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Mazuni, September 20-22, 2006
We are now fully nested, pretty well acclimated (although the weather is now starting to warm up), and in a highly productive phase. What does this mean?
For one we have overcome the strangeness of a new location and are pretty much comfortable (maybe me more than Pat) with being strange and standing out in a crowd; and being approached often for handouts, jobs, gifts, sponsorship of students to school, etc. We have learned to adjust and be thankful that we are rich compared to nearly everyone else, and have been able to throw a little money or skill at anything that has been a problem. That is we are beyond accepting the environment thrown at us and are now much more in control of it. We have enough friends, [and also with the help of our housekeeper, Isaac (maybe 26-28 years old 24 years old with a wife and three children (ages 3 to 8)who all live in the quarters right behind us) and our 1/2 –time gardener, Gracious (maybe 24 years old with a wife, baby girl and #2 due in November)], that we are able to find out what is going on, get or make translations at times when needed, and point us to resources we need. Unfortunately that is not to say that many things are not available in Mzuzu even if we do have the money to afford it, but we have a stock of stuff and will return to Lilongwe next month to restock.
Here is a quick example of overcoming barriers by using our relative wealth (before getting too far off track of describing our normal life). We did not bring a computer printer with us. The only one we have access to is the department’s secretary, who is very busy and originally not open to helping us new people when she was already over-worked. Well, resources are nil for everyone at this university. We noticed before our last trip to Lilongwe that her ink was running out. So we purchased an ink cartridge for her for her computer and gave it to her. (We also asked if she needed anything in Lilongwe and purchased some special (Revlon) skin lotion she uses and gifted it to her). So, as a result, Pat was loaned the key to her office just before classes stated to make her transparencies and copies of her handouts. (She probably makes $30-40 US per month, since the university lecturers (most instructors at the university have masters degrees) make about $65 US per month (so most have other income streams like helping their wives run a business- Pat’s cohort’s wife sells clothing on the side and they have a small chicken farm; more on these later).
So we have a good life as we have learned to work around barriers. Typically we get up between 6 and 8 a.m. depending on Pat’s teaching schedule (classes are 7:45 am MW, and 10:45am on T-TH). We shower unless there is no water pressure (often in the morning we do shower to a very low water flow- a second shower when the pressure is good at night is called for). We normally fix ourselves cereal with fresh bananas, toast (with orange marmalade- a British influence here), orange juice, and coffee. A couple of days per week we have bacon and eggs (Isaac will cook them on weekdays and is off on weekends).
Coffee has been a challenge that we overcame. We brought with us (in our “book” boxes we shipped) a coffee maker. Of course it was 125-volt. Since all outlets are the British style 220-volt outlet, we purchased a converter. Well, converters work well on heavy-duty stuff, but our coffee maker had a nice electronic digital clock and control system that fried the first night it was left plugged in. That put us relying on the locally available instant coffee that is full of chicory as filler. About a week ago, an expatriate at the university who is married to a Malawian, loaned us one of her extra French coffee presses. So we use our electric tea kettle that was supplied with our house to boil the tap water and we have great coffee.
On most days Pat is then off to the university and I go with her as the audio-visual man. I then use the internet before the traffic gets too heavy. Following that I am often off to town for hardware items for my latest project and groceries. Isaac does laundry by hand 2 days per week (I always cringe when I see the still soapy water draining off of the clothes as he puts them on the clothesline. So things come back rather stiff, but what items he presses this acts as a good starch and those items look very crisp). He sweeps and mops the house every weekday (he is off on weekends), we now have him cleaning windows, and a few other special projects. The winds seem to constantly blow on most days and there is a lot of bare ground so we always have this fine red dust layer that builds up everyday. But with all of this cleaning things are dusty but basically very sanitation-wise clean (I guess like that “sterile” dust you see in operating rooms).
The local “grocery” stores have very limited selection, so often have to go two or three just for the simplest item. Like 1/3 of the time there is no orange juice is available; at times no beef is available anywhere; we are unable to find any salad dressing (now making our own); often have no skim milk (our milk is actually comes in unrefrigerated cartons which must refrigerated and used within 3 days once opened); etc. I realize this is all no great catastrophe, but we like what we like. We buy our bread at a bakery (brown and white), we buy fish at the open market (go early and it has been just transported up from Lake Malawi which is 1 to 1-1/2 hours away), as well as the vegetables, chickens, eggs, etc. (Actually I transport Isaac to the open market shopping, because he can do it much more cheaply, although Pat and I enjoy going at times and bargaining).
