No water, again..

There’s no water, again.

I’m learning to re-define what ‘necessity’ is, in a way or another. Today one of the expatriate professors said ‘you have to live without modern technologies’ when I asked him what’s the most important thing he thinks for international work. He has been travelling since young and been to Jamaica, South Africa, East Africa and now 4 years in Malawi. His children were born in Jamaica and South Africa and had grown up in different countries and cultures. Well, that wasn’t one of the interview questions. I usually had a small chat with the interviewees I found amazing before I left. I’m quite amazed at the power of listening – just by careful listening (and hence producing relevant questions) to other people’s stories make them eager to talk. I guess it’s human nature to like to talk about their lives and share their opinions. I’m amazed at how quickly ice breaking could be achieved by just spending half an hour talking, even for VIPs whom I thought would never bother to speak to unimportant people like me. For interviewees who are willing to give me just half an hour, usually they are able to open up and speak after about 15 minutes, and even better after half an hour. Only exception to some very experienced interviewees (whom I suspect had been interviewed or have been speaking for some organisations) it could be extremely difficult to get them to speak.

I wonder how long I could live with frequent water cut, very limited access to internet, no access to any sort of modern entertainment (apart from the movies and less than 400 songs stored in my external hardrive.. I really regret not to bring more! By the end of three months I think I would able to recite the lyrics of every Jack Johnson’s back to front!), no heating despite very cold weather, struggling with mosquito net every night and the most irritating of all – the rule of coming home before 5pm. I’m ok with it now, actually it’s quite an experience. Quite nice to just live very peacefully without hassle of internet – indeed what good internet brings in our lives when you really think of that..?

I’ve got this question at an increasing frequency now: do you consider taking up a position in the school of pharmacy? Well, I usually say I will consider and thank them for suggesting that. And indeed I will consider, no joke, it could be after my PhD, could be after I work for awhile in some other institutions, could be after 5, 10, 20 years. I’m not sure. And that’s why I’m asking myself how persistent I could be living under such situation. The most devastating of all is coming back to home without a person to talk to (my housemate Berna has been gone since Monday for Zambia so I’ve been just all by myself). I find all expatriates who come would bring their families along. Without a family, living alone could be really hard. Look at me now, speaking to a blank sheet of paper.