Birds Bugs and Hugs

Moni from Malawi!
Oh my goodness where to start, it does not feel like I have been here for a mere 4 weeks! Well the flight from JFK airport to Jo-Berg in South Africa was the longest 15 hours of my life. But I will give the airlines props for trying to make it suck less than a black hole. You get your own personal tv loaded with movies and some tv shows. They keep you in total darkness almost the whole time. I think it helps with jet lag a little but honestly we were so stressed out that I didn't notice any jet lag. Watching the sunrise over Botswana was beautiful. That was the first time I have seen a sunrise from above the clouds and I think it is infinately better that way. From Jo-Berg we flew to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. At the airport you get off the plane directly on the tarmac and from all the way over at the terminal we could hear yelling and cheering and see a Peace Corps flag. They came to meet us! I was expecting someone with a bus but we got maybe 2 dozen PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) who all come down to welcome us to country.
From there we drove maybe an hour to the College of Forestry in Dedza, which was to be our home for the next week. That first week was a lot of cultural stuff, more vaccines, how Malawians view Americans, and survival Chichewa (the main language here, and the one I will be speaking). Each week, PC brings in 4 new PCVs to help with training. The first week the PCVs took all our pictures and left notes about us for the next PCVs. My note: "Likes birds, bugs, and hugs". Yup! Coolest bird so far, Pintailed Whydah.
Anyways, After week one we found out which village and which family would be our home for the next 6 weeks. Because our group is so large we were split among 4 villages. Mine is Kankhomba and my family is great. My amayi (mother) is Emily my abambo (father) works in South Africa most of the year so I won't get to meet him. I have 4 siblings my achemweli (sisters) are Dunia, Lahem, and Isha, my chemwene (brother) is Amadu. Ages go from 15 to 5. I'm pretty sure the kids thought I was a joke for the first two weeks but I showed them some oragami, pictures from home, tic-tac-toe, the hokey pokey, and head, shoulders, knees and toes. They really like head, shoulders, knees and toes. Like a lot! And they taught it to their friends. So I'll be walking past my house and 3 or 4 kids will all go, "Headie, shouldar, knee, ndi toe!"I impressed they got it so I'm not gonna sweat pronunciation.

Overall the people are super nice and really facinated by us. I kept hearing that it would be like living in a fish bowl but I didn't think it would be like this. Great example: one Sunday, my village met up with the health trainees in the next village. We met halfway at the church and just hung out. We had about 50 men women and mostly childen standing or sitting but just watching us. Really? I don't have an extra head, we aren't that interesting! I have known me for 23 years and if I didn't have to hang out with me all the time, I wouldn't. Anything we do as a group is watched intently. Particularly anything physical, digging, laundry, getting water, etc. We were building a mud stove and people were gathered to watch. They didn't think we could do it because, "Azungus don't work." Well ha! We made a mud stove! At first you think whatever, they'll move on. But they don't! And then you get frustrated because back in the States, staring at someone like that would be extremely rude. Whenever you walk somewhere you have to say, "hi" to everyone and they always want to know where you are going. Big slow breaths. American culture, you say hi and keep going. Not here, and you have to keep that in mind. It is a big deal that you are staying with a family and for some of the kids it is the first time they have ever seen a white person. We joke that it is like living in a zoo, "I like that one, he's moving around!" If you don't want to be looked at the best place to go is home.
Home is nice. I have my own room and people don't state at me. My family hosted a British girl back in 2005 I think, so mom understands to speak slowly because my language skills are retarded. (I am nowhere near the gifted end of the spectrum when it comes to language, it's hard for me.) I showed her the photo album Megan gave me before I left and they loved it, a million thanks for that btw, Meggers. They got the biggest kick out of the animals, Cheyenne, Cody, Lance, Nali, Zebbie and Ev, being in there and having names. People here don't keep pets. All the dogs are strays and I have seen only 2 cats since getting here. The bugs are great though. Tons of cool moths and beetles. The spiders haven't been bad, I have seen only one trantula and it was dead at the time. Ants are another story. Just like back in Colorado, rain forces ants inside. I have an anthill under my reed mat that my mattress is on. I have already gone through one can of Raid and the fumes may kill me too. There are a million little holes and getting all of them is tough. Luckily though they are the little black ants, not big red ants of death and bites. The ants are also flying off to make new colonies. This provides food for a lot of things. I was sitting outside the other day and watched a couple falcons (no, Catie, I don't know what kind they were) circling above where the ants were emerging, snatching them out of the air, eating and flying off. Pretty cool. The Malawians also eat the ants. They fry them, and pull the wings off. Luckily though I haven't been around when they make them, no bugs for Mary. However I did eat half an eel the other night for dinner.

