it's a typical situation, in these typical times...

not much to report, really... but figured i'd pass along some pictures of the couple nights i spent at majete wildlife reserve over my birthday.

majete is about a 2 hour drive from where the centre is, and is one of the most peaceful and restful places i've stepped foot in. we were the only ones in the park, which helped, but it was pretty amazing overall.

our accommodations were called chalet's, but they were basically just oversized tents that had beds and a bathroom attached to them, and they were scattered around the reserve so that you felt that you were in your own little world.... there was a guest house, which we were served our meals at, and at which you could just relax and enjoy a cold drink and a great view of one of the watering holes in the park... which were frequented by elephants.


i was pretty skeptical about the whole safari thing going into it, as i had a lot of people tell me stories of going on drives and barely seeing
anything, so my expectations were pretty low, but they were blown out of the water... we did a drive around the reserve, where we encountered zebras, warthogs (pumba!), nyala, and water bucks fairly regularly as we drove around... we also had a closer than comfortable encounter with a herd of elephants that surrounded our vehicle and kept us in park for about 15 minutes while they came to grips with whether we were a threat... and after a few mock charges we were allowed to pass. turns out that they are a little more dangerous in the wild than the jungle books pegs them as, and they don't even walk along holding each other's tales and singing marching songs. after i got over that disappointment, we went down to the shire river

which was frequented  by hippos, and we got a pretty good look at one that was hanging out near the bank [poorly pictured on the right] while a few others were just chilling in the middle of the river...

we also go to hike up to kapachilla falls [which i'm quite effectively blocking the view of in the picture on the left], which is where david livingstone hit his first big snag in his initial missionary trip into malawi, and had to turn back.

it was hard for me to work through the amount of money i was spending on my time in the wildlife reserve, as most people in the area that the centre is in are living off of around a dollar a day, and that trip would have been over half a years pay for the majority of the workers at the centre. it's such a strange world i've found myself in... how do you come to terms with something like that?

irregardless of the moral implications of my time there, it was a pretty incredible two days, and was a great way to spend my 27th birthday. thanks for the birthday wishes from those that sent them....

love.

do you think about me now and then?

brad and i had to head into nsanje this past week, as we had to renew the visitors visas for some of the group staying at the centre…. while there brad took me down to the now defunct port of malawi… through a large foreign aid project from multiple countries, they had set up a port along the shire river that led into mozambique, and would have been able to really improve the import/export of the country, which would have been a big help, as malawi is working at a GDP of about 4 billion US…. making it one of the poorest countries in the world. however at the unveiling of the port to all the dignitaries and ambassadors, the past president dropped the ball completely on the tariffs and trade negotiations with mozambique, and the first ship was held up in mozambique and never even arrived… leaving the dignitaries, ambassadors and the president all standing on the dock wondering what was going on.

due to this, the aid was pulled by the supporting   countries and the infrastructure that was being improved as part of the project was halted…. so there is a brand new road that leads away from the port, but ends abruptly 45 minutes away and turns into a beat up dirt road that is barely driveable. so we hung out at the port, which is now basically deserted… and we watched the local fishers in their hollowed out log boats where there should be decent sized tankers bringing in shipments of goods. after that we grabbed lunch in the town and headed home, but not before being slowed down by a heard of cattle making their way down the newly paved stretch of highway.

we have had a bit of a hold-up on the garden situation, as the centre’s trolley broke down… which was used to transport the grass for covering the garden beds. the positive side of that was that we got to head into the village and pick up the grass with the truck, which ended with the truck being mobbed by the village children excited at the sight of three mzungu’s and a truck, which are far from common fair in the more remote areas.

the brain trust for the garden is also in the middle of the decision making process of whether or not it is the best choice to install a pump and irrigation system due to the expense of it and not being sure of whether or not it will be maintained after we all leave. it's a big investment to put in the whole system with so many legitimate concerns surrounding the effectiveness of the system once everyone leaves.

it's like what i was talking about before i left... whether we should be applying our first world solutions for their third world problems. it seems like a no-brainer to put in a system that would exponentially increase their crop production, but if they are not invested in it... if they don't see this as the solution as well... are we not just throwing money down the toilet? 

life is just so different here... it's hard to apply your logic in a place where it is so drastically different than the place in which you built your framework for your decision making and thought process.

