Drums in the Night

In case you got the impression, that because I now live with azungu, and eat azungu food, that I have stopped “experiencing Africa.” I thought I would share some things that show I am still living in Malawi. (As if my repeated use of the word azungu wasn’t proof enough).

The last month or so has been a time for many circumcision/initiation ceremonies for the Yao people (the predominant tribe in the Mangochi area). The ceremonies are called Jhando for boys and Mzondo for girls. I have seen many large gatherings in the village near Palm Beach with people singing, dancing, and beating on drums. The drums have also added to the lively chorus of the African night. While lying in my bed, I can now hear the drums, owls, frogs, and the occasional hippo. Sadly I also hear the loud music from the nearest village bar, but it’s not so bad that I can’t sleep. Oh, and lets not forget those lovely roosters.

I continue to greet many, many kids on my walks to and from Palm Beach. Lots of them have started to shout out Bye Bye a lot. I guess they either know I’m leaving Malawi fairly soon, or they just got bored with hellos. Sometimes on the walks home I find myself leading a troop of 20 kids or so. Don’t worry. I don’t think they’re trying to get me to join a Jhando; they’re just really happy that I’m white.

At school we've been busy preparing the form 2s for the Junior Certificate (national) Exams. They are taking them next week!! We haven’t had any football/netball games this term since we’ve been so busy getting ready for these exams. After the exams the form 2s will actually be done with school for the year (until January), but we plan on working out some sort of summer school for our kids. The form 1s finish up November 16th, and shortly after that I'll be leaving Malawi. Good thing I practice shouting Bye Bye everyday.

Back from vacation?

I'm back to teaching again, but am quite confused as to whether or not I'm back from vacation. Immediately upon arriving back in Mangochi, I moved from Sibale's house to Palm Beach. Although I enjoyed living with the Sibales, I was happy to move to a place where I can enjoy the beach everyday. I am staying in a spare bedroom at the resort owners' house (a South African family), and eat my breakfast and dinner at the Palm Beach restaurant. They are giving me a great deal for rent, and so it is not costing me anymore than living with Sibales.

I'm enjoying good western style food every night (no more nsima!) and can lounge at the beach all day on Sundays. The only slight down side is that I now have a twenty minute walk to the roadside everyday to get the car to MCV. And this isn't really a down side at all on the days when most villagers shout "hello" and "how are you?" (It gets a bit tiring when they shout "give me money." and "f$#&* you." instead.)

Also in residence at Palm Beach are several monkeys, a giant eagle owl, and some fish eagles. There are also hippos that live nearby and come grazing at Palm Beach during the night. I haven't seen the hippos yet but some people saw one a couple weeks ago. Hopefully my next blog post will have a hippo on it!

Nairobi (Chapter 2)

I spent one last day and night in Nairobi before flying back to Malawi. I spent the day fattening myself up at Carnivore. It’s one of the world’s 50 best restaurants and definitely one of the best I’ve ever been to. After your soup and salad, on comes the meat. While the flag is still flying on your table they keep bringing it. I ate pork spare ribs, pork tenderloin, lamb chops, lamb, beef, turkey, crocodile, and ostrich meatballs. Needless to say I did not eat dinner that night.

I also got to see a couple more movies (Transformers & The Simpsons), and go to the first decent bookstore I’d seen in 8 months.

Diani

After leaving Takaungu I continued south to Diani Beach. My commute there was quite fun. I left the volunteer house at Takaungu, took a boda boda (bicycle taxi) 2km to the main road, caught a large bus blaring reggae music to Mombasa, caught a tuk tuk (three wheeled taxi) to the Likoni ferry, took the ferry to Likoni where I caught a matatu to Ukunda, and then another matatu to Diani!

Diani Beach (a place my sister actually didn’t make it to) was absolutely gorgeous. My sister’s friend described it as the best beach she had ever been to. I’d have to say I whole heartedly agree. It’s also supposed to be the place where Brad and Angelina were first spotted together, though something tells me they weren’t staying in the same $10 a night hut that I was. Sadly it once again rained every day, even more than in Malindi. I did get in some beach time in between the rains though, and enjoyed the miles of endless white sand and crystal clear water. I also went to visit the Colobus Trust just down the road from my hut where I got to see some rare Angolan Black and White Colobus monkeys. After two nights at Diani Beachalets I headed back to Mombasa where I caught the night train, (much more comfortable then the bus) back to Nairobi.

pictures: a tuk tuk and matatu in Mombasa, camels waiting for tourists, and sunrise from a little cave on the beach.

Takaungu

Takaungu is a small village where an amazing NGO called the East African Center (http://www.eastafricancenter.org/) is located. After hearing about the EAC from two former volunteers: both my sister and Nick Booster, I simply had to check it out. I was pleased, but not at all surprised to find that just about every Kenyan there remembered both Megan and Nick. My boda boda (Kenyan bicycle taxi) driver, Hunter, told me that Nick was his best friend. And the Community Health Care workers' faces all lit up with smiles when I said I was Megan's brother. (My sister, a nurse & future midwife, wrote some of their training curriculum). I was definitely impressed with the work the EAC does, and also with the beauty of Takaungu itself.

The first picture is of the inlet next to Takaungu, and the second is me standing outside the hut where my sister lived for a month!

Gede

After Malindi, I headed south to visit Gede, a site of ancient Swahili ruins. I was blown away by the size of the place. (The picture above is actually just a small portion of the ancient town.) I spent the morning wandering around in amazement and then headed further south to Takaungu.

Malindi

After leaving Pat & Cathleen at the airport in Nairobi, I took off to the Kenyan coast to do largely the same trip my sister Megan did a year earlier. I took a night bus to Mombasa, and felt the bumps so badly that I sometimes wondered whether we were taking the road, or just driving across back country. We arrived early, and I spent the morning wandering around the old town before catching a matatu (Kenyan minibus) to Malindi.

Malindi (my first Megan recommended destination) is a town on the coast a couple hours north of Mombasa with large beautiful beaches. For some reason it has become incredibly popular with Italians. Not only do you see Italians all over the place, everyone thinks you're Italian! Instead of Jambo, many of the locals great you with ciao. I was amazed to see several Kenyans speaking fluently in Italian. I spent two nights at a resort on the beach, that had a huge pool surrounded by palm trees. (Sadly the rest of the place was falling apart; I guess that's why it was pretty cheap.) It rained much of the time I was there, but I still had time to enjoy the beach a little bit, and I hired a boat to do a little snorkeling at a nearby coral reef. I also enjoyed some great Italian food at "I Love Pizza" (good call Moogs!).