Ice Cream, and Movies, and Game - OH MY!

I'm in Lilongwe again, passing through on my way back to site, so I wanted to drop a little update on here before disappearing into the internet-less abyss for awhile.

I've been away from site for two and a half weeks now, which is craaazy. Luckily, my evacuation was timed pretty nicely (thanks, thieves?) as I had In-Service Training the week after and then another week off from school (midterm break) to travel with friends. IST was a great time - it was so nice to see everyone again, and to be back at the college where we don't have to cook for ourselves, or worry about wearing trousers. I think we all needed it, a time to sort of "turn off", relax. Let's just say one night involved piling mattress upon mattress and then running and jumping on them, again, and again, and again. This activity also evolved into chicken fighting, dog-piling and other ridiculousness (*Ahem* apparently PCVs like to beat each other up. Someday I will post some slap-bet videos). It was amazing. We also learned some really valuable things about grant writing, funding sources we can tap into, permaculture, etc. etc. All in all, good stuff. After IST, I came up to Lilongwe for a night where 60 or so volunteers were hanging out waiting to greet the new environment volunteers that came in on Sunday (Yay! We're not the newbies anymore!). Let's just say we gave them quite a welcome. Sunday, Meg and I went to stay at Jen and Kris's site near Emponella with some other volunteers from our group. Esther made some EPIC pizza, we drank wine (boxed, of course, and highly classy), watched the Office, and played with the ADORABLE new puppy that J & K have adopted. His name is Charlie, and yes, many "Charlie bit my finger" jokes were made, no worries. Monday morning, Meg, Ryba, and I started hitching south on the heels of Jordan and Yeager. Seven ridiculous vehicles later, we made it to Jordan's home in Mwanza (my favorite hitch was the Indian Jones guy, who shoved us in the back on top of 10,000 potatoes, got a 5,000 kwacha ticket for speeding, and asked a friend on the phone to hold onto the spitting python he had found until he got home). We spent the night at Jtrain's, Meg made some awesome French toast in the AM, and then we literally forded a river to get back to the main road (it was up to Jordan's knees, so naturally, he offered me a snorkel. haha. ha. -_-). Tuesday we went into Blantyre, which is sort of the commercial/industrial center if Malawi, and has amazing city things like I mentioned in the title (Ice Cream! Movies! Indian food! Air conditioning! Laundry machines!). We arrived in a torential downpour and proceeded to walk, many kilometers, to our hostel. Bad idea. Let's just say that today, Thursday, I still don't have an article of dry clothing. That afternoon, we went on the Carlsberg factory tour. At the end of the tour, they give you unlimited beer (all of their label-screw ups, basically), and.. I'm going to leave the rest of the evening to the imagination =) Wednesday, we did many of the other amazing city-things, like eat, a lot, watch Sherlock Holmes in a REAL MOVIE THEATER (the only one in Malawi), and visit GAME, the Malawian version of Target. I was, of course, giddy. I'm not sure who buys the items they sell in Game (a hair salon-style free-standing dryer? camping equipment? printers? golf clubs?), but I found things like protein powder and Ferrero Rocher chocolates, so I was pretty much set. Today we parted ways with Ryba and Jordan (so sad! when are we all going to see each other again?), took a nice (sarcastic) loooong bus ride back to Lilongwe, and tomorrow, many of us will board another bus for an even longer and more painful ride to Mzuzu. We'll eat some cheeseburgers, have a Gender and Development meeting, and then board yet another bus (mini this time) to head to the far north. Saturday, I'll be back in Fulirwa, which I'm very happy, but slightly nervous about, given the circumstances surrounding my departure two and a half weeks ago. Some GREAT news, though - they caught the thieves! I don't know all of the details yet - just the brief outlines from the deputy, Mr. Nyasulu, my headmaster, Mr. Ngwira, and another teacher, Mr. Mkandawire - who all called to give me the good news (pretty good turn-out considering there are only 5 teachers at my school other then me!). The thieves are going on trial tomorrow, and while I'm bummed I can't get up to the courthouse to see it, it might be for the best. Whatever the case, it does put my mind more at ease!

So there you have it. As I said today when our bus sideswiped a truck and lost a mirror, and I got a text from Ryba saying he had almost been removed from his bus by Malawian immigration officers: never a dull moment. This next term is going to be a lot of work - in addition to teaching, my education group is starting to prepare for a ten-day educational camp to be held in August for top students nationwide (Ban and I have taken on the epic job of fundraising), and I really want to get going on some secondary projects. First, though, I really need to do some laundry...