Sika | February 26, 2009
Mrs. Jeremiah came to our offices a couple of days ago to measure me for national wear. I had brought fabric that I didn’t have plans for as well, and we talked for a few minutes about what we could maybe do with it. Eventually I said I wanted a dress, but I wanted it [...]
Sika | January 22, 2009
One of my friends at work is a scandalous divorcee. She contracted HIV from a job before this one, her husband was negative*, and so he decided that she had been sleeping around with the doctors and left her and their kids and picked up some pretty young thing. This was four years ago, and [...]
Sika | January 19, 2009
President Bingu wa Mutharika came to Zomba two weeks ago, and all of his supporters were out on the streets, in their blue zitenje and their shirts and trousers and skirts and dresses and headdresses made from the blue zitenje. When David and I went to the airport to go to South Africa, ex-president Muluzi [...]
Sika | November 18, 2008
David was complaining to Flora that it is too hot* and how he wanted the rains to come. Flora’s response: The rains aren’t coming because people are still burning bricks (to cure them and make them usable). David thought she was joking and laughed but she wasn’t. She explained that the bricks require heat and [...]
Sika | November 11, 2008
Do not get pregnant. Do not give others pregnancy. Each room [in the hostels] has two keys. You and your friend get one. I keep the other one so I can come in whenever I want and snatch a hotplate or find your illegal visitors. Some people, especially the men, like to go around at [...]
Sika | November 7, 2008
I started writing this ages ago and then got, well, distracted. So, despite its wordiness, it’s actually a bit more abbreviated than I intended. Michelle and I went to Mulanje a while ago. Mulanje Massif has the third tallest peak in Africa (not that we went to Sapitwa to experience it for ourselves) and has [...]
Sika | August 18, 2008
This morning has been interestingly mundane. We didn’t get back from dinner at Carol’s house last night until after 10 and then I was oddly captivated by Animal, Vegetable, Miracle*. This morning I awoke, fed the dog (Wanuwon—Ujeni is off with one of his many girlfriends), and got back into bed to finish my book. [...]
Sika | June 13, 2008
I am at Mid Service Training right now. (Do you know what this means? I’ve been in Malawi for a whole year. Can you believe it? I mean, I know every second of the last year has just dragged by for y’all, what with me not being around and all, but for me it has [...]
Sika | March 28, 2008
We went out dancing Saturday night at the Blue Elephant (Norwescon Way Eastside, y’all!) and how I reacted to some of the things I saw surprised me. I consider myself a feminist. I’m not squeamish–I don’t add modifiers or disclaimers to succumb to the distortions that others use to twist all meaning out of the [...]
Sika | November 8, 2007
I just got back to Zomba from Dedza, where I was for 2 weeks for reconnect. Reconnect is also called In-Service Training (IST) and is the training we do after having been at site for 3 months (unless you’re me, and then you do it after a month and a half). The first week was [...]
Sika | October 2, 2007
Work For the last two weeks I have been doing my orientation at the hospital, which is why I haven’t had much of a presence online, besides the connection problems, with which wakko, Shannon, and pearl helped quite a bit. I still get transport to and from my house everyday, but then instead of being [...]
Sika | October 2, 2007
In a culture that is completely open about ailments of the stomach (diarrhea, in case you were wondering, is kutsegula m’mimba in Chichewa, which literally means opened stomach), where when someone asks how you are it is completely normal to answer, “I am a little fine. I have kutsegula m’mimba,” being seen with toilet paper [...]
Sika | August 31, 2007
Michelle and I had a discussion today about certain behaviors that we don’t necessarily interpret correctly. Michelle was talking about how she ignored someone who was shouting, “Hey you! You!” to her and only after she walked on without responding, pissed off, did she realize that people say “you” to address people in Chichewa and [...]
Sika | July 13, 2007
So, I can’t room with a Malawian because judging from this day that would mean that my coworkers will try to save me at work and at home, and really a person shouldn’t have to deal with being saved more than once a day. We were told that we could say that we pray at [...]
Sika | July 13, 2007
Today was our village farewell. It was pretty awesome. The amayi of Mterera and Paolo have been practicing their dancing and singing. The schoolchildren danced for us, too. Christine, as the acting CD (country director), got up and gave a speech. She mentioned that the people back home tend to think that the hardest part [...]
