Malawi has become my second home. I venture over at least every six months now. And every visit is different. Some times I’ll spend all of my time at one project or orphanage and other times, I will go to several different villages, projects, orphanages, etc. I’ll sit through meetings, miss other meetings due to good old “Malawian time”, or get distracted by one thing or another, because there is always so much to see and do.
Earlier this year I spent 10 days touring around visiting projects and villages. It was a rewarding and incredibly positive experience, especially seeing programs I had heard about or read about in action.
CHOC: Orphan Care Village Library
CHOC: Orphan Care Village Solar powered battery
CHOC: Orphan Care Village Facilities being used by the locals
I guess it’s better late than never. Making a Bucket List of all the things I’d like to do this year. It’s been easy putting one together. After sitting in front of my laptop all weekend typing assignments and with two weeks to go until the end of university for the semester, my mind easily wanders to the fun things I’d like to achieve in 2012.
So my bucket list for the rest of 2012:
1. Complete a 30 day Yoga challenge.
2. Watch the turtles hatch at Mon Repos.
3. Go to Tanzania (this is a cheat add-on to the list, because it is a new country I know I am going to visit soon).
4. Road trip all summer following wakeboard competitions and just generally hanging out in the sun and water.
5. Spend my 30th birthday on the beach chilling out with family and friends.
6. Do a remedial massage course.
7. Read a book written in Spanish and not understand a word of it (but try looking things up and see what they mean).
8. Learn to scuba dive.
9. Try a pole dancing class or circus acrobatics class.
10. Teach myself to make sushi.
I think in between university that’s a good list to aim to achieve in 2012. Now to stick the list to my fridge so that I am reminded of all the things I want to do with myself this year!
They say that from the instant he lays eyes on her, a father adores his daughter. Whoever she grows up to be, she is always to him that little girl in pigtails. She makes him feel like Christmas. In exchange, he makes a secret promise not to see the awkwardness of her teenage years, the mistakes she makes or the secrets she keeps.
~ Anonymous
It’s been the week to celebrate my parents. Today is my Dad’s turn. Once again we are not in the same city, we are not even in the same country. And in Ethiopia, where my Dad currently works, it will not even be his birthday, I think. Ethiopia follows the Orthodox calendar and therefore I am not sure what day or even year it is there. But since I’m in Australia and today is the 6th May, I will celebrate my Dad for all he is to me.
Dad’s are different to Mum’s. Dad’s pick you up by your ankles with one hand and hang you up side down tickling you on your sides with the other. They carry you on shoulders when you are tired from walking or to give you the best view of fireworks. They miss birthdays and special events in your baby years, because they were working long hours to save money for your future. Dad’s are ATM’s for daughters, midnight chauffeur’s, security guards at parties and spring boards in the pool. They are the final say, even though it’s a joint parental decision and cop the most hate from disgruntled teenager daughters, because that’s just the role Dad’s were made to fill.
My Dad is my partner in long-winded deep and meaningless chats about the world and how we can save it from all its problems. He is the one I sing with in the supermarket, much to the embarrassment of my Mum and sister who walk several aisles over from us. He is the one who dressed up as a gymnast for my gymnastic end of year concert and when Christmas rolled around would give thoughtful practical gifts, such as a brick to go towards my first house (with a lotto ticket taped to the underside).
He is there to bail me out when I make mistakes and loves me regardless of how left of centre I might be. And in his words “Em is very different to Sarah–I call her a free spirit.” Only a Dad could put that kind of positive spin on the way his daughter chooses to live her life.
So today I count down the days until we catch up in Africa and wish you a very happy birthday, with many more spent somewhere around the world!!
Dad’s “Birthday Cake” with cigarette candle in Switzerland May 1995
I have been looking through old travel photos a lot today as I’ve worked on a travel article about Malawi. I couldn’t help myself. It started with “research” of my photos of Malawi and then I slid into the South African photos and then I couldn’t stop. I found myself going through my entire digital photo catalogue which, while it’s not all of my photos taken during this time, it is all the photos I’ve managed to retrieve and put on to this computer from 2007 until the present moment.
So todays post is another photo display. Rather than all the usual pretty landscapes or standard postcard shots I seem to include with my posts, I’m delving into my favourite photos from the past five years of my adventures. The candid moments, the people, the memories that I continually revisit from the absurd to the downright unbelievable to me just being a weirdo. The moments captured that bring a smile and a laugh to my lips every time I see them.
My favourite photos…
The girls!!
