Speak like a Malawian

                Today we got all of our sweet potatoes dried which means we can all go to Kasungu this weekend to see the animals! We were worried yesterday because it was cloudy with a slight chance of meatballs so not a whole lot of drying went on. We are starting to get really good at getting good information but we still run into problems, there are just fewer problems with each run. One of the problems we had was the dogs pulled on the mosquito net we had over the air dried potatoes to keep them from getting blown off the table and that moved the bricks that were holding down the mosquito net and that messed up the entire order of the sweet potatoes so we didn’t know which slice was where and we could figure out how much water each individual slice lost. We’ll just have to use averages. We also lost some slices randomly. It didn’t help that we had tons of slices.

                We also got to go to the market today. It was really exciting! We went with Ida, Sarah, Bernadette and some other ladies that work at SAFI. They were great and helped us find some good stuff and made sure we didn’t get the white people prices. Mostly there was clothes which I don’t really need and you had to hunt through them and I wasn’t feeling so hot because it was really hot and I was  having a tired day. They were really cheap though if you found something you liked and was your size so that’s not too bad. There were also lots of chichenges so I got three because they were also pretty cheap, like a couple bucks. I’ve been on the lookout for a cute purse. I saw some like the one I want at the market in Lilongwe but we were told it’s cheaper to buy the fabric and have somebody else make it for you. I asked Sarah where she got hers and she said Lilongwe and that I could give a tailor a chichenge to make it out of so I’ll probably buy another chichenge for that.

                On the way to and from the market it was a bit of a walk but not that bad so the locals from SAFI taught us lots of Chichewa. I was trying to keep up but they were going so fast and I don’t remember anything they taught us. We need to just have it written down so we can go over it and practice but we still have some time. The locals really like it when we speak Chichewa.

                It felt so good to just lie down and drink one of my water bottles from my growing collection after we came back. Usually we get water bottles at meals and I drink half of it and then it sits in my room because I don’t drink the rest of the day so I have a pile of opened, half empty water bottles in my room. I made a goal today to starting drinking more so it didn’t look like I was trying to open a bowling alley in my room. The market was really hot so I actually wanted to drink a lot of water when we came back. After I rested a little it was time for dinner and Whitney told me a story that I need to put up here but I forgot what it was so I’ll have to do it another time but no worries because I have another one.

                So Moi lives with her mom in the hostel with us and she hangs out with us a lot. When she peaks in on us working we put her to work and when we’re not working, we play with her. Yesterday I was bored but there wasn’t enough time to watch a movie so I decided I would watch Brian Regan. I asked everybody else if they were bored enough to watch but only Nicolle was so we were buds. On her way in Moi decided she wanted to hang out with Nicolle because she loves Nicolle, everybody does so Moi came in to watch with us. She saw the bag of candy that Dr. Steele left for us that we’ve been rationing at dinner and wanted some. We told her no but I pulled out my Swedish fish and let her have one, then we started the show. Moi, like all children, had a hard time sitting still, especially since she didn’t get what this weird movie was about. At one point I got up to plug in my computer and she saw the bag of fish on the bed and started sneaking them! I also got out my after-bite because I had some bites that were driving me nuts and she wanted part of that action too. My favorite part was when Brian Regan was talking about Dora the Explorer and the map song. When he started singing it, Moi jumped right in and then started singing all the other Dora songs. It was a like shocking and unexpected. As it turns out, she loves Dora. It was cute.

How to take a Shower

                On Monday I really had to do my laundry, so I did. Go figure. Laundry is always a process but it was difficult this time because the wind was blowing so it was a struggle to get my clothes to stay on the line to dry. Most people would tell you to use clothespins but this is Africa! I haven’t bought any clothespins yet. So after I finally got all of my clothes on the line I took my bucket back inside and when I came back out, two of my shirts had already fallen off and how I have to rinse them off again. So I decided it was a losing battle and brought all of my clothes into my room to dry in there. It just took three times as long but nothing else got dirty so we’ll call that a win. Have you ever tried to hang clothes in a room with next to no furniture? You have to get pretty creative. Fortunately I have been in this situation before and had some idea. I hung clothes on my curtain, window, mosquito net, bet, chair and suitcase. That may sound like lots of places but it’s really not that much space especially since I washed all of my shirts so some got put in places where they would kind of dry until the really good drying places opened up again.

