I'm in Lilongwe for the weekend, mostly to get a break from Mchinji, but also because I have a meeting on Monday with someone from one of the government ministries and I need to change my departure ticket at the South African Airways office here. Both of those could be done in a day, so the former reason clearly trumped and made a good time to get out of town. After last weekend with everyone gone at Kayesa, I wasn't ready for another.
We came in Friday, had lunch at the place with good sesame chicken, did a little window shopping at what we call The Azungu Mall (it's fancy, there's a travel agent, expensive art and artisan stores, a small British grocery store, only expats in the parking lot, etc.), and then ran some errands, like going with Lauren to extend her visa, go to the post office (which took forever since she had a package stuck in the customs line), ducked into the crafts market outside, and then checked into the hotel, where we four split a room. We had dinner at this italian place downstairs, Don Brioni's, where there really is a Don and his Malawi wife tends bar. It was a decent meal, but nothing to write home about.
Emily came in for a training here at the hotel, Lauren was just passing through to go meet a friend in the south, so Heather and I decided to do a day trip to Dedza to break-up the time (see separate post).
We had a nice breakfast yesterday morning at the hotel (it's complimentary, tg), hung out a bit, checked out and into another hotel up the road since the Kiboko was booked last night, and just had lunch (pizza...yum) with folks before coming back to the hotel to do some more work-work.
I met with someone who's starting at HSPH in the fall this morning. Someone from Kayesa is doing similar work, their paths crossed, he is apparently having a hard time finding housing from here (surprise), so I offered to meet up with him while I'm in town. Again, it's a world of laughter and a world of tears here in Malawi... (for any hsphers, he did peace corps with a certain person in pih who corrects stats professors about sexual habits of older men). From there, I got back in bed for a while and then went over to meet with someone that an HSPH professor met at a conference over on Capital Hill. He does something in the same vein as my project and Mchinji is one of his districts; it was interesting to hear about his projects, although I thought there might be more overlap or suggestions he'd have of people I could talk to. I also had a few things to pass along to him as well.
The South African Airways office is in the Capital Hotel, and after that meeting, I stopped by to change my departure date a few days early. She changed it in the computer (which was down b/c of the power rationing when I arrived) and then literally just put a sticker and hand wrote the new information on my existing ticket. I love it. Anyway, my plan is to get into South Africa on Tuesday, stay there for the night, then a morning to travel to Swaziland, a night there. Then Thursday to Saturday in Mozambique (most likely just Maputo, but maybe a beach just north of there), travel back on Sunday for a Monday afternoon flight back home. I'm going to go the hostel route and do it all on the cheap, maybe meet some people along the way to travel with.
Then Lauren is coming back through Lilongwe by way of a friend's project's minibus that we can take back to Mchinji Monday mid-day. I've done enough minibusing for one weekend already. They're going to be coming in much later than we thought, but I'm still holding out for the non-minibus route.
Like usual, it's nice to be here and out of Mchinji for a while. To be able to go to a real supermarket, have choices of cuisine, and not be called azungu for the weekend it pretty nice.
We came in Friday, had lunch at the place with good sesame chicken, did a little window shopping at what we call The Azungu Mall (it's fancy, there's a travel agent, expensive art and artisan stores, a small British grocery store, only expats in the parking lot, etc.), and then ran some errands, like going with Lauren to extend her visa, go to the post office (which took forever since she had a package stuck in the customs line), ducked into the crafts market outside, and then checked into the hotel, where we four split a room. We had dinner at this italian place downstairs, Don Brioni's, where there really is a Don and his Malawi wife tends bar. It was a decent meal, but nothing to write home about.
Emily came in for a training here at the hotel, Lauren was just passing through to go meet a friend in the south, so Heather and I decided to do a day trip to Dedza to break-up the time (see separate post).
We had a nice breakfast yesterday morning at the hotel (it's complimentary, tg), hung out a bit, checked out and into another hotel up the road since the Kiboko was booked last night, and just had lunch (pizza...yum) with folks before coming back to the hotel to do some more work-work.
I met with someone who's starting at HSPH in the fall this morning. Someone from Kayesa is doing similar work, their paths crossed, he is apparently having a hard time finding housing from here (surprise), so I offered to meet up with him while I'm in town. Again, it's a world of laughter and a world of tears here in Malawi... (for any hsphers, he did peace corps with a certain person in pih who corrects stats professors about sexual habits of older men). From there, I got back in bed for a while and then went over to meet with someone that an HSPH professor met at a conference over on Capital Hill. He does something in the same vein as my project and Mchinji is one of his districts; it was interesting to hear about his projects, although I thought there might be more overlap or suggestions he'd have of people I could talk to. I also had a few things to pass along to him as well.
The South African Airways office is in the Capital Hotel, and after that meeting, I stopped by to change my departure date a few days early. She changed it in the computer (which was down b/c of the power rationing when I arrived) and then literally just put a sticker and hand wrote the new information on my existing ticket. I love it. Anyway, my plan is to get into South Africa on Tuesday, stay there for the night, then a morning to travel to Swaziland, a night there. Then Thursday to Saturday in Mozambique (most likely just Maputo, but maybe a beach just north of there), travel back on Sunday for a Monday afternoon flight back home. I'm going to go the hostel route and do it all on the cheap, maybe meet some people along the way to travel with.
Then Lauren is coming back through Lilongwe by way of a friend's project's minibus that we can take back to Mchinji Monday mid-day. I've done enough minibusing for one weekend already. They're going to be coming in much later than we thought, but I'm still holding out for the non-minibus route.
Like usual, it's nice to be here and out of Mchinji for a while. To be able to go to a real supermarket, have choices of cuisine, and not be called azungu for the weekend it pretty nice.
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