paradise by the starboard light

hey everyone! i'm still having a wonderful time here in Malawi!! after my last update i performed two more dives (to 30m) and explored a shipwreck and an underwater canyon ... amazing experiences both. after a total of eight nights in Cape Maclear, we hopped in the back of a pickup truck (a popular mode of transport here) and were taken to Monkey Bay, where we joined some of our new friends on a 'boat cruise' up Lake Malawi.

our group was initially split between two destinations, but we decided that we'd be crazy not to stick together a little longer ... and so ten of us spent the next few days as the only residents of a little resort on Likoma Island, just a few kilometres from Mozambique. what a paradise, this place!

after a night of star-gazing and a wonderful sleep, i woke up in a darling thatch-roofed hut, my window open to a beautiful sandy beach, a refreshing breeze, crystal clear water, and the shining sun. we spent the next days swimming, snorkeling, and exploring the island, while the evenings continued to bless us with skies that inspired both conversation and introspection.

on Tuesday we said a sad farewell and jumped back on the boat for our journey back south. i followed Gord to the capital city of Lilongwe to say our final goodbyes, and checked into a camp outside of town. this morning two of my close friends arrived, two more will arrive this afternoon, and tomorrow we'll all set off for a safari in Zambia ... needless to say, i'm extremely excited!

i have one more week of travel and adventure before settling down to volunteer after Easter. this will be a much different experience, but i'm looking forward to the cultural exchanges it will provide, as well as the opportunitiy to make a bitofa difference to this country which has been so good to me.

that's it for now. i hope you continue to live, learn, and love, and i look forward to hearing from you. ciao for niao!

blog prob

hey everyone! i haven't been able to access my blog again until now (something about the computers here not having Java) but i'm having a great time!

we've been in a place called Cape Maclear for the past week; a beautiful little resort town on the south coast of Lake Malawi. it's a little piece of paradise really: sandy beaches, sunny skies, and the clearest water. i've obtained my Scuba diving certification and have been swimming with the fishies for the past four days. tomorrow i'll get my deep diving cert and explore a sunken shipwreck. what an amazing experience it's been!

before this we were in Liwonde National Park. we did walking and canoeing safaris and saw baboons, monkeys, warthogs, water bucks and impallas. while in the canoe we were surrounded by seven hippos playing with each other ... very cool!

and before that we climbed the Mulanje Massif, a huge mountain here in the south of Malawi. it was really tough, but we enjoyed the challenge and the reward of some great views.

the weather has been amazing as well. we arrived during rainy season, but that just meant a one-hour rain storm each day. now we've suddenly transitioned into the dry season and it hasn't rained in a week! :D

okay, so now we're off to the nearest city to use the bank. next we'll hop on a boat and travel up the lake to our next destination.

i miss you all and i'll write more when i get a good connection again. ciao!

international flavour

After meeting at the airport, Gord and I took a taxi into Lilongwe and checked into our hotel, a nice little place with much-appreciated mosquito nets over the beds and an en-suite bathroom. As we left the hotel to do some chores (book our bus for the next day, get some local currency) we were immediately inundated with requests to check out the local merchants’ wares. As uncomfortable as this can be, the people here are extremely nice ... “not now, thanks” usually shoos them away, which is more than you can expect as a westerner in most poorer countries.

We then gave a call to friends of a friend of Gord’s (Melissa, Shawn, and their son Wiley) who are Canadians working here in Malawi; she as an environmentalist helping farming associations to organize, he as an Emergency Aid worker who’s seen action in Afghanistan and Pakistan and spends his spare time making furniture out of metal and wood ... great people leading interesting and inspirational lives! And our first African experience together: pizza and mini-golf! Very ironic, but a lot of fun. Afterward they took us to a neat little local bar where we had a coupla beers before heading to their house for conversation and a few more.

Yesterday we went for a swim at Melissa and Shawn’s social club (the Portuguese Society of Malawi) before hopping on a bus south to Blantyre. We were met by Gord’s friends Alma and Leo and driven to Malamulo, the missionary hospital where I will be volunteering at the end of the month. We settled into our guest house (complete with an African bee nest in one room and no running water) were we sweat the night away trying to sleep before waking at the crack of dawn to get a drive back into town. Today we grabbed breakfast at a café with a breathtaking view of the surrounding mountains and did a little shopping. I picked up a cheap GSM cell phone for my international travels this year and had a nice surprise when I saw my new phone number: +265 8738 485 ... 8738 were my digits back in Toronto and spell the word TREV! What an amazing coincidence, eh?! Anyway, feel free to call and/or text ... receiving either is free for me. :) ... oh, and for those who don't know how to dial overseas, in Canada it's 011 265 8738 485

This afternoon we met up with Alma and her friend Rohit and were treated to a full homemade Indian lunch at his family’s house ... wonderful food, and equally wonderful people. So in short, everything is fabulous and could not have come together any smoother.

taking flight

flying over Africa, i consider what has passed and what is to come. i didn’t sleep a wink tonight, but feel fortunate that my flights have (so far) been on time ... if i arrive safely AND with my bags i’ll consider myself lucky despite my weariness

the Cursive concert the other night was excellent! a hundred of us in a cool little venue in Camden, Michael and i met some Oxford-Americans and went with them to his friend’s reggae party in Brixton. quite the scene (less the hour-long tube ride and hour-long walk through the suburbs to get there.) i scored some shizzle from some Rastafarians while Michael tried (and repeatedly failed) to lose at pool and not get our asses kicked

Friday night Déia and i went out with my old friends Alex and Cello and her Spanish cousins. a nice dinner at Waggamama with some sake to boot

and now i’m flying over Africa, considering what is to come. (some new experiences to share quickly: all of the flight information is in English and Swahili, which is a first for me; and the entire crew on this Kenya Airways flight is, naturally, black ... nothing revolutionary, just another first for me)

i’m trying to allow my reality of freedom to calm me ... there is nowhere i NEED to be ... nothing i NEED to do ... ever again?! it still hasn’t quite hit me ... nor has the fact that i’m landing in Nairobi in 30 minutes

p.s. i arrived safely, on time, and with my bags ... as did Gord twenty minutes later! :)

freedom writer ...

sitting in a wander-found park, in the middle of an ancient cemetery, having randomly passed the graves of William Blake and Daniel Defoe, i open my notebook to write about the LACK of freedom which defined my first two days of independence, and find an open internet connection as a flock of birds flies over my head .... ah, the irony

my career a la IBM officially ended on Friday, and so Monday was to be my first taste of this new phase of life. it was spent in:
- a taxi
- an airport
- a small pressurized tube
- another airport
- a derelict subway car, and
- the dark windy streets of a strange city
... and so i eagerly awaited my first 'real' day of freedom

i woke on Tuesday full of high hopes and meagre expectations: a coffee and sandwich out about town? a trip to the market? a nice walk perhaps? i gathered the wherewithal to have a shower and dress, and searched the apartment for the key which i had been told was “on the kitchen counter” waiting for me .... no apartment key; no possibility of going out. i spent the afternoon trapped in Déia's tiny flat and read in bed (that said, i'm loving my new book; if you haven't read anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez then you are truly missing out)

i am happy to announce, however, that i have since spread my wings and am feeling quite free thankyouverymuch: on Tuesday night we went out to a nice Spanish bar for beers with friends, on Wednesday i toured the Victoria & Albert Museum (and particularly enjoyed the new exhibit on Islamic art and design), and tonight i’m off to a small club in Camden Town to see one of my favourite bands: Cursive

all is well on the Eastern front. take care my love!