                We went to Lilongwe yesterday to meet with some people from Feed the Children. They work with Nuskin to distribute Vitameal. They also teach nutrition classes specifically to help young children and some other stuff. They do some good things. After the meeting we shopped until we dropped. We got everything we needed for our research this week and some other stuff just for fun such as some Thai sweet chili potato chips that we are slowly becoming addicted to here. Finally, after we got everything and were sure we didn’t need anything else, we came back to SAFI.

                When we came back we had dinner and got right to work to get ready for our run this week. We pretreat our sweet potato slices with four different brines that also kind of pre-dry them by osmosis. It’s a really cool idea. We wanted to get them ready the night before so we could be faster in the morning when we had to get everything else ready which turned out to be a wonderful idea. While I was working on the brines, Whitney was emailing and hanging out while Emily was working on the budget and stirring the brines for me. This was all in the same room that the stupid bugs were swarming that one night and I couldn’t get it because I hate them so much but they didn’t show up until after we were inside last night. It was like a horror movie. Everything we peaceful and quiet but then you’d hear something hit the window, then something else and before you know it, it sounds like a hail storm! The bugs were attacking! Fortunately the windows were closed. Unfortunately, the windows don’t close very tightly so the bugs could still get in single file and that’s exactly what they did. Once one got in, Whitney and Emily would go on the attack and I tried not to get in the way. Whitney and Emily figured out a really great way to get them because they fly like they’re always dizzy. So the best way to get them is to turn off the light until they get tired of flying and then they land. Then you turn the light back on, find them on the floor and smash them! Whitney was really good at it and we had a little pile of dead bugs by the end of the night. I even got a couple after the brines were finished and Whitney left.

                This morning we had to do the real work. This is the third time we’ve done a run of sweet potatoes but we have yet to get it all done before lunch. Today we forgot to put one treatment in to soak so that put us back a ton. Right now the limiting factor is the one scale we have and it doesn’t always like to work with us but we figured out how to make it work anyway so we will actually get useful data this time.

                After we finally got everything drying some kids from the neighboring village came to sell us some cakes. John wanted to try some and so he bought some for all of us. They were like scones. They were good. The kids were funny because they were older and liked to laugh at the way we look, which is fine I think we’re all used to it at this point. We told them our names and seriously, the second time they said them, my name turned into Lonny. People here really just can’t get my name very well so I’m thinking about changing it. The options right now are Lee, Lynn and Sonya.

                When we finally got everything cleaned up, we got a much anticipated break. The first thing I did was see if the water in the shower was working. We also had a break before lunch while the treatments were soaking. I tried to take a shower then too. I checked the water to make sure it was working and it was! So I got all ready and by the time I was back in the shower, it wasn’t working again so I had to do the walk of disappointment back to my room and put my clothes back on. However, after lunch I was determined to get it done. The water was working so I knew I could probably at least wash my hair so I did and then the water was starting to run out but I finished anyway. Eventually the water did run out on my so I just rinsed off with water from a bucket and relished being clean.

                Speaking of showers, Dr. Steele left us a solar shower in case we wanted to do the work for a warm shower. So I think it was last week when I was taking a shower and only got halfway. I was frustrated so I decided to try out the solar shower just for the sake of knowing I could finish my shower. So I pulled it out and filled it up with as much water as I could get out of the sink and laid it outside to warm up. I came back a few hours later and it was gone! I thought I was going crazy but nobody knew where it was so I just figured it was gone for good. About a week later, Akim (our driver) told us that he found some kids playing with it. He said that the kids thought we didn’t want it because we left it outside but Akim took it back so he could give it to us. We like Akim, maybe he can find our missing data logger too.

I have crazy eyes because I'm a witch with my brew.

These are the evil bugs but we haven't been able to find a name for them. Nobody knows what they're called

Strange things

                Friday night there was a dance party. It was really weird. It started as this nice casual kind of thing for Nicolle and Camille for their birthdays. As people were invited, they got really excited and it turned into a huge even that everybody was really excited for. They were expecting food and decorations and all kinds of stuff. Ernest turned himself into the DJ which I thought was weird. There wasn’t a whole lot of dancing at the beginning when I went and it really weirded me out more than anything and I was just too tired to really summon up the confidence and whatnot to deal with a dance party. They are just not my thing. Apparently a while after I left a bunch of drunk farmers showed up and it got pretty crazy but Ernest and his music were not happening.

