Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Bao



Learning bao from vendor friends, and a kid at the theatre

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Kids in the theatre
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Going home after the catholic service on Saturday





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Another kid in the theatre. You can see he was thinking mzungus are more interesting than the play itself.
Whole family posing in front of Maria, after the wedding.
Another kid. Cute one.
Likuni River. Two minute walk from the Parish.
And a man crossing the road we were taking to bike to the NRC yesterday.

What makes this place Africa?

- It’s beautiful people; full of joy and relaxed, but mostly slow in action, and never too precise (in for example appointments…).
- The fact that an x-ray of my ankle (don’t worry, I didn’t break it) in the local hospital costs you 260 kwacha (remember that you get 175 kwacha for just one euro).
- The twinkling stars, which seem to have colours inside them. The wonderful soft nights, with a clear sky and the little noises of bats, some birds and crickets.
- African English. Man, the way they pronounce some words…
- The dirt that seems to be everywhere; not only nut shells, rests of sugar cane and fruit, but also a lot of plastic junk. The local market here is loaded with Asian low quality stuff and I’ve seen two public garbage cans so far.
- The crazy respect a lot of people seem to have for mzungus, some people even bow down…
- Weather; 30 degrees in the shade, a sun that really knows the meaning of the word ‘burn’ and than the heavy rains, which soak you till your skin, in no time.
- The looking, staring. Always catching attention. As a mzungu you’re always being noticed. Also when it’s totally dark.
- The fact that they actually use a plastic glove filled with ice (smashed into acceptable pieces on the ground in front of your eyes) as a cooling bandage…
- A million ‘best friends’ I have, mostly guys.
- Traffic; cars, bikes and busses that even a Dutch student wouldn’t touch, are used daily, everywhere, for everything. Chickens are transported upside down hanging on a bike, the completely gone window of a minibus that’s replaced by duck tape, cars without lights and with doors, which fall out. Remember I didn’t even got started about the quality of the roads.
- Sleeping underneath a mosquito net.
- The colours… Such blue skies. Such, such red soil. Such black faces, with such white teeth. Such bright yellow, red or blue birds and than the huge butterflies. And the sweat, heavy smells in the garden.
- The yelling pastor Smint, from the church.
- Your feet; it’s impossible to keep them clean. I cannot say I step under the cold shower every day, but I wash my feet (almost) every night : )

As you can see I tried to sum up some characteristics, some facts, that will give you an image of the world I’m living in right now. I tried to think of the little crazy things that I might already be getting used to, but which are essential in creating the right picture.
I realise I failed, in creating the right picture, and that I will be failing in the future. But I’m gonna keep on trying. With words. With pictures.

Lotte

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Adventures in Malawi

Mmm. There’s so much to tell I don’t really know where to start. I’ll just start somewhere and keep on typing, so forgive me if this post will be a mess.
While I am in Malawi for just a bit more then a week, I can tell you that this trip is already worth it. I fell in love with Africa, and her people. And there are still so many more hours here in Africa left to join. Even though it might be hard to communicate, I’m having friends here. There are more and more people I recognize, and because mzungus are still rare, it seems as if everybody knows us. I’m learning a bit of Chichewa and a lot of people know some English, but it’s still African English. And they’ll pretend to understand you while they don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. Even about important things like our project or an appointment… And the cook for example, Magdalena, she only speaks Chichewa, we only know the basics like ‘how are you’. She keeps laughing her ass of, every time we’re trying. And then she starts a complete waterfall in Chichewa. Sometimes there’s somebody around to translate, mostly not. In that case, we just laugh. She tries to teach me new words, but they’re difficult to remember.
As decent Dutch citizens all three of us bought a bike on Wednesday. We are quite the attraction around here; just our skin is enough to make people of all ages laugh, shout, wave etc. A lot of people want to shake hands and try their best English. Riding our brand new, really noisy (what do you want with the roads over here) bikes, it even got worse.
Last weekend was pretty full. Six of the nine boys left to visit Lake Malawi. We spent Friday night watching movies on the laptop of one from the ICT-team. Saturday morning, we visited the Catholic Church here in Likuni, for what we thought to be one wedding. But there were 31 couples getting married. In the afternoon we visited a play which local people were performing. Of course we had to wait for one and a half hour before it all started. Welcome to Africa…
The six of us went out for supper at night, and after worth’s we visited two clubs. Even the dancing goes slower here. Have been to a church (Assemblies of God) in Lilongwe on Sunday, together with Joseph from ACEM. You’re welcome from 7 in the morning and we arrived a bit after nine. Wow. It was just like everything you expect from an African service. Very happy; dancing and clapping during the singing, a beautiful women’s choir, very hot and long, and a pastor who was yelling 95 percent of the time, serious! At the end he sweated so much, he looked as if somebody poured a bucket of water over his head… Finally done around 12 and starting again at 2 pm, till 4. I was the only mzungu all day long and I’m planning on going again next Sunday. Yesterday, Veerle, Leonie and I biked to the National Resources College, for our second meeting about our project. Which is going great so far; we met mister Perfect (no, not to marry, but for our project) on Thursday. We created a questionnaire, and tomorrow we’ll have to meet again with a second version. Maybe we’ll be able to meet the Malawian students who will help us, with accompanying us to a village and translate the questions we have for the farmers.
In the first days the electricity kept falling out, as was the water (we can drink the water from the tap here, no problem). But the last days no problems at all. We didn’t had any rain the last couple of days either, and it’s still at least 25 degrees in the shade. Count up at least ten in the sun. O, and the stars at night here… The sky was clear, and the stars, they twinkle.

