Mini buses and lizards

I told Ray I was going to blog on mini buses and lizards and he grabbed my laptop and wrote the following, “Mini buses and lizards are great and I love them both a lot. Especially the lizards they have such cute faces and bug eyes it just makes me want to hold one or two in my hands at all times.
Signed,
Epstein’s Mother”.

You have to understand his sense of humor to think this was funny. I did not but he wanted me to leave it in. Now, my version…………

The mini buses over here are use for public transportation. They are 12 – 14 passenger mini vans that they squeeze 20+- people into with all of their purchases from the market, their goats, their suitcases, etc. Mini bus drivers do not make a lot of money and are given a minimum amount of money they must make for the owner in a day. So, they fight to get fares. They race, like they are the only ones on the road, to the next stop and even stop anywhere they please to pick up a potential passenger for more money. They do not like people who drive normal and will honk at you to let you know you are in their way. After all, they own the road. They are the cause of a lot of accidents and are crazy drivers. We have a mini bus stage that we need to drive through any time we drive to or leave our house. They gather there early in the morning and are there all day, honking, taking up the entire road and waiting for a potential passenger, or 8 or 20. Driving through the mini bus stage really taxes your patience. There are days there are 20 or more mini busses at the stage and all across the road and it takes about 10 minutes to get through. You have to try and squeeze your way through as they look at you like you don’t belong there. We even had one mini bus driver holler at us one day when we were pulling into our drive way and asked us what we were doing there because we were in his way and keeping him from his job. Excuse me for pulling into our own driveway.

Lizards. I cannot tell you how much I hate them. I realized that hate is a strong word but there are no other words to describe how much I detest these creatures. They are everywhere. There are different types of lizards here. There are lizards that climb on our brick wall outside. There are different lizards that are bigger and you see them scamper on the ground outside periodically. Notice that both of these types of lizards are outside. Those I can live with. It’s the other ones I have issues with – the inside ones. They come out about dusk and are out all night, sometimes even into morning. They range in size from babies about 2 inches long to the granddaddies about 6 or more inches long. They have bug eyes and can really move. They usually hang around on the walls and catch bugs. They also leave their poops on the wall. It is gross. I am constantly looking in each room as I enter it to see where the lizards are. If they are too close for comfort, I have Ray come in and try to shoo them away so I can go into the room. I have real problems with them in the middle of the night when I need to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. I have learned to limit my intake of liquids in the evening just because of the lizards.

Ray keeps trying to assure me that they won’t hurt me. They are just trying to eat. They don’t want to have anything to do with me and are just as scared of me as I am of them he says. I don’t think so. He tells me that my choice is to have the bugs or the lizards. He says the bugs will crawl on me, the lizards won’t. I told him the first time I had one in my bed, I was leaving. No questions asked. Don’t even try to reason with me, just take me to the airport. He told me that they won’t get in our bed. Well, you know where this is going, don’t you? The unthinkable happened. The other morning just as it was getting light, I rolled over and opened my eyes. There he was, a lizard scampering up the INSIDE of the mosquito net that surrounds our bed. (Inserted from Ray: He was not in our bed he was hanging around over the bed. I named him Stubby because he is missing part of his tail.) I freaked. I jumped out of bed and hollered, “There is a lizard in our bed”. Ray gave me that, “Where?”, kinda like he didn’t really believe me. I said, “There, crawling up your side.” He got out of the mosquito net, grabbed the trash can, put it inside the mosquito net and dropped the lizard into it. Now since we have no screens on our windows and it is so hot you have to sleep with the windows opened, he put the lizard outside. I personally would have saved the country of Malawi from that lizard and killed him but Ray won’t even kill