Lessons to Learn

On Monday Linda, another Fulbrighter, and I met the Deputy Ambassador from the US Embassy in Malawi for a lemonade. She is a St. John’s alumna and as a true Johnny is a self-proclaimed generalist—she has lived all around the world and has not specialized in one particular focus area. As she and her family have also spent time in the DC area, it was a nostalgic meeting for me, a chance to talk with someone who also knows and loves both Annapolis and DC, not to mention another devotee of the ‘Great Books’ curriculum. The deputy ambassador invited me and Linda to a celebration at the embassy in June, so we are planning our trip to Lilongwe.

It was Thoko’s last week in the lab. Sadly for me but exciting for Thoko she is starting a new academic program and won’t have the time to help me navigate the lab any longer. Luckily, Godfrey is still around and is kindly working with me on a new part of our assay. I had a difficult week in the lab—the work is so precise that I can’t make any mistakes, not a good environment for a beginner. Consequently, it feels like things are moving very slowly because I often have to repeat or take extra time to complete parts of the experiment. I am steadily learning and improving, however, which is encouraging. My mentors and lab partners are also very supportive which is great!

On Tuesday I had to go to the immigration office to get my visa extended as the online immigration system has been down and the embassy has been unable to process my residency permit. The embassy kindly shared the contact of someone at the immigration office who would be able to help me. Someone in the lab mentioned that on Tuesdays, the immigration office takes the afternoon off and plays soccer, although the embassy contact suggested I come after lunch. Not sure what to expect, I showed up at 1:30 and found the door to the office locked. I called my contact who suggested I come at that time and asked what I should do. Not being patient enough to pay attention to what he was trying to say, I interpreted it as ‘come back tomorrow at 12:30.’ Annoyed, I told him off—that he had said I should come now, today, that I had left work to come here and now no one was here. Waiting until I was finished, he said very patiently, “you are listening to respond, not to understand.” Turns out, he had just been trying to tell me which office room number to go to down the hall. As my dad says, assumption is the mother of all screw-ups. I immediately apologized profusely. Lesson learned!

This weekend I went over to Nicole’s house for a pool party. It was lots of fun. A local doctor couple, Karen and Peter, brought their two little girls, two and four, who were entertaining to hang out with. The two girls and I played in the pool and then with Nicole’s kittens, both of whom were very intrigued and bemused by the other. The kittens have grown up a lot and were running around the house, hiding under chairs, chasing each other, chasing a string we dangled for them, etc.

I mentioned to Nicole that I would be reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver with a reading group Linda has invited me to join. Nicole, who spends a lot of time in the Congo, said that the book is a favorite and while it might seem outlandish or even impossible at certain points, it coheres with her own experiences. She told us an insane story about a flight she had, but Nicole is writing a book about her Congo adventures, so I won’t mention it here. I’m excited to read the novel (and Nicole’s book in the future) and also excited for the opportunity to meet with our new group and discuss. I have been missing talking about books almost everyday!

On Saturday, I had Camille and Sara over for dinner. We made a delicious risotto and were in the process of baking a chocolate zucchini cake when the power went out. Alas! Luckily, I was able to finish baking it the next day and it was still delicious 🙂