Every restaurant has features two traditional Balinese desserts: fruit with Balinese honey, and warm mashed bananas drizzled in palm sugar, cinnamon, and coconut.
Always double check starting times of booked excursions.
Monkeys don't come out when it's raining.
You'll never have trouble finding transport.
Bali-appropriate showers are a must: you're hot when you first get in so initially the water should be cold. Once your body temperature returns to a somewhat normal level, you can turn up the heat and enjoy a regular hot shower. But make sure you go back to cold water for at least the last minute or you'll be sweating in the humidity before you can fully dry off.
Hiking up a volcano for 2 hours to watch the sunrise Christmas morning won't replace being with family but comes pretty darn close.
One way streets for cars aren't necessarily one way streets for motorbikes.
Always order dessert.
Don't pay as much for 5 pieces of fruit as you do a massage.
Internet speed sucks during convenient hours but is always great at 2am.
11:30am isn't too early for a Bintang.
When it rains, every tourist thinks a massage is a great idea.
Luwak coffee is made with beans a luwak has pooped. But it still tastes great.
Sometimes a bike's right hand break stops the front wheel.
Always bring a rain jacket.
If your 5:00 bus isn't there at 5:30, it's okay, it's probably still coming.
Every shop and door smells like incense.
You can use Nick's Pension's amazing swimming pool without being a guest.
Kafe recycles plastic water bottles but laughs at you when you pull 7 out of your bag.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Revived!
Welcome to Bali!!!
I decided to revive my blog! If only for Bali, hopefully it’ll save a few experiences and memories for me. But internet at our guesthouse is kind of slow, so I probably won't upload many pictures here.
So today is December 24. It’s a 13 hour difference to the east coast and 15 hours to the west coast. I’ll start from the beginning because it took me two days to get here. But I guess the real story starts months ago when Elena tried to leave Australia to spend a few months in New Zealand and was told she couldn’t return to Australia in December, where her and I had planned to spend the holiday break together and she already had her return ticket booked to. So in a mad rush to buy a non-Australian ticket before her plane departed, she chose Bali!
So I booked a flight and, four days ago, left freezing Maine for hot-and-humid Bali! But it wasn’t quite that simple. Door to door, it took more than 48 hours to get here. The trip started with a very yummy #roommatelunch at Flatbreads in Portland followed by a trip to Whole Foods for some gelato and shopping. Then the flying started. Portland → 1-hour plane ride to JFK → 9 hour layover → 13-hour plane ride to Doha, Qatar → 9-hour layover → 7-hour flight to Singapore → 1-hour layover → 3-hour flight to Denpasar, Bali! I met Elena at the guesthouse at about 9pm that night. Too tired to eat dinner, we were both asleep by 10.
The next day we were up early. We walked down the road to a cute café and had breakfast. Toast and eggs for me, banana “faffles” for Elena. It was a kind of breakfast twist on a banana and honey panini. And we both had some of the best juice I’ve ever tasted: banana and mango.
We’re staying in the village Ubud, which is beautiful. We’re staying on the main street, but behind the shops that line the sidewalks so we can’t hear the busy traffic. We have a queen sized bed for the two of us, a flush toilet, hot and cold water in our showers, and a porch where tea is delivered at 6am everyday. The street itself is one way for cars but two ways for mopeds and bikes. The sidewalks are elevated about a foot and a half with big dips for every driveway. There are tons of massage shops and spas advertising stone massages and reflexology. The stores that sell clothes have everything ranging from dresses made from Balinese fabric to yoga wear. There are also beautiful shops that sell every kind of artwork imaginable: kids’ toys, modern paintings, traditional stone sculptures, kites, glass dishes, and jewelry. There are also way more organic and natural shops that I anticipated that sell soaps, herbal remedies, other natural remedies, incense, and clothes. There are stands everywhere advertising for tour companies. And men sit on the sides of the street and offer taxi rides to every passing foreigner.
That afternoon I headed to a spa for a traditional Balinese massage. It was really great and less than $10. That night we had dinner at Kafe and went to bed early. Kafe has really latched onto the Bali Go Green initiative. They don’t serve plastic straws unless you request one, they collect plastic water bottles from customers and people on the street to recycle them, and all of their food is organic and most is local.
Yesterday, we took a bike tour of “The Real Bali” with a green Balinese company. They picked us up at 7:30am along with 9 other people and we drove first to a restaurant overlooking an active volcano and Bali’s largest lake, Danau Batur. In addition to banana pancakes, amazing fruit, local coffee, and rice, we had chocolate rice pudding with coconut milk, which was surprisingly delicious and has since been spotted on many dessert menus.
Then we drove to a green coffee company where we were shown over 20 species of plants and learned a little about Bali’s coffee industry. We tried the Luwak coffee., which I’m pretty sure only comes from Indonesia. The Luwak is a really cute raccoon-like animal that eats coffee beans, ferments them in its stomach, and poops them out. Then the beans are roasted and brewed for coffee! It was yummy but not all that strong. They also gave us 3 types of tea and 3 other types of coffee to try, which were all delicious. I hadn’t realized there was a difference between male and female coffee beans, but apparently male beans are stronger and therefore more popular but female beans are needed to grow next year’s crop. They also gave us a few types of fresh fruit to try, and that’s the best mango I’ve ever tasted. So sweet and juicy.
After that stop, we went to a traditional Balinese compound. I’m not sure I’ll ever be comfortable walking into someone else’s house without knowing them or talking to them although they walk by, but there were a few other tours in the same compound. We learned about the plastic plaques put in front of the compound that list the families in each compound and the number of males and females in each compound. In Balinese culture, the wife follows her husband to live with his family. So if a couple has three boys and three girls (as one of the families in the compound we visited did) and all six of their kids are married, the three girls will move out and the three boys will bring their own families. So the compounds must grow super fast. I think they just build new houses to accommodate the new families. And each family always has their own kitchen.
Every compound also has its own temple. We didn’t go in, but the roofs that stuck above the fence were really ornate. There wasn’t too much color, although it looked like the stone had been painted at one point. Every village also has at least three temples. One at the north (which is always to the mountain in the middle of the island) to signify birth and creation, one in the middle to signify life, and one at the south end of the village (always nearer to the sea) to signify death and the end of life. Houses and beds always face to the north or west but the dead are carried to the cemetery with their heads pointing toward the south or east.
One room had huge sticker letters on it that said: MY ROOM. My favorite part was seeing the barbells outside someone’s room. There was a metal pole with cement weights on either side, with various sized weights nearby. There were pigs that our guide referred to as traditional ATMs. There were roosters in individual cages that are used for cockfighting. They’re left by themselves in the sun everyday to increase their anger.
We were told about cremation rituals and all of the ceremonies a baby goes through when they’re born. I think there are 4 ceremonies and they aren’t allowed to touch the ground for the first 6 months of life. When a girl gets her first period or a boy’s voice changes, they go through a ceremony where six of their teeth are filed. They’re given some numbing herbs, but the thought is that six negative characteristics (including alcoholism, envy, and anger) can be avoided by filing the teeth, although the individual can still possess any of these characteristics and it is up to him or her to avoid them.
Finally we got to the starting point where we all chose a bike and a helmet. Our guide told us to make sure the gears worked. And to make sure we knew which break, front of back, went with which hand. As he warned, these bikes are held to international standards so sometimes the front brake is on the left, sometimes it’s on the right. And we were off. It was about 24k downhill bike ride and took close to 3 hours. By downhill, they actually meant you won’t have to pedal. But it certainly was beautiful.
About an hour in, it started to rain and then downpour. I literally couldn’t see in front of me and had to hope the swells of water weren’t covering potholes. Luckily, no one in our group fell. At some points the water would cover our feet as we rode. When mopeds or cars passed our whole bodies were splashed. There were small rapids at some points that were caused by water rushing from the homes on the side.
Sometimes we’d ride through villages with homes on either side of the road. The fences were beautiful with ornate roofs and temples poking up. There was one staircase that was unreal. It first came down facing the street and then broke into two that went down parallel to the street. Between the two newer staircases was an alcove with a stone statue. The water rushed down the stairs and was beyond words.
At other times we rode through rice paddies that were flooded from the rain. You can tell where one family’s land ends and another begins by the small temples on the borders.
At the halfway point, we stopped under a huge tree for bananas. A young girl from the house across the road ran out in the rain with the bananas and a bag for our trash. I think her job was to wait for every passing tour and bring them their snack of fruit.
Once we made it to our end point, a van picked us up and drove us 8km uphill to our lunch spot. Overlooking more flooded rice paddies, we had a buffet style feast.
Although we’d planned to go to Monkey Forest after, the rain kept the monkeys out of sight. So we came back to our homestay but the lock to our room was broken. We walked around town where I got hugely ripped off buying fruit. We decided to find a spa with reflexology to pass the time and get out of the rain, but apparently every other tourist had the same idea because every spa was full. So we walked around in the rain, which was warm and not uncomfortable at all for 2 hours before heading back to our room and showering to warm up.
For dinner, we ate at another café where we sat on mats and pillows on raised platforms with very low tables instead of tables with chairs.
So far Bali has been enchanting. People are very friendly, mostly the man who runs our guesthouse who has helped us booked our tours, lent us books on Bali, and given us advice on what to do. The food is delicious and the streets are really fun to walk around on. Today we’re going to take a Balinese cooking course from 9:30am-4pm. Tomorrow we figured we’d do something special for Christmas, so we’re doing a sunrise trek up a volcano, probably followed with some afternoon facials. For the next two days we’ll probably visit a beach and do some shopping in town. Then on the 28th, I leave for Malawi and Elena heads off to Thailand!
