Friday, April 24, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
ARGH! Pictures!
So, I've been trying to upload pictures for the past two hours without success, so this entry is text only for now. Sorry...
There are two things that one should do when he or she goes to Africa. One is see Madonna. The other is go on a safari. Since we had done the former, this past weekend we decided to go after the latter.
Some members of our group are all about the planning, so they set everything up via a travel agent here, and we went on a trip to Zambia. In Malawi, Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays, so everyone gets off of work. This four-day weekend seemed like a logical choice for going on a safari, since Zambia isn't a short drive. Libby and I struggled with the idea a lot, though, debating whether to go to church or go on the safari. It was Easter, after all. In the end, we decided to go to church the weekend before Easter, and go on the safari Easter weekend (and just make sure that we could have our own little private Easter celebration).
We headed out on Thursday afternoon, taking a bus to Lilongwe. And there the adventure began. Our bus company is supposedly fairly reliable, but reliable isn't much fun, right? So, it's a good thing that we left about two hours late due to a "mechanical problem," right? And it's a good thing that we were delayed for an hour en route due to a down power line, right?
In the end, we arrived in Lilongwe at 11:30pm instead of 8:30. The taxis that our travel agent had arranged were not there. We went with some random taxi drivers to our hostel. The dinner that was supposed to be waiting for us at the hostel was nowhere to be found. (In fact, the hostel people claimed they had no idea what we were talking about.) Fortunately, though, our room was reserved, so we had a place to sleep.
Early the next morning, we awoke and got ready to be picked up at 7am. When our guides hadn't arrived by 7:15, we were worried (and hungry, since there was no breakfast available until 7:30 at our hostel). Finally, just before 7:30, they showed up (late enough for us to worry, too early to let us eat). And we were off to Zambia!
It was a long drive, but it was good to see some more of Malawi... and how Zambia is exactly the same (according to our guide). Most of Malawi's population (about 80%, I think), live in rural communities. You can't go more than a quarter mile on any main road without seeing tons of people walking and biking (usually carrying what looks like 100 pounds of firewood or charcoal or sugarcane or water or whatever).
Crossing the border into Zambia was fun. A classmate who shall remain nameless had purchased a fradulent yellow fever vaccination card, ethically rationalizing it that the vaccine is no longer officially required to enter Zambia, anyhow. But of course the customs people still demand it, regardless. The classmate produced her card, and the customs officer said, "This is no good." At first we all thought he spotted it as a fake, but he explained that it had only been 10 days since she/he had "received the shot," and the card is only good starting 11 days after he/she receives the shot. The classmate was freaking out, but our guide just asked for 1000 kwacha (about $6) and went to talk to the customs official. It was about this time that we noticed a huge poster on the door explaining how terrible it is to offer bribes, and they will not tolerate corruption at the immigration office. Out emerged our guide, Fletcher, who calmly said, "No problem." And it wasn't. The classmate made it in with no further delays.
We got to the camp in the afternoon. It was in the middle of nowhere. A large portion of the end of the drive was on dirt roads that only a vehicle like the Land Rovers we were riding in could handle. We were situated literally right on the banks of the Luangwa River, which borders the South Luangwa National Park that we would be visiting. We could look across the river at the beautiful undisturbed park. It was actually impressive and awesome how undisturbed the place we were staying was. There was a resort on either side of our camp, but other than that, no signs of civilization. In fact, upon arrival, we were warned what to do if a hippo or elephant wandered into our camp (don't freak out, move slowly away).
We explored the resorts, each with its own outdoor pool. One was on stilts so hippos couldn't get in. The other was egg shaped and had gradually sloped walls so that hippos could get out if they happened to wander in. We decided to go for a swim, and that was when we had our first real animal sighting.
It wasn't a hippo in the pool. It was when I went to the bathroom to change. There was a huge, awesome, and apparently hungry elephant hanging out right outside, eating the grass. He didn't seem to mind the people walking by, looking at him, taking his picture, though we didn't get too close.
That was the only real animal sighting that night, though. No hippoes or anything (though we definitely heard them all night long). We awoke early the next morning, eager to begin our safari. Our driver, Immanuel loaded us into an open-topped Land Rover, and we crossed the river, into the great unknown. We had a good start and saw some monkeys on our way out of our camp, and more as we crossed the bridge into the camp. We would drive around slowly on these dirt roads, and be surrounded by animals. The park is bounded on one side by the river and some cliff on the other side, so the animals are trapped naturally. For such a naturally confined area, though, there is a huge variety of animals. I guess it was a really LARGE confined area.
