chinadoc

i just watched the brilliant (Canadian) documentary Manufactured Landscapes and was absolutely mesmerized throughout. it also brought back vivid memories of my time in China and the sheer scale of growth and urbanization i witnessed outside of Shanghai

kiwi funfacts

for those who've never been, here are some interesting / unique facts about New Zealand:

• kiwis get their name not from kiwi fruit, but from a rare nocturnal flightless bird that exists only here


• the most popular kiwi expression is "sweet as!" (e.g. "i won the lottery" "sweet as!") it only took me a week to stop waiting for the rest of the sentence ... sweet as what?!


• meat raffles! they are astonishingly commonplace (after sporting events, at work functions, etc.) weird!


• deer are raised as cattle here for their meat, aka venison (a paddock of deer is a very strange sight for a Canadian)


• bed linens are called Manchester (e.g. "50% off all Manchester, this week only")


• El Camino-style vehicles (car-trucks) are still popular and are referred to as "utes"


• corrugated aluminum siding is somehow considered a stylish option for accenting one's home


• the most popular sport for women is net ball, which is basketball without dribbling or backboards ... and when someone tries to shoot you aren't even allowed allowed to try to block them (read: boring!)


• speaking of women, they outnumber men 2:1 (this sounds like it would work in men's favour, but, no offence ladies, there are very few lookers)


• continuing with women (i'm not obsessing, i swear) New Zealand was one of the first nations in the world to allow them to vote, way back in 1893!

sweet as

hey'all! yes, i am a bad, bad friend ... i've stayed offline for most of my journey thus far .... but i must admit that it's been a rather refreshing change. anyway, i did manage to post some pics on facebook, and a picture says a thousand words, right?! ;)

i've had a blast in New Zealand though, and will now attempt to update ye on some of my adventures to date:

my first week was spent in and around Christchurch catching up with my sis and Andrew. this was a nice relaxing start to my vacation (can i still call it a vacation when i've been traveling most of the year?! i'm not sure about that (would you believe in heaven if heaven was all you had?)) anywho, Carrie is doing really well (i've never seen her so happy, in fact) and regular baby kicks remind us all that there's another person in the room who wants some attention too!

next i ventured into the countryside to spend a short week out at Andrew's family's sheep farm and to spend time with his (and my new) family. being a city boy, there were plenty of new experiences to be had, include corralling sheep and cows, driving ATVs and tractors, and a lot of opening and closing of paddock gates! (i now consider myself an expert at the latter)

family catch-ups complete, i began my exploration of the country with a tour of the south island. instead of hiring a car or taking individual buses and planning each day out myself, i decided to put the grunt work in someone else's hands and book one of those hop-on hop-off bus tours. two weeks in, i don't regret that decision at all. i've met some great people and did most of the south island circuit with the same cool group (a nice mix of young irish, brits, and canadians)

highlights of the south island tour included:

• swimming with wild seals in Kaikoura (they were so inquisitive and cute ... came within inches of me on multiple occasions!)
• sea kayaking and tramping in Abel Tasman national park
• spending a day walking around and exploring the Franz Josef glacier (i couldn't believe the access we had: the guide took us into tight crevasses and everything!)
• jumping out of a plane from 12,000 feet and living to tell the story (i've wanted to do this for quite some time, and wasn't disappointed in the least ... the smile didn't fade from my face for days!)
• relaxing and partying in the beautiful towns of Wanaka and Queenstown (i'm going back with the family after Christmas)

overall, i've been extremely fortunate: great people, wonderful adventures, and (dare i rub it in) beautiful summer weather! :)

yesterday i took the ferry to the north island and am currently spending a bit of down time (from the rigors of bus travel) in the lovely city of Wellington. next is a trip to Auckland, where i'll hop on a bus tour to further explore the north.

well that's my four dollars worth (everything, including internet access, is rather pricey here.) there are more facebook pics to come when i get back to Christchurch for Christmas (that's alotta Christ, eh?!) and i'll try to blog more in the meantime.

love you!

the NZ plan

Nov
a week in Christchurch with my sis and bro-in-law
a week working on the family sheep farm

Dec
a three-week solo tour of the country, ending in Auckland
back to Christchurch, mom arrives
Christmas holiday with the family
a family trip to Queenstown

Jan
hang with my sis and mom (and aunt, and mom's friends)
rock climbing, more rafting and surfing
wait for my niece to be born :)

