Alright, so I have been wanting to write in this journal for a bit now, but my boyfriend's darnable computron would not start! And since the only computron I brought with me was his, it left me a bit screwed as I needed a computron for a wee bit to write an epic blog like this mofo is about to be. So anyone that is going to be reading this, strap-in cause it is going to be a long journey!
----THE HOUSE----
----THE HOUSE----
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
So, as of the first of this month we moved into a new house. Why might you ask...? Well, it all began one Friday night, mentioned in my last blog, when we were broken into. That was fun! Beyond traumatizing my one roommate who was home during the attempted burglary, we got a bit of a scare when we came home from the bar to have two men hop out of the bushes in front of out house... They were security, which we didn't know, and one was wearing yellow rubber washing gloves for some undisclosed reason. Having to make sure our doors were constantly locked became very tricky in a two bedroom house full of seven people with differing evening habits and work hours.... But that was still not the end all....
No, on that Sunday evening, after our house guests from Mzuzu had departed.... I was Brad and I were lying in our respective beds in our room watching a movie before bed when suddenly there was the sound of rushing water. At first, thinking someone had left the water tap on in the kitchen and the water had come back on (it goes on and off all the time, along with our power), I dashed to the kitchen. Only to realize the sound was coming from Spencer and I's closet. I turned the corner to discover that the hot water heater, POORLY placed as it was strapped up by the ceiling, had without warning or provocation, sprung a leak! And by leak I mean a torrent of water was flowing from it! Several laundry buckets on the floor later an indoor pool was avoided. Thus began four days of no water as we waited for the new tank to be replaced... Which we only used for a few days as we then hastily moved....
Into our new house! Now I have my own room, two beds and two closets to myself! And actually, tonight will be the first night I have slept alone in a room since coming to Africa (as I have been away the past week)! AMAZINGLY excited about this new space... Although I am moving off on my own in two weeks (more to come about that later).......
So, as of the first of this month we moved into a new house. Why might you ask...? Well, it all began one Friday night, mentioned in my last blog, when we were broken into. That was fun! Beyond traumatizing my one roommate who was home during the attempted burglary, we got a bit of a scare when we came home from the bar to have two men hop out of the bushes in front of out house... They were security, which we didn't know, and one was wearing yellow rubber washing gloves for some undisclosed reason. Having to make sure our doors were constantly locked became very tricky in a two bedroom house full of seven people with differing evening habits and work hours.... But that was still not the end all....
No, on that Sunday evening, after our house guests from Mzuzu had departed.... I was Brad and I were lying in our respective beds in our room watching a movie before bed when suddenly there was the sound of rushing water. At first, thinking someone had left the water tap on in the kitchen and the water had come back on (it goes on and off all the time, along with our power), I dashed to the kitchen. Only to realize the sound was coming from Spencer and I's closet. I turned the corner to discover that the hot water heater, POORLY placed as it was strapped up by the ceiling, had without warning or provocation, sprung a leak! And by leak I mean a torrent of water was flowing from it! Several laundry buckets on the floor later an indoor pool was avoided. Thus began four days of no water as we waited for the new tank to be replaced... Which we only used for a few days as we then hastily moved....
Into our new house! Now I have my own room, two beds and two closets to myself! And actually, tonight will be the first night I have slept alone in a room since coming to Africa (as I have been away the past week)! AMAZINGLY excited about this new space... Although I am moving off on my own in two weeks (more to come about that later).......
----THE MINIBUS----
(aka. The Infamous Canada Day)
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
Ah, Canada day in a foreign country... Nothing to help you appreciate the fortunate things that you are provided in your native land, and to hate the excessive wealth and horrendous commercialism of it as well. Well, speaking of excessive.... Lets get this chapter rolling!
Now, this Canada day will be forever ingrained into my memory is quite possibly (aka. I hope) the worst Canada day and best Canada day of my life. It all started with an ill feeling all day, including at work. That day was my last class that I was to teach of sexual health to the students in the village. It was short and sweet and then it was on to fun activities with the other Canadian teachers. This included eating crepes with lemon juice and sugar and temporary Canada themed tattoos. It was a blast. After, I journeyed to the market and purchased two amazing dresses (from the 80s!)! At which point my illness progressed to fever.... You may think that this story is turning into how ill I became, but rather this is story of kidnappings and rogue buses and stupid amounts of money being paid to avoid the police (so stay tuned?!).
I met up with friends in town and we headed home, where I hastily climbed into bed with 5 litres of water and began drinking. All the time, everyone else had started drinking and multiple people had come over for the evening... Why? Because my two guy roommates had rented an entire minibus for the evening to drive us between bars on a pub crawl. The longer I laid in bed and drank water the worse I felt, especially with everyone drinking and being crazy in the next room. I decided to venture out, only to be met by copious amounts of concern matched with booze.... Two rum and cokes later I was getting dressed to go out and fanning myself furiously as I tried to cool down, which was followed by chills. Three rum and cokes later I felt fantastic and had moved onto the minibus along with 12 other friends as we headed out to our first bar Harry's Bar.