Pat may pack a lunch or come home for lunch. We mostly eat sandwiches (usually ham, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise, or egg salad, tuna salad, etc) and possibly some potato chips (25 cents per bag). We drink bottled water and/ or soda (we found Coke Light in Lilongwe and I just found some and stocked up from Karonga when I visited Betsy earlier this week). Before and/or after lunch we do school work and get on the internet (which can eat up hours doing the simplest tasks). We try to take walks around the soccer field (crazy “mazungus” walking around in circles).
Pat has been very busy working on some other assigned projects. She has been helping with revamping the education curriculum. Mzuni has also decided there is money to be made in distance learning and brought a consulting team in from South Africa. They held a 6-day workshop that Pat participated in which was time and energy draining. In follow-up the participants worked offsite Thursday evening through Sunday last weekend (at a rustic beach resort a couple of hours away). Great for breaking down barriers with cohorts and find out peoples’ abilities and work ethic. She wasn’t too impressed with most in either category and showed what she was made of in both. So she has earned some real respect of those that stayed in there and helped the team produce. I’ve helped out here and there with logistics and repairing stuff so projects keep popping up with my name on it.
On weeknights we dine around 5 to 6 pm. Isaac prepares our dinners, goes home to eat, and then comes back to wash dishes. Dinner is most often chicken with vegetables, rice or potatoes, and possibly salad. The cooking is different from what we are use to; things are all cooked in vegetable oil. We have gotten Isaac to change his ways so the chicken is now baked, and the vegetables boiled in water. A big problem we had initially and figured out the problem, was Montezuma’s revenge from the salads. The rule of thumb is “if it isn’t cooked and you can’t peel it, don’t eat it”. So now we scrub the tomatoes and we treat all of the lettuce in a chlorine solution, and the carrots are well peeled. No problems with home-cooked meals since. We have not eaten out except for Pat when she was at her workshops (and when we are in Lilongwe which has many acceptable restaurants as long as we don’t eat the salads or cole slaw). Our other mainstays are pasta and meat sauce (Pat’s is great and she is close to getting Isaac to make it her way- his is more like mashed up meatloaf), hamburgers, beef stew, and chambo (the local fish from Lake Malawi).
After dinner we have tea or decaf coffee (instant that we bought in Lilongwe or bag that we brought from home) and usually I have a cookie for dessert. Then we sit in the living room (bare concrete floor and concrete walls with a couple of wall hangings we purchased, but do have a nice sofa and 2 matching cushioned chairs that the previous Americans had purchased and left here) and read the newspaper, work on our laptops, or read a book. This is usually combined with fighting off the mosquitoes buzzing us. If it gets too bad, we retreat and read under the mosquito netting in our bed. We usually read in bed by flashlights and get off to sleep between 9:30pm to 11:30pm. Most nights we each dream, and these are vivid dreams in full Technicolor. There isn’t anyone reading this that I haven’t included in my dreams, along with long ago fellow workers, all family members near and far, etc. We’re taking Malarone and that is the least dream conducive anti-malaria medicine. So although we sleep long, we don’t always wake up rested. I’ve had a few spells where I woke up drenched in sweat and wondered whether or not I had a slight case of malaria. Since Malarone is one of the treatment drugs they give as well, I may have and then licked it.
On the few weekends that we’ve been here in Mzuzu we pretty much work on school or other stuff and Pat has spent two Saturdays cooking and baking. I watch the soccer games played here on campus (school team or local adult leagues) on Sunday afternoons (no bleachers, just stand along the sidelines). Last Sunday I went to the 7:30 am (to 10:00am) English service at the large Scottish Presbyterian Church. I was the only white person there, and didn’t really feel all that welcome. We’ll keep looking for options.
So that is our routine, but it seems like most days don’t work out as a routine. For instance, last Tuesday at 9a.m. Betsy asked for a ride back to her site. We hadn’t seen her since early August so I obliged her and her friend who lives 30-minutes from her site). So I drove her up Tuesday and returned Wednesday. This was my first visit to her site; more on that adventure at a later date. On Thursday night Pat called me as I was finishing up on the internet on campus and asked if we could give her secretary a ride home, she had some live chickens that she had purchased (and had been locked in the storage closet next to Pat’s office) and needed to transport, as well as several other items.
