First Week back.

Good 5-2AM Americans,
Malawi is wet this time of year. It is a fascinating change in the pace and style of life. Also, everything is one hundred times greener and the roads are a polka-dotted tie of potholes and umbrellas (everyone carries umbrellas, even the homeless). I spent my first week in the seat of government, Lilongwe (a dust-bowl turned a hillbilly "muddin" paradise). In Lilongwe, I have been zipping between some of the different houses of government: getting a hands-dirty crash course in African bureaucracy. A little tip: never use the word "expedite." I'm pretty sure 2% of the people I've talked to know what it means and the others are unhappy when its meaning becomes apparent.

I've had the pleasure of crashing with my one-time golf buddy turned host, Tom. One of the US Embassy's fine employees and a miserable basketball player. But his wife, Gabrielle (who is Haitian and cooks only delicious Creole stuff), and he have been kind enough to let me crash part-time at their house in their final weeks of State Department work in Malawi.

I have since travelled to Blantyre for a week of financial work. But two quick tidbits on Malawi. 1. The rain here is straight biblical. One minute, you are skipping through the streets, and the next they are a river: mud and people crashing about as the torrential downfall attacks. I'm considering building an ark instead of investing in a truck.

Two: Football as we know it, ain't the hottest commodity in the TV market here in Malawi. As I desperately tried to explain that I wanted to watch the game to just about anyone in Blantyre, no one could point me in the right direction. So, I finally found a bar that had ESPN (the broadcasters of everything American Sports in Malawi. It's awesome, they don't even have commercials, during ad time they show recaps of other games throughout the week). I asked the owner if I could watch the game, and he agreed, if I gave him $15. Little did I know, this meant I had rented the bar, and I had just a bartender and myself watching the Patriots game at 10PM-1AM Sunday here. The owner of the bar misunderstood me, however, when I said jokingly "It's gonna be a party." And he sent three lovely, young ladies to join me during the second quarter. At halftime, I politely told them to leave, although I considered paying them to stay and simulate some post patterns in the bar with me. As halftime entertainment.

It's lovely to be blogging again, I'm off to watch a Polo match with a deputy in charge of exports,
Steven