We saw tons and tons of different kinds of antelope. The most common were impala. We saw lots and lots of elephants. We saw lots of zebras. Some warthogs. Tons of different pretty birds. One crocodile. And a bunch of other animals I can't remember at the moment.
In that first drive, though, we didn't see hippos, lions, giraffes, buffalo, or leopards. We ended up seeing all of those except for the leopards (which are apparently quite elusive).
We had four game drives, in total. Two morning drives and two evening drives. It was on the first evening drive that we had some intense excitement. Once the sun set during our evening drives, a second guide in our car would shine a big flashlight and we would look for animals. It was an interesting concept, but it quickly got a little dull because we couldn't see as much, and the little that we could see was just the same as what we saw during the day... only darker.
But then, when we were relatively close to two other Land Rovers, we heard a loud, "POP! Whoooshhhhh!" We drove over to investigate, and our suspicions were correct: flat tire. So the two healthy vehicles got nice and close to the one with the flat, and the three drivers banded together to change the flat. After about 15 minutes, our guide who was holding the big flashlight (the "torch," as they call it) was making one of his routine searches of the surroundings, when his light suddenly stopped. About 30 yards away there was a lion walking slowly.
Our initial excitement and joy quickly turned to a bit of anxiety when we assessed the situation: a lion, 30 feet away, creeping toward us, being followed by the other 7 members of her pride, our car wedged in between stumps on the side of the road, our driver 10 feet from the wheel... interesting situation.
We tried taking pictures (which didn't turn out super well because of the darkness), and we got a bit scared. The lions ended up all walking RIGHT behind our vehicle, within about 8 feet. There were seven females and one male. All looked like they could easily crush us without a second thought. We thought they were wandering off, but we soon realized they were circling us a bit. What fun!
A few minutes later, though, all of the passengers of the Land Rover with the flat crammed into ours so that the drivers could get the tire switched out. They did that, and then the passengers returned to the vehicle and we got going without further incident. We actually looked for the lions after that, and they were just kind of chilling out a short distance away, so we headed home for the evening.
We had some animal sightings in our camp, too. Our camp was taken over by monkeys for awhile. There were probably about 30 or so of them. They let you get pretty close as long as you didn't look them in the eye.
Libby and I woke up before sunrise one day, and we saw a few hippos. We started to walk closer, but then they started walking toward us, and we retreated. Then ended up not coming any closer, and they climbed down the steep bank of the river to get into the water. They were impressively graceful, actually.
The next day we had another interesting experience: we met Robert. He's a warthog. Turns out someone bought him from Herrod's (which all you blog followers should remember), and raised him for several years before returning him to the wild. Now, whenever he sees a vehicle full of people around, he runs up to it and wants to be pet. So, we got to meet, and pet a warthog. He seemed to enjoy it. A lot. In fact, he seemed to be a bit aroused by the experience.
That evening we had another lion sighting. It was a different pride, this time with 9 lions. They had a run at a baby elephant, but the parents threatened the lions away. That was fun to see. We followed this pride because they seemed to be out hunting. Again, we got really freaking close. You know how when you go to the zoo, you get the urge to climb the fence and cross the moat to be with the animals? (Or is that just me?) Well, that's basically what we had done. Those lions were easily within pouncing distance. Eventually, though, as the moon rose, the lions settled down, unsuccessful in their hunt before it got light enough for their prey to see them coming, and we stopped following them.
On our way home, just outside our camp, we were still very excited about the lion sighting when suddenly a HUGE hippo ran out in front of our car, making Immanuel slam on the brakes. We stopped about a foot shy of him, even though we were only going about 5 or 10 mph. He was booking it, too.
Anyway, it was a really cool experience. It was fun seeing the animals in the park. It was fun staying in a place where animals were so close. It's hard to explain just how cool it was. But it was awesome. Come visit us and see pictures because this computer/Internet hates me.
There are two things that one should do when he or she goes to Africa. One is see Madonna. The other is go on a safari. Since we had done the former, this past weekend we decided to go after the latter.
Some members of our group are all about the planning, so they set everything up via a travel agent here, and we went on a trip to Zambia. In Malawi, Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays, so everyone gets off of work. This four-day weekend seemed like a logical choice for going on a safari, since Zambia isn't a short drive. Libby and I struggled with the idea a lot, though, debating whether to go to church or go on the safari. It was Easter, after all. In the end, we decided to go to church the weekend before Easter, and go on the safari Easter weekend (and just make sure that we could have our own little private Easter celebration).