Well we did, and in appreciation she gave us one of the live chickens and instructed Pat how to cut its throat and prepare it for cooking. Well our housekeeper Isaac keeps chickens for eggs and meat, so we got instructions from him 0on how to keep up a chicken, and we are now chicken farmers. Friday morning we bought 50 kg of “layers mash” and the medicine we need to feed it (and Isaac’s). We ‘re hoping to get some fresh eggs out of this deal. Yesterday it got into several fights with Isaac’s chickens (which have chicks) over the mash, so we had to help break up the squabbles. Today (Saturday) I spent all day on campus taking some of the tests for correspondence classes I’m taking for engineering refresher course so I can renew my professional engineer license next month. Pat was home baking and leading the neighborhood children in play and drawing and coloring pictures. Entwined in all this was the children helping look after our chicken, who was staying near to Pat and the house.
The other aspect of our life routine that adds a challenge is that some days we have no water, some days you lose it in the midst of showering, and some days we have no electricity. Friday, when we woke up to no electricity, Isaac was kind enough to boil water over a charcoal stove so we had our coffee. Sunday is usually the high-risk day. We understand we can expect 12-hour outages every other Sunday (usually about 6am to 6pm). This week we have been without water for 2 separate days and electricity for 12 hours on Sunday, and parts of 2-3 other days. We are now taking showers whenever water is available and recharging our laptops as soon as we run down a battery. Tonight (Saturday) we are filling a thermos with hot water so we can be assured of our coffee in the a.m.
Weather has generally been dry, in the 70’s during the day and 50-60’s at night. One night this week stayed real warm after being in the 80’s during the day, so we got a taste of the warm and humid weather heading our way. The next night the wind blew hard all night and it got very cool and stayed cloudy, looked like rain, but none. We have experienced only 2 rain showers since we arrived in Malawi.
Well I’m going to sign-off of this monologue since no one has probably read this far anyway. I’ll try to select some new topics now that our living conditions have been addressed. Much to share about the people and the country; hopefully we’ll be traveling weekends for the near future: beautiful Lake Malawi, Nyika National Park, Livingstonia (as in “Dr. Livingston I presume”), Karonga, Lilongwe, and probably a jaunt by airplane down to South Africa
We are now fully nested, pretty well acclimated (although the weather is now starting to warm up), and in a highly productive phase. What does this mean?
For one we have overcome the strangeness of a new location and are pretty much comfortable (maybe me more than Pat) with being strange and standing out in a crowd; and being approached often for handouts, jobs, gifts, sponsorship of students to school, etc. We have learned to adjust and be thankful that we are rich compared to nearly everyone else, and have been able to throw a little money or skill at anything that has been a problem. That is we are beyond accepting the environment thrown at us and are now much more in control of it. We have enough friends, [and also with the help of our housekeeper, Isaac (maybe 26-28 years old 24 years old with a wife and three children (ages 3 to 8)who all live in the quarters right behind us) and our 1/2 –time gardener, Gracious (maybe 24 years old with a wife, baby girl and #2 due in November)], that we are able to find out what is going on, get or make translations at times when needed, and point us to resources we need. Unfortunately that is not to say that many things are not available in Mzuzu even if we do have the money to afford it, but we have a stock of stuff and will return to Lilongwe next month to restock.
Here is a quick example of overcoming barriers by using our relative wealth (before getting too far off track of describing our normal life). We did not bring a computer printer with us. The only one we have access to is the department’s secretary, who is very busy and originally not open to helping us new people when she was already over-worked. Well, resources are nil for everyone at this university. We noticed before our last trip to Lilongwe that her ink was running out. So we purchased an ink cartridge for her for her computer and gave it to her. (We also asked if she needed anything in Lilongwe and purchased some special (Revlon) skin lotion she uses and gifted it to her). So, as a result, Pat was loaned the key to her office just before classes stated to make her transparencies and copies of her handouts. (She probably makes $30-40 US per month, since the university lecturers (most instructors at the university have masters degrees) make about $65 US per month (so most have other income streams like helping their wives run a business- Pat’s cohort’s wife sells clothing on the side and they have a small chicken farm; more on these later).
