back nonetheless. The place where there's internet here is The Hippo
View Lodge, which, as the name might suggest, overlooks the Shire
River that is full of hippos. It's very pretty here (at the Lodge),
although the rest of the town looks remarkably similar to everywhere
else I've been and seen here. It's more sand than dirt or clay,
pretty flat terrain here, but otherwise, it's just another town in
Malawi.
The northern site was a whirlwind I'd rather not re-do. It was
really beautiful there, but we worked really hard (probably too hard)
and I think are still reeling from it a little. We covered in 10
days what took us three weeks in the first site (we were scheduled
only to take 7 days, but 5 funerals and a Manure Introduction Day
sort of wiped out what we were able to do on a lot of the days in the
field). The days in the field were from 6 to 6, followed by a break
to shower off all the dirt, have dinner, and then spend 4-5 hours
updating the records with what we covered that day and preparing for
the following day. Bed before 2:00 am was unusual. We alternated
days (the other person working on the project and I), so the
following day was usually spent programming the data entry databases,
buying respondent gifts (they got a bag of sugar and two bars of soap
for an interview), or going into the nearest town on public transport
to get supplies (there wasn't a working photocopier or a place to buy
a ream of paper where we were, so we had to go an hour away to run
errands at least on two occasions). On the brighter side, it was a
definite sink or swim moment, and I think we really surprised
ourselves at how well it went. I learned a lot, and if that's all I
get out of being here this summer, the trip has been well worth it.
Now I'm down in the south and I feel like I'm spinning my wheels a
bit, more ready to come home than yearning to stay. I'm just going
to make the most of it and do as much as I can to make this site feel
like its own new experience.
For today's classic Malawi story: immigration. My visa expires
tomorrow, and since I didn't have a day off in the north to deal with
it, I had to go today. There's an office about 40 minutes from here,
so it should have been no problem. Right. There was an offer of a
ride up to Lilongwe, but after the 14 hour day driving down here on
Wednesday, I couldn't bear the thought of 3 hours each way in the car
(likely more coming home, b/c I'd be on public transport). So I
claimed our driver for the day and we went. I showed up to a really
cramped office with four people reading the newspaper. I explained
what I needed, handed my passport over and waited. The guy, after
about 5 minutes, looks up and starts explaining that there are new
fee structures for visas (it's now $70 to enter, up from $0, and $35
to renew for 60 days, which was also free before). I understood and
knew about it already; the cash was in my pocket. Then he started to
explain that they hadn't been trained or authorized on writing the
receipts for the cash, and thus, no one at that office could help me
except their boss who might (note: conditionals are always worth
taking as certainties of the opposite) be there this afternoon.
Could I come back? Well, no, not really. Especially when I knew the
guy probably wouldn't be there and I had other things to do. I thank
them and get back in the car, explain it to the driver and that I
think I'm just going to stop bothering, be here without a visa and
get stamped out at the airport with no problem (people do it all the
time). Before I could say so, he suggests we go to Blantyre, which
is another hour down the road (still shorter than going to Lilongwe.
It didn't really take much time once there, save the typical
bureaucratic waiting and confusion. It captured the little
unexpected things that make life difficult (and really fun, on the
good days) here--I got to see Blantyre and ultimately got it taken
care of no problem. But still...classic.
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