Sika | August 31, 2007
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FINALLY I will move into my house in Zomba on Tuesday. And I was able to take advantage of site visits up north to get a ride to Mzuzu this past Tuesday and back to Lilongwe tomorrow. I’ve been staying with Michelle, although we had dinner at the Mzoozoo Zoo with a few people [...]
Sika | August 31, 2007
Michelle and I had a discussion today about certain behaviors that we don’t necessarily interpret correctly. Michelle was talking about how she ignored someone who was shouting, “Hey you! You!” to her and only after she walked on without responding, pissed off, did she realize that people say “you” to address people in Chichewa and [...]
Sika | August 31, 2007
Chichewa word of the day (or whatever): Iwe: You, informally. In Chichewa, like in Spanish and French, there are two forms of “you,” both informal and formal (unlike Spanish and French, in Chichewa all of the plural conjugations of verbs are also the formal conjugations. So, you conjugate for “they” the same way you conjugate [...]
Sika | August 27, 2007
Chichewa word of the day: Boma. The boma is the center of a province or an area. For instance, the Dedza boma, about 20 minutes by car from the College of Forestry, has the big hospital, the big market, and is the big commercial center for that area. I believe that the boma has regional [...]
Sika | August 27, 2007
Chichewa word of the day (week, month, or year): Zikomo. Zikomo is a word that means almost everything. It means “excuse me,” “thank you,” “you’re welcome.” I’m pretty sure it means other things too, but I don’t really remember at the moment.
Peace Corps jargon of the day (week, month, or year): APCD – Assistant [...]
Sika | August 23, 2007
I am a volunteer, for reals now!
I passed my LPI on Tuesday. I scored a little worse than I did during the mock, but Dale, my Country Director (CD–I really do need to make a list of the abbreviations and the Chichewa I use regularly) was really impressed that I did as well as I [...]
Sika | August 20, 2007
Tomorrow afternoon is my Language Proficiency Interview and I swear in and finally become a volunteer on Thursday.
Wish me luck for tomorrow.
Sika | August 17, 2007
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Not so’s most of you would notice though, since by back I mean still in Africa but back in Malawi. I’m going to be in Lilongwe for a week or two, which I guess is ok since it gives me time to take my LPI (Cedric is coming to talk to me and maybe I’ll [...]
Sika | August 9, 2007
Today is Women’s Day in South Africa. It’s a federal holiday and everything. To quote my mama, it commemorates a march by the Federation of South African Women in 1956 against extension of the pass laws. Their chant then and throughout the anti-apartheid movement was Wathint’abafazi, wathint’imbokodo (”you have struck the women, you [...]
Sika | August 6, 2007
I don’t know if it’s good or bad that being on medical hold gives me the time to keep up on American politics. Anyway, here’s some more information about the FISA stuff I was talking about yesterday. And Shakes has a good point, which is why I’m posting about this again–call or email your senators [...]
Sika | August 5, 2007
Thanks to the chicken-livered scaredy-cat democrats, if you call me, our call can legally be tapped without the government having to get any authorization from anybody because of the new changes to FISA. That would because as I am out of the country neither of us are due the rights of, y’know, American citizens. [...]
Sika | August 4, 2007
Any of all y’all know software I can download to make my computer region free for the purpose of watching dvds that aren’t from america? I’m willing to spend money, although obviously I prefer not to . . .
Sika | August 3, 2007
I’m exceedingly grateful that Dan Savage now has a podcast and that Roger Ebert is writing his own movie reviews again. What can I say, I’m easy.
Sika | August 3, 2007
Pearl pointed out that I should probably update so y’all know that I’m not dead. Which obviously if something as important as my death had occurred I would have blogged about it, duh. Anyway, surgery was Tuesday, I left the hospital Wednesday morning. I’m seeing the Peace Corps docs every other day to check on [...]