anyways... i am starting to prepare for the PE program that i am going to be teaching in the primary school. it was brought to me because they have no structure for their PE program, and the teachers just basically play football (soccer) with the kids every single day. they have eight grades on site, so it’s a bit of a challenge coming up with games for such a wide variety of ages…. but it takes me back to the harmattan days of working with a tiny budget and little to no resources, haha. it’s been a serious learning curve here, though… as i am teaching games to children who don't really understand the language i’m teaching the games in at a conversational level.... so, i’ve had to really simplify the games i’m running, and have decided that i will be spending my time here not just running the games, but teaching the teachers how to run the games and building a resource book full of ideas and explanations… that way, when i leave it won’t have to be picked up by somebody new… hopefully the teachers will be equipped to just continue running with the curriculum i have put in place and taught them how to run. we’ll see, though.

i’m really excited to get into the routine of that for the rest of my time here. the kids were on school break when i arrived, so it’s been a bit unstructured for the last week and a half… basically just going for walks with kids and playing football and just hanging out. i'm really hoping the structure of school starting will be good and help take away from the fact that i’m missing home right now. 

it's been really tough to adjust to the idea that i will not be seeing people for the next five months....
a lot changes in five months, and it’s just starting to set in. when i come back; my baby cousin is gonna be walking, some of my friend’s will be graduated from university, i’ll miss birthday parties and family dinners, i’ll miss shows and company launches, i’ll miss camping trips, family reunions, backyard bbq’s, and i’ll be missing the only months of decent weather in calgary….

i think this is crowding my thought process right now because on tuesday i turn 27. i’ve never actually celebrated a birthday somewhere other than home before. pretty incredible if you think about it… for 26 consecutive april 24^th’s, i have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by friends and family for this day. from the outrageous amount of effort that my parents put into my birthday parties growing up [did you ever get a space themed birthday party with an entire solar system’s worth of cakes in the correct scale?] to my more recent birthdays spent with friends with backyard fires and barbeques and shisha and mariokart and 90’s dance hits and probably too much to drink…

now, don’t feel too sorry for me on this day… to celebrate i’m heading out to a wildlife reserve called majete with a few of the people who are staying at the centre. we’ll be spending a night in the reserve and maybe see some of the big game animals in africa. pretty stoked on that.

but, birthday’s naturally make me reminisce.. it’s a marked day in which you are allowed to really sit and take in the last year of your life in it’s entirety and basically get to weigh in on how it went. more years than not since i graduated; this time of reminiscing was usually spent deciding that i probably drank too much but had a lot of great memories, didn’t pour myself as much into the things i wish i did but was still able to stay somewhat close to those things, made some strides towards who i wanted to be but still spent the majority of the year fairly irresponsibly…

but this year is different… as i look back on this year i have to say that it looks a bit different than years passed. this year i donated my car and bought a bike in hopes of limiting my global footprint, i poured myself into a job that i believed in and didn’t quit as soon as it got tough but instead saw it through to a place where i felt okay with leaving, i committed to changing my eating patterns for both my personal health and on a larger global scale, i paid off nearly eight-thousand dollars worth of debt, and i spent the entirety of this year in a committed relationship with a girl that i am outrageously in love with.

now, i don’t say this to brag. at one point this year, a close friend of mine said to me that it was cool to see me taking steps towards the man i wanted to be. which made me think a lot about what it is to be a man, and what it means to really grow up and move into adulthood. and lets be honest, the steps i made this year are not things that are out of the ordinary for me. if you know me well, you know that i very easily jump on board with things that i see hold truth or value or will benefit others.. but the difference between this year and years passed is that this year i saw them through. unlike flames fans (or from what i’m hearing right now, probably canucks fans) i didn’t jump off the bandwagon when things got tough or inconvenient.

a lot changed for me this year... and some of it was tough, but as i look back on this year… i can honestly say that this is a year i am proud of. and i thank each one of you who were a part of the last 365 days. you know who you are, and i am eternally grateful.

love. 

killer views and square feet, you have to film mtv cribs for a week....

so, i've been at the centre for a full week now.... not much to write, but figured i'd show a few pictures of what i'm looking at every day.

the centre i'm at [front gate pictured above] is an orphanage and a school compound, and is called tiyamike mulungu centre...there are currently about 100 or so kids in the programs offered here as well as about 90 local staff that help run the centre. 

the local staff work in two shifts to watch the children, cook the meals, clean the centre, watch the gate, do the laundry, and a few other random things. there is a local staff who is the manager of the centre, as well.

on the left is a picture of the washing station... the ladies and the older girls do the washing. we have a washing machine on site, but that seems to be only used by us white folk. i don't know how i feel about that, and i really want to jump in and hand wash my laundry with them.. but it seems a bit taboo, as guys and girls don't really mix too often in malawian culture it seems... so we'll see how that goes.

the centre itself is located in off of an air strip [i use that term loosely], so when you walk out of the centre... there is just a giant open field as far as you can see. 


there are no fences on peoples properties for the most part, so people's goats and cattle just roam around and graze. people just seem to know whose cow is whose and don't stress it. yesterday i was playing football with some of the boys outside the centre and our game was interrupted by about 30 cattle making their way through the playing field looking for something to eat. 





on the left is a picture of one of the uncountable termite piles surrounding the centre and located throughout the villages nearby. this picture is taken where the kids play ball games right outside the centre. the piles are often as tall as me, and give me the heebeejeebees, for sure. termites are a big problem for building and for storing things, as they basically just destroy everything in their path.




there are a few different plots of land that the centre operates out of... the main sight is where i am sleeping, and where the school is located, as well as where all the younger children stay. they accommodations are pretty basic, but not as sketchy as i was expecting for sure.


what they call TMC3 is where the older boys stay, and where they are starting to put up a garden.. i've been trying to spend some time in the garden the last few days... as they are just beginning, and it will be cool to see the progress over my 3 months here... previously they bought all their maize and veggies from the market to feed the children... but if this project goes as planned, they will be able to grow close to 90% of their needs.

above is a picture of the first garden... they have currently planted the seeds and grown them [in the front right part of the garden that you can see... under the huts] and are in the midst of transplanting the seeds into the other beds as they are made.

they are planning to grow this big leafed lettuce type vegetable, which consists of the majority of their fresh veggie intake. when i arrived, they were just starting to churn the ground and make the beds... i gave a hand a few mornings and left drenched in sweat, exhausted, sunburnt, and with a few gnarly blisters. but it was fun, and in between shifts working the ho's i learned a few games.

soon they will be beginning on another bed about the same size as the one pictured that will hopefully grow tomatoes and onions, which they mix in with the leafy vegetable during meals to give it a bit of flavour. the hold up on that is that the weather and the soil are not conducive to growing much other than the lettuce... so it will take an irrigation system in order to do anything beyond that.

plus, like i mentioned earlier... peoples cattle and goats just roam wherever they please, so we will have to build a fence around the garden and maybe the entire property so that our veggies aren't just consumed by random animals in the region.

the picture on the left is a pretty good representation of what the surrounding villages look like around the centre. mud bricks and straw roofs... life is pretty simple in these areas. they basically just grow what they need to live and that is about it. there are some markets near the centre, but in the more rural areas it is a bit of a spectacle to see white people walking around... which i do basically every day, as when i walk to the garden... it is in one of the neighbouring villages. so i often would have a good crowd of children running after me.

so that's about the state of my surroundings... i just recently found out that i will be teaching PE in the primary school here starting on monday, so i'm pretty stoked on that. gonna be an interesting experience, for sure. will update more on that when i have time!


peace and love.


p.s have the senators won the cup yet, or what?

the arrival

well, it's been 5 days... but i'm finally at the centre.

the internet is so shoddy, but i'm figuring it out as i go, and hopefully will be able to keep on top of this thing.... this post will mostly just be breaking down my travel to the centre and how i got here.

 i left calgary at 3pm on april 7th, and flew to amsterdam which i had a 13 hour layover at, so i decided to hop onto a train and head into the city and get out of the airport... i didn't sleep at all on my flight, which made things a bit interesting, as it was 8am in amsterdam when i arrived.

the first thing i noticed was that there were bikes everywhere. apparently, amsterdam is the bike capital of the world, and as soon as i started walking away from the train station... i walked by a giant parking area for bikes and it was more bikes than i've ever seen in my life, all in one spot.






























 i decided to rent a bike and rip around the city and see what i could see... the entire city is designed for bikers, which was a bit of a change of pace coming from calgary, where the entire city is up in arms about a bike lane going up, and bikers are more just moving targets on the roads.... so, it was amazing. bike lanes on every street, bikers have their own light system that is different than both the cars and the pedestrians, and it was such a small city that i was honestly able to see it all... even if i didn't know where i was 99 percent of the time.


