Sika | June 24, 2010
The trip with the Americans was complicated, but not actually very interesting. It took two half-days of travel (actually what I was trying to avoid; the timing of it all just didn’t match up well on public transport), but I finally arrived in Marrakesh. Navigating the warrens of the Medina was a bit crazy-making, and [...]
Sika | June 21, 2010
I don’t really have much to say about Morocco. The feeling of wanting to be done with traveling ebbed and flowed, but had not passed. When confronted with the very different culture of Morocco, that feeling only intensified. Which is not to say that I didn’t enjoy Morocco. I did. But, for the first time [...]
Sika | June 21, 2010
It was weird to think that in the course of one day I was in three countries, and not in the hanging out in the airport sense, either. Driving through Kampala at 2:30 in the morning, I was surprised to see people on the streets, tomatoes and oranges heaped up on maize sacks, women in [...]
Sika | June 18, 2010
I left Lake Bunyonyi at 7 in the morning. I could have caught the midnight bus, and in retrospect I wished I had, as my trek involved a motorboat to the shore, a taxi to Kabale, driving around waiting for the minibus to fill for about an hour before heading to Mbarara, the sweet taxi/minibus [...]
Sika | June 17, 2010
I headed to Lake Bunyonyi on a bus that went straight through to Kabale, where I caught a short taxi and then the boat to Byoona Amagara. The bus ride was a bit cramped, but not too bad—I had my own seat and played a little with the kid next to me. When I got [...]
Sika | June 9, 2010
It was Sunday and Eid, and so the streets of Addis were thrumming with people who didn’t have to be at work. Semien hotel, where we were staying, was just off the piazza (ah, Italian attempts at colonization) and we needed to head from there further into town to find one of the few ATMs [...]
Sika | June 9, 2010
In the afternoon, we visited my school. It was anticlimactic, as most everybody was on holiday. I felt sorry for the incoming class of first years, meant to be a class of 90 and, since they wouldn’t fit in any of the existing classrooms, they were meant to be taught in the burned out and [...]
Sika | June 8, 2010
In mom’s and my whirlwind tour of Malawi, I tried to balance seeing things that I hadn’t been able to see, and showing mom what my life was like in Malawi—well, at least as close as I could given that I my life in was functionally over. We went up to Nyika Plateau, which was [...]
Sika | June 7, 2010
Back in Zomba. Yay! The day was longer than expected. First of all, in Tete, Mercado de UAO was nowhere near Rua de UAO, which took me forever to figure out. And, when giving directions, multiple people in Tete did this annoyingly vague hand gesture—generally in a diagonal direction from where I was at any [...]
Sika | June 7, 2010
At the airport, waiting for the flight to Tete, my ticket said the flight’s at 11. The electronic sign when I came in said the flight was at 11 and on time. But when I got to check-in there’s no sign for Tete check in. I ask and am told check in starts at 10:45. [...]
Sika | May 28, 2010
By the time I got to Maputo, my asthma was all cleared up, and besides a bit of a stuffy nose, I was feeling all better. I immediately treated myself to incredibly nummy (if pricey) Thai food. Well, after getting a hotel room (Mt1250, WTF, mate?). In the hotel room, I noticed that I looked [...]
Sika | May 26, 2010
Woke up in the morning feeling like blech warmed up into more, ickier, concentrated blech. Blech in my head, blech in my sinuses, blech in my throat, blech in my stomach. And yet, I had to get to Inhambane, or I might as well go straight through: my days left in Moz were numbered. I [...]
Sika | May 24, 2010
We went to Dolphin Dhow, and luckily they had a group of four American guys, all laid off from a sinking Washington Mutual, already going out the next day for an overnight trip. I decided to go along first, and then John decided to go, as well. There’s some really nice snorkeling to be had [...]
Sika | February 20, 2009
When I think of writing now, my thoughts seem so negative. As much as Derek may rejoice in me becoming a jaded old PCV, I am not happy with the way all the negativity makes me and Malawi sound. So, I think I’m going to do what I did for my students after their practical [...]
Sika | February 3, 2009
Ok, so now that I’ve finally (mostly) caught up on Malawi, it’s time to start on South Africa. We’ll start with the day before. I had the day off because of our after hours work, but the notice slip for my mom’s Christmas package (one of two Christmas packages I was to get) hadn’t yet [...]
