A Wedding, A Fight, and Why I Loathe Livestock

Good news my devoted readers, I now have power in my house!

Well, I kind of always had power just was unable to use it to charge all my things (as mentioned in previous post). Yesterday I had a rather successful trip to Lilongwe, during which I was able to purchase a new power inverter. I was a little worried because it doesn’t look like the old one and didn’t quite have all the same hook ups, you literally connect it to a battery and BAM, you have power. So I hoped I could either figure it out for have George fix it for me since he was the one who told me what store to buy it at. I returned home and disconnected the old inverter, still feeling discouraged because there were so many wires and my new inverter only has two cables where it hooks to something, not places for wires to hook to it. I was also worried because my solar system and battery are locked in this blue wooden box, with a small window on the top so I can monitor the system. I sat and looked at it all for a moment and then just thought I’d try to clip with cables of the inverter to the ends of the cables coming out of the box, red with red and black with black. And believe it or not it worked! I am now able to charge EVERYTHING! Yes, even my laptop! *happy dance* I was right when I thought my battery was in better condition than George’s.

Needless to say, I am very happy right now

Today has been a pretty good day, mainly because one: I am better from a nasty bought of an intestinal bacteria infection that left me with diarrhea for 4 days and a fever for 3 (yuck!) and two: there is a funeral.
Now I’m sure you’re thinking, Why is a funeral a good thing? Because! It means everyone is there and not bothering me! lol I was even rushed into an early lunch when Gladys and Aubrey (George’s nephew) appeared at my house at 11:30am (we usually eat close to 1pm) saying it was time for lunch because they had to go to the funeral. I ate lunch and then went back home, that was it. Not that I don’t enjoy spending time over there, but sometimes I like to just hang out at home with Nzelu and today I’ve been busy with house chores like washing clothes.

Plus there is the drama…

About a week ago some crazy shit went down in the hood here. I went over next door around lunch time like usual only to discover Gladys in a terrible state. Her mother was over and she was crying and talking very fast. Of course I had no clue what was going on so I just sat there for a moment until George appeared and I asked if I should go, to which he asked if I’d taken lunch yet and I said, no, and he said, “Well food has been prepared, stay and eat!” Well, alright then.
My first thought was maybe she lost her baby (did I mention she was pregnant? and wants me to name the baby? yeah.) But I would think George would have said something. Then I thought maybe they were fighting until I noticed him consoling her and getting her a drink of water. What in the world was wrong?? I realized it was probably none of my business but even in my two months of living here I feel like these people are my family and I was concerned.
She ended up going to her room and I didn’t see her again till much later. After lunch I went home because it was just Aubrey and I sitting awkwardly in silence. I couldn’t decide what to do about dinner but figured they’d wonder where I was if I didn’t show up, so I wandered over there around 5ish. George was the only one around and was working around the house, so I just sat outside on a small stool at the corner of the patio with Nzelu. After a moment a lady, named Rachel who is a friend of Gladys and I could say mine as well, came up to the house on the side I was sitting and asked if George was around. He came out and she was talking very solemnly to him. I could tell something was wrong but didn’t know what, again.

Suddenly Gladys comes home around the other side of the house and I can tell she still seems upset and in an instant went from glum to furious as she got closer to me. It all happened so fast I wasn’t sure what to do. She came running past me at Rachel and attacked her! Throwing punches and screaming. Rachel had one of her daughters strapped to her back in a chitenje, so of course the child starts wailing and Rachel backs up to set her on the ground then she goes in for the attack, with a power kick. Finally the two women were torn apart by George and other friend. The friend took Rachel home and George pulled Gladys to the house. Gladys was storming around yelling and partially crying. I stood there in shock and after they disappeared in the house for about 5 minutes and the whole time no one giving me an ounce of attention, I decided to go home.

Sadly it was the first time I ate at home, alone at dinner time since I’ve moved here. Kinda weird.

I finally asked George about what happened and he explained that Gladys is a very jealous woman. She is constantly accusing him of cheating on her, no matter what he does. Every time he goes to town she asks who he was with. He has even stopped visiting friends in neighboring villages because of her constant questioning of him. Apparently she got it in her head that Rachel was “prostituting herself” (as he put it) to him. She was convinced he and Rachel were having an affair and decided to take matters into her own hands.

Craziness… So things have been a little tense around here and George and Gladys have been fighting a lot. Not in front of me, but there’s been more than one occasion where they will be absent from dinner and I can hear muffled crying and shouting in their room.

I’m not sure which is more surprising: that this happened at all, or that women across the world are exactly the same! lol

*shrug*

Moving on…

Last weekend I went to my first Malawian wedding! Well, actually I missed the actually marriage ceremony, it was early in the morning. But I was able to attend all the festivities in the afternoon.

First we ate food, goat meat with rice (this may be where I got sick). Then after lunch there was this big celebration thing where the bride and groom sit and people dance and give them money. Yeah, seriously. lol

Let me back up a little… ALL night, the night before, the village was alive with people dancing, playing drums, singing, and playing other music. I was even forced to use ear plugs to fall asleep it was so loud. The next morning was a similar scene. The village was up in arms over the wedding, with these trucks driving around full of people singing, and just driving around and around. Children were dancing and running around. Everyone in a hurry.