More updates to come….
I decided to revive my blog! If only for Bali, hopefully it’ll save a few experiences and memories for me. But internet at our guesthouse is kind of slow, so I probably won't upload many pictures here.
So today is December 24. It’s a 13 hour difference to the east coast and 15 hours to the west coast. I’ll start from the beginning because it took me two days to get here. But I guess the real story starts months ago when Elena tried to leave Australia to spend a few months in New Zealand and was told she couldn’t return to Australia in December, where her and I had planned to spend the holiday break together and she already had her return ticket booked to. So in a mad rush to buy a non-Australian ticket before her plane departed, she chose Bali!
So I booked a flight and, four days ago, left freezing Maine for hot-and-humid Bali! But it wasn’t quite that simple. Door to door, it took more than 48 hours to get here. The trip started with a very yummy #roommatelunch at Flatbreads in Portland followed by a trip to Whole Foods for some gelato and shopping. Then the flying started. Portland → 1-hour plane ride to JFK → 9 hour layover → 13-hour plane ride to Doha, Qatar → 9-hour layover → 7-hour flight to Singapore → 1-hour layover → 3-hour flight to Denpasar, Bali! I met Elena at the guesthouse at about 9pm that night. Too tired to eat dinner, we were both asleep by 10.
The next day we were up early. We walked down the road to a cute café and had breakfast. Toast and eggs for me, banana “faffles” for Elena. It was a kind of breakfast twist on a banana and honey panini. And we both had some of the best juice I’ve ever tasted: banana and mango.
We’re staying in the village Ubud, which is beautiful. We’re staying on the main street, but behind the shops that line the sidewalks so we can’t hear the busy traffic. We have a queen sized bed for the two of us, a flush toilet, hot and cold water in our showers, and a porch where tea is delivered at 6am everyday. The street itself is one way for cars but two ways for mopeds and bikes. The sidewalks are elevated about a foot and a half with big dips for every driveway. There are tons of massage shops and spas advertising stone massages and reflexology. The stores that sell clothes have everything ranging from dresses made from Balinese fabric to yoga wear. There are also beautiful shops that sell every kind of artwork imaginable: kids’ toys, modern paintings, traditional stone sculptures, kites, glass dishes, and jewelry. There are also way more organic and natural shops that I anticipated that sell soaps, herbal remedies, other natural remedies, incense, and clothes. There are stands everywhere advertising for tour companies. And men sit on the sides of the street and offer taxi rides to every passing foreigner.
That afternoon I headed to a spa for a traditional Balinese massage. It was really great and less than $10. That night we had dinner at Kafe and went to bed early. Kafe has really latched onto the Bali Go Green initiative. They don’t serve plastic straws unless you request one, they collect plastic water bottles from customers and people on the street to recycle them, and all of their food is organic and most is local.
Yesterday, we took a bike tour of “The Real Bali” with a green Balinese company. They picked us up at 7:30am along with 9 other people and we drove first to a restaurant overlooking an active volcano and Bali’s largest lake, Danau Batur. In addition to banana pancakes, amazing fruit, local coffee, and rice, we had chocolate rice pudding with coconut milk, which was surprisingly delicious and has since been spotted on many dessert menus.
Then we drove to a green coffee company where we were shown over 20 species of plants and learned a little about Bali’s coffee industry. We tried the Luwak coffee., which I’m pretty sure only comes from Indonesia. The Luwak is a really cute raccoon-like animal that eats coffee beans, ferments them in its stomach, and poops them out. Then the beans are roasted and brewed for coffee! It was yummy but not all that strong. They also gave us 3 types of tea and 3 other types of coffee to try, which were all delicious. I hadn’t realized there was a difference between male and female coffee beans, but apparently male beans are stronger and therefore more popular but female beans are needed to grow next year’s crop. They also gave us a few types of fresh fruit to try, and that’s the best mango I’ve ever tasted. So sweet and juicy.
After that stop, we went to a traditional Balinese compound. I’m not sure I’ll ever be comfortable walking into someone else’s house without knowing them or talking to them although they walk by, but there were a few other tours in the same compound. We learned about the plastic plaques put in front of the compound that list the families in each compound and the number of males and females in each compound. In Balinese culture, the wife follows her husband to live with his family. So if a couple has three boys and three girls (as one of the families in the compound we visited did) and all six of their kids are married, the three girls will move out and the three boys will bring their own families. So the compounds must grow super fast. I think they just build new houses to accommodate the new families. And each family always has their own kitchen.
Every compound also has its own temple. We didn’t go in, but the roofs that stuck above the fence were really ornate. There wasn’t too much color, although it looked like the stone had been painted at one point. Every village also has at least three temples. One at the north (which is always to the mountain in the middle of the island) to signify birth and creation, one in the middle to signify life, and one at the south end of the village (always nearer to the sea) to signify death and the end of life. Houses and beds always face to the north or west but the dead are carried to the cemetery with their heads pointing toward the south or east.
One room had huge sticker letters on it that said: MY ROOM. My favorite part was seeing the barbells outside someone’s room. There was a metal pole with cement weights on either side, with various sized weights nearby. There were pigs that our guide referred to as traditional ATMs. There were roosters in individual cages that are used for cockfighting. They’re left by themselves in the sun everyday to increase their anger.
We were told about cremation rituals and all of the ceremonies a baby goes through when they’re born. I think there are 4 ceremonies and they aren’t allowed to touch the ground for the first 6 months of life. When a girl gets her first period or a boy’s voice changes, they go through a ceremony where six of their teeth are filed. They’re given some numbing herbs, but the thought is that six negative characteristics (including alcoholism, envy, and anger) can be avoided by filing the teeth, although the individual can still possess any of these characteristics and it is up to him or her to avoid them.
Finally we got to the starting point where we all chose a bike and a helmet. Our guide told us to make sure the gears worked. And to make sure we knew which break, front of back, went with which hand. As he warned, these bikes are held to international standards so sometimes the front brake is on the left, sometimes it’s on the right. And we were off. It was about 24k downhill bike ride and took close to 3 hours. By downhill, they actually meant you won’t have to pedal. But it certainly was beautiful.
About an hour in, it started to rain and then downpour. I literally couldn’t see in front of me and had to hope the swells of water weren’t covering potholes. Luckily, no one in our group fell. At some points the water would cover our feet as we rode. When mopeds or cars passed our whole bodies were splashed. There were small rapids at some points that were caused by water rushing from the homes on the side.
Sometimes we’d ride through villages with homes on either side of the road. The fences were beautiful with ornate roofs and temples poking up. There was one staircase that was unreal. It first came down facing the street and then broke into two that went down parallel to the street. Between the two newer staircases was an alcove with a stone statue. The water rushed down the stairs and was beyond words.
At other times we rode through rice paddies that were flooded from the rain. You can tell where one family’s land ends and another begins by the small temples on the borders.
At the halfway point, we stopped under a huge tree for bananas. A young girl from the house across the road ran out in the rain with the bananas and a bag for our trash. I think her job was to wait for every passing tour and bring them their snack of fruit.
Once we made it to our end point, a van picked us up and drove us 8km uphill to our lunch spot. Overlooking more flooded rice paddies, we had a buffet style feast.
Although we’d planned to go to Monkey Forest after, the rain kept the monkeys out of sight. So we came back to our homestay but the lock to our room was broken. We walked around town where I got hugely ripped off buying fruit. We decided to find a spa with reflexology to pass the time and get out of the rain, but apparently every other tourist had the same idea because every spa was full. So we walked around in the rain, which was warm and not uncomfortable at all for 2 hours before heading back to our room and showering to warm up.
For dinner, we ate at another café where we sat on mats and pillows on raised platforms with very low tables instead of tables with chairs.
So far Bali has been enchanting. People are very friendly, mostly the man who runs our guesthouse who has helped us booked our tours, lent us books on Bali, and given us advice on what to do. The food is delicious and the streets are really fun to walk around on. Today we’re going to take a Balinese cooking course from 9:30am-4pm. Tomorrow we figured we’d do something special for Christmas, so we’re doing a sunrise trek up a volcano, probably followed with some afternoon facials. For the next two days we’ll probably visit a beach and do some shopping in town. Then on the 28th, I leave for Malawi and Elena heads off to Thailand!
More updates to come….
Monday, February 7, 2011
One Last Blog
Wow have I been horrible at updating in Malawi. The session ended pretty typically. Homestay was fun – I got to stay in a house with two volunteers. The three houses we used were really far apart, so I spent the majority of my time walking between them making sure everyone was alright. Then we spent hours outside dancing. I was so tired and finally got tired of being stared at. I’ve never been annoyed like I was that night. We went to Lake Malawi which was wonderful. The water’s so warm and Cool Runnings, the place we stay, is incredible. Sam, the owner, talked to us for awhile our first night. She went over all of her projects in “her villages.” They’re all completely sustainable and effective. She’s had the local potter teach at risk youth how to build pots. The kids have a hobby, earn an income, and the potter is able to sell his stuff at her lodge. She gives wheelchairs to handicapped people on a few conditions, including that they must go to work. They’re checked up on and warned if they’re not following the rules. She’s only had to take away one wheelchair in ten years. She had the local primary school collect plastic to return for money to build a library. Then she and her clients donated all of the books. She’s got about ten projects total, what an incredible woman. Then I flew back to the States, was picked up by two friends at the airport and came back to Colby. Classes have started, I’ve gone to crew practice every day and the snow bank is huge.
