At least I cook mine. These kids just eat them straight out of the ground. I can’t decided if this picture is absolutely hysterical or disturbing.
On a different note, this upcoming weekend I’ll have a pretty big change at home: two of my students will be moving in with me. Three factors influenced this decision. First, I’ve been spending a lot of time every day just doing chores-things like sweeping, washing clothes, starting a fire, fetching water, cooking, and cleaning. It’s not that I’m incapable of doing these things, or that I hate doing them, but rather they take up a lot of my time and energy. A lot of time and energy that would better be spent at the school or out in the community doing work. These guys should be able to help me out with these things, which will make my life a lot easier (especially starting a fire, something that I still haven’t been able to master during this rainy season).
Second, my house is built for a family. Since the first day I saw it in November, I knew that I wanted to try and have students live with me. Right now there are two empty rooms that I use for unnecessary storage space. I just doesn’t make sense for me to sprawl our in this huge house when these other guys would be so much better off living right next to the school with me.
Third, and most importantly, I think these two boys will benefit greatly from living with me. One of them is an orphan, and he is currently living with his grandparents, a situation that he doesn’t like at all. The other boy lives with his single mother (the father skipped out of town when he was a baby). They live in a village that is pretty far from the school so he had a long commute every day until he started boarding in the local trading center. Nevertheless, they should both be much better off with me. They won’t have to pay rent any longer (they’ll just have to do some chores they are more than willing to do). Also, I need to stress that these two are very respectful, hard working, and intelligent. They are the top students in forms 3 and 4, and they are always asking me questions in class that I never have time to answer. They are thirsty for knowledge. I should be able to help them out a lot more if we are all living under the same roof. Most of my students will probably end up with the same life as their parents, living in the village as low-income farmers (which is fine), but these two really stand out as having an opportunity to escape this cycle of poverty. Hopefully, I can be the little push that they need to get over the hump. I excited to see how this all goes. I have spoken with some of the veteran volunteers that have been living with students for about a year now, and they say that its been great for both them and there students. I’ll keep ya’ll updated on how all this goes.
My garden’s finally looking good enough that I can put up a picture of it:
I’m pleasantly surprised by how well most of the crops are growing. I’ve started harvesting some Chineese cabbage; basil; and beans, with a bunch more on the way. Within the next month I should have a ton of pumpkins, tomatoes, and cucumbers. As you can see, I planted the cucumbers a little to close together so that they are sort of taking over everything, but I try and persuade them to keep a respectful distance from the other crops. Once I find time, I want to make another bed or two, doubling the current size. This whole gardening thing is actually pretty fun. Mom-I regret that I never helped you out planting stuff in the past at home. Missed opportunities…
… But we can’t dwell on the past too long when there are so many mice to eat!!!
That’s right folks. It’s nearing the end of the rainy season here in Malawi, meaning that the mice (or perhaps they look more like rats-let’s just use the Chichewa name: mbewa) are out in full force. Therefore, we need to trap ‘em, dry ‘em, and fry ‘em up before they go underground for the rest of the year.
Yes indeed, I have now eaten rats on a stick (I don’t think they have those at the MN State Fair). This is another good source of village protein, although they don’t taste nearly as good as the fried ants. At first, my buddy insisted that I try them just dried and salted, which was okay, but I’m not a big fan of munching on all that fur. So then I insisted that we burn the hair off over the fire (a common practice of more “civilized” folk like myself). I can’t say that mbewa is my favorite food here in Africa. I can say that the head and tail have interesting texture.
It might be a while until my next post, as I want to be around at home for a few weeks while the boys are getting settled in, so don’t get worried if you don’t hear from me for a while. Don’t forget that you can send me a cheap text message, cheap letter, expensive care package, or expensive phone call as well.
"He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough."
-Lao Tzu
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