Driving to Mzuzu for the week end..

Don’t think that all the volunteers have an easy life like me when they come to Malawi, things can be very difficult, and you can have a hard time. My friend Rachel for example was not so lucky, and she had a hell of a placement up to now.

 

She is an occupational therapist and she came to work at Zomba mental hospital, all the way from Hawaii! Mental illness in Africa is a big issue, there is only one mental hospital in the whole country, and the general opinion is that people with mental problems have suffered some kind of witchcraft or are chamba (marihuana) smokers..

 

Most of the people speak English here, but mental patients are different, so that was one of the first problems that Rachel had to face.. But well, we all receive quite a lot of training and eventually she would be able to work with patients. The main problem is that her colleagues at the hospital refused to talk in English when she was around or in the meetings, so she found herself totally stuck. She has tried to make it work but finally she gave up. Fortunately there is another place in Mzuzu where she could do some work and they wanted her to go there, so finally she managed to get a transfer and she moved there..

 

Mzuzu is far up the north of Malawi, near the border with Tanzania, so we rented a car and drove up there during the week end with all her stuff. Driving on the wrong side of the road with a manual car was too much for her, so I agreed to give her a hand. Is not that I enjoy driving 1200 km in a week end, but well, the road is quite good, and the landscapes fantastic!!

 

Talking about traveling, many of us are thinking of staying here over Christmas and cross the border to Mozambique!! The north of the country is easily accessible from Malawi (but not from South Africa) and its full of paradise like beaches.. We have two options: driving or public transport. Some volunteer have bought cars and are planning to drive there, but it will be raining season and the roads can get very doggy… the public transport option sounds more appealing to me, cos it involves taking loads of minibuses and a train in Mozambique.. it will take me two or three days to reach the coast but I’m sure is worth it!

 

 

Open til dawn...

Two week ends ago, my house was empty for the first time in many weeks.. Guys, that was very weird. But well, it only lasted one day, because soon I was invited to a party, next day I when for dinner, and since then the visits came back to normal again.

 

Last week end was fantastic, I thought it was going to be a quiet one, but out of the blue I was invited to a party in Mulanje, a town only 1 hour away at the feet of a 3000m mountain… sounds good, doesn’t it?? We danced until dawn, first in the house of these colleagues, and then in the local pub… Coming out of the bar the sun was lighting the mountain in the background... Amazing.

 

As someone said the next day, dancing here is like having sex fully dressed… Well, most of the girls that you find in the pubs are prostitutes, sex is really explicit and when you visit one of these places you understand how HIV and other STD spread around. This is one of the sad consequences of poverty.

 

It was nice to have such a hectic week end because work is very boring now marking and marking exams and lab reports. The Malawian English of my students doesn’t make things easier... but well, what can I say? I’m not Shakespeare either!

 

Gold Fish

Just a little note about the music of last week end's festival, my favourite was 'Gold Fish' a South African Duo that played electric jazz. Something like the Belgian Domgue (Pedro you'd love'em!!) but more sophisticated.
http://www.music.org.za/artist.asp?id=221
http://www.myvideo.co.za/video/goldfish-music-video

enjoy!

back to reality

So hard to come back to work after the festival at the lake.. We had an incredible time, although we were a bit dissapointed with the music and the incredible amount of uzungus (white guys) attending and playing. I think that the government in trying to use this iniciatives to promote tourism, but probably, like in many other places, the touristic attractions of Malawi will not be affordable by Malawians..

Anyway, the lake up there is incredible and very little exploited, with beautiful beaches of white sand where you'll only find a few fishermen. The atmosphear is so relaxed and the people so cool... It was 4 days but it looked like a long holiday.

I met Saray and Nieves at the festival before their departure. They went traveling last week and they came to the festival to finish their holiday. I don't think that they wanted to go home, specially Saray that even met a 'best friend' at the lake :-)

I don't have much time to write (loads of reports to correct), but in the next post I'll tell you my adventures trying to get to the lake in a minibus..

flashing!!

This is a funny article that I have found about the use of mobile phones in Africa...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070926/od_nm/africa_beeping1_dc

Lake of stars!!

Sorry for the lack of news, emails, facebook etc. Loads of work and fun in the last 2 weeks. We are getting close to the end of year exams here and I have to write loads of exam papers. Last week end we were in Liwonde national park, enjoying the hippos (and the elephant that came to the camp at night!) and I spent sometime in zomba mountain in a research meeting of the Malawi-liverpool-welcome trust. I am trying to inmerse myself into the secrets of the malaria research but so far I am just floating in the surface. I think is going to take me a few months until I manage to do some research in the lab..

Continuing with the subject of my last blog, I am still strugling to get used to the fact that I am a rich white guy (or uzungu, as they call us here). It's really hard for me to believe that I am not an ordinary person anymore and I can get people around me doing all my washing and cleaning... But I am afraid I will have to accept it and get a housemaid... Just as my friend Yasmine said to me the other day: 'get over it, you are in africa'. Giving 30 euros a month to someone is better than giving them nothing, So you will hear my stories soon about me living the great life with my clothes washed and ironed and my house sparkling clean.

More things, we are getting ready for the lake of stars, the music festival at the lake next week end. I am coordinating the logistics of some of the south region volunteers going to the venue, you had to see my mobile phone ringing all the time... This is quite remarkable, I am using more my mobile phone here than I ever did in Europe. I am very popular because of my nice house in the city. So I have a few regulars that stop by and spend a few nights here, enjoying the hot shower (and the owen!) I have learn how to bake pizzas and my popularity in increasing more and more.. Honestly, I am thinking in stopping my career of scientist in the developing world and run a hostel...