So we have a good life as we have learned to work around barriers. Typically we get up between 6 and 8 a.m. depending on Pat’s teaching schedule (classes are 7:45 am MW, and 10:45am on T-TH). We shower unless there is no water pressure (often in the morning we do shower to a very low water flow- a second shower when the pressure is good at night is called for). We normally fix ourselves cereal with fresh bananas, toast (with orange marmalade- a British influence here), orange juice, and coffee. A couple of days per week we have bacon and eggs (Isaac will cook them on weekdays and is off on weekends).
Coffee has been a challenge that we overcame. We brought with us (in our “book” boxes we shipped) a coffee maker. Of course it was 125-volt. Since all outlets are the British style 220-volt outlet, we purchased a converter. Well, converters work well on heavy-duty stuff, but our coffee maker had a nice electronic digital clock and control system that fried the first night it was left plugged in. That put us relying on the locally available instant coffee that is full of chicory as filler. About a week ago, an expatriate at the university who is married to a Malawian, loaned us one of her extra French coffee presses. So we use our electric tea kettle that was supplied with our house to boil the tap water and we have great coffee.
On most days Pat is then off to the university and I go with her as the audio-visual man. I then use the internet before the traffic gets too heavy. Following that I am often off to town for hardware items for my latest project and groceries. Isaac does laundry by hand 2 days per week (I always cringe when I see the still soapy water draining off of the clothes as he puts them on the clothesline. So things come back rather stiff, but what items he presses this acts as a good starch and those items look very crisp). He sweeps and mops the house every weekday (he is off on weekends), we now have him cleaning windows, and a few other special projects. The winds seem to constantly blow on most days and there is a lot of bare ground so we always have this fine red dust layer that builds up everyday. But with all of this cleaning things are dusty but basically very sanitation-wise clean (I guess like that “sterile” dust you see in operating rooms).
The local “grocery” stores have very limited selection, so often have to go two or three just for the simplest item. Like 1/3 of the time there is no orange juice is available; at times no beef is available anywhere; we are unable to find any salad dressing (now making our own); often have no skim milk (our milk is actually comes in unrefrigerated cartons which must refrigerated and used within 3 days once opened); etc. I realize this is all no great catastrophe, but we like what we like. We buy our bread at a bakery (brown and white), we buy fish at the open market (go early and it has been just transported up from Lake Malawi which is 1 to 1-1/2 hours away), as well as the vegetables, chickens, eggs, etc. (Actually I transport Isaac to the open market shopping, because he can do it much more cheaply, although Pat and I enjoy going at times and bargaining).
Pat may pack a lunch or come home for lunch. We mostly eat sandwiches (usually ham, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise, or egg salad, tuna salad, etc) and possibly some potato chips (25 cents per bag). We drink bottled water and/ or soda (we found Coke Light in Lilongwe and I just found some and stocked up from Karonga when I visited Betsy earlier this week). Before and/or after lunch we do school work and get on the internet (which can eat up hours doing the simplest tasks). We try to take walks around the soccer field (crazy “mazungus” walking around in circles).
Pat has been very busy working on some other assigned projects. She has been helping with revamping the education curriculum. Mzuni has also decided there is money to be made in distance learning and brought a consulting team in from South Africa. They held a 6-day workshop that Pat participated in which was time and energy draining. In follow-up the participants worked offsite Thursday evening through Sunday last weekend (at a rustic beach resort a couple of hours away). Great for breaking down barriers with cohorts and find out peoples’ abilities and work ethic. She wasn’t too impressed with most in either category and showed what she was made of in both. So she has earned some real respect of those that stayed in there and helped the team produce. I’ve helped out here and there with logistics and repairing stuff so projects keep popping up with my name on it.
On weeknights we dine around 5 to 6 pm. Isaac prepares our dinners, goes home to eat, and then comes back to wash dishes. Dinner is most often chicken with vegetables, rice or potatoes, and possibly salad. The cooking is different from what we are use to; things are all cooked in vegetable oil. We have gotten Isaac to change his ways so the chicken is now baked, and the vegetables boiled in water. A big problem we had initially and figured out the problem, was Montezuma’s revenge from the salads. The rule of thumb is “if it isn’t cooked and you can’t peel it, don’t eat it”. So now we scrub the tomatoes and we treat all of the lettuce in a chlorine solution, and the carrots are well peeled. No problems with home-cooked meals since. We have not eaten out except for Pat when she was at her workshops (and when we are in Lilongwe which has many acceptable restaurants as long as we don’t eat the salads or cole slaw). Our other mainstays are pasta and meat sauce (Pat’s is great and she is close to getting Isaac to make it her way- his is more like mashed up meatloaf), hamburgers, beef stew, and chambo (the local fish from Lake Malawi).