We headed out on Thursday afternoon, taking a bus to Lilongwe. And there the adventure began. Our bus company is supposedly fairly reliable, but reliable isn't much fun, right? So, it's a good thing that we left about two hours late due to a "mechanical problem," right? And it's a good thing that we were delayed for an hour en route due to a down power line, right?
In the end, we arrived in Lilongwe at 11:30pm instead of 8:30. The taxis that our travel agent had arranged were not there. We went with some random taxi drivers to our hostel. The dinner that was supposed to be waiting for us at the hostel was nowhere to be found. (In fact, the hostel people claimed they had no idea what we were talking about.) Fortunately, though, our room was reserved, so we had a place to sleep.
Early the next morning, we awoke and got ready to be picked up at 7am. When our guides hadn't arrived by 7:15, we were worried (and hungry, since there was no breakfast available until 7:30 at our hostel). Finally, just before 7:30, they showed up (late enough for us to worry, too early to let us eat). And we were off to Zambia!
It was a long drive, but it was good to see some more of Malawi... and how Zambia is exactly the same (according to our guide). Most of Malawi's population (about 80%, I think), live in rural communities. You can't go more than a quarter mile on any main road without seeing tons of people walking and biking (usually carrying what looks like 100 pounds of firewood or charcoal or sugarcane or water or whatever).
Crossing the border into Zambia was fun. A classmate who shall remain nameless had purchased a fradulent yellow fever vaccination card, ethically rationalizing it that the vaccine is no longer officially required to enter Zambia, anyhow. But of course the customs people still demand it, regardless. The classmate produced her card, and the customs officer said, "This is no good." At first we all thought he spotted it as a fake, but he explained that it had only been 10 days since she/he had "received the shot," and the card is only good starting 11 days after he/she receives the shot. The classmate was freaking out, but our guide just asked for 1000 kwacha (about $6) and went to talk to the customs official. It was about this time that we noticed a huge poster on the door explaining how terrible it is to offer bribes, and they will not tolerate corruption at the immigration office. Out emerged our guide, Fletcher, who calmly said, "No problem." And it wasn't. The classmate made it in with no further delays.
We got to the camp in the afternoon. It was in the middle of nowhere. A large portion of the end of the drive was on dirt roads that only a vehicle like the Land Rovers we were riding in could handle. We were situated literally right on the banks of the Luangwa River, which borders the South Luangwa National Park that we would be visiting. We could look across the river at the beautiful undisturbed park. It was actually impressive and awesome how undisturbed the place we were staying was. There was a resort on either side of our camp, but other than that, no signs of civilization. In fact, upon arrival, we were warned what to do if a hippo or elephant wandered into our camp (don't freak out, move slowly away).
We explored the resorts, each with its own outdoor pool. One was on stilts so hippos couldn't get in. The other was egg shaped and had gradually sloped walls so that hippos could get out if they happened to wander in. We decided to go for a swim, and that was when we had our first real animal sighting.
It wasn't a hippo in the pool. It was when I went to the bathroom to change. There was a huge, awesome, and apparently hungry elephant hanging out right outside, eating the grass. He didn't seem to mind the people walking by, looking at him, taking his picture, though we didn't get too close.
That was the only real animal sighting that night, though. No hippoes or anything (though we definitely heard them all night long). We awoke early the next morning, eager to begin our safari. Our driver, Immanuel loaded us into an open-topped Land Rover, and we crossed the river, into the great unknown. We had a good start and saw some monkeys on our way out of our camp, and more as we crossed the bridge into the camp. We would drive around slowly on these dirt roads, and be surrounded by animals. The park is bounded on one side by the river and some cliff on the other side, so the animals are trapped naturally. For such a naturally confined area, though, there is a huge variety of animals. I guess it was a really LARGE confined area.
We saw tons and tons of different kinds of antelope. The most common were impala. We saw lots and lots of elephants. We saw lots of zebras. Some warthogs. Tons of different pretty birds. One crocodile. And a bunch of other animals I can't remember at the moment.
In that first drive, though, we didn't see hippos, lions, giraffes, buffalo, or leopards. We ended up seeing all of those except for the leopards (which are apparently quite elusive).
We had four game drives, in total. Two morning drives and two evening drives. It was on the first evening drive that we had some intense excitement. Once the sun set during our evening drives, a second guide in our car would shine a big flashlight and we would look for animals. It was an interesting concept, but it quickly got a little dull because we couldn't see as much, and the little that we could see was just the same as what we saw during the day... only darker.
