Movement

I spent xmas in malawi. it was beautiful. It seemed a lot more developed. It's definately a lot more crowded than here. The fields are much smaller, there arent as many farm animals, and they plant different things. They farm a lot of tobacco and cassava. The people have crazier names- we met Dude, Christmas, Happy Coconut, Special, etc. We spent the first half of that vacation at the northern part of the lake. It was so beautiful with all the hills, rice paddies, banana trees on the edges of cliffs. We went mango fishing from our floaties. The food was wonderful, the avocados were cheap, but we couldn't ever buy fish to eat! We would just look at the waiters and say "really?! But there's a fish market right outside the door!" So after a few days in the north we went to the south. We had awful transport and when we got there we just ended up really missing the north, but then we got used to it and enjoyed ourselves. I think one of the major things we noticed in the north was that the villages and the hostels were more integrated. It was a lot more socially and environmentally conscious, with compost toilets, local people employed for all the domestic tasks. In the South the villages and the hostels seemed really separate and there were a lot more children saying "hello, give me money." So that was a bit annoying. But we got to eat fish - and it was so good! And we kayaked to a deserted beach, watched some monkeys, went skinny dipping, had a xmas day hostel bar crawl. We watched santa come deliver gifts from a boat to wealthy french children at stop number 1. We got squirted with a water gun. Overall, great trip.

So then i came back to my village for new years eve (poor planning on my part), and found more things stolen. My neighbors told me it was a rat - a really strong, determined, genetically mutated rat. Basically I am done. Way too stressed out over it, sick of it, unable to work, gotta get out. So, that's what's going on with me. Gonna take a break while a new house and new village are found for me. It's gonna be awhile. And it's gonna be an adventure.

Books (not many since i've been out of the village): Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen; The Tattoo Artist - Jill Ciment; The Golden Gate - Vikram Seth (it's all in prose!); In Beautiful Disguises - Rajeev Balasubramanyam; Blue Water - A. Manette Ansay; The Reading Group - Elizabeth Noble