So my family and I just picked up our lives and moved to Malawi, cuz well, I guess, why the hell not? Anyhow, I’m currently on a work trip to Blantyre, sitting in a Chinese restaurant that might have been nice back during the colonial days, listening to “Only the Lonely” on the radio (followed by Everlong?!).
I need another beer.
Good vibes your way bro. 
Thanks man.
It’s all good vibes. Every so often life does something surreal that makes me look around and take stock of how I got where I am. I appreciate those moments.
Anybody else got stories of when life made you look around and kind of go “well, alright then”
Yeah, right?
I suppose Nyasaland was named after the lake, but I agree. Malawi is better.
My wife got a new gig running a malaria control program, and I have been working on a few HIV projects in the region for a while, and living in DC had gotten waaaay to Nukey lately, so we thought “why the hell not”
I recently saw the movie Gabriel and The Mountain.
The movie pretty much begins and ends on Mt. Mulanje. I guess the moral of that story is don’t get lost on the way down from the top?
Whoa. Well, I’m pretty much the worlds laziest adrenaline junkie, so the odds of me making it up that mountain in the first place are pretty slim. Nonetheless, I shall heed your advice.
Also, I have google maps.
I can’t say I’m a veteran hiker or anything, but I’d love to climb Mt. Mulanje if I ever find myself in Malawi. I’ve just returned from walking the Camino Frances in Galicia, so I’m still feeling a bit inspired.
But I’m definitely going to play it safe and have a guide if I ever do make that climb… Apparently the cause of death was hypothermia.
How’s the IDM/breackcore/glitch scene in Malawi?
I was living with my mom when she died, by circumstance immediately after that I ended up in the city I was born in (but never lived in and only visited like once in my entire life), where I met my wife within less than a year. That whole sequence of events happened so fast I never really got a chance to process any of it emotionally until years after.
Haven’t gone anywhere exciting myself, but my entire family has packed up and moved away in their various directions while I’m still here - after years of me moving away but always having to come back for some reason. I’m like Klinger at the end of M * A * S * H…
I looked you up because I’m nosy/curious about your work and found you’re a fellow Tulane Grad. Cheers!
I hope the Southern Hemisphere is treating you well.
micro-bats eat mosquitoes, AIDS vaccines eat cerebral dendrites, bill gates eats Malawians… I eat BEER
ellen?
I’m not Ellen, sorry 
. I was there from 09-14 so I’m guessing a little after @Zman. I was in the philosophy program and stayed an extra year for an MA.
I don’t think one has to go somewhere “exciting.” At least for me, life has this tendency to throw together little coincidences… series of random events… that give me enough pause from my self-absorbed day-to-day to appreciate the state of beautiful weirdness that we inhabit.
That sounds like a super intense period. How far of a move was it? It sounds like it must’ve taken you a good distance away at a difficult time.
Right on! Always good to meet another Tulanian. Sounds like you were up on the pretty campus. I was in the tidewater building downtown. Absolutely loved my couple of years in NOLA tho.
True that. I was in such a rush this morning that I forgot to add the weird part of the story.
Halfway across the country! Yeah it was kinda rough but at the time it was like, there wasn’t time to stop and think or process anything, just had to keep going. Right after she died my uncle came out to help sell her house and deal with other legal/paperwork stuff, he only had limited time so it was basically a mad rush to get the house packed up and move out. Ended up staying with my aunt, which was not a very pleasant experience, and within like 6 months met my now-wife which at the time was a huge motivation to get more self-reliant and get out on my own.
Anyway not trying to tell a sob story or anything or go on about my life! Life happens I guess, and it’s bittersweet, but to this day I find it interesting how it all played out, my mom passing away unexpectedly, leading me to the same city I was born in even though I never really had any connection to it before that, and fairly quickly meeting the girl that I would end up in a permanent relationship with. Dunno really what else to say about it, for me anyway it definitely seemed to fit your topic, like just one of those string of events that make you go “hmm, well that just happened”
It’s also hard to believe that was 12 years ago
I just saw a black cat