Technical Difficulty

Having a rough go with the internet today. What's a travel recap without photos? They are rough on the uploading today. Updates will continue on their regular schedule--hopefully!--tomorrow.

Livingstonia

After trekking across the Nyika Plateau (next post!) we stumbled (quite literally: it was hot, we were tired, and this was on the top of the hill) into the town of Livingstonia, a municipality created by Scottish missionaries at the turn of the century to convert and educate the locals as well as play a part in the stopping of the slave trade. It's a surreal place that at times makes you think you're in (at least what I imagine to be) a tiny English town on a cross roads. There's a big church:

The light inside was fantastic, especially in a meeting room in the back:

And the stained glass in the front:

We met a few English medical students who were serving at the local hospital for two months. They were staying in the founder's old house, appropriately named The Stone House:

We soon said goodbye to our guide Chip (more on him later) and headed over to the local university which was made up of beautiful brick archways, one after another:

Next it was the the city center where we had a tea and a scone and quick one way ticket to rural England and back:

After enjoying the little town for a few hours, we hiked to our resting place for the night, Lukwe, a stunning lodge perched 4,000 feet above the lake. Photos tomorrow!

The Past Week: Chinteche

Starting last Sunday (the 14th) a friend of mine, Asif, and I headed north for a few days of hiking and a couple on Lake Malawi. We drove to Rumphi, took transport into Nyika National Park, hiked 55km east to Livingstonia, hiked 15 km more to the lake shore, took public transit back to Rumphi (and the car), and then drove to Chinteche for the weekend on the beach. I'll be working back with a new post each day about each step of the trip. With that in mind, let's start with Chinteche, a strip of beach in northern Malawi:

The beach weekend was mainly a gathering of Clinton Health Access Initiative (Serena's employer) employees, sans Serena. Odd. She was in southern Malawi at Mt. Mulanje for a retreat, while I was on the lake swimming and making sand castles. We were renting out the same house from November's Thanksgiving weekend but with a totally new crew and without our mascot Bay. Here's a dark photo (the sun was simply too perfect and bright for the camera) of the gang:

We swam and read, ate and chatted, built sand castles (unfortunately can't find a photo!) and buried bodies.

Craig (below with smoothies) and I thoroughly enjoyed jokes about Germans from the Tasteless Jokes book that brought down the house.

An excellent weekend with good company and perfect weather.

Trippin'

The blog has, unfortunately, suffered in the last couple months as we have settled into normality and taken on the fairly simple rhythm of life here. The last few weeks, though, have been filled with trips abroad and domestically and those stories will be told, with photos, here. Look for posts in the next week, starting with the most recent trip and moving back. Enjoy!

Things That Occurred

It's not often a friend from ten years prior drops in while living in Malawi, but that's just what happened last week when Chris from the Journey of Hope arrived at Lilongwe International Airport. We were so busy having fun that this is the best picture I snapped from the three day binge:

It's hard to tell what Chris is doing. Perhaps he is raising his hands in praise of Mother Earth for making such a beautiful place. Or, perhaps jumping to the sky after I pinched his tookis. Likely, though, is that this is the moment of realization that microscopic snails living in the lake waters are entering his blood stream. No worries mate, you've got pills.

We had three days, here's a list of the awesome things that happened:

1. Chris arrived with nothing more than a small backpack. What did he bring considering this efficient packing? A loofah. Why? Because he just got his back waxed. Good start.
2. We immediately went to lunch where lots of rich white people hang out. I ate a delicious hamburger, but Chris hasn't been in Africa long enough to realize just how delicious it was. He ate a salad that, in all likelihood, gave him haunting stomach issues. Should've warned you mate.
3. Off to the lake (see above). 
4. Woke up and Colorado St (his alma mater) and Oregon won their first round games!
5. Kayaked to the island in the background of the photograph above. Snorkled. Fish followed Chris and nibbled on his feet and legs. Foreign food. Chris was allergic and snotted all over the place. Is it fratty to mention that? Oh yeah.
6. Cape Maclear is an interest destination where tourism and traditional life mix together. Chris and I took a stroll into town where, among other things, we were Pied Pipers, except instead of music we played our white skin. The kids swarmed. Friendship Visit v. 2013
7. Swam to the platform in the background (that photo is really coming in handy). That is all.
8. At dinner Chris has the genius idea of a fire/drink/fireworks night. So we did. The fireworks were purchased at a Chinese store in Lilongwe just for such an occasion. Happy 4th of July!
9. On the return to Lilongwe the next morning, we stopped by the Mozambiquen border. Long story short: Christ (Chris) wanted to step foot in and did some illegally. Well done, sir. Well done.
10. Dinner with friends followed by a casino run. We fondly call the local blackjack table "The ATM." It didn't disappoint.
11. On the ride home at 2am, the lovely Malawi police pulled us over. 45 minutes and a call to our embassy later and we were released with orders to go to the police station the next morning (Sunday) at 7:30 to pay a $7.50 fine. It would cost more in gas to drive to the station than to pay the fine.
12. Departure the next morning. JOH 2003 Reunion Tour complete. Guys, where you at?

