The past few weeks have been pretty slow here in Malawi. I am getting so used to some things that when they occur, they just don’t seem so special so I don’t write about them. People keep asking me if I am ready to come home. I say yes and no. I do miss my friends and family, and there are certain things that drive me absolutely crazy about this country, but Malawi is starting to grow on me. I am starting to have long individual conversations with the students, and I know they are starting to feel more comfortable around me. Lawrence dropped me off a few weeks ago and a few of the girls asked him if I was single and if I liked Malawian women. I am excited to come home, but I will miss some of the people here. I didn’t think I would miss the whole Christmas season in the USA as much as I really do. Yesterday I popped into Shop Rite (the super market) to buy a few things I need to get me through the week; I was only planning on getting a few things and getting out quick, but they had Christmas music playing so I ended up spending almost and an hour and a half just enjoying the music. It was the first Christmas music I had heard in English the year. I am also starting to really like and enjoy the DIs that I am working with from around the world. They are truly special people and have made this experience a million times better. If I wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to meet and work with them, I would still be counting down the days till my flight leaves. I almost forgot, on a very special side note, right before Thanksgiving the Mary Jean Perrini Inspire to Serve award was officially given to Mary Perrini by The American Humanics Student Association from Kansas State University. So for those of you that know Mary, send her an email or give her a call at Miege to congratulate her! This past weekend I went with Chihiro and three other DIs to mount Mulanje. Mount Mulanje is the tallest mountain in Malawi. I was under the impression that we were going to hike around for a few hours, go to the waterfalls, and spend the night in a little town about 10km away. BOY WAS I WRONG! Chihiro and I met up with Calou, Caesar, and Anna; three other DIs that work in the TCE (total control of the Epidemic…HIV/AIDS program) in Limbe on Saturday morning. Anna and Caesar are a couple from Brazil. They are both have degrees to be pharmacists, but they want to get out of Brazil to do their work. Calou(sp?) is from Japan and the only thing I really found out about her was that the school that she trained at was in Michigan, and she went to Royals/ Whitesox game in Chicago. When we met up, we went food shopping and Chihiro and I were informed that we would be staying on the mountain at a little camp. I just thought ok sounds fun. When we got to the mountain and met up with our guide, Caesar and Anna said that we wanted to make the 6 hour hike to the CCAP lodge. When I heard this my jaw dropped and I my mind went blank. I thought 6 hours; these people have to be kidding! Then I came to my own conclusion that this 6 hours was really like 4 or less if you kept a steady pace, so we stretched out bought some bananas and got ready for the hike. Our guide doubled as a porter and he carried one of our back packs the whole trip. We set off and after the first 45 minutes I knew I was in trouble. At this time came to the realization that 6 hours for our group was really going to mean 8. Plus I only had brought 1.5 liters of water and I had already sweated out at least a half liter in the first 45 minutes. By hour number two, I had sweated out at least 1.5 liters of water and was still trying to ration my water. We came across 2 streams in the first few hours and our guide Fred said that they were clean and we wouldn’t get sick if we drank from them, but I wasn’t buying that! None of us were, we all walked right by and over them as our guide got fresh water each time. After it had seemed like we had hiked forever, we finally reached the half way point, and I was officially out of water. At that point we stopped to take a break and sat on a flat rock that poked out of the forest and showed the entire mountain. The view was incredible, it was so exciting to see trees again. The best thing from this view was how far we could see. I could see land clearly for miles away. The sky was clear and the land looked so peaceful. While we were resting and having a snack I asked Fred (the guide) if there was any more stream crossings coming up. I was out of water and I knew if it didn’t refill as soon as possible there was a good chance I would get dehydrated and maybe worse. Luckily there was one, only another hours walk. By the time we got to that stream my legs felt like jello and it was around 5 pm, but we still had at least another 2 hours till we got to the hut. I refilled my water, snapped a few pictures, and got ready to go. Needless to say since we were going very slow, darkness came before we arrived at the Camp. As the sun set and black started swallowing the sky, my legs had had enough hiking. I started to get cramps in my thighs, followed by my calves, and then those nasty ones in my hamstrings that wake you up at night. During this little episode I was having, I realized that there was absolutely nothing anyone else could do for me. I was up on a mountain in the middle of Malawi, 10,000 miles away from help. I guess I could have stopped walking and asked to take a break, but every time we did stop the pain just got worse and the cramps came back so I just kept moving no matter what. I don’t know if I have ever pushed myself that hard. Whenever I have been completely exhausted, I have always been able to stop and rest or have a “state regulated” water break, but up here there was nothing but me and the mountain. It was one of those moments in life that you can be really proud of yourself. I feel like I accomplished something. I didn’t climb all the way to the top, but I set a goal and reached it. It was probably the most physically challenging thing I have done in the past 10 years. Yes there were other people and we were all in this together, but everyone was facing their own battle on our night hike. We hiked for about 45 minutes in the dark, there was no moon and so I used my phone flash light to guide me. Chihiro had one of those lights that you wind up the battery (I think dad gave me one of those for Christmas onetime, but I didn’t bring it), and the other people had their own lights. It was amazing that even in the pitch black our guide knew exactly where to go and every turn to take. Our 6 hour hike took just about 7 hours and 45 minutes by the time we finally arrived at the camp. We got some fresh water, made dinner (pasta), met a very nice Englishman named Anthony, and went to bed. In the morning I awoke to Anthony and another group of travelers from Holland making breakfast. There were three hikers from Holland, who had gone to bed right as we had gotten to the camp the night before. After they made and ate breakfast they said goodbye and started their descent down the mountain. About the time they were leaving my group was just waking up. We made a quick breakfast and left the camp a little past 8. It was already a beautiful day, but unlike the day before it was getting hot early and there was just that hint that we needed to get on the move before the rains came. Once we were out of the camp and had climbed out of the small gully the camp was in, you could really see the mystery and history of this mountain. There was an old dirt landing strip inside the gully that used to fly supplies in, but hadn’t been used in at least 20 years. It looked like all of a sudden whoever used it, just stopped and no one had touched it since. There was grass and weeds that had overgrown the entire thing, but a lot of things have that same dilapidated feeling in Malawi. On our way down the mountain I got the chance to have a few conversations with Anthony. He had quit his job in England and agreed to come over to Malawi for 6 months and supervise the building of a school. It was all set up through his church. He