Okay so I talked to Vince on Skype the other day it was nice to chat with him haven't talked to him since being here in Malawi. He informs me that Colin doesn’t think I post enough on my blog and he often checks it daily to see if I post something and then is disappointed that I didn't post something new and exciting. Well this post is for you! I guess I just think that a lot of what I say is kind of boring so I don't want people to get bored so I post less and hopefully more interesting things well maybe not I guess you will have to judge.
This weekend was pretty relaxing I cleaned up my house and tried to do some work in my backyard area. Weeding it and digging up some bricks to make a pathway to the toilet so I don't trip or stub my toes on the bricks that are in the way to the toilet.
I went to a meeting on Friday about climate change (people here believe it is real why can't Americans). The meeting was supposed to start at 9 I showed up right at 9 and wonder around and then decide to call Andrew and ask him if I am in the right place. He informs me I should go to the agriculture office so not far from where I was so I head over. I say hello to the group sitting outside and a young women invites me to sit down inside. It is a group of young adults sitting inside listening to American pop music on one of their phones and they all sing along. It was entertaining. Then Andrew shows up around 9:30 so we go outside and look at some composting and garden projects/examples they are doing at the agriculture office. We wait till about 10:15 and then are informed the people that were going to lead the meeting are not coming and it is rescheduled. Okay so now I have a little more time in town. But I won't get the free ride I was hoping for. I get some shopping done, head to the bank and the post office and get some lunch. While eating lunch alone a large group of people come in with name tags on. I continue to eat and watch this group file in. Then a woman comes and sits with me I think oh she must want the chair to move to another table. No she sits in, I think oh must not be any other tables open, I look around there are. She says hi I am Christi and you look lonely can I sit with you and keep you company. I said yes and we had a nice lunch and chatted. I have been told several times that I am lonely because I live alone or go a lot of places alone. It is funny that in America that is just life but here it is so uncommon to do so much alone. Just to let you know I am not lonely. I enjoy alone time but I also enjoy the company of others as well and I am getting both here.
My neighbor's birthday was on Saturday she told me she was going to have a party but I didn't see anyone go over there or hear a lot of noise coming from their house so I went over in the early evening to say happy birthday and give her a card I wrote some stuff in Chichewa which I was pretty proud of but may have not made any sense. She was very happy I came over and said her pocket book was empty so they would have to wait on the party. I felt bad I would have made her a cake or something had I known that but she seemed pretty happy with the card so maybe next year I will make her a cake.
So American Independence day is July 4th and Malawi's Republic day is July 6th crazy that they are so close. July must be the month to be free! I am meeting up with some other volunteers for America's 4th but I have no plans for Malawi's Republic day. I asked my tutor what she does and she said thanks god she is alive and that is it. While American's just like the excuse to party and be off work.
I have picked bananas off one of my many banana trees. You pick them in a bunch I probably have about 30 or 40 bananas waiting to get ripe at my house. I put one bunch in a bag to hopefully quicken the process. Though bananas are cheap and I can buy pretty much where ever. I want to try the bananas from the trees at my house.
Last week I went to a meeting Os and I were showing women how to use an oil press. (Well mostly Os) So they can make peanut oil and sell and use. Peanuts are pretty reasonable while oil in general is pretty expensive. The women were very excited about the oil they quickly wanted to try to cook something with it so the cooked an egg quickly and let everyone try, it was good. They also all started singing out of excitement that they indeed did make oil.
I now have a radio that BBC worldview now comes in on. I had to look up the exact station and go around my house and find out where it works best. In my kitchen window on an angle with the antenna touching the metal frame. The radio is not powered by electricity it is powered by solar and a hand crank so I am working on a system that allows me to listen to it longer then an hour. But I do feel informed on world news.
Well I think that is all I have to say that is somewhat interesting. I will try to post more often I don't want to disappoint anyone especially you Colin! haha!
very interesting....I'm not bored!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Aunt Anne! I am glad that you are finding my post intresting.