Now, Harry's Bar was pretty uninteresting and uneventful. Except for one my friends I met a month ago finally noticing my tongue ring and asking ecstatically if I had ever 'eaten pussy' with it. After furious laughter and a 'no' she moved on to questions about giving dudes head. To distract her, my other friend thought it would be a good idea to tell her I had a hood piercing. It was NOT a good idea. For the rest of the night I was consistently barraged to show it to her (which I refused).
After Harry's Bar we moved on to The Diplomat (affectionately referred to as The Dip). I find this bar name particularly great as it shares its name with a 24hour restaurant from home which is always frequented after bar nights. ANYWAY, The Dip was truly not exciting, some pool and a live band and a few shots later we were back in the bus. On the way to....
Zanzibars! On the way in, I was apparently so drunk that I grabbed a police man armed with a rifle and got my photo taken with him. I don't remember this, I just have the photo to prove it happened. What I do remember is chugging two beer on the drive there.... Oh, Zanzibar.... It is often frequented by us as it is an epic dance bar with two floors and a 'VIP' room which is pretty much where I always end up. This night being no different, that is where I went... and stayed with two friends as guys constantly bought us some delicious drink concoction full of tasty fruit and smoked from an apple-tobacco hookah. At 5am we attempted to leave the bar, being cornered by our minibus driver! Surprised?! We were, as we were told he would be departing at 1am. But there he was, slightly peeved at our late arrival and offering to get us home to end his night. Why yes, our chariot awaited. So in we went, only to be driven past our home, at which point we began to panic a little. The more we questioned, the more the drivers absolute refusal to answer terrified us. Three drunk girls on a bus to who know where with our silent driver!
We ended up at our old Taxi driver's home, Felix. Felix proceeded to talk to the driver and then tell us that the driver's boss was angry because he had been out all night and that we had to go talk to his boss to clear things up. At this point in time it was daylight again and I knew where we were, so I wanted to get out and walk. But my friends would not leave, and not wanting to leave them, I stayed! Only to be driven rogue again to the bosses' house. At which point an angry older woman came out accompanied by her husband and teenage sons. She talked angrily with the driver and turned to us, giving us a huge speal about the deal that was made. At the end she demanded 14000MK to pay for the extra hours. That is about....ehh... just short of a hundred bucks.... Or else she will call the police. At this point the three of us are scared out of our wits and just want to be safe home instead of locked in this lady's yard surrounded by angry people while we are very sober to the fact we are drunk.
I had 100MK, Haley and 0MK, and Avery had 11000MK on her. She handed all of it over. The boss told us she would send the us home with the driver to get the last 3000MK and we had 10minutes or she would call the cops. So off we went, and then were safe outside of the bus in our compound at 6:30am. I booted it to the house and grabbed the deal making roommate out of his tent (which he had taken to sleeping in) and hauled him down to the bus. There he yelled about what a rip off it was and refused to pay. My friends were trying to assuage the boss (who had followed over after 10minutes had passed) and driver. Finally, I stepped in and ended it by stating the truth we had not made the deal, we only had gotten in the bus because the driver recognized us and offered to drive us home, any problems had to be sorted out with the guys who had rented the bus. The boss agreed and said she would be back in the evening. Finally, bed....
Or not. When I returned to my room I was met by the tent roommate, raging angry I had woken him up at 6:30am to come fix my problem. He continued on a huge tangent, saying how stupid we were to have given these people money, how it wasn't his fault, how it was a scam, how we were idiots, how he didn't give a shit what happened to us anymore (exact words!) and didn't want to have to fix our problems. All of this was yelled. Sick, tired and post-terrified after fearing being raped and killed I lost it and just started bawling it was downright hurtful. To think someone was your friend and you could count on them and to have them tell you your an idiot and they don't give a fuck about you.... Ouch. We still don't really talk now. He doesn't really talk to me, and I avoid talking to him.
And that my friends, was Canada day! Epically great to start, and dead awful by the end! Wow, I still have more to write but I am going cross-eyed from typing....
Ah, Canada day in a foreign country... Nothing to help you appreciate the fortunate things that you are provided in your native land, and to hate the excessive wealth and horrendous commercialism of it as well. Well, speaking of excessive.... Lets get this chapter rolling!
Now, this Canada day will be forever ingrained into my memory is quite possibly (aka. I hope) the worst Canada day and best Canada day of my life. It all started with an ill feeling all day, including at work. That day was my last class that I was to teach of sexual health to the students in the village. It was short and sweet and then it was on to fun activities with the other Canadian teachers. This included eating crepes with lemon juice and sugar and temporary Canada themed tattoos. It was a blast. After, I journeyed to the market and purchased two amazing dresses (from the 80s!)! At which point my illness progressed to fever.... You may think that this story is turning into how ill I became, but rather this is story of kidnappings and rogue buses and stupid amounts of money being paid to avoid the police (so stay tuned?!).