Franciscan Embroidery School, Morocco
Donkey Road Signs, Fes Medina, Morocco
Moroccan Spice
Trying out tribal scarf wrapping styles Fes Medina, Morocco
Me & My Mum Christmas Day, Fingal Heads, Australia
Guinea Pig for dinner… Puno, Peru
Mum & Frank eating lunch, Cuzco, Peru
The Oz South African Family, Dead Woman’s Pass, Inca Trail, Peru
Jem & I getting our strawberry fix, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
Emily & I with my name carved in a tree by Emily, hill behind HOH, Malawi
Learning to carry buckets on my head
Mercy showing me how it’s really done
Lunch time Home of Hope, Malawi
This chicken!
Hanging with a bigger chicken!!
White towels the kids received, not sure how long they’d stay white with all the red dust around
Peace Corps Guide to Malawi baking night
Me & Cathy
Shaving my legs when the power goes out… again.
Emily just after she was busted with a fish in her pocket
With the fish…
At the baby crisis centre, Lilongwe, Malawi
Freaking out at what is in the dark cave behind me!! Taman Negara, Malaysia
Bathing an Elephant, Thailand
Backpackers and locals having a game of vollyball, Halong Bay, Vietnam
Night clubbing Halong Bay style, Vietnam
American-Vietnamese friends at the Elephant rock pools
Conquering my fears! Motorbike trip from Hue to Hoi An with Tuan
When travel plans don’t go to plan, what do you do? Fall in a heap crying with your bags on the airport floor, storm out of the airport and find a hotel to hide out in until your next flight, or change your plans completely…
This was the predicament I found myself in at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. I arrived at six in the morning, then slept on the tiles for six hours, until check in for my flight to Nigeria to opened, only to be told by the lovely woman behind the counter that I didn’t have a visa and would be unable to get on my flight. I was tired, I wanted to visit my dad and I promptly fell apart crying at the counter. The woman informed me that I could get a visa from Pretoria (an hour away from Johannesburg), but the thought of this scared me even more as I had not planned to stay in South Africa and was scared shitless about travelling anywhere within the country. Anywhere except Cape Town. My friend Kitty I had met in Peru the year before had arrived home from her own overseas adventure two days previously, so I would go to her restaurant and see if I could stay with her for a few days until I worked out a plan of what to do next.
Octopus's Garden
A new plane ticket was booked and a few hours later I arrived at The Octopus’ Garden in St James, Cape Town. I was introduced to everyone in the restaurant and caught up quickly, before being whisked off to Kitty’s place where I passed out before my body had even laid down on the bed.
Phone calls to embassies and travel centres revealed that I was not going to be able to get a Nigerian visa in time to make my visit to my dad. Therefore Kitty and I were now free to explore Cape Town together. I walked along the coast line most days up to Muizenburg beach to watch the surfers or down to Kalk Bay to see the seals. We caught the ferry out to Robben Island and went on the tour to see where Nelson Mandela had been incarcerated for 18 years.
Kalk Bay Harbour
It was very surreal, seeing real pieces of history on display, through things that the prisoners made for themselves and reading their stories attached to the prison cell walls. We went to see the Penguins at Boulders Beach, a favourite place for the locals to spend time sunbaking on warm summer days. We went searching for Baboons at Cape Point and finding none, enjoyed the spectacular views instead. My last day in Cape Town was filled with visiting a bunch of local favourite hang out spots, plus a gondola ride up to Table Mountain. Kitty and I enjoyed lunch with all the beautiful people at Camps Bay, watched the surfers at Llundudno Beach, before driving along the coast line of Haut Bay and Chapman’s Peak drive. Cape Town’s coast line is a heaving mass of sea
Haut Bay
battering giant cliff faces and rust coloured boulders, creating a raw energy that buzzes in the howling winds sweeping up from the south and breaking across the town. It was a spectacular drive and a great place to get photos of the natural beauty that is Cape Town.
After seeing as many sights as I could cram in, I was heading off on Safari in Kruger National Park the next day. The initial panic at my travel plans changing, had subsided as I began to enjoy all that Cape Town had to offer. The stories of safety in South Africa had left my mind, as it was the same with travelling in any foreign country, be sensible and you will stay safe. It really is a beautiful part of the world. I would love to go back in Summer to travel along the coast up to Durban, try my hand at surfing and photographing more of the amazing coast line.
What is beauty? Is it the colour of someones hair, eyes, skin? The labels on their clothes? The school they’ve attended, the make up they wear or the suburb they live in? Or is it what’s beneath the surface?
Beauty is a midnight sky littered with silver flecks of stars. It’s reaching out to someone to hold their hand in love, friendship and support. Beauty is the leaves turning from fresh summer green to autumn gold. It’s a smile or laugh shared. Beauty is in the warmth of a breeze across the grass or the touch of fingertips on skin. Beauty radiates from deep within.
“In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.”
~ Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
There are some things in life that seem so far out of reach, completely unobtainable. Impossible. And yet they can still be reached. Sometimes the universe directs things, other times it’s through our own decisions and choices, stepping outside the realms of reality and normality that allow us to achieve the seemingly unachievable. Letting go of our preconceived notions of how we should live and going with the flow no matter how absurd or silly we may feel. But no matter how absurd a situation is at least there is always a possibility of attaining the impossible… simply because you tried.
This morning I woke up to find my house mate gone. No note, no goodbyes, just up and left without taking anything with him. I went searching everywhere I could to find him, above the door, under the table, I thought maybe he’d just started living somewhere else on my verandah. Unfortunately, I think he is gone.
My house mate I speak of is a spider. I’m assuming it is a male, as there have been no baby spiders and he has lived in the same spot on my verandah for some time now. In a way, I’m glad he departed like this, just leaving. I hate goodbyes. The build up of emotions, words and memories. All to the moment that last for three words or less… “See you later” or “Good bye”. As humans we develop these attachments to everything. Memories and feelings stored in every place or person. We say “see you later” in the hopes of avoiding the truth of the matter… it’s really good bye, as the probability of seeing each other again or returning to a particular place in time are highly unlikely or impossible – as time moves on, so the moment can never be relived again. If you believe in life after death, then it is just a matter of see you later. But you could still be waiting a while to see each other again.
Animals on the other hand have no attachment to such things. There is a cycle of life they live out. This applies to humans too, except that we have complicated the process. Animals are born, they live, they create new life, they eat, sleep, interact with other animals of their species, and die. Humans hold on to moments, places and people from familiarity and fear. We cling to these moments as it is easier than finding the courage to let go and move on.
So I’m doing something to help me move on from the loss of my spider friend. I’m taking down his web. There is no point in it staying where it is and blocking my doorway any more. It was good while it lasted spider and I wish you well where ever you are.
“Most of our troubles are due to our passionate desire for and attachment to things that we misapprehend as enduring entities.”
I’ve been thinking about this place a lot lately. The little orphanage village thirty minutes outside of Mchinji in Malawi. I
Home of Hope village
volunteered at Home of Hope back in 2010 and was suppose to go back in April 2011… that never happened. The universe threw a few curve balls my way, which I didn’t deal very well with and leaving to live in the middle of no where in Africa suddenly didn’t seem like such a good idea. I wasn’t sure my spirit would survive leaving behind my friends and family at a time when I needed them most.
But now, eighteen months on, I feel guilty that I haven’t returned. I became stuck in the rut of normal life back home and everything else kind of went by the way side. I never wanted that to happen. Yesterday I started changing all of that. Yesterday I finished putting together a draft copy of a coffee table book on Home of Hope. It was a little project I decided I wanted to do when I first got back home. Something to remind me of my time there and the power of spirit the people at Home of Hope showed in the face of such adversity. In a few days time my coffee table book will arrive in the post, all printed in colour with beautiful glossy photos of smiling faces living their day to day lives at the village. The process of putting the book together got me thinking. Could I make more of these and sell them as a fundraising item, with all proceeds going to the orphanage to help them continue with the wonderful work they are doing. This in turn got me excited for a charity wakeboard comp I’m organising on the 1st April, 2012, with all proceeds going to furthering the education of the children at the orphanage. And then there’s university mid year break. Seven weeks to occupy myself. The planning has begun and I will be venturing back to Africa. It won’t be a long term visit, as I have to return to university (this being my third attempt, I really need to finish a degree this time round and then leave permanently). But any visit is better than nothing. Volunteering is such a wonderful experience, that has a two fold effect. Not only do those less fortunate benefit from the introduction and sharing of skills and support, but those that volunteer usually learn a lot about life in general as well. Let the count down begin to getting to see everyone in the village again!!
This is my list of favourite books I’ve read when my life has been going through massive changes. They don’t have to be manuals to dealing with life changes, to get something out of them. Sometimes it’s just the story, a theme, character or setting that I’ll relate to at that moment. It will leap out of the pages and shake me, yelling “WAKE UP!! ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION!! GO AND DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR LIFE!!”
By all means this list is not the be all and end all. They are just books I’ve come across and have been there at the right time for me. I’m sure there are many others out there, so if you know any, please feel free to share…
Top 10 books to read when your life is changing…
1. ”Way of the Peaceful Warrior” Dan Millman
2. “Eat, Pray, Love” Elizabeth Gilbert
3. “Shantaram” Gregory David Roberts
4. “The Alchemist” Paulo Coelho
5. “The Prophet” Kahlil Gibran
6. “One Hundred Years of Solitude” Gabriel Garcia Marquez
