Thursday, August 25, 2011

Bikes, enough leg power and they'll do anything!

I know, I know, it's been a while....again. I am not made for blogging. Well, mostly this country is not made for blogging. No electricity at my house and frequent power outtages mean that even if you do get to the boma to post an update there is always the chance you won't be able to do it anyway. But I digress, todays topic is; Bicycles a.k.a.- Jenga (in Chichewa)
When we get to site, Peace Corps gives us a bike on which to get around. For many volunteers it is the only method of getting to your nearest trading center, boma, or other volunteer. I am lucky, I have a short ride down a dirt path and then it is a quick, albeit hilly, 16 km to NKK boma on a paved road, the M 18. Some people are 16 km from the nearest paved road, I'm not complaining.
The bike provedes a means of transport not only for you but your kathundu (baggage), any mail you may have, groceries, fellow PCV's, and let me tell you, if I had a nickle for every time I saw a goat or pig or chicken lashed to the back of a bike, well I don't how many nickles it would exactly be but my guess is somewhere around $2.50. It is actually really funny to see and you would think the animals would put up a bigger fuss about it, but no. They seem quite resigned to their fate if for no other reason than, "Well as long as I'm on the bike, the kids don't throw rocks at me, humm, not bad."
I was biking to the boma one day and passed a man and a goat. The goat was tied insuch a fashion as to look like it was sitting side-saddle on the frame, with it's front legs tied and resting on the handle bars, a very dainty looking goat. Actually I thought it was dead, then as soon as I passed it the goat looked at me and went,
"MMMAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"
I think this loosely translates to,
"Look! They can't hit me with rocks! The kids don't know how to lead a target!" but I think it loses a little something in the translation, goat to Chichewa to English, you know, hard to keep up with it.
Actually, if someone would tell the livestock that if they would flop around a bit more they could very easily upset the bikes it may be a different story. And that is the amazing part, I bet getting them up is quite interesting (especially the pigs) but they just sit there! Weird. All my experience with American livestock suggests they would be adverse to such treatment. Humm, I think there is a selective breeding program for bike friendly animals, it's in the genes.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Every crazed, homeless, beggar has his day in court, when is mine?

A select few of you already know this, for those of you who don't, this will help you through today's blog post. So here is the short version;

I was grabbed in my boma, twice.

There is a crazy homeless guy who hangs out and harasses people, locals, tourists, kids, anyone. Last Wednesday he was following me around the boma ranting and raving and ended up grabbing my ass.  I got freaked out and left for Lilongwe for a few days, and he was arressted for a night.  A week later, (Wednesday) I get back to Nkhotakota I get grabbed again, the police had given him a haircut and shaved his beard, I practically walked right into him! This time my site mate is with me and she gets grabbed as well.

One of the interesting things about Malawian culture is the apathy.  Here are two people clearly in distress being harassed and visably grabbed and what do the tons of people around us do? Laugh. Because he is crazy it is funny. 

Anyway, we pick up bricks to throw at him and walked to the police station, file a report, and are told to come back to be in court on Friday.  So we get all the way here and are told that nothing is happening untill Tuesday, and even then it is just his day in court to state 'Guilty' or 'Innocent'.  They will call when we are needed. 

So what did we learn today? Walk around with bricks and the kids finally don't talk to you, and dealing with legal systems sucks globally. Wooh.