had come across a lot of the same problems that myself and the DIs had. The one thing that really bothered him was the rudeness of the people here, more specifically the lying. Lying is very common here. Lying is no big deal. I have had project leaders and teachers lie to my face about things as simple as being late or why they couldn’t do something. It seems like it doesn’t bother anyone to lie here. If you have ever known a pathological liar, who lies about everything from the weather outside to whether or not he/she was actually dying, that is the type of liar that you find in Malawi. When I got back to the college on Sunday, one of the students who I really like asked me why I didn’t go to Mulanje? When I replied that I had, she just said no you didn’t Paul you are a liar. You lie you lie you liar. I don’t know about you or anyone you know, but I don’t like to be called a liar, that’s just not part of normal conversation where I come from. Anthony brought up a good point, he said, “in your church isn’t lying a sin?” I said yes and that I was also raised not to lie. He then talked about how he just didn’t understand how these Malawians could argue against every wrong doing of anyone by saying Jesus taught us this and God wants us to do that, but then turn around and lie to your face if you asked them if they had gone to church that week. The other thing that bothers me besides the constant lying (which isn’t done by all Malawians, but enough to make it a point) is some of the people are just playing and flat out rude, they have no regard for other people’s personal space or belongings. Ok, well I found out that personal space like your “personal bubble” didn’t exist in the first week that I got here, so I am used to that, but what I mean is my room is my personal space, and if I forget to lock my door whether I am in my room or not people will just walk in. No knock or anything, the thing that set me off on Sunday was the fact that one of the teachers had hung up a clothes line right in front of my door. Now I understand you need to dry your clothes, but we all have a clothes line hung up in our rooms, if the two communal lines outside are taken. Well I guess this teacher didn’t want to use the space in his room for his clothes so he hung his clothes right in front of my door. It is more the inconsideration of it all, like if you are living with other people you don’t use all the water, but not here, or you clean up after yourself, well here you just throw your trash outside and expect that someone else will pick it up. No one cares about the little things, and that bothers me. Anyways, Anthony had also run into several problems with knowing who to trust. He was living with the pastor and church officials from a sister parish, but coincidently they were the ones trying to rip him off. The people he was supposed to trust were trying to get him to buy cheap materials for the school so they could pocket the rest of the money, it is sad, but this problem happens almost every time a school or any aid building is built. I also got a chance to just converse with another native English speaker. It was great, I really hadn’t had a full conversation with an English speaker since I had gotten here, besides Lawrence, but I mean a native English speaker. We mainly talked about movies which I really didn’t mind, we could have talked about British history and soccer for all I cared, just having a conversation was great. The way down the mountain was more frustrating for me than the climb up. There was a cover of dew on most of the trail on the way down and I fell down at least 10 times. Besides the dew, the ants were out in the morning and there were at least 3 separate times where I had ants in my pants. I think I pulled 24 ants off me on the way down, after they had let me know they were there (by biting me). Also on the way down I got to enjoy the scenery much more than on the way up. The paths were covered in every type of tree I had seen in Malawi. We would walk for what seemed like an eternity through thick dark luscious forest and all of a sudden pop out for a minute of spectacular outlooks all the way up and down the mountain. The view was not only over the puffy clouds as they smashed into the mountain, but you could wait for 2 minutes and as the clouds cleared you could just see Africa. Every time we popped out on to one of these ledges, it was like the view from the Lion King, looking down from the top of the lion’s den over a vast never-ending kingdom of life and land, with only very few tiny buildings, houses, and huts and fewer traceable roads, this view was picturesque of what I had grown up hoping Africa really looked like; purely beauty and wonder. Since we didn’t stop on the way up at the “mulanje waterfall”, we decided to do it on the way down. Right as we got to where we could actually hear the stream turn into the waterfall it started to rain. We asked Fred if it was really worth going to see, because it was very obvious that all of our group was tired and getting hungry. It was almost one at this point and Fred assured us that this was something that we had to see, so we followed him down a “short-cut” to the waterfall. One thing we thought was funny was how Fred would describe the trails we were taking, he kept saying this next climb is very gentle don’t worry it isn’t hard, so when he said please be careful and watch your step when we took the shortcut, I thought to myself what is this guy getting us into? The short-cut we took was more like a death-cut. The side trail was wet and very steep, every now and again we would have to slide down a flat slippery rock surface, but not too fast because you wouldn’t stop if your body got going. Then we came to the back part of the waterfall, and our good guide Fred just hopped down onto three big rocks and said come on. I knew it was going to be difficult for the group to get across when I went after Fred. There was about a three foot space in between the first and second rocks. The first one was also quite a bit taller than the second one, and I couldn’t reach from boulder to boulder and if I couldn’t reach how were 2 small Japanese girls going to do it. For me Fred made a ledge with his foot and I was able to shimmy across, Anthony lowered himself down on a vine like Tarzan, and somehow Fred got everyone else across. The waterfall was nice, but nothing that special, I would rather have stayed on the normal path and not gone to the waterfall than take the “short-cut” and go through all that. Also on the way out of the waterfall as we were crossing more boulders I lost my balance and almost bit it into the river. If I wouldn’t have caught myself on a nearby rock I would have also gotten to see how a medical response team works in the middle of Malawi, and that would have been so much fun!
After the waterfalls we were making our way back down when Caesar saw a guy he knew. The guy was an American who was working with Doctors without borders. I was again excited to meet another American. Caesar told me that he was from Chicago and his name was Matthew. I said hello an introduced myself to Matthew, I said so you’re from Chicago, I’m from Kansas City, I wanted to ask him a few questions about Doctors without borders, but before I could say anything he looked at me and said yea… you sound like an American and walked away. It was one of those moments where you just stop, and ask yourself did that really just happen? I was super excited to meet another American that works for a great organization that a lot of people dream of working for (me included), and guy just blows you off. At least if was to my face right? When he was leaving, I said it was nice to meet you and he responded with yea? Not an oh you too, likewise, or even some small remark that makes a person sound like they give a damn, but just yea. Rude people have always bothered me, but it is worse when you are abroad. There is absolutely no need for shit like that, it is unreal. Sometimes it is just easy to see why so many people hate Americans. Some people are just Jerks.
