More from my Journal

July 25, 2010 Chikanda
Today I convinced my homestay sister and cousin to run with me. They find it quite hilarious that I go on runs, so I toke it upon myself to invite them. We woke a few minutes before 6am and started out to Mzengareza. It was highly overcast and insanely windy, all in all not a good day to run uphill against the wind, so to Mzengareza we went. They did pretty well considering we did a 45 minute run. I even threw in some calisthenics mid-run to keep them entertained; we did high knees, butt kicks, and the indian run.
In the afternoon the lot of us trainees organized a trip to Dedza Pottery and Lodge. It’s quite close, only a few minutes outside of Mzengareza. They fire all their own pottery and provide a robustly decadent menu. By Malawian standards they’re quite pricey, say K1200 for my vegetable curry, but that translates to roughly $4.50. I will say I was a tad disappointed with my meal though, there was a noticeabe lack of good vegetables and the portion size was meager. Os was sitting right next to me and he ordered the chicken curry with nearly twice as much curry and steamed vegetables on the side. And, it was cheaper than mine. I was a tad peeved, really vegetables are cheaper than chicken no matter how you look at it and especially here where meat is a delicacy. So, I complained and the manager ended up charging me the same as the chicken curry. Not a total victory, but it will do. Oh how my mother would be proud, using my bargaining skills.
So before starting Peace Corps I was very deliberate to not set any sort of real expectations or goals. I didn’t want to arrive in Malawi and have over or underestimated my position. I wanted to come into this and be able to roll with the punches. And, I’d say I’ve done just that, for the most part. Sure, I did have some unconscious, un-uttered thoughts – like am I really going to be able to hack it? I’ve never been this far from home for this long, etc. Of course I told myself I was up to the challenge, but in the back of my head I wondered am I really. Now I’m here and it seems so natural, more natural than I would have ever thought possible. My roll-with-it-attitude has acquiesced with my determination to “hack” it and won over my subconscious. I just go day by day, just as I did back home, and it seems so almost easy at this point. Here I am, just living in working in Malawi. I still have those surreal moments of “Holy shit I’m in Malawi!” But those moments are becoming less and less. And, when I have those too real pangs my coping mechanism kicks in and I return to the book I was reading or watch an episode of Seinfeld or Gossip Girl (guilty pleasure #1 right now) on my netbook.

July 26, 2010 Chikanda
Chikanda moyo is a sort of cake native to Malawi, made from their all-purpose ngaiwa (corn flour), bananas, and a few other things. Besides being delicious, the name means “to love life,” which I find so appropriate. I thought of my dear friend Ashley Davis when Aaron, my language trainer, told us what it meant. If you know Ashley you know her basic life motto is “I heart life.” I can’t count the many times I’ve heard her say it as a response to just about anything. As cheesy as I thought it sounded at the time, which I did, I would roll my eyes and laugh when she would say it. Now, it seems so pertinent. Chikando moyo is an essential part to this whole adventure. To be here and to work with any sort of enthusiasm, you must love life and I do. I’m enjoying every moment of it and I have for quite some time now.

July 27, 2010 Chikanda
Funny moment of the day: I let Molini, my homestay sister, look at my iPhone. She likes to flip through the music, looking at all the album covers and playing random songs. She’s breezing through all the music when she decides to play, at complete random, “Pussy Fight.” Please keep in mind that my older brother, Jason, gave me this phone with all the music already on it. The majority of the music is ghetto rap music, just saying, we’re real Topeka people folks. I’m doing my best not to laugh out loud to such lyrics as “girl pull your panties down, girl we’re going to have a pussy fight.” Or “you can call me a nympho because girl I’m goin’ limp over you.” I can barely contain myself and dear Molini, she’s just bopping along to the catchy beat.

