2011 Greetings and a Reading List

Happy new year all!
I arrived back in Salima safe and sound, and found everything green and growing after my holiday adventures across the way. It's good to be back.

Exciting permaculture news: planting is in full swing at the primary and secondary schools. I stopped by Msalura L.E.A. the other day and found the students busy working on their plots in front of the headmistress's office and around the school.

Last week, the Education 09 group got together in Dedza for our Mid-Service Training, and everyone was delighted to benefit from the contents of a package of candy and trashy magazines and other goodies from Angie. (Elisabeth, below, catches up on Taylor Swift. I'm not actually sure who that is.) Thanks, Ang!

At MST we learned that, because of last year's change in the Malawian school calendar, our early Close of Service date in September has been approved by the powers that be. So, unless I extend here or in another country, you will see your LooBird back stateside just a little bit sooner than expected.

Also, I had a chance to visit my homestay family, the Bvumbwes, who were stoked about the pictures and photo calendar I printed for them in America. I cannot emphasize how much Malawians love calendars. And photos of themselves. We chatted about the past year, laughed a lot, and played with the new baby, Peace. And then they loaded up my bags with ripe plums from their orchard and red grapes--very tart, the first I've seen in-country.

On our way back from Dedza to Lilongwe, traffic stopped when the presidential fleet (including a Winnebago?!) passed by heading south. Everybody unloaded the cars to wave at Bingu.

Storm clouds were brewing.

Since the whole group (minus Esther, sadly home for a while on medical) was together just one last time, everybody spent a night together hanging out in Lilongwe, and even splurged and went out to a real restaurant.
Don't we clean up nice? (Below: Meg, Elisabeth, and Jerrod, my Katsekaminga buddies.)

Tomorrow... back to Salima and the belated start of Term 2. In addition to Form 4 Life Skills and computer classes for teachers, I'm taking on Form 3 Literature this term, starting with a book of African short stories, "Looking for a Rain God."

***

And, speaking of books...

I don't get out much. (After dark anyway.) Which means I've had plenty of fruitful reading time in Malawi, especially during the two-hour window from 6:00 dinner to lights out around 8:00. Here's a breakdown of the books I've read so far, beginning with the most recent, with an asterisk next to the ones I've really enjoyed and would recommend to anybody.

Currently: Kitchen Confidential (Anthony Bourdain) *
A Man Without A Country (Vonnegut) *
Anna Kerenina (Tolstoy) *
East, West (Rushdie)
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (Murakami) *
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Angelou)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Kundera) *
The Year of Magical Thinking (Didion) *
The Executioner's Song (Mailer)
Disgrace (Coetzee)
28 Barbary Lane (Maupin)
Interpreter of Maladies (Lahiri) *
The Awakening (Chopin)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde) *
The Botany of Desire (Pollan) *
Winesburg, Ohio (Anderson) *
Ullyses (Joyce)
A Lesson Before Dying (Gaines)
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
The Screwtape Letters (Lewis)
She's Come Undone (Lamb)
Angle of Repose (Stegner) *
The Secret Sharer (Conrad)
Heart of Darkness (Conrad)
Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
Mere Christianity (Lewis)
There's No Toilet Paper on the Road Less Traveled (compilation)
The Fountainhead (Rand)
Mountains Beyond Mountains (Kidder)
The Optimist's Daughter (Welty) *
The House of the Spirits (Allende) *
Bel Canto (Patchett)*
The Friday Night Knitting Club (Jacobs, as bad as it sounds)
The Red Tent (Diamant)*
The Art of Racing in the Rain (Stein)
Say You're One of Them (Akpan)
Atlas Shrugged (Rand)
Smouldering Charcoal (Zeleza)
A Personal Matter (Kenzaburo Oe)
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Kamkwamba)
I Capture the Castle (Smith)
The Alchemist (Coelho)
Another Roadside Attraction (Robbins)
Three Cups of Tea (Mortensen and Relin)