Tales of Transit.

Hello from Malawi! As I write this it is Saturday evening and I have just now reached the end of my 50-hour mission to get here! I departed Edinburgh before sunrise on Thursday, taking the 10-hour MegaBus trip down to London where I could more cheaply catch a flight to Malawi. The flight from London to Nairobi was when things started getting interesting. Laura (one of the girls I will be interning with at ASAP) and I lucked out and were able to snag seats next to one another and then because the flight was a bit empty we were crossing our fingers that no one would sit in the remaining third seat in our row. Luck was against us and we got a character named Jeeko. Jeeko was in his 50s and was one of those dreaded non-stop talkers that are oblivious to social ques. They really do seem to gravitate to me on all forms of transport. He was born and raised in Kenya but was clearly of Indian heritage and repeatedly spoke of his ‘English’ upbringing. He now lives in Surrey, England and was on his annual visit to see his family that still lives in Kenya. In addition, he was uneasy about flying and by a few hours into the flight he had downed eight of the little flight bottles of gin, no thanks to the flight attendant that kept sneaking them to him! I do believe the flight attendant just wanted him to pass out, as he really was that obnoxious. At one point he had us help pick out watches from the duty free catalogue for his nephews and later wanted us to pick something out for ourselves as well. He was ‘so very proud of us’ and wanted us to remember him and our special chat (which was entirely a one-way conversation). Laura and I graciously declined explaining how unnecessary it was, hoping he would then catch on to how annoyed we were and our desire for him to shut up and let us sleep (as it was an overnight flight and around two in the morning by this point). He insisted for some time and after we continued to refuse to pick something out of the catalogue he summoned for a female flight attendant for some assistance. And that is how we ended up in Malawi with $150 worth of Hallie Berry and Gucci perfume!

Yesterday morning, after a connection in Nairobi, we arrived in warm, sunny Lilongwe, Malawi. Though the locals continue to insist it is a chilly ‘winter’, I have to say it is near perfect summer weather with sunshine, a slight breeze, and daytime temperatures in the upper 70s. From Lilongwe we took a 5-hour bus ride down to Blantyre where we will be based. Though I was going in and out of a nap, I did catch glimpses of the beautiful scenery. Malawi is much more tropical than I expected with lush green vegetation that is extra vibrant at the moment since it is the end of the rainy season. It is also more hilly/mountainous than I pictured and at times I awoke to the bus on a cliff with a fantastic view of the rural countryside spread out forever below.

I should mention that prior our departure we had many housing issues that remained unsorted so I was a bit unsurprised when we did not have accommodation upon our arrival in Blantyre last night. I do not think that accommodation was given much thought by our host organization until two weeks or so before we were due to arrive. Also, I do not think that there is much of a thriving rental market here in Blantyre, making it difficult to secure something for us. Anyway, the first house that we were set to rent turned out to still have someone living in it. The second option wanted about a $1,500 down payment that we knew we would never see again so that was out of the question. Then, the third option was found between the time that Laura and I left on Thursday and when we arrived here yesterday. We were told that the family was still moving out so we had to stay in local accommodation last night. This was obviously not ideal because we didn’t want to pay for it and were keen to settle down in our own place, take a hot shower, and get some sleep. We survived however and expected to move in this morning. When we showed up at 9am to check it out it was clear that they were only just beginning to remove a lifetime of belongings from a huge family. We returned again this evening to them still clearing stuff out. They finally left around 7pm or so with many things still remaining but I am at least now able to unpack which is all I want to do after so much time in transit.

A little bit about the house… We are put up in quite a mansion by Malawian standards. A fortress might be an even better word. We have one guard during the day, three at night, a full time guard dog, a huge fence around the compound, burglar bars on our windows, an alarm system, panic buttons, and over twenty doors and locks to close up before bed time. It feels a bit like a prison rather than just trying to keep people out! I think it might be a bit overkill. The gardens and yard are quite impressive as well – a pool even, though it clearly has not been used in quite a few years and is more like a mosquito breeding ground at the moment. It must be difficult to get proper pool chemicals here in Malawi. We are situated up on a hill, which is apparently sought after because of the cooler, fresher winds meaning fewer mosquitoes and a lower malaria risk.

Anyway, I am very excited to be here and it is wonderful to feel the sun on my skin again after months in Edinburgh. Malawi seems to be a vibrant but relaxed place, though even poorer than I expected. The ‘city’ is even less built up than other poor cities I have been to. I should have quite an experience ahead of me!

Rainy days in Brussels & Amsterdam.

Last week I took a little holiday to Brussels, Belgium and Amsterdam, Netherlands to mark the end of my second semester of grad school/completion of term papers and the start of my dreaded dissertation. I took the MegaBus all the way from Edinburgh, and while it was a long 24 hours of less-than-luxurious travel each way, it did allow me to experience crossing the English Channel from Dover, England to France which was kind of neat. On the outward trip we drove the bus right onto a ferry and crossed the Channel in an hour and a half or so. Unfortunately this was at one in the morning so it was too dark to see anything! On the return trip we drove the bus onto an extra large train and that method only took around 40 minutes. 

The city of Brussels was beautiful despite the dreary rain and bitter cold. I was especially impressed by the Grand Place which is a city square of 17th century buildings decked out in gold and fancy architecture. At night the buildings are all lit up and are even a bit magical - like scenery out of a Disney movie. I also managed to eat a Belgian waffle smothered in Nutella so that made the trip feel like more of a success despite the miserable weather which caused me to skip out on some site-seeing. Other than the fancy buildings and the waffle there was quite a bit of graffiti around the city that I enjoyed stumbling upon. It made for a unique combination - the upscale, posh buildings with their French doors and balconies that then had artistic graffiti covering a good part of their exterior. 

My two days in Amsterdam were a rainy, dreary mess as well! I definitely did not luck out with weather. I spent the majority of my first day at the Tropics Museum trying to stay dry. It ended up being the best museum I had ever been to because it had an anthropological but interactive focus on former colonial territories such as India, Suriname, parts of the Caribbean, and parts of Africa. Not everyone would get excited about this but I enjoyed it! On day two I wandered around despite the rain and cold to see the tulip vendors, canals, bridges, and crooked 17th century Dutch gables the city is known for. They apparently call Amsterdam the 'Venice of the North' because of all the canals which were dug to give the city more land to build on. In addition to this I saw lots and lots of bikes. Bikes covered just about every tree, pole, or fence you could chain something up to. On my final evening, I visited the Anne Frank House - apparently on the same day as celebrity Justin Bieber no joke! - but somehow never saw him.