I’m trying
Posted By Sika on July 15, 2009
I have lots of things to post about. And I’ve been taking lots of pictures to go with the lots of things I have to talk about. The problem being, those pictures somehow object to being put online. That’s the only thing I can figure considering power and/or internet outages have been frequent, along with flickr uploadr deciding that uploading isn’t really in its skillset.
Yesterday there was an article about a woman who gave birth to a stone on the front page of both of the daily newspapers. Which was funny and we were giggling about it and the “ha ha, isn’t Malawi funny,” stuff we all indulge in sometimes*. But reading the actual article, it was just tragic. The woman is 20, has been married for 5 years, has been pregnant 6 times and has delivered 4 stillborns and 2 stones (including this one). Her husband wants to divorce her because they still haven’t had a live kid. There’s a breakdown in the paper today of doctors chiming in as to whether or not this is possible, but there’s nothing in the articles about the pressure to have kids in order to prove oneself a real woman, or any examination over whether or not it’s morally ok to not love someone anymore because they haven’t had a kid. Or that lack of medical care may be influencing her ability to carry to term. Or whether or not she even wants kids at the moment or just feels like she should want them.
*Sigh*
In funnier “how Malawi is that news” On Sunday I went to a wedding reception for which I baked two cakes Sunday morning**. I called Derek Friday to see if I could use his oven on Sunday. He said something about something being wrong with the key Moses would leave me, since Derek would still be in Lilongwe on Sunday. But the connection was bad and I didn’t understand until eventually Derek just said, “Oh, you’ll figure it out.”
Saturday I had to call Moses and ask him to leave the key with Honi because I spent too much of the morning being lazy with Kris and watching Denzel Washington movies and Firefly. I get home and sitting on the counter is a key without a handle, and Derek’s Leatherman–Plier function out, just in case I was confused as to what to do with it.
Sunday morning I trek over with my baking stuff and Derek’s day guard helps me by shutting the door properly with his knee so that the bolt and the hole will line up properly. I turn and turn and turn
and turn
and turn
the key, but it keeps slipping back to the locked position. Eventually, I get a brainwave, that MAYBE I actually unlocked the door straight away, because we haven’t actually tried the door. (It was early–I was sleepy, that’s my excuse) But the guard keeps his knee on the door when I try it. I think I feel the door catch on the bolt anyway, so back to turning
and turning
and turning
with no noticeable difference. Eventually I get the guard to move his knee and the door catches again. Dammit. But in the process of returning to the turning saga, I accidentally tug a little harder on the door, and it opens. Because Derek’s door always catches. Sheesh.
Other than that, the baking was uneventful. Well, except when I tried to cool the cake on burners I had turned off less than 5 minutes before. But it was all maskable with lots and lots and lots of fudge buttercream frosting. Yummmmmmmy.
*Remember: Malawi’s my little sibling–I can make fun of it all I want, but you can’t. 
**One lavender cake with lemon frosting and the other a chocolate cake with fudge buttercream frosting. Yes, using my Nigella cake recipes with a few modifications.
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