In the interest of time and because I am in fact, in Chadd's words, "Listy", here's a quick rundown:
- Trip up north - full of hard travel on bumpy creekbeds-cum-roads into the bush with an angry administrator, lonely PCV and man who can't afford deoderant. Yum.
- Eating lots and lots of nsima and surprising the locals by liking it. Not having a bowel movement for six days as a result.
- Having an entire hotel room to yourself for four days.
- Then the electricy goes out. At 7pm. Twice.
- Visiting a prison (please dear God never put me in a prision in Africa) for a pit latrine project.
- Seeing the "Malawisaurus" museum in Karonga. Yes, they had dinosaurs here! It's totally beautiful and you can talk your way around the exorbant 500mk asking price.
- Driving through rubber plantation and watching them tap trees for the sap.
- Falling asleep in the backseat of a landcruiser with BBC Africa on the radio and waking up three hours later in your destination, refreshed, with terrible bed head.
- Arriving back in town to realize that yes, you have created a life here complete with really nice friends.
- Moving into new - smaller, cozier - digs. Now we have carpet, and a pool.
- And spiders! (Try showering with one the size of your hand and we'll see how far YOU leap)
- And bats!
- Going to a game park with the following: a sassy Zambia, a UNHCR intern obsessed with hippos and a surly Nigerian-American. Having a blast.
- Eating vegetables that knocked my comatose colon back into action.
- Eating so many vegetables so that the rest of my body was knocked comatose instead.
- Taking a game drive with two italians and a lesbian german couple. Seeing: elephants, sable, impala, water buck, hippos, impala, an owl, elephants and more impala.
- Watching the sunset on the Shire river.
- Freezing ten feet from an elephant in front of our cottage whilst everyone ones scampers back inside. Only come unglued when he starts to charge. Eek!
- Morning "game" walk. End up seeing lots of poop. And birds. Snore.
- Safari boat ride with four Italians. Seeing elephants, owls, eagles, hippos, hippos and more hippos. Alissa is happy.
- Having my camera batteries die.
- Buying a great basket made of garbage from a women's project. Will look good with plant.
- Singing "Ebony and Ivory" all weekend, poorly. Also, lots of cookies and cream jokes.
- Watching Belinda get her birthday cake from the staff in a beautiful open air bush restaurant under the stars. Then making her dance around the campfire with a bunch of Englishwomen because they "need a chocolate chip!"
- Paying $110 to laugh my butt off for two days.
- Back to work.
So you see, I've been surviving. Magnificently.
Miss you all,
M.
2 comments:
perhaps that corn mush you were eating was not the reason for the stoppage of your colon. In fact, as I believe, it was the stress of meeting the former US president. I probably couldn't poop for weeks after such an encounter. I wish your camera didn't die and that you could post some "africa" pictures on the blog. anyway, enjoy the last few weeks and eat more vegetables.
I thought Impala was the name of a 1981 avacado green chevy my brother and sister used to cruise around in and that the Shire was a magical place filled with hobbits on the mystical island of Middle Earth.
I really need to get out of the city more often.
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