I met up with friends in town and we headed home, where I hastily climbed into bed with 5 litres of water and began drinking. All the time, everyone else had started drinking and multiple people had come over for the evening... Why? Because my two guy roommates had rented an entire minibus for the evening to drive us between bars on a pub crawl. The longer I laid in bed and drank water the worse I felt, especially with everyone drinking and being crazy in the next room. I decided to venture out, only to be met by copious amounts of concern matched with booze.... Two rum and cokes later I was getting dressed to go out and fanning myself furiously as I tried to cool down, which was followed by chills. Three rum and cokes later I felt fantastic and had moved onto the minibus along with 12 other friends as we headed out to our first bar Harry's Bar.
Now, Harry's Bar was pretty uninteresting and uneventful. Except for one my friends I met a month ago finally noticing my tongue ring and asking ecstatically if I had ever 'eaten pussy' with it. After furious laughter and a 'no' she moved on to questions about giving dudes head. To distract her, my other friend thought it would be a good idea to tell her I had a hood piercing. It was NOT a good idea. For the rest of the night I was consistently barraged to show it to her (which I refused).
After Harry's Bar we moved on to The Diplomat (affectionately referred to as The Dip). I find this bar name particularly great as it shares its name with a 24hour restaurant from home which is always frequented after bar nights. ANYWAY, The Dip was truly not exciting, some pool and a live band and a few shots later we were back in the bus. On the way to....
Zanzibars! On the way in, I was apparently so drunk that I grabbed a police man armed with a rifle and got my photo taken with him. I don't remember this, I just have the photo to prove it happened. What I do remember is chugging two beer on the drive there.... Oh, Zanzibar.... It is often frequented by us as it is an epic dance bar with two floors and a 'VIP' room which is pretty much where I always end up. This night being no different, that is where I went... and stayed with two friends as guys constantly bought us some delicious drink concoction full of tasty fruit and smoked from an apple-tobacco hookah. At 5am we attempted to leave the bar, being cornered by our minibus driver! Surprised?! We were, as we were told he would be departing at 1am. But there he was, slightly peeved at our late arrival and offering to get us home to end his night. Why yes, our chariot awaited. So in we went, only to be driven past our home, at which point we began to panic a little. The more we questioned, the more the drivers absolute refusal to answer terrified us. Three drunk girls on a bus to who know where with our silent driver!
We ended up at our old Taxi driver's home, Felix. Felix proceeded to talk to the driver and then tell us that the driver's boss was angry because he had been out all night and that we had to go talk to his boss to clear things up. At this point in time it was daylight again and I knew where we were, so I wanted to get out and walk. But my friends would not leave, and not wanting to leave them, I stayed! Only to be driven rogue again to the bosses' house. At which point an angry older woman came out accompanied by her husband and teenage sons. She talked angrily with the driver and turned to us, giving us a huge speal about the deal that was made. At the end she demanded 14000MK to pay for the extra hours. That is about....ehh... just short of a hundred bucks.... Or else she will call the police. At this point the three of us are scared out of our wits and just want to be safe home instead of locked in this lady's yard surrounded by angry people while we are very sober to the fact we are drunk.
I had 100MK, Haley and 0MK, and Avery had 11000MK on her. She handed all of it over. The boss told us she would send the us home with the driver to get the last 3000MK and we had 10minutes or she would call the cops. So off we went, and then were safe outside of the bus in our compound at 6:30am. I booted it to the house and grabbed the deal making roommate out of his tent (which he had taken to sleeping in) and hauled him down to the bus. There he yelled about what a rip off it was and refused to pay. My friends were trying to assuage the boss (who had followed over after 10minutes had passed) and driver. Finally, I stepped in and ended it by stating the truth we had not made the deal, we only had gotten in the bus because the driver recognized us and offered to drive us home, any problems had to be sorted out with the guys who had rented the bus. The boss agreed and said she would be back in the evening. Finally, bed....
Or not. When I returned to my room I was met by the tent roommate, raging angry I had woken him up at 6:30am to come fix my problem. He continued on a huge tangent, saying how stupid we were to have given these people money, how it wasn't his fault, how it was a scam, how we were idiots, how he didn't give a shit what happened to us anymore (exact words!) and didn't want to have to fix our problems. All of this was yelled. Sick, tired and post-terrified after fearing being raped and killed I lost it and just started bawling it was downright hurtful. To think someone was your friend and you could count on them and to have them tell you your an idiot and they don't give a fuck about you.... Ouch. We still don't really talk now. He doesn't really talk to me, and I avoid talking to him.
And that my friends, was Canada day! Epically great to start, and dead awful by the end! Wow, I still have more to write but I am going cross-eyed from typing....
So the next episode will be on...
-MZUZU-
-NYKHATA BAY-
-BUTTERFLY SPACE/NEW JOB-
-MY 'LOVE' LIFE!-
At Zanzibar with some other Canadian gal teachers from the school....
With a super cutie from Mzuzu, and apparently reaching for Holly's boob!
Playing with the security system at Orin's house!