The Malawi Song

by Dom on February 3rd, 2007

This is the first song I wrote and it’s my perspective on life here along with a lot of inside jokes.

Here I am in Malawi
Playing this box, just happy to be
Here to help all these chillin’
out kickin’ back and having a beer

Ready to rock let’s have some fun
In this land of lake and sun
been here too long can’t wait to sima
-ther, father, loved ones

1,2 or 3 years who can say
Right now I just want to eat drink and play
Sessions and processing always suck
I’d rather be eating sima, carrying water on my head and doing a malaria slide all at the same time

Waking up to the rooster’s crow
I want to kill it by the afternoon
kid’s yelling through the market
“Iwe, azungu, AZUNGU!”

Life ain’t fun but that’s ok
Cause their’s no one making me stay
Things aren’t so bad though for me
Hmm, mmmm, mmmmmmmmmmmmm, form 3…

A-A-Anxiety
Sure won’t let me feel very free
But my brain is just reminding me
That it could be the mef and not just me

Spiders and scorpions
We all know aren’t very much fun
So we asked Dr. Max, are we doomed
You know what he said? PAIN PAIN PAIN! PAIN FOR YOU!

So yeah, that’s pretty much it, It’s fun and easy. Maybe I’ll play it for you one day.

5 weeks

by Dom on February 3rd, 2007

Monile, yeah yeah. 5 weeks. That’s how long it’s been 5 weeks. I’m glad to be back near some “civilization”, i.e. internet, electricity, etc. Also glad we got paid again, I was definitely running low, definitely. My daily routine has become:

5:30am - waking up, breakfast
7:00am - school
1:35pm - “knocking off” schools out
3:00pm - work out
3:30pm - bathe
4:00pm - start dinner
5:00pm - clean dishes
8:00pm - bed

That’s my general day. In my free time I play guitar a lot. A lot. A lot. I put new strings I got from chris on just before comeing here last time and they are noticably dying. I’ve written six songs. They range from crappy to mediocre but I like them all and that’s what really matters. It’s a lot more fun to play your own stuff I’ve determined. Food, I eat real healthy, not. I did get 4 packages yesterday, mostly foodstuffs, thanks mom and dad. That will be huge. My diet currently lacks a lot of protein. For breakfast it’s cookies and peanut butter and a cup of tea. Lunch is three peanut butter and honey sandwiches. And dinner is rice with tomatoes and onions, and whatever spice I feel like using, curry, lemon pepper, etc. Water for drink, and no snacking normally. I’ve probably lost some more weight but there’s not a scale around.

Teaching is a lot of work. Not as fun as I was hoping but still enjoyable. It’s hard when they don’t understand the question you are actually asking. For instance it’s hard to get across the concept of estimation, that you DON’T want the correct answer, only something close. They take a lot of time working out the correct answer and then wonder why it’s not actually “correct.” I’m glad when those days are over.

I teach forms 1 and 3(freshman and juniors, respectively) math and form 1 physical science. I’m not the biggest fan of the physical science text book due mostly to it’s lack of depth, but it may be appropriate, I don’t remember much about high school physical science. One particular gripe is the fact that newtons laws aren’t mentioned at all. I know I’m moving a lot faster than I expected to, in it. My math classes are pretty good though, I’m going over quadratic equations in form 3 and approximations in form 1.overall they don’t ask too many questions but when they do I normally go off on some crazy tangent than they don’t really comprehend, such has friction heat due to air at high speeds of the space shuttle during re-entry. They didn’t follow that one. I don’t really feel like I’m that great of a teacher, but I guess I’ll get better with time.

