Blogs from Central, Malawi, Africa - page 22

So who went and got the book? Anna, remind me to buy you a Coke when I get home. I haven't actually written full journal entries in the last couple of days (I'll get caught up tonight, don't worry), but I have been spending a lot of time reading and thinking, so this entry is going to be a bit more free-form than the others. On Wednesday we got to hang out with the kids at My Brother's Keeper again. Edward, one of the staff members (mid 20s) dabbles in playwriting, and I have vol. 1 of my "Complete Works of William Shakespeare" set with me. We have decided to collaborate to condense and Malawianize "Taming of the Shrew" so that the students can put on a production for the students at Hillside, the other school ... read more

So... highlights from the last few days. 7-4-2007 "Forgotten 4th" Embassy row is a lot like fraternity row. We had to go to extend our visas, and I thought about stopping in on the Chinese and British just to say "hello." Anyway, we couldn't figure out why the gate was locked and unmanned. Enter our friendly Malawian worker from a nearby truck: "Ah, no one is working here today. It is a holiday, but only for the Americans." oops. Katie and I get called Africans over here for our tree-climbing ability. Met the 30 students at My Brother's Keeper music & movement school today. The kids at MBK seem to be a lot more open and self-confident than the kids at Hillside. Today made it clear that our experiences at the two schools will be quite ... read more

Again, writing from journal. After my last post, I realized that I really goofed Achebe's character name... I think it was actually Okonkwo. 7/2 Exhausted, but it's only 9:30 p.m. Great Mississippi-style breakfast prepared by Mr. Banda and Mr. Blessing (real name... so cool!). Fried eggs, sausage, buttered toast, and mixed fruit jam. We have each meal with Jerome and Tarrita. Got to change money and visit an internet cafe in "City Center" today. All locations are given by area number and then have some neighborhood name as well, so "City Center" is the area where a lot of gov't buildings and banks are located. Afterwards, we went to Hillside school on the outskirts of the city. Mission Africa, the organization hosting us and headed by Mississippians Chris and Connie Taylor, got involved with the school ... read more

url='/Videos/4089.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/4089.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Congolese dancingurl='/Videos/4091.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/4091.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'And I have no rhythm... This past week was my last working week this summer which is totally nuts! On Tuesday I gave a 3-hour (!) workshop to the camp's teachers on children's rights. There were about thirty of them, some Malawian and some refugees. I studied children's rights last fall but we focused entirely on U.S. law so I had to spend some time last weekend reviewing the international law! It went really well and it was as educational for me as for them, I think. The teachers really payed attention in the beginning (the boring part) and then when we broke into groups to start looking at real-life situations they all found very creative ways of appl... read more

While in Lilongwe, I stay at the Sunbird Lilongwe Hotel. Don't be fooled, it is not the Le Meridian as advertised on Expedia. They pulled out some time ago when Malawi nationalized hotel chains and called them Sunbird or something like that. It's not really clear to me what exactly happened… In any case, following my horrible cab ride, I now have a driver arranged through Africare or the hotel. So the manager of the hotel and I have become friends, as I believe it is some relative of his that chauffeurs me around. When he sees me, the manager, he asks if I need transportation for the day. Then we go into his office and he makes a call. All I know is I have the guy's number saved in my phone under "Driver, Mr.". ... read more