Meet Me in Malawi: Palibe Madzi!!!

“….the water is off again…”

This phrase no longer comes as a surprise when I hear it. It’s almost a bit of an inside joke… except you typically don’t hear much (any) laughter after it is uttered. Nothing like coming back from a run in the heat to find out that you can’t shower, or flush the toilet, or any other task requiring running water! Things I never thought about at home: when the college down the hill from you has 900+ students and is completely over-capacitated, all those students use water to take showers. The water flows downhill (thank you, physics) and thus leaves those of us UP the hill with empty faucets for hours (sometimes the majority of a day) on end. Oh the joys!

If you ever wondered what it was like to run through the Malamulo "jungle"...

School is going well! The boys are so much fun. Some days I feel like patience is a Latin word no longer present in my vocabulary or mindset but other days I just want to stop time and spend a few more hours watching them build and interact. If I had a picture of every lego/duplo/train track creation the boys have made… let’s just say I’d need a much bigger memory card! Also, the phrase “I hope you step on a lego” takes on a WHOLE new meaning here. When the creativity is flowing, step gingerly! Also, keep a close watch on what the dog might be chewing. The dog will survive, but the lego might not!

Had a really good Easter weekend, got to spend a few days in Blantyre with some good friends Sue and Dustin at their new place! We lounged, read, worked out (boot camp day 1!), rode bikes, ate, got harassed by a few drunk guys at market, enjoyed chatting with a few other sober guys sitting not far away, visited the bookstore (that was unfortunately closed for the weekend), and played ultimate Frisbee with some local expats! I had the new experience of riding on the back of a bike since we were one bike short. Not a method I would recommend for long distance taxi service, (ouch!), but effective for short distances! I don’t know how locals manage to go so far sitting on the bars over the back tire! (These bikes used to be carriers for the Royal Mail in the U.K, before being discontinued and shipped here. They’re in pretty good condition and have the added benefit of bars over the back tire that now often serve as a “seat.”) I have heard tale of even a woman in labor braving the road to Malamulo (can it even be called a road?) on the back of a bike. How that was accomplished is beyond me. Anyway, thankful for friends to visit and also thankful for the presence of Bombay Palace which provided excellent Indian cuisine… minus the appetizer that was a bit of a bust. Win some and lose some, right?

Harsh reality hit a bit when the Haytons returned from a weekend at the lake to discover that someone had poisoned a few of their dogs. (Someone threw food laced with poison over the fence so that the dogs would eat it.) I couldn’t believe it. They survived, thanks to Susan coming to feed the dogs and discovering them the day before and nursing them back to health. Why would someone try to poison dogs? Hard to say for certain, but a good guess is that big black dogs are a pretty good deterrent to theft. Especially here where general perception is that dogs kill. Still so thankful that the dogs are all ok, but it’s a sobering thought that things like that can happen at any time.

Speaking of Susan, she is an incredible lady. Taking her home yesterday she showed us her house that she’d built and WOW she is business savvy! She knew how to ration savings and look for cheaper but effective alternatives, and thus she was able to build a great house for much cheaper than many are able to. She didn’t even know we were coming and the place was impeccably tidy. I admire her work ethic and hope to see her go far in life! Enjoyed seeing the baby goats too, and the kids following us around were bashful but cute as ever! Every time I go to a village, though, I’m struck at how differently people live. It is so normal to see houses with dirt floors and thatch roofs, some with doors, some without. My perspective on things has certainly changed since coming here. I honestly don’t know exactly how much I have changed, and I suppose I may not find out till I am faced with life at home again, but I know I’ve changed. Hopefully for the better. It’s something to see life here and begin to understand it (I can only begin to understand, I know full understanding would take so much more time), but then wondering how to help. A thousand questions there.