We are on the bus on the way from Blantyre to Lake Malawi now. Jackie and Diane are sitting to my right and Megan is sitting to my left. We were sitting in the in bus for about an hour and fifteen minutes before it pulled out and during that time we had the vendors trying to sell us all manner of items. The girls purchased some chitenjes (a traditional colored fabric that can be used as pretty much any piece of clothing) during which process one of the men who was behind them asked me if they (the girls) were all mine and if I would give him one. The girls – especially Jacquie – did not appreciate that very much. If I had given in to her wishes to know his identity he would currently be suffering from as much physical damage as she could inflict.
One of the speakers for the bus – out of which they play quite awful music at ear splitting volumes – is sitting directly behind us so we have as much of our luggage piled on top of it as possible. They have an entire case of CDs up front so we are sure to be “enjoying” endless musical selections.
11:14
We finally arrived at the Gecko Lounge at about 10 pm after 8 hours of traveling, not counting the drive into Blantyre in the morning. The bus arrived, after a seemingly infinite number of stops, at Monkey Bay which was its final destination. Cape Maclear is somewhere between 20 and 30 km from there over washboard roads. The guy sitting in front of us on the bus offered to call his friend who had a taxi to take us since it was late enough that there were no more Matolas (pickup trucks overflowing with people) going. While we waited for his friend to show up a couple other guys said they would help us and call one of their friends and (after bargaining) said he would do it for 4500 Kwatcha ($30). His name was Duncan and he did actually seem to be quite helpful. He also spoke some of the best English I have heard from a Malawian. Unfortunately his friend ran out of gas (a common problem here) on the way so he never made it. The driver the first guy called showed up but he wanted 6000 Kwatcha ($40). Duncan tried to convince him to go lower but he refused. He said it was due to the lateness of the hour and the condition of the road that needed traversed. Duncan offered to show us to somewhere we could stay in town so we could find a cheaper ride the next day but we decided we just wanted to finish the trip and $40 split between the 4 of us was doable. On the way we made a detour to get fuel since apparently there is no fuel at Cape Maclear. The fuel stop consisted of a a little tiny village where they had a Jerry can with a hose attached to it.
Falls asleep...
7:30 am next morning:
As the driver got the fuel all the kids started looking in the windows and asking for money. Here they have an interesting thing they do where they often do not simply say “Give me money,” they say “Give me my money” as if it somehow already belongs to them. They gave me some very confused looks when I started demanding that they had to give me money. I told they they needed to give us money to pay for the taxi but they decided after a few moments of confusion that they did not agree with that idea. When the driver was done he got back into the car and to out utter delight brought an opened bottle of beer with him. Jacquie started into him like nobody-elses business. He promised he would not get drunk and would get us there without incident but we only felt slightly reassured. Fortunately we did eventually reach our destination after driving on oh-so-wonderful washboard for over an hour. It was to late to do check in but since we had a reservation they took us to our room and said we could do check in the next day.
The establishment itself has a wonderful resort feel to it. The staff are out cleaning up the beach early in the morning, there are hammocks hanging everywhere, the rooms are well sealed against mosquitoes, all the lawns are very well groomed and the whole place just seems to ooze with relaxation. We are staying in the “dorm” which is like a hostel area with many beds to one large room. However this is a much nicer dorm than most. It is split up into sections by reed walls, one room with four beds, one with two and one more bunk bed just kind of out in the “hallway.” There is a shared toilet room and a shower room but they are quite decent. It feels strange to take a warm shower after living without hot water for so long. The dorm has a bunch of lockers that can be used for your valuables. Every since traveling in Europe I have made it a habit to bring a small padlock with me when I travel so I was able to put things like my money and cameras and computer in a locker. If one didn't bring a lock they do offer them at the front desk for a deposit of 1500 MKW (Malawi Kwatcha). The one thing I could wish is that they had an honesty bar so that we could get drinks later at night. The bar was not open when we arrived and I was quite thirsty.
The lake does remind me of lake Michigan to a certain extent. Lake Malawi is clearer, you can see across it (just barely) and it smells a bit more like fish. The beach here is not as nice, it is more like fine gravel than sand and there is a lot of trash floating around from all the villagers. I'm looking forward to going out to one of the islands where everyone says the snorkeling/diving is amazing. I am also hoping we get some good clear nights since I brought my whole huge tripod to do some star photography.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Jan 7, 2011 (Fri) - 2:30pm (+2 GMT)
I'm sitting in the car in the pouring rain waiting for Randy to pickup some sheets of glass for a building project that is going on at Malamulo. Elisa is getting back tomorrow with my new hard drive so I can fix my laptop. I am now happier than ever that I bought a netbook to bring with me. It has turned out to be one of the most useful things I brought. That along with my computer tool kit.