But then, when we were relatively close to two other Land Rovers, we heard a loud, "POP! Whoooshhhhh!" We drove over to investigate, and our suspicions were correct: flat tire. So the two healthy vehicles got nice and close to the one with the flat, and the three drivers banded together to change the flat. After about 15 minutes, our guide who was holding the big flashlight (the "torch," as they call it) was making one of his routine searches of the surroundings, when his light suddenly stopped. About 30 yards away there was a lion walking slowly.
Our initial excitement and joy quickly turned to a bit of anxiety when we assessed the situation: a lion, 30 feet away, creeping toward us, being followed by the other 7 members of her pride, our car wedged in between stumps on the side of the road, our driver 10 feet from the wheel... interesting situation.
We tried taking pictures (which didn't turn out super well because of the darkness), and we got a bit scared. The lions ended up all walking RIGHT behind our vehicle, within about 8 feet. There were seven females and one male. All looked like they could easily crush us without a second thought. We thought they were wandering off, but we soon realized they were circling us a bit. What fun!
A few minutes later, though, all of the passengers of the Land Rover with the flat crammed into ours so that the drivers could get the tire switched out. They did that, and then the passengers returned to the vehicle and we got going without further incident. We actually looked for the lions after that, and they were just kind of chilling out a short distance away, so we headed home for the evening.
We had some animal sightings in our camp, too. Our camp was taken over by monkeys for awhile. There were probably about 30 or so of them. They let you get pretty close as long as you didn't look them in the eye.
Libby and I woke up before sunrise one day, and we saw a few hippos. We started to walk closer, but then they started walking toward us, and we retreated. Then ended up not coming any closer, and they climbed down the steep bank of the river to get into the water. They were impressively graceful, actually.
The next day we had another interesting experience: we met Robert. He's a warthog. Turns out someone bought him from Herrod's (which all you blog followers should remember), and raised him for several years before returning him to the wild. Now, whenever he sees a vehicle full of people around, he runs up to it and wants to be pet. So, we got to meet, and pet a warthog. He seemed to enjoy it. A lot. In fact, he seemed to be a bit aroused by the experience.
That evening we had another lion sighting. It was a different pride, this time with 9 lions. They had a run at a baby elephant, but the parents threatened the lions away. That was fun to see. We followed this pride because they seemed to be out hunting. Again, we got really freaking close. You know how when you go to the zoo, you get the urge to climb the fence and cross the moat to be with the animals? (Or is that just me?) Well, that's basically what we had done. Those lions were easily within pouncing distance. Eventually, though, as the moon rose, the lions settled down, unsuccessful in their hunt before it got light enough for their prey to see them coming, and we stopped following them.
On our way home, just outside our camp, we were still very excited about the lion sighting when suddenly a HUGE hippo ran out in front of our car, making Immanuel slam on the brakes. We stopped about a foot shy of him, even though we were only going about 5 or 10 mph. He was booking it, too.
Anyway, it was a really cool experience. It was fun seeing the animals in the park. It was fun staying in a place where animals were so close. It's hard to explain just how cool it was. But it was awesome. Come visit us and see pictures because this computer/Internet hates me.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Jonathan - Smells of Malawi
First of all, kudos to my brother for so effortlessly seeing through my clever little game. We did indeed see Michigan-native Madonna Louise Ciccone at the hospital when she paid a visit to the hospital where we work. She even said hello to us! (It was before she was denied the adoption, so she probably wasn't grumpy, yet.)
So, one of the things that has struck me about Malawi is the smells. I have been surprised at just how many times the sensation that sticks out for me isn't what I see, but rather what I smell. The first day at the hospital was the first time I was blown away by a smell. You see, they have an entire room on the male surgical ward dedicated to wounds that won't heal. I can't think of adjectives to adequately describe the experience... pungent? Rancid? Thick? Repulsive? Necrotic? Nauseating? Each word seems to get close to the experience, but not quite describe it fully. Granted, I was taken aback by seeing holes straight through legs and seeing people with no skin on their testicles and other lovely visual images I could give, but the smell was much more powerful.
Another smell that I have yet to get used to is people in general. Like Europe (I'm told), deodorant isn't commonly used here. It's hot. People smell. Everyone smells. It's not something terrible, but it's definitely not something I'm used to. Last week was the first time I had the honor of smelling a rotten egg. The nine of us in the house have a communal food supply. What I usually have for breakfast is a couple of eggs and a couple of pieces of toast. I don't know where the eggs come from or how old they are, but before last week, I hadn't had any problems. One day, though, when I had my pan with oil on the stove, nicely preheated, I gently tapped the egg on the side of the pan and then when I separated the shell, I had a moment of confusion as the brown soupy contents fell into the pan, and then... WHAMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!! Wow! The odor was a strong slap in the face, making me back away from the stove. I gagged, but thankfully the smell diffused throughout the kitchen and became less powerful. I decided I had had eggs many days in a row without a problem, so it was probably a one-time occurrence. So, I through that egg away, got a new pan all ready to go, and cracked another egg. You know what? The second egg was perfect. I was so happy. The third egg, though, which I cracked into the pan with the second egg: rotten. Argh!
