Learning to Relax Again

Days just keep flying by, and here I am in Lilongwe for more than a month already!  I've had friends and family ask what I am up to every day, so here is a little taste of what I do most days while Kate is at school.......

Yep, that is a pretty fair representation; just trying to find as much time as possible to lie in the hammock and learning to relax again.  It's been a strange transition, working at the public defender in Louisville, never having enough time to get the work done that you have in front of you, transitioning to pretty much having endless time to fill.  The first two or three weeks I found myself regularly thinking about what I should be doing, what was next on the list, whether I was needed somewhere..... madness.

Now, I'm certainly not complaining.  Catching up on reading, listening to music, studying the local language, spending time walking around and exploring: all these things are great, and I appreciate the value in them and the luxury I've got right now to do them.  It is interesting, though, that our brains are programmed to always be moving, always thinking about what needs to be done, to always be in a hurry.  Part of that was probably the culture of the job I was at; part of that is just the American mentality I suppose.

 Malawi is not that.  People that have traveled in the Caribbean or Hawaii know what "island time" is: never getting too stressed about a schedule and simply going with the flow.  Malawi generally fits that attitude as well.  A 6 pm meet up inevitability happens at 6:30, or 7, or 9.  And that's okay, because nobody seems all too worked up about it.

One thing that is in my (almost) daily routine is walking with Lucy.  We live a few minutes away from the Lilongwe Golf Club, and spend an hour or two every day walking there.  It is not very busy, but we typically see a few people here and there playing a round.  Wish I would have thought to bring the clubs to Malawi?

That being said, lots of beautiful trees and flowers, and always a great chance to check out some of the local creatures.  My intention after seeing some of these and taking pictures, is to go home and do some research about what I have just found, scientific names, ...not enough of that so far.  But here are some cool pics nevertheless.  On the left is a millipede that is probably 6-8 inches long.  It's called a Choungololo or "Giant African Millipede." Apparently, some keep them as pets?  Not necessarily my cup of tea now, but could definitely see the appeal of having one of these in the terrarium (http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/centipedes/a/millipedes.htm)


On the right is a pretty nice size lizard.  It's too bad I didn't have a little more courage, so that I could have gotten closer and put something next to him to give him some scale, but yeah, not quite. He was probably a good 18-24 inches long, and looked just menacing enough for me to keep my distance. Not sure if he is part of the iguana family?  type of chameleon?  Haven't figured it out yet; if anybody knows, feel free to fill me in.

Always beautiful trees, flowers, etc.  Everything here seems so exotic at first, but even in the month I've been here, that starts to fade.  I've had the conversation with Kate before, about how people back home always want to see more pictures and hear about the interesting things you are doing.  There are many things that seem to fit the bill, particularly at first.  But like any place or experience, familiarity does set in.  Our day-to-day becomes so normalized to us, that sometimes it seems hard to remember to pull out the camera.   Reminds me of living in San Diego and sometimes people hadn't been near the beach for months and months at a time.

There have been trips to the market, grocery store, and simply wandering around to get lost. I'd like to do another post on the market, but am working out how to take pictures there the right way.  Not sure what the etiquette here is on taking pictures in public spaces, so I'll work on that.  So much energy and life there. Some more traveling coming up as well, so we'll hopefully be seeing some more exotic locals.
I have met with a couple of people about doing some volunteering, and just starting to trickle out a couple resumes here and there.  The initial plan was to take 6-8 weeks to decompress- might be cutting it short, might not.  For now, enjoy the peace, and the relative stillness in my life.  Enjoy walking in the golf course with Lucy.  And enjoy whatever comes next.