Escorts

Hey all,

Sorry it’s been such a long time since I blogged. I just got back from a few days of vacation in Nkhata Bay (which is amazing, I’ll blog about it a bit later) for some very much needed thinking and chilling time. I am not very good at taking that kind of time so I it was good that my boss and coach gave me an ultimatum – take a vacation after finishing at Freshwater or be fired!

I am now done at Freshwater, and I am relieved about that. I won’t go into why on here, but we can also chat about it in person some day when we discuss what I think volunteers should and should not be doing with development implementing NGOs, and what those NGOs should be doing, if anything.

I wanted to introduce you to a few friends of mine from the village. Their names are Black, Coffee, and Jackson. They are dogs, and their names are actually quite unconventional as dogs’ names go. Usually, when you meet a dog or a cat, its name will be “dog” or “cat”. Not to far fetched I guess given that English is a foreign language here – it’s like someone from BC naming their dog “chien”, which is actually a pretty lame name but is at least descriptive and somewhat hilarious.

When I first arrived in Malawi, my whole EWB sending group was exposed to a rabid puppy named Jambo. We didn’t know he was rabid, so of course most of us cuddled up with him. Someone from the team was even bitten, and I had quite a bit of oral-salival contamination for reasons I won’t disclose. While we were all told not to touch any dogs while in Malawi before we got here, guest house dogs are supposed to be vaccinated so everyone figured it was fine.

Anyways, since that incident, I have tried to steer clear of dogs a bit more than I usually would (and I usually don’t steer clear of dogs at all). But a few months ago, I caved in with the dogs that live at home and started playing with them a bit. Even since then, Black has been getting very excited whenever I come home, jumping and whining like crazy.

And, for the last while in the mornings, when I leave for work and happen to run into the dogs on my way out, I get a nice escort to work. It’s been quite pleasant, but unfortunately is now all over because I am finished at Freshwater…

Here are some photos of my intrepid escorts –

All three of my morning followers.

Coffee’s puppy dog face.

Black giving me that look.


Jackson the leader puffing out her chest.

Thieves!

The Freshwater gate is closed. Time to go home.

Thanks for reading,

~Mike