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.

Zanzibar and Mzuzu Photos

by Dom on April 29th, 2008

Yes, you read that correctly. I have added photos from my recent trip to Zanzibar and some others I took a few months ago of Mzuzu the biggest town closest to me; and my personal favorite of the three big towns.

Currently I’m just hanging out in Lilongwe. Getting VAC stuff done as well as working on term reports, seeing the doctors about glasses, looking for grad schools and some other things.

Cellphones and Logorithms

by Dom on April 26th, 2008

So my Celtel phone is lost/stolen(gone either way); so any number you have for me that has a 9 in it doesn’t work anymore. Zanzibar was of course good. You can read about it below if you like. Schools been school. Nothing uber spectacular. Just been playing guitar. It was suggested that I learn “Take this job and shove it” by David Allen Coe, to play at the 4th of July celebration, if I play. Still need to look up the tabs, but it should be fun. Got a couple parties coming up.

Made form 2 compete against form 4 in a sudoku puzzle. It was a good time. They did pretty well too I was impressed. Although they have the hardest time differing how to find the degree of a monomial vs. a polynomial. (now I know most of you don’t know what I’m talking about but if I showed you how in a 40min period you’d probably be able to know the difference…I hope.) I’d never heard of a monomial before, but maybe I just don’t remember. Learned the defiintion of a logorithm too. That was crazy; I never knew. Just thought it was some other operation that gave an answer. Although again, I probably just don’t remember.

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.

Poor Technology

by Dom on January 12th, 2008

So those one laptop people emailed me back. I guess I shoudl be happy about that. The reply though, kept saying they wouldn’t just give me a laptop and that they may have some extras from their first production run but those will be given to

“a few of the poorest countries on earth: Haiti, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Cambodia and Mongolia.”

Hmm last I checked Malawi was like THE poorest country, whats up whats up!? So apparently it’s only 164, out of 177 in the Human Development Index Or this Wikipedia Version Lets see though Haiti: 146, Rwanda: 161, Afghanistan: data unavailable(I wonder why), Cambodia: 131, and Mongolia: 114. I think we got’m beat. Geez…some people!

Term 1 ‘08

by Dom on January 11th, 2008

So Mid Service Training is next week. This past week I started teaching. I teach Form 1 Physical Science, Form 2 Math and Form 4 Math. It’s really amazing how much Form 2’s English came along because I’ll tell you, Form 1 doesn’t know squat. It’s so difficult. They don’t answer questions, write notes, even look at you like your from earth. I’m also the Form 4 Formmaster. That means I take role. Yay.

We also moved the plantain trees that I planted; they were getting too much water and rotting. I also tried to plant some seeds. I know I did a poor job, but it was the most effort I could muster. I planted cucumber, loofa, onion, and tomato. Something might grow. We’ll see. Otherwise, just looking forward to next week. Today isn’t that great. I still have loose stooles, as they say. I doubt I spelled that technical word correctly but we’ll see. Thanks for the dictionary mom, it’s in Mzuzu. Shephards pie for dinner, think I’m gonna go buy some beer.

Bored

by Dom on December 16th, 2007

Man I am so bored. I am heading back to site today but I just feel like there’s something I’m forgetting to do here online before I leave. I honestly can’t think of it and it feels like I’ve done and seen everything. I mean they are selling those $100 computers for $500 on ebay, facebook is played, I’ve started categorizing my old posts on here, and it’s no use even knowing other things like bike parts or new albums or any of that. I’m done, I’m done. Now I just need some roll or something for breakfast and I’ll hit the road back to site to clean all the termites from my door frames and spiderwebs away from my bed and dirt and mouse crap out of my house. I was stupid and forgot to leave the poison out. Got laundry to do too. Oh what a life…

The last few weeks

by Dom on December 9th, 2007

These last few weeks out of site have been fairly enjoyable, but honestly I am kind of ready to just get back and relax for a bit. Jenn’s left to go home for Christmas, kind of lonely now. Though I guess it shouldn’t be any more than normal. Mozambique was awesome, maybe I’ll move there. Still a it sick from it somehow. I started getting sick in Tofo and it had pretty much gone away a few days ago but now the runny nose is back strong. Annoying. Maybe I should eat better but that seems the story of my Malawian life. I found myself singing a Christmas song the other day and remembered that it is in fact almost Christmas. I had forgotten. I’m not the only one, it’s just not a big deal in Malawi. I’m also kind of curious how much I spent in Mozambique. I haven’t been on the internet in so long and it’s kind of hard to follow when your pulling out in foreign currency. I might need to develop an IGA(income generating activity) for my trip to Zanzibar. Jon congrats on the wedding. I haven’t been online in so long and my call back isn’t working and I don’t know your american number to send a text to or I would have contacted you sooner. My apologies, I hope it was fantastic. I just had one of those it’s-weird-to-grow-up moments…I hope life at home for everyone else is going well. I hadn’t heard from a lot of you in a while, send me an email or leave a comment.

Prayers Answered

by Dom on October 15th, 2007

So yeah, I got more and more pictures up. Lots of them. Ranging from the house in Lilongwe where I stay when I’m in town to get all my stuff done. Where I’ve been a lot more than I would like here lately too. But whatever. Then I also put up some pictures from my new site and house and school. The ones where I’m teaching Jenn took, you should thank her, I know those are what everyone really wants to see. My house is pretty sweet and homey but tiny. It works for me well though. Well or good whatever. I also put some pictures of some of the animals I saw when I went with Jenn and her parents to Mvuu down south in Liwonde. That was by far one of the coolest experiences of my life. It was almost scary showering because hippo’s and monkeys and anything could just walk by and in. I also put up some shots form Likoma island, one of the two big islands on the lake. It was beautiful there but some shoddy service. If you have questions feel just so very free to leave a comment and I’ll try to comment a response to it too. oh yeah, you’re welcome.

Days go bye

by Dom on September 21st, 2007

So I have a bit of a plan for everything for the next good while, however this month I was a bit unsure…That is until people kept showing up at my house and begging me to go to Nkhata Bay. What could I say, but “Of course!” I had kind of hoped to stay at site a bit this month, but I am at site enough I figure. I get my teaching done and those kids learn. Everyone wins.

In Mzuzu right now to meet with some others to discuss this Summer School. We are trying to work out some logistics like where these village kids will stay when they travel down to Zomba and who we can get to supervise these village kids as they come into the “BIG CITY!” You know towns like Millen…small. Anyway, it would be fun to see their reactions to things like paved roads, robots(stop lights), and the market.

Otherwise just same old same old. Finally got my hoe so I can hoe my rows. Been playing guitar and writing songs still. I think they’re getting better. We’ll see. Also, been gettin’ ready for the hot season. By that I mean stocking up on cut-off’s. Found this sweet GNR Appetite for Destruction shirt I’m rockin’ right now. I don’t usually like that verb in that context but it seemed too appropriate.

Oh and just got here from the market where I played some bao. I beat the first guy but lost to the second. Last time I played I beat two before losing. You guys get ready I think that’s the only curio I’m bringin’ home. I hope you’ll enjoy it.