Greetings from a completely happy person.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Malawi

Wow. I'm in Africa. It is unbelievable. Undescribable... Serious. I just took a minibus to Lilongwe for 30 kwacha (you get 175 for 1 euro), after waiting almost the whole day for a guy that never showed up. And here I am, and I'm gonna give it a try. A try to describe it.

My mum, sister, Leonie and I took the train from Leiden to Brussel Airport Friday morning at 7 am. I slept 6 hours in the last two nights, so I was feeling a kind of aweful. After the shitty goodbyes we were on our own, waiting for our one and a half hour flight to London. Six hours (some sleep, some wondering around the airport and food) after arrival it was time to take the 11 hour flight to Johannesburg. All seats had their own screen to watch some movies, and I could choose the ones I wanted to watch. I even slept some hours, and one more, while waiting for the last plane on a bench in the airport in warm South Africa.
And then it all started. Right there. In a little, almost empty, plane of Air Malawi, where chichewa was spoken through the intercom. Right there. Flying above Africa, not too high, so we were able to enjoy the view all the time. The landscape was pretty dry above South Africa, but the more North we got, it got greener and greener. It was difficult to stop taking pictures before and while we were landing. I got a stamp so now I'm able to stay for 30 days.

I arrived in a warm, colourful and green land. Full of black people. (Of course :)And it's really Africa as I was expecting it, the same Africa I hoped wasn't true sometimes as well. We sleep at the Likuni Parish, 10 km from Lilongwe (ACEM, PO Box 999, Lilongwe is the mail adress), together with 9 Dutch boys. And there's (fat) Father Peter as well. And kooks, and a garden man and more. Veerle, Leonie and I, share a room, with running water and electricity. We decorated it with our clamboes, some pics and maps of Malawi, Tanzania etc. So far, we didn't do anything usefull. We tried, but making an appointment is hard. We knew, but now we really know.
We've been to Lilongwe in a minibus with 24 people, to look around. Close to the capital the roads are pretty good, around Likuni ok, and at the parish the roads are bad. The garden of the parish smells like a butterfly sanctuary, complete with sounds and birds (blue, yellow, red, everything is possible). Huge insects, huger temperatures and hugest trees ever.
We didn't do anything usefull yesterday and today. Breakfast at 7, some reading, playing some games, we walked around the poor area, played soccer etc. This all, combined with the temperature, blue sky and the blooming garden, makes it difficult to don't feels as if it is summer break. But I'd rather do something. Yesterday afternoon, mr Flemmings from ACEM (the partner organisation of ex-change; Association of Christian Educators of Malawi) took us to a Secondary Girl School. Classes full of girls waving, laughing, giggling. When we entered a class room, they all stood up, and asked us how we were and everything. Mixed feelings, great, weird, fantastic, awesome, everything.

Anyway, I have to go, the internetcafe is closing. I hope to be able to type to you soon. Pictures as well.

Lotte

Friday, March 9, 2007

Done. (Kind of)

I'm done with the preparations. Not really, but maybe it'll help me to say it.
But I kind of have to; it's after 3 am and my alarm will be ringing at 5... Don't know why I always seem to be doing everything at the very last moment. But I'm enjoying it, so don't worry.
I've got almost everything I need packed. My iPod and batteries for my camera are charging and some socks are drying (thanks mum!). Oh, and I still need to pack toiletpaper. But that's about all. Tomorrow I have to empty my memory card, email some documents to myself, and I have to wake up.
Then it'll be off to Brussel Airport with my mum and sister, around 6.15 in the morning.

Wow. Crazy how slow people think because of a lack of sleep.

Hope to type soon.

Lotte