                Speaking of Ernest, he wanted to be our guide in Salima this weekend so we took him and to be honest, he wasn’t that great. I think he just wanted a free meal out of us or to get away or something. I think he’s trying really hard to impress us but I have no idea why. Anyway, we went to two lodges on Monkey bay right near where we went last week. It was also weird because Whitney stayed at SAFI to try to meet up with a family friend/friend of a friend, Adam stayed to finish his proposal and Camille was sick so she also stayed. We had a nice small group which was definitely strange to us. We also went on a quick boat tour and rode around the island and saw Malawi from the perspective of the lake but we didn’t see any hippos or alligators or anything.

                Today we went to church with Akim again except this time we went to the Chichewa service. It was papal Sunday so there was a lot going on and they were also raising money to finish the new church they are building. It’s weird visiting churches here because you can’t sneak in the back just to observe. You show up and all of a sudden you taken to the front in front of everybody and they introduce you and talk about you to the congregation and since they were fundraising they kept looking at us to give them more money. After the service was when most of the fundraising was. The choir would sing and some guy would point at different sections of the congregation to come up and donate. The problem is that we all donated what we brought when they passes the collection bowl so we didn’t have any more but people expected us to keep putting in bills. As it turns out, people will just take 1000kwatcha and donate it in small bills such as 20kwatcha to make it look like a lot. Nobody really warned us about that but we could leave so we did but we couldn’t go back to SAFI because the minister wanted to meet with us.

                Yeah, that was also weird. We thought we were just meeting with the minister and saying hi and whatnot but he took us to his home and fed us lunch. When people feed us they like to feed us a lot. The food was ok aside from the beef and the chicken. I only had beef and it was on the bone and we only had spoons to eat with because usually people just eat with their hands. That made it really hard to eat and my spoon was really wimpy and bent when I tried to use it to get the meat off the bone or to cut it into manageable sized pieces. Apparently the chicken wasn’t any better. Adam said it was like rubber and must have been way undercooked or way overcooked because it also was next to impossible to eat. Whitney sat between the minister and the accountant for SAFI so she was nervous about trying too hard to cut her meat and it flying off her plate or whatever because we were eating with our plates on our laps. When we were done we had some soda and that was probably the safest part.

                When we got back to SAFI I just wanted to relax so I lay on my bed and read a little before I started falling asleep. Then Whitney knocked on my door and told me that we had to go eat lunch that the ladies at SAFI prepared for us so we didn’t offend them. At this point it was like 3 and dinner is a 6. We got lots of food today.

                So today was just one of those days were I was really sarcastic and a little rude so when I was talking to Whitney I wouldn’t talk very loud because I didn’t want everybody to hear. She was complaining that I always mumble but then I told her that I was just being sarcastic and kind of rude so she leaned in and I whispered what I was thinking to her. It wasn’t offensive or anything it’s just that sometimes people get on my nerves. After that she said it was okay if I said those things quietly, at least in certain company.

                Things are going well, our research hit a bump and we don’t really know where we’re going with it right now so that’s on hold but other than that, things are pretty awesome.

Teaching with Dr. Johnston

                Yesterday we started another run of drying sweet potatoes. It started off a lot better than the last run but we still had some massive issues that we hope we’ll work out before our next run. Some of our problems included not being able to measure how much water we were putting in the brine efficiently, I underestimated how much sugar and salt we needed and most of all, our scale stopped working right when we were putting the slices into the dryer and needed to weigh them to see how much water they lost over the drying process. Since we couldn’t measure the starting weight, we’re thinking this run is kind of a bust too. It was just a raw cassava day. Oh well, we think that we can squeeze two runs in a week if we need to, to get everything finished.

                One the positive side, Dr. Johnston is here! He made it safe and he’s fun to be around. He also helped us teach our lesson today. He is very smart and teaches very well. He brought a lot of stuff for us to use and made everything so much easier for us.