Feb
back home on the 12th

ah, sweet solitude

after three months in crazy Africa and two weeks in hectic London, yesterday was exactly what i needed: some time in the quiet English countryside and a hike through the striking wilderness of Dartmoor

sidenote: the little inn where i dined was built in 1329 .... Oliver Cromwell once stayed there!

epilogue

ninety-nine days since my departure from Toronto, over a hundred since my departure from my job. it’s fruitless to consider how the time itself ‘feels’ to me (“it seems like yesterday that i was having hot showers in my cozy apartment!” v. “it feels like i haven’t had a soothing bath in ages!”) ... but what an experience so far:
my first glimpse of Africa
the first glimpse of my continuing freedom!

one thing that has solidified itself in my thinking, my feeling, and my overall belief system is my confidence in life itself; how everything works out wonderfully if only i listen to and follow my heart (my instincts, my path, my callitwhatyouwill) for where has life led me in the past three months that i have not wanted or needed to go?!

my travels around Malawi led me to meet an assortment of beautiful and inspiring people, and to experience many equally beautiful places.

my meeting V and having everything I knew to be right re-enforced and emphasized.

my decision to come to Malamulo not knowing how i would contribute, and the ‘coincidence’ that what they precisely needed from a volunteer was IT help.

my frustration leading me to ask for further purpose and social interaction, both of which were presented to me immediately upon my asking

my want of things to do leading to the incorporation of yoga and alexander (cognitive therapy for the body) into my daily routine.

my overspending ways coinciding with an unexpected windfall of cash from stock options, and this in tern coinciding with the need for loans to the hospital and my friend Léo.

and so i’m off to the UK on Thursday ... more updates from there, i’m sure! ;)

happy happy

oh my, i have sounded a tad disheartened lately, haven’t i?! (the reassuring e-mails telling me to ‘hang in there’ were a tip off! hehe) no, i’ve not come unhinged yet! ... this year. and, i should mention, i hated call-in shows just as much at home ;)

let me counterbalance my projected dis-ease with a list of recent positives; for all of our sakes:

Jesman served me chicken last week! (no, i’m not being facetious ... okay, maybe a bit)

he entered the kitchen one afternoon with a recently plucked bird:
“oh Jesman, is that for me?!”
laughing: “oh no ... you don’t eat chicken”
ummm: “oh yes i do ... i don’t eat beef or pork, but i eat birds”
still laughing politely (it’s his way): “oh oh oh, i thought you were a vegetarian?!”
little-smelly-fish: “no, no. i love chicken! i actually eat fish too, but i don’t like it very much”

and so i was served chicken for lunch. :)


i bought a cute little Nokia phone for my travels (hence my phone number here.) it’s GSM, so i’m going to get a new pay-as-you-go SIM card in the UK, another when i’m home in T. in August, and one in NZ. i loved that i could buy a cheap, simple, sturdy phone here without having to pay for a camera, MP3 player or colour screen, none of which i need.


when people burn leaves here (which is every day at this time of year) the smoke smells a bit like marijuana ... which is quite plentiful here anyway. speaking of sin, Malawi Gin is very inexpensive and quite satisfactory.


and speaking of sin once more, i’ve a funny little story:
when Gord and i first arrived at Malamulo, one of the first things asked us by one of the Seventh Day Adventist missionary doctors was: “did you bring prophylactics?” we just STARED at each other in bewilderment .... until she started naming off anti-malaria drugs! (any kind of ‘protection’ is a prophylactic to a doctor, apparently! ha)


i am cared for like a son by my friends Yvonne and Léo. she is a doctor (the one quoted above, in fact) and he’s the head of maintenance. they’re from Mexico and are very cute. they also have two dogs (‘dingo’ and ‘fortuna’) who i love, and a cat who loves me ... hehe


i have a nice view out of my front window just now: the red-brick foundations of my balcony, flowers blossoming in my garden (poinsettias, pink ones, and something that looks like a more-fully-developed baby’s breath), the sunset hitting the trees, and then the hazy valley off in the distance and the orange-to-blue late afternoon sky .... ah me


i have been reading like a ... well, like a thing that reads a lot, as you might have noticed from the ever-changing right panel of my blog. i’ve also used my plentiful time to incorporate yoga and the alexander technique into my daily routine (i’ve recorded set practices for myself in GarageBand, background music and all! 8) i try to exercise daily as well, but my no-protein diet doesn’t allow me to show it very well

a trilogy of miscentry ... fin

i now know what it feels like to be a celebrity. everyone here STARES at me constantly, and those who speak English inevitably want to ‘be my friend’

if the new American Dream is to win the lottery (which I assert it is), then the new African Dream is to befriend a Westerner who will magically transport them away from here and pay for a life of luxury in Europe or America .... or maybe i’m becoming cynical