One of the mind boggling things we found out about this mountain is that every year there is a porter’s race. All of the guides and porters race up around and down the mountain. The course is up to the top on the steepest trail, around the summit to the hut where we stayed the night, and then back down the trail we came down on. Anthony told us that he had hiked all the paths on this mountain and if he did the course and hiked it as fast as he could it would take him at least 10 hours and Anthony is an experienced hiker. The winning time from this year’s race was 2:05, two hours and five minutes; incredible! Our guide’s time was 2:23 and he was in 25th place. The only thing I could think of was just how amazing that actually is. I mean people that can run full marathons running like 8 minute miles or less amaze me (yes I mean you Aunt Mary), but going up this mountain is crazy with the heat and altitude, mind boggling is the only way I can describe it.
As I said before our guide’s name was Fred. Fred had been referred to us by other DIs who had come to the mountain. There were a few times that I was ahead of the pack with him that I got a chance to talk to him 1 on 1. Fred is 18 years old and in secondary school, which is like our high school. He has 4 siblings and lives with them and his mom. His father died in 2000 and he works on the weekend as a guide to support his family and pay his school fees. The average Malawian that works in this region makes about 150 kwacha or a dollar a day. A guide for the mountain makes about 1300 kwacha a day plus an extra thousand if he doubles as a porter and carries a bag, so Fred was doing alright for himself and made about 3600 kwacha from two days work. I was considering breaking my own rule and giving him an extra tip, because he really was a good guide, until he got me alone on the second day and said, “you look like you could afford to help me, and if you can’t I bet your parents can or you know someone that can!” I was just shocked, I said why do you think this and he replied something about how I looked like I worked hard and I’m from the USA so that means I am rich. So basically he saw the white man from the USA and thought to himself, YES, an easy target! I almost bought into it all too, until at the end he tried to get more money out of us, for “extra” work had done and time that he had spent with us. Ahh, this officially marks the millionth time in Malawi that a person has found out where I live and asked me to pay them money for something. This time it was Fred and paying his college school fees, last time it was a teacher from the school asking me to find money for her daughter, the first time it was the cook, and plenty of other strangers that right when I say I’m from the USA , I become a target for long distance donations. I mean it is so frustrating to be looked at by everyone you meet not as who you are, but as an object that can give them financial gain. It is the same in the stores, hotels, and the street vendors are the worst. Even at the hotels they have a sign posted that says Malawian price and White Price. The vendors will openly tell you they charge Malawians a 1/3 or a ¼ of what they charge Azungu (whites). I mean I guess that this describes a lot of third world countries, but it is definitely one thing that I will not miss about Malawi.
On Monday my body ached so bad. I haven’t been this sore for years, so I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing? Walking around the school on Monday was a slow waddle, and the best part of my day was getting to stretch several times. My shoulders and neck also were a problem on Monday. My shoulders still had red indentations from my back pack and my neck was stiff. Tuesday my legs still hurt, but I went into town to get a few things from the store and meet Lawrence for lunch. Every time I started to get a good pace and my legs started to feel somewhat normal my groin felt like it would strain or something and I would slow back down. Not a good feeling either way. Wednesday was better, I actually had a little hop back in my step and today I am doing a-ok. I also have found Christmas presents for Dad and Mom, real traditional Malawian presents. On Saturday we are having a Christmas party here at Amalika. We will all sing songs and play bingo and I have been told Santa is making an appearance, coming all the way from the USA! Wow, I’m so excited to meet Santa I wonder which Mzungu is going to be Santa? After Saturday I will go into town and spend the next few days with Lawrence and celebrate Christmas with him and his family, although I do wish I was on a beach in Charleston with mine. The week in between Christmas and new years I plan on traveling. I hope I can meet with one or two Peace Corps volunteers and check out the Mizzou for Malawi project outside of Salima. Then after new years I will get back to Amalika for a week, pick up my primary school surveys, finish making clips for a Planet Aid video and say my goodbyes. See you all in a little over 3 weeks. Tio-na-na.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Big week part 2
I had had enough (part 2 big week)
On the way out of town we had to stop and get some gas. I had previously told you about the diesel crisis here, but just hitting the country was a new petrol crisis. Yep that’s right that means there just isn’t any gas left in Malawi. We went 9 gas stations before we found one that had petrol. By the time we found the one station that had petrol and got in line, my sun burn was kicking in. I was drained, I was tired, and I just wanted to go home. The thing that pushed me over the edge was that every time a car would pull forward, if the car in front of you was turned off then someone would pull around from the back and cut you and 5 other people in line. Oh it was so frustrating, just another way that Malawians show absolutely no respect and no regard for any type of rules(written or unwritten). Our driver, being the brilliant driver he was got into the wrong line, because our gas tank was on the opposite side of the car, so when it was our turn he had to pull out of line and reverse back to the pump. Let’s just say every other car in lot saw this and wanted our spot, including a giant mini-bus that want to pass through cutting us off. I would have none of that, I proceeded to get out of the car walk in front of that bus and stop until our driver had finally gotten the car to the pump. The bus kept honking in my face inching closer and closer and I just turned my back and acted like I was an oblivious mzungu, it worked out pretty well. I didn’t get run over and nobody thought I was intentionally blocking the bus, they thought I was just some stupid white person doing whatever I wanted. After we had waited almost an hour and finally got to the pump, three boys with jugs ran up to the pump and the lady just started filling them up, no wait, they just got gas. Our driver asked the lady why they got this privilege and se said they are her regular customers, that she sees them daily and we are a onetime customer who she will never see again, so they will never have to wait and that’s just how it is. Our driver felt the need to argue, because Malawians feel the need to argue about everything! It wasn’t going to change her mind, just piss her off. She probably gets a bribe from them he said when we were driving home, but the situation reminded me of a KEG PARTY. This gas crisis is like a college kegger at every station. There is a line out the back door to get to the keg. Everyone needs a refill and the