At Clinton Foundation Offices! Wheee Internet!

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So today we go out into the field with the CHAI people to see what they are doing, it’s the first couple of days and there are no processes as such to observe, but I think it will be equally valuable to see how they are doing the trainings and very cool to sit in with the focus groups. We travelled yesterday, it was really cool to see more of the country, having travelled outside of Lilongwe for the first time, some of the views were stunning when we were traveling through the mountains and the driver, who took us, Leonard, was really great. I took many photos and a few videos before my camera’s battery ran out, and I’ll post some as soon as we get an internet connection fast enough to facilitate that. Oh and I totally ate a bug which had been roasted, it is a local delicacy, and only comes at the very beginning of rainy season, I saw people selling them by the side of the road, asked Leonard what they were (among all the other questions that I asked him along the way) and he stopped the car, some kids ran up to the car with their bugs, I don’t have the name for them, and Leonard grabbed a few and said, “eat one” I picked one up, and thought…. Hmmm, it’s a bug, I don’t want to eat this… And then thought, what the hell, you only live once and ate it. It was crunchy and had an interesting flavor, it’s hard to describe, kind of earthy, and I suppose if my palate was more advanced I could describe it in more clear terms than… certainly umami. So, then the bugs were offered to Michael and Annelies who totally declined, and we went on our way. Oh, and we stopped to get some roadside fruit and bought peaches and plums, they are quite yummy, though we have a ton left. I think tonight it will be Fruit salad for dessert and another avocado salad for dinner. I love local produce.

We arrived at our hotel, Liwonde Park Hotel, and got a couple of rooms. It’s a very local sort of hotel and doesn’t seem to cater to the tourist set all that much. As opposed to the previous one, internet is only at a small café across the street and it’s just a little more relaxed here, which is not at all a bad thing. We were sitting outside and reading while a woman was getting her hair braided, the women were all singing and it was a very relaxing and cool afternoon. Though not cool in the temperature sense as the power was out, so the idea of air conditioning was just an idea. I think the air conditioner in my room is older than me, but when the power finally came back on, it did an okay job of cooling down the room a bit.
Right across the street from the hotel is the market, and we had a lot of fun going around to all the stalls and seeing what food was available. We bought some avocados, onions, lime and garlic and I made us an avocado salad to go with dinner, and we also got some wonderful mangos. We got back to the hotel and after sitting outside and reading (yes, I know I already talked about that so my chronology is way off) I made the salad and we ate Chambo and nsima for dinner. Chambo is a very nice fish, white flesh and is only found in lake Malawi, and nsima is a starch made from corn, it’s very…. Starchy and doesn’t really have much flavor, but it comes with crushed tomatoes which are tasty. Right before dinner, the power came back on, but in the midst of it, it went back off. This was fine as there were candles and it was just fine for eating. We finished dinner and just after we got into contact with Isaac, who told us he was right outside of town and would call when they arrived. They invited us to dinner, but as we had just ate, we tagged along to just get a drink and get to know them. They are very cool people, Isaac is from Portland so he and I had a very short northwesty bonding time, and Lucky is at Stanford Medical School, his parents are from Sri Lanka and he was born in Canada and he has lived all over the world, he god peed on by a baby elephant, when he was a boy, and it’s a great story you’ll have to ask him about should you ever meet him. So, we all just shared how we ended up sitting at a table in Lilwonde town (as opposed to the park, which is where I imagine you’d meet up with more expats) and all in all had a great time hearing a little about what they are doing out here and a bit about their lives. The power by this time was back on again and we headed back to the hotel with Jezman who is the community volunteer coordinator for CHAI and a very nice guy. We made plans to meet up at 8, and said goodnight.

Oh, they have a nifty local brand of condoms and I’ll try to snap a photo if I can, They are sold here at the hotel bar along with the liquor, which I thought was pretty funny, but I suppose in the states they are sold in vending machines in the bathrooms of bars so really what’s the difference?
So, we arrived back at the hotel and went to the rooms to get settled in, I heard from the girls scream shortly after getting in, and calling for me, because there was a very large spider in their room. I attempted to kill it, first with a bible and then with a flip flop, but this was the fastest spider I’d ever encountered and it dodged a few times before jumping off the wall and disappearing. I don’t know if I got to it at all, but Annelies asked me to assure them I did, so, yep, I killed it! The remote on their AC was dead, so we used the batteries from one of the voice recorders to get it on. This sort of furthered the idea that I am having that this hotel doesn’t see too many guests. Just after getting to my room (which has no spiders that I know of, just some cute little geckos) I heard the girls yell for me again, and this time there was a cockroach near the food, so I killed it, the ladies were one again saved from the creatures. I took the food to my room to avoid more creature issues. After this and a quick check of my room for creatures, I turned on the AC, texted Katie and went to bed.

So this morning, I got up at 7, took a shower (hot water again! What kind of bizarre Africa have I landed in!) and went to breakfast, and now I’m writing this. It’s now 9:20 so our people are running a bit late, but that’s okay. I’m a bit concerned about Michael; she was really unhappy with the bugs last night and said that she barely slept at all. She just does not want to stay here at all. I don’t blame her, it’s kinda gross that there were cockroaches, but to be honest, I’m not that grossed out, I mean, I’ve killed one at my apartment in NYC and that costs way more than $20/night. Annelies feels the same as me, and though the Hippo Lodge does have internet which would help with our work and let me Skype with Katie and Claire, it’s also $100/night, and I just don’t want to put too much strain on the budget. I think that Michael feels the same way and doesn’t see any option but to stay, I just feel back that she is not comfortable.

I’m really hoping to go to the market either today or tomorrow and find some cool cloth. I found a tailor who said she can make a little dress for Claire, and that would be super awesome, I also might lame out and just see if Rochelle can make her one, because it’s always a little sketchy when you don’t have measurements and I’m just not too sure how long we’ll be in the town. We just heard from Lucky and Isaac and they had been running behind due to an internet outage. So I suppose I’ll go now, and I’m very happy with the length of this blog post, I think it’s a very good thing!