I’ve also started a math club. It meets wednesdays and really messes up my routine but it’s a nice way to divide the week. What happens is, they’ve given me topics they want to work on, and I come up with a problem from one topic in each from. Write it on the board and give them some time to work on it and then I solve it. It really feels more like a magic show because no one asks questions and when I solve a problem they all clap. Though I don’t think they are clapping for me, more for themselves because they got it right, but it feels like it’s for me because I pulled a rabbit from a hat or made someone levitate. It’s nice

I read a lot of books, Crime and Punishment was excellent, not at all what I expected and I’ve borrowed The Idiot so I can see if I like the rest of his books. Dostoevsky, or something like that. Also The Count of Monte Cristo was great. I had an abridged version though and I would like the read the unabridged now.

I’ve also got some tentative vacationing plans. I am considering cliff diving during the first break with some others, and going to Zanzibar on the second break. I think those should be a nice change of pace and a way to make the most of my current geographical situation. There was also a bar that you have to hike to I’m considering hitting up, but I don’t remember the name of it right now.

Also, the anti-malaria drugs were really messing with my head, depression, insomnia, seeing “things.” So I’m on something different now. What that means though is that I don’t really know how accurate my experience in the past five weeks has actually been. Hopefully it will be like the good days always on this new stuff but I doubt it. We’ll see. Oh and seeing “things” means too many double takes a day. Like when you thought you saw something out of the corner of your eye and then you look and it’s nothing. I would do that 2 or 3 times for the same thing, only like 20-50 times a day. Anyway it should be better now.

I want to thank everyone for their letters and continuous suppport it’s huge, especially on the bad days. I always appreciate hearing from everyone so feel vely flee.

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.

Bawo

by Dom on November 25th, 2006

So there’s this game called Bawo. Apparently it’s claimed to be the national board game of Malawi. I can’t verify. Either way it is pretty sweet. It’s similar to mankala, however, I don’t know how to spell or play it so I don’t know if it’s better or worse.

I did find a free download version of it that I’m curious about. I can’t download and install here, but if any of you give it a shot I want to know if it actually teaches you the directions and if it is any good at all.

Pictures!

by Dom on November 24th, 2006

So I finally got some pictures up. I appologize for the amount and the graininess and the lateness but I’m sure you will all get over it. Maybe I’ll get a picture of the A-team up one of these days…or maybe not. Anyway, I probably won’t be around the internet much next week, so take it easy.

Chichewa and Chitumbuka

by Dom on November 22nd, 2006

So the region I live in now speaks Chichewa and I am moving to one that speaks Chitumbuka. That’s why I have a little bit of both. I want to go ahead and give you guys an idea of what it would sound like and what the definition is for words I may just drop in because they are more appropriate.

Vowels:
“a” sounds like lobster
“e” sounds like ehh
“i” sounds like feed
“o” sounds like oh
“u” sounds like moo

Chichewa:
Abambo - Dad, Mister, Old man
Amayi - Femine of above
Achimwene - brother
Achimwali - sister
Tionana - See you later
Zikomo - Thanks, Excuse Me, Your Welcome
Madzi - Water
Kwambiri - Very much

Chitumbuka:
Badada - Dad, Mister, Old man
Bamama - Femine of above
Bakulu - Same sex sibling
Balongosi - Opposite sex sibling
Tionanenge - See you later
Yewo - Thanks, Excuse Me, Your Welcome
Maji - Water
Chomene - Very Much

Same in Both:
Chonde - Please
Boma - City center of a district. Basically the biggest city in the area
Pepani - Sorry
Chifukwa - because
Chimbudzi - Toillet or hole in the ground, also called Chim
Bafa - Shower, or bucket bath

I may try to amend this in the future so if I write something you don’t understand or just have a question let me know.

Packages

by Dom on November 22nd, 2006

Alright, so I’ve had some people asking me what they could mail me so I figure I’ll just put a list up of stuff. It’s mostly little things that would always be appreciated, but even if you don’t want to get any of that, letters are greatly appreciated. Especially in the coming months when internet won’t be so readily available.

