Return to the Cape

I went back to Cape Maclear this last weekend with Nick and some new friends that he had met in Blantyre. Thomas, Maura, Bert, and Joanna are medical students currently doing a rotation at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre. Joanna is English and the other three are Dutch. They’re all really nice, and perhaps the nicest thing about them was that they picked us up in their rented car and drove us to Cape Maclear. It was great to ride in a car, even with 4 in the back. Matolas are fun the first time, after that they’re just plain miserable.

We got to spend 2 nights on the Cape since we had Monday off for Martyr’s Day. There were lots of azungu (white people) on the cape for the weekend. There was even a big party at a bar on Saturday night where I got to relearn how to associate with multiple non-Africans at once. The highlight of the weekend was a kayak trip around one of the nearby islands. We saw an African Fish Eagle (about the same size as a Bald Eagle) catch a fish and eat it in a tree right next to us.

We noticed a flat tire, on our car before we had to take off again. (Not surprising with these roads.) Luckily we met an extremely nice Indian guy, who was born and raised in Malawi, that helped us out. He not only put on the spare for us, but we had lunch at his house, and he got our tire fixed for a non-azungu price. (Malawians tend to jack up prices about 200% when they see a white person.)

Our car troubles didn’t seem too bad in comparison with another group that tried to drive to Cape Maclear in a 2 wheel drive car. After driving through a river in the road, the bottom of their car had about 4 inches of water in it, but still worked fine!

Only in Africa

I don't have time to write much right now, but I promise to write a lot more in the next couple of days. In the mean time here are a few random things that have happened lately. Most of these things would be quite shocking in the US, but don't even seem unordinary here.

Nick's Minibus ran from the cops on his way back from Blantyre

A friend of mine had his wallet stolen from him at Cape Maclear, and then had his credit cards licenses sold back to him by a guy whose friend "found it" (more on my 2nd trip to Cape Maclear later)

I tried to put on my shoe this morning only to quickly pull back my foot and have a frog jump out. Luckily, I didn't put on my shoes too quickly. I wouldn't have appreciated an impromptu dissection; the frog certainly wouldn't have.
Normally I try to shake out my shoes, but after the 20th time of doing it and having nothing fall out I had gotten lazy. I guess I'll start doing that again.

Siyabu

Meet Ellaton Siyabu, aspiring math hero and football star. He’s a total orphan (meaning he has lost both parents; those who have lost one parent are considered orphans as well). He lives with his Grandmother. Siyabu is one of the brightest students, and also one of the better footballers. His football skills have earned him the nickname Rampard (after a Chelsea player). A few of our more talented players have “earned” football nicknames. Mussa (Siyabu's half brother and our captain) is called King when he’s on the pitch.

netball pics

Just some more pictures from last Saturday. Girls playing netball, and a picture of myself with a few of the students. They all love it when you bring a camera out, since obviously none of them have cameras. This also results in many Africans running at you when you try to take pictures, resulting in extreme close ups.

I also wanted to add that in yesterdays picture. Those are borrowed jerseys. They just borrow them to play the game, and many of them are ripped. They only get 11, so any subs have to trade shirts as they come on the field.

Chief Supporters

“The professor” (Adam Nahuluma) and Allen Makwinja (in Chichewa, his name is pronounced more like Arren) took were the chief supporters for the matches.

Football Frenzy

We had our second football/netball match, this last Saturday. As you can see from the pictures we had quite a bit of fun. We played Ntonda CDSS (a nearby secondary school) at their grounds. The kids were all brought to the field in MCV’s large truck. Luckily I was able to ride with Faith Sibale, and so I didn’t have to join the kids in the Mega-Matola.

I arrived at the field a few minutes ahead of the kids, and many of them swarmed me when they got off the truck. We then waited around for about an hour for the other team to show up. The netball match started around 3:30, 2 hours late. (A 2 hour delay is pretty standard with just about any event in Africa). As you can see in the pictures, many of our students dressed up and painted their faces for the matches. They run on the field after every score, and netball has a lot of scoring. The girls won handily, and then it was time for football.

I thought our team played terribly in the first half, but we ended up winning 2-1 anyways. Siyabu (aspiring math hero) and Mussa (our captain) each had a goal. The ref was terrible, and I spent part of half time yelling at him, the other part yelling at our team for not playing defense. Don’t worry, I wasn’t literally yelling, and I’m sure he only actually understood half of what I said.

Immediately after the game all the kids piled into the truck, and we rode out like conquering heroes honking horns and singing. (Once again, I was in Faith’s car).

I have lots more pictures that I will upload soon.

Tastes like chicken

The following conversation took place at dinner a couple weeks ago: (It may behoove the reader to remember that I complained about lack of sleep due to various animal noises in past entries)

Faith: Sorry, this meat isn’t very tender. Rooster does not taste as good as chicken.
Me: Wait. Do you mean the rooster! As in we’re eating your rooster.
Sibale: Ha-ha. Yes.
Nick: I need to have seconds. I didn’t enjoy that enough the first time.
Me: How does dog taste?

At another dinner last week I was able to enjoy ngumbe (sp?). Basically, fried ants.