Blogs from Malawi, Africa - page 19

Thursday After a 12-hour truck drive and crossing the boarder from Tanzania to Malawi we have found ourselves at Chitimba beach. For a mere $10 we are staying in the ‘love boat.’ It is a bright red boat complete with port holes and springs to bounce up and down and it sits right on the beach. We are staying on Lake Malawi which is the 8th biggest lake in the world (it is 300k across.) Arriving slightly early (we have gained an hour by crossing the boarder) and after being crammed up in the truck all day I have just been for a jog on the beach whilst having a friendly local running alongside with me attempting to sell me key rings…After taking a shower which I will describe as invigorating I am now at the ... read more

After my last entry, I feel encouraged to write a bit of a lighter post. While life in Malawi is admittedly taxing, there are definitely a number of fun and adventurous things to do here as well! Alas, when I first arrived in Malawi about eight months ago, I would often see boys and young men trying to sell something on a stick to motorists passing by. At first I thought it was some sort of dried fruit...then I thought it was an upside-down chicken. It was not until I asked one of my Malawian colleagues that I discovered that it was actually mice-on-a-stick, a very popular 'snack' food in the southern region of Malawi. After learning about this Malawian culinary tradition, I became intrigued as to how it began. As it turns out, mice-on-a-stick has ... read more

phew! its good to be back online again! i feel like i havn't written in so long and i don't like it!!! We were very busy bee's whilst in Iringa - we shall miss it very much. after a ropey start getting robbed, and the stark realisation that the company that we were volunteering with lied extensively on their website (seriously, we were living in SUCH a sh*t hole!!), we genuinely grew to love that place. Neither of us had been overly impressed with Tanzania as a whole, (don't get me wrong - there are some incredible places and we have seen and done some once in a lifetime things, but as a country i guess it was slightly lacking in the homey, modest beauty that perhaps Uganda had) however, Iringa really did feel like a ... read more

Alas, after a very relaxing and much-needed break back in San Francisco, I have returned to Malawi to begin the second half of my post with Partners In Health. My time in SF was mostly spent finishing the last quarter of my Global Health program, which actually provided me with the perfect opportunity to dig deeper into some of the issues that I faced during my first four months here. For my "Communicable Diseases" class, for instance, I focused on the interaction between HIV and PCP (pneumocystis pneumonia) - a common co-infection in HIV+ children; and, in my "Social and Economic Determinants of Health" course, I analyzed the effectiveness of PIH's "POSER" program, which provides economic support to some of the hospital's most at-risk patients. While I had some mixed feelings about returning to Malawi for ... read more

Resumo: morando em um lugar que é a minha cara; Estudando; Criando novos projetos; Estou bem! hummm .. atrasada nos meus posts como sempre. Mas aqui estou para dizer que moro hoje em um lugar que é a minha cara! tranquilo, de frente para o Lago Malawi, comida caseira, jardim orgânico, banheiro ecologicamente correto, pessoas simples, alguns voluntários por perto ... mas preciso dizer que quando cheguei neste local vi esta mensagem "Hidden in our hearts is a longing–to live deeply, fully, and with purpose and joy; to know and be known, to be connected with another, and to make a difference in the world. In the dance of giving and receiving, we create ourselves, our community, and our world.". Assim é hoje e prentendo que assim o seja .. Giving & Receiving, creating myself, my ... read more