Cooties

Kids are the same, regardless of where they grow up, where they live. I was walking to work today and there were two primary school aged boys walking in front of me. Suddenly, they started walking faster, kept glancing behind them, and almost broke out into a run. At first, I thought they were running away from me! I know mzungus can be scary (heck, I even made a baby cry once), but we're not all that bad. So I turned around behind me, and I see three primary school aged girls, shouting at the boys, running towards them. Those boys looked at each other, said "let's go" and broke out into the fastest run I've ever seen. Regardless of how the boys may feel about girls in the future, at present, they still think girls have cooties.

african gym class

there is a government run primary school in town right next to the grocery store. every morning when i'm driving by, i'll see little boys hacking away at the seemingly endless weeds and grass that grow on the compound with a machete. and i'll see little girls ho-ing it away, planting maize seeds and other vegetables. when i walk by at lunch time, i'll see a different set of kids working it in the field, sweltering in the sun. and when i drive by after work, yet another group of kids, hacking and ho-ing as fast as their little arms will let them. it's almost as if there is a certain quota of grass/land the kids must chop/till, and if they don't fill it, they can't go home. this is taking child labour to the extreme. this must be the african version of gym class.

This past weekend, I was walking in town on the road that mini buses drive up to get to the highway. The buses were driving really slowly, which is actually a good thing, all things considered. There was one mini bus driving up the road, and I was walking down in front of it. The conductor was leaning out the window, grasping the door frame (the doors are the sliding type). Then, in seconds, the front portion of the door comes off the hinge and the conductor goes flying out onto the ground. Then the back hinge comes undone and the whole sliding door falls off onto the conductor! Good thing the window was open because that landed right over his head. So the conductor was pinned to the ground, with his head poking out the window. I just stood there in shock. Giggling. Then all these men came, lifted up the door, carried the conductor onto the mini bus. Then, the men just stood on the side of the road holding the door, while the mini bus drove away.

mambo!

could there be anything more depressing than sitting on a bus for 9 hours on a journey that should have taken 6 hours? yes, there is. if you had a seat on the bus, and then got bumped out of your seat by two azungus.

my friend and I had to get to Dar-es-Salaam from Iringa, but all the buses were booked up, and we were freaking out. and then this one guy says to us "i'll give you black market price. 12,000 tanzanian schillings for each seat." and we stare at each other and go "why not." so we get our tickets, and our assigned seats. we get onto the bus and realise there is a girl sitting in my friend's seat....hmmm. well, the guy who sold us our tickets gets on the bus, and makes the girl get out of her seat so that we can have it! we were mortified. But, seeing as how Tanzanians are such nice people, a guy let the girl sit on his lap...funny thing, it was in a totally platonic way. Throughout the ride, for the next 6 hours, she kept getting bumped from one guy's lap to another. I'm guessing their legs started cramping up? Anyway, the 6 hour bus ride turned into 9 hours because our bus broke down, we ran out of gas, and our driver was driving the pace of a turtle. the only time we ever passed a bus was if it had broken down on the side of the road. And cause we were in the front row, we had first class view of him picking his nose literally every 2 minutes. For real. Less picking, more driving! Step on it!

Tipping the cow

Yesterday on my way to Grace Orphan Care, my mini bus started to slip and slide in the mud, until we had slid halfway down a ditch! Oh my gosh! That was probably the most frightening thing ever cause we all seriously thought the mini bus was gonna tip over. And once it tipped over, how were we gonna get the bus back onto the road? Damn bus and it's no traction wheels. Anyway, it took one hour of digging and pushing before we were able to get the bus moving again. What was even more frightening was that the bus sliding wasn't the scariest part. No, it was the masses of men who were opening the mini bus windows and trying to shout instructions/directions at me as I drove the bus to safety. It was also the three guys who jumped onto the back of the bus in celebration when we got out of the mud. And it was the group of men who chased my coworker Ruth all the way up to the support group, demanding more than the 1000k we had paid them to push us out...Yikes!

Baaa

Yesterday, I was at a dinner/dance hosted by the wildlife society of malawi. People usually say that the dance is the most exciting part of the evening, but I personally think it is the dinner - simply because of the auction prizes. Two night accommodation at a game park! An evening at a lodge at the lake! A live sheep!

I've never won anything at an auction before, although I've tried many times to win that evening at the lake prize. Last dinner/dance, I almost won some tree seedlings. But this year, I got real lucky. I won a live sheep! Now, I know y'all thinking "what am I gonna do with a live sheep? I can't keep it in my house - it'll eat all my grass!" No worries my friends. Once November rolls around, I'm going to go collect my sheep from the farmer, and have a brai party! Holla!

The Lottery Game

I love Ramadan. Every year, on the last day of Ramadan, the president of Malawi declares it a national holiday, and we are all free from the pains of work for one extra day. Of course, no one really ever knows when the last day of Ramadan will be. We all look up into the sky and watch for when the moon comes out. This year, it was debated that it would be either Friday or Saturday. If the moon came out Friday morning, we would get Friday off. If Saturday, we'd get Monday off. My coworkers and I all hoped that the moon would make an appearance on Saturday. Since Fridays are always so relaxed, we'd rather have the Monday stress taken away from us. We stayed up till midnight Friday morning, waiting for the moon to come out. It didn't. So we all thought that the holiday would be on Monday. But we got a call at 5am on Friday morning - the moon came out. Friday holiday. Bummer.