Good thing hippos only eat marbles

Before I tell you about my weekend in Liwonde National Park, I'd like to take a moment to show you the biggest bug bit I've ever had:

Note the difference in size between my left (normal) hand and my right (freakishly large) hand. This notable change in appearance of my own two hands kept me occupied for most of the car trip--note that it takes 2.5 hours to get to Liwonde.

Okay, to the weekend: It was amazing. My roommate/workmate/former peace corp volunteer in Malawi/excel master (our trip was in a spreadsheet) Joe organized an awesome excursion down south to Liwonde National Park. Here's Joe in living color as we're leaving Lilongwe.

On our drive down, you'll never believe what I saw (and fortunately for you, took a picture of)--how about Mozambique.

And if you think that picture is poor in quality, you're in for a real treat throughout this blog posting...(something is wrong with my crappy camera and I would like a new one please).

So we arrived at Chinguni Lodge and it was amazing--it kind of felt like you were hanging out at some guys house or something. Here's John and Joe at dinner:

Right so the next day we woke up 5:30am for a morning walk/safari. I really enjoyed just being outside, you know, with the elephants and buck. If you are thinking the same thing I was thinking, yes, there are tons and tons of snakes. I did not see any but I knew they were all around.

Since my friends took much better pictures of the animals, I opted for two different approaches in safari:

1. The safariers become the safaried

2. And even more so...

Since I'm not that into Safari, the morning walk was my favorite because I could sort of run around, etc. During the afternoon we went out on a canoe ride WITH HIPPOS EVERYWHERE and I was feeling both SCARED and antsy. This picture doesn't show it because it was only hour one.

Oh, and do you like the hat? I was feeling very British Safari in the 1800s in that thing and couldn't quite break out of character, see:

But the reason I was so scared about the Hippos is check out how close they were: At one point I looked out and saw this which really made me wonder if I'd made the right choice coming out here: Yup, I'm down with my decision.

Here are the ladies from the weekend--that's Kate on the left and Marva on my right. As you can see the roads were a bit bumpy...

Right after we took that picture, check out what we ran into:

We left pretty early Sunday morning so we could stop along the way. John made lots of friends through his strong command of chichewa.

I made one purchase.

So all in all a great weekend. Oh, and the bug bite is much better.

Happy birthday to you, America

Right, so the first week I was here happened to coincide with America's birthday--and for those of you who don't know, that's July 4th (I can really only imagine the international attention this blog attracts). Anyway, I went to the Ambassador's house for what I thought was a little picnic. Here he is, Ambassador Alan Eastham, speaking (at what is clearly a bit more than a picnic):Note the sound system in the background--the national anthem played shortly after. Also the flower arrangements are red, white and blue (this was no accident).

I felt a little funny at this event. First of all, I was very much under dressed--most everyone was in suits or the traditional Malawian garb. I, however, opted for slightly different attire with a sweater that my friend Kathleen once observed "looks like my grandma knit." Here's what I looked like:

I think the best part of the entire event was what I took home:
If you can't tell, that's 2 American paper napkins (one festive, the other official), an American flag pencil (for all of my pencil needs), and a pin depicting the unity of Malawi and America.

Anyway, I was a little under dressed, but I think all in all I carried myself well. I can't wait for Labor day.

Pancake face

Boy, do I have a lot to write about Malawi today. Let me begin with pancakes. This morning Anne left our little home to head back to South Africa, but before going she made pancakes.
And not just for me--we had friends over (yesss)
That's Kate and Amy, and in the middle is my newest friend John. He's from Australia and we met last weekend at the Lake. Then when I was walking to the market to buy a bike yesterday (more on that soon), I ran into him again (on his bike).

So back to pancakes. I was in charge of fruit salad and syrup--see:
And, I ate all of my pancakes--check it.
Then as Anne was leaving, we took one last photo of the four of us:
Can you see the pancakes in my stomach? I was wicked full.

Signing off for now but I promise there's a good blog coming up. Sneak previews: I got a bike and it's red; Lilongwe's market rules (O-wee-no); long overdue America's birthday.

Going to the what? To the lake.

So as it turns out, I'm a part time worker here in Malawi (sort of like a "part time student" - Mr. Lavin, Springfield High School, 1999). But it's not because I'm pretending to be sick, rather I just happened to arrive during a 3-day work week. Wednesday was America's birthday and Friday was Malawi's Independence Day--all in all, sticking it to the Brits, bam. Anyway, a few new friends of mine and I decided to hit up Lake Malawi for the long weekend--I mean, let's face it, I deserved a break.