 as i was cruising, i saw the heineken brewery... so i obviously decided to stop in, and it was one of the coolest buildings i have ever been inside. the tour itself was super gimmicky, and besides the actual brewing process and getting to learn how to pour a beer european style (with way too much head), it was a bit of a let-down. but, i got a few complimentary beers and headed on my way.

after that i just started cruising the canal system.. with my bike up and down streets, watching boats go by... eventually decided to check out the canal cruise companies that were on every corner, decided it was to expensive, but found a place that rented paddle boats for 1/4 the price. this was awesome, except i didn't take into account how funny it looks for one mid-twenties guy to be ripping around in a paddle boat on his own.... so i got a lot of funny looks and people standing and pointing on top of the bridges as i went by. but, after i just learned to embrace that i looked like a tool... i had a blast and spent hours in the paddle boat seeing the canal system and almost getting run over by giant boats.






 by this point i was basically over amsterdam, and decided to make my way back to the train station... however, i was so lost that i didn't get back to the airport a lot closer to the time when i needed to be on the plane than i was comfortable with.


from there i took an 8 hour flight to nairobi, kenya (which again, i was unable to sleep on). i had a 4 hour layover in nairobi before i got to fly to lilongwe (the capital city of malawi). nairobi's airport was super ghetto, and had chickens and goats walking through the airport and so many people you couldn't even sit and sleep in one of their outrageously uncomfortable chairs.... so i ended up finding a back hallway and passed out for a few hours with my backpack as my pillow.


i then took a 2.5 hour flight into lilongwe, had a 4 hour layover in lilongwe before my flight to blantyre (the closest airport to the village that i'm staying at)... lilongwe's airport was even more ghetto, so i ended up just taking off and going outside to sleep. it was so hot that i got no sleep, but i was able to stretch my legs and read (in between being asked every 5 minutes or so if i needed a taxi) under a tree out front of the airport.


all the flags were hanging at half-mast as bingu wu mutharika, president of malawi had died one day before i left canada. i was able to talk with a few of the guys in lilongwe and down at the centre, and best i can gather is that everyone is pretty stoked that mutharika is no longer president. they just named joyce banda president, and she is the first female east-african president in history. people are really excited about banda being president, as she was the one who fought mutharika on a lot of his policies and really poor diplomacy with nations that offered aid to malawi. as of right now, malawi is under a lot of heat from the UN, and most countries have pulled out aid and money transfers to and from malawi... this is due to the late president's choice to call the army on a bunch of protesters who were protesting his choice to kick the UK ambassador out of the country over a few comments in a newspaper.

due to the sticky global-relation situation that malawi has found itself in, they are without aid and trade.. so fuel prices are at an outrageous price (2.50+ a litre), and most stations don't even have it.. so people (at the centre included) are forced to buy it from the black market at more than double the already inflated rate.


so, after my layover i took a 45 minute flight into blantyre and was met by brad and lela and a few of the others who are working at the centre. they had timed the trip to grab me from the airport with a bunch of pick-ups that needed to be done for the centre, so we spent the night in blantyre at these old missionary dorms. this was a relief to me, as i was definitely not complaining about not having to tack another 3 hours of travel onto my trip right away. if you were counting, i figure i got about 4 or 5 hours sleep over the entirety of the trip to this point.

so we passed out at the missionary dorms and in the morning did a bunch of pick-ups. we stopped in at an n.g.o. in town called 'project peanut butter' and picked up a bunch of nutritionally enhanced peanut butter that will be used with a lot of the infants at the centre to fight some pretty serious cases of malnutrition.

at this point, one of the guys working at the centre who is from australia was fighting a pretty serious toothache, so he stopped in at a dentist in blantyre to get it looked at. i don't know what is more sketchy than getting a root canal in the middle of nowhere in africa... but he did it, and with consultation, x-rays, teeth cleaning and a full root canal, it put him out about 100 US dollars. so if you are looking at some expensive dental work in the future... let me know, because i can refer you to a great little place, haha.

we then left blantyre on our way to the centre, but ended up stopping in at a little place called 'fisherman's rest' on the way for the night. it was one of the most beautiful places i'd ever seen.... blantyre is in the mountains of malawi, and this was just on the outskirts of blantyre, so it made for some amazing views.

