Malawi Andy

Monday, May 29, 2006

Mbewa

Eating mbewa is actually pretty common. It might seem like something people desperate for food would resort to eating, and that might have something to do with it, but you see kids selling them from the side of the road even when there is enough food so I think they are more like snack food. We've been interested in trying them, but were cautious about eating any without seeing how they were cooked. Gary talked to a few boys that come to play on Sunday about catching them. They flush them out of the grass with fire and snatch them up. They said they would bring a live one for us so that we could cook it here. Sure enough they should up the next Sunday with a small box. We actually had some of our Form 1 students cook it on our charcoal burner in the backyard. They gutted it and just roasted it right over the fire. A couple of the girls had never tried one either so we split it into small pieces for everyone to try even though I think a couple girls backed out. There isn't much meat to begin with so we really only got a taste, but it was pretty good. Just a small piece of roasted meat. I don't think I'd make a habit of eating them though being so small and not worth the trouble, but it was interesting to at least try. Girlie refused to try it, but we couldn't get her to try ngumbi so it wasn't likely that we'd convince her to taste a roasted field mouse.

Friday, May 26, 2006

No Respect

I'm pretty sure that I don't get much more respect from the students as a teacher here in Malawi than a teacher would get back home. We recently divided the students and teachers into seperate houses like in Harry Potter and elected a head girl for each house. I've been teasing the head girl for our house calling her Captain and saying things like "Aye, aye Captain" and "Oh Captain, My Captain". As I thought this was pretty fun(ny), I encouraged others in our house to do the same. Then a girl from an opposing house said "Sir, you are so lame". It didn't reallly bother me that much because; for one, I agree that I am quite lame and have come to terms with this long ago; two, the fact that my students think I'm lame made me feel like an actual teacher and gave me a warm sense of fulfillment; and three, she is still in my computer class and I am able to impose my lamitude on anyone in my path. I already had them creating folders on the desktop with names like "Hubaluba" and saving files called "Ringadingelding". Once when they were doing a typing exercise in class, I made them stand up and say "Yabadabado, I'm done" when they were finished. Now that I've been challenged to unleash my lameness, there's really no limit to how far it will go...this post for example. By the way, we have to think of a name for our house so if you have any suggestions let me know.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Visit from Gary's Parents

So Gary's parents came for a visit for two weeks over the holiday. We had a good time showing them around an partaking in everything they stuffed into their luggage for us. We are still enjoying the Simpon's DVDs. Gary's dad wrote a few things about the trip.

Reflections from Gary (Sr.) at Chileka Airport...
We just want to reflect on our Easter visit and personal pilgrimage to Bakhita, Malawi, Africa. Our first thought was to visit our son, Gary, who is a mission volunteer and has been in Malawi for 18 months. Our second thought was to experience Easter with his community, the sisters, and the local parish. Our experiences included many wonderful masses with beautiful music, dancing, and homilies.

On Holy Thursday our son, Gary, and Andy were selected as young apostles to have their feet washed by Father Mario. (We reminded both of them to be sure to wash their feet before they went to church!)

On Good Friday, the Way of the Cross walk through town with living stations was most memorable. The walk started about 1:30 p.m. (lasted around 4-5 hours!) and ended at the church where it was followed by services until late in the evening!!!! A long day but well worth it!! (We were very happy to see Gary and Andy as apostles during the walk.)

On Easter Sunday Father Cesare took us to an out-station church where he said Mass. There are about 20 out-station churches in the area where they are fortunate to have a priest come once a month. The weather was great, so Father said Mass outside. The church was beautiful, but very small, so it worked out very nicely for all the parishioners.

Barbara and I got to process with the others to bring Offertory gifts (orange soda and a pumpkin!) to the altar. I almost forgot to mention that we also had to dance along with the other gift-bearers! (We thought we may have been a little out of step!) Once again a beautiful experience!

...and there were so many other beautiful experiences...