Right, so we took off...
That's Kate on the left--she's a Brit researching sanitation at primary schools for her thesis. The driver is Amy and she absolutely rocks. Amy's my neighbor and I'm actually at her house as I write this--yeah, she's getting A LOT of Emily time. In the backseat is me (not shown) and Anne (also, not shown).

Don't worry though, I took an artsy picture of my shadow when we pulled over.
It's like I'm becoming a hipster...

Okay, not really because I still like non-urban areas and trees. Check out this Baobab we saw on the side of the road (see Kate and I for scale).

Further distancing myself from hipsterdom, I hugged it...

At the tree we made some friends...

It took us nearly 5 hours to reach Monkey Bay/Cape Maclear, but it was seriously worth it. Below is a photo of the porch off our room--I'm missing the olden days and Kate is pretending to do work for her thesis.

Oh and this was on the other side...

After a long breakfast on Saturday we went to an island for some snorkeling. As you can see, I did a really good job hiking--I'm fast and athletic.

Then came the snorkeling. I think I look prettiest in this shot--nice to publish it on the internets.

Here's a picture Amy took of us before dinner, but clearly, after sun (see my raging red face as warning for prolonged sun exposure).

Right, so I hope you all enjoyed this explosion of culture and all of the insight I'm bringing you on Malawi--you're welcome.

"There are no cats in America and the streets are paved with cheese" - Fievel and Mouse friends

The first person I met when I arrived at my new home was Victor . He's great. He told me where to run in our neighborhood (area 43) as well as the visual differences between sugarcane (pictured below) and bamboo (not in picture, but growing in yard). Note: he didn't tell me all of that right when I arrived, but we've had subsequent conversations.

After meeting Victor I saw the house I'll be living in for the next 6 months...and almost peed my pants.

Granted, it doesn't have the b-ball court down the street that the old place in Columbia Heights hosted, but I figured it will do. If fact I think the yard makes up for its sporty shortcomings.


And guess what I found inside? How about some small, small roommates?

The woman in the front was just over for dinner, but the one in the middle is Jamila and next to her is Joe. Jamila is only here until July 7th--she's on a visit from headquarters. Joe did Peace Corp in Malawi a few years ago and is currently working on a survey. Sadly, he leaves in August. However, when Joe leaves I'm going to take his room. I mean, mine's cool, but I think it's mostly just because I live in it.

Oh, and I forgot to mention our other roommate. She has no name so I'm calling her O'ball (like the gorilla Coco's kitten--"Coco loves O'ball"). She's no Benjy, but she's cuter than the alien picture below.
So each of these pictures took roughly 6 hours to upload which forces me to end this posting now--I'm camping out on someone's couch...and I've been here for 3 hours! yikes.

But before I sign off, I should say that so far so good. I'm finding the work really interesting, and I feel fortunate that they're giving me a lot of challenging projects up front. I think this line of work could be a really good fit...but more on the job soon. And I can't wait to explore more of Lilongwe--I've gotten permission to get a bike which will really open up the city. Man, the hipsters will be so jealous because it looks like the only bikes are single speed. Right on.

My life = big, fat hypocrisy

It's true. I mean not only did I say I wouldn't have a blog, I even poked fun at them in my departing from US mass email (and that wasn't the first time). And here I am, blogging it up. But before you pull out the stinging words, please take a moment to read my following hypothetical conversation with you and I think you'll see, I truly have you in mind:

Q1. Me: Do you really want your inbox accosted by mass emails? (keep in mind that while informative and illustrative of my time here, these may become lengthy--particularly with photos).
You: Wow, Emily thanks so much for keeping my best interests in mind. While I disagree that your emails could ever be lengthy because they're just so interesting, I appreciate that my inbox will not reach full capacity with large files. You're truly the greatest.

Q2. Me: Do you want to know what's going on with my incredibly interesting life here?
You: Do I?!?...I only wish you had started one of these earlier! When I think of all that I missed out on with your life in DC, it hurts.

So as you see, this is for you, all for you...

I'll try to keep my postings brief and photo heavy--even this one, I managed to put a photo of myself blogging (how clever!).

Note that none of these opinions reflect, um the opinions of anyone else...? (I don't know, I feel like I need a disclaimer)