time, please slow down.

whether you're someone with high expectations or low expectations, the fact is that you will always have some expectations or idea in your mind of how something will be or feel. over the next 2 months, i expect to learn about international development, malawian/african culture, myself, God, and my purpose in life. and so, i've had some interesting learning experiences over the past 8 days:

1. malawi has mountains EVERYWHERE. mountains and valleys and trees and stars. this is a beautiful country.
2. there are always people walking on the side of the roads. where to? wherever their heart desires.
3. when offered nsima (flour-y porridge, malawian equivalent of rice), it is BURNING hot. do not try to grab it slowly with your whole hand. wet your fingertips beforehand taking it.
4. i am chinese, or assumed to be so. asian girl = china girl ;p maybe it's my bangs
5. children in the villages are shy but absolutely love to have their photo taken. they have kung fu poses.
   
6. mefloquine (my anti-malarial) will cause me to burn easily, and make my tan fade quicker (no black beauty this summer)
7. my chichewa rocks: muli bwanji. ndili bwino, kaya inu? mukupita kuti? ndzina langu kristina.
8. i'm weak. malawian women carry 15kg on their heads like it's nothing. i tried lifting with one arm and failed.
9. food is priced about equal to canadian food. imported food is crazy overpriced, cheerios=$30CDN.
10. the power goes out at least once a day for stretches of 1-3h, and usually during dinner time.
11. Being out at 11pm is a late night. I sleep at 1030pm, wake up at 6am, start work by 715am.
    

for the sake of a short post, i shall leave it at that. and of course some pictures:

victor, the papaya climber and me, the climbing failure

beautiful lake malawi (:

kathleen and i (: