So a long time ago... in a land called Nittany Valley... a girl named Brianna got ridiculously pissed off at her former roommate (Mark Risso) for insulting her favorite genre of book. I believe he said something along the lines of: "If they can't tell the story in less than 300 pages, they just can't write" and used Kurt Vonnegut as a prime example. (Ok... it was actually a much more heated discussion... much more heated... in which Kurt Vonnegut was held up as the epitome of writers while all fantasy and science fiction writers, with the notable exception of Tolkien, were tramped upon... ) Thus, the girl... who in her defense was very young at the time, held a huge grudge against said author. Fast forward to the future. In the land of Mulanje, Malawi, where free time seems to be abundant and the sources of books scarce, this girl decided to give it a try since Vonnegut seems to just pop up everywhere (thank you peace corps library!). After reading... said girl is forced to say, although she still holds fantasy and sci fi in high esteem, Kurt Vonnegut is FREAKING amazing. For sure... Read him if you haven't... I suggest starting with Bluebeard
In other news... xmas and new years were spent lounging on the beach. A much needed (although didn't realize it at the time) vacation. Lake Malawi is beautiful! While I definitely missed the presence of snow (its amazing how much we associate that time of year with snow... it really didn't feel like xmas/new years without it and with temperatures above 80F), it was nice. Also, not having family around was a super bummer. I didn't realize how much time I spent with my family this time of year... putting up the tree, cooking food... getting yelled at by dad for not cleaning the house :) cranberry sauce... cookies... xmas eve at dad's... driving to NJ to see mom's family... and one more year of that :( but I know that when I get home, I'll really appreciate the holiday season even more.
In Water project news... After a slight miscommunication, in which the village chief at namwera wanted to change the project to a different, more expensive one at last minute (he understood we have a limited budget and we went back to the original program), we are rolling! The community found volunteers to dig trenches and finished Wednesday. Yesterday, myself, the local plumber Mr. Gologoda, and about 7 volunteers, including the Village Headman Namwera, went to the trading center by me to buy all the supplies and transport them back. Hopefully they'll have everything done in the next few days! Otherwise, waiting to hear about some funding for a school library, trying to get some more funding for a few more water projects, and helping with some training for village savings and loans groups I work with now. So... busy busy busy. :)