For the wedding a lot of peoeple had matching outfits made. Young girls even had dresses made. the older girls had one fabric that all matched and the younger girls had a different fabric that all matched. All the women used another fabric for themselves and many had on matching outfits too. Yup, even me!

hahaha this is not the best picture ever, but I tried to have Helen take it for me so I could be with Nzelu (who matches too!) and she snapped it before I was ready lol It’s the only one I managed to take before my battery died (which won’t happen again!) But you can see the fabric and kind of my outfit.
I had a dress made with a high waist line and everyone loved it. Helen thought I was crazy when I told the tailor how high I wanted the waist, but she was speechless when I came out in it because of course I know my own body and what looks good and she couldn’t believe how good it looked.

Right, so then we all ate food, lots and lots of food. Then I went to visit the bride at Helen’s house:

She was looking very beautiful, if I should say so myself! Even he was looking pretty schnazzy

Then the truck came around and picked up all the kids to go to the area where the money dance happens.

 
People were chasing after the truck lol.

The area wasn’t that far away so most of us walked there. I barely made it in time tho to see the bride and groom arrive, which was neat because all the kids (who had been practicing this dance for the last month) were doing this line dance in front of them.

The older girls are in front and the younger girls in the back, all in their various matching dresses.

Here is the bride and groom arriving behind the dancing line of children.

They walked to this tent someone had set up and decorate with toilet paper (yup) and sat in a sofa. There was a stereo system that someone was playing DJ and in front of where they sat was a clearing and of to the side of the clearing was a table that some people sat at with wooden boxes.

Here’s Gladys in the clearing by the table, looking happy and cute!

The master of ceremonies talked and talked and talked and eventually started calling out various groups of people. What happens is, when you go to this part you have to take money, not a whole lot, but lots of small bills, so even if all you have is 100 kwacha you can have five 20 kwacha bills. I had about 180 kwacha of 20 kwachas with me. Then during this dance the master of ceremonies will say something like, “All the teachers, come and give you money!” then he’d call all the family of the bride, family of the groom and so on. Well when he called all the people who work at the Health center, that was my queue! I went out and danced in the circle and everyone was hooting and hollering and laughing like crazy. When you do the money dance, you just dance around and drop one bill at a time into this bucket someone holds. So I danced and danced around throwing my 20 kwachas in the bucket and had a blast.

Sadly I don’t have a picture, or video, of that but I do have a picture of others doing the money dance:

To the left of the lady all in blue is Helen! (notice the toilet paper hanging down, hehehe)

The man holding the box is the master of ceremonies, and people are dropping money in the box.

It was quite the eventful day! I had a lot of fun and enjoyed being a part of the occasion.

* * *

I know a lot more has been going on than just this wedding and the drama in my hood, but since I have been unable to post as regularly as I would have liked I know I’ve missed a few things. But that’s alright, I’m sure this post is long enough as it is lol.

But Ashleigh! Why do you loathe livestock?

Oh right… *sigh* it all started with the donkeys. Before coming here I had no particular opinion regarding donkeys, but let me tell you what, they are AWFUL! This time of year is mating season and I’ve now been privy to the horrid sounds they make as mating calls. Apparently every time a male gets a “whiff” of the female’s pheromones, he goes berserk, literally. He bucks like a mad bull, and lets out this god-awful shrieking, hee-haw noise that I could imagine it would also make if being slowly tortured to death. One day I will manage to capture it on video so you can fully grasp the awful-ness of this sound. They make it at completely random times, which I suppose there is no way to control one’s olfactory sense when it comes to love, but still!! One day, even, two males were fighting right outside my house! They scared all the children who ran into my house screaming and shut the door. The two males head-butted and bucked, and hollered, and nearly collided with my brand new fence! It was very scary!

So I hate them.

But Ashleigh, just donkeys isn’t livestock.

Right… so now my hate for donkeys has grown to encompass all livestock animals and here is why:
1. goats: first off, goats have similar vocal chords as humans so their constant crying sounds like a human crying! It’s not only annoying but a little freaky. Second, all the goats seem to think my brand new fence is their brand new scratching post. Everyday there are countless goats who walk alongside my fence rubbing their body on it to scratch themselves. Now my fence is just grass and wooden posts, so this constant scratching is already having a adverse affect on my fence’s quality and in once spot it is actually beginning to lean inwards!
2. chickens: for one, roosters do not just crow at dawn, they crow at all hours of day and night! Then have you ever heard a hen looking for a place to lay her eggs. Well I don’t wish it upon you. It’s extremely annoying. They wander around for hours, squawking and squawking! Ugh.
3. pigs: Pigs are mean! One tried to fight Nzelu one day and they will try to bite you if you get to close. And, this isn’t their fault, but the horrible screaming noise they make when tied to the back of a bike is very unpleasant.

As for cows, well, they’re still cool.

 

I suppose that is all for now. I will try to update more often since I now have a way to keep my laptop charge *happy danceing continues*

I miss you all very very much!
Tiwonana