The adjustment’s rough. Crossing the street is difficult – I always look the wrong way. Getting into the passenger’s side requires planning. I’m constantly overwhelmed in the dining hall, there’re too many people and they’re so loud. Plus they’re eating so much. And I miss nsima. I miss John, Ngoni and Mr. Vitto. I miss morning bus rides and I really miss morning songs. I miss kids. I miss the feeling that I’m doing some sort of good. What does my schoolwork at Colby do for the rest of the world?
In other news: my plan for the future: head back to Malawi, still working with World Camp, in May. After this semester, I’ll be working both summer sessions again in Lilongwe! No official date to leave yet, but it’s only three months away! Elena will hopefully be coming too! Plus I’ve got a few friends at Colby and Pitzer really interested!
pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075576&id=1036350539&l=b6b9f37001
The adjustment’s rough. Crossing the street is difficult – I always look the wrong way. Getting into the passenger’s side requires planning. I’m constantly overwhelmed in the dining hall, there’re too many people and they’re so loud. Plus they’re eating so much. And I miss nsima. I miss John, Ngoni and Mr. Vitto. I miss morning bus rides and I really miss morning songs. I miss kids. I miss the feeling that I’m doing some sort of good. What does my schoolwork at Colby do for the rest of the world?
In other news: my plan for the future: head back to Malawi, still working with World Camp, in May. After this semester, I’ll be working both summer sessions again in Lilongwe! No official date to leave yet, but it’s only three months away! Elena will hopefully be coming too! Plus I’ve got a few friends at Colby and Pitzer really interested!
pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075576&id=1036350539&l=b6b9f37001
Monday, December 27, 2010
Christmas at Cape Maclear
After a few hard days of work at the WC house, Jaren and I decided to take a few days off and celebrate Christmas at the lake. Instead of going to Senga Bay, where we take the volunteers every session, we wanted to check out Cape Maclear. We tried calling a few lodges with dorms but they were either full or didn’t answer – we decided to wing it. So we caught the 7am bus on Christmas Eve and got ready for the 5½ hour drive to Monkey Bay. We were some of the last ones on the bus so it was standing room only for us. About two hours in a seat opened up so I got to sit down and make friends with Johnny, the guy sitting next to me. Also on our bus: a chicken, tied up in a plastic bag and hung from the luggage rack.
We got to Monkey Bay (John’s home village) and were dumbstruck by the greenery and beauty. There were huge hills covered in trees and plants. We met some guys who drive between Monkey Bay and Cape Maclear and agreed to pay p300 for an 18km drive. So we hopped in the back of their truck along with three other Azungu, a lot Malawians and a few huge bags of maize. I sat on a paint can, which reminded me a whole lot of The Groover from rafting up in Idaho. We also saw a few troops of baboons on our drive.
Once we got to Cape Maclear, we tried to find some beds in dorms, but they were all booked. The only place we could find was a chalet at Tuckaway’s. It turned out to be really nice with a porch really close to the ocean. The beach was absolutely beautiful – we walked quite a ways down although the sand was some of the toughest I’ve ever seen. There was a huge island that looked remarkably like Lizard island in Senag Bay, just much closer. There was also a huge island to the right that was only separated from land by a narrow passage. While we were reading on the porch, a group of kids walked up and stood behind the 1foot tall gate they’re not allowed to pass. They had a drum set (two traditional drums held on a stand) and a makeshift guitar (strings tied to an empty gas can on one end and a stick on the other). They sang two songs for us and danced. The first went like this: “How are you? I’m fine! How are you? I’m fine! How are you? I’m fine! Muli bwa? Dili bwino! Muli bwa? Dili bwino! Muli bwa? Dili bwino!” and the second was “stronger” by Kenan. We had dinner that night at another small lodge, checked out the live music at the Gecko Lodge for about half an hour (a complete failure, it was 9pm and hardly anyone was there) and called it an early night.
On Christmas, we went for a swim first thing in the morning. There was a floating dock that we swam out to and both got really sunburned on. We had breakfast at the same small lodge and chippies at a nearby stand for lunch. We read on our porch and in hammocks, walked on the beach, played some Boa and swam again. I got to talk to my family, which was really nice, although I’m still jealous they had a snowy Christmas!
Once our Christmas phone calls were done, it was 7.30. We headed back to Geckos but their kitchen was closed for the night. We walked along the road and passed quite a few closed lodges. Finally we found one that was open. We sat down and ordered – although they didn’t have cold beer or Jaren's first two dishes of choice. After about an hour of waiting, we gave up our large table to a bigger group. We played some boa and tried not to think that we’d been waiting for our food for an hour and a half. Eventually we asked the waiter who said it’d be 10 minutes. Two minutes later, another guy brought out our dishes with steaming hot chips. My veggie burger was sliced tomato, onions, peppers and lettuce on a bun. Jaren’s fish was big but cold. So at 10 we paid our bill and headed home. It was another early night.
The next morning we were up at 5am to catch the 5.30 truck into Monkey Bay to catch the 6am bus. At 5:10 we got on the back of a truck going the wrong direction, although they told us you could still go that way. We drove all the way into town, turned around and drove all the way back. It was 6.05 by the time we left Cape Maclear. Luckily, even busses wait for small trucks. We drove the twenty minutes to Monkey Bay and hopped on the bus, which left right away. Apparently it had been waiting for our truck. This time I was lucky and got a seat. We made it back to Lilongwe without any major problems, although I was convinced the entire time our bus would break down – there were some pretty funky noises the whole drive. We showered and rehydrated after such a hot bus ride, watched a movie, cooked some baked Mac ‘n Cheese for dinner and had another early night. I don’t think I’ve stayed up past 9.30 in Malawi, apart from the one night we didn’t eat until 10.
Cape Maclear was a beautiful village that I’m really glad I got to see. The one sunset I saw was incredible. The people were really friendly but they also didn’t badger us once we said we didn’t want a boat to the island or to go to their Christmas BBQ at the Reggae Bar in town.
We got to Monkey Bay (John’s home village) and were dumbstruck by the greenery and beauty. There were huge hills covered in trees and plants. We met some guys who drive between Monkey Bay and Cape Maclear and agreed to pay p300 for an 18km drive. So we hopped in the back of their truck along with three other Azungu, a lot Malawians and a few huge bags of maize. I sat on a paint can, which reminded me a whole lot of The Groover from rafting up in Idaho. We also saw a few troops of baboons on our drive.
Once we got to Cape Maclear, we tried to find some beds in dorms, but they were all booked. The only place we could find was a chalet at Tuckaway’s. It turned out to be really nice with a porch really close to the ocean. The beach was absolutely beautiful – we walked quite a ways down although the sand was some of the toughest I’ve ever seen. There was a huge island that looked remarkably like Lizard island in Senag Bay, just much closer. There was also a huge island to the right that was only separated from land by a narrow passage. While we were reading on the porch, a group of kids walked up and stood behind the 1foot tall gate they’re not allowed to pass. They had a drum set (two traditional drums held on a stand) and a makeshift guitar (strings tied to an empty gas can on one end and a stick on the other). They sang two songs for us and danced. The first went like this: “How are you? I’m fine! How are you? I’m fine! How are you? I’m fine! Muli bwa? Dili bwino! Muli bwa? Dili bwino! Muli bwa? Dili bwino!” and the second was “stronger” by Kenan. We had dinner that night at another small lodge, checked out the live music at the Gecko Lodge for about half an hour (a complete failure, it was 9pm and hardly anyone was there) and called it an early night.
On Christmas, we went for a swim first thing in the morning. There was a floating dock that we swam out to and both got really sunburned on. We had breakfast at the same small lodge and chippies at a nearby stand for lunch. We read on our porch and in hammocks, walked on the beach, played some Boa and swam again. I got to talk to my family, which was really nice, although I’m still jealous they had a snowy Christmas!
Once our Christmas phone calls were done, it was 7.30. We headed back to Geckos but their kitchen was closed for the night. We walked along the road and passed quite a few closed lodges. Finally we found one that was open. We sat down and ordered – although they didn’t have cold beer or Jaren's first two dishes of choice. After about an hour of waiting, we gave up our large table to a bigger group. We played some boa and tried not to think that we’d been waiting for our food for an hour and a half. Eventually we asked the waiter who said it’d be 10 minutes. Two minutes later, another guy brought out our dishes with steaming hot chips. My veggie burger was sliced tomato, onions, peppers and lettuce on a bun. Jaren’s fish was big but cold. So at 10 we paid our bill and headed home. It was another early night.
The next morning we were up at 5am to catch the 5.30 truck into Monkey Bay to catch the 6am bus. At 5:10 we got on the back of a truck going the wrong direction, although they told us you could still go that way. We drove all the way into town, turned around and drove all the way back. It was 6.05 by the time we left Cape Maclear. Luckily, even busses wait for small trucks. We drove the twenty minutes to Monkey Bay and hopped on the bus, which left right away. Apparently it had been waiting for our truck. This time I was lucky and got a seat. We made it back to Lilongwe without any major problems, although I was convinced the entire time our bus would break down – there were some pretty funky noises the whole drive. We showered and rehydrated after such a hot bus ride, watched a movie, cooked some baked Mac ‘n Cheese for dinner and had another early night. I don’t think I’ve stayed up past 9.30 in Malawi, apart from the one night we didn’t eat until 10.