 PS Serena claims I was "really fratty." Chris and I thought each other was about exactly the same 10 years later sooooo... this is a likely accusation.

Broken Market

So here we sit, in bed by candle light as the electricity is out. A perfect opportunity for blogging! To our left a generator buzzes and lights blare. To our right a generator buzzes and lights blare. One of the beauties of living somewhere with power outages is to enjoy the quiet darkness. Unfortunately we get all the bad--no hot water, no cooking, no lights--and none of the good--the neighbors are blazing away with loads of noise and light.

Self pity aside, this raises an interesting example of a broken marketplace. Those with money who consume the most electricity have generators so they do not feel the ill effects of the underdeveloped grid and insufficient production capacity. In turn, that means the normal market forces--consumers wanting better service--does not take full effect, as those with the biggest microphones (the rich) do not exert pressure for improvement.

Compounding the problem is that the electrical utility protects certain areas of the city where the richest and most politically influential residents live. If you live in Areas 3, 11, and 12, for example, you experience far fewer outages than in the middle and lower class Malawians neighborhoods.

So, for those of you who are pure market capitalists, I give you Exhibit A in a long list of possible examples where the market fails.

PS As I typed this, the lights came back on. Thought you should know.

Noise Pollution

There is an ongoing debate with many of my urban-loving friends about life in cities. They say cities are full of action: culture, restaurants, people, events! I say cities are full of negatives: concentrated pollution, crowds, noise! Plus, you get the benefits of a city with a simple visit and return home. Anyhow, it is a never-ending debate because, really, we're both right.

That aside, my time in Lilongwe and Malawi in general has highlighted two things: crowds and noise pollution. Malawi is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa and it shows: there are people everywhere. Walk down the street: people. Go to the market: people. Climb a mountain: people! Today while taking Bay for a walk through corn and soy fields: people, people, people! 

To what does this lead? Noise pollution. Cars on the road with horns honking. Music from stereos. People chatting on phones and haggling on prices. Construction workers constructing. Generators generating. I rarely find myself without some combination of human noises. Finally, today, while wandering about the aforementioned corn and soy fields I found something: quiet. It was beautiful. Birds chirping and breeze through the grass was all that filled my ears. My city-dwelling friends should try it some time.

Doggy Training Classes

 Remember when Bay jumped through a window? He's been much better behaved since then (other than the hoarding). But on Saturday we took him to the vet to make sure that some itchy patches on his skin were benign (they were) and also took advantage of the doggy training classes that are put on by the LSPCA on Saturday mornings. Bay got to be the example dog for heeling (see above). He didn't exactly rock it but he definitely wasn't the worst dog out there. He gets a little anxious around all the other dogs which makes me wonder how he ever survived at the LSPCA for a year and a half.

While Zach worked with Bay and the teacher I took a stroll to see the other dogs awaiting adoption. Look at this cute little female one. Sad.

Places We Go: The Living Room

 Ahhhh the weekend. On Friday night we booked our tickets for a vacation over Easter weekend (details coming soon) before heading to The Living Room for a birthday party. The Living Room is a new restaurant and bar in Lilongwe. The party was loud and crowded so we quickly exited in favor of spending a few hours at the casino here in town which is named 'American Pirates.' Neither of us are gamblers (at all) but we have friends here who make it fun to play blackjack for a few hours and the buy-in is only 300 kwacha per hand (385 kwacha = $1 right now). We won 5,500 kwacha, whoop whoop!

Since The Living Room also serves delicious iced tea and veggie quesadillas we headed back for lunch on Saturday. The outside porch is comfy and breezy and perfect for the gorgeous sunny days we've been having recently. Afterward Zach played in a soccer game at the local stadium (they won), we got dinner at our favorite Indian place with some friends visiting from Lusaka and then went to a birthday party with delicious funfetti cake from America.

Any guesses about where we booked our vacation for?

Dogblogging: Found This Week in Bay's Bed

Tuesday: Vegetables
Thursday: Money (I snatched it away from him before taking a picture because...it's money)

Getting Malaria

Malaria is endemic in Malawi but Zach and I don't take any prophylaxis. Crazy? I don't think so. We live in the city next to good medical care and with quick access to rapid diagnostic tests, unlike many people living in malaria zones. So for us it's a better option to risk that we'll get malaria and get treated quickly than to be sure that we'll rot our insides with a year of malaria prophylaxis. Of course, things are a little more complicated than that but that's the gist of it. However, not being on prophylaxis means that I force Zach to get a malaria test every time he runs a fever - and quickly.

As you can tell, Zach got sick last weekend and had the pleasure of receiving a malaria test while laying in his own bed. There's a benefit to being on the same team as the malaria guy at work - he has a stock of RDTs and knows how to use them. Unfortunately the test doesn't have a spring loaded finger prick so Cary had to just smash the needle into Zach's finger (ouch!). We got some blood on the sheets after three attempts at a hard enough prick. The test came back negative, in case you're wondering. Zach was feeling better the next day and is now completely recovered.

Curing AIDS?

This week a little girl who appears to have been 'cured' of HIV made a lot of news around the world. If you haven't had a chance, check out the story at NPR here. She's only the second human in the world to enjoy the title 'Cured of HIV.' I like that the last one, The Berlin Patient, was a rich old white dude and this one is young, likely of a low socio-economic class considering her mom's behavior, and who knows what race. Maybe God is balancing out his favors.

But what does this actually mean for normal people? It means little but it should be appreciated for what it is: an extraordinary occurrence that shows us how little we know about diseases. It's not a far leap from there to being optimistic that if we know so little there is still so much to learn and so much opportunity for what we learn to completely change the way we treat people living with HIV.

I am incredibly skeptical about this natural experiment ever being replicated on a large scale. Afterall, her mother first infected her with HIV without knowing herself she was positive (rare in the USA) and then stopped giving the infant the ARVs that were sustaining her life (incredibly shitty parenting). These sorts of things do happen naturally but can we identify those situations? Manufacturing that kind of situation is out of the question.

Anyway, the Berlin Patient still appears to be cured of HIV so he and this baby do offer a lot of hope. I just doubt that either of them actually holds the key to the cure. Though I clearly hope to be dead wrong. And I hope they end up being friends, which sounds like fodder for an awesome documentary or book.

Dogblogging: Hoarding Continues

In the latest installment of my series of pictures of Bay hoarding things in his bed, I present to you: Bay and the Dirty Kitchen Rug. This thing is filthy and Zach just can't keep him away from it. So gross to find it's been dragged into our bedroom yet again.

Living in the Matrix

One thing I've come to hate about living in America is that to me it feels like living in a bubble. A soft, comfortable bubble which I adore but a bubble none the less. The simple truth is that life in America is not actually life on Earth. No one else lives the way we do. In fact, 90% of the world doesn't even live *close* to the way we live and yet we go about our daily lives feeling like we're just one of the crew here on Earth. Thinking about how different life is everywhere else is mind boggling. Living in America is like choosing to live in The Matrix. I can understand why most of us want to do it - I want to do it soon! - but remember how you're not actually living on the Earth that everyone else is experiencing or else you're shitting yourself every day. America is not real life on this planet.

To that end, this giant format-busting map from The Red Cross illustrates how Americans live in a false reality where they think Hurricane Sandy was the biggest thing to hit this year. 99% of you never even had the CHANCE to hear about these other occurrences because your normal news outlets didn't cover them. How incredibly odd to not even have access to the truth.

But yes, I'm still planning to come home, drink bubble tea, enjoy electricity, public parks, and festivals. I do love America anyway.