Let's Play Catch-up

The internet has been out the past couple days, so forgive me for getting behind.

Let's see, I'm going to have to think back, and even still the days can get squished together.

Hmmm…highlights…

We visited with Ernest and he showed us the ponds around that he works on to make sure they are full of fish. He also helps to grow sugar cane! He is really cool and gave us each a full stick of sugar cane! How crazy is that? So what you are supposed to do is use your teeth to get the out layer off so that then you can bite off a chunk of the inner soft-ish wood and then chew it so that the sugar cane juices come out. Then you spit out the wood parts after you get all of the juices you can. That's pretty much the extent of the candy out here.

Me and my sugar cane!

One night Camille and John were talking about how they haven't had a lot of mosquitoes in their rooms and that was because they had some spiders that would take care of the mosquitoes for them. Then, I went in to my room that night and after a bit, I realized that I didn't really have any mosquitoes in my room. Oh no. Oh yes, the spee-ider, arachnis deathicus! So I hurried along, got in the bed and put my mosquito net all around me tucked in under the mattress. I realized I forgot something, so I opened a little part of the mosquito net and grabbed it and jumped bag on the bed and tucked it in again. The light was off but I had left my flashlight on my bed lit up. As I looked to grab it, I noticed it was shining to the right and a spider was crawling towards me! I flicked it away quickly, but I had the net closed, so I opened it up and flicked the spider again off my bed. Though I am grateful for any spiders that help eat any mosquitoes, that will be their only form of food in my room, they better not try and come on my bed to get me!

John, Emily, Renee, and I taught a lesson on Food Safety to the parents of the families in the SAFI program. Esther translated for us and it was really cool! We learned that 'zikomo' means 'thank you'. I was supposed to teach them about separating their raw meat from ready to eat foods when preparing meals. Esther wrote up the Clean, Separate, Chill, and Cook words on the board and then wrote them in Chichewa (their language). Since mine was separate, I paid attention to how they said it, so I then said it when they stood up. I can't remember what it was now though. It was so cool! They sort of laughed when I said it. I figured there was nothing to lose. Either I would say it right and they would understand, or I would say it wrong and they would probably laugh some and appreciate me trying. They are such a happy people and they love to laugh. Indeed they did laugh at me some, but it was a nice laugh, not at all a making fun of me laugh. Esther is a wonderful translator and would clarify what we said if a word was hard to understand at all. At one point, she had to ask us what a 'taco' was, and then she explained it to the students. It was so cool! I just can't get over how neat it was. Also, we introduced ourselves, and they could understand us! Then, they introduced themselves to us in English. Their English is really quite good and when we were teaching, you could tell they were trying to understand us anyway. The little kids that we walk around with point to things and we say what they are in English and then they say what it is in Chichewa. The only one I can remember right now is 'azmut', which is woman.

Renee got a shower yesterday. LUCKY! I was using Camille's Jillian Michael's DVD to workout and then I was going to take one too, but the water wasn't working after my workout. I was pretty bummed. Oh well, hopefully I can take one soon. After Renee showered, I attempted to braid her hair. I have never braided someone's hair before, and Renee and I are both no good, so we have a goal to be pro braiders by the end of these three months. I decided to go with the single French braid right down the middle for Renee. I made my first attempt...it was a sorry excuse of a braid. Then I made my second try...it was significantly better. My learning curve is pretty good...maybe. You can be the judge. Honestly, I think Ty did it much better than me on his first try when we were on the Havasupai trip...you can be the judge...it might be hard to tell from the lighting, but do your best!

Ty's first french braid

My first french braid on Renee 

My second french braid on Renee

When we were walking to dinner one night, since it gets dark at around 5:30ish and we have dinner at 6:00, Renee was looking at the stars and sky and she goes, 'Oh look, a shooting star!' So I looked, and then she said, 'Oh yeah, it's still going. Wow, that's a long shooting star.' Well, turns out it was just a telephone wire that she was looking at in the sky. Haha! I laughed so hard!

And then, Renee was saying that Adam was a strangler…I think she meant to say stranger or straggler…and then she just combined them together. Haha, that was funny too. We were all kind of surprised and did not know what to do, especially since he has this strange desire to kill a deer with his bare hands…I'm guessing the best way to do that is to strangle it (a scary image, I know), so her word really did work.