                After we got everything drying and finally had lunch, we were just tired and need to chill. So while Camille, Nicolle and Adam went to the market here with Joyce, Whitney and I took a shower and Emily took a nap. After I prettied myself up, I went into Whitney’s room to hang out. While we were in there, Mui (Ernest’s Daughter) came in and started entertaining us. She found Whitney’s princess coloring book and started talking about Cinderella and gave us stickers from it. When Camille and Nicolle came back, they joined us and Camille taught her how to vogue. She is such a diva. We all got videos of her dancing and then she got tired of it and just said “No!” Emily joined us a little bit later and Mui danced all the way to dinner.

                After dinner, we checked the water activity of our potatoes and half of them were done. That’s good news. We’re hoping they’ll all be done tonight so we don’t have to worry about them when we leave tomorrow.

                As far and my health goes, I’m getting better, my sore throat moved all the way up to  my nose and it’s almost gone now. My sunburns are feeling much better and starting to peel which is gross, but good. I still don’t think I’m going to spend a plethora of time in the sun this weekend if we go to the beach though. I’m not feeling that good yet. This weekend will be fun anyway.

                Yesterday the Internet was out all day so we weren’t able to get a lot done but sometimes it’s good to relax too. It’s still a little in and out today but at least we can get something done.

Stories

                Ok, yesterday we fixed up the solar dryer. By we, I mean Adam did most of the work and I walked in towards the end and helped fix the drying trays. The solar dryer does look a lot better now though. It’s a good thing too because we are almost ready to put it to work for the rest of the summer. Adam went to Lilongwe last night to get his visa renewed and we asked him to get us some stuff for our run this week and he’s coming back with Dr. Johnston who flew in last night and he also has some stuff for us that we are really excited to get like peelers and a mandolin. The power was out for a long time yesterday so it really wasn’t a productive day.

                Something I did forget to talk about though in over the weekend at the Indian restaurant I started telling my famous princess stories. It was really strange because when I was telling the Princess Blossom story, everybody was looking at me and listening, it was weird. Then I started making up my Princess Buttercup story and nobody was really paying at really close attention so it was actually a lot more like a usually tell those stories. The best part is that I actually finished it! It’s really long and elaborate but you know, it happens.

                Oh! Something else excited happened yesterday. Nicolle had a lizard in her room yesterday and usually when we have problems with animals we call Whitney because she’s like Steve Irwin. She was busy doing some stuff for Dr. Johnston’s project so she was unavailable and Nicolle and Camille were on their own. Emily and watched and tried not to get in the way. It was funny to watch them corner him and then he would run away right before Nicolle would make her move with the box she was going to trap him in. Eventually, Camille got him under the box but we had no way to move him. So they tore off a flap on the box to put under the lizard and they box picked up the box and ran to the back door to throw him out. We are girls. What can I say?

Dream

                Yesterday was pretty uneventful. We spent some time doing research and just getting ready for Dr. Johnston to come. Last night at Dinner, Ernest came in and told us that he wanted to go with us on our weekend trips to make sure we saw all of Malawi. We told him we went to Salima on the weekend and just went to one beach and he told us he would go with us again this weekend with Dr. Johnston and we would actually see Salima.

                My throat it feeling much better today and I can move my shoulders again so things are improving but I’m still pretty burned and have a couple blisters that’ll take a while to get better. My nose started peeling so there is hope that I will recover eventually. We’ll just call this a learning experience. Remember kids, always, wear sunscreen.

                So Whitney likes to tell us about her dreams because she has a lot and remembers them really well and usually she’s using her kickboxing skills on someone. Anyway I remembered my dream last night and it was only pretty strange.

                Ok so I was with Mom at one of Sarah’s games. She was playing Madison in Rexburg and it was nice and warm. It was a completely one sided game. Sarah’s team was better of course. I was watching warm ups between innings and the Sarah’s whole team was in the outfield and the field was a little bigger than normal and everybody could chuck the ball all the way to home from the outfield without a problem and a girl on the other team was in awe. She said Sarah’s team could throw the ball three times as far as Madison. Then Mom and I started making fun of them saying that they had to roll the ball to first because they couldn’t throw the ball all the way there. Since the game was so one-sided the umpire had sympathy for Madison and was giving Sarah’s team a hard time. For some reason you batted with your car on home plate so since I’m gone for the summer, Sarah was using my car. Once the car was in position, the umpire started kicking up dirt around it until the wheels were half covered. Well, just like in real life, Mom was not a friend of the umpire. She went out there and started talking to the umpire (For some reason we were hanging out in the dugout) and told him he couldn’t do that. The umpire said he could and he would unless Sarah had a note from a doctor that said the car couldn’t be in so much dirt. I don’t know why a doctor would say that or why that is a problem but Mom pulled out a note. Then I woke up.

