Blogs from Central, Malawi, Africa - page 23

Arriving in Malawi was the scariest thing of my life. And I mean terrifying. The cab driver kept stopping on the side of the road next to groups of 20-something men. I finally told him that my colleague was waiting for me at the hotel and if I wasn't there in 5 minutes, he'd call the police. And then I took out my totally useless cell phone because I didn't have a Malawi SIM card yet and put it on my lap like I was poised to call the police. Not that I had a clue what the number was anyway… But that's beside the point. I get to the hotel and they tell me it's too dangerous to go out. It's 3pm in the afternoon at this point. I'm like, what the heck have I ... read more

url='/Videos/3622.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3622.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Mada scooping nsima Well to give you a quick update about the case of Sourire, the immigration official decided to reopen her case. She swore up and down that it had nothing to do with the pressure that had been brought to bear by us and others, claiming rather that she had been apprised of “new information.” But there was no new information—except the information in Sourire’s file which the official had neglected to read before interviewing her. But as my boss explained to me, a large part of being a lawyer is knowing how to remain deferential even after you prove someone wrong. On Saturday I came into the office to do some work online (we only get internet after hours and on weekends!), and then I walked into town with one of ... read more

url='/Videos/3582.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3582.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Food stalls at Dzaleka Well I confronted my first real challenge here in a (near-)attorney capacity. Today a group of fifteen students who have been approved for a program to study abroad in a Western country had their interviews with the country’s immigration official to determine whether they would gain refugee status there. No student approved by the program has ever been rejected by the country’s immigration before, but to our great surprise a student from Rwanda I’ll call Sourire—whose refugee status has been recognized both by Malawi and UNHCR—was turned down. I went with a colleague to meet with the immigration official to try and determine what happened and whether she might appeal. The official was a nightmare. She couldn’t discuss individual cases, she initially said, ... read more

Am at Lilongwe now.. the capital of Malawi.. Internet's ok.. about 400 malawi qwachas / hr (1USD=145malkwacha) Just spent 4 days a long Lake Malawi.. not too bad.. Lake Malawi is a pretty nice lake.. it's kind of amazing to see such a big body of water.. with crashing waves.. and it does not taste salty!! Basically did some kayaking... swimming against the waves.. and did my first freshwater altitude (475m above sealevel only) dive! whoo.. something new to add in my dive log.. basically just saw a lot of boulders.. and this species of fish called chiclids or something.. they lay eggs and fertilize them in mouth.. and when fish hatch, they just swim out of mummy's mouth.. too bad didn't get to see this... visibility is bad at only 5-8m.. still enjoy saltwater ... read more

url='/Videos/3450.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3450.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Mwezi marking Greg's laptop Thursday I spent another day meeting with Mike all day, since it would probably be our last office day before his departure (Friday is a camp day). In the afternoon we had a birthday party for the outgoing country director, who is moving on to work with refugees on the U.S.-Mexican border. One of the Malawian teachers at the camp, Isaiah, brought music he had composed, and the Malawian women on staff demonstrated some traditional Malawian dancing. Us mzungu women ended up being pressured into trying it out, which was a disaster. As someone pointed out, you need to have African hardware (for lack of a better euphemism) to dance like that! Every Thursday Matt hosts a movie night at our house which usually attracts 25-30 expats (he actually lug ... read more