line or resemblance of a line is a mess. If you know the guy pumping or pouring the cups, you can sneak up behind them and get a quick refill with no questions asked and if anyone says something to the pourer or pumper about it, then that person might as well just go to the back of the line, b/c that cup is not getting filled for a while. In Lilongwe, it was like being that random dude at a FRAT party. Yes you came with some girls you know or are a friend of someone in the frat, but you are still getting stared at by every dude there who is asking themselves who is that random dude with? It is an awkward situation and that is how I felt that day in this nation’s capital. On our drive home our bad luck didn’t stop. The roads were terrible, worse than the day before on our drive to Lilongwe. There was road construction going on for almost 150 km. Some of the road construction we had encountered the day before, like detours, but most of it was new. There were giant square cut-outs of the road just missing. No cone or marker around the hole, just holes. Each square was at least 3 feet by 3 feet and at least a meter deep. Needless to say if a small car drives over one of these going 80mph it could total the car and kill the driver. We found the road construction crew about 30 km from the first hole and they said they were going to go back and fix all the holes before they quit for the day, but it was already dusk, so the chances of that happening are as good as the chiefs winning out grabbing a wild card spot and making a run like the cardinals did last year. Two other things drivers need to be weary of in Malawi are animals in the road and other drivers. The drivers here take the phrase “aggressive” driver to a whole new level. There are only a few roads have more than one lane per side. On all the other roads it is like driving down to Springfield on 7(I think). It is just a scary experience with multiple cars weaving in and out of the lanes passing up to 4 cars at one time, and all this is going on in the middle of road side markets and cities where people are walking and biking on the shoulders all the time. Then you have huge trucks, bigger than semis that can one go like 5-10 miles an hour, and at any given time they will just break down in the middle of the road and sit there for days. Traveling by motor vehicle is one of the scariest things I have ever had to do. As I mentioned before besides the drivers, there are just animals all over the roads. Chickens, goats, sometimes cows, and a plethora of other interesting animals, and the drivers here will stop on a dime to avoid hitting any of the animals, because everyone knows that one chicken in the middle of the road could be a Malawians only source of income. You would think in this situation that that one person who owned the chicken or goat would take better care of it, but no, they just roam around freely until they are needed. On our way back from Lilongwe while trying to avoid the holes in the road, our driver was still doing around 100-120km/h when out of nowhere a goat pops out on the road. The driver hit the brakes and honked the horn, unfortunately for the goat he skipped out of our way and was demolished by the car behind us who hadn’t taken warning to our immediate stop and thought it was a good idea to swerve around us and pass us. Unfortunately for them, their stupidity stopped their journey from that moment on. One thing I do remember vividly about the car that hit the goat was it was a white, shiny, brand new land rover donated by the National Aids Commission in Malawi. Yes, the Malawians and mzungu that drive the white new land rovers are without a doubt the worst drivers on the road. They act like everyone should get out of their way and that the road and country belongs to them. Not a very big fan of those vehicles. In between all this commotion on the ride home I tried to get a nap in, because my stomach was acting up. I have no idea what it was, but Lawrence had the same problem so I’m guessing it was something we had eaten that morning. I got a call from Dad right as we were pulling off the road to get a drink and a snack. It was great to hear a familiar voice and talk for about a minute, but right at I glanced over and saw a toilet sign, my stomach felt like it was about to explode and so I had to quickly hang up the phone and waddle over to the paying toilets. 20MK per use. I was walked into the toilet, which was a hole in the ground no bigger than a roll of duck tape. There was no toilet, just the hole and the enclosed area was about the same size as the dugout holes on the road or 3 ft x 3 ft. There was no tp in the bathroom and at first glance I actually didn’t think that it was physically possible for me to pop a squat. I waddled back outside looking for another quick option, a lady popped out of a shack and said, “EWAY(you) 20 kwacha”, I handed her the money and said “toilet paper”. She looked at me and gave me a couple piece of tp and a quickly waddled back into the paying toilet and found a way to get the job done. It was my first paying roadside toilet and god almighty I hope it is my last. After what seemed like one of the longest days of my adult life, we finally made it back to Chilengoma. Stayed in the same room I had two nights before and loved it again. I used great internet that night and the next morning, and I went into town around 11:30. I met up with Lawrence and did a little shopping and eventually made it back to Amalika. By the way that was Thanksgiving Day, so that night I got to Skpye with dad and Cheryl. We talked on and off for a few hours which was really great, they had a webcam so I got to see familiar faces which was also a very bi g plus for me. Then early the next morning around 1:30 am I woke up and talked to my family for Thanksgiving. It was great to talk to everyone at my dad’s house and then talk to mom, Katie, and Adam who were in Augusta. I apologize if I have jumped around a little bit over these last few points. As I am sitting here writing there is such a crazy rain storm going on outside that the water has started flooding into my room. I never in a million years thought I would be barricading my door with any dirty clothes I could find to keep water out, in Africa! Surreal huh? The wind and rains are so strong that in 45 minutes it has flooded our entire hostel complex. We built a little walkway bridge out of wooden ladders going out of our hostel that was almost 6 inches off the ground and I can’t even see that right now, it has sunk! I hope that gives you a good idea of what TOTO really meant by the rains down in Africa. These rains are no joke. They come, they flood, and then they are gone just like that. When it wasn’t been raining it has gotten really hot. Last Sunday it was 40 degrees Celsius or 104 degrees Fahrenheit on my area. The hardest part about Malawi right now, is the heat. This is the hottest place I have even been, and it is supposed to be the coolest time of the year. Every time the sun hits you, you just feel a little bit weaker and start to move just a little bit slower. Hopefully this weather can even itself off in my last month here, but if not, now I know what to expect, and hey what am I complaining about at least it’s not 20 degrees and in stuck in a foot of snow. Happy Holidays everyone! There is talk of Santa coming to the school’s Christmas party, I wonder who is going to get stuck with that role?
Oh btw Obama bread is supposed to big and hard (tough) and osama bread is small and soft(weak). Just wanted to note that correction.