Friday, May 19, 2006

Carolyn

Carolyn has improved in the last few days. She started making sense again on Monday and is slowly returning to normal. Now she appears exhausted more than anything else. She came back to school today to try and get back into things, but she came to our house to rest during lunch. Luckily, they were able to postpone the exams a week and hopefully it won't be too much for her to try and take them by then. The hardest part for her is not really knowing what happened. She seems to remember visits from friends and such, but can't really explain her behaviour. Now she has to deal with the feeling that everyone is talking about her and worrying that she might be crazy. Without knowing what was the actual cause of the episode, we can't really know how to keep it from happening again. She asked me today what happened to her, and all I can really say is that we don't know, try not to worry about it and be happy that you are better. Thanks for any prayers and nice thoughts.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Troubled Students

Carolyn Banda is a secretarial student currently in her second year at the college. She is very bright, outgoing, fun, and sweet. She is a good student and always has a good attitude in my drama club. She is an orphan so she stays with relatives, but moves around quite a bit. Her sister, Delia, is also a student in the college. A few days a go, as if someone flipped a switch, she went hysterical. In the morning she was normal and then in the evening, students arrived at our door telling us that Carolyn was saying weird things and not acting like herself. Eva, Girlie, and Sr. Salo brought her to the hospital that night where she continued this strange behavior: crying, laughing at the Doctor's socks, and not recognizing people. They sedated her and brought her back to the boarding to rest. The next morning the situation was the same so they brought her back to the hospital for tests and more medication. Her aunt is a nurse so they sent her home with her. The doctor's here almost immediately treat everything like malaria, but she didn't show any of the symptom's. She was preparing for five secretarial certification exams this week and we believe that the stress of preparing might have caused some sort of nervous breakdown. Unfortunately, none of us here have any experience with that kind of thing and can't really say what is going on. We haven't seen anything like this before but there have been sudden illnesses and if it isn't something common like malaria then it isn't long before someone suggests witchcraft or evil spirits. With a student taken to the hospital in the middle of the night acting the way she was acting, it happened pretty fast this time. For me it doesn't seem like a good thing to bring up even if that's what it is because it makes everyone in the boarding is nervous. We went to visit her at her aunt's house with some college students that afternoon and the behavior was the same. To me, she seemed like someone unable to cope with the death of a close relative or something similar. She recognized everyone, was able to speak English, and could answer questions when asked, but was very distressed. Her actions and speech were very erratic. She would laugh and then start crying. When given some bread and tea, she went back and forth between stiring the tea and tearing the bread to pieces. Something is seriously wrong and everyone is very worried. We managed to postpone the exams so the other students do have to worry about taking tests while all this is going on. For those that pray, it would be good to remember her and her classmates; and for those that don't, it might even help to think nice thoughts for them.


Comments

I appreciate receiving comments on this site, anonymous or otherwise. Unfortunately, due to some inappropriate (and not so nice) spam comments I have now have to moderate them. This means I have to approve the comments on the website which I am only able to go to around once a month. So please continue to comment but keep in mind that they might not show up for a few weeks. Thanks

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Michael talking now....
This is the setting that somehow also changed how Andy posts. It made his email posts into drafts instead of directly publishing them. This should be fixed now and I can just delete spam comments if I need to. That makes it easier for Andy with his poor internet and doesn't delay comments. You can still post comments anonymously without having to create a Blogger login, just type your name at the bottom of your post if you want.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Plumbing and Water

Our kitchen sink was backed up for about a month.  We had problems with it before but a plunger was a sufficient temporary remedy.  Then finally it got to the point where all of my creative plunging techniques weren't enough and we had to get a plumber.  I went to Andiamo campus on the other side of town where they have things like electricians, cobblers (shoe guys, not the desert), ice cream (the desert), and plumbers and asked the office if the plumber was available.  The receptionist didn't have a clue what I was talking about until I explained that I needed someone to fix pipes and then I got an "Oh, you mean a plumBer".  I had no idea that I have been pronouncing "plumber" incorrectly all this time.  How embarassing.  Anyways, after the standard waiting around that procedes just about everything, I finally met the plumber (Jesus from the way of the cross) and he said he would be there in a few hours.  I went home and sure enough, a few hours later he showed up on a bicycle with...a plunger and a wrench.  Yada, yada, yada, a month later there is a hole in the wall and the drain is clear.  We managed alright.  It just meant we had to make sure that all the water was thrown out the back door.  Unfortunately we have not been able to give the drain a thorough test since it was repaired just in time for the water tower's pipes to jam with the calcium pushed down them during the regular cleaning cutting the water off from the entire campus.  The absence of water also happened to coincide with the return of a few hundred girls to the campus for the start of a new term.  It was just a few days of using water from buckets brought from the hand pump near the boarding so it wasn't bad.  Of course, the minor inconvienence for us must have paled in comparison to the boarding occupied by over one hundred young women restroom situation that I can't or just don't want to imagine.  Someone, other than hapless volunteers, finally worked on the water tower, and fixed the problem.  I only hope it was in time for the girls in the boarding to take care of any un-niceness that I still don't want to imagine.