"moon rise"

Taken at around 8 in the evening. The moon coming up over the foot hills of Mulanje Mountain. The Providence School is in the foreground.

current location

Woke up late again (8:00). I was in bed waiting for the roosters to wake me up, but this morning I just didn't hear them. I couldn't understand what the deal was, then Ben reminded that we'd eaten a lot of chicken meat yesterday. Oh, how I wish I could always just eat my alarm clock. Didn't do a whole lot today, it's still Easter holiday so things are generally slow.

Went to a trading center to buy some food this morning. It looked you'd expect an open-air market to look. A lot of wooden stalls, dirt floors with fruits and vegetables in tin cans. Comparison shopping consists of turning your head and looking at the 3 different avocado dealers in front of you. You can get just about anything at the market: I saw a few motorcycles for sale; a lot of different foods (a number of things are in season now, so it's a good time to be hungry); all kinds of house supplies, plates, pots, pans, brushes, etc.; a few hardware stores; a few printers; a number of bicycle/auto shops; and anything else you want I'm pretty sure someone could find for you. Surprisingly the market was quieter than I'd expected, not a lot of haggling, almost no screaming, no loud music, just people walking around, eating sugar canes, and either buying stuff or hanging out with friends.

We then had lunch, chicken and nsima, in a place called "The Curry Pot". the chicken was delicious and, fortunately, they didn't actually have curry.

After a few minor conversations at the market and overhearing Ben having a work meeting this afternoon I consider myself very lucky that I don't have to get anything practical done in Malawi. It seemed like you need to spend a huge amount of time talking about everything just to get a little bit of stuff done. I get the feeling that doing business here would require a lot of reading between the lines. It seemed like people don't say exactly what they mean, instead they'll hint at what they mean and nod at you when you finally figure out what it is they've been trying to tell you. Maybe if you've been here a while and you already know how things work it's all easy and obvious.

I do feel like I'm getting a pretty good introduction to Malawi, even though I don't have much to show for it. Wednesday I finally get to meet Ida...

this picture was published on monday, april 13 2009. there is a full size version available. this picture was taken with a 24-70mm f/2.8 on a nikon d700. the settings when this was taken were: focal length: 58.0 mm; shutter speed: 15; iso: 400. this image has the following tags: malawi.