On the way out of town we had to stop and get some gas. I had previously told you about the diesel crisis here, but just hitting the country was a new petrol crisis. Yep that’s right that means there just isn’t any gas left in Malawi. We went 9 gas stations before we found one that had petrol. By the time we found the one station that had petrol and got in line, my sun burn was kicking in. I was drained, I was tired, and I just wanted to go home. The thing that pushed me over the edge was that every time a car would pull forward, if the car in front of you was turned off then someone would pull around from the back and cut you and 5 other people in line. Oh it was so frustrating, just another way that Malawians show absolutely no respect and no regard for any type of rules(written or unwritten). Our driver, being the brilliant driver he was got into the wrong line, because our gas tank was on the opposite side of the car, so when it was our turn he had to pull out of line and reverse back to the pump. Let’s just say every other car in lot saw this and wanted our spot, including a giant mini-bus that want to pass through cutting us off. I would have none of that, I proceeded to get out of the car walk in front of that bus and stop until our driver had finally gotten the car to the pump. The bus kept honking in my face inching closer and closer and I just turned my back and acted like I was an oblivious mzungu, it worked out pretty well. I didn’t get run over and nobody thought I was intentionally blocking the bus, they thought I was just some stupid white person doing whatever I wanted. After we had waited almost an hour and finally got to the pump, three boys with jugs ran up to the pump and the lady just started filling them up, no wait, they just got gas. Our driver asked the lady why they got this privilege and se said they are her regular customers, that she sees them daily and we are a onetime customer who she will never see again, so they will never have to wait and that’s just how it is. Our driver felt the need to argue, because Malawians feel the need to argue about everything! It wasn’t going to change her mind, just piss her off. She probably gets a bribe from them he said when we were driving home, but the situation reminded me of a KEG PARTY. This gas crisis is like a college kegger at every station. There is a line out the back door to get to the keg. Everyone needs a refill and the line or resemblance of a line is a mess. If you know the guy pumping or pouring the cups, you can sneak up behind them and get a quick refill with no questions asked and if anyone says something to the pourer or pumper about it, then that person might as well just go to the back of the line, b/c that cup is not getting filled for a while. In Lilongwe, it was like being that random dude at a FRAT party. Yes you came with some girls you know or are a friend of someone in the frat, but you are still getting stared at by every dude there who is asking themselves who is that random dude with? It is an awkward situation and that is how I felt that day in this nation’s capital. On our drive home our bad luck didn’t stop. The roads were terrible, worse than the day before on our drive to Lilongwe. There was road construction going on for almost 150 km. Some of the road construction we had encountered the day before, like detours, but most of it was new. There were giant square cut-outs of the road just missing. No cone or marker around the hole, just holes. Each square was at least 3 feet by 3 feet and at least a meter deep. Needless to say if a small car drives over one of these going 80mph it could total the car and kill the driver. We found the road construction crew about 30 km from the first hole and they said they were going to go back and fix all the holes before they quit for the day, but it was already dusk, so the chances of that happening are as good as the chiefs winning out grabbing a wild card spot and making a run like the cardinals did last year. Two other things drivers need to be weary of in Malawi are animals in the road and other drivers. The drivers here take the phrase “aggressive” driver to a whole new level. There are only a few roads have more than one lane per side. On all the other roads it is like driving down to Springfield on 7(I think). It is just a scary experience with multiple cars weaving in and out of the lanes passing up to 4 cars at one time, and all this is going on in the middle of road side markets and cities where people are walking and biking on the shoulders all the time. Then you have huge trucks, bigger than semis that can one go like 5-10 miles an hour, and at any given time they will just break down in the middle of the road and sit there for days. Traveling by motor vehicle is one of the scariest things I have ever had to do. As I mentioned before besides the drivers, there are just animals all over the roads. Chickens, goats, sometimes cows, and a plethora of other interesting animals, and the drivers here will stop on a dime to avoid hitting any of the animals, because everyone knows that one chicken in the middle of the road could be a Malawians only source of income. You would think in this situation that that one person who owned the chicken or goat would take better care of it, but no, they just roam around freely until they are needed. On our way back from Lilongwe while trying to avoid the holes in the road, our driver was still doing around 100-120km/h when out of nowhere a goat pops out on the road. The driver hit the brakes and honked the horn, unfortunately for the goat he skipped out of our way and was demolished by the car behind us who hadn’t taken warning to our immediate stop and thought it was a good idea to swerve around us and pass us. Unfortunately for them, their stupidity stopped their journey from that moment on. One thing I do remember vividly about the car that hit the goat was it was a white, shiny, brand new land rover donated by the National Aids Commission in Malawi. Yes, the Malawians and mzungu that drive the white new land rovers are without a doubt the worst drivers on the road. They act like everyone should get out of their way and that the road and country belongs to them. Not a very big fan of those vehicles. In between all this commotion on the ride home I tried to get a nap in, because my stomach was acting up. I have no idea what it was, but Lawrence had the same problem so I’m guessing it was something we had eaten that morning. I got a call from Dad right as we were pulling off the road to get a drink and a snack. It was great to hear a familiar voice and talk for about a minute, but right at I glanced over and saw a toilet sign, my stomach felt like it was about to explode and so I had to quickly hang up the phone and waddle over to the paying toilets. 20MK per use. I was walked into the toilet, which was a hole in the ground no bigger than a roll of duck tape. There was no toilet, just the hole and the enclosed area was about the same size as the dugout holes on the road or 3 ft x 3 ft. There was no tp in the bathroom and at first glance I actually didn’t think that it was physically possible for me to pop a squat. I waddled back outside looking for another quick option, a lady popped out of a shack and said, “EWAY(you) 20 kwacha”, I handed her the money and said “toilet paper”. She looked at me and gave me a couple piece of tp and a quickly waddled back into the paying toilet and found a way to get the job done. It was my first paying roadside toilet and god almighty I hope it is my last. After what seemed like one of the longest days of my adult life, we finally made it back to Chilengoma. Stayed in the same room I had two nights before and loved it again. I used great internet that night and the next morning, and I went into town around 11:30. I met up with Lawrence and did a little shopping and eventually made it back to Amalika. By the way that was Thanksgiving Day, so that night I got to Skpye with dad and Cheryl. We talked on and off for a few hours which was really great, they had a webcam so I got to see familiar faces which was also a very bi g plus for me. Then early the next morning around 1:30 am I woke up and talked to my family for Thanksgiving. It was great to talk to everyone at my dad’s house and then talk to mom, Katie, and Adam who were in Augusta. I apologize if I have jumped around a little bit over these last few points. As I am sitting here writing there is such a crazy rain storm going on outside that the water has started flooding into my room. I never in a million years thought I would be barricading my door with any dirty clothes I could find to keep water out, in Africa! Surreal huh? The wind and rains are so strong that in 45 minutes it has flooded our entire hostel complex. We built a little walkway bridge out of wooden ladders going out of our hostel that was almost 6 inches off the ground and I can’t even see that right now, it has sunk! I hope that gives you a good idea of what TOTO really meant by the rains down in Africa. These rains are no joke. They come, they flood, and then they are gone just like that. When it wasn’t been raining it has gotten really hot. Last Sunday it was 40 degrees Celsius or 104 degrees Fahrenheit on my area. The hardest part about Malawi right now, is the heat. This is the hottest place I have even been, and it is supposed to be the coolest time of the year. Every time the sun hits you, you just feel a little bit weaker and start to move just a little bit slower. Hopefully this weather can even itself off in my last month here, but if not, now I know what to expect, and hey what am I complaining about at least it’s not 20 degrees and in stuck in a foot of snow. Happy Holidays everyone! There is talk of Santa coming to the school’s Christmas party, I wonder who is going to get stuck with that role?
