Pre-holidays

I'm heading to Cape Town tomorrow. Post South Africa I predict the fleeting memories I have of the last month er so will be replaced with wine tours, beaches, and shark diving. To remedy this, I'm trying to get it all down before I take off.

This might turn into bullet points as it gets later and I get more tired..

Let me start off by saying, we finished The Wire. Good show. Not as spectacular as I was hoping (BSG still wins), but seasons 4 and 5 came through.

My last post concluded with some low key weekends at Bunda and trying to make nice with local kids. I'm still working on the latter. Lately, the most kid interaction I get is random youngsters yelling some version of my name from extreme distances when I'm walking to work. Most times I don't recognize it until I've almost passed by so then I need to turn and wave my hand in acknowledgement. It's a step, at least.

Taking up where we left off:

Our pal, Brian, finished up his field work giving us reason to celebrate. We headed into town to for swanky Italian food and wine, but this was PhD field work so a road trip was in order.

I think we convinced him with our repeated "You'd love Zomba" comments, but whatever the case, he decided that was the place to go. Heading back to the plateau's lil' cabin in the pine/cedar forests was delightful. The first night, post the 6 hour drive, we celebrated. It started with wine and then moved to cane and finally rum. It was a bit messy, but all-in-all well worth the slight hangover the next day. Sure, we started off our day lazing around, but we quickly changed gears and headed down the plateau into town for breakfast. (Obviously back to Bethel and the Christian bookstore.) This exerted all the energy we'd built up from the morning so we opted to go back up the plateau for much needed resting. That afternoon we trekked down the road to what had earlier been spotted as a possible swimming destination. The water wasn't frigid, but it was far from warm. We'd managed to relax for a half hour next to our little waterfall and bypass a close encounter with a baboon before the local water authority came by and asked us to leave. By this time we were ready for another rest-turned-nap and headed back to the cabin.
The trip details get a little blurry after this, but over the next couple days we went out for another celebratory supper, found a second waterfall for wading, hiked to top of the plateau, and managed to finish our homemade veggie chili.

Once again, Zomba delivered.

On the drive back we stopped in Dedza for some food at the local pottery shop/hostel/restaurant getup. The shop was delightful. It was open to a big pottery making/baking/painting room and everyone working was singing and laughing. I had a tough time deciding on which pottery was souvenir worthy though. The best memorabilia is the stuff you actually use. The shop was filled with a plethora of pretty clay kitchenware including tea sets (illogical packing procedures required), dish sets (again packing issues and just getting one plate meant separating the group), clay sinks with pretty hand painted scenes (If I had a bathroom that needed a sink... ), plus other odds and ends all made of clay. The most useful/packing friendly things I could find: 2 vases and a medium sized creamer. All with the Dedza stamped on the bottom. ("Look for the stamp to see where it's made" -Dad.)

With Brian leaving in a couple weeks we spent a lot of evenings hanging out (working out a proper tea to whisky ratio) and chatting about the ways of the world.
"Brian, do you remember that episode of Trailer Park Boys?"
"Oh yea. Classic."
Bubbles and Ricky impersonations.
Fits of laughter.
All the while NWA playing in the background..

Actually, with a mix of educational background and general knowledge of all things wilderness, he ended up schooling me on wildlife conservation.. not to mention African birds or how to identify a black mamba or puff adder. I've since identified my first road-kill snake and watched an episode of Venom in Vegas. Snakes may well be under appreciated.

The weekend before B-Man departed we took another trip only this time, for the first time, we headed north. Up until now Murph and I had only ventured south so we figured we'd 'two bird, one stone' it and visit some aquaculture farms in the process. Faculty at the college set us up with an 'aquaculture rep' who would take us around to the local farms in the neighbouring town, Mzuzu. Unfortunately the drive to get there took ages. When we finally arrived and settled, we were sporting swim gear and heading for the lake in under 5 minutes. As it turns out, Nkhata Bay is a popular spot. The place was mostly filled with expats on vacation. Most of our weekend consisted of eating, reading, and swimming. I realized after this 5 day trip that there's only so much relaxing possible before I crave physical activity.

The bus ride back was quicker than the one there, but for some reason (possibly sever hearing loss from prolonged blaring music), the driver blasted the radio the entire drive. On a positive note, I did stop a small child from crying. Sure, I used cookies to distract him from whatever was making him sad, but it worked. Let's just say I left that bus with a few friendly 'thank-you' head nods.

Other events to report:

I finished a couple more books. Bryson's A Short History was a delight. The first half was so good it gave me goosebumps. The second half was very interesting, but lost some luster. I don't want to blame the shift to geological sciences as the turning point, but they did coincidently coincide...
Currently: Eating Animals. So far so good.

Folks from MI came over for a visit. It had little to do with our positions here, but seemed to fill our days with meetings and workshops. It was really nice to see some familiar faces - especially when they bring care packages from home.

Murph and I ventured to a campus 'end of semester' party. Maybe it was their elation from finishing exams, but everyone was exceedingly friendly and keen to get us out on the town again come 2011. Things I learned from that party: There's no point trying to keep up with people celebrating the end of exams and at some point in the near future I'll learn basketball.

Work wise, I'm now working away at a constructed wetland proposal. This has taken up a lot of my time and involves reading wetland-chemistry papers and teaching myself wetland design... It's done a very good job at distracting me from hordes of "home for the holidays" facebook updates. I'm happy for you people, really I am, but after a dozen I can't help feel homesick. Alas, it was expected... Cape Town has big shoes to fill, but I'm hopeful it will at least distract me from thoughts of familyn friends, Christmas dinners, cookie-baking afternoons, wintery walks, stockings on Christmas morning, and televised hockey games.


And with that I'm off to bed. Thanks for reading, folks. If you read this far, you're fabulous and deserve another Christmas cookie with a side of egg nog.

I'll see you all in 2011.

<3