Another smell, which I did not experience personally, but Libby described in excruciating detail, was that of cervical cancer. Apparently there is a gynecology ward where the patients are perhaps the most neglected in the hospital, only getting seen once a week by a doctor. This ward also has an outpatient clinic associated with it. It was there that Libby (and another student, Erin) encountered another striking smell. As soon as the patient walked in the door, Libby and Erin knew something was awry. They tried holding their breath at first to avoid it, but it was inescapable. They couldn't communicate well with the woman, but she handed them her little booklet outlining her medical history (a booklet which all Malawians have for their doctors to fill out... in English). It described a doctor's visit one month prior where she was treated for a sexually transmitted infection - no other disease was mentioned. So, when Libby and Erin did the exam, they were not prepared for what they saw. It was cervical cancer. But it wasn't just some little bump on the cervix that might have grown over the past month. It was a massive white hard tumor that took over her entire pelvis. There was also dead, rotting tissue, producing the terrible smell that permeated the entire ward. Not something that developed over a month. Not something that could have been missed if someone had done an exam at her pervious visit.
To end this post a little more pleasantly, though, I have two more smells to tell about. First is rain. I really like the smell of rain... especially at the end of winter, heralding the onset of spring. Granted, in Malawi we are in the transition from wet season to dry season, so it's sort of the opposite (the end of rain, rather than the beginning of rain that is occurring now in Michigan). But, it's sort of like spring for us, since we were in the Michigan winter for the past month and then we came here. It's only rained two or three times since we've been here, but it's fun to know that the same crisp, fresh aroma accompanies rain all over the world.
The last smell is food. As I sit here on the porch, I can smell another wonderful dinner being prepared. Terrie (the doctor who hosts us) has hired a Malawian gentleman named Simoni to cook (and clean and do laundry and do other random stuff), and he is a GOOD cook. He makes amazing pizza and lasagna that are nothing like pizza and lasagna in the States. The sauce is sweeter... there is less cheese... it's runnier. It's hard to pinpoint any one thing that makes them strikingly different. But they are. And they're good. He also makes some traditional Malawian dishes. Tonight, for example, I think, we're having Sobo (orange) chicken. He also makes Moussaka (which we learned the hard way is about 95% beef, and 5% other stuff), and Malawian fish (which I've forgotten the name of). Mmmmm... The food smells so good right now. I'm really hungry.
That means it's time to be done with this entry. We have many more adventures to write about, but I wanted to give sort of little snapshots into life here. Hopefully this non-chronological format has been entertaining. Perhaps the next entry will be about fulfilling our other African requirement...
So, one of the things that has struck me about Malawi is the smells. I have been surprised at just how many times the sensation that sticks out for me isn't what I see, but rather what I smell. The first day at the hospital was the first time I was blown away by a smell. You see, they have an entire room on the male surgical ward dedicated to wounds that won't heal. I can't think of adjectives to adequately describe the experience... pungent? Rancid? Thick? Repulsive? Necrotic? Nauseating? Each word seems to get close to the experience, but not quite describe it fully. Granted, I was taken aback by seeing holes straight through legs and seeing people with no skin on their testicles and other lovely visual images I could give, but the smell was much more powerful.
Another smell that I have yet to get used to is people in general. Like Europe (I'm told), deodorant isn't commonly used here. It's hot. People smell. Everyone smells. It's not something terrible, but it's definitely not something I'm used to. Last week was the first time I had the honor of smelling a rotten egg. The nine of us in the house have a communal food supply. What I usually have for breakfast is a couple of eggs and a couple of pieces of toast. I don't know where the eggs come from or how old they are, but before last week, I hadn't had any problems. One day, though, when I had my pan with oil on the stove, nicely preheated, I gently tapped the egg on the side of the pan and then when I separated the shell, I had a moment of confusion as the brown soupy contents fell into the pan, and then... WHAMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!! Wow! The odor was a strong slap in the face, making me back away from the stove. I gagged, but thankfully the smell diffused throughout the kitchen and became less powerful. I decided I had had eggs many days in a row without a problem, so it was probably a one-time occurrence. So, I through that egg away, got a new pan all ready to go, and cracked another egg. You know what? The second egg was perfect. I was so happy. The third egg, though, which I cracked into the pan with the second egg: rotten. Argh!