We got home late from class and I didn't get to help with dinner. After taking my bafa (bucket bath, and not as bad as you might think) I went inside for dinner. My amayi motioned to a plate with some dark things on it and asked if I wanted one. I didn't think it was chicken so I said I wanted just one. While sitting in the dark, eating my nsima and pumpkin leaves, it dawned on me that the smell coming from my plate had a fishy aroma, but the thing wasn't shaped like a fish and maybe I should find out what exactly I had gotten myself into. I flicked on my flashlight, yup, dead eel. Thank goodness my amayi has delt with azungus before and Peace Corps told them we are weird. I sat there slack-jawed saying, "I can't eat that! How do I eat that?!" my amayi was saying "It's fresh, it's fresh, British eat." my brilliant comeback was "I'm not British!"Then I had a moment of clarity. Peace Corps gives food to our families and I know eel is not on that list. It has probably come all the way from Lake Malawi and is probably expensive and a rare treat. Then, that little voice came on and said, "man up and eat the damn eel, Mary." So I did. I'm not as hard core as the Malawians so I did pull the skin off and left the bones and head. Not much meat and it had a really strong flavor but over all not bad. I would eat it again, I didn't get sick.

Otherwise the food isn't anything fancy. Corn is the staple food and after it is dried they grind it into a flour. The flour is added to boiling water to make something like really really thick mashed potatoes, called Nsima. And they eat a ton of nsima! Otherwise I eat a lot of pumpkin and bean leaves, rice, pumpkin, squash, chicken, goat or cow (we think), tomatoes, potatoes, tea, sugar, oil, and salt. I wish I got more fruit. Guava are just coming into season so I hope for that. But we missed mangos and pineapples, nuts.
What else might you find amusing, probably the bathroom. The toilet is the chimbudzi or chim. The chim is a glorified hole in the ground and aim is critical. Getting yourself in the correct position, adjusting your pants or skirt, and avoiding the corners of the room where the spiders hang out requires a mastery of chim-nastics. So far so good. The Malawians are shocked by how open we are about using the chim. We don't care if you know we went to the bathroom or not. They care. Malawians are super sneaky about going. Legend has it, that if you see a Malawian come out of the chim, they have to give you a pot of gold. Or something like that. Right next door to the chim is the bafa, just a room with a rock floor and a small hole for drainage. You bring in a bucket of water with a temperature about 3 degrees below that of lava ( I think Malawians have no nerve endings) and boil the dirt and germs off your skin. You have a big cup and pour water over yourself. Yeah it's not the fanciest method but I like it. You get dirty and tired, go home and amayi says "kusamba!" and you get to wash it all off in the dark while listening to the bats come out. It's a nice way to unwind actually.

I wish I could say more but time has it limits. So until next time, I love you all and miss you even more!
Kuno Ku Malawi-
Mary

P.S.- I just wanna give a shout out to my Gunnison peeps! What up! Coming from freezing Gunni to sub-tropical Africa was awesome. I'm warm, hee hee! Let me know when you want to visit.
Chelsea do me a favor, pass this on to Magee- "Nthawi yakwana" (The time is now) You don't pronounce the "h" it sounds like: "N-taaw-whee Ya-k-wana"