Strange is normal, normal is strange…

One would expect that the local people (Malawians) would mostly be surprised by seeing us (foreigners) do things differently from them. Like eating with utensils (instead of hands), pushing a stroller (instead of carrying the baby in a sling on the back) etc, etc. There are of course so many things we do differently from the people here. But my experience is the opposite: people get surprised, give comments, laugh at us, when we do things in the same way as they do!

When we were visiting a local church nearby, where people don’t know English, the  congregation had a good laugh at us. Why? Because we talked this strange English and Dutch? No, because we spoke the language of their tribe! Years ago we would have been very discouraged, thinking we were saying it the wrong way, making mistakes etc. By now we know that we should only be encouraged when they laugh at us. Since preaching in the tribal language is still too difficult, Cees uses translators. The one who was chosen did a very poor job. We don’t blame him at all. We do understand enough of the language to know if the translation is doing justice to what Cees preached. When it missed the meaning completely, Cees just said it straight in Chechewa himself, that’s when the big laugh came!

When I carry a child in a sling on my back, people turn their head. Why would a white mother do this? Actually, for the same reason as black mothers do… I must say that Moses is getting very heavy and fortunately prefers walking, but it’s still a nice and handy way whenever he is very tired.

In this (fuel)crisis the use of bike taxi’s is increasing. Drivers make sure their bike is in good shape, there is a seat on the back and they have lots of energy. For a little money you can get on the back of such a taxi and go to your destination. You can find many here in Lilongwe! Passengers don’t get off when the road goes up, they let the driver struggle, since they pay for their job. When you are dressed nice it’s difficult to stay nice though…specially in the rain season when mud is everywhere. I think these bike taxi’s would be a good alternative when our fuel  runs out. I am sure our neighbors will roll their eyes out when we would go and visit friends, just as they do, using these local taxi’s… imagine, 6 bikes in a row, black drivers with each one of our family on the back... Maybe it will happen soon.

I don’t know what people think we eat but they are always surprised when we buy our corn-flour. “So, do you eat Nsima?!” “Of course!!” In fact, it is our kids favorite food. When we eat Nsima with the locals they love to see us eat their food. It’s our food too! Sometimes they would prepare ‘European’ food, like potatoes, (to please us), thinking we won’t eat the local food. Then our kids are disappointed. Women are even more surprised when they learn I make our own Nsima…”So, you can even cook Nsima?!” Yes I can and I do, (it’s not very difficult…our recipes are often much more complicated!)

My first words (in the tribal language) were “I can do it myself” and when our language teacher heard that she laughed hard! (I guess those were my first words of any language I have learned (Indonesian, Dutch and English)… I go to the market myself and buy our food myself. Most expat women just send their worker to do it. I want to see the veggies before I buy it, even if that takes an hour of sweating on the hot and crowdie market where is smells bad because of so much garbage and walking is difficult because of the mud. Once a vendor put potatoes and tomatoes in my basket and made me pay, when I came home the bottom ones where all rotten! That’s one reason for me to tell them “I can do it myself”, another one is, I like to get out and be among the people!

My battery is getting low. Power supply is very very poor, most days I cook by candle light, bath the kids by candle light, kids do homework by candle light etc. During the day power is also off so washing clothes, making coffee, ironing, mixing dough, baking bread, using computer and internet…all needs to be postponed for the hour we will have power, and we never know when that will be (usually the odd hours between 23.00-5.00). The luxury of a generator is of passed time. If we would have one it wouldn’t even help because of fuel shortage. Solar would be great…but not affordable for us to buy, jammer! I just bought the whole stock of candles from the local shop…4 x 6 candles. There will be a time that we won’t need power (or candles) anymore to have light because there won’t be any night!