                Anyway, nothing much is going on this week. We’re expecting Dr. Johnston tomorrow. We’re all just working and doing our thing. 

Burnin' Up

                Week three is finished which means that we are a quarter of the way done with our stay here this summer. Time just flies by. Next week we will be one third through the summer. Crazy!

                This weekend we went to Lilongwe and Salima. In Lilongwe we decided to go back to the Indian restaurant for Nicolle’s birthday but we went into town early to hang out. Akim dropped us off in old town and we split into two groups. In our group we just checked out the shops but we got bored pretty fast because it was so hot and we had to walk everywhere. Eventually we just found a shady place to sit and planted there until it was time for dinner. I’m starting to like Lilongwe more but it’s still nice to just sit in the shade and relax.

               Salima was really nice and relaxing and all that jazz. The sand on the beach was really coarse but in the water it was really soft. It was really fun to play in the water and lay out to get some rays. Since I’m the intelligent person I am I brought bug spray instead of sunscreen and didn’t really think much of it until we were done. Now I am hurting. I burned my back, shoulders, knees, face and chest. Fortunately my knees/thighs and face are starting to feel better but my shoulders are really hurting today. I feel like a T-rex because I can’t move my shoulders very well. I also have a sore throat but it’s not like a cold, it might be from the lake too from stretching out my neck so much. We’ll see how it all goes.

The view from the beach with the island we went to

Sunning out!

               There was also a guy that took us out to the island to see the fish out there and hike to the top to see what there is to see. It was really fun and relaxing. The guy we were with got some snorkeling gear for us to use but I’ve never been snorkeling so I tried but gave up trying to swim and snorkel at the same time. The water was clear enough that I could see the fish anyway. After we were done swimming around we hiked up to the top but most of us only brought flip flops which made it difficult so a lot of us just took them off and hiked barefoot which wasn’t as painful as it sounds. The view was awesome but I didn’t get any pictures so I’ll just have to get them from somebody else.

                We came back that night because Akim was going back anyway and we wouldn’t be able to go to church in Lilongwe because we didn’t have a ride which is the only reason we would stay. The drive back seemed very long because it was late and I was very tired. The minibus is more comfortable than riding in the back of a truck but it’s still next to impossible to sleep in it, especially when we get off the tarmac and onto the dirt roads. I was so tired when we came back that I just wanted to fall into bed and never get up. But I did get up early the next morning because we were going to church with Akim in Madisi.

                 We went to the English service in Madisi which was good because we don’t speak Chichewa but there was next to nobody there and Akim took us right up to the front row so it was obvious that there were asungu visiting that had no idea what they were doing there. There was lots of standing up and singing and sometimes we would just stand up and stand there while everybody else was doing their thing because we were lost. At the end of the service, we sang amazing grace which was a little funny because there was just so much going on during the song. The guy playing the keyboard was a little lost and so was everybody singing. Then we were asked to come up to the front in the front of the congregation to introduce ourselves. Yeah. It was a little awkward but everybody was nice.

                After the English service was the Chichewa service and people were flooding in. They even got a band with their service. Someday we are going to go to the Chichewa service and see how it’s really done.

                I was still really tired all through church but I tried really hard to stay awake. When we finally got back and didn’t have any other obligations for the rest of the day we all took really long naps. I’m not sure how long mine was but it was at least four hours. There just wasn’t much going on so we just rested all day long.

                This week we are getting back to work. Dr. Johnston will get here on Wednesday and when he does we’re going to start another run of the sweet potatoes and get that project moving. We also still have to digitize all the information we took from the families for Dr. Johnston and get all the measurements for the kids matched with their families so that is another project. We also are teaching again this week but we got some lesson plans now so that should be ok.

                Aside from being sore and tired, I am perfectly happy and healthy. I am starting to miss American food a little bit but I’m still enjoying my time here immensely. I hope everybody at home is doing well. I’ve seen some adventures on facebook. Keep me updated!