A quick update with some photos

I recently talked to Tara back home in Canada (good friend of mine/ ex-girlfriend). And it struck me that I was so disconnected from life in Canada. I wondered, have I forgotten what it feels like to be back home? Maybe not.

I was in the TNM store the other day (one of the major cell phone providers in Malawi), and they had the satellite TV switched on. National Geographic channel. There was a show on called “Wild” that was about predators or something. The show was painting lions to be brutal predators with perpetual bloodlust. It reminded me of the pride of lions I saw in Zambia that were lying face up in the grass, the cubs fighting, the adults sunning themselves and having a nap, and a herd of impalas eating the grass right beside them. No bloodlust there. Then a commercial came on for a National Geographic special on blue whales.

The following thought crossed my mind: “TV is such bullshit. Look how they are portraying those lions! I’d kind of like to watch that blue whales documentary though.” Then it struck me that I found myself thinking in a way I hadn’t in almost 10 months. Critiquing television! I live in a village with no water or electricity and read by candle light each night. But it was a little scary how quickly I found myself back in my Canadian mindset. I bet when I come home it will feel like I’ve never left, notwithstanding all the craziness I have been through since I left Vancouver in October.

Life here is hard to describe in a blog post. I think part of the reason I haven’t been writing home too much is because I find it hard to know quite what to write about. I’m trying to get a better handle on what kinds of things people are interested in reading on my blog. I was putting the time into writing intriguing stories a while back but then find that my momentum was waning to be able to keep doing that. In any case I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I have stopped giving guitar lessons to the preacher because he doesn’t seem too interested anymore. Instead we’ve moved on to computer and English lessons. I had to iterate 4 times with the English lessons before I eventually figured out exactly what he was expecting. I always thought I was a pretty good teacher, but then I realized that teaching is hell of a lot easier when you are talking to people who have been to school already. Aphiri the preacher has never been to school! Not even nursery or standard 1 primary school. Nothing. When I tried to teach him English, I started with subjects – I = ndi, you = u/ mu, we = ti, and so on. Little did I realize that he was so uncomfortable with reading that my attempts to show him English words, even ones that were phonetically pronounceable with Chichewa spelling rules, he was unable to handle it.

So I’ve gone to basics. Last week I made a chart of English pronunciation rules with my best stab at how phonetically explain the letter pronunciation with Chichewa spelling. This is tough in any context, but imagine that Aphiri speaks zero English, has difficulty reading even in Chichewa, and has never been to school! It’s a challenge but I’m up to it.

As I mentioned in my last post, my friend Odala and I discovered a common interest the other day. We are both really interested in local Malawian leadership. My last blog post summarizes my thoughts on all that stuff. Anyway I’ve been meeting with him regularly to show him how to use the computer and how to make budgets and proposals. Yesterday I was helping him formulate mission and vision statements for his HIV/AIDS organization. It looks like their funder, World Alive, is going to move away pretty soon because they thing the club should become self-sufficient now. So I am helping Odala formulate some thoughts as to how to run a financially sustainable organization, and part of that is drafting a constitution with a mission statement. It’s coming along.

Here are some random photos that have nothing to do with the rest of this post:

This is me flanked by Tendai (left) and Florence (right). All smiles.

Garrett, Alynne, and Garrett's brother Graham went to Zambia to see the animals. Note the family of giraffes in the background.

A close up view of a praying mantis that was hanging out at the Freshwater Resource Centre. Every time I brought the camera up to him he tried to attach it and almost fell off the slippery metal thing we was clinging to.


"Jambulani! Jambulani!" I've now managed to bring this cry out each time I walk home now after having taken this photo. It means "Take a picture!" The kids seem to understand that I can't take their photo every day. These kids live in my village.

The view during the rainy season on the path from my home to the main road. I want to climb that mountain in the background one of these weekends...

Quite nice, isn't it?

This was from my trip to the Galufu orphanage. Freshwater drilled them a borehole a few years ago and occasionally Freshwater goes there to show "Water First", a film that was made about the organization by a film maker form the University of Albany. They loved it. I had planned to go there with my guitar to play for them, but I never got around to it.

That's me dancing with the kids. I was giving them piggy backs. A funny thing happened with one of the kids. Most of them were boys dancing, but this one girl wanted to dance, too. I tried to lift her on my back but since she was wearing a chitenge (a tradition cloth wrap that sort of looks like a skirt) I couldn't spread her legs properly to get her on my back. She just kept slipping off...

I look forward to hearing from you guys!

Lots of love,

~MK