Pics on my site..

I finally managed to upload pictures in my flickr site, follow the
link on the right. Something from South Africa, Easter at the lake and
other things..

The cost of food: facts and figures

BBC NEWS | Special Reports | The cost of food: facts and figures

Money for food

Yesterday two more persons asked me for money to buy food. It did not
happen so often before, and I don't think I look richer than usual, so
there must be something wrong. According to what we heard on the radio
in the last weeks, the price of food has increased enormously and
millions of people won't have enough food in the next months.

I am not sure if this is the reason. If that is the case, is really
worrying. We are now in harvest time and there should be plenty of
food, and yet people don't have enough to eat. I don't want to think
what is it going like in a few months.

Probably you have notice that I don't reply emails very fast, you will
have to excuse me but I am really (really) busy at the moment..

too much

last week has been just too much, I just don't get to prepare enough
lectures. Most of the things I teach them for the first time, so it
takes ages to make the powerpoint presentations. I know, I can find
some examples in the internet, but still have to do a lot of work
before going to the classroom and pretend that i know what I am
talking about.

On top of the lecture preparation, I have to organise practical
experiments for the students, which involves chasing technicians,
finding all the chemicals and materials (that may be scattered all
over the college) and look for alternatives to the experiments that we
were planning when the things are not available!

I am upset because we interviewed chemistry lecturers in december but
finally nobody is been appointed (probably because I am here). The
idea should be that I could work with somebody that will remain here
after I leave, but sadly, future planning is not yet in the list of
things to do of the college...

At least this week I don't have to teach one of the subjects, and I
will have some time to catch up!!

3 MA

Yesterday we had a great concert at the french cultural center, here
in Blantyre. 3MA is composed by Ballak Sissoko, a great Malian Kora
musicians, Rajery, a Malagasy valiha virtuoso, and Moroccan Driss El
Maloumi, another virtuoso but from eastern lute players.
I don't know if you can imagine it. The mix is amazing, music from
three different corners of Africa!
They don't seem to have a website, I have only found links to
festivals where they have played, but they have produced a CD if you
want to listen to it..

when we come back...

Last friday I had a great evening with my friend Yasmin. She's also a
VSO and she just came back from a short visit to the UK. We went to a
concert of Malaika ( a south african band supposed to be quite good)
but the concert never started and we talked for ages about life here
and in Europe.
We were both scared thinking how weird is going to be when we come
back home and there will be again loads of things to buy, and we
will consume again loads of things that we don't need.. food will be
wrapped in hundreds of packages, and we will have a washing machine
(and hopefully a dishwasher) instead of a housekeeper..

Apart from some fun evenings I haven't done that much since Easter.
We went to the lake, to cape mc clear, which is a
beautiful spot near the 'lake malawi national park'. Cape mac is
famous because he lake is full of cichlids (colored tropical fish).
But is also a backpackers meca, with quite a lot of cheap places to
stay and party. Our holiday was great, with 'beach boys' (local kids)
that organised us bbq on the beach, a boat trip to one of the islands,
snorkeling, pancakes for breakfast and endless sales of curios. It was
great!
I am not going to tell you much about work. Everything is the same at
the college, many lectures and labs to prepare. I am also doing some
progress with the research, preparing a research grant and trying to
attend the meetings at the welcome trust (a research institution at
the back of the hospital).. I have been so busy that I still haven't
put any pictures in the internet! I'll try this week, promised :)