hello kwacha

March 11th

I have had a busy schedule of working out since my last blog post. On Tuesday the headmaster returned from a ten day trip to Mbeya and we celebrated with a three hour long staff meeting. All I understood was that something is happening this Friday but I don’t know what. After the meeting I asked one of the new teachers and she informed me that ‘Worker’s Day’ holiday is on May 1st and we must have a celebration for it. This Friday we will be planning the celebration. Also, the school wants to plan a goodbye party for Lindsay and I. Lindsay is leaving before our contract is over (her parents are coming) so it will be interesting if the headmaster makes the celebration after she leaves or before. The two of them don’t get along very well… After the meeting everyone left for the day and the headmaster left for another trip somewhere and I haven’t seen him since. Maybe he will return on Friday for our next staff meeting.

On Monday and Wednesday I went for long runs on the main road. On Wednesday I did an hour run up and down the hilly road which I was proud of. The students saw me and said I looked like a police officer. Not really sure why I looked like a police officer but I am thinking it is because of the blue and black clothing I was wearing and not that I was running. Everyone now knows that I like to run and I get comments almost every day. On Thursday, I tried to get Mbughi’s daughter to run with me in the rain but she wasn’t home when I arrived. At first, I wasn’t running in the rain which made it very difficult to find a time to run but now I go running in the mud and come home a mess almost every day. On Saturday I took exercise to the next level and walked to Malawi with my friend’s Umbege and Elizabeth.

At 6 AM on Saturday, I walked to Elizabeth’s house where I met Umbege and we prepared for the long walk ahead of us. We finally departed at 6:30. It was still dark out and we had to use flashlights for the first twenty minutes of the walk but that wasn’t the only hindrance. Mud. Lot’s and lot’s of mud. Luckily it wasn’t raining, but it rained all night which made the footpaths horrendous. Luckily, I only fell once the entire day but it happened to be right at the beginning so Elizabeth stood behind me the rest of the day to help if I fell again. The day was perfect for walking. It was overcast all day but the only rain we got was a drizzle here and there, nothing to take cover from. I am glad the sun never showed its full strength because I didn’t take into account the lack of drinking water I could buy. After a thirteen hour round trip adventure, I have made it safely home.

The walk to Malawi was supposed to take three and a half hours… I wasn’t expecting it to take five hours for us to reach the market. We did, however, run into a few obstacles on the way that probably set us back at least an hour. One thing was the mud as I already mentioned. After three hours of a mostly main road walk we headed into the footpaths. The footpaths were a good four or five inches deep in mud. Elizabeth had to take off her sandals to walk through and I should have just taken off my sneakers as they didn’t do much to help. Along the river runs a river that we must cross to enter Malawi. I was expecting one river; we crossed six rivers. Four of them were very small and we crossed over rocks or just walked through them without a problem. Two rivers were quite large. The first large one had a local bridge constructed for its crossing. The bridge is made out of bamboo shoots and dangling branches from the trees. In some sections there was nothing for me to hold on to. Not the safest structure in the world. When we arrived at the bridge, there was a line thirty deep of women ready to cross. Each of them had a basket full of various foods they wanted to sell at the market. I figured if they could cross with a thirty pound basket on their heads then I shouldn’t have a problem. Since I am white I was escorted to the front of the line as soon as we arrived. Umbege went first and then I followed shortly after. I explained to Elizabeth that I was fine to walk across as long as she waited until I was over before she started to walk. She didn’t. She was right behind me. I didn’t turn around to check, but I could hear her plenty well which made the crossing unnerving. At Savage in 2013 I will construct a bridge very similar to this for all of you to try and see the ingenuity in it!

After crossing the bridge, we entered Malawi. This first sign of Malawi: lots and lots of tobacco plants. I explained how it was illegal to grow tobacco in America and Umbege and Elizabeth thought it very funny. I hoped crossing the bridge meant after four hours of walking we were only ten minutes from the market, but I was wrong. It took us another hour to reach the market. The conditions of the path and walk in general declined once we crossed the bridge. The path grew muddier and we hit another large river that we weren’t expecting. Because of all the rain, one of the “creeks” increased in volume about a hundred fold. We reached this creek to find three women standing and staring at it. Umbege was the first to jump in using his umbrella to measure the depth. I was next which shocked everybody considerably. I figure I am a better swimmer that Umbege, who has never swam before, and thought it could be fun. The river got stronger and deeper as we crossed but I was able to keep my balance throughout the walk. We made it across safely with a group of seven women following close behind us. The water rose to my hips about 2/3 of the way across so I was drenched by the time we reached the opposite bank imagining how we were going to return that evening if it so happened to rain while we were at the market.

The market in Malawi was fairly large but I was a bit disappointed in the selection of goods. Most of the food and accessories could be bought in Tanzania. The prices were also significantly higher (and the currency was in Kwacha--hence the title). I was happy to buy a head of cabbage (not so happy about carrying it back) and a few packets of Malawian tea. Both Umbege and Elizabeth bought soap to bring back to Tanzania to prove they traveled to Malawi (the soap said nothing about Malawi on it…but they insisted!). We stayed for about two hours before beginning the trek back home. The paths were a lot easier to walk through on the way home and the walk took us only 4 hours and 40 minutes (20 less than the walk there) at which time I was completely exhausted. Before I could bath and go to sleep I got a picture of Umbege, Elizabeth, and I after the long day hike. I also ran down to Mbughi’s house to give him some Malawian chai. We have already made plans to travel back next month!

Today I am tired and very angry. A student came knocking at 6 AM this morning! Then returned at 8! I didn’t answer either times but I was wide awake after the 8 AM knock! The student just returned again asking me to help with a mathematics problem…I am teaching at 4 PM today, she can wait two hours!

I don’t have many plans for the week but I am sure something exciting will happen and I will let you know about it in the next blog! Oh, I did find out about the wizard! His wife was cooking dinner one night and someone walked into his house and shot him. So much for the burning story!

Love,

Gretchen