jondhill

Mulanje Massif I want to first apologize for taking a couple weeks between blog posts - I’ve been rather busy with work and have failed to get around to writing this post. However, I promise that it is worth the wait. A couple of weeks ago I visited a mountain in Malawi named Mulanje Massif, which rests in the Shire Valley in the southern region of the country. Anyone who has seen/read the Lord of the Rings should recognize the word ‘Shire’ (pronounced Sheer-ah here), and rightly so - Mulanje is where an author named J.R.R. Tolkein became inspired to write ‘The Hobbit’; and for such an epic book, the landscape was perfectly fitting. Mulanje Massif is a rock formation that has been formed across millions (seemingly billions of years), and is an immense granite formation ... read more

Gule Wamkulu One - Happy Birthday Mom. Two - I've posted some new photos from a Gule Wamkulu dance that we were able to see yesterday. Gule Wamkulu is a secret society/cult in Malawi that shows how traditional life used to be, and is very entertaining to watch. (If you remember, a young child previously confused me for one of these dancers - you'll understand how fantastic that is by clicking the link below.) Instead of going on and on with words about the experience I think I'll let the photos give you a straight idea, and then maybe augment the photos with a description once I've better internalized yesterday. Gule Wamkulu Best, Jon... read more

What I'm Doing Here So I've realized that in my carelessness I've completely forgotten to explain in detail what I'm doing in Malawi this summer! I am extremely fortunate to kind of stumble into a great opportunity, paid by U of M research grants, to work on a field pilot survey of isolation and transportation effects of economic development. The study is put on by Michigan professors with help from some other international development organizations, which I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say so I'll leave it out. Basically what we're trying to do is measure the impact of providing a road to rural Malawians through a proxy - a free minbus that runs on a regular schedule - as a proxy for reducing transport costs, which in theory is what road access should do. ... read more

Chez Ntimbe and Lilongwe Night Life Last night, I had what will become one of the more memorable nights of my life. After a long, busy week of “work†– traveling around town in these little public transportation buses and asking questions to locals – L_ and I decided to go out in Lilongwe and enjoy ourselves. Two days ago we road a minbus with a guy from Pittsburgh named S_ who works for MSF, and decided to meet up with him at a bar in Old Town and hang out for a bit. We started off at a local hang out called Diplomats – maybe there were a few other white people (muzungu) in the bar, but mostly it had a natural feeling of a local bar where the older people go to watch soccer; ... read more

Arrival in Lilongwe I've arrived in Lilongwe this afternoon. I'll write a longer post later since my battery is dying, but I wanted to make sure everyone saw this. My phone number for the summer is +265 99 321 3084 - I get free incoming calls, so feel free to call whenever. ~ Jon... read more