Ha.
by Dom at 10:13 am 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!
Barack Obama
by Dom at 6:18 pm on October 16th, 2008
I was curious if it was “ck” or just “k” and all I had to do was look at the shelf next to me. There’s like 8 different books or movies or something for sale on him in this little shop. I also heard some crazy regae song here in the airport earlier. It was naming all the states and saying vote for Barack Obama. It was amusing. I guess they like him here in Nairobi. As I type this there’s a news report on it with excerpts from CNN about the debats on the tv here. They’re in Kiswahili so it’s not very helpful but still…
Return Trip Interlude 1
by Dom at 6:11 pm on October 16th, 2008
So Nairobi airport is infact pretty boring. I think I’ve looked in all the duty free shops and done like 6 laps down the one hallway.
I made it out of Malawi ok. I did almost miss my flight though, that would have been amusing. No one informed me where the boarding area was or when it was time to board, just when it was leaving. So I was just hanging around drinking some beers. I just finished brushing my teeth and came out of the bathroom when this exasperated lady inquired if there were any more Nairobi passengers. There were. I pretty much ran through the metal detector. She told me I was the last passenger. Ha. Oh well, let’em wait we still got off early. So now I’m here and really bored. My flight leaves in like 2 - 3 hours and they haven’t even told me which gate to be at yet so I can’t really like nap or anything. Oh and it’s hot as crap. Stupid equator. Rainy season has started here too.
This morning was a bit crazy. Apparently my meeting with Dale, the CD, took like 2 hours. I was surprised. It was just a lot of form questions like “what do you think was your greatest achievement in Malawi?” Fun stuff. It actually made me late for the transport to the airport so I was running all over the place. Probably forgot something pretty important. Actually I know I did. I forgot to leave my house keys with Dora. That’s funny. Sweet memento. I hope that’s spelled right. They’ll figure something out. There’s an extra set with the Headmaster.
One thing I think is funny about this airport is there are no clocks anywhere almost. They only seem to be on these flat panel displays that show the flight information but there are only about three of those. Even in this big coffee shop here, obviously the hangout, there’s no clock. Ridiculous. I hope Amsterdam is cooler.
It was funny. PC gives me travel allowance, and in dollars at that. Except they didn’t have any one dollar bills this morning. So they asked if I wanted kwacha. Why would I want kwacha? I told him I did not want kwacha. MC ended up helping me out by making a little forex swap where she got kwacha for dollars from PC and I got her dollars. I used it to buy a Bitter Lemon soda. Ah Zanzibar. I’ll miss Africa. I like it’s ridiculous style. More later I’d guess.
Oh I also had the ending of that Pink Floyd song stuck in my earlier. “Good bye cruel world, I’m leaving you today, good bye, good bye, good bye.”
This is the end
by Dom at 7:00 am 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 at 9:51 am 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.
Big toe
by Dom at 11:16 am on October 10th, 2008
So I had to get my toe cut open this morning. Just a little bit. Apparently I have a pretty deep infection from some stupid cut where I kicked a stump and it just hasn’t healed. So the doctor re-wounded it and now I have a huge gauze toe and can’t bathe for a few days. Hopefully I’ll be allowed to before I come home cause it’s hot season and that tends to also coincide with stinky season!
Nalua
by Dom at 11:14 am on October 9th, 2008
Oh yeah, I posted some knew pictures of that hike I went on and of my village farewell…enjoy.
Peace Corps.
by Dom at 9:28 am 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.
Some post-return thoughts.
by Dom at 1:25 pm on October 7th, 2008
I’m a bit scared to come home, I’ll be honest. I mean, I can’t really form cohesive sentences to explain my probably now more strange thoughts. I use Malawian English. That includes a lot of pronouns and use of the words “just” and “somehow.” An example “My school, they have just somehow managed to build shelves.” As opposed to “My school built some shelves.” So yeah visiting schools is going to be fun talking like that! I’ll be honest I don’t care what words I use as long as I can think of them when I go. It’s worse when I sit there for like 5 minutes trying to think of a word I used to use fairly often. That’s definitely more awkward.
Of course most of my fears don’t lie in my now jacked speech. I’m more worried about what is going to annoy me. I mean stupid things annoyed me before like french fries and people who wear bluetooth headsets when not in use. Now I think I’ll be annoyed at plastic wrapped tomatoes and too much air conditioning or something. I don’t know. Then there’s the economy…
So if you think I’m acting funny, don’t be surprised.
Of course I also have come to like Malawi; I mean I dont want to stay a volunteer teacher but I like the weather and the market and other things. The lifestyle is nice. I’m going to miss my friends and my leisure time. It’s going to be very different. I think what it comes down to is when I came I was happy to be leaving America and happy to be coming to Malawi. Now I’m only happy to be coming to America. So we’ll see how it all goes. Again though, if I act funny, don’t wonder why.