Another smell, which I did not experience personally, but Libby described in excruciating detail, was that of cervical cancer. Apparently there is a gynecology ward where the patients are perhaps the most neglected in the hospital, only getting seen once a week by a doctor. This ward also has an outpatient clinic associated with it. It was there that Libby (and another student, Erin) encountered another striking smell. As soon as the patient walked in the door, Libby and Erin knew something was awry. They tried holding their breath at first to avoid it, but it was inescapable. They couldn't communicate well with the woman, but she handed them her little booklet outlining her medical history (a booklet which all Malawians have for their doctors to fill out... in English). It described a doctor's visit one month prior where she was treated for a sexually transmitted infection - no other disease was mentioned. So, when Libby and Erin did the exam, they were not prepared for what they saw. It was cervical cancer. But it wasn't just some little bump on the cervix that might have grown over the past month. It was a massive white hard tumor that took over her entire pelvis. There was also dead, rotting tissue, producing the terrible smell that permeated the entire ward. Not something that developed over a month. Not something that could have been missed if someone had done an exam at her pervious visit.
To end this post a little more pleasantly, though, I have two more smells to tell about. First is rain. I really like the smell of rain... especially at the end of winter, heralding the onset of spring. Granted, in Malawi we are in the transition from wet season to dry season, so it's sort of the opposite (the end of rain, rather than the beginning of rain that is occurring now in Michigan). But, it's sort of like spring for us, since we were in the Michigan winter for the past month and then we came here. It's only rained two or three times since we've been here, but it's fun to know that the same crisp, fresh aroma accompanies rain all over the world.
The last smell is food. As I sit here on the porch, I can smell another wonderful dinner being prepared. Terrie (the doctor who hosts us) has hired a Malawian gentleman named Simoni to cook (and clean and do laundry and do other random stuff), and he is a GOOD cook. He makes amazing pizza and lasagna that are nothing like pizza and lasagna in the States. The sauce is sweeter... there is less cheese... it's runnier. It's hard to pinpoint any one thing that makes them strikingly different. But they are. And they're good. He also makes some traditional Malawian dishes. Tonight, for example, I think, we're having Sobo (orange) chicken. He also makes Moussaka (which we learned the hard way is about 95% beef, and 5% other stuff), and Malawian fish (which I've forgotten the name of). Mmmmm... The food smells so good right now. I'm really hungry.
That means it's time to be done with this entry. We have many more adventures to write about, but I wanted to give sort of little snapshots into life here. Hopefully this non-chronological format has been entertaining. Perhaps the next entry will be about fulfilling our other African requirement...
Monday, April 6, 2009
Fun Game!
Guess who is wearing the hat in this picture taken at the hospital where we work.
(Official picture upload time: 32 minutes. Started at 9:52am EST, finished at 10:24am)
PS: Happy Opening Day! Go Tigers!
For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Welcome to Malawi!
Well, what’s traveling without a little adventure, huh? Neil, Libby, and I arrived in Malawi to find that our luggage had not. The airport personnel claimed that it was because the aircraft we took from South Africa was too heavy. My personal theory is that we had a somewhat tight connection that our luggage simply didn’t make. Regardless, we asked at the baggage claim if our luggage would be there, and we were told definitely. When we were some of the only people still waiting at the carousel, one of the baggage people went in back and then came back with our bad news. He assured us, though, that our baggage would arrive the next day.
We exchanged some US dollars for Malawian kwacha at 155 kwacha per dollar. We had no idea if this was a good or bad exchange rate, so we only changed a little bit. Then, we were met at the airport by Linda.
You’re wondering who Linda is. We were, too. Sort of. Only, she was white and had a sign with our names on it, so we figured she was trustworthy. We had arranged to stay with missionaries from our church in East Lansing, Phil and Krista, who were working in Lilongwe. We thought one of them would be picking us up, but as it turns out, Linda, their coworker, had to drop off her husband at the airport anyway, so she was our ride.
She was very kind to have waited for us, even though we arrived about a half an hour late and then our luggage dilemma took even more time. She gave us a brief intro to the country on the way, and then dropped us off with Phil and Krista. They are extremely nice people, and wonderful hosts. They have a cute almost-one-year-old daughter, Cara. We dropped off our bags and they asked us what we wanted to do. We asked what they normally did on Monday afternoons, and their reply was music to our ears: ultimate frisbee.
Now who would’ve thought that that’s what we would be doing as soon as we got off the plane in Malawi? Had I taken the opportunity to guess, I may have said nap, take a walk, go to a market, hang out with Phil and Krista... any of a number of things, but ultimate was not even on the radar.
Since we only had our carry-ons, we didn’t really have any clothes suitable for the game, but fortunately, in a house of Frisbee players, there’s usually some extras. So, we walked about 10 minutes or so to a nearby park, where a pick-up game was already in progress. We played for probably about an hour and a half before we dropped with exhaustion.
We went back and made dinner with our hosts: curry! It was delicious. We debated for awhile whether to take the 7am or 11am bus the next day to Blantyre. We decided why get up early, when we wouldn’t make it to the hospital in time to work anyhow? So, we chose the 11am bus.
However, the next morning when Libby and Phil went to get us tickets, they informed us that the 11am bus wasn’t running that day. No explanation. Just the facts. So, we decided on a minibus, which run whenever they get full throughout the day.
We called Terrie Taylor, the physician coordinating our rotation, with our plans, and she begged us not to take such a “death trap” and to wait for the 4:30pm bus. We rejoiced at the opportunity to spend a day exploring Lilongwe, so we gladly accepted her proposal to wait.
Phil was wonderful and took us around by car to show us some of the city. The layout is very strange. The people who planned the city had lots of foresight... a little too much, perhaps. They planned for lots of growth, and thus set up their financial center and their government center and their residential centers all apart from one another. The problem is that they’re pretty darn far apart from each other, to the point that you can’t walk from one zone to another. Oops.
We saw their half-finished Parliament building. Taiwan was funding it to thank Malawi for being one of the few countries to recognize Taiwan’s independence. But then Malawi decided it could get along just as well if it allied with China. For some odd reason Taiwan didn’t like that decision and abruptly stopped its financial support. And for some equally odd reason, China didn’t want to pay Taiwan’s contractors to finish the construction project. So, now, Lilongwe has a perpetually half-finished Parliament Building.
However, there were definitely some very nice areas, too. There was a super fancy USAid building. The building that currently houses the government is really nice. The tallest building (13 stories) in the country is in Lilongwe. Some buildings, taken out of context, would seem perfectly at home in any major US city.
We got dropped off in one of the downtowns and set off by foot. We walked around a lot and had fun visiting some of the open-air markets. There were wood carvers on one corner who made absolutely beautiful stuff by hand, but their... persistence was a bit distressing, so we didn’t spend a lot of time around them. We went to a post office, so if you happen to be a cousin of mine reading this, in need of a get well card, it’ll be fun to see when it arrives.
We went to “Indian Town,” and had Indian food for lunch. DELICIOUS! It turns out that the Indians who settled in Malawi were such good business people that the Malawians couldn’t compete. The government got mad and decided they all had to relocate to this small area within Lilongwe. They did (resulting in many delicious restaurants and a pretty strong presence of Indian culture in a small area), but the Malawians didn’t really take advantage and take over any of the Indian businesses.
We went to a small American-style mall to wait until it was time to go. The azulu (white people) to Malawian ratio was extremely high there. Everything was about 30 times more expensive than in the open-air markets. The one perk, though, was that we found a place that offered five minutes of free wifi - just enough to email people to let them know we’d arrived safely.
That pretty much spent our time in Lilongwe, and then we headed to the bus station. It started pouring while we were waiting, so we were pleased to be inside. The ride itself was beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous landscape - all sorts of mountains/hills all over.
We arrived in Blantyre well after dark, met up with Terrie Taylor, and she gave us a ride to her home - our home for the next month. And there I will stop, since this has been a long entry.
We exchanged some US dollars for Malawian kwacha at 155 kwacha per dollar. We had no idea if this was a good or bad exchange rate, so we only changed a little bit. Then, we were met at the airport by Linda.
You’re wondering who Linda is. We were, too. Sort of. Only, she was white and had a sign with our names on it, so we figured she was trustworthy. We had arranged to stay with missionaries from our church in East Lansing, Phil and Krista, who were working in Lilongwe. We thought one of them would be picking us up, but as it turns out, Linda, their coworker, had to drop off her husband at the airport anyway, so she was our ride.
She was very kind to have waited for us, even though we arrived about a half an hour late and then our luggage dilemma took even more time. She gave us a brief intro to the country on the way, and then dropped us off with Phil and Krista. They are extremely nice people, and wonderful hosts. They have a cute almost-one-year-old daughter, Cara. We dropped off our bags and they asked us what we wanted to do. We asked what they normally did on Monday afternoons, and their reply was music to our ears: ultimate frisbee.
