All I've eaten today is fish...and sugar

Kelly and I are thoroughly enjoying our vacation now after the 2 days of travel to get here!

On our first day in Pemba, we went for an exploring run (when you go out for a run and walk/stop where you want to see things more). We stopped to watch a major dance party at a school or something before approaching the cluster of women with their buckets of treats and buying at least one of everything. These snacks included little twisty things, scones, mandasi, etc. Then we decided to run to Pemba town. We found an ATM, a covered market similar to malawi, and wandered around some. Neither of us were very impressed and people were a lot more hassle-y in town. So we got a hitch back to our place and decided to have lunch (seafood of course!) and go play in the ocean. So that's exactly what we did!

The water was decently warm and pretty clear although it was very shallow! Most of the time we were only swimming in like 2-3 feet of water, and you could walk out really far in the bay which was neat! Nobody bothered us, so we laughed and played in the water for awhile. Then before the sun set, we ran to the bar to grab a beer and sat on the beach watching another day finish with the sinking orange sun setting over the crashing waves.

Emergency Evacuation!

It’s been a whirlwind of a week. A giant tropical storm slammed the southern region of Malawi a few days ago with multiple feet of rainfall in 2-3 days. Considering homes and buildings are made of sandy mud bricks around here, lots of rain can weaken these walls and cause walls and entire structures to collapse. Thankfully I was not in my village when the storm hit (I was staying with a friend who knew the storm was on its way), so I was safe. I watched the storm bend palm trees and flop big branches from the safely of a large front porch that overlooked the tea estates. The rain came in waves usually of ridiculously hard rapping on the roof to light drizzling, and we had phases of thunder and lightning. One thing was for sure though—it didn’t stop raining for three days straight. The only discomfort I experienced though was temperamental electricity (which didn’t bother me since I’m used to not having it anyway). Besides that, I spent four days working on lesson plans for programs in...

Luderitz

After a week of rest and recovery (sort of) in Windhoek, I decided it was time to get down to the work exchange I'd organized to do down in the remote, coastal town of Luderitz. Honestly, I was getting bored of playing tourist and ready to get back to doing meaningful work. I hitched a ride down to Keetmanskoop, a small, commercial town about five hours south of Windhoek. When I arrived, I was actually lucky enough to meet two Peace Corps Volunteers living there. It was great swapping info on our two countries for a bit. Then I did some wandering around town...although there wasn't a whole lot to see. The guy I'm doing the work exchange with (his name is Giel for future reference) was kind enough to drive over 350km to come pick me up in Keetmans, so I was happy to have a safe and reliable ride into Luderitz. The scenery on the drive, before it got dark, was pretty amazing as the sunset painted the sky orange-y yellow and in the far off distance we could see lines of rain...

Playing catch up / Integration

OCTOBER 14 When I tell people I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer here in Malawi, they always have the same questions, “So what’s a typical day like?” Well, I feel like I’ve been here long enough (it’s now over 7 months!!!!) to approach this question. There is no typical day. Basi. However, today was one of those busy, productive, unpredictable days where everything just seemed to slip easily from one to thing to another. I woke up at half five this morning to go for a run before it got too hot and humid because man , that african sun during hot season is not something to mess with. On my run, I think I probably saw every primary and secondary (high school) school student in my village and the village adjacent to ours on their journeys to school. Most primary students were dressed in blue or purple uniforms and the secondary students wear black on bottom and white on top. The kids typically have track shoe bags for backpacks slung around their shoulders and in their hands they sling a...

Under the Milky Way

Search This Blog