Oh btw Obama bread is supposed to big and hard (tough) and osama bread is small and soft(weak). Just wanted to note that correction.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Big Week
BIG WEEK.
On Monday I found out that there was a cornerstone event at the new TTC In Dowa on Wednesday. I was also informed that I would be attending with Lawrence. We would be the Planet Aid representatives at the event. Upon hearing the news I was very excited, because if for no other reason, I would finally get to meet at least one American! That American, which I did meet and I was able to have a brief, but nice conversation with, was the US Ambassador to Malawi, Peter Bodde. Life is funny sometimes huh? I have been trying to meet an American for two months and coincidently the first one I do meet is the second most important American in Malawi. I say second, because if you asked any Malawian who the most famous/ important American is they would all tell you Madonna. Now I don’t have very good feelings towards Madonna and her NGO Raising Malawi, because she is essentially buying her love from the people, but that is the way things are done down here and even if you don’t like it you just have to except it. If you ask me, Peter Bodde is the most influential American in Malawi and I felt very blessed that I was able to meet him and hear how he felt about DAPP, Planet Aid, and Humana People to People. He was very impressed with the work DAPP is doing and has done in Malawi. He said that he likes working with DAPP, because they get the job done and are thinking about the future. It was really nice for me to hear what he thought on a personal level. It was also nice to hear the US Ambassador support organizations that are constantly criticized and called names in the USA. He basically said the same thing that I tell people when they ask me about it, he talked about how if the money being donated wasn’t going to the right places, then the US government wouldn’t be giving millions of dollars to these organizations.
So on Monday during the day we had the worst or best (depending on how you look at it) rain storms since I had gotten here. Because of these rains I left with Charlotte Monday night. We went to Chilengoma the other TTC in Chileka. We stayed the night at Chilengoma and left for Lilongwe early in the morning on Tuesday. Chilengoma is also where the HQ is for DAPP in Malawi. The room I stayed in was like a 5-star hotel. It was so much better than the hotel room I stayed in over the weekend of Lawrence’s wedding. I couldn’t believe it. The bed was great and the best thing of all…hot water! The shower had hot and cold water, I was so shocked I didn’t know what to do. I turned on the hot water and it shocked me, it shocked me so much I ended up taking a luke warm water shower because hot even warm was just too much. After my great Tuesday morning shower I got dressed and found Lawrence already at the school at 6 am. I checked facebook and a few emails before we had to go, it was great not only does the Chilengoma TTC have hot water and comfortable beds, but it has electricity all the time and GREAT internet. Now I know why Lawrence and Amanda told me that I should go to Chilengoma instead of Amalika. Ha Ha. We were a little delayed from the start of our trip, because we had some unexpected setbacks. One was that Charlotte was going to fly to Lilongwe in the early morning, so she could meet with the Minister of Education before the session of parlament began on Tuesday, but Air Malawi is just about as reliable as you would expect it to be. The told her at 6am when the plan was supposed to leave, that the flight hadn’t taken off yet from where ever it was coming from. Flying in Malawi is on a luck basis. Most of the time you have to wait between 2-4 hours for your flight, if they don’t cancel it all together. So Charlotte came with us, the other setback we had was one of our other passengers Innock had made an il-advised trip into Blantyre without speaking to Charlotte. We spent about an hour waiting and trying to find him. He kept saying I’m only a few minutes away, when eventually we came to find out his taxi has a blown tire and he was actually stuck on the side of the road (I thought it was kind of humorous when we found out where he really was, because he was NEVER going to get to us if we would have continued to wait for him instead of going to find him). After we got all our passengers in we took off an hour and a half late. The drive to Lilongwe takes about 4 hours. I will talk more about the condition later, but one of the really interesting things is that once you have driven for about an hour the road drives right along the Malawian border. On one side of the road is Malawi and on the other side is Mozambique. It is exactly like driving down state line road in Kansas City! I guess the one minor difference is that instead of different color street signs on opposite sides of the road, there are different colored houses. One the Mozambique side all of the houses are gray and painted, and on the Malawi side the houses aren’t painted and are just the mud/clay/brick color which coincidently is all the same color red. I slept for a little bit of the ride, but mostly just stared out my window into beautiful mountains and a never ending blazing sky. The views are constantly breath taking, if for no other reason people should take vacations to remote parts of the world to just enjoy the untouched earth’s beauty. If I never make it back to Malawi, I will miss the wonders of this mystic land. When we got into Lilongwe it was time to work. Charlotte got her meeting rescheduled, Lawrence and the driver went off to the site to meet representatives from the US Embassy, and Innock and I walked around Lilongwe busily running errands. We ate lunch at a place called McDauds. I think the people tried to build the restaurant like McDonalds, but failed miserably. The food was not good and overpriced, and the food wasn’t at all fried so yea it was nothing like McDonalds. After lunch Innock and I walked to an internet café that was on the other side of town. I we had 45 minutes to kill while we were waiting on some pictures to get laminated, but we walked across town when there was an internet café basically next door to where we were so I was little clueless about that decision. On the way back it started to rain, but Innock said “Do you see the people running for shelter? If you don’t then it’s not really raining!” I got what he was saying, but by the time we got back to the copy center I was still soaking wet. Oh well T.I.A (this is Africa) right? Later we met back up with Charlotte and ran some more errands before going back to the hotel. When we got to the hotel we had to order dinner at the front desk, I was famished so I ordered chicken and chips with an extra side of rice. Since I didn’t put in my order till after 5pm, it wasn’t ready until almost 8:15. Let’s just say by the time I got my food I was very visibly frustrated, I