One thing I feel about my life here is it comes in waves. Hectic waves. Boring waves. Bar waves. Staying home waves. Running waves. NON-running waves. Last week started great – gym, Hashing, running. Then it just fell apart. I miss the Running Room and I miss having a plan and a schedule. My friend Kate who works at the Wildlife Centre has told me they are in charge of organizing a marathon in Lilongwe in September. Can I do it? I’m not sure yet. Its tight on training considering I’m starting from pretty much scratch. I have to mentally commit. That is a difficult difficult thing to do. In Toronto, I had the Running Room – I miss my running friends and the motivation they gave me. You feel like you are in something together. Running alone is hard – especially long distances. When I was easily pounding out the kilometers at the Running Room in a group, even a measly 5km by myself could still be torturous. I also don’t want to fail at my first marathon attempt as I feel like that would fuel my running negative self-talk to a debilitating level. I’m not completely shutting out the possibility, but I’ve got to commit myself.
Despite the fact I JUST had a Lilongwe break I feel like I desperately need another one. Lilongwe can be extremely suffocating. I find myself and others tend to take on a ‘Oh, screw it’ attitude sometimes here. I am more than guilty. Today is not going the way I planned, ah screw it. In Malawi it is incredible how you can work all day, yet get nothing accomplished. I don’t even know what happened last week. Even my Canadian friends here has his facebook status today as “You know when you’re just like “F it?” Ya …. Looking forward to a distraction free week.” As an expat community, sometimes I think we all need to figure out a better way to deal with our stress. A few of my friends and I have been trying to channel our frustrations into working out/running . . . but like last week, I was inevitably bitten by the “screw it” bug. Kate and I started off this week with a 6:30am run this morning (beautiful temperature!) and have planned for another on Wednesday. Hopefully we will be able to keep positive spirits this week.
The title of my post I felt fitting. Mostly because I have revived my love affair with Sam Roberts (I miss Canadian music!) and I’ve been relating to all of his lyrics these days (“… cause there’s no road that ain’t a hard road to travel on …”). I feel like its been a long hard road to where I am now. I have a long hard road ahead. I’m watching a lot of my friends here battle the same things I have, and the same things I will. But as Sam would say “… stay true to your friends, cause they’ll save you in the end.” We’re all in this together guys.
X
Monday, May 9, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Malawi and UK ... If you can't play nice, then don't play at all!
You! Get out!
http://www.nyasatimes.com/politics/malawi-issues-official-deportation-order-to-british-diplomat.html
Fine. You get out too!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-africa-13205729
As much as we expats and Malawians all make the obvious jokes on the issue (“Did Fergus fart and get deported?” . . . “But what about the Royal Wedding Garden Party at British Consulate?” - the party did happen by the way but all Malawian government officials invites were withdrawn), this is actually getting pretty serious. Things are already not great in Malawi: no fuel, no forex and apparently we are one bad harvest season away from another famine. So potentially losing our biggest foreign donor over a leaked cable that criticized the President is a big deal. Bingu’s inability to take criticism has now resulted in something that will likely have a major impact on Malawi’s people, and as usual – it will be the poorest of the poor who suffer. Bingu will still have his private jet to run away on when the going gets tough. Before this incident, donors had begun to speak out against Bingu, and talks of pulling aid had already started after Bingu told his supporters that they should “discipline” people who were against his regime. In addition, a protest against the on-going fuel crisis here in Malawi was squashed and organizers arrested before it even began. Will my blog posts be the next to be censored? And as we plod along, unable to protest, unable to speak out, Bingu is lining up his brother to be the next President. And do we really think China can fill the UK’s shoes in donor aid? I’m not overly aware of China’s presence here in Malawi. All I do know is that they are building a 5-star hotel . . . and the majority of the labour being used is Chinese . . . and they are refusing to install any of the electrical fixtures in the hotel (which is very expensive). I’m not convinced that relying on China is the smartest idea.
Ran with Kate and Sinead this past week and chatted Malawi politics. Nothing like fueling your anger during a run to keep you going! Still fighting with motivation issues.
http://www.nyasatimes.com/politics/malawi-issues-official-deportation-order-to-british-diplomat.html
Fine. You get out too!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-africa-13205729
As much as we expats and Malawians all make the obvious jokes on the issue (“Did Fergus fart and get deported?” . . . “But what about the Royal Wedding Garden Party at British Consulate?” - the party did happen by the way but all Malawian government officials invites were withdrawn), this is actually getting pretty serious. Things are already not great in Malawi: no fuel, no forex and apparently we are one bad harvest season away from another famine. So potentially losing our biggest foreign donor over a leaked cable that criticized the President is a big deal. Bingu’s inability to take criticism has now resulted in something that will likely have a major impact on Malawi’s people, and as usual – it will be the poorest of the poor who suffer. Bingu will still have his private jet to run away on when the going gets tough. Before this incident, donors had begun to speak out against Bingu, and talks of pulling aid had already started after Bingu told his supporters that they should “discipline” people who were against his regime. In addition, a protest against the on-going fuel crisis here in Malawi was squashed and organizers arrested before it even began. Will my blog posts be the next to be censored? And as we plod along, unable to protest, unable to speak out, Bingu is lining up his brother to be the next President. And do we really think China can fill the UK’s shoes in donor aid? I’m not overly aware of China’s presence here in Malawi. All I do know is that they are building a 5-star hotel . . . and the majority of the labour being used is Chinese . . . and they are refusing to install any of the electrical fixtures in the hotel (which is very expensive). I’m not convinced that relying on China is the smartest idea.
Ran with Kate and Sinead this past week and chatted Malawi politics. Nothing like fueling your anger during a run to keep you going! Still fighting with motivation issues.
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