Africans love sugar ... even crisps (potato chips) are sweet and have added sugar. ‘glucose’ cookies are also quite popular. on a related note, cooking oil is a cook’s best friend ... fried = deep fried .. and so fried eggs look like they’ve been tempura-battered

there are lizards (geckos?) EVERYWHERE ... in my house, on my house, running past my house ....

one of my evening pastimes (especially since i ran out of videos to watch on my laptop) is listening to the BBC World Service on my little radio. unfortunately, the evening hours are occupied by the programs World, Have Your Say, and Africa, Have Your Say (call-in shows.) a quick note to the world: have your say with your friends please, not on my radio! you are completely biased, know very little about the world at large, and never think your arguments through

[deep breath]

do i sound negative? i hope not .... at the same time, i’m looking forward to returning to civilization in three weeks! :)

Mm2 / count. cont.

i sleep under a insecticide-treated mosquito net every night. they are the most cost-effective non-medical method of preventing malaria, and yet most Africans can’t afford them (they are C$7.00 here)

roosters don’t only crow when the sun comes up (surprise, surprise, city dwellers!!) ... that said, they never miss a sunrise because they basically crow 24 / 7 [twitch]

poinsettias bloom in May in Malawi ... in my garden

African B.O. is very .. ‘oniony’

traffic lights are called 'robots' in sourthern Africa (???)

P.S. “two wrongs don’t make a right ... but three lefts do!” <= did i invent this quote? *cough* “chip monk”

Malawi miscentry

there are certain things to which i have become accustomed, which will no doubt be of interest to those who have not visited Malawi (or Africa in general):

the women of Africa do indeed carry everything on their heads. the most curious items i’ve seen balanced on a woman’s head to date are:
- an unopened umbrella (balanced horizontally, that is)
- a tea pot (the song comes to mind: “i’m a little tea pot short and stout ...”)
- a purse strap, the purse hanging behind the head (it's the new fashion, ladies!)
more usual items include buckets of water or fruit, bunches of firewood, and sacks of grain.

speaking of women, it quickly becomes apparent to any visitor that they do most of the work here. women are in charge of taking care of the children (in fact, it’s seldom that you’ll see a fertile-aged woman without a child strapped to her back), fetching the water, collecting the firewood, washing (and making) the clothes, cleaning the hut, and on and on. their busyness is so marked that you almost never see a woman sitting still unless she is behind a food stand. the men on the other hand? well, they ... hmmm .... stand around with other men, sit around with other men, drink beer, eat sugar cane ... what else .... annoy tourists with their pleas for money?! in all fairness, being a man here is no doubt frustrating; they are in charge of ‘providing for the household’, and with unemployment so high it seems they are pathetically reduced to the above activities.

the worst job in Malawi: making gravel. driving in to town you see dozens of men sitting on the side of the road beside a pile of rocks. they sit there all day banging larger rocks together to make smaller rocks. their payment: 35 cents per bucket of gravel! one hopes that they manage to produce multiple buckets in a day.

the main form of transportation here is the ‘mini-bus’. these are mini-van-sized vehicles astoundedly packed with four or five rows of seats. a mini-bus never leaves for it’s destination until it is completely full ... ‘completely full’ means at least four people stuffed into each row, with the conductor either sitting on someone’s lap or precariously hanging out the window. my record for ‘most crammed mini-bus’: 27 people, with their belongings! typical belongings include live chickens (“excuse me ma’am, but your chicken is pecking at my foot”), boxes of day-old chicks (cute, until you realize that they are a delicacy), and sacks of grain.