After dinner we have tea or decaf coffee (instant that we bought in Lilongwe or bag that we brought from home) and usually I have a cookie for dessert. Then we sit in the living room (bare concrete floor and concrete walls with a couple of wall hangings we purchased, but do have a nice sofa and 2 matching cushioned chairs that the previous Americans had purchased and left here) and read the newspaper, work on our laptops, or read a book. This is usually combined with fighting off the mosquitoes buzzing us. If it gets too bad, we retreat and read under the mosquito netting in our bed. We usually read in bed by flashlights and get off to sleep between 9:30pm to 11:30pm. Most nights we each dream, and these are vivid dreams in full Technicolor. There isn’t anyone reading this that I haven’t included in my dreams, along with long ago fellow workers, all family members near and far, etc. We’re taking Malarone and that is the least dream conducive anti-malaria medicine. So although we sleep long, we don’t always wake up rested. I’ve had a few spells where I woke up drenched in sweat and wondered whether or not I had a slight case of malaria. Since Malarone is one of the treatment drugs they give as well, I may have and then licked it.
On the few weekends that we’ve been here in Mzuzu we pretty much work on school or other stuff and Pat has spent two Saturdays cooking and baking. I watch the soccer games played here on campus (school team or local adult leagues) on Sunday afternoons (no bleachers, just stand along the sidelines). Last Sunday I went to the 7:30 am (to 10:00am) English service at the large Scottish Presbyterian Church. I was the only white person there, and didn’t really feel all that welcome. We’ll keep looking for options.
So that is our routine, but it seems like most days don’t work out as a routine. For instance, last Tuesday at 9a.m. Betsy asked for a ride back to her site. We hadn’t seen her since early August so I obliged her and her friend who lives 30-minutes from her site). So I drove her up Tuesday and returned Wednesday. This was my first visit to her site; more on that adventure at a later date. On Thursday night Pat called me as I was finishing up on the internet on campus and asked if we could give her secretary a ride home, she had some live chickens that she had purchased (and had been locked in the storage closet next to Pat’s office) and needed to transport, as well as several other items.
Well we did, and in appreciation she gave us one of the live chickens and instructed Pat how to cut its throat and prepare it for cooking. Well our housekeeper Isaac keeps chickens for eggs and meat, so we got instructions from him 0on how to keep up a chicken, and we are now chicken farmers. Friday morning we bought 50 kg of “layers mash” and the medicine we need to feed it (and Isaac’s). We ‘re hoping to get some fresh eggs out of this deal. Yesterday it got into several fights with Isaac’s chickens (which have chicks) over the mash, so we had to help break up the squabbles. Today (Saturday) I spent all day on campus taking some of the tests for correspondence classes I’m taking for engineering refresher course so I can renew my professional engineer license next month. Pat was home baking and leading the neighborhood children in play and drawing and coloring pictures. Entwined in all this was the children helping look after our chicken, who was staying near to Pat and the house.
The other aspect of our life routine that adds a challenge is that some days we have no water, some days you lose it in the midst of showering, and some days we have no electricity. Friday, when we woke up to no electricity, Isaac was kind enough to boil water over a charcoal stove so we had our coffee. Sunday is usually the high-risk day. We understand we can expect 12-hour outages every other Sunday (usually about 6am to 6pm). This week we have been without water for 2 separate days and electricity for 12 hours on Sunday, and parts of 2-3 other days. We are now taking showers whenever water is available and recharging our laptops as soon as we run down a battery. Tonight (Saturday) we are filling a thermos with hot water so we can be assured of our coffee in the a.m.
Weather has generally been dry, in the 70’s during the day and 50-60’s at night. One night this week stayed real warm after being in the 80’s during the day, so we got a taste of the warm and humid weather heading our way. The next night the wind blew hard all night and it got very cool and stayed cloudy, looked like rain, but none. We have experienced only 2 rain showers since we arrived in Malawi.
Well I’m going to sign-off of this monologue since no one has probably read this far anyway. I’ll try to select some new topics now that our living conditions have been addressed. Much to share about the people and the country; hopefully we’ll be traveling weekends for the near future: beautiful Lake Malawi, Nyika National Park, Livingstonia (as in “Dr. Livingston I presume”), Karonga, Lilongwe, and probably a jaunt by airplane down to South Africa
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