6:38 pm Malawi time/12:38pm EST, Tuesday 24th June 2008
I burnt my rice. Turned down the wrong eye of the stove. Boo. Luckily for me, tonight has become at spontaneous baking party at the house and the rest of dinner will consist of chocolate-snickers-banana-peanut butter cake, banana loaf, “biscuits” w/ crushed MnMs on top, and lemon cupcakes. And powdered milk. Yummy.
Two weeks ago today Allison, Sarah, Sarah and Lucy (two med. students from Univ. of Newcastle) and I celebrated the last meal Allison, Sarah and I would all be together for with steak and rice and salad and carrots and peas. It was a feast of a feast. The next morning I was picked up by Aunt Jodi at the Nursing school and drove down to Lilongwe in between John and Joseph’s car seats. We sang lots of the same songs as on the way up with the new addition of Old MacDonald (he had a farm, for those of you whose childhood is too far behind you). It was my first times to Lilongwe in two years, one month, seventeen days, and 7 hours…give or take a bit. Not much had changed and that was comforting. The McGills dropped me off at Shoprite and I met up with Ministry of Hope people. Justin and Joni Manon (the volunteer coordinators) were driving the minivan full of white people when I hopped in. Sydney and Rachel are long-term volunteers, and then nine others called the “New Wilmington” group. We drove from Shoprite to Bisnowaty to pick up Paul (who was there because he had lost his passport and had to sit at immigration for a while) then went to their house in area 44—way out next to the President’s Statehouse. I was completely surrounded by Americans for the first time since I’d arrived in Malawi and it was strange. I missed the constant intake of tea and good food and accents. I shared a few blankets and a sleeping bag with Sydney in her and Rachel’s room. Paul came and hung out with us while the group had their devos. (Paul and Sydney go to Davidson with me and are awesome) (Rachel doesn’t go to Davidson, but is awesome nonetheless). The next morning we all went over to the Ministry of Hope office and I was reunited with our gardener/driver of 8 years, Dada Nyirenda, one of our dog’s puppies, George, and several people who knew me because of my last name, but who I didn’t remember. I convinced Paul to walk around Lilongwe with me instead of going into the village with the others. We went first to the Crisis Nursery; saw Mama Jere and Amai Nyoni and Lundu. It was fun to play with the babies and be there again (those of you who don’t know the significance of the Ministry of Hope Crisis Nursery should ask me about it sometime). From there we walked to Crossroads and Café Delight for lunch. On the way I introduced Paul to sugar cane. He didn’t like it. I was ok with that cause it meant more for me.
--We now interrupt this transmission to go sing karaoke, peace--
4 hours later…all the 80s songs have been sung, two hilarious episodes of The Mighty Boosh watched, and I just remembered that I have to be at work early tomorrow morning so I’m off to bed…hopefully the internet in the office will work tomorrow (it didn’t today).
2:41pm Malawi time/ 8:41 am EST, Wednesday, 25th June, 2008
I was soooo happy when I got on the internet this morning and had 12 real emails and only 17 junk/facebook ones. Much of my time has been passed reading them and replying to people. I was given one assignment at work today: call a member of the HTC (HIV testing and counseling) team and tell them to set up a meeting in Luwerezi next week. I was excited about being assigned something to do, but before I got a chance to call, someone else went and did it. I guess that gives me more time to tell you about the last two weeks though so it’s not all bad.
Thursday night I went to the Capital hotel to eat pizza with the MoH volunteers and a group from Arizona that was staying there. We got to see what one of the rooms looked like (these are $150ish a night and VERY posh) and what a bit of the Euro cup match that was on at the time. The next morning I was on the same flight as the AZ group to Nairobi. They had a nine hour layover so I showed them where the lounge and Java House were then headed into town. Because I arrived in Nairobi around 4:30 traffic was terrible and it took us an hour and a half to get to the de la Torres’ house. I spent the night there and arranged for Francis to take me out to Rift Valley Academy (my high school) early the next morning. It was all I could do to not go to bed at 7. I managed to stay awake until 10 watching MTV music videos…Francis picked me up at 7:30 Saturday morning and we drove out to RVA. It’s about an hour north of the city so we got there in plenty of time for me to wake Katie up and surprise her. The entire purpose of my random, frequent-flyer ticket to Kenya for the weekend was to surprise her and hang out with her. (Fun Fact about Jesse #5: She loves surprises. Allsorts. Giving and getting them). It was a volleyball tournament and Jr. Store that day so after a bit we went and got in line. I had a cheeseburger and three stoneys :) They stopped making Chicken tikka and teriyaki which was VERY upsetting news, but since the Manns were junior class sponsors I didn’t complain. (Those of you who are confused by this point should ask me sometime to explain the various aspects of RVA culture that you don’t understand). (Don’t ask me at the same time as you ask me about the crisis nursery though unless you have a couple of hours to spare). I saw Malderink (my better half), Josiah and Elise and all the other Riches, Megan McHaney, the Nanningas , Mushroom Man, Studmuffin, and many others that I hadn’t seen since I graduated two years ago. It was really strange being there and all the little kiddies being grown up. I didn’t actually feel any older at all. Just much more confident and mature (whether or not that’s true that’s how I felt). Mama Chikus food for Sunday lunch was definitely the highlight of the weekend and Francis came to pick me up on Monday afternoon before I felt any time had passed at all. Monday night I ate with the de la Torres and some guests and discussed politics and missions and development and fell asleep at 9. The taxi to the airport emptied my wallet so when I arrived back in Lilongwe at lunchtime I was determined not to spend 4,500 Kwacha on a taxi into town. I recognized one of the cars in the airport parking lot and ended up bumming a ride from Dada Kamanga in the CCAP van with 15 Australians who arrived on my flight and were coming to work in Blantyre for two weeks. They dropped me in area 47 and I walked to the Ministry of Hope office and waited for everyone else to arrive from the village. That night and Wednesday I spent in the office and around Lilongwe with Sydney, Paul and Rachel. We planned to go to the Lake on Thursday and maybe spend the night camping on the beach and come back Friday. The New Wilmington group was planning to go for the day on Thursday and give us a ride out there, but that fell through.
