There is a common argument, or perhaps better stated, an uneasiness when it comes to being a sports fan in certain circles. If you’re too enthusiastic about sports then you can’t be that well versed in politics or art or some other potentially intellectual or cultural endeavor. Or if you care about it […]

Since I’ve been in Malawi I have been to the doctor more times in 5 months than in the previous 5 years. If you work for the U.S. government Malawi is considered a hardship posting (more money) and probably the key reason is if a serious health problem occurs you would need to be […]

Alrighty it’s finally posted. Yes, the vlog was supposed to be up yesterday but I had to play with the compression of the video and that took some time. The current file is quite large (37.1MB) but not as big as the first go (202.2MB). As you might expect the 202.2 file […]

Reading the newspapers here is quite an interesting endeavor. The cultural differences are quite clear which makes for some amusing reading at times. Papers at home are often humorous as well but in a different way. They can be so ridiculous, jingoistic and full of bad information that make U.S. news publications […]

When Dr. Hastings Banda was president of Malawi there were no walls around the houses. It was 1994. In 2006 there are walls around all the rich folks’ houses, many with barbed wire and security systems with panic buttons. This is not to praise Banda or lament about the good old days […]

Ouch, another long silence of late. It’s been tricky here in Malawi. Visitors plus lots of work recently equals successive days of silence. That being said my ma and pa (Marge and Don) arrived this past Friday from Asheville, North Carolina via Johannesburg. There here for about 16 days and so […]

some got too much … others too little

This past Saturday night there was a concert at the Capital Hotel titled African Roots American Music. It was sponsored by the U.S. Embassy to celebrate Black History Month. Mitchell Moss, who works at the embassy, and the Malawian band Kalimba toured around Malawi playing blues music and in Lilongwe were accompanied […]

Today is Martyrs Day in Malawi to celebrate those who died fighting for Malawi’s independence. First and foremost there is John Chilembwe, whom I wrote about earlier, who also has his own day and is on all the money here. The others to be recognized are those that died in February and March […]

Yesterday morning required another trip to the beloved Malawi Immigration office. We needed to get TC sorted out on a visa extension and, as expected, another journey down inefficient road. We got there at 7:30am and went to the door I had gone to previously even though it was locked up. Humorously, […]