Sika | June 22, 2010
Merzouga was just what I needed. I arrived around 5 or 6 in the morning, after chatting in stilted English much of the way with a Moroccan who had been in Fez for a guide job. The guy at Auberge Mohayut was incredibly helpful; when I decided I wanted to do the camel trek the [...]
Sika | June 16, 2010
Kampala is bigger than Lilongwe, and in better repair, at least in the center. Although it definitely felt like an African city (unlike, say, Maputo or Cape Town), it just felt more vast than anything in Malawi. It also has marabou storks, which I hate, a little bit because they are frigging huge and ugly [...]
Sika | August 23, 2009
In Mozambique the official language is Portuguese. Very few people speak English, especially where I am, up north, ‘coz there isn’t much of a tourist trade up here. They also have Makua, N’Dau, and a few other local languages, none of which I speak. Oh wait, and there’s Chichewa, which I do speak, more or [...]
Sika | August 20, 2009
There’s something about speaking in Spanish–even when I know only half of what I say will be understood. And when I understand too, even when it´s only half (because I’m listening to Portuguese), it only amplifies that feeling. You know the sensation in your muscles when you’ve worked really really hard–so hard you can’t do anything [...]
Sika | June 8, 2009
Edith asked me to come to PST (pre-service training) for the newbies. I was excited because I was pretty sure Zomba was getting Marla, and I thought it would be nice to get to know her a bit better. Also, I hadn’t had/taken the chance to spend more than a few hours with the Health [...]
Sika | August 31, 2007
Chichewa word of the day (or whatever): Iwe: You, informally. In Chichewa, like in Spanish and French, there are two forms of “you,” both informal and formal (unlike Spanish and French, in Chichewa all of the plural conjugations of verbs are also the formal conjugations. So, you conjugate for “they” the same way you conjugate [...]