The rain is reminding me of two weeks ago when Christy, Jacquie, Anthony, Diane and I went to Mount Mulanje to climb up to the waterfall. It started raining just before we got there and kept raining during the whole climb up, the whole time we were there and the whole way down. Not a real heavy rain, but enough to keep everything wet. The waterfall was a lot larger than the previous times I had seen it due to all the rain we have been having. Usually one can swim up to the base of the fall and hang on to the rocks but this time we couldn't swim closer than about 20 feet. It was still fun even with all the rain and when we got back we made tomato soup (a really good recipe Christy had) and grilled cheese sandwiches with the last of my cheese I got in my Christmas box.
I was finally able to withdraw money from my bank account this week which meant that I could buy food again. Ryan Hayton (the hospital's surgeon) threw out his knee on Tuesday. He has had 8 previous knee surgeries (4 on each knee). Wednesday he flew down to South Africa to get another surgery. Sharlene heard from him after the surgery and it went well, he is just waiting for the hospital to discharge him to fly back.
A few weeks ago I started teaching computer classes for the hospital staff. I have a small computer lab set up with 6 stations so all 39 students are split up over six class periods (I can pretty much count on at least one and usually several of the employees not showing for various – often legit – reasons). The computer knowledge of my students ranges from zero (they have never touched a computer and don't know how to use a mouse or keyboard) to several of the students that are decent typesets and quite familiar with MS Office. After the first two weeks I had assessed their skills and reorganized them into classes of similar skill levels. This last week I had my higher level classes working on typing with Mavis Beacon and my lower level classes making pictures on Paint to practice using a mouse.
Also this week two new people came at the same time as the Lutz' left. Megan is an SM this year from Walla Walla and she was in Namibia but her project ran out of funds so she is going to be here for the remainder of the time. She will be working on starting up a school for the missionary kids and some of the national kids who are of a “certain class” as the pastor put it. Apparently that “class” includes the pastor's kids and the doctors' kids and I think a few others. We all felt a bit odd putting people into classes that way. The other new person is an infectious disease doctor from the States who is going to be here for a month to check things out and see if he thinks Malawi is a good fit for him to spend several years in.
Next Thursday a few of us are going to the lake (finally) for a long weekend. I am looking forward to doing some SCUBA diving as well as being at a beach for the first time since leaving the States. We are going take public transportation up which should be interesting as always.
The rain is reminding me of two weeks ago when Christy, Jacquie, Anthony, Diane and I went to Mount Mulanje to climb up to the waterfall. It started raining just before we got there and kept raining during the whole climb up, the whole time we were there and the whole way down. Not a real heavy rain, but enough to keep everything wet. The waterfall was a lot larger than the previous times I had seen it due to all the rain we have been having. Usually one can swim up to the base of the fall and hang on to the rocks but this time we couldn't swim closer than about 20 feet. It was still fun even with all the rain and when we got back we made tomato soup (a really good recipe Christy had) and grilled cheese sandwiches with the last of my cheese I got in my Christmas box.
I was finally able to withdraw money from my bank account this week which meant that I could buy food again. Ryan Hayton (the hospital's surgeon) threw out his knee on Tuesday. He has had 8 previous knee surgeries (4 on each knee). Wednesday he flew down to South Africa to get another surgery. Sharlene heard from him after the surgery and it went well, he is just waiting for the hospital to discharge him to fly back.
A few weeks ago I started teaching computer classes for the hospital staff. I have a small computer lab set up with 6 stations so all 39 students are split up over six class periods (I can pretty much count on at least one and usually several of the employees not showing for various – often legit – reasons). The computer knowledge of my students ranges from zero (they have never touched a computer and don't know how to use a mouse or keyboard) to several of the students that are decent typesets and quite familiar with MS Office. After the first two weeks I had assessed their skills and reorganized them into classes of similar skill levels. This last week I had my higher level classes working on typing with Mavis Beacon and my lower level classes making pictures on Paint to practice using a mouse.
Also this week two new people came at the same time as the Lutz' left. Megan is an SM this year from Walla Walla and she was in Namibia but her project ran out of funds so she is going to be here for the remainder of the time. She will be working on starting up a school for the missionary kids and some of the national kids who are of a “certain class” as the pastor put it. Apparently that “class” includes the pastor's kids and the doctors' kids and I think a few others. We all felt a bit odd putting people into classes that way. The other new person is an infectious disease doctor from the States who is going to be here for a month to check things out and see if he thinks Malawi is a good fit for him to spend several years in.
Next Thursday a few of us are going to the lake (finally) for a long weekend. I am looking forward to doing some SCUBA diving as well as being at a beach for the first time since leaving the States. We are going take public transportation up which should be interesting as always.
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