Now who would’ve thought that that’s what we would be doing as soon as we got off the plane in Malawi? Had I taken the opportunity to guess, I may have said nap, take a walk, go to a market, hang out with Phil and Krista... any of a number of things, but ultimate was not even on the radar.
Since we only had our carry-ons, we didn’t really have any clothes suitable for the game, but fortunately, in a house of Frisbee players, there’s usually some extras. So, we walked about 10 minutes or so to a nearby park, where a pick-up game was already in progress. We played for probably about an hour and a half before we dropped with exhaustion.
We went back and made dinner with our hosts: curry! It was delicious. We debated for awhile whether to take the 7am or 11am bus the next day to Blantyre. We decided why get up early, when we wouldn’t make it to the hospital in time to work anyhow? So, we chose the 11am bus.
However, the next morning when Libby and Phil went to get us tickets, they informed us that the 11am bus wasn’t running that day. No explanation. Just the facts. So, we decided on a minibus, which run whenever they get full throughout the day.
We called Terrie Taylor, the physician coordinating our rotation, with our plans, and she begged us not to take such a “death trap” and to wait for the 4:30pm bus. We rejoiced at the opportunity to spend a day exploring Lilongwe, so we gladly accepted her proposal to wait.
Phil was wonderful and took us around by car to show us some of the city. The layout is very strange. The people who planned the city had lots of foresight... a little too much, perhaps. They planned for lots of growth, and thus set up their financial center and their government center and their residential centers all apart from one another. The problem is that they’re pretty darn far apart from each other, to the point that you can’t walk from one zone to another. Oops.
We saw their half-finished Parliament building. Taiwan was funding it to thank Malawi for being one of the few countries to recognize Taiwan’s independence. But then Malawi decided it could get along just as well if it allied with China. For some odd reason Taiwan didn’t like that decision and abruptly stopped its financial support. And for some equally odd reason, China didn’t want to pay Taiwan’s contractors to finish the construction project. So, now, Lilongwe has a perpetually half-finished Parliament Building.
However, there were definitely some very nice areas, too. There was a super fancy USAid building. The building that currently houses the government is really nice. The tallest building (13 stories) in the country is in Lilongwe. Some buildings, taken out of context, would seem perfectly at home in any major US city.
We got dropped off in one of the downtowns and set off by foot. We walked around a lot and had fun visiting some of the open-air markets. There were wood carvers on one corner who made absolutely beautiful stuff by hand, but their... persistence was a bit distressing, so we didn’t spend a lot of time around them. We went to a post office, so if you happen to be a cousin of mine reading this, in need of a get well card, it’ll be fun to see when it arrives.
We went to “Indian Town,” and had Indian food for lunch. DELICIOUS! It turns out that the Indians who settled in Malawi were such good business people that the Malawians couldn’t compete. The government got mad and decided they all had to relocate to this small area within Lilongwe. They did (resulting in many delicious restaurants and a pretty strong presence of Indian culture in a small area), but the Malawians didn’t really take advantage and take over any of the Indian businesses.
We went to a small American-style mall to wait until it was time to go. The azulu (white people) to Malawian ratio was extremely high there. Everything was about 30 times more expensive than in the open-air markets. The one perk, though, was that we found a place that offered five minutes of free wifi - just enough to email people to let them know we’d arrived safely.
That pretty much spent our time in Lilongwe, and then we headed to the bus station. It started pouring while we were waiting, so we were pleased to be inside. The ride itself was beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous landscape - all sorts of mountains/hills all over.
We arrived in Blantyre well after dark, met up with Terrie Taylor, and she gave us a ride to her home - our home for the next month. And there I will stop, since this has been a long entry.
London Pictures!
Total uploading time for 4 pictures: a little over 1 hour. yay!
On top of the double-decker tour bus... listening to the recorded tour guide
The Tower Bridge
You should've seen how super I was when I came out.
So, I'm silly and even though I waited 10 minutes for this picture to upload, I didn't rotate it first. It's us and Big Ben, in case your neck doesn't bend quite far enough to tell.
On top of the double-decker tour bus... listening to the recorded tour guide
The Tower Bridge
You should've seen how super I was when I came out.
So, I'm silly and even though I waited 10 minutes for this picture to upload, I didn't rotate it first. It's us and Big Ben, in case your neck doesn't bend quite far enough to tell.
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