Returning Home

I just returned from my vacation to Malawi a couple of days ago. Four of us traveled to Cape Maclear to spend 4 or so nights just laying on the beach of Lake Malawi. It was a very nice and relatively cheap vacation that basically consisted of drinking, swimming, eating, and lying around. Not that I lead a high-stress life in the village or anything, but it's nice to get away for a spell to return to anonymity. The really great part of the vacation is that I esentially spent $150 for transport, food, and beverage for the 5 days that I was in Malawi.

After leaving Malawi I spent a couple of nights in Lusaka visiting friends there, and then I had a meeting with our Country Director. My friend Matt and I are hoping to (as I've mentioned before) extend our service another year to some other exotic location. It's sounding unlikely, but I'll keep hoping it happens. You'll all be welcome to visit me in Fiji if it pans out for yours truly.

Tomorrow I'll be starting off to my home village for the next month. I'm excited because next week we're going to try to host the 2-day bee keeping workshop again. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I get a better turn out this time. Hopefully the ending of the rainy season and the fact that there is plenty of food right now will combine to assure that I'll have a bunch of eager beaver students.

Slowly but surely I'm approaching the end of my term here in Zambia. In theory, I'll get pulled from my site in 4 months time and be out of Zambia in 4.5 months. Hopefully I'll be back home by early to mid-December so that I can go snowboarding out west before the holiday season gets underway.

Until we meet again...

The Cusp of Vacation

I'm currently in Chipata, Eastern Province awaiting the arrival of a couple of my buddies from Northwestern Province so we can proceed to Lake Malawi for a few days of fun in the sun there. I very much look forward to laying out on a beach for a few days. Also on our itinerary is perhaps the rental of horses for a day of galloping and trotting through the sprawling meadowlands of Malawi. We'll be like the Brad Pitt of Legends of the Fall. I don't know if there will be enough time though.

Getting here has been slightly interesting. My bus broke down coming from Mporokoso and instead of the expected 5-6 hour trip, it took me 9 hours with the last half featuring me perched atop the cab of the flatbed truck. everywhere else was full so if our driver would have slammed on the brakes for any reason, yours truly would have been screwed. Then, whilst travelling to Lusaka from Kasama, the trip was extended by 3 hours for a grand total of 13. Awesome. The reason for this lengthening was due to the fact that my bus caught on fire. They pulled over quickly, the bus filled with smoke, then they went to town with a fire extinguisher. I was at the ready to leap from my window at the first sight of flames, but luckily they squelched it before it became a real danger.

Aside from that, everything continues to be just ok and i'll update more in the future.