Beach Conference

In the hammock
Kande Beach
15/3/2010
This blog is one I knew I’d be writing for some time, but had also secretly been dreading for one simple reason: this blog will tell of some well good beach times, replete with all recognisable clichés of indulgence like day-long beer drinking, midday swims and hammock lounging... which to some will sound like I’m on some kind of sponsored expat vacation, instead of doing the hard surgical work I’m here to do!! But let me at least justify it. After 5 weeks in country spent mostly attending intensive induction lectures, acclimatising, settling into a new (crazy) town and workplace, attending a busy central hospital from 7.30 till 5pm most days for 4weeks now and trekking around on long distance bus journeys to establish some of the projects I’m working on (applying for a development grant [which got accepted by the way], set up of a trauma registry and joining a teaching programme), a 3 day weekend at a beach resort to recharge my batteries is hardly asking much I would hope!!
Especially since that weekend also happened to be the official annual volunteers’ conference with your VSO-type information overload packed in during the day; also bearing in mind that getting there and back alone could easily require 3 more days’ break to recuperate- 4 hours’ rough driving, the forward journey being notable for its 5am start. That didn’t stop the location being absolutely idyllic- Kande Beach along Lake Malawi- and the company simply wicked. And what’s more, the house rules weren’t the stuck up ones I’m so used to at home. This time they were so relaxed no one would actually notice if you went missing for part of or the whole day, which some certainly took advantage of, but not me. I was happy enough being near the bar, with most of the sessions being held in the open air just around it, and the beach being a few metres’ walk away. The session intervals were fairly generous and allowed for a dip now and again. The opportunity to discover all the different cultures that make up VSO in one place so far removed from home was to me a truly fascinating discovery. I’ve realised there are many different categories (if such a word can be used) of expats, each country having its own peculiarities. Many insights also were brought out into the balance between wealth and poverty, education and lack thereof, community and individual etc, which I’m only beginning to scrape the surface of. Incidentally I was rewarded for my interest by being made a VSO rep for my region. Actually the truth is that no one else wanted to do it!
The evenings were in a different league altogether, the first night being elevated to its unforgettable status by some pretty frantic Karaoke-ing by a motley crew comprising nostalgic Brits, Americans, Kenyans and Filipinos. The second night provided the scene for some fierce inter-volunteer competition fuelled by a very VSO-esque pub quiz (which my team won- only cause we managed to gather about twice the number of participants as any other team, had a VSO insider in it and a representative of every different country that VSO recruits from!!!). All this combined with regular rounds of Greens and Kuche Kuches happily turned every second of the last five weeks into a sweet drone of peace!

That certainly could be said for the live planetarium that was on display high in the sky, with many a constellation recognisable by anyone with an interest in astronomy. For those without, like me, the sheer immensity of it all and the profusion of shooting stars had all the magic one could possibly conceive of in their dreams. On the horizon, a different kind of spectacle was being played- that of the nighttime fishing tradition of the locals. They use a strong light to lure the tiny fish called Usipa or Katempa, and the turn it off before throwing their net onto them. (The catch is pretty good but the taste is very much an acquired one. These fish represent one of the main protein intakes of Malawians and are usually dried and salted by the time they’re sold. Of course, that’s next on my list of tastebud dares.) From a distance, at night, sat on a deserted soft sandy beach, this human milling looked just simply surreal, a bit like a lantern procession with the occasional firework. A Dali painting come alive if you may... That had to be my favourite part of the weekend.

Wifey and Hubby!!