Blogs from Malawi, Africa - page 30

Yesterday, 20 July 2011, President Bingu wa Mutharika was due to speak. In advance of this address regarding the nation’s problems, civil society (NGOs and other organizations) prepared to hold peaceful demonstrations. Rumors quickly spread that the demonstrations would be broken up by police, who would arrest protesters and use tear gas to disperse crowds. Tuesday, my boss came into my office to tell me not to come into work the next day. He expected chaos, and heard that the police would use live bullets. Even he planned to stay in his house all day. I arrived home to learn that the President had sanctioned the demonstrations, which pleasantly surprised everyone. Civil society leaders met with police commissioners that evening to discuss protest march routes and procedures. Everything was set for a day of peaceful demonstrations. ... read more

When your family doesn’t have consistent electricity (or any at all), let alone computers, what’s a kid to do? Have you seen the photos from Victorian England, where children run alongside a metal wheel or tire while carrying a stick, and use the stick to keep the wheel moving? I see the same game every time we venture out of Lilongwe. The kids seem as happy in the villages as they do in the Victorian pictures. Then yesterday, I was walking home from work and saw a group of young boys, maybe 8-10 years old, dragging something behind each them with string as they ran down the street. Turns out they had constructed cars and trucks from liter-sized rectangular juice boxes! It was the coolest thing. They had cut out pieces on top so they could ... read more

After checking in for our 3 beds in the dorm, we entered the room and were greeted by 3 girls who go to Michigan State. One is even from Livonia (I realize the wonder of this moment will only be appreciated by a few of you)! They’re here, along with 2 guys from New Brunswick (Canada, not New Jersey), for summer internships. Desperately hungry, as it was now approaching 2pm, Dave, Megan and I walked along the beach in search of food. We passed women doing laundry in the water, kids splashing around, but very few tourists. We saw a few as we passed Gecko Lounge, but for the most part, we only saw Malawians. We decided on Mgoza for lunch. They had an open area above the bar, kind of like the tree house where ... read more

Africa seems to have an amazing ability to make you feel very small and insignificant (although some may point out this doesn't take much with me). The endless desert, the huge blue skies, the thunder as the rains come, or being in the shadow of an elephant are just a few, and it happened again as I sat at the foot of Sapitwa on the plateau of Mount Mulanje - a lump of granite, rounded and cracked by the rain and the wind, with a plateau that rises 1000m vertically out of the plain, dotted by over 20 peaks that rise up again to a height of 3000m. As I sat in the light of the afternoon sun which was bathing the sunkissed and dry grass in a golden light, 10 peaks soared above and around ... read more

Last weekend was fantastic! Emma had meetings in Zomba (“big city” in the south) and Mangochi (right on Lake Malawi), and she took us with her. The drive took about 5 hours, but it was incredible. I finally saw the Africa that you see in the movies. For about 1/3 of the journey, Mozambique was to our right. Apparently the road was the border, so we had to stop at about 5 border town checkpoints. The landscape was incredible. You’d look to the right as the sun set behind the distant mountains and think it was the most amazing sight you’d ever seen, then you’d look left only to discover that the way the shadows and changing colors of the sky accentuated the hills and valleys of Malawi blew your mind. I tried to draw an ... read more