July 28, 2010 Chikanda
Here’s to prove myself that I’m halfway proficient with Chitimbuka. A small lesson on my homestay family:
Iyi, ni mbumba yane mu nyumba mwithu, nili na bakulu babiri na balongosi batatu. Ndipo mbumba ya Masina. Mudumbu wachinkonde, wali na chaka chimozo. M’bale mwanalume, wali na vyaka vinkonde na vibiri. Ba’bale wachibiri na wachitatu, bali na vyaka vikhumi na chimoza. Bana bane, mazina ghabo gha kumalira na Tonice. Badada na bamama bane, bali na zina abo ni ba Masina. Mbumba yane yikunitemwa.

August 3, 2010
Today was a good day. The beg bugs that had infested my nyumba are finally gone. After gassing my entire nyumba with Doom and putting up fresh plastic to protect from the falling thatch, I am now fully protected from both the bed bugs and the ever-persistent urdzu, the bits of grass that falls from the thatch roof. It was clustering in a ball in the far corner of my room and the spurs burrow into my blankets and clothes. So scratchy and irritating. I’m so glad to be rid of the two things. Only, I still have a dozen or more bites that I keep itching. Sunday night was certainly the worst – I could just feel them crawling on me. I lay awake for hours, barely able to contain my anxiety. The anti-malarial meds are just preying on this anxiety and amplifying it too. Dr. Erfan, the Peace Corps Medical Officer, says that Mefloquine just exacerbates any pre-existing anxieties. So it was a long night to say the least, the only real way I got through it was listening to Enya. Something about new age music is really soothing to me, please don’t judge. I spent the majority of Monday sporadically scratching myself. Even though bedbugs are nocturnal creatures I just kept feeling things crawl on me. It was pretty awful.
But, as I said, the bugs are gone, doomed to death. And today did turn into a very good day. We had our cooking demonstration with our trainers. We spent the entire afternoon preparing various Malawian dishes. I was excited to learn how to make mandasis, the Malawian donuts. I made a vegan variety that only requires flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, water, and oil to fry them in. Here’s to going back to the US and teaching that you can make vegan donuts! You can do some other mix-ins like bananas, cocoa, or roll them in cinnamon and sugar. Quite delicious. For the meat eaters, Talia killed a chicken, she had her first go at slicing the head off and everything. I couldn’t bring myself to watch. It was 6 or so people clustered around her, one holding the head down with his foot, the bird squawking in fear, feathers catching in the wind, and then the “I don’t know if I can do it!” “But you have to!” “Ok, here it goes.” And slice. It turns my stomach a little to write about it. But kudos to those that can kill their own food and use the majority of the body, then you go ahead with my blessing. Just watching them carve up was pretty stomach-turning as well. Evidently, the spleen (or what I think was the spleen) ruptured and green gunk was all over the insides. They had to clean it all out, each organ and body part, or risk food poisioning. Personally, having to take risks like that and touching the meat is too unsettling for me. Another big reason why I don’t eat meat.
It was also Talia’s birthday today. So, we made a Chikanda moyo for her. To make African cake, grease the bottom of a large pot, mix and place all the ingredients inside, build a small fire below the pot, and cover and build a small fire on the lid. Bam, Malawian dutch oven. So, we sang both the English and Malawian versions of Happy Birthday (the latter is the same tune but with Chitimbuka words, funny how that song seems to translate to any language and it always sounds the same). We then broke out a bottle of Gold Label, Malawian brandy, and passed it around each of us exchanging toasts. The toast of the evening, “Just kill it!” It pertained to both finishing the bottle of liquor and to killing the chicken. Quite appropriate. I did make Talia a card for her birthday, made out of LAR (locally available resources), i.e. the magazines I brought from home. It was pretty fun and clever, or at least I thought so. The text: “Mike Tyson would like to posee a riddle: What’s ginormous, well-hung, or mini in size?” [with a picture of Mike Tyson]. The inside: “Ntochi of course, I mean we are in Africa aren’t we?” [with a picture of a banana].