Mosquitoes!

Per request: How are the mosquitoes?

Answer: I dunno... because there aren't many. In a wonderful turn of events, it turns out the wet season does not equate to loads and loads and mozzies (as they are known here). We were set to start taking malaria prophylaxis once the rains started, but because the biters never came, we didn't take the pills. That doesn't mean we are tearing down the mosquito netting (that's Bay's prime goal in life), but we do even know ex-pats who sleep without. To be sure, malaria is a problem, but nothing like what you see on infomercial pitches.*

*Maybe as a result of the good work of those groups who fund the infomercials!

Autoshop Liveblogging!!!!

Meh, not really. I'm sitting in the back seat of our jacked-up car that the guys are trying to fix. Over the weekend Serena had a... what shall we call it... conversation with the curb. The car almost had enough clearance to avoid any trouble, but unfortunately not the case. The exhaust was nicked as well as the plastic engine casing that protects the underside from water and grime.

An interesting difference between mechanics in the States and here: They have zero parts. At home mechanics have basic things that are commonly needed--filters, fluids, belts, hoses, etc--but here they have nothing. That means they take off the part, walk or take a minibus to an autoparts store (that is invariably out of stock), and return. The process takes hours. Making matters worse, it's generally known that you should stay with your car while it is at the shop for fear having pieces removed or swapped out. So, here I am, doing something I've grown accustomed to: waiting.

Dog Blogging: At the Kitchen Table

This is a position I keep finding Zach and Bay in. Zach leaves a little room behind him in his chair while eating dinner and Bay squishes in behind him. I suppose it's probably because Zach gives him tidbits of food, though we like to think it's just because he likes hanging out with us. He'll sit there for 5 minutes until he gets bored and moves on to hunting for things to hoard in his bed.

In other news, Bay is wearing a shock collar. He's been learning the terrible habit of running away from our yard that needs to be addressed for him to be safe. A shock collar seems pretty inhumane and sick but we DID shock ourselves first and it's really just surprising, rather than painful. The good news is that it's working! If you look closely you can tell he chewed the thing up and we had to wrap it in duct tape to salvage it. Really can't blame him for that.

Laziness

This is a pretty typical Sunday morning in our household. So if you're wondering "where did the blogs go?" then you should know that sometimes we're lacking things to write about. That is Zach reading Lord of the Rings in the sunshine at 9am, which doesn't make for a very exciting post. Also I was away for a week in Zambia for a retreat so I had no internet access. I hope you'll forgive me!

I'm back in the swing of things after being away off and on for the past few months. 2013 is off to a running start, with a new Country Director at work and a new office and lots of other new things that were sent to me for Christmas by many of you fine people. Thanks for thinking of us!

Signage

*From mid-December to mid-January my folks visited. Upon their return home, each is writing a post (or more?!) about some part of the experience. Here is my Mom's.

Africa offers many things to experience and enjoy.  Since I am always interested in language, some of the signs and names of things caught my attention.  I thought I’d share a few of the ones that were unique in some way.   In one of the guest houses where we stayed, there was a poster for Andrew’s Car Hire.  His claim was “We drive in many countries. We have negotiable rates. And we promise to get you there alive.”  What a guy!  On the other hand, Harvey Tiles could change your life because “A roof without Harvey Tiles is like Life without Love. It might be meaningless.”  I’m sure you will want to rush right out to get Harvey Tiles for your roof.  But you might be less eager to trust your car to “Bang Auto Spares” or “Decent Car Breaking & Workshop.” I was a little nervous about the truck that announced “Go by Faith, Not by Sight” as looking where one is going seems to be important on the road. I wondered what kind of food one would get at “Plastic Grocery” and who is benefitting from “Exploit University” or what kind of sight one develops at “Double Vision Boys Private School.”  Welcome to “New Stop Over Motel” and “Praise Phone Paradise.” And there’s no denying: “No Farming No Life Shop” and “Inevitable Coffin Shop.”  Finally, “Unmanaged Waste is a Burden to Society.”

Dogblogging: Chewing and Hoarding

Back by popular demand*, dog blogging! We took this picture right before we left Bay with a friend while we went on vacation. It shows two of Bay's recent bad habits: first, chewing on his beloved bed. And second, picking up any piece of clothing that happens to fall on the floor so that he can sleep with it (and occasionally chew on it). Here he's sleeping with one of my socks which he later ripped up after stealing it back again. Notice his left paw gently cradling his beloved token.

During his stay with our friends and his personal friend and former cell-mate at the LSPCA, Timbi, he got all sorts of bumps and bruises and scratches, like a real Malawian dog. He came home, took a bath, and went straight to sleep for hours. Now he's almost back to normal!



*Lexi. Only.

Vacation Re-Cap: Southern Malawi

After we returned from our adventures in Zambia and Zimbabwe we took a few days in Lilongwe to recover before setting off for Southern Malawi. Over the next week we did the circuit of interesting places.

Mua Mission - the site of my last quarterly meeting and subject of this blog post.

Blantyre - the site of another one of our trips and the subject of this blog post, where we golfed, swam, and enjoyed the 'big-city' ambiance.

Zomba - the colonial capital of Malawi. It's now a cute small town with interesting historical building nestled next to the Zomba plateau, a great place for hiking - which is what we did.

Cape Maclear - the laid back village on Lake Malawi where we spent a weekend in August. We snorkeled, kayaked, and survived one hell of a thunder storm.

This isn't an exhaustive list of everything there is to do south of Lilongwe but it's pretty darn close.

