Sika | March 25, 2009
I just ate a yummy white guava that I bought at the market when I went in on the 10 o’clock (read: 10:40. Ish.) bus. In one of my last couple of bites, I saw a brown area, which upon closer examination, was inhabited by a worm.
The worm had an interesting reddish-brown head, which contrasted [...]
Sika | March 16, 2009
There are ants everywhere in Nkhata Bay. Right now I am sitting at the table where we had lunch, watching a horde of them dismantle a drop of semi-congealed soup. There were no ants on the table when we sat down. Now there are hundreds. Most of them are pretty innocuous looking, but there are [...]
Sika | March 16, 2009
Lake flies are tiny insects that swarm by the millions in huge clouds that get everywhere and in everything. Malawians catch them and make them into cakes. You can see them in this picture to the right of the cyclone and island, just above the water: an odd shaped cloud of black.
Michelle and I watched [...]
Sika | March 16, 2009
Seafoam green with black lines
Periwinkle with blotchy black beagle spots
Yellow shading into blue-y purple front to back, or, for variety’s sake, purple-y blue shading into yellow top to bottom.
Cobalt blue so dark the only way to tell it isn’t black is by that edge where the color of the body erupts into the sky-coloured [...]
Sika | March 13, 2009
There’s a tree here at Mango Drift that is covered with weaver bird nests and filled with weaver bird trilling. The male weaver birds spend days building nests. If the female birds that strike their fancy find that the nests don’t strike their fancy, the boy birds abandon their nests and start new.
There seem to [...]
Sika | January 17, 2008
Not really thoughts inspired by Chilembwe Day, since my only thoughts about Chilembwe Day were, “w00t! Day off!” and “Is it really appropriate to say Happy Chilembwe Day about the first martyr for Malawian independence? It seems a little gauche.” So more like thoughts inspired on Chilembwe Day.
Whoever invented fitted sheets is a genius, and [...]
Sika | November 8, 2007
Sitting here, writing in my journal by light coming from increasingly shorter (or decreasingly tall) candles, a spider, I assume attracted by the light and warmth, came near me. These spiders are creepy. They are nearly flat and big – about the size of the palm of my hand. They are flat enough that they [...]