almost didn’t eat. I got up to leave and just go to bed when Lawrence said Paul your food is on the table. The lady at the desk said that there were several other orders in front of mine, and that mine was the last to be served for the night. I really didn’t want to hear excuses I just wanted to eat, but excuses or a certain reasons why always come out of someone’s mouth before you get what you’re looking for, and yes it is ten times worse here. People here start sentences with, “well the problem is”, constantly. Ahh, that is frustrating. [On a quick side note I just received my Bday care package from my mom! I was sitting in room reading Dark Star Safari and one of the new comers Hannah knocked on my door with a package for me. I was so happy/excited I wanted to just grab her and kiss her! I don’t know if that would have gone over so well seeing as she is a very nice/ respectful South Korean girl, so I calmly took the package and then gave her a big hug. I opened the package expecting there to be a note from some South African customs agent reading: Sorry my family needed the contents of this package more than you do, better luck next time. But in fact everything was still inside. Today is Monday November 30, so it only took 6 weeks for the package to get to me, but the important thing is that it got here! Thanks so much mom I feel like a little kiddy on Christmas, or like a young Paul Titterington on Halloween(b/c Halloween is my bday, so my neighbors would give me extra candy and other stuff). I am so excited to charge my new computer battery and that I will actually have more than 45 minutes of battery life. I usually hate Mondays, but this Monday has turned out to be a pretty darn good day. Thanks again mom, love you! Oh and as a note to everyone else, I would not suggest sending anything else since this is now my 8th week and now I only have a little over a month left, so I most likely wouldn’t receive anything. So if you have something for me I know I will enjoy it immensely when I get back to the states…now back to paulsadventuresinmalawi] So the day of the Cornerstone presentation finally came, and we got up around 6 and ate an interesting breakfast and set off. We had to stop by the airport and pick up the DAPP Malawi country director Lisbeth Thompson at the airport, but it was on the way so it didn’t set us back at all. After we picked her up we drove out to the building site for the third TTC. The site is in an area called Dowa, I actually really liked where they had chosen the site for this new school. The other two TTCs are far away from almost everything, but this new one was close to a new primary and secondary schools and from across the road towards the horizon you can see the Somalinian/Ethiopian/ Congolese(I think those are all right and there might be more) refugee camp. I like that the students and staff will have the opportunity to work with refugees. I guess you can say I was excited for the future prospects of this school. So once we had arrived we starting setting up the day. We put together as much as we could, while we waited and waited and waited on the contractor to bring out a small generator, a table, and display boards. The function was supposed to start at ten sharp and wouldn’t you know it the contractor and his crew didn’t show up until right at 9:30, I thought Charlotte was going to have a heart attack. I was nervous also, because I didn’t want the ceremony to look sloppy for all the people that were coming. There was supposed to be a DAPP choir to sing for all the guests, that didn’t show up until 10:45, let’s just say Charlotte and Lisbeth were not very happy with them, it was a little embarrassing for all of us. When the contractor’s workers finally got to the site they obnoxiously kept honking their horns, they dropped off the two display boards, one of which that was broken and left honking and laughing, thinking they were making some grand entrance and exit. Lawrence said that they are just boys and these kids have no respect for anything or anybody, which I agree with and have seen on several occasions. Once the guests started to arrive and the ceremony started it was quick and efficient. It was a nice one hour ceremony, because that was all the time the US Ambassador could spare. I got to chat with him a little about Thanksgiving and I also got to meet a representative from the Finnish (Finland) consulot (sp). I really enjoyed talking to this lady she was very nice and very curious about me. It was the first time that someone had shown genuine interest about who I was and what I was doing since I had gotten here, well besides Charlotte. At the end of the ceremony I helped the Ambassador plant a tree and then there were refreshments. At some point on this cloudy morning the sun had popped out for just about an hour. During that hour it roasted me like your Thanksgiving turkey. I haven’t had that bad of sun burn in a few years. The only good thing that comes out of this sun burn is that I should have a great tan when I get back to the states, well at least a great farmer’s tan, because it’s kind of disrespectful to take off your shirt to even out your tan lines down here.
On Monday I found out that there was a cornerstone event at the new TTC In Dowa on Wednesday. I was also informed that I would be attending with Lawrence. We would be the Planet Aid representatives at the event. Upon hearing the news I was very excited, because if for no other reason, I would finally get to meet at least one American! That American, which I did meet and I was able to have a brief, but nice conversation with, was the US Ambassador to Malawi, Peter Bodde. Life is funny sometimes huh? I have been trying to meet an American for two months and coincidently the first one I do meet is the second most important American in Malawi. I say second, because if you asked any Malawian who the most famous/ important American is they would all tell you Madonna. Now I don’t have very good feelings towards Madonna and her NGO Raising Malawi, because she is essentially buying her love from the people, but that is the way things are done down here and even if you don’t like it you just have to except it. If you ask me, Peter Bodde is the most influential American in Malawi and I felt very blessed that I was able to meet him and hear how he felt about DAPP, Planet Aid, and Humana People to People. He was very impressed with the work DAPP is doing and has done in Malawi. He said that he likes working with DAPP, because they get the job done and are thinking about the future. It was really nice for me to hear what he thought on a personal level. It was also nice to hear the US Ambassador support organizations that are constantly criticized and called names in the USA. He basically said the same thing that I tell people when they ask me about it, he talked about how if the money being donated wasn’t going to the right places, then the US government wouldn’t be giving millions of dollars to these organizations.