I finally got a shower everybody!! I hadn't showered since Saturday morning! I know, it's pretty nasty, but everyone else said that they couldn't smell me. Renee said that she seriously couldn't smell me, and she said she would never lie to me…so we'll go with that. Then Renee braided my hair this morning. Okay, she is seriously a natural! I was incredibly impressed!

Renee's first try

Renee's second try

When I was walking back with some kids escorting me the other day, a man who had trouble walking and a little sack connected to a stick kept asking me questions. It was hard to understand him, but he did know some English. He wanted a ride, but I couldn't help him there, and he wanted kwacha, but I couldn't help him there either because I hadn't converted my money yet. So I said I was sorry, and he ended up moving along. I felt sad that I couldn't help him even a little bit. It looked like it was so hard to walk. I just didn't know what to do especially since none of the other people were around and I was just by myself and the kids going to my building to my room. The kids tried to help me understand him though. They were a little older. Manuel is one of the boys who was with me and he likes to learn English words, and he was helping me a lot.

We played duck duck goose with a bunch of the boys in SAFI. They are so funny! They found lots of ways to cheat. It was hilarious. I think it was their favorite game that we played with them. We just taught them by doing it to each other for a turn, and then we picked one of them next! Some other boys were just watching and would laugh if we made it and the boys didn’t catch us since we're girls, and if we ever caught a boy too. That was rare. Sometimes the boys would run a little away from the circle and that would make it so I could be between them and the circle easier. It was really funny. One of the boys was going all fighters stance on me, kind of Muhammad Ali style. It was so funny. He did not trick me though! I must say, I was impressed.

Yesterday, we went to Kasunga to go to a BFI (Brighter Future Initiative) Farmer Training session. It was all in Chichewa, but they would sum up what they said to the students for us periodically. We got snacks consisting of a roll and Fanta! So yummy! 

And we had lunch too! They gave us so much! I could not finish it for the life of me. Even some of the farming students could not finish their food! Anyway, it was a really cool program that we got to see.

Here is their practical where they get to go outside and apply what they learned in the classroom.

The sociology students are working with BFI a lot, and us Food Science students are going to try and help in any way we can as well. The funny thing was that the ride there and back only had four seats in the truck, and the rest of us went on the short bed of the truck. So we got nice and cozy on the metal and lasted about an hour and a half or so just going for the ride there. We had a lot of dirt road and a lot of asphalt. At one point we had three men, five women, and a baby in the back of the truck on the way back. It was pretty impressive. I stayed in the back of the truck both times since it makes you pretty dirty from the dirt and at that point I still wasn't able to shower yet.

Before we started our ride. Yes, we are happy now because our bums aren't sore yet.
Sunglasses complimentary of our wonderful friends in the truck! We have the best fellow students ever!

Just this morning I was getting my camera cord from my room so I could upload my photos. The young children of SAFI were sitting out waiting for daycare. As I approached them, they all started yelling 'nsungu' which means white person (asungu means white people). It is so funny!! They all started running at me and when they got to me they all grabbed my hand or arm. It was so great! They don’t really run to you if you are with other white people though, just when you're alone I guess because then they could probably easily overtake you. It was just so cute. I looked down at them and they would look back up at me just observing me. I would tell them 'Malibwangi' (Hi how are you?). Then when I got far enough, I would tell them goodbye and they would say bye back and we would both wave.

Some of the daycare kids not running at me because I was with another 'nsungu'.
Please not the adorable boy in the corner of the bricks with his fingers together during his wave.
I smile every time.

This weekend we are going to be in Lilongwe until Monday evening. We leave today after lunch. It's pretty exciting. We are going to go to the store and get some things that we need, and maybe even a traditional skirt, then I can wear it to church on Sunday! It hasn't even been a week here yet, but it feels like I have been here quite a while actually. I feel like that's strange. Maybe it's because everyone is so nice and they always say after we introduce ourselves that they are a part of us now and we are a part of them now. They really try to connect and make us comfortable so that we can have a home here too I think. It really is an impressive culture.