ReplyDeleteI'm not bored with the story either- it's the little things that we take for granted that are challenging to get out there in your lil hut; that make the stories all the more interesting.
ReplyDeleteHere is my boring story back to you Essie-
Last week we has Selena's 2nd Birthday gathering...i'll get to that in a minute.
A few days prior to that we had a little bit of a scary moment due to some bad weather. Marisol and I squared off against the infamous Mother Nature-
It was a lazy Sunday morning with the kids. The normal routine of waking up to a nice hot and humid suburbia and we had just decided to bring the kids to the local pool. Glendale Heights has a nice pool for the residents and visitors that both the kids enjoy-
Selena likes the segregated area where the mushroom waterfall is and mini geysers bubbling up from the surface. She runs around from one to the next slapping the water everywhere. Often on herself just a belly full of laughs.
Nolan is making huge strides with swimming. He goes nearly chin deep now pretending to be a dinosaur chasing Christopher around. (Pepe’s step-son) Marisol also takes him to the edge of the pool for him to jump bravely into her awaiting arms in the pool. Usually, it’s a nice splash in- Finally, he has taken on the challenge of sliding down one of the whale slides over and over again. On his way down he splashes his face and holds his breath. Which is a big advancement from last year. He would go near the slide or get his face wet- he’s a champ now!
Anyway, as we were getting our towels and bags ready to leave, dark mysterious clouds came rushing through. Major wind gusts started to tug and pull out patio tent in all directions. Marisol quickly called on me to come out to help stabilize the tent. I should note we had a fairly robust tent. It was 10 feet by 20 feet in length and width and with the sturdy aluminum poles it was probably about 12 feet in height. I had tied them down a little more than I normally would so that we could have it up the entire summer. No way, did I think normal wind gusts would cause any harm to the tent. What we faced this day were anything but normal wind gusts!!!
ReplyDeleteI hung tightly from one end of the tent, while Marisol was on the other. Between 70-80 mile per hour gusts of wind, there was an awkward calmness….buckets of rain were poured continuously over our heads as we tried mightily to save out tent from crashing into the side of our house. The micro bursts were too strong for us. On the last one, it lifted Marisol and I up in the air off of our feet. Both of us had to let go otherwise we probably would have gone kiting with it. On her release one of the poles smashed into the back of her arm created a bruise. It looked as if she had a sleeve tattoo of purple, red, blue, and yellow-
The tent crashed into the gutter of our house bending the gutter severely in multiple places. It then picked up over our roof and cleared out next door neighbors house. Later on the I found the tent mangled over a block away- Since the storm was so heavy we all scrambled for the basement in fear of it getting worse. I will spare you the details of how it tore up the entire neighborhood. As usual our power went out and I was headed to get the generator started. That was a story in itself- and I helped out 60+ neighbor to get her generator and lines hooked up so she could start pumping water out of her basement.
Making long story short; we ended up squeezing the kids, coco, and us into Pepe’s for a few days until the power returned. Just barely, in enough time to still have Selena’s party a couple of days later- With no tent in 90 degree heat we had to rearrange our living room and kitchen to make it useable enough for everyone to come by- By that point we just cared about the basics of the party- It turned out very well considering consequences.
I have a lot more to write but I have run out of time for this month’s edition- I will try to write in a few weeks about the birthday party and any other crazy things that come along the way-
Before I forget I hope you enjoy your Birthday!!! Hope that you enjoy your bananas by then- by the way do your bananas have large seeds in them, or are they the hybrid like the ones at the grocery stores in the U.S. not sure if that’s a myth?!
Nice to hear what you guys are up to Michael. I sent cards to the kids but I am an idiot and wrote happy 3rd birthday to Selena well I guess I am not the best Aunt in the world. There a several different kinds of bananas and some are similar to the ones in the grocery stores in the US but not really exactly the same. Most are very good with different flavors and sizes but I enjoy them all.
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