantastic, staring right at Danni, then realized how awkward a statement he made and tacked on, all of you, you all look really great…I said thanks. I was flattered, haha. How preposterous. The drunk guy was explaining how his son has a phd in mech engineering but got a job as an electrical engineer. He thought that was funny. He bought us a round and had his driver bring us home, so it wasn’t all awkwardness. Though they’re trying to get us to go to Nkhata Bay tomorrow.
I traveled up to Mzuzu today. I got a ride with peace corps. It was nice. We stopped at a PTC grocery store on the way up and I bought some boiled eggs, three, from this kid outside. K30 a piece I gave him a hundred. He tried to tell me he didn’t have change. I was like no son, took his eggs, and made him find me change. That fool thought I didn’t care about K10. That’s a banana in Lilongwe, or a tomato at my site, or like 10 guava, or two small packs of biscuits, etc. Then I got in the care and the staff person I was riding with gave me an egg sandwich.
I was taken in a hitch once to his fiance’s house. Or at least his fiance-to-be’s house. He proposed while we were there and then took her with us. It involved a lot of discussion with the parents outside while we sat inside watching some Easter special mass on TV from Nigeria. That was ridiculous. There were these white people, missionaries maybe, doing interpretive dance with wands and stuff. The mom was the head nurse at the clinic at my old site too. I thought I recognized her. Fortunately the recognition wasn’t reciprocated.
Alright so another funny story, the story I started this post for actually. So I was riding back from Nkhata bay with Jessie in a minibus. We were sitting across from this Malawian with this piece of luggage clutched in his arms. It was this molded foam piece with a zipper and a plastic handle. Fairly standard, except that this man had put a lovely purple plastic padlock on his to keep his zippers together. The kind of lock that’s about the size of your thumb that you might buy at a dollar store and whose key’s you normally lose within 5 minutes. I asked Jessie what she thought about that lock, or more what she thought he thought about that lock. I wasn’t satisfied though so I asked what she thought he’d do if I seized it and acted like I was going to rip it off. She said she didn’t know but wanted me to. I was like yeah right…and then I did. I grabbed hold of it and just shook it with a wild look in my eye. That man was frozen in his place eyes wide, stunned, for a solid second or two before he started to move. Then I released it and laughed. Everyone laughed, Jessie almost died. From laughing. The man said something about a false sense of security or how it was just for looks. I concurred. He was wary the rest of the trip. Needless to say, I was amused.