March 29 2009

It’s been a month of memorable Malawi moments. Highlights included the Domwe trip and a weekend in Liwonde National Park for a mini safari. There are not a lot of animals to be seen at this time of year but lots of birds and it is a beautiful spot.

My photos are posted at

http://tinyurl.com/liwonde

The power outages reached a new peak this month as our spirits sagged to new lows with each black out. Fortunately our neighbours in this compound are kindred souls and we help lift each other up

during such moments. Poetry from the Powerless has become our evening sport as we send rhymes back and forth by text. Laughter is good, even if our poems are not.

Will the power ever come back?

In the dark our bags we will pack.

Tomorrow we are off to Liwonde,

leaving all our cares behind ‘til Sunday.

Once again in the dark.

Listening to the dogs bark.

Go out to eat, go to bed,

or make silly poems instead.

No light, no food, no energy,

How crazy can this be?

Technology has also hit an all time low at school since the school’s computer network was wiped out by multiple viruses during the Christmas holidays. Yes, that was during Christmas break and despite the valiant efforts of several techies there is no end in sight to those problems. However, report cards can be written by hand and notes can be posted on the bulletin board for all to see, when we get around to it. Whiteboards still work without electricity even if the new generator does not, and we do have books. So education continues. The real question is, can you run a school without caffeine? Is it not cruel and unusual punishment for children to have to endure teachers who have not had their morning coffee?

The other thing we have learned here is that just when we start to get depressed and or cynical about the state of affairs something or someone will come along to give us a whole new perspective on things. This morning as we arrived at the cash in Shoprite with all of our groceries, optimistically waiting to check out, the cash register broke down. We looked on as the young woman in front of us valiantly tried to get an answer to her question about how long it might take to restore the system and if she should change lines. Eventually she was shuffled off to another line and the cashier asked us to wait just a little longer. This really was worth it as we had the opportunity to see her supervisor try a number of innovative maneuvers with the recalcitrant machine that ranged from slapping all of the keys with the back of her hand to unplugging and re-plugging: also known as the “when in doubt, reboot tactic”. Eventually, we too were shuffled off to join the line behind the young woman who had originally been in front of us. Ordinarily the story would end here but not this time. The shopping gods were with us today, at least briefly. While we waited patiently behind the young woman with the very large basket of groceries the original cash register was resuscitated and the supervisor came and brought us right back to the front of that line, a gesture of kindness and good service that will not soon be forgotten.

However, as I said, the shopping gods were with us only briefly today, or sporadically might be more accurate. One of the items we were unable to find at the grocery store was an international calling card. Seems they usually have them but “not today”. That turned out to be the same response in the next 5 stores we visited on our way home. The good news: cheddar cheese and no fat yogurt are available this week. The bad news: no international calling cards. More good news: persistency does pay off. One more trip to a store near where we live resulted in the purchase of the coveted calling card. Bad news: when we tried to use it my phone suddenly had no network coverage. Good news: ingenuity pays off: J-M removed the SIM card, blew the dust off of it, and replaced it. Voilà network coverage restored. I pass this on as a helpful high tech tip to all cell phone users out there.

More good news, our neighbour Jen is the new Malawi women’s squash champion and fellow teacher Ivor took the men’s title. Congratulations to both of them.

Then to top off a perfectly lovely day I happened to look at the calendar on the computer and we discovered it is our 23^rd wedding anniversary today. So we are putting our power woes behind us, and my charming spouse is treating me to dinner at the Sanctuary Lodge. They, at least, will have a generator if the power goes.

Happy Anniversary, mon amour. Je t’aime toujours, comme disait le proverbe arabe, plus aujourd’hui qu’hier mais pas autant que demain.

March 5 2009

Just back from a wonderful long weekend experience on Domwe Island and Mua Mission.

The former was a planned event and the latter a happy last minute addition to the itinerary.

Since Tuesday was a national holiday, the school had worked a four day weekend into the calendar, a very welcome break at this time of year. The rainy season is not particularly onerous, but it does bring with it a ridiculous number of random power outages that tend to get one down almost as much as a long dark Canadian winter. And if you combine that with a major computer network failure, well, let’s just say getting away from it all about now is a really good idea. So ten of us from the school, minus one family of three who had to beg off due to illness, set off for Cape Maclear and Domwe Island. And what a lovely weekend it was. Domwe is a self catering island. We brought our own food and took turns so each couple prepared one meal and then the staff on the island did the cleaning up. Bonus! Left us plenty of time for relaxing in the hammocks, snorkeling and kayaking. We did try hiking up the trail a bit but since that turned into the steam room experience we decided water based activities were more interesting, and those little cichlids are both colourful and cute. All in all it was a delightful time: good food, good company, great scenery. Getting out of Cape Maclear, however, turned out to be more of an adventure than planned.

The road to Cape Maclear is paved most of the way but the last bit is rather rugged, to put it mildly. And after two nights of thunderstorms I guess it should not have been much of a surprise to find our way blocked by a river in flood. When we first approached this part of the road the young men walking through it were up to their armpits in water. This is not a happy picture when you are driving a little Rav4. So the consensus was to turn back and hope the water would go down before it got too dark to drive out. Back at Kayak Africa we relaxed on the deck overlooking the lake, had some liquid fortification and lunch before setting off again. By this time the water was only up to the hips so we took the offer of the crowd of young men who were ever so willing, for a price, to push us through. With the exhaust securely wrapped in a plastic bag, off we went, fingers crossed that the car would start on the other side. And it did. Of course, the other side was blocked by a land rover having its tires changed, but that’s a small thing once you are clear of the water and assured your engine is not flooded. Our friends, who were following, had the same happy result leaving our little convoy clear to head on to Mua Mission. Even the cell phone gods were with us. We had coverage and were able to reserve three rooms for the evening and dinner.

Mua Mission is a delightful spot that was on our list of places to visit, not necessarily on this trip, but as it turned out, a serendipitous turn of events. We arrived there before sundown, a very important factor in this part of the world, had time to look around and enjoy a leisurely dinner followed by a game of cards with our friends before turning in. At breakfast we met a very interesting elderly Swiss couple who are in the midst of returning home, by car, having started in Namibia, quite the road trip they have ahead of them.

Breakfast was followed by the museum visit. The Chamare Museum at the Kungoni Centre at Mua Mission is a little gem: beautifully organized and full of information about Malawian history and culture. The tour leaves one with the usual mind-spinning museum overload but well worth it, and hopefully we will get back again before we leave for a more leisurely stroll through. Here is the link to their site for those who would like more detail.

http://www.kungoni.org/

Of course no African adventure seems to be complete without a little car trouble. So what’s a blown tire among friends? Again, luck was with us as the tire had not even lost air when we heard the problem. And Kristen, who was driving, even managed to pull under a nice big shade tree where the replacement operation went off quite smoothly. Back on the road, to Salima and Lilongwe without a hitch, happy and refreshed.

Here are the addresses for my albums from Domwe and Mua:

Domwe

http://tinyurl.com/domwe1

Mua

http://tinyurl.com/muamission

Now to get this uploaded. If the electricity will stay on long enough…