Lazy friday

Firstly, let me just blog my story of yesterdays glorious run in the rain. You see yesterday I got home circa 5:30pm so I had enough time to put in a quick jog before the sun set (6:30). Quickly I called up my new running buddy Steffen (a German paediatric doctor) and off we were. It was good to run ...I've been doing it rarely and sporadically since I came, but nothing like I do back home...usually I opt not to run as I realize most Malawian see it as a "odd azugu thing to do." Actually I have yet to see any Malawian women run. Generally speaking Malawian women are too busy rearing their 6+ offspring, cooking, cleaning, working the fields, worrying about the family's nutrition, processing food stuffs and washing clothes to even think of wasting energy on a pesky thing like running. So usually I don't go...unless I am in a group or its early on sat or sunday morning when people are in church. But when I run with Steffen I feel as if he is the canter of attention (big tall white guy) and I am less strange. Anyways, the run was great. It started with me greeting all the qausy familiar faces as we whisked past them, then a group of small kids started taunting us (azungu azungu) and chased us for about a minute before they decided that we werent worth the effort. This I think is because they are boma (city) kids, in the village when I'm spotted in a car often kids will chase the car for nearly a kilometre before they give up. Either way I think it was fun for Steffen, him being new and all. So then it started to rain 15min into our run and luckily we were nearing home so we kicked it into 5th and raced home. But our effort was futile as Malawian rains don’t doddle and within minutes it was pouring, the streets were flooded with spontaneous rivers and I was soaked. Despite the wretched flu Aunty (Mrs. J that I live with), warned about I had a great time and will miss running in monsoon like rains in Africa.

Secondly, on this lazy Friday I've been neglecting my duties, data analysis and the like, and surfing the web. I then stumbled on a network of Blogs blogged by Malawian ex-pat aid workers. It is neat reading about their experiences and whats more it was eye opening for me. I mean I've been experiencing the same /similar thing as they have only I never really realized the impact of those feelings. My problem I think is that I have been compartmentalizing and filing my feelings about things here instead of recognizing and thinking about them. So I will try and be more introspective in my next blogs.

Thirdly I am starting to feel those going home blues. Its hard to believe I only have 3 weeks left! Ahh wont think about it