House help

Well, we succumbed to peer pressure.  On our first day in Africa, and many times thereafter we were told that we should think of hiring “house help.”  Apparently, we would be thought of a stingy if we didn’t.

Well, after living in Kenya, I saw many people who hired women or men to help clean the house and cook.  I just never thought I would be that person. 

Yet, life here is very dirty (you should see my black feet!) and hard to clean.  We don’t have a swifter here, and houses need to be mopped everyday.  So, I finally agreed that I would get a PART-TIME maid.

To begin the process, we decided to get a maid that could work part-time for my friend Lavonne, and part-time for us.  There was already a maid on campus whose former employers just left, so we were asked to interview her.

We talked to her, and she seemed very nice until she wanted a higher salary.  She was offered  30,000 Kwacha for the month. (This is about $82.)  I know this seems like very little, but apparently this is a really good salary in Malawi.  Well this woman was not satisfied with that and told us that she wanted between 35,000-42,000 ($96- $115).

As I sat there and listened to her request (she was being offered a full-time contract to be split 3 ways), I didn’t say a word.  To me, this was not a big difference that we were talking about.  So, I thought she was being reasonable.  Yet, the others I was with were saying that it was way too much money.  Thus, I went and talked to my teacher’s assistant.

My teacher’s assistant is a Malawian and knows figures better than me.  She also has a maid in her home.  Here it is normal for even Malawians to have maids!  So, as I asked the price, she said that her family pays her full-time live-in maid less than 10,000 kwacha ($27) a month!  She also told me that even people with college degrees are barely making 35,000 a month!!!

Wow, what a shift in thinking!  I went from thinking that this woman might be seeking a fair salary, to understanding that even though it is not a lot of money, she was asking for something unreasonable.

In the end we talked to some other families on campus.  We found a woman whose husband is the tennis instructor here.  She is very kind, trustworthy, and a hard worker.  And her salary . . . 16,000 kwacha a month ($43 dollars), of which I only pay half!!

*On a side note, we were told not to pay her more that that rate, because her husband only makes a little bit more than that.  We are planning on raising her salary, or paying her extra in food as we go.

Project Juembo

A few years ago, one of the kids at our school had an idea.  She had been to many of the villages surrounding us and seen the poverty and lack of school supplies.  She then went to the USA and got people to donate backpacks filled with school supplies, T-shirts, shoes, socks, hygiene products, and a small toy. 

She called this “Project Juembo.”  Juembo is a chichewa (the local language) word that actually means sack.  There is not a word for bag or backpack.  So, Juembo is really something similar to a small plastic Walmart bag and the name of the non-profit that this girl started.

Today, we went with Project Juembo out to a village on Lake Malawi.  In this village a young man has started an orphanage.  We were able to bring about 200 backpacks to the kids in the village.  All of the children had been registered and assigned backpacks before we got there. 

So, when we arrived I helped to start up games with the village children.  We started playing duck, duck, goose . . . we changed the words to the Chichewa language, and since a duck and goose are the same thing in Chichewa we played duck, duck, chicken.

After a few games, Frisbee tosses, and dance circles, we began handing out the backpacks.  We got the children one at a time, had them put the new shirt on and hold up the backpack, shoes, toy, and a thank you sign.  It was really fun.  The kids were so excited about the new stuff they got.  For these children, this is the first brand new clothing item they have ever owned.  Here, when you get clothes you buy them in the second hand market.  So, they have never ever owned new shoes or new clothes.  Most of them weren’t wearing shoes either.  So, after the picture I would help the children put their new shoes on.

The Children in the Orphanage

Waiting patiently

After some received backpacks

Checking out the cool stuff

She was very happy!

Chris and I with some of the kids.  It was so dusty there, we were quickly covered in dirt!  (Notice my face!)

My friend Lavonne and I

This girl's name is Patricia.  She wanted to hold my hand the entire time.  

It was great to be able to help with this outreach.  They go out about 2-3 times a year, and I can’t wait to help next time!

Lions, and Tigers, and SPIDERS oh my!

Our school has some pretty nice facilities for Africa.  We have separate buildings with a long outdoor corridor that connects the buildings.  Behind them there is a playground and a nice outdoor pavilion.

The pavilion is open with a thatched roof.  It is rumored to have owls, but not much else.  Owls are thought of as really bad in many parts of Africa.  In Kenya and in Malawi, when an owl is present outside a building, they think someone is going to get very sick or die there soon.

Well, that has never happened, but on the first day of school there was an interesting assembly.  It was for all of the middle and high school students.  The principal was up speaking about how he had to adjust to drinking tea in Africa, and suddenly the students started screaming.  He thought they were just shocked at what he said, so he continued.  Yet, the screams also continued and they started pointing at him.

Suddenly, a teacher ran up to the principal and hit a huge TERANCULA off of the principal!  As he was talking the huge spider had landed on him, crawled over his shoulder, and started going for his neck!  Now this, gives me the heebie jeebies!

Yet, when I was talking to my co-workers about this, I was warned of another spider that is about as big as your hand and called the camel spider.  This huge spider is more unusual though, see it is attracted to SOUND!  So, when people scream, it actually comes towards them!!  Let’s just say, I am not looking forward to meeting that spider any time soon! EEEKKK!