Here's the view from the Zomba plateau, which is so high up that you can see Lake Malawi on a clear day (which we definitely didn't have - it was pretty rainy):

And here's where we hung out in Cape Maclear on a thankfully sunny day:

Zach's parents fly back to the US in just a few hours and then we'll be officially back to normal in the new year!

Vacation Re-Cap: Train to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

 From Victoria Falls we walked over the border to Zimbabwe to get on an overnight train to Zimbabwe's second largest city, Bulawayo. It was the worst place I've ever had to spend the night but very interesting, none the less. The rooms were dirty and old and nothing in them worked (ie - electricity, locks, sinks). The whole train smelled of urine. There were blood stains on the sheets though they had been washed and the mattresses were old and broken and wobbly. It cost us $19 a night. Worth it? I dunno. It felt like a haunted train, what with the low lighting and the loud noises and all of the doors flapping open in the wind, despite the signs that clearly requested that they be kept closed so people wouldn't die.

None of these pictures do any justice to the grime and dirt we experienced but take my word that after 50 years what was once a luxury train is now far far from it.

Bulwayo was an interesting city and I'll leave it to Zach to discuss Zimbabwe in general. His parents leave tomorrow so he'll be back to blogging once he has the time. And now I'm off to face the rain while running to the cafeteria for lunch. Which, by the way, almost DOUBLED the price of a plate of rice and beans while I was away. Inflation continues in Malawi!

Vacation Re-Cap: Victoria Falls, Zambia and Zimbabwe

Here's the obligatory selfie of me standing next to part of Victoria Falls. There are three really big water falls on this earth: Iguazu, Niagara and Victoria. Which one is the largest depends on what measure you're using (amount of water? height) but, according to the tourist info board at Vic Falls, this water fall is the largest continuously falling sheet of water on the planet. We arrived in the low season but it was still A LOT of water. I thought my camera might not survive the deluge.

Victoria Falls is also the site of the craziest thing we did on this trip: swimming in the Devil's Pool. The Devil's Pool is a spot right on the lip of the falls where you can swim, usually without dying, when the water is low enough. That was all I knew when we signed up for the guided tour out there. We thought it would be an easy 1km walk - wrong. We hiked through the Zambezi, walking on rocks and inching through flowing water, for more than an hour to get there. We had to hold hands in a long chain to keep steady, slipping and sliding in the water and risking a broken ankle.

Once we got to Livingstone Island we had to SWIM to the pool. While Zach says he was never scared, I was petrified. We were only 20 feet from the edge of the falls, swimming through a very strong current and rushing water and praying to not be swept over (there was a safety rope over the falls but I didn't want to have to use it - plus what if you miss it when you try to grab?). We all swam over successfully but once we saw where they expected to jump in I began laughing incredulously and refused. I ended up getting in but it was the scariest thing I've ever done by choice. The water is constantly threatening to float you over the lip of the pool and send you crashing down the falls. To me, the water was just too high to be taking people out there and I felt the guides were willing to do anything to get my $30. I wouldn't do it again. And that night back at the hotel I felt like I had PTSD. But so far so good - no nightmares about being swept over the falls and we got some cool pictures of it.

Here's where we walked back after our adventure, right on the lip of the falls:

And here's me taking the plunge into the Devil's Pool:

Vacation Re-cap: South Luangwa National Park, Zambia

It's another rainy day here in Lilongwe. When they said 'rainy season' they meant it. It feels something like December in Corvallis but twenty degrees warmer. Our sheets feel damp and our roof is dying; last night it sprung a leak! Right on top of my ipod, which won't turn on and is now laying in a bed of rice. Send it good thoughts.

When we set out for Zambia it was less rainy. In fact we had great weather for our entire trip (or should I say 'safari'?) to South Luangwa National Park. After some adventures at the border and a long drive on a crappy dirt road we arrived at our camp to find beautiful, clean, warmly lit tents waiting for us. Between the breezy white mosquito net and the open-air shower it felt a little like a honeymoon destination.

That's our shower and part of our tent.

At night the hippos and elephants walked though camp, chomping things very loudly and scaring me a little more than I'd expected. The monkeys were a constant menace. We went on an early morning game drive and a night drive, where we used a spotlight to look for the eyes of animals glowing in the dark. The next day we drove around the park in our own car without a guide.

We did finally find a leopard reclining in a tree but she hopped away after just a few minutes. We didn't see any lions since it's the rainy season and they're out hiding away in the bush. But we did lots of other animals, like zebra and giraffe and warthogs and impala.

We had a great time and would definitely return - which I am, next week, for a meeting. A meeting in a National Park? Yep, I'm lucky, though I'm not looking forward to the drive up on those dirt roads again.

Here's a picture of a crazy bird we saw which never made it to Facebook:

That thing on his neck looks terribly uncomfortable.

Home.

Hellloooo! We are back in Lilongwe. I'm headed back to work tomorrow morning and Zach's parents will leave us on Thursday. While we were gone snails took over our garden (boo) and the gas situation in Malawi stabilized (yay!) for now.

There are pictures from our travels on my Facebook page. We spent time at a game park in Zambia, in Lusaka, in Victoria Falls, in Bulawayo and in southern Malawi. We swam in Devil's Pool in Zambia (scariest thing I've ever willingly done), rode the dirtiest train in the world to Zimbabwe's second largest city and Zach almost got arrested by a traffic cop in Lusaka. Lots of interesting adventures - in fact, too many to completely capture on the blog. When we get home you'll just have to take us for a beer. In the mean time I'll try to post some of the other pictures that didn't make it to Facebook.

Regularly scheduled blogging to return very soon!