Instead, we made our own adventure (Mom, don’t worry, I’m alive to tell this tale so everything went fine). We drove to Area 2 at 7:30 Thursday morning and catching an AXA bus to Salima (it only cost MK290 each, but there were people in every seat and standing in the aisle the whole way…Rachel graciously gave her seat to a woman with a baby on her back so they could sit down). From Salima we started walking to Senga Bay in hopes of catching a minibus or hitching a ride. We ended up in the back of a pickup truck with 10 other people. Five minutes out of town it ran out of fuel and parked on the side of the road. We waited for the next empty truck to come by, piled in and continued on our way. By the time we reached Senga Bay 25 other people had joined us in the back of the truck. From Senga Bay we walked the last 8 kilometres to the campsite, stopping at the Red Zebra Café for lunch. It was 2:30 before we started climbing the rocks to jump into the water. (Sorry, no pics for now…maybe later when I get them on my computer). It wasn’t as cold as it looked and the jump was a huge adrenalin rush. I was glad that Paul and Sydney and Rachel got a chance to do it. Rachel had to be at a meeting Friday morning so she drove back to town with the New Wilmington group (they picked her up and dropped off our tent). Sydney, Paul and I set up the tent, showered, ate our peanut butter and banana sandwiches for dinner, arranged a very shady looking “taxi” to take us to Salima the next morning, then headed over to the bar (at the five star lodge next to the campsite) where the Euro Cup was on TV. We met a cool Australian couple who were running a bush camp in South Luwangwa National Park, Zambia for the summer and taking some time off to travel Malawi. They were camping on the beach next to us. Sleep was good…the sand was soft and I didn’t have to fight too hard to keep my half of the blankets. It was cloudy so no stars, but the moon shining through was really pretty on the water. Paul thought that the Mozambican mountains on the other side of the lake were on fire when the bright orange moon started rising. Early the next morning we got up and broke down the tent. Paul made the mistake of feeding the baboons a banana and they bothered us for the rest of the morning. Eventually getting bold enough to steal my sugar cane. It only cost MK10, but I was still annoyed with them. (Fun Fact about Jesse #6: She hates Baboons. They are the only animal that truly scares her). Our “taxi” to Salima was an old blue dihatsu (sp?) pickup truck that is about the size of my VW Bug. We fit about 30 people in the back (mostly schoolchildren) very uncomfortably but made it to the bus stop only 8 minutes later than we wanted to. The AXA bus was not there and apparently had no intention of being there so we took a minibus (that cost twice as much) back to LLW. It smelled very strongly of fish and soaked into our clothes and bags so that for the rest of the day MoH people were commenting on our fishy smell. I slept the whole way back and hung around the Ministry of Hope office waiting for my turn on the internet until it was time to go pick my brother up at the airport. He flew in from Lesotho just after lunch and had already arranged for someone else to pick him up so I gave him a hug and arranged to see him later and went back to the office to play on the internet some more. That night he had borrowed a car from the friends he was staying with so he picked up the four of us from the office and took us out to Blue Ginger, a new Indian restaurant in Lilongwe, for dinner because it was Sydney’s last day in town. The food was delicious and afterwards we went back to the house and watched Braveheart. I was so tired that I fell asleep before the first big battle scene and was really disappointed that I didn’t get to watch it all when I woke up at 7:30 the next morning.
Think this post is long enough yet? I’ve only got a few more days so bear with me or take a break and come back or just quit now and never know or do whatever you want cause it’s your life.
Saturday morning we took Sydney out the airport and sorted out her tickets etc. for her Ethiopian airways flight (she’s a brave one). That afternoon we drove out to Matapila for “social Saturday”. Basically the wazungus (foreigners) and Ministry of Hope staff played against the kids from the feeding centers in the area. I was clueless as to how to play netball, but we won that anyway…and volleyball, and football. Once the games were over we handed out soft drinks and scones and had a short devos with the kids before Justin and Joannie dropped us off at the McAuley’s house for the night. Sunday morning we went to CCBC (the church we went to in Lilongwe for 8+ years) and saw lots of familiar faces. Pastor Henry Joseph was in the middle of a sermon series on Marriage so that was interesting…he made the women sit on one side of the church and the men on the other. That afternoon we were dropped off at the Crisis nursery once again, to wait for our ride North. Aunt Martha (another “missionary aunt” of no real relation) picked us up along with two med. students from Liverpool and my Dad’s boss and we drove to Embangweni (get out your map of Malawi again :P) for the night. The next day I rode from there to Mzuzu in the back of an ambulance and tried to help the McGills out because they were packing to leave Mzuzu the next day. I ended up having a sleepover at their house with the kids and saying goodbye at 6:30 the next morning when I got a ride out to Ekwendeni.
So I am finally back in Ekwendeni. Nathan is here too. I may leave tomorrow…may not. I’m not sure yet. Regardless, I probably won’t have internet much in the next week. Then (this is funny) my blog is blocked on my high school’s highly filtered internet so I won’t be able to update this at all between July 3rd and 18th. But don’t worry. I’ll keep a detailed log of all my adventures on my computer so that I can just update it when I find wireless somewhere. Hope your lives are happy. Until next time, peace and love.
--pictures to come...sometime--
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