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Published: September 24th 2008
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Hi all. I have arrived in Blantyre, Malawi as of Sunday. It was a little hard to get information as I was on the road, so I was pleased to hear about the Cubs clinching the division and not as pleased to hear about the banking crisis in the states. Too bad I'm not still at Rush or I could have contributed some meal tickets toward the $700 billion bailout. It certainly feels strange to be so disconnected with the goings-on, especially with the debates coming up Friday, my favorite part of election years. Anyhoo, my travels are over for the time being and it definitely feels nice to settle into a place for a while. Blantyre is a small city, but relatively clean and with some nice amenities. I think I will like the program better here as well, more on that later. My flat is pretty nice, I'm currently sharing it with a somewhat controlling old man, but next week I will have it all to myself. I noticed some squeaking in the rafters when I moved in. Initially I thought it was a birds nest as it sounded like chirping, but that didn't make too much sense given
all the nocturnal activity. Maybe rats nesting in the attic? I know for a fact they can do that because I saw it in "Ratatouille." Much to my relief, I found out from a previous tenant that it is a very stubborn family of bats. Now we just live in mutual understanding: them unaware of me, and me a little creeped out.
My trip into Mozambique was nice. I spent just a couple days in Maputo. There were a couple observations. One is that it seems every male who is employed is either a security guard or a minibus driver and every female sells fruit. I had heard stories about police corruption and harassment of tourists looking for bribes, so I made sure to look like I was in a hurry and a little annoyed whenever I walked around, obviously avoiding eye contact with everyone. Essentially the same strategy I would use while walking around the hospital in residency. I guess it worked as I never had an incident with the 5-0. I also went to the national art museum. It was very small, just a couple of rooms, and feature primarily paintings and wood carvings. The thing that
astounded me was the amount of death, violence, bold coloring, pain, demons, and overall negativity in the paintings (most from the mid 80s onward). Not a lot of haystacks and scenes in the park. Certainly western art has it's share of violent scenes and pain, but a lot of these are bible stories and they are vastly overshadowed in number by the presence of others. It just makes you realize the remaining significance of the history of some of these former colonies and the effect it still has on the national psyche. In reality, it is a huge step to simply have to worry about poverty and hunger, and not those things on top of mutilation, death, loss of family members, displacement, etc.
Another interesting thing was the continuing Russian influence - back in the days of choosing sides of the iron curtain, Mozambique aligned with the Soviet Union. I had a television in my hotel room in Maputo and the only English channel it got was "Russia Today." I watched some 20/20 type show about the Georgia/South Ossetia conflict which painted Russia as saviors and Georgia and the west as tyrannical aggressors.
After Maputo I went to
Tofo and Vilankulos, both staples on the southern Mozambique touring circuit. Tofo had some really nice beaches, and was a really nice place to relax and play in the temperate waves of the Indian Ocean. It is also the season where whales around around, and every night around dusk, the whales (humpback, I was told) would feed and flop around a few hundred meters off the coast right in front of the hostel. Vilankulos was kind of more of the same. I didn't think that the beach was as nice, but the main reason for going there is the Bazaruto Archipelago. It is a collection of islands, most national parks except for the parts that have nice resorts, a few miles off the coast. I spent one day on an island tour/snorkeling trip. Lots of tropical fish, rays, and a sea turtle, which is an awesome animal.
After that, three tough days to get into Malawi. The problem with public transport around here (besides the obvious space issues) is that long distances buses will typically leave first thing in the morning only. So once you get to the end of the line for the day, usually around 1 pm,
you just have to wait until the next morning to continue on. In retrospect I'm glad I did it as you get a real taste for the life here, but it was certainly not the most fun thing I've ever done. Okay, so that's it for now, I'll post something else in a week or so about the work here. Hope everyone is doing well!
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