after looking at this view out the window of the room we stayed in, it was really hard for me to get into the mentality of where we were headed to in the morning... which was down the mountain and into the shire valley where the centre was located.

as we drove... the landscape got progressively less picturesque and the villages got exponentially poorer.

after three hours we arrived at the centre, and we were greeted by 150 screaming kids, who were so stoked to see a car full of mzungu's (white people).

so, that brings it up to date... this is where i will be spending the next 80 or so days. doesn't seem like much when you break it down like that; but i have been woken up by the heat at 6am, in a puddle of my own sweat for the first 2 mornings here... so 80 days of that is gonna get old, haha.

i'll end this, though... there's lots more to share, but this has gotten outrageously long. i'll try and get some pictures of the centre that i'm at up in the next week or so.

peace.

they say they never really miss you 'till you dead or you gone, so on that note i'm leaving after the song...

if you are reading this, it means that you have decided to not write me off for the outrageous irony of my last post that was pleading with people to look at issues in canada and what we can do at home instead of on a global scale. oh, did i mention i leave in 15 hours for an orphanage in africa?

anyways... this is my last entry before i actually head out, and the only reason i'm writing this is because i can't sleep. but not in a christmas eve, giddy to wake up kinda way...

i'm really wrestling with the idea of what this trip's purpose is. what am i doing heading to africa after i spent the last two years working towards making a difference in issues facing where i live. the idea that i am able to 'help'. the idea that has been ingrained in me that there is hurt in the world and i can fix it.

can i?

right from jr. high i was bombarded with these opportunities to go on trips to third world countries and help people. and i went... i did your stereotypical 'building houses in mexico' trip, and felt awesome about myself. i helped build a house, i did a cute little puppet show, and changed lives... right? right?! (well, i more just bought fake oakley's and blew stuff up on the beach)

i don't know. looking at all these YWAM trips and youth group trips i see plugging up my facebook feed, and even looking at this trip i'm about to go on... i wonder where we got the idea that just because we were "blessed" enough to be born into a country or city or skin colour or family that is wealthier than 90% of the world, that we are able to "fix" the problems of the people who were "unfortunate" enough to be born into a country or city or skin colour or family that is poorer than us... and that somehow we believe we can do that in a short time period.

and, to be honest... aren't these trips really for our benefit, and not the people we are intending to help?

i guess the old saying 'we have met the enemy, and the enemy is us' plays in my head... it's funny that we want to help, but often cause more hurt than we do good. we walk in with our western ideas and understandings and assume that if we apply those to the situations that these people in poverty are facing, that we will fix them. not to mention, often we are more of a drain on the people there (accommodations, food, time, etc..) than if we had never shown up.

the idea that the white man flies in and saves the day is my biggest nightmare. that i ride in on a plane that the people i'm coming to 'help' would never even dream of ever having a chance to fly on... drastically impact people's lives, maybe stumble upon the answer to that pesky clean water issue, have all the right answers, and get a nice little pat on the back from the UNICEF director and give a speech as i accept some mother theresa award.

now, don't get me wrong... i don't believe this. i honestly don't. even as i worked through whether i should do this trip at all, i struggled with these questions. everyone wants to help, but what is a way i can actually help? what is helping? can i even accomplish this in a culture i don't understand? do people in the third world really need more rich people waltzing into their world and acting like they have the answers? like we know how to do things better than they do? like on my mexico trip... as a grade 9 kid, did i really know how to paint a roof better than the local people did? doubtful. i mean, let's be honest... as a 26 year old kid i doubt i can paint a roof better than 99% of the world. but every once and a while that though crosses my mind... that damn pride sneaks in. the messy truth that lies somewhere between 'i have something to offer' and 'i really don't know jack'.

so, i'll stop rambling.. i don't even know what it is exactly that i am trying to say. but, i guess through all this... all i hope for is that i can minimize my negative impact on this world, and specifically on this country i'm about to waste all these fossil fuels to get to. i don't pray much, but my prayer is that for these three months that i would have an attitude of learning and service.. that i would be able to fully put to rest the attitude that i can fix anything, and that i would simply be able to be present with the people of that region and learn from them. see the world through their eyes as best as i can. gain an understanding and a context as best as i can in 3 months and then be open to do what i am truly needed to do. and if all i am truly needed to do is shut up, stop trying and just be... then let it be.

"now, if you can't respect that your whole perspective is whack, maybe you'll love me when i fade to black...."