have you noticed the references to ‘sacks of grain’? the main food staple here is called nsima. it’s made of corn flour and water, has the consistency of five-day-old instant mashed potatoes, and tastes like ... paper? the locals eat it almost exclusively, sometimes with ‘relish’ (fried, chopped plant leaves) for vitamins and beans for protein. fish is for rich people (tiny, dried fish which smell terrible), chicken is for very rich people, and beef is for foreigners (there is no pork here, likely due to the considerable muslim and seventh-day adventist populations.) another delicacy: mice, roasted over an open fire (most of the hair is singed off ... and everything except the tail is consumed!)

having told Jesman (my cook) that i’m not a fan of nsima or tiny-smelly-fish, my typical meal consists of rice, beans, and ‘relish’ ... as a result, i’ve taken to carrying a bottle of spicy sauce with me everywhere! still, i can’t complain; Jesman makes me special treats every now and again including pasta, pizza, and chips. if there’s a visitor he will even make muffins or cake. these are such a rarity here, however, that they have not yet invented different flavours of cake! as such, i quietly joke with my friends when we see that we have ‘muffin-flavoured muffins’ or ‘cake-flavoured cake’ for dessert.

and lastly: names! i am terrible at remembering peoples’ last names here as they all sound the same to me. for example, i work with misters Kuyenda, Chiwanda, and Katumbi. some have African first names, but many have taken on highly proper British names such as Evans, Wales, and Pius ... speaking broken English with a guy named Wales is almost as funny as hearing a French guy rap! hehe. some others have taken on rather humorous English names like Friday and Happy (more about Happy, later)

oh, and one more thing: i remarked to Andréa last month that “Malawi is like [my cousin] Chris. time does not work here!” at present i am waiting for a friend who agreed to come by my place at 10am ... it’s already past 11:30. i’ve also learned that “tomorrow” actually just means “not today”, and one of the doctors mused that she was once called in for an “emergency” only to have the patient saunter in four hours later!

my Malawian friend just arrived and i tried to explain to him that for Westerners, 10am means 10am, not 12pm, or “whenever you get around to it.” .... i did not mention Chris. ;)

une annee sans lumiere

on Sunday the president came .. and so on Saturday morning there was an explosion.

i awoke to silence .... well, except for the rooster crowing and the pheasants squawking outside my window. [flick] no lights. no electricity. no hot water. nothing unusual. i dressed and left the house, and ran into the pastor’s wife:

“cooking oil ... they did it for the cooking oil! did you hear the explosion this morning?”
“no, what happened?”
“someone stole the oil from the transformer and it exploded. we’ll be without electricity for a year! they took the oil to fry chips to sell during the president’s visit.”

the president came yesterday. thousands attended. some ate chips. some of the same will arrive at the hospital today with food poisoning ... gawd knows what’s in transformer oil

when the power’s out
in the heart of man
take it from your heart
put it in your hand

denominations ...

one thing that has baffled me and my fellow travelers is the monetary denominations in Malawi. the smallest ‘paper money’ bill is 5 Kwacha … about 4 Cents Canadian. this doesn’t present too many problems; you get rid of these as tips or save up for a Coke (40 K). the bigger issue is that the largest bill in the country is 500 Kwacha, or C$4. this is a huge problem when you’re trying to pay for something expensive, or when you’re not going to see a bank again for a while. for example, when Gord and i stayed in Cape Maclear for eight days, we ran out of cash and had to do a day trip to the nearest city to hit a bank. i personally had to withdraw 60,000 Kwacha to pay for my Scuba course, my bar tab, and my future days of travel out in the Lake. with only 500 Kwacha bills to work with, i had one-hundred and twenty bills in my pockets for the drive back, each pocket bursting!

now add to this the fact that most transactions in Malawi use cash; Visa is almost never accepted, and bank transfers don’t seem to exist yet for the average consumer.

on Friday, my colleague Dr. Marana bought a used car. the price: 1.2 million Kwacha (C$10,000). the method of payment: cash, of course! since the exchange rate she was quoted at the bank was terrible, we drove to ‘see a guy’. we pulled up to his hardware store and were invited to sit with him at a desk behind the counter.

“how can i help you, my friends?”

“i need 1.2 million Kwacha, cash. i have a personal cheque”

“no problem, no problem” ...

rates where negotiated, an international account transfer replaced the cheque, and we were taken upstairs to the man’s office. [THUNK] “one-hundred thousand” [THUNK] “two-hundred thousand” [THUD] “three-hundred thousand” .... 1.2 million Kwacha handed to us in a plastic bag! it filled the plastic bag. it was a rather large bag. we nervously placed the bag in a backpack and made our way to the location chosen for the transaction: a shopping mall parking lot. the seller pulled up, entered out mini-van, the bag was displayed, and the swap made. it totally felt like a drug deal!

as a side note, i went to the post office today to mail a small package to Germany. the cost: 1280 Kwacha. the stamps i received: twelve 100 Kwacha stamps, one 50 Kwacha stamp, seven 4 Kwacha stamps, and four 1 Kwacha stamps ... the front of the package was completely covered, and so the rest had to be put on the back! ha

i, T

hello my fiends! i've been at the hospital for only a week now, but already my to-do list is months long. so far, the administration would like me to:

• network their computers
• digitize their patient records in a central database
• implement a computerized inventory control system to track medicine throughout the hospital
• connect them to the internet
• stay longer than June 7 to get all of this done!

i'm also giving Excel lessons and working with a couple of American volunteers to finish some proposals for funding ... busy busy! still, i'm so glad that i've found some needs which i can address, even if i get through only half of them during my time here

i’m on a mission / you betta just listen ...

i arrived at the Malamulo Mission (where i will be volunteering) last night. The mission was established outside of the city of Blantyre by the Seventh Day Adventist Church more than 100 years ago (i’m still researching Seventh Day Adventism (like, what the heck happened on the seventh day? i thought god rested!) but so far i’ve figured out that they are Christian, their Sabbath is on Saturday, and they don’t dance, drink, or wear jewelry ... i’ll let you know what else is involved as i interact a bit more. ;)

it's a self-contained community out in the middle of a rural area, surrounded by rolling hills and tea plantations. it has a free hospital, a nursing college, a secondary school, a primary school, and, of course, a printing press?! i'm one of only six wuzungu (white people) in a community of thousands, so i've gotten used to being stared at everywhere i go. still, the children are very cute and always wave and shout "wuzungu!" at me as i pass .. ha!

i'll be living in a house on campus for the next two months. it's a cute little place with a large bedroom and living room, a kitchen (although my meals will be prepared for me at the 'guest house' down the street), a front terrace, and a sweet little cobblestone courtyard. this being africa, the electricity and water are intermittent so i've gotten used to doing without when necessary. i'm also used to the 'african shower', which involves crouching in a tub and splashing water over yourself as best you can.

i'm not sure exactly what my volunteering will entail, but so far i've been asked to co-write a proposal to U.S. Aid for some funding. i'm really happy about this, as i've written dozens of proposals in the past, and this one will be much more fulfilling than my previous efforts (e.g. to implement millions of dollars worth of software so that one corporation can more easily take over another)

there is no internet access at the mission, so my e-mails and blog entries will mostly be written during the week on my laptop, then sent from internet cafes in the city. i hope to do this each week. okay, i'm off now to shop for supplies for my house (coffee!!) i love hearing news from home, so please continue to write when you can. love you!

afriggin' lion safari

WOW! i just returned from a three-day trip to South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. we saw the most amazing assortment of animals.

first was a day safari. we hopped in our vehicle and after driving only 30 metres (from the hut where i was sleeping!) we saw two giraffes. then we pulled out of the camp and onto the main road to find a huge elephant sleeping under a tree at the side of the road! minutes later we were in the park and the real extravaganza began: a dozen hippos having a bath, an elephant mother and baby grazing on the tall grass, a group of giraffes munching on some trees, a herd of zebra taking a rest ... simply breathtaking! on the drive back to the camp we were confronted by a huge bull elephant walking down the middle of the road towards us. he walked right up to our truck before diverging to the side of the road as we revved our engine (i managed to capture a video of that one; a must-see when i get home!)

that same evening we set off on a night safari, which was equally spectacular. first we saw a herd of elephants walking into the bush, while one stood guard and another rolled around in the dirt to cool off. after a beautiful sunset we drove around with a spotter trying to find some of the elusive nocturnal cats. after a fair bit of tracking, we heard a pair of lions attacking a buffalo just metres to our left, and turned the spotlight in time to catch some of the action (the lions were not successful, and were rather peeved that we disturbed their hunt.) the word 'intense' does not adequatly describe these few minutes.

and now i'm back in Lilongwe for a coupla days before heading down south on Thursday morning. take care all!

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.

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!

zed

Malawi is surrounded by the "z" countries of southern Africa: