Because They're Burning Bricks

Posted By Sika on February 20, 2009

• My birthday party was awesome. David made a nutella birthday cake for me, I made Tracy’s carrot cake for Thoko’s birthday, and Adrienne blessed me with her first ever baking attempt: a delicious although somewhat disconcerting red velvet cake. Wanangwa brought a Ngoni delicacy—a hog’s head, and parts of it actually tasted good*.
  We had music and dancing in spite of 2 power cuts. One of the power cuts happened at just the right time that the only stuff that still needed to be cooked was the meat on the braai.
  My Malawian friends and my ex-pat friends actually interact with each other and neither group was embarrassing, even when someone does something like trying to drink the yeast ‘cause we’re all out of beer.
• In the midst of all my angst about power imbalances and money, I realize that I have made some friends, improbable though it may be. There are a few others, too, who I think will become my friends.
• Henry got credit on his MSCEs with a score of 32**. He got a 2 in business because of all the stuff Derek helped him teach himself for NOC. He’s living (albeit anecdotal) proof that by focusing on quality rather than quantity (the opposite of current aid tendencies) and providing practical, hands-on applications, forward and critical thinking can be taught. And it shows why he’s my go-to guy when working up IGAs.
• Thoko took 5 subjects and got an 18, so I got me some smart friends.
• Hot showers during cold season.
• The feeling of relief when the sticky heat finally breaks into rain.
• When it’s cold(er) and stormy and you sit down with a cup of tea or cocoa and a book.
• When it storms and the power doesn’t go out.
• My coworkers still teach me Chichewa pang’ono pang’ono and tease me about not speaking it all the time.
• Mary’s eldest daughter, Yankho, was accepted to a development program at a university in Holland.
• Movie night
• Zomba Plateau
• When Mary gets fiesty.
• The way “somehow” and “too much” get thrown into sentences in weird ways: “He is somehow mistaken.” “She is too much tall.”
• My guy at the market is happy he will get to meet my mom.
• The Peace Corps cookbook
• Lizards scurrying around walls and windows. Finding if you accidentally sever the tail while opening a window, it will quiver energetically for a good 2 or 3 minutes. I know that’s a defense mechanism, but it’s much cooler and creepier in person.
• Wanuwon’s penchant for pushing his head into your hand to indicate it’s petting time and Ujeni’s habit of squeezing under people’s legs whenever possible.
• Being off frigging standfast.
• PC friends who call me on my birthday all the way from America
• Finally feeling more settled and being (mostly) at ease with the fact that I’ll never be completely at ease here.
• I can eat nsima sometimes without having to eat it all the time.
• There are many people out there who make nsima better than I do and some of them are willing to cook it for me.
• I know how to prepare excellent mkhwani.
• Nobody minds that I think it’s hilarious the words for cucumber and milk are nearly the same (nkhaka and nkaka), or that they both sound like caca.
• I’m still silly and funny and passionate and there are lots of things about Malawi that inspire those things in me every day.
• Drs. Erfan and Max say that it’s normal to get angry, so when I do I don’t feel like a bad volunteer or a freakshow and can get over it faster.
• My journal still smells like the spices I picked up in Zanzibar.
• Julia, Wezi, Memory, Tamandani
• Fitted sheets
• No mambas in my yard so far *knock wood*
• Waking up in the middle of the night and there’s no power, the whole world is asleep, and even the dogs have settled–you’ve never experienced such encompassing stillness or realized how loud the normal electrical buzz is.
• Mrs. Jeremiah’s gonna make me some national wear.
• How mellow life gets when there is no power.
• How thrilled students are when you know how to reply to shap or bo or zikuyenda. How even more thrilled they are when you remember their names.

*Mostly the cheeks and jowls. David was disappointed no one ate the snout and Jason wanted to eat one of the big, sticky uppy teeth. The ears are better served to the dogs.
**6 subjects marked 1-9. A lower mark is better. If you don’t fail, you can have a pass, high pass, credit, or distinction.)

Categories: Birthdays, Malawi, Peace Corps
Tags: food, language geekery, NOC, weather