TravelBlog » Into_East_Africa

Into_East_Africa - Joanna Raeside

Hi
I am a 28 year old female from Scotland. Having lived and worked in the States for the past 5 or 6 years, I am preparing to embark on a 9-month trip to East Africa. I will be volunteering in 3 different countries, for 3 months in each. In Tanzania - at Sharom Orphan Centre. In Uganda - on an Outreach-to-children program. In Malawi - at the Monkey Bay Community Hospital. A life-changing adventure awaits! I am recording this adventure for memories for myself and for entertainment and/or information on my experiences and whereabouts for anyone else who is interested! Wish me luck!

Top Photos Blog Map

Guestbook Search Blogs First Entry Latest Entry

Joined on: February 2nd 2007
Last Login: July 31st 2009

Blog Entries: 42
Photos: 347

TB Code: [blogger=31458]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by Into_East_Africa, order by Date newest first.

By Into_East_Africa
February 26th 2008

As one Joanna departs, another one enters Africa » Malawi » Southern » Monkey Bay

Baby Joanna!
2 days old (born February 16th)...with mum Deborah.

On Monday February 18th, I was beginning my last week of work at Monkey Bay Community Hospital and preparing to leave Malawi. That same day, I found out that a few days earlier, another Joanna arrived. Deborah, who I worked with in the Pharmacy department, had given birth to a baby girl and named her after me. I feel pretty honoured! I now have a great excuse to go back to Malawi - i'll have to see how my Malawian counterpart is getting on! For now, she is happy and healthy. I arrived back in bonnie Scotland today. I am absolutely [View Full Entry]

Maternity Ward at Monkey Bay Community Hospital

By Into_East_Africa
February 7th 2008

Good times & bad Africa » Malawi » Southern » Monkey Bay

Sunset over Lake Malawi, Cape Maclear

Lots has happened in the past week. I have had good times (that have been extremely good) and bad times (that have been extremely bad). I first had my birthday. My 29th in Malawi. I had a wonderful day. It started with a soda on the Chancy Maples floating bar, watching baboons that were fighting on the rocks. I had a great Malawian lunch at a local pub next to the hospital, I swam and snorkeled in the lake & I even had homemade chocolate birthday cake. On Friday afternoon we went to an MTO attackers football game. They lost 5-3 [View Full Entry]

By Into_East_Africa
January 30th 2008

You did WHAT with that egg??????! Africa » Malawi

Hippo on the bank of the Shire river

Female circumcision. A horrific procedure. In Njobvu village, Malawi, it has been replaced by the egg tradition. When a girl reachers 10 yrs of age, her mother attempts to insert and egg inside of her. She keeps doing this until she is successful, at which point the girl is considered a woman. This is just one of the traditions that we learned of during our visit to Njobu cultural village last weekend. We spent the night in mud huts (some of us sharing our mattresses with safari ants), ate pumpkin leaves, beans and rice and were entertained by traditional dancing. We [View Full Entry]

By Into_East_Africa
January 22nd 2008

Long time no speak...... Africa » Malawi

Zomba Plateau

It's been a while!! Computers and transport have both been failing me lately. We have 3 vehicles (a minibus and 2 landrovers) and we seem to be lucky if we have even one that is working. I'll be quick this time because last week I typed my entry but the network crashed just before I was able to publish it. As always, all is well. I am here in Lilongwe for a day. A few of us came here to see my roommate Katherine off at the airport and also to buy some medical supplies for the hospital. We have so [View Full Entry]

By Into_East_Africa
January 16th 2008

A Meeting with the soldier Africa » Malawi » Southern » Monkey Bay

Lucius Banda, me & Katherine

A Meeting with Soldier For those of you who know me (and my appearances on stage at Cirque de Soleil, dueling Piano bars, Travis concerts & the like), you will not be surprised when I tell you that we ended up on stage at the Lucius Banda concert, dancing with the ‘soldier’ himself. The story of how this happened is long so I’ll save it for now, but I WILL say it was a fun night and I am a big fan! Since I last wrote, much has happened. Our house is becoming busier as the number of guests has changed [View Full Entry]

By Into_East_Africa
January 3rd 2008

The Inconvenient Centipede Africa » Malawi » Southern » Monkey Bay

Cape Maclear
Another pretty picture

The Inconvenient Centipede On the way home from Mangochi (email town) last week, we suddenly heard our driver, Watipa, utter ‘sh*t’, before not-very-slowly pulling our Toyota minibus to a stop. There was a centipede (of the poisonous variety) on the dashboard. The word ‘centipede’ does not do this thing justice. It had 100 legs but they were by no means close together, causing the thing to be pretty large (a foot or so long). Our coordinator Francis managed to get it out of the vehicle but all the commotion caused an unsuspecting cyclist to fall off his bike, dro [View Full Entry]

By Into_East_Africa
December 28th 2007

Christmas in Malawi Africa » Malawi » Southern » Monkey Bay

Christmas pud!
I was missing the rest of my Christmas dinner

Christmas in Malawi (Monday 24th Dec - present) My christmas in Malawi - 8pm Christmas Eve - 4am Christmas Day - Venice Beach, Malawi (yes, you heard me right!). We drank Kuche Kuche and once again tried to dance to Malawian music. Christmas Morning - I opened my present (thanks mum and dad), with the help of the 3 other volunteers (we were sharing the love). I followed this up with a wee dip in Lake Malawi where I ended up playing ball games with some of the local kids. They sang a little Christmas song to us afterwards. I have [View Full Entry]

By Into_East_Africa
December 28th 2007

If the shoe fits (or even if it doesn't) Africa » Malawi » Southern » Monkey Bay

The team

‘If the shoe fits’ (or even if it doesn’t) - Friday 21st Dec. The ‘MTO attackers’ first big match was on African time, starting an hour late, with a first half of 30 minutes and a second half of 1 hour 10 minutes. The game ended with the other team walking off as they disagreed with a decision made by the ref (who was from their team). African logic?! Final score was 2-2 which wasn’t bad considering that the second, longer half of the game, we had somewhat of a disadvantage, being that we were shooting towards the goal that happened [View Full Entry]

Remember the little girl from last time?

By Into_East_Africa
December 19th 2007

God Is Taking Pictures Africa » Malawi » Southern » Monkey Bay

Sunset over Lake Malawi

“God Is Taking Pictures” - this is what the Malawians say when lightening strikes. I guess god has been rather busy with his camera lately because there has been a LOT of lightening. The rainy season has kicked in. This brings with it an even larger number of bugs than usual. There have been nights when we have wanted to go outside to see a storm but we have been unable to open the door due to the masses of insects. I have also been running on “chicken time” (another one of the Malawians’ many sayings, which is connected to ‘the [View Full Entry]

By Into_East_Africa
December 12th 2007

Cruiser, Freaky B, Coffee & Phonics Africa » Malawi » Southern » Monkey Bay

Cape MacLear

Here in Malawi, I have already given up on asking people what their real names are. I met Cruiser, Mr B, Coffee & Phonics this weekend in Cape Maclear. Our cook is called Computer. Our driver is called Gift. A colleague of mine is called Massage. It’s true what they say - Malawians ARE the friendliest people. I have been made to feel so welcome my first week here. I have already had several invites to join people for Kuche Kuche (beer) and Shake Shake (a local beer that looks like porridge and comes in large milk cartons). My first impressions? [View Full Entry]

TravelBlog » Into_East_Africa

Into_East_Africa | Joanna Raeside | Travel Blog

Into_East_Africa - Joanna Raeside

Blogs & Travel Journals