The Many Forms of Wisdom

Mwaswela bwanji nonse?!

Sorry for the long gap in my posts. I have not been in Lilongwe in a few weeks and haven’t been able to properly charge my laptop. I am only able to write this now with about 20% battery left from my neighbor’s feeble attempt to charge it (the battery of his solar setup couldn’t hold enough power to charge it). So I don’t know when I’ll be able to charge it to full again, but hopefully I will be going to Lilongwe again soon, since there are other things I need there anyway. I plan on purchasing a new power inverter for my own solar set up so that hopefully I will have my own power source at home. My lights in the house work so I know the system is functioning, but the outlet doesn’t work and it’s because the current inverter is broken. Now, it’s technically up to our district hospital to fix/replace this sort of thing, and George has brought it to their attention more than once, especially since the main Health Center is in need of electrical maintenance; however, there are a bunch of changes going on on the main supervisor level and they keep saying, “We are aware of the problem and will deal with it when we can.” Whatever that means… Sadly I’m coming to the quick realization that most Malawians are neither quick to do anything they say, nor more often than not are they true to their word in general. Therefore I plan on taking matters into my own hands and because I want power I’m just gonna splurge the 3000mk to buy a new inverter. This isn’t much tho, only about $20 and a mere dent in my monthly allowance, so all is well!

Speaking of taking initiative where the Malawian word has failed, I built myself a door to my fence the other day! Yep, me, all by myself! The man that built my fence was supposed to finish it with a door and also clean up the heaps of old grass scattered across my yard, but I made the mistake of paying him in full before he was finished and 2 weeks later, no door and heaps still everywhere. *sigh* I’ve learned my lesson and am moving on. So I thought about it for a few days and decided it could not be that difficult to do, and I had the material, so I figure it was at least worth trying. And by-golly I did it! I even impressed myself a little and Helen could not believe it was I who built it. I mean it’s not rocket science, but I suppose when most Malawians think it’s incredible that I sweep and wash my own clothes (“But how can you possibly manage?!” they say), then building a door to my fence must be truly remarkable.
Now I have a decent fence that fits and closes and serves the purpose I need: keeping small children out and Nzelu in!

Wait, just who is Nzelu? You may be asking…

Why this little bundle of cuteness is Nzelu!

He is a mutt from my village that I bought for 200mk (less than $2) and is 2 months old. His name is pronounced “n-zay-loo” with n being more of the sound with your tongue to the roof of your mouth right before the z, not “in”. It means wisdom. I’m pretty pleased with him and his name and even many Malawians ask, “Who named this dog?” And when I say me they are shocked, lol.

Now, I am tickled as a pickle to has this ornery, adorable little puppy as a part of my life here and am so thankful to have him as a companion here where I often feel lonely, but ooooh man… If being the only white person in your small African village wasn’t crazy enough to the community, try keeping a dog as a pet. hahaha Everyone is so amazed by my relationship with Nzelu and I often draw a crowd of children in my wake to and from the market.

This is just one example of a crowd that followed me all the way back to my house on day, I took this picture standing in my back door! *shakes head*

Someone once said, “There are two kinds of people in the world: people who call dogs dogs and people who call dogs puppies.” The more I thought about this when I heard it, the more I realized how true it was, so imagine an entire culture and country where in the language there is not even a word for puppy! Here a puppy literally is “galu wamng’ono” or “small dog”.

People here do not keep dogs as pets but more for security if they keep them at all. Many dogs just kind of run around not belonging to anyone. I often get asked, “But won’t he bite you? Isn’t he mean?” And I respond, “What would you do if I walked up and hit you in the face right now?” And they say, “I’d fight back.” To which I reply, “Exactly! So why do you think a dog would be any different?? You all kick them, throw rocks at them, starve them and call the all ‘you’ and then wonder why they are not nice.” And this gets people thinking. I never knew having a dog could be such a learning/cross-cultural experience for both me and my community! I mean, I’ve been asked several times things like, “If you buy fish for the dog, you should buy fish for me.” or “If you use that chitenje for the dog, you should just give it to my so I can use it for my baby.” People just do not get it. But maybe it’s a good thing, I can show people that dogs can be excellent companions and pets and maybe people will stop being so mean to their dogs. Plus the children really like Nzelu and will come over all the time to play with him and see him. I think it’s human nature to want to like dogs, but they are taught to fear them because they are mean and so they grow up and abuse them and in turn make them mean, creating a cycle. It’s kind of sad really…

Any way, moving on…

I have so many things I want to talk about but my lap top battery is running dangerously low so I should probably only mention a few and save the rest for a fully charge battery, but I just wanted to make a post and assure you all I’m still alive and doing well

And I am! I doing really well as a matter of fact. I now eat lunch and dinner with someone everyday and now that I have Nzelu and a completely enclosed fence, I feeling really good about being here. I’m still not 100% about what I’m supposed to actually be doing, but hopefully at IST I will get some direction and ideas for projects. I do have a few ideas already, but it’s still a little early to know for sure if I will pursue them as projects. One huge need my community has is water. There are only two water sources in my village and women often wait hours for water. It’s ridiculous. But apparently there are some things in the work with an agency from Lilongwe to put in two more boreholes, so I’m going to wait to see how that pans out before thinking seriously of taking it on as my own project.
I’m beginning to think the biggest need for me is just to really be an advisor, because it seems that a majority of the staff at the health center are completely oblivious to resources available in Lilongwe. So I’m thinking a lot of my work here will be network and connecting my community with what is available for them and teaching them how to accomplish what they want for themselves and not expect me or any other person to come and do it for them.

So, yeah.

Well in case you didn’t hear via Facebook I recently had my first bunch of bananas from my banana tree!
Here is what it looks like when they are ready to be cut down:

And here is George helping me cut it down lol, I needed a big strong man to do this for me, they were very high!

And then me with my prize!

They were awesome and super delicious! They are smaller than regular bananas and more dense and a little less sweet but still very banana-ey. Apparently there are over 60 types of bananas in Malawi! Did you even know there were that many types of bananas? Cuz I did not!

Remember when I mentioned that most Malawians can’t believe I wash my own clothes? Yeah, children included. They insist on helping me every time. I’m lucky if I can get through the whole process without anyone showing up and then wanting to help. I wasn’t so lucky the last time I did laundry and I had a few helpers:

We were all busy, busy! The kids are cute tho and they just like to help. The women are the ones I don’t like showing up because they like to takeover not help, lol.

Well, I’ll end with that since I really want to post this before my laptop dies! More to come later
Also in case you haven’t seen yet, I’ve posted a picture tour of my house on Facebook, so check it out! And if you have Skype, add me to your contacts, my iPhone works now and I am able to chat on Skype with it! *happy dance*

I miss you all!
Tiwonana!