So on Monday during the day we had the worst or best (depending on how you look at it) rain storms since I had gotten here. Because of these rains I left with Charlotte Monday night. We went to Chilengoma the other TTC in Chileka. We stayed the night at Chilengoma and left for Lilongwe early in the morning on Tuesday. Chilengoma is also where the HQ is for DAPP in Malawi. The room I stayed in was like a 5-star hotel. It was so much better than the hotel room I stayed in over the weekend of Lawrence’s wedding. I couldn’t believe it. The bed was great and the best thing of all…hot water! The shower had hot and cold water, I was so shocked I didn’t know what to do. I turned on the hot water and it shocked me, it shocked me so much I ended up taking a luke warm water shower because hot even warm was just too much. After my great Tuesday morning shower I got dressed and found Lawrence already at the school at 6 am. I checked facebook and a few emails before we had to go, it was great not only does the Chilengoma TTC have hot water and comfortable beds, but it has electricity all the time and GREAT internet. Now I know why Lawrence and Amanda told me that I should go to Chilengoma instead of Amalika. Ha Ha. We were a little delayed from the start of our trip, because we had some unexpected setbacks. One was that Charlotte was going to fly to Lilongwe in the early morning, so she could meet with the Minister of Education before the session of parlament began on Tuesday, but Air Malawi is just about as reliable as you would expect it to be. The told her at 6am when the plan was supposed to leave, that the flight hadn’t taken off yet from where ever it was coming from. Flying in Malawi is on a luck basis. Most of the time you have to wait between 2-4 hours for your flight, if they don’t cancel it all together. So Charlotte came with us, the other setback we had was one of our other passengers Innock had made an il-advised trip into Blantyre without speaking to Charlotte. We spent about an hour waiting and trying to find him. He kept saying I’m only a few minutes away, when eventually we came to find out his taxi has a blown tire and he was actually stuck on the side of the road (I thought it was kind of humorous when we found out where he really was, because he was NEVER going to get to us if we would have continued to wait for him instead of going to find him). After we got all our passengers in we took off an hour and a half late. The drive to Lilongwe takes about 4 hours. I will talk more about the condition later, but one of the really interesting things is that once you have driven for about an hour the road drives right along the Malawian border. On one side of the road is Malawi and on the other side is Mozambique. It is exactly like driving down state line road in Kansas City! I guess the one minor difference is that instead of different color street signs on opposite sides of the road, there are different colored houses. One the Mozambique side all of the houses are gray and painted, and on the Malawi side the houses aren’t painted and are just the mud/clay/brick color which coincidently is all the same color red. I slept for a little bit of the ride, but mostly just stared out my window into beautiful mountains and a never ending blazing sky. The views are constantly breath taking, if for no other reason people should take vacations to remote parts of the world to just enjoy the untouched earth’s beauty. If I never make it back to Malawi, I will miss the wonders of this mystic land. When we got into Lilongwe it was time to work. Charlotte got her meeting rescheduled, Lawrence and the driver went off to the site to meet representatives from the US Embassy, and Innock and I walked around Lilongwe busily running errands. We ate lunch at a place called McDauds. I think the people tried to build the restaurant like McDonalds, but failed miserably. The food was not good and overpriced, and the food wasn’t at all fried so yea it was nothing like McDonalds. After lunch Innock and I walked to an internet café that was on the other side of town. I we had 45 minutes to kill while we were waiting on some pictures to get laminated, but we walked across town when there was an internet café basically next door to where we were so I was little clueless about that decision. On the way back it started to rain, but Innock said “Do you see the people running for shelter? If you don’t then it’s not really raining!” I got what he was saying, but by the time we got back to the copy center I was still soaking wet. Oh well T.I.A (this is Africa) right? Later we met back up with Charlotte and ran some more errands before going back to the hotel. When we got to the hotel we had to order dinner at the front desk, I was famished so I ordered chicken and chips with an extra side of rice. Since I didn’t put in my order till after 5pm, it wasn’t ready until almost 8:15. Let’s just say by the time I got my food I was very visibly frustrated, I almost didn’t eat. I got up to leave and just go to bed when Lawrence said Paul your food is on the table. The lady at the desk said that there were several other orders in front of mine, and that mine was the last to be served for the night. I really didn’t want to hear excuses I just wanted to eat, but excuses or a certain reasons why always come out of someone’s mouth before you get what you’re looking for, and yes it is ten times worse here. People here start sentences with, “well the problem is”, constantly. Ahh, that is frustrating. [On a quick side note I just received my Bday care package from my mom! I was sitting in room reading Dark Star Safari and one of the new comers Hannah knocked on my door with a package for me. I was so happy/excited I wanted to just grab her and kiss her! I don’t know if that would have gone over so well seeing as she is a very nice/ respectful South Korean girl, so I calmly took the package and then gave her a big hug. I opened the package expecting there to be a note from some South African customs agent reading: Sorry my family needed the contents of this package more than you do, better luck next time. But in fact everything was still inside. Today is Monday November 30, so it only took 6 weeks for the package to get to me, but the important thing is that it got here! Thanks so much mom I feel like a little kiddy on Christmas, or like a young Paul Titterington on Halloween(b/c Halloween is my bday, so my neighbors would give me extra candy and other stuff). I am so excited to charge my new computer battery and that I will actually have more than 45 minutes of battery life. I usually hate Mondays, but this Monday has turned out to be a pretty darn good day. Thanks again mom, love you! Oh and as a note to everyone else, I would not suggest sending anything else since this is now my 8th week and now I only have a little over a month left, so I most likely wouldn’t receive anything. So if you have something for me I know I will enjoy it immensely when I get back to the states…now back to paulsadventuresinmalawi] So the day of the Cornerstone presentation finally came, and we got up around 6 and ate an interesting breakfast and set off. We had to stop by the airport and pick up the DAPP Malawi country director Lisbeth Thompson at the airport, but it was on the way so it didn’t set us back at all. After we picked her up we drove out to the building site for the third TTC. The site is in an area called Dowa, I actually really liked where they had chosen the site for this new school. The other two TTCs are far away from almost everything, but this new one was close to a new primary and secondary schools and from across the road towards the horizon you can see the Somalinian/Ethiopian/ Congolese(I think those are all right and there might be more) refugee camp. I like that the students and staff will have the opportunity to work with refugees. I guess you can say I was excited for the future prospects of this school. So once we had arrived we starting setting up the day. We put together as much as we could, while we waited and waited and waited on the contractor to bring out a small generator, a table, and display boards. The function was supposed to start at ten sharp and wouldn’t you know it the contractor and his crew didn’t show up until right at 9:30, I thought Charlotte was going to have a heart attack. I was nervous also, because I didn’t want the ceremony to look sloppy for all the people that were coming. There was supposed to be a DAPP choir to sing for all the guests, that didn’t show up until 10:45, let’s just say Charlotte and Lisbeth were not very happy with them, it was a little embarrassing for all of us. When the contractor’s workers finally got to the site they obnoxiously kept honking their horns, they dropped off the two display boards, one of which that was broken and left honking and laughing, thinking they were making some grand entrance and exit. Lawrence said that they are just boys and these kids have no respect for anything or anybody, which I agree with and have seen on several occasions. Once the guests started to arrive and the ceremony started it was quick and efficient. It was a nice one hour ceremony, because that was all the time the US Ambassador could spare. I got to chat with him a little about Thanksgiving and I also got to meet a representative from the Finnish (Finland) consulot (sp). I really enjoyed talking to this lady she was very nice and very curious about me. It was the first time that someone had shown genuine interest about who I was and what I was doing since I had gotten here, well besides Charlotte. At the end of the ceremony I helped the Ambassador plant a tree and then there were refreshments. At some point on this cloudy morning the sun had popped out for just about an hour. During that hour it roasted me like your Thanksgiving turkey. I haven’t had that bad of sun burn in a few years. The only good thing that comes out of this sun burn is that I should have a great tan when I get back to the states, well at least a great farmer’s tan, because it’s kind of disrespectful to take off your shirt to even out your tan lines down here.
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