NO WEE WEEING OUTSIDE

Well today was the official first day of school.  It was a good day and we went over a lot of rules and procedures.  I was surprised, because it was the first time that NONE of my student’s cried while at school.  They were all very excited and basically told their parents to leave.  It was a funny first.  I am pretty strict when school starts so I thought maybe they would all want to go home, but many of them were begging their parents to stay at school! 

The funniest moment of the day happened while my class was writing our classroom rules.  One little boy raised his hand and said we should have the rule “No wee weeing on the playground.”  At first I thought I just didn’t understand this Malawian boy, so when asked to repeat what he said, he said it again.  He also said that this was a very good rule.  All the other children turned and agreed with him.  I laughed about this a lot, but then later I thought that this might be a good rule.

See, here in Malawi, and in several places around the world, it is acceptable for people to use the bathroom anywhere on the side of the road.  In fact, while I was leaving the grocery store last week, I saw a man using the restroom on a busy main road!  One of our Malawian teacher assistants said that when she was in South Africa, she heard men saying that they couldn't wait to get back to Malawi just so that they could go to the bathroom anywhere they wanted.  They were sick of the bathroom rules in South Africa! 

So, despite my laughter, I realized that in Africa . . . . No wee weeing outside is a VERY GOOD RULE!

A World With “OUT”

Today we experienced being “out.”  Here in Africa, that is a normal part of life that most Americans find hard to understand.  Let me explain.  .  . 

Today we had the privilege of being driven to the store and not having to take the mini-bus (a,k.a. public smushed transport).  Well as soon as we left campus we were headed to the petrol station to get fuel for the car.  Well apparently, there has been an off and on shortage of fuel.  So the first gas station that we pulled into was OUT of fuel.  The second station did have fuel.  So we got the typical unleaded gasoline.  It was just $10 a gallon!  The couple that we were with said that it normally costs $12. 

In Malawi, the fuel prices are posted once a month.  They usually increase at the beginning of the month.  So stations actually try to run out of fuel so that they can get more money when it is the time of the month to buy fuel. 

Anyways, we got fuel and then went to a couple of shops.  We were excited because we visited one grocery store that sells cheese.  Yesterday, we went to two big grocery stores, and both were OUT of cheese—they had none of any kind.  Many stores here don’t even sell cheese, so we pay a premium when we can get it.  We love it though, so some things we will splurge on. J

Once we came home from dinner we began cleaning our house and making supper.  We had some yummy chicken that I had made a few days earlier. We were very lucky to have chicken, because Malawi has been having a chicken shortage and all the stores were OUT of chicken!  Today, they had small chickens at the store, so I bought three to put in our freezer . . . just in case the shortage continues.

After dinner, I was started to clean up and take the remaining chicken meat off the bones.  When I was finished I went to wash my hands . . . nothing.  The water was OUT.  The water shortages are a normal occurrence in Africa, but at that moment I was not happy about having greasy chicken hands.  Yet, at the same time I was grateful.  As I mentioned earlier we were cleaning before dinner, and I was finishing unpacking.  I had just unpacked my giant bottle of classroom hand sanitizer and left it by the sink.  I had thought that maybe we would need it.  Sure enough, I needed it less than an hour later.

I know, you are probably thinking “Who in the world would want to live in a place with no water, and no CHEESE?!”  Yet, despite the OUTS that we have and will experience in this place called Africa, we are happy that we came, and grateful to be here fulfilling the calling on our lives.

For a life without cheese is much better than a life lived without knowing Christ! 

(As I type this, we just experienced another OUT moment.  Our internet just went out! But, at least it wasn’t the electricity . . . that was two nights ago.)

Homemade Yumminess . . .

Well, living in Africa teaches you what you can and cannot live without.  For me, I can live without many things, but I do like to try to still enjoy yummy American food.  Thus, I always ship my spices and my pyrex measuring cup and spoons with me!  It is hard to cook when you don't know all of the metric conversions!  So, I learned this early in my life, and thus have never really had a hard time while cooking.

Anyways, since I live in Africa, I thought it might be fun to try out some recipes that just take too long in the states.  So, I made some . . . chocolate chip banana bread, this I have made before, cinnamon rolls, and onion bagels!! 

I am very proud of my bagels.  I had no idea you had to boil those suckers!  Anyways, mine came out delicious and taste just like the ones I have had in the states.  Yum!  Here are some pics of my masterpieces!! J

Bagels mid-process

Finished Bagels!

EWW EEE EWW AH AH . . . I met the Witch Doctor and this is what he said!

Today, we were sent on a scavenger hunt all over Lilongwe, Malawi.  Well, this fun hunt included stopping in front of the prison, meeting the “Watch Doctor”, Going in the market, across the “troll bridge”, and meeting the famous witch doctor. 

There are actually many witch doctors that have “medicines” set up outside of the bus terminals.  Here they have rocks, sticks, potions, and some other unusual things set up.  You just go to them and tell them what is wrong with you and they will prescribe something for you.

The witch doctor I met was rather nice.  He had a pile of sticks and rocks, and told us what several things meant.  Here are some of them . . .

1)    A STICK- you rub it down the middle of your skull and it should relieve your headaches

2)   A brown liquid with sticks floating in a bottle- it is suppose to be very helpful for male hormones

3)   A porcupine skin- if you carry this with you it is suppose to protect you from armed bandits

While my team did not buy and of these things, we did manage to get a picture with this man and to ultimately win the race!  Here is the doctor: