Where in the World is Colleen? » uncategorized

Blogging sabbatical over

Colleen — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 23:06:14 +0000

I looked back at my website the other day and realized it was no longer the first site that popped up in my Firefox browser. I hadn’t posted for nearly 2 months. Not for a lack of ideas, but I needed a sabbatical from communicating with the rest of the world. I needed a break from being so virtually loud. I needed to focus on my many jobs (2 officially with numerous side-projects), but that left me either far from computer and internet access or too tired to consider flipping open my computer screen at the end of the night to write something out to the world.

Excuses over. I needed a break – that’s all. Now I’m back, ready to be loud and verbose again. Enjoy!

Where there is a ball…

Colleen — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:38:05 +0000

… there will be football.

It’s a week till the World Cup 2010 starts in South Africa. All of Africa is a-buzz with energy and excitement. The favourite World Cup songs are starting to be played endlessly over Ghanaian radio waves – K’naan’s Waving Flag, Shakira’s Waka Waka (my two favorites). And the tv commercials out of South Africa showing crowds of people bouncing footballs (or imaginary footballs) in classrooms, markets, restaurants, airplane runways are all over.

But outside of the media, the energy is tangible. The World Cup is starting and Africa is ready for it. Wherever you go – if there is a ball, people will appear from all corners to play some football. Truly, this is Africa’s sport.

Hold on

Colleen — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:11:14 +0000

Please wait while this blog and its author get a make-over – one in appearance and the other in inspiration.

Travel Ghana Part 1 – Changing a tire … or two

Colleen — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:54:23 +0000

On our way to the coast, we got a flat tire. Actually we got 2; one on the way there and one on the way back. It was Isaac’s car and with 3 ladies in the back in the middle of sort of nowhere, he was predictably embarrassed, but got straight to work. In no time, the tire was off. We suggested the spare tire, but of course that was flat too. The only thing left to do was to take both tires to the nearest town and try our luck at getting them repaired.

In Malawi, if you saw 2 foreign women, 1 Ghanaian lady and one guy by the side of the road with a stopped car and 2 tires, you’d stop. I’d guarantee that within 5 cars going by, someone would have stopped to ask you if you needed help. Things are a bit different here. At first we let Isaac try to wave someone down. No luck. Then we tried the girls. Still nothing. Even the pastor passed us by. We must have looked very threatening (or something!).

Finally, this came along. Apparently we weren’t too menacing for a giant blue tro-tro.

We fixed the tire and got back on our way for a day of fun and sightseeing.

Tired, emotionally drained and with music blaring to make sure Isaac stayed attentive, we started back. No sooner did dark fall then the car make an unhappy swerve. Same tire. Blown again. Now it’s dark. We’ve already established that Ghanaians aren’t going to stop for us in the middle of the day; they sure as hell aren’t going to stop for us in the dark at the side of the highway.

I tend to operate on the belief that with enough patience, persistence and money, things will happen and everything will be fine. It’s a theory, proven true time and again in Malawi. But I’m no longer in Malawi, and suddenly those theories have come into question.

Everything did work out, with time and patience. Like Malawi, trades people can be found close by at all hours of the day and night. They are willing to help and didn’t even charge us for the inconvenience or our desperate situation.

Changing a tire is never fun. Changing a tire at the side in a rural area in Ghana adds a whole other level of complexity. Changing a tire at the side of the road in the dark with traffic whizzing by is decidedly less so, but it all makes for a good story and team-bonding experience.

It’s that time of year again

Colleen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:38:38 +0000

It’s that time of year again.

I’ve lived in Malawi for almost a year (11 months and 2 weeks really), enough to see the seasons come full circle and with that the activities and specialties it brings. The land is prepared and ready for planting. Farmers are waiting for the first rains.

Mangoes are back!… Starting small and green, but every week they’re getting bigger and tastier. Peaches have returned as have Masau (a strange delicious fruit that I love but struggle to eat).

The flowers on the trees are in full bloom providing patches of bright purple, pink and orange to brighten the dull dusty land.

The weather is getting hot (although Dedza is still cold, of course) and sunscreen is a requirement for Azungus yet again.

And with the hot weather is a resurgence of mosquitoes. Soon, there will be flying ants as the rains come and scare them out of the ground.

The air is heavy from months of smoke from burning fields and requires a good rain to knock it down. The air threatens rain. It should arrive any day.

People are starting to talk about fertilizer again (although last year at this time it was all about the then-upcoming election). Politics is still a forefront for all decent newspapers.

As I move onwards, this time to Ghana, it is good to look back and reflect on life in Malawi coming full circle. It gives me some sense of calm and certainty in the midst of my own confusion. I’m reminded that some things change quickly while others will never change.

And for myself, it is that time of year again. For the past 7 years, I’ve been moving every fall. Time to move again. Time to start something new, to meet new people and new challenges. Time to eat different food, experience new cultures and fall in love with another part of the world.

Photo: Me in Malawi, a year ago