Living Logistics

Ok just for the record, so you can have a visual of where I live and what not.

I live in Africa, in Malawi, in the North, In Chitipa district, the most remote, northern part of Malawi, in teh village of Mubanga. Mubanga, pronounced, (Mu-wan-ga) is about a 45 minute bike ride to the boma. The boma is a word used to describe the main trading center in the district. My trading center is small and the size of some villages in Malawi. We have sketchy electricity, reliable in the fact that it always goes off. There are no places to get American...or any other kind of food. There is no plumbing. Taps are known to not work.

There were 5 of us, 3 enviroment and 2 health but one enviro is moving to LL (Lilongwe). Each of them is on a different mountain peak on a different mountain range, (Misuku hills, Ifumbo, Chisansu, and Chisenga). I can get decent transport fom my house to the boma and to chisenga, but to get to ifumbo and Misuku, the only consistant way is ambulance (which is easy since they are both health). Chisansu is screwed lol, maybe thats why he is leaving? I mainly only go to the boma and chisenga, and yes I bike to both (Chisenga is around 45-50 k up a mountain) arnt you proud?

In Chitipa they speak 27 languages including Swahilii from tanzania (Asanti-sana) and vemba from Zambia, both which border chitipa/malawi. The only way to get to Chitipa is on a matola (truck). There are no paved roads. My main language is Chilambia (Lambia)

When I stay in the boma, I stay with a friend named yotham, he owns a bar and is super sweet Malawian.

In Malawi we work mainly with/through a counterpart, mine is johnathan Mabaso.

My house is completley fenced in cause it is my sanctuary. In my yard I have a permagarden by my chimbudzi (pit latrine) my 'corral' (brick structure with four rooms, my bafa (where I bath with a bucket or a solar shower, a large room with a door I keep some tools in and my dog when im away, a open room for my firewood, and an open outdoor kitchen) across from that is my back door. My house is a converted grocery but not like you would think in america. When you walk in my gate (a nice tin one, J made fore me) you see my porch, with teh words Tumbleweed and Old West written over it. There are two doors. The one on the right is a storage room my landlord keeps. The left is mine. You walk into the 'grocery', a large room with a L shaped counter. I use it as a kitchen. You walk through the next door and thats my living room. Off the living room are two rooms, a storage room with basically nothing in it and my bed room. I spend alot of my time fixing up my house and my yard.

So withcraft is alive and well in Malawi, a volunteer had their counter part stones to death because they claimed he was a witch. They claimed he was a witch becuase he was so succesful which brings us to the next point.

Jealously is a huge huge factor here. People steal, and remove people from seats of athority becuase they become jealous.

Also, people have no concept of saving money, everyone lives hand to mouth. If one family member is making money, they others come and beg.

Malawi really is the warm heart of africa though becuase overall most people are nice and the crime is low. People always want to invite you in for food, especially Nsima. Nsima is the main food of Malawi, people will tell you they do not feel full or have not eaten a real meal if they have not had nsima. It is made from Maize flour and has about 0 nutrients. It is something like a patty of congealed grits. It is served napalm hot and you use your hands to roll it into a ball and scoop up dende (side dish) with. It grows on you.

And yes, women are oppressed here. Women do all the housework, have lots of kids, have no say and are generally not appreciated. Johnathan and I are practicing, Thank you, to the wives. ;) A law was only recently passed allowing women to wear trousers.
Er...yeah, thats your crash course in Malawi and Where I live. Oh, I have a puppy named Howie. Howard the Coward.