CONFESSION: i spelled the name of my blog wrong... nkhani means story in chichewa. nkehani means absolutely nothing.

times up for me and malawi.. for now... and this afternoon will be my last trek to and from work.. last time i have to hold my breath and cross the Mudi River gushing with shit and garbage, and the last time i have to push my way through the hawkers and street urchins lounging outside the national bank.

dreading today. not the walk, but getting to the office. not very good at saying goodbye. to be honest, i'm such a cowardly lion about the whole process that i usually just go for a casual 'see you later' and convince myself that i will see whomever it is at some future point. and, despite the uncertainty of the reunion's time and place, i almost definitely will see whomever it is later. so its okay

this is different. i wont actually see 99% of the people that i have spent the past 6 months with ever again.

the history of africa is speckled with the comings and goings of this and that dictator, and the periodic occupations of every european nation that ever owned a steamship. constantly, and almost rhythmically, regimes grow, saviors turn to slaughterers, unrest turns to revolution and a new regime rises from the ashes. over and over, africa's people are promised the world by powerful foreigners and abandoned to pick up the pieces once they've gotten what they wanted.


 thats why i feel like a traitor. 


and thats why just thinking about saying goodbye this afternoon feels like a punch in the stomach. but thats also how i know, that even though i'm leaving now.. i'll be back.

tionana malawi. zikomo ndi mutsale bwino 

(see you later malawi. thank you and stay well) 

ps. last day of work= last day of internet.  but not the last day of africa. i'm leaving malawi on saturday and then rambling through tanzania. i'll fill you in if /when i can along the way. check back in a few weeks 

ohhh happy day

Domwe is a beauuutifull little island in the lake owned by the national parks. you have to arrive by boat- either kayak your self out, or hire the boat from Chembe village to transport you and your kitundu (luggage)- and there's no lodge, but instead, what is probably the most scenic and most luxuriously outfitted campsite i've ever seen. 

so, since last week was my birthday, the last official day of my contract, and conveniently enough the end of term for luke and joshua, we all took a 5 day vacation....

my malawi boys (luke and joshua) absolutely despise the beach, water, sunshine, snorkeling, kayaking etc etc. so we had a really miserable time. 

 the night we arrived was my actual brithday, so we watched the sunset and ate cake ( the one that Frank made before i left, which was apparently supposed to be a surprise)  from the lakeside 'dining room' 

we also learned that Skittles the Skink likes birthday cake too.... 

after travelling alone for months on end and getting used to spending far too much time stuck in my own head, it was great to have josh and luke serving as extra-strength dull moment repellent. 

and besides the boys. there were also baboons civet cats and giant water monitors lurking... kept things interesting, especially after dark. 

domwe island preview

 back from the birthday camping adventure. cant describe the amazingness, so i'll just show you... tomorrow. 


today i have to nurse myself back from a nasty ear infection ( lake water, bacteria, fungus.. who knows? i dont, and neither did the useless malawian "doctor" at the chipatala today)


but heres something to whet your taste buds until i have the energy for a serious uploading session 

Bua River

After field work in Nkhotakota I treated myself to a day of relaxation at Bua River Lodge, a little hedeaway deep in the lush Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve. The park itself is basically a huuuge forest, making it virtually impossible to track and find any of the big game (elephants, lions etc.) Yet the rushing river alone was well worth a visit... as was the troope of vervet monkeys ( i call them blue ball monkeys because the males have bright, robins egg blue balls, for serious. personally i think its sort of weird, but, i guess lady monkeys are into that kind of thing) who spent the afternoon with me, climbing around the rafters of the open thatched lodge while i read my book and looked out over the river. i wasnt completely sedentary, however. Went for a walk in the woods with Juma my guide and a game scout. 

but first, a 'bush breakfast'... which interestingly enough was for more luxurious than my usual slurp of coffee 

apparently the river completely changes its personality with the season and the weather. now its ' anger' according to Juma with high and super silty waters from the rains



even though its not common to see game in Nkhotakota, we did see several crocs sunning on the sandy banks, a bush buck ( an african deer-ish beast) and prints of hyena, and white spotted river otter, and elephants in the mud. as well as an olive baboon colony. baboons are great. they bark like dogs, and have this amazing gallop-y sort of run. and they are just so human... two young ones played chicken on a precariously bending branch, while another stood on hind legs in the tall grass and stared at me, one hand on his hip. 

tomorrow= off to domwe island for a birthday camping and kayaking trip with my malawi family. frank the cook is baking my chocolate butter cream sponge cake right now.... 

want a parasite? i've got some spares

violently ill. and since here, every mild cough or upset stomache is malaria, and every crawling thing with 6+ legs is cokorochi, i will take the liberty of self-diagnosis....


 i have malaria, and am in so much pain it feels like a family of cokorochi is eating its way out of my small intestine. 

Chimwala Primary School

 marshie and stewie gave me the most incredible christmas present this year. it was even better than the purple pterodactyl i asked for. in my name, via UNICEF, the two lovebirds donated a classroom of desks at the Chimwala primary school in Lilongwe. since i happened to be up in the capital for the past few days, last night on the way back from the field, we decided to swing by and take a look. it was nearly completely dark by the time we reached it, and were merely hoping to get a photo of the sign out front, but this is what we found...

drove in the gate of the Chimwala CCAP Parish. the primary school is actually run by CCAP (pronounced sisepi, dont ask me why) which stands for the Church of Central Africa-Pentecostal. next to the church were 4 brick buildings and a massive dirt football pitch. there was a small assortment of school age children playing in some puddles. the headlights of our truck attracted even more kids until they formed quite a large collection, as well as one of the Chimwala teachers (mphunzitisi= teacher). we explained ourselves to him, and he graciously opened up one of the classrooms to show me my desks. 

Chimwala primary school, he said, has 4000 students. mostly they live in the surrounding villages, but some of the kids are orphans who are cared for at the parish; which explains the flock of children playing in the mud after dark. 

the 4000 students are divided into 47 "classrooms", of about 100 students each, but there are only 7 actually class rooms, the remaining 40 "classrooms" are clusters of kids scattered around the football pitch. "this problem of school buildings makes the teaching very challenging during the wet season", mphunzitsi explained. he said the children were very grateful for the desks they received in december and he said the chruch is hoping to raise enough money to pay for the aluminum sheets to roof the fourth building. 

thanks mom and stu.

(mini-busing)

And now a brief note to my readers…

The point of this blog was to keep my loved ones in the loop, in case I fail to stay in contact with everyone individually, which I generally do.  And also to share the stories and interesting experiences in such a way that I don’t end up repeating myself during every single phone call, and feeling exhaustingly repetitive, like a broken record, or Mariah Carey in Christmas-time shopping centers. The problem is, however, that all of the thing worth reporting are thing that are different here than at home, many of which come off as negative, or make it seem as though I am complaining in some way or another. The truth is, though, that despite the heat, the bugs, the inconveniences and the olfactory over-drive, Malawi is one hell of an amazing place, and every single second spent here is one hell of an adventure.