Cape Maclear was a beautiful village that I’m really glad I got to see. The one sunset I saw was incredible. The people were really friendly but they also didn’t badger us once we said we didn’t want a boat to the island or to go to their Christmas BBQ at the Reggae Bar in town.
Arrived safe in Malawi!
And boy does it feel great to be back home in the WC house. Thanks to me losing my passport, I hadn’t really expected to get into Lilongwe until Thursday at the earliest. But luckily, despite quite a few hiccups, everything worked out.
So after my trip to the Embassy, I hung out at the program house for awhile. I really wanted to see my host mom, Tiny, in the hospital (she was planned to have a cesarean and have a baby girl!) but it didn’t look like it’d work out with the timing. I had a cab coming at 3:30 and it was already 1:30. I took a cab home and found my host dad and sister there. They’d met Atlha, the newest member of their family and were now letting mom and baby rest. They could go back and visit at 3. I didn’t think there’d be enough time to go to the hospital and back, but John convinced me there was. As we were waiting to leave, two of his constituents showed up at our house. He said they weren’t friends and that they’d just showed up to ask him for things. He was clearly annoyed and said that this is just what people did; they showed up to their representatives and asked for things. But isn’t that the point? Shouldn’t he be fighting for what his constituents want in parliament? It was weird to watch him dismiss these two men so easily when he was elected by them to serve them. I was impressed with the easy access these men had to their representative and upset with how easily John dismissed it.
So a few minutes after 3pm, we left the house for the hospital. We found Tiny and Atlha sleeping, although Tiny woke up when we walked in. Atlha had been born at 10am, so she was just five hours old. She was beautiful. Her little hands were all curled up and she was wearing one of those cute little hats the hospital gives to every new baby. I really wanted to hold her but also knew to never wake a sleeping baby.
At 3:20 we left for the house again. When we pulled up, Lala, my very trusted taxi driver was already waiting. He joked about me never being on time, because this was the second time he’d had to wait for me, although we pulled into the driveway at 3:29. I grabbed my bags, said goodbye to Ame, and hopped in the taxi. We drove the thirty minutes to the airport and I tried to check in. Tried being the key word in that sentence.
The lady at the desk told me I had to go to the special desk to get authorization to check in. So I did, and the man who helped me was a friend of Phono’s who I’d talked to on the phone when I was trying to move my tickets up. He printed out an authorization card and sent me back to the same lady. But when she tried to check me in again, she realized my ticket was booked for Dec. 27. So I went back to Phono’s friend and asked what he could do for me. He said although my ticket was for the 20th, my booking was for the 27th. WTF? He could change it for $200. I knew it was worth it but also asked if he could get that down at all. And he did! He got it to p200, which is approximate $64. So we changed my ticket to the right day and I checked in.
Then I went to security (after chugging my nalgene) where they didn’t notice the pocket knife I’d forgotten to take out of my backpack. They also didn’t care about the toothpaste or hand sanitizer I had with me. I got to the immigration desk and handed over my brand new passport. The immigration office was not happy I didn’t have an entry stamp. So I explained I’d lost my passport and therefore the stamp. She got on the phone with her supervisor for quite awhile and asked me a lot of questions. In addition to not having a stamp, I’d lost my visa extension paper that I’d paid for in Maun. So my original visa had expired as well. She asked why I’d stayed in Tlokweng, which is the address I’d given when I arrived. I was really confused until I realized the office had relocated to Gabs and I’d given the old address. So in addition to not having any of the correct paperwork, it seemed like I’d lied on my immigration form four months before.
She asked for a letter confirming I was a student but since I didn’t have one, really didn’t believe me. I told her that on my way into the country, I’d shown my program manual and that had been enough. She asked her supervisor to come over and told me to stand to the side and wait. So I waited a little less than ten minutes, until a woman on the biggest power trip ever walked over. She was strutting slowly and swinging her keychain back and forth. She came up to me, didn’t say hello, and asked for my passport. Since I didn’t have it, we walked over to the immigration both together and had a long conversation with the immigration officer. Again, I was asked for my visa extension papers and a letter proving I was a student. Since I didn’t have either, the supervisor and I went back out through security and called my bag off the plane. At first I thought she wouldn’t let me leave, but she just wanted to see my student manual. So I showed it to her, and she decided it was enough. We went back through security and I was given an exit stamp and allowed to run to my plane after they both told me independently that I should be much more careful the next time I came to Botswana and that they were doing me a huge favor. Aysh!
So I ran for my plane. It was pretty much empty so I had the row to myself. I spent the night in the Joburg airport, and since I’d planned on it this time, I brought lots of extra socks and jackets to stay warm with. I napped for a few hours and caught my 10am plane the next morning. Jaren picked me up at the airport and we started working right away. We rearranged the furniture in the annex, living room and office and got some office work done. Today, we ran a few errands in town, explored the new mall and took a Christmas card picture with John, Ngoni and Mr. Vitto!!! Check out World Camp’s blog (worldcampforkids@blogspot.com) or their facebook page to see it… And trust me, you don’t want to miss it!
So after my trip to the Embassy, I hung out at the program house for awhile. I really wanted to see my host mom, Tiny, in the hospital (she was planned to have a cesarean and have a baby girl!) but it didn’t look like it’d work out with the timing. I had a cab coming at 3:30 and it was already 1:30. I took a cab home and found my host dad and sister there. They’d met Atlha, the newest member of their family and were now letting mom and baby rest. They could go back and visit at 3. I didn’t think there’d be enough time to go to the hospital and back, but John convinced me there was. As we were waiting to leave, two of his constituents showed up at our house. He said they weren’t friends and that they’d just showed up to ask him for things. He was clearly annoyed and said that this is just what people did; they showed up to their representatives and asked for things. But isn’t that the point? Shouldn’t he be fighting for what his constituents want in parliament? It was weird to watch him dismiss these two men so easily when he was elected by them to serve them. I was impressed with the easy access these men had to their representative and upset with how easily John dismissed it.
So a few minutes after 3pm, we left the house for the hospital. We found Tiny and Atlha sleeping, although Tiny woke up when we walked in. Atlha had been born at 10am, so she was just five hours old. She was beautiful. Her little hands were all curled up and she was wearing one of those cute little hats the hospital gives to every new baby. I really wanted to hold her but also knew to never wake a sleeping baby.
At 3:20 we left for the house again. When we pulled up, Lala, my very trusted taxi driver was already waiting. He joked about me never being on time, because this was the second time he’d had to wait for me, although we pulled into the driveway at 3:29. I grabbed my bags, said goodbye to Ame, and hopped in the taxi. We drove the thirty minutes to the airport and I tried to check in. Tried being the key word in that sentence.
The lady at the desk told me I had to go to the special desk to get authorization to check in. So I did, and the man who helped me was a friend of Phono’s who I’d talked to on the phone when I was trying to move my tickets up. He printed out an authorization card and sent me back to the same lady. But when she tried to check me in again, she realized my ticket was booked for Dec. 27. So I went back to Phono’s friend and asked what he could do for me. He said although my ticket was for the 20th, my booking was for the 27th. WTF? He could change it for $200. I knew it was worth it but also asked if he could get that down at all. And he did! He got it to p200, which is approximate $64. So we changed my ticket to the right day and I checked in.
Then I went to security (after chugging my nalgene) where they didn’t notice the pocket knife I’d forgotten to take out of my backpack. They also didn’t care about the toothpaste or hand sanitizer I had with me. I got to the immigration desk and handed over my brand new passport. The immigration office was not happy I didn’t have an entry stamp. So I explained I’d lost my passport and therefore the stamp. She got on the phone with her supervisor for quite awhile and asked me a lot of questions. In addition to not having a stamp, I’d lost my visa extension paper that I’d paid for in Maun. So my original visa had expired as well. She asked why I’d stayed in Tlokweng, which is the address I’d given when I arrived. I was really confused until I realized the office had relocated to Gabs and I’d given the old address. So in addition to not having any of the correct paperwork, it seemed like I’d lied on my immigration form four months before.
She asked for a letter confirming I was a student but since I didn’t have one, really didn’t believe me. I told her that on my way into the country, I’d shown my program manual and that had been enough. She asked her supervisor to come over and told me to stand to the side and wait. So I waited a little less than ten minutes, until a woman on the biggest power trip ever walked over. She was strutting slowly and swinging her keychain back and forth. She came up to me, didn’t say hello, and asked for my passport. Since I didn’t have it, we walked over to the immigration both together and had a long conversation with the immigration officer. Again, I was asked for my visa extension papers and a letter proving I was a student. Since I didn’t have either, the supervisor and I went back out through security and called my bag off the plane. At first I thought she wouldn’t let me leave, but she just wanted to see my student manual. So I showed it to her, and she decided it was enough. We went back through security and I was given an exit stamp and allowed to run to my plane after they both told me independently that I should be much more careful the next time I came to Botswana and that they were doing me a huge favor. Aysh!
So I ran for my plane. It was pretty much empty so I had the row to myself. I spent the night in the Joburg airport, and since I’d planned on it this time, I brought lots of extra socks and jackets to stay warm with. I napped for a few hours and caught my 10am plane the next morning. Jaren picked me up at the airport and we started working right away. We rearranged the furniture in the annex, living room and office and got some office work done. Today, we ran a few errands in town, explored the new mall and took a Christmas card picture with John, Ngoni and Mr. Vitto!!! Check out World Camp’s blog (worldcampforkids@blogspot.com) or their facebook page to see it… And trust me, you don’t want to miss it!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Passport Mathata
Aysh! Ke mathata. Somehow I managed to lose my passport in Botswana. Oops! I realized it Friday afternoon, the day before my flight out of Bots and after the US Embassy had closed for the weekend. I called their afterhours number and was told no one could help me until Monday. So I went online, researched all the forms I'd need and started to gather them all up, and believe me, it wasn't easy. I printed two forms from online and filled them out. I went to the police station and filed a claim. I made copies of my CA Driver's License with an incredibly temperamental copier. I had my mom scan and email me a copy of my birth certificate and passport (THANKS!). I collected copies of my health insurance and travel insurance. I even grabbed my immunization records. And of course, I made sure I had enough money to cover any charges they could throw at me. I moved my flights to Wednesday. I told my Gabs host family I'd be staying a few extra days and that I was sorry to take their extra room but that I was super excited to meet Atlha, their baby girl who was due Monday. They told me it wasn't a problem; that they were happy to have me stay!
Monday rolled around and I showed up to the embassy at 8am, even though it had opened at 7:30. Turns out they don't deal with citizens until 9:30. So Phono (my program director) and I went for a cup of coffee and returned to the huge embassy right at half nine. I was let in but Phono had to stay outside the gate. They made me leave my backpack, computer and cell phone in the security office. I went through the metal detector and was ushered through a door that had to be opened from the other side of bullet proof glass. The security guard who walked me through the beautiful gardens to the building walked behind me. I tried to talk to him but he kept saying "let's go" and pointing toward the door. I felt like I was being tried in court, being led to the podium.
He let me inside and told me to sit down. About fifteen minutes later, I saw the sign saying "please right bell for help." So I did and was helped immediately. I only had to hand over my Driver's License and the two forms I'd printed online. Then I had to pay the fee: $135. Ouch, no small chunk of change. I was told to wait twenty minutes for my passport. About forty minutes later, a man walked out and we went over my travel plans. Since I'd be returning to the States fairly soon, we decided a passport good for three months would work fine, and that I'd have to get a real passport as soon as possible. Fifteen minutes later, I was walking out with a brand new passport. All in all, the process took just over an hour inside the building. I was ushered back out to the gate by a female security guard this time, who was willing to chat but still walked behind me. I still felt like a criminal.
Phono and I drove back to the program house, where my mom and travel agent (THANK YOU BOTH!) woke up in the middle of the night to rebook my flights for tonight! So now the plan is to fly to Johannesburg on the 5:35pm flight out of Gaborone today (Monday), spend the night in the Joburg airport, and then connect to Lilongwe tomorrow (Tuesday) at 10am!
Because my life is never boring, I'm going to try to squeeze in a visit to the private hospital to visit my host mom, who is giving birth to their second child, Atlha. Atlha means to hug, ka Setswana. I'll only have about an hour at the hospital (assuming my family comes soon to pick me up!) before I have to head home to gather up my already packed bags (always be prepared!) to head to the airport!
I'm just so excited everything worked out as well as it did. I'll be in Malawi from tomorrow until Jan. 31, when I fly back to Maine to start spring semester! Although a break/chance to see my family in Cali would be great, I couldn't be happier that I'm heading back to Malawi so soon.
Monday rolled around and I showed up to the embassy at 8am, even though it had opened at 7:30. Turns out they don't deal with citizens until 9:30. So Phono (my program director) and I went for a cup of coffee and returned to the huge embassy right at half nine. I was let in but Phono had to stay outside the gate. They made me leave my backpack, computer and cell phone in the security office. I went through the metal detector and was ushered through a door that had to be opened from the other side of bullet proof glass. The security guard who walked me through the beautiful gardens to the building walked behind me. I tried to talk to him but he kept saying "let's go" and pointing toward the door. I felt like I was being tried in court, being led to the podium.
He let me inside and told me to sit down. About fifteen minutes later, I saw the sign saying "please right bell for help." So I did and was helped immediately. I only had to hand over my Driver's License and the two forms I'd printed online. Then I had to pay the fee: $135. Ouch, no small chunk of change. I was told to wait twenty minutes for my passport. About forty minutes later, a man walked out and we went over my travel plans. Since I'd be returning to the States fairly soon, we decided a passport good for three months would work fine, and that I'd have to get a real passport as soon as possible. Fifteen minutes later, I was walking out with a brand new passport. All in all, the process took just over an hour inside the building. I was ushered back out to the gate by a female security guard this time, who was willing to chat but still walked behind me. I still felt like a criminal.
Phono and I drove back to the program house, where my mom and travel agent (THANK YOU BOTH!) woke up in the middle of the night to rebook my flights for tonight! So now the plan is to fly to Johannesburg on the 5:35pm flight out of Gaborone today (Monday), spend the night in the Joburg airport, and then connect to Lilongwe tomorrow (Tuesday) at 10am!
Because my life is never boring, I'm going to try to squeeze in a visit to the private hospital to visit my host mom, who is giving birth to their second child, Atlha. Atlha means to hug, ka Setswana. I'll only have about an hour at the hospital (assuming my family comes soon to pick me up!) before I have to head home to gather up my already packed bags (always be prepared!) to head to the airport!
I'm just so excited everything worked out as well as it did. I'll be in Malawi from tomorrow until Jan. 31, when I fly back to Maine to start spring semester! Although a break/chance to see my family in Cali would be great, I couldn't be happier that I'm heading back to Malawi so soon.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Worst Day Ever
Probably the worst travel experience I’ve ever had:
•Almost missed my flight out of Lilongwe because I wasn’t paying attention.
•Had the middle seat on the 2 hour flight to Joburg.
•The guy on the aisle was all over the armrest.
•Got into Joburg 10 minutes early!
•Stood in the immigration line for an hour and forty-five minutes until my flight said it was boarding on the screen.
•Asked an employee to help me get through because I still needed to get my boarding pass, go through security, and find the gate.
•She helped me but kept asking me to buy her lunch – but not there, only past security where there was food.
•She got me through immigration and dragged me to the check in line.
•She took me to Botswana Airlines, not South African.
•The lady at South African Airways told me I was too late and couldn’t check in. They could book me for a flight two hours later if I paid or put me on the 6:10am flight the next morning for free.
•I’m not paying.
•The lady who got me through immigration took me to security because I still didn’t have a boarding pass.
•She stayed with me past security, to where the food was and kept talking about lunch. “Or maybe just a drink.”
•I left her in the elevator because she couldn’t go any farther.
•Bought the cheapest watch I could find – about USD 28.
•Bought a book I wasn’t really interested in to keep me busy – about USD 40.
•Contemplated getting an airport massage.
•Staked out the best place to sleep.
•Bought dinner, called my parents, called Austin, called Erin.
•Walked around aimlessly.
•Looked in every shop for an alarm clock because my cell was out of batteries and I had to be up at 4am to check in.
•Typed up emails I couldn’t send without internet.
•Tried to sleep but couldn’t. So I read.
•Had some yummy chocolate!
•Finally went to sleep. Slept for a solid two hours, until about midnight, when I woke up shivering. I wasn’t at all prepared for the freezing airport.
•Woke up every 20 minutes until 3:30am, when I decided to walk around until check in at 4:30.
•Finished my book.
•Walked back out through security, where the doors were open to the outside so it was even colder.
•Was told the check in counter didn’t open until 5.
•Shivered for 30 minutes.
•Had a security guard ask for my number, and then email address when I wouldn’t give it to him.
•Checked in and was interrogated as to why I hadn’t flown out the day before.
•Went through security.
•Couldn’t buy breakfast because nothing was open.
•Found my gate.
•Loaded onto the bus that would drive us to the plane and shivered in the wind.
•Found my seat on the plane – a window seat with no one next to me!
•Slept until the last 20 minutes, when I found a boxed breakfast waiting for me.
•Had to take the meat off the croissant.
•Forgot to take my malaria meds.
•Shivered.
•Landed and had to walk through the wind to the airport.
•Filled out immigration papers and got hassled by the lady who didn’t believe I was here to study. She made me show her documentation to prove it.
•Didn’t see my bag on the conveyer belt.
•Checked with the information desk, who pointed me to the SA office.
•The lady told me to wait twenty minutes for the guy with the keys to come, she’d come let me know.
•No one from Pitzer in sight, even though they were supposed to meet me at the airport.
•Thirty minutes later, I returned to the SA office where the lady was eating with the entire luggage staff. I looked through the window and she held up one finger, telling me to wait, and then pointed to her sandwich. “Until I’m done.”
•A man came out to help me, still munching away.
•No sign of my bag, so I filled out a missing luggage form.
•Still no sign of anyone from Pitzer.
•I went back to the information desk to ask about a pay phone so I could call to see if someone was on their way.
•There was no public phone and the women didn’t have airtime – no way to call.
•20 minutes later, a woman walked up with a Pitzer College sign.
•20 minute drive to the place where orientation was taking place.
•I was given 5 minutes to freshen up before classes started.
•Almost missed my flight out of Lilongwe because I wasn’t paying attention.
•Had the middle seat on the 2 hour flight to Joburg.
•The guy on the aisle was all over the armrest.
•Got into Joburg 10 minutes early!
•Stood in the immigration line for an hour and forty-five minutes until my flight said it was boarding on the screen.
•Asked an employee to help me get through because I still needed to get my boarding pass, go through security, and find the gate.
•She helped me but kept asking me to buy her lunch – but not there, only past security where there was food.
•She got me through immigration and dragged me to the check in line.
•She took me to Botswana Airlines, not South African.
•The lady at South African Airways told me I was too late and couldn’t check in. They could book me for a flight two hours later if I paid or put me on the 6:10am flight the next morning for free.
•I’m not paying.
•The lady who got me through immigration took me to security because I still didn’t have a boarding pass.
•She stayed with me past security, to where the food was and kept talking about lunch. “Or maybe just a drink.”
•I left her in the elevator because she couldn’t go any farther.
•Bought the cheapest watch I could find – about USD 28.
•Bought a book I wasn’t really interested in to keep me busy – about USD 40.
•Contemplated getting an airport massage.
•Staked out the best place to sleep.
•Bought dinner, called my parents, called Austin, called Erin.
•Walked around aimlessly.
•Looked in every shop for an alarm clock because my cell was out of batteries and I had to be up at 4am to check in.
•Typed up emails I couldn’t send without internet.
•Tried to sleep but couldn’t. So I read.
•Had some yummy chocolate!
•Finally went to sleep. Slept for a solid two hours, until about midnight, when I woke up shivering. I wasn’t at all prepared for the freezing airport.
•Woke up every 20 minutes until 3:30am, when I decided to walk around until check in at 4:30.
•Finished my book.
•Walked back out through security, where the doors were open to the outside so it was even colder.
•Was told the check in counter didn’t open until 5.
•Shivered for 30 minutes.
•Had a security guard ask for my number, and then email address when I wouldn’t give it to him.
•Checked in and was interrogated as to why I hadn’t flown out the day before.
•Went through security.
•Couldn’t buy breakfast because nothing was open.
•Found my gate.
•Loaded onto the bus that would drive us to the plane and shivered in the wind.
•Found my seat on the plane – a window seat with no one next to me!
•Slept until the last 20 minutes, when I found a boxed breakfast waiting for me.
•Had to take the meat off the croissant.
•Forgot to take my malaria meds.
•Shivered.
•Landed and had to walk through the wind to the airport.
•Filled out immigration papers and got hassled by the lady who didn’t believe I was here to study. She made me show her documentation to prove it.
•Didn’t see my bag on the conveyer belt.
•Checked with the information desk, who pointed me to the SA office.
•The lady told me to wait twenty minutes for the guy with the keys to come, she’d come let me know.
•No one from Pitzer in sight, even though they were supposed to meet me at the airport.
•Thirty minutes later, I returned to the SA office where the lady was eating with the entire luggage staff. I looked through the window and she held up one finger, telling me to wait, and then pointed to her sandwich. “Until I’m done.”
•A man came out to help me, still munching away.
•No sign of my bag, so I filled out a missing luggage form.
•Still no sign of anyone from Pitzer.
•I went back to the information desk to ask about a pay phone so I could call to see if someone was on their way.
•There was no public phone and the women didn’t have airtime – no way to call.
•20 minutes later, a woman walked up with a Pitzer College sign.
•20 minute drive to the place where orientation was taking place.
•I was given 5 minutes to freshen up before classes started.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Playing Catchup with Posts!
I've been great about writing blog posts on my laptop, just not about posting them here! With only one internet account for the five coordinators with all of our work, it's hard to get online! But I have been writing a lot on my own. So now that I have the chance to post, I've got lots to catch you up on! I'll date each entry, even though some of them are a little old by now. I'll try to be better about claiming the computer every few days, instead of every few weeks, but we'll see!
A quick overview: I love Malawi! I've already experienced a number of highs and lows, but I also feel so comfortable here. I'm amazing that this is only my third time to Africa and my second time in Malawi, because it seems like I've already experienced so much! But with that said, there is so much more to learn! I can't wait to get to our first camp tomorrow... everything I've been doing for the past week and a half has been leading up to Monday!
Again, sorry this post is so long! But there are a number of posts in one. I'll try to get pictures up soon, but the internet's pretty slow, and there's frequent power outages that make working on the computer difficult. I have been posting on World Camp's blog close to every day though, so definitely check that out. There's pictures and stories there from orientation. Less feelings/experiences and more facts/information, but great nonetheless! http://www.worldcampforkids.blogspot.com/
12 May: Post 2! Or is it day 2 yet?
All my time spent at layovers transfers directly into the number of blogs I can write. I definitely wasn’t expecting to get 2 done before I even reached Malawi! Now I’m in the Joburg airport, waiting for the final leg of my trip. After I typed up my last blog in Dublin, I wandered into a café. I was pretty hungry so I picked up a salad, since it felt a whole lot like lunch time. I didn’t realize it was 6am local time and 1am Maine time. I’m not quite sure what time zone my body was in. The salad with tuna I ordered wasn’t what I expected either. There were four whole potatoes, not to be outdone by the four whole tunas. The potatoes turned out to be delicious, but the tuna wasn’t quite for me. So far, all my flights have gone smoothly; I’ve slept more than I expected, and got to watch a few movies. It was super fun to watch Couples Retreat, since it was filmed at a hotel my family stayed at a few years ago.
Joburg is completely covered in fog. I thought we were still in the clouds when our wheels hit the runway. My plane leaves in about an hour and a half. Hopefully this last flight goes smoothly and quickly! It’s just about 4 more hours until I’ll be back in the Pick Palace, playing bao and sipping a pineapple Fanta. :)
16 May: Finally in Malawi!
I cannot describe how happy I am to finally be back in the WC House! Everything’s all set up – our fifth and last coordinator arrived today, so we’re ready to really get into the preparations. Up until now, we’ve been running around setting up the house, buying supplies, updating documents, and interviewing Field Staff, the new title for our updated position of Translators. I already have great stories. On the second day I was here, Jaren, Rachel, and I headed over to Metro to do all of our bulk shopping. We bought sooooo much stuff. And didn’t have enough money. So Jaren drove back to the house and Rachel and I stayed to wait it out. Linda, one of the employees, brought us each a plastic stool to sit on and stayed with us to talk. She was wonderful. She is from the North, and still lives in her home village. She has two boys, one is 12 and I think the other is around 8.
Today, we decided on what area we’d each be in charge of. I’ve been assigned three aspects of the WC program. First (and what I’m most excited for) is Field Staff coordinator. So it was my job to interview all of the new Field Assistant applicants yesterday and I’ll be in charge of picking, calling, organizing, and paying Field Staff for each of our camps. Our Field Staff is made up of two jobs: Field Assistants, who are paid and work with college volunteers, and Field Interns, who volunteer their time and work with our high school program. Both positions require translation in both directions (English to Chichewa and back), cultural awareness and information, liaison between foreign volunteers and local Malawians, and anything else we could ask for. The Field Staff are amazing people who love what they do and are tons of fun.
I’m also Cook Group coordinator. I’ll be in charge of assigning cook groups, or groups of volunteers who are responsible for dinner each night. We set a budget and they cook delicious food! For our group of 16 people, the budget will probably be around 2,500 Malawian kwacha, or $20. Yummm! And my last job is Outreach/Activities coordinator. I’m getting more and more excited about this as I start to get into it. It’ll be my job to arrange activities on our days off. We’ll probably go visit a church and a mosque in Lilongwe. We’ll go to the fabric market to buy yards of fabric, then have Loli over, who is a tailor who makes beautiful clothing and bags. There’s also a place called the Crisis Nursery, that I wrote about in that paper if you read it. Children who are younger than 2 years are dropped off by their families and are given the proper care and nutritious until their family comes to pick them up. We’ll do outreach programs every Friday and Saturday. The first week, it looks like we’ll head to a refugee camp. I don’t know much about the camp yet, but a church group requested we come and spend time educating people about HIV. Although World Camp hasn’t worked with a religious organization in a number of years, this church asked specifically for a condom demonstration, so I’m not sure exactly what to expect!
17 May
I just want to tell the world about a man I met today named Michael. (I absolutely love that people don’t call before stopping by! It leads to the best surprises!) He was born in Malawi and went to undergrad and grad school in Michigan, if I remember correctly. Then he taught in Nebraska for a number of years. Originally, he meant to spend only four years in the States before heading back to Africa, but decided, after 16 years, it was time to return to Malawi. Before moving to the states, Michael’s sister died of AIDS; he adopted her son. The son has since discovered he is HIV positive. But he is now in high school in Lincoln, Nebraska and HIV is no longer detectable in his blood. Michael calls him his “poster child.”
Since moving back to Malawi, Michael has gotten incredibly involved in every social issue you can think of. He knows so much about the school system and the current state of HIV. He is in the middle of having children’s stories published that address all types of current issues. It will be a picture book that covers HIV, gender equality, deforestation, and similar topics. He didn’t talk about the book too much, so I don’t know a lot, but I cannot wait to read it! Right now Michael is also working on assessing the effectiveness of government teacher training with a European government (I forget which one, we talked about so many things!). That’s exactly what I’m most interested in; educating teachers so they can effectively teach the new government curriculum. So I can’t wait for Michael to come back later in the session so I can talk to him more!
Then Michael asked us about the cultural differences we notice in Malawi and what we think of them. We all laughed and said we don’t really notice those anymore. We see boys holding hands or sitting in each other’s laps and don’t bat an eye, but are surprised to see a man and woman holding hands. Michael asked if we’d noticed that people use their hands instead of handkerchiefs to blow their noses here. When he was doing cultural orientation for the Peace Corps, Michael and the volunteers asked Malawians why this is. One lady responded that it’s gross to put a dirty handkerchief back in your pocket. It makes sense to blow your nose into the ground, wipe your nose with your hand, and then wash your hands. It’s just cleaner! Then we talked about directness in the two cultures. In the States, someone will call out a person they just met if they are rude. In Malawi, one will go out of their way to avoid confrontation with a person they don’t know. So even if a foreigner does something culturally inappropriate or awkward, even if they don’t realize it and would probably like to be made aware, a Malawian will not tell them.
Michael had the most interesting view points. Having gone though primary and secondary school in Malawi, then undergrad and graduate school in the states, he knows both school systems and can praise and critique both in ways that are commonly looked over. He has impeccable English. He’s not afraid to state his views and can get into amazing and unexpected discussion with all the background needed to make his point and counter his opponent. Michael’s also planning on coming to at least one of our camps, hopefully next week. I’m really hoping to be able to sit in on teacher meetings with him; he said he’d be more than happy to give us tips on how to get into deeper conversations and develop that section of our curriculum!
In other news, the first volunteers arrive tomorrow! Two girls are coming in at 12:20 local time! And we still have so much to do before and after then! The other 9 volunteers (7 girls and 1 boy) are coming on Thursday. We’ll start orientation that evening and head to our first camp on Sunday! I cannot wait to meet volunteers and get back to the schools – I really, really miss rural Malawi and the students, but especially all the teachers!!
18 May
So today, I was reminded of exactly how much patience Malawi can sometimes require. All five coordinators were up early this morning to get lots of work done. We had one meeting at 8:30am which went great. We had another meeting planned for 10am with the Ministry of Hope, an organization that runs a number of wonderful programs throughout Malawi. At 9:40, one of the head coordinators called the local hospital to make an appointment for later in the day. They told her she needed to be in by 10 if she wanted to see anyone; but we really needed her in at the meeting too. So we dropped her off at ABC, the hospital, and went to the meeting without her and slightly less prepared than I would have liked. Since I am in charge of Outreach Programs, I’ll be talking to the Ministry of Hope a lot as we work with their already-established programs. The meeting went really well – we set up what I think will be a wonderful day at a program in a village near one of the schools we work with. On May 29, we’re going to a village to work with adults in the morning and kids in the afternoon. (I’m SOOOO excited to work with age groups other than the students we normally do – I think it’ll be a completely new and different experience with exciting and new rewards, as well as great windows with many new questions!) On the way back to the house, we all thought I should get dropped off at the hospital to stay with the one coordinator because she didn’t have cell minutes to call us with and it had been awhile since we’d dropped her off. The rest of the coordinators went back to the house so they could pick up the two volunteers who arrived today!! I sat in the waiting room for awhile until she was called in. After her appointment, we called the house to see if anyone could pick us up. But World Camp has three cars, two of which were in the shop, and the last one that was at the airport. We also called three Field Staff members and the guy who runs the house when no one from WC is here, but none of them could pick us up. So we started the long walk home. An hour and fifteen minutes later, we finally arrived. Although that time could have been spent being productive, it was great to get out of the house for awhile. It also reminded me why I’m here. Ignoring the fact that we walked along a busy road the whole time, everyone we passed was so nice and said hello. I saw children running and laughing, and miles of maize fields. We passed successful professionals who looked worried and tired and people struggling to make ends meet with beautiful smiles on their faces.
Once we got back to the house, we heard that the daytime watchman, Ngoni, had stopped by the house. He’d been really sick for about the past week – with what a local clinic had diagnosed as malaria. He was in for work yesterday and it was great to see him again, although he didn’t look as good as I remember. He didn’t come to work today, but had stopped by with his whole family while I was on my walk. He was lying on the bench outside and couldn’t sit up. He wants to go back to his village to get traditional treatment for his illness that had majorly relapsed since yesterday. He believes his deceased grandmother’s spirit is inside him and causing him to become ill. In order to remove her spirit, he must go to his home village and visit her grave. There, a number of ceremonies will be performed. He must also hold a huge feast for the entire village. He has refused to go to another hospital and will need to raise the money to get home soon. I can only hope he recovers soon, whether from traditional or modern medicine.
After hearing about Ngoni, the volunteers arrived; two girls, from North Carolina. One will be a senior and one just graduated college. They’re incredibly nice and I’m glad they’re here! After dinner, we took an inauguration trip to McDaud’s the local McDonald’s spinoff for ice cream! Tomorrow, we’ll take them on a town tour and have them help us with the last few preparations before the other 9 volunteers come in on Thursday.
It feels like the session’s really starting now – volunteers are arriving and soon we’ll be back in schools! Today was hard, but incredible nonetheless. I learned a lot about so many aspects of life in Lilongwe I hadn’t realized before; I cannot wait to get back to the villages; I can only hope Ngoni recovers; and soon the house will be full with volunteers!
A quick overview: I love Malawi! I've already experienced a number of highs and lows, but I also feel so comfortable here. I'm amazing that this is only my third time to Africa and my second time in Malawi, because it seems like I've already experienced so much! But with that said, there is so much more to learn! I can't wait to get to our first camp tomorrow... everything I've been doing for the past week and a half has been leading up to Monday!
Again, sorry this post is so long! But there are a number of posts in one. I'll try to get pictures up soon, but the internet's pretty slow, and there's frequent power outages that make working on the computer difficult. I have been posting on World Camp's blog close to every day though, so definitely check that out. There's pictures and stories there from orientation. Less feelings/experiences and more facts/information, but great nonetheless! http://www.worldcampforkids.blogspot.com/
12 May: Post 2! Or is it day 2 yet?
All my time spent at layovers transfers directly into the number of blogs I can write. I definitely wasn’t expecting to get 2 done before I even reached Malawi! Now I’m in the Joburg airport, waiting for the final leg of my trip. After I typed up my last blog in Dublin, I wandered into a café. I was pretty hungry so I picked up a salad, since it felt a whole lot like lunch time. I didn’t realize it was 6am local time and 1am Maine time. I’m not quite sure what time zone my body was in. The salad with tuna I ordered wasn’t what I expected either. There were four whole potatoes, not to be outdone by the four whole tunas. The potatoes turned out to be delicious, but the tuna wasn’t quite for me. So far, all my flights have gone smoothly; I’ve slept more than I expected, and got to watch a few movies. It was super fun to watch Couples Retreat, since it was filmed at a hotel my family stayed at a few years ago.
Joburg is completely covered in fog. I thought we were still in the clouds when our wheels hit the runway. My plane leaves in about an hour and a half. Hopefully this last flight goes smoothly and quickly! It’s just about 4 more hours until I’ll be back in the Pick Palace, playing bao and sipping a pineapple Fanta. :)
16 May: Finally in Malawi!
I cannot describe how happy I am to finally be back in the WC House! Everything’s all set up – our fifth and last coordinator arrived today, so we’re ready to really get into the preparations. Up until now, we’ve been running around setting up the house, buying supplies, updating documents, and interviewing Field Staff, the new title for our updated position of Translators. I already have great stories. On the second day I was here, Jaren, Rachel, and I headed over to Metro to do all of our bulk shopping. We bought sooooo much stuff. And didn’t have enough money. So Jaren drove back to the house and Rachel and I stayed to wait it out. Linda, one of the employees, brought us each a plastic stool to sit on and stayed with us to talk. She was wonderful. She is from the North, and still lives in her home village. She has two boys, one is 12 and I think the other is around 8.
Today, we decided on what area we’d each be in charge of. I’ve been assigned three aspects of the WC program. First (and what I’m most excited for) is Field Staff coordinator. So it was my job to interview all of the new Field Assistant applicants yesterday and I’ll be in charge of picking, calling, organizing, and paying Field Staff for each of our camps. Our Field Staff is made up of two jobs: Field Assistants, who are paid and work with college volunteers, and Field Interns, who volunteer their time and work with our high school program. Both positions require translation in both directions (English to Chichewa and back), cultural awareness and information, liaison between foreign volunteers and local Malawians, and anything else we could ask for. The Field Staff are amazing people who love what they do and are tons of fun.
I’m also Cook Group coordinator. I’ll be in charge of assigning cook groups, or groups of volunteers who are responsible for dinner each night. We set a budget and they cook delicious food! For our group of 16 people, the budget will probably be around 2,500 Malawian kwacha, or $20. Yummm! And my last job is Outreach/Activities coordinator. I’m getting more and more excited about this as I start to get into it. It’ll be my job to arrange activities on our days off. We’ll probably go visit a church and a mosque in Lilongwe. We’ll go to the fabric market to buy yards of fabric, then have Loli over, who is a tailor who makes beautiful clothing and bags. There’s also a place called the Crisis Nursery, that I wrote about in that paper if you read it. Children who are younger than 2 years are dropped off by their families and are given the proper care and nutritious until their family comes to pick them up. We’ll do outreach programs every Friday and Saturday. The first week, it looks like we’ll head to a refugee camp. I don’t know much about the camp yet, but a church group requested we come and spend time educating people about HIV. Although World Camp hasn’t worked with a religious organization in a number of years, this church asked specifically for a condom demonstration, so I’m not sure exactly what to expect!
17 May
I just want to tell the world about a man I met today named Michael. (I absolutely love that people don’t call before stopping by! It leads to the best surprises!) He was born in Malawi and went to undergrad and grad school in Michigan, if I remember correctly. Then he taught in Nebraska for a number of years. Originally, he meant to spend only four years in the States before heading back to Africa, but decided, after 16 years, it was time to return to Malawi. Before moving to the states, Michael’s sister died of AIDS; he adopted her son. The son has since discovered he is HIV positive. But he is now in high school in Lincoln, Nebraska and HIV is no longer detectable in his blood. Michael calls him his “poster child.”
Since moving back to Malawi, Michael has gotten incredibly involved in every social issue you can think of. He knows so much about the school system and the current state of HIV. He is in the middle of having children’s stories published that address all types of current issues. It will be a picture book that covers HIV, gender equality, deforestation, and similar topics. He didn’t talk about the book too much, so I don’t know a lot, but I cannot wait to read it! Right now Michael is also working on assessing the effectiveness of government teacher training with a European government (I forget which one, we talked about so many things!). That’s exactly what I’m most interested in; educating teachers so they can effectively teach the new government curriculum. So I can’t wait for Michael to come back later in the session so I can talk to him more!
Then Michael asked us about the cultural differences we notice in Malawi and what we think of them. We all laughed and said we don’t really notice those anymore. We see boys holding hands or sitting in each other’s laps and don’t bat an eye, but are surprised to see a man and woman holding hands. Michael asked if we’d noticed that people use their hands instead of handkerchiefs to blow their noses here. When he was doing cultural orientation for the Peace Corps, Michael and the volunteers asked Malawians why this is. One lady responded that it’s gross to put a dirty handkerchief back in your pocket. It makes sense to blow your nose into the ground, wipe your nose with your hand, and then wash your hands. It’s just cleaner! Then we talked about directness in the two cultures. In the States, someone will call out a person they just met if they are rude. In Malawi, one will go out of their way to avoid confrontation with a person they don’t know. So even if a foreigner does something culturally inappropriate or awkward, even if they don’t realize it and would probably like to be made aware, a Malawian will not tell them.
Michael had the most interesting view points. Having gone though primary and secondary school in Malawi, then undergrad and graduate school in the states, he knows both school systems and can praise and critique both in ways that are commonly looked over. He has impeccable English. He’s not afraid to state his views and can get into amazing and unexpected discussion with all the background needed to make his point and counter his opponent. Michael’s also planning on coming to at least one of our camps, hopefully next week. I’m really hoping to be able to sit in on teacher meetings with him; he said he’d be more than happy to give us tips on how to get into deeper conversations and develop that section of our curriculum!
In other news, the first volunteers arrive tomorrow! Two girls are coming in at 12:20 local time! And we still have so much to do before and after then! The other 9 volunteers (7 girls and 1 boy) are coming on Thursday. We’ll start orientation that evening and head to our first camp on Sunday! I cannot wait to meet volunteers and get back to the schools – I really, really miss rural Malawi and the students, but especially all the teachers!!
18 May
So today, I was reminded of exactly how much patience Malawi can sometimes require. All five coordinators were up early this morning to get lots of work done. We had one meeting at 8:30am which went great. We had another meeting planned for 10am with the Ministry of Hope, an organization that runs a number of wonderful programs throughout Malawi. At 9:40, one of the head coordinators called the local hospital to make an appointment for later in the day. They told her she needed to be in by 10 if she wanted to see anyone; but we really needed her in at the meeting too. So we dropped her off at ABC, the hospital, and went to the meeting without her and slightly less prepared than I would have liked. Since I am in charge of Outreach Programs, I’ll be talking to the Ministry of Hope a lot as we work with their already-established programs. The meeting went really well – we set up what I think will be a wonderful day at a program in a village near one of the schools we work with. On May 29, we’re going to a village to work with adults in the morning and kids in the afternoon. (I’m SOOOO excited to work with age groups other than the students we normally do – I think it’ll be a completely new and different experience with exciting and new rewards, as well as great windows with many new questions!) On the way back to the house, we all thought I should get dropped off at the hospital to stay with the one coordinator because she didn’t have cell minutes to call us with and it had been awhile since we’d dropped her off. The rest of the coordinators went back to the house so they could pick up the two volunteers who arrived today!! I sat in the waiting room for awhile until she was called in. After her appointment, we called the house to see if anyone could pick us up. But World Camp has three cars, two of which were in the shop, and the last one that was at the airport. We also called three Field Staff members and the guy who runs the house when no one from WC is here, but none of them could pick us up. So we started the long walk home. An hour and fifteen minutes later, we finally arrived. Although that time could have been spent being productive, it was great to get out of the house for awhile. It also reminded me why I’m here. Ignoring the fact that we walked along a busy road the whole time, everyone we passed was so nice and said hello. I saw children running and laughing, and miles of maize fields. We passed successful professionals who looked worried and tired and people struggling to make ends meet with beautiful smiles on their faces.
Once we got back to the house, we heard that the daytime watchman, Ngoni, had stopped by the house. He’d been really sick for about the past week – with what a local clinic had diagnosed as malaria. He was in for work yesterday and it was great to see him again, although he didn’t look as good as I remember. He didn’t come to work today, but had stopped by with his whole family while I was on my walk. He was lying on the bench outside and couldn’t sit up. He wants to go back to his village to get traditional treatment for his illness that had majorly relapsed since yesterday. He believes his deceased grandmother’s spirit is inside him and causing him to become ill. In order to remove her spirit, he must go to his home village and visit her grave. There, a number of ceremonies will be performed. He must also hold a huge feast for the entire village. He has refused to go to another hospital and will need to raise the money to get home soon. I can only hope he recovers soon, whether from traditional or modern medicine.
After hearing about Ngoni, the volunteers arrived; two girls, from North Carolina. One will be a senior and one just graduated college. They’re incredibly nice and I’m glad they’re here! After dinner, we took an inauguration trip to McDaud’s the local McDonald’s spinoff for ice cream! Tomorrow, we’ll take them on a town tour and have them help us with the last few preparations before the other 9 volunteers come in on Thursday.
It feels like the session’s really starting now – volunteers are arriving and soon we’ll be back in schools! Today was hard, but incredible nonetheless. I learned a lot about so many aspects of life in Lilongwe I hadn’t realized before; I cannot wait to get back to the villages; I can only hope Ngoni recovers; and soon the house will be full with volunteers!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
First Post from Abroad
First blog post from abroad! I’m only in Dublin and have already narrowly avoided catastrophe. I didn’t even realize my flight out of JFK was delayed 3 hours, but someone at the ticketing counter (where I wasn’t allowed to check in because I was too early) offered to switch me to an earlier flight. I would’ve missed my connection here. So now I’m waiting in the Dublin airport for my next connection to Heathrow in 4 hours.
First adventure: the road trip to Portland. Even before that, five of my closest friends from Crew came to see me off this morning. Erin, Gigs, Kristin, Amy and Caroline all came over at 6:30am to say bye. Thanks again, girls! It was the perfect sendoff, complete with pictures of next year’s 5man!! Then, an epic road trip with Katie, Gemma, Abbey and Annie to Portland. First stop was at Jorgenson’s for a yummy breakfast (everyone needs to get the breakfast sandwich, seriously. It’s absolutely delicious.). Then LLBean for some last minute shopping and photos with huge moose! And of course, a stop off at Whole Foods to pick up dinner for the plane. The drive was so much fun, and the perfect way to end my semester in Maine!
I found the door to door travel time, and it’s exactly 48 hours. And now, I’m just about 18 hours in. 2 flights down, 3 to go. I just can’t explain how excited I am to finally get back to Malawi. It seems so surreal that the time’s finally here!
First adventure: the road trip to Portland. Even before that, five of my closest friends from Crew came to see me off this morning. Erin, Gigs, Kristin, Amy and Caroline all came over at 6:30am to say bye. Thanks again, girls! It was the perfect sendoff, complete with pictures of next year’s 5man!! Then, an epic road trip with Katie, Gemma, Abbey and Annie to Portland. First stop was at Jorgenson’s for a yummy breakfast (everyone needs to get the breakfast sandwich, seriously. It’s absolutely delicious.). Then LLBean for some last minute shopping and photos with huge moose! And of course, a stop off at Whole Foods to pick up dinner for the plane. The drive was so much fun, and the perfect way to end my semester in Maine!
I found the door to door travel time, and it’s exactly 48 hours. And now, I’m just about 18 hours in. 2 flights down, 3 to go. I just can’t explain how excited I am to finally get back to Malawi. It seems so surreal that the time’s finally here!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
One Week Left!
So, not much to report on, only that I'm getting way more excited to leave soon! So excited I figured I'd post again! I leave in only 7 days! The down side? I get there in 9. :( That's right, 2 full days of travel. Colby --> Portland, ME (with stops for shopping on the way!) --> JFK --> Dublin --> London --> Johannesburg --> Lilongwe --> WC house! Flights are confirmed, I've started to pack up my dorm room, study for finals, turn in last papers and assignments, gather supplies, pack.... and there's still so much more to do! Anyway, I hope everyone's doing well! Be sure to stay in touch, I'll want to hear how everything is going back home (or where ever you are if you're also abroad for the summer/fall!)
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