• wool socks
• hammock
• Bic Click pencils
• Charcoal pencils
• Dictionary
• Thesaurus
• Harmonica*
• Guitar Strings**
• Good Obscure Books***
• Good pens
• Starcutout picks, or Mediums.
• desiged journals****

*I gave my harmonica to Nerodi(pronounced Melody with an N) it was a MS Blues Harp in C
**My personal favorites are elixir mediums monofilament(I think those are the slick ones. I like the slick ones)
***I can find a lot of commonly good books here, especially in the P.C. libraries.
****So a friend of mine here had his friends buy the Moleskine Cahiers, which come three to a pack, and put a design on the cover. Painting, drawing, gluing, writing, etc. I thought that was cool. He also has a friend leaving one in the bathroom and writing whatever he notes he would say to his friend if he was there. I thought it was a cool idea.

Basically anything along those lines, or anything would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

*edit* the POBox in the mass email is the address most have used it seems, but either is fine.

Ride Ride Ride, Hitching a Ride

by Dom on November 22nd, 2006

So today we got to hitch. Basically they took us out to the side of the road, 4 pairs at a time. Dropped us off along with a trainer. Gave us a destination and then let each pair of us flag down whatever we could and head to the market, which was our goal.

Yorgos (my partner in the pair) and I ended up going to Dedza Pottery for a good meal before we headed back. It was pretty awesome. I got a ploughmans lunch and a sandwich and a coke. I ended up dropping about a KG (that’s a grand of kwach{so kwacha is the malawian currency and I’ve slangified it by dropping the a}). Anyway, after that we got another ride back to the boma. It was pretty sweet all in all, we rode in two minibuses, which are basically haggard old minivans and a ride from some NGO’s in a sweet SUV.

Oh and I feel like I should also mention this near by bar that gets hit up from time to time. Ed’s place. It’s really sweet with a dark wood checker board, a deck of cards, and a bawo board laying out, comfy chairs, african carvings and the greatest selection of carlsburg available. It’s pretty great. And so is the bartender. He taught me some bawo strategy. There’s a sign hanging inside, written in blue pen that says “Respect a fool to avoid noise.”

Africa Baby…

by Dom on November 18th, 2006

Yeah, so I’m here. I have been here now long enough that most of the things aren’t really new. So bear in mind this keyboard is not well and that I don’t have much time, so here we go.

We got dropped off for our homestay and I imediately picked out my “dad” by his crazy facial hair. He had sideburns that went straight into a mustache. So there was lots of singing and dancing.

The village was really neat. There is a small river that runs between it and another and that’s where we would wash clothes. It was really small and so we could hang out daily. Basically I would wake up at 5am, just because, hang out until 6, take a splash bath, eat breakfast of white/brown bread, or boiled potatoes or african cake, never at the same time. Go pile into the PC land cruiser to be shuttled to class. I taught math at a freshman level for about 5 weeks. It went well. After class we would come home for lunch and then language, I have to learn Chitumbuka. Which sometimes made the homestay extra hard because the village only spoke Chichewa, so I got a little of both.

There were some really sweet sunrises and sunsets and we hiked up a couple of nearby mountains, and went shopping in the market and had to shake a million hands.

That is all in past tense because I just got back from the village fairwell. I’m done. I lived in a mud hut in Africa, and spoke the language and ate the food. Sima, mmmm. The fairwell was really cool, we sang “Lean on me” and they did some singing, dancing, drum playing, acting, etc. etc. The ambassador came out as well as the country director. It was definitely a good time.

Again, not many details but have no fear I’ve kept a very detailed journal that I plan to transcribe digitally when I get back that will have more details than you could want.

Hey, and since Internet and definitely going to be scare, really great packages and letters are always appreciate. Honestly any letters are appreciated.

Ok so I really really appreciate all the comments. They keep me sane. I also know exactly the town I’m going to be in so if you want to know, you need to get in contact with the family. They should know. Tumbuka’s only spoken in the North fyi. Sorry there’s not more.