Perhaps it's time to get down to it?

So my thesis is due in about 1.5 weeks…and I really should get going on this assessment….but I haven’t heard from my contact here in Blantyre and what will one more day of adjustment hurt? So that is how I found myself at Jungle Pepper Pizza at 11am this morning with Mairi, another Scottish volunteer who just joined us last night.

I am really impressed by Mairi. It’s her gap year (well second gap year) before she starts university and she has come back to Malawi where she worked for 8 months last year in an orphanage. She wants to learn the local language so she can come back and work once she is a midwife. She is not even twenty- this girl is impressive!

She wasn’t too far from Blantyre when she was here last year, so she knows all the places to eat which is how we ended up getting pizza reminiscent of the kind you used to have in elementary school cafeterias (all doughy and delicious) before noon on a Monday. I, of course, order a pineapple Fanta as well.

We decided to walk through the local market since she wanted some fresh veggies and I was in search of limes, lemons, and the local tangerine. We were successful on all counts (plus some fabric) but realized that our delay at the pizza meant we were wandering around at the height of the midday heat, not good at all. I am grateful for my sunblock and Ethiopian linen shawl.

I am continually amazed by how hot the sun is here, and how bright the stars are (especially when the power is out). I curse my blue eyes which are basically paralyzed by the sun. All of the volunteers at the lodge have a slight pinkish ting to their coloring and I think it may only be a matter of time even with my 45 level protection.

It was a nice way to spend that day, but I am starting to feel antsy. I haven’t heard a thing from either of my contacts so I think that tomorrow I really must start calling people out of the blue, whether I have an introduction from my local counterpart or not!

Of course, I have just found another reason to delay. Charles is picking me up tomorrow morning to tour some of the schools where the Freshwater Project (see earlier post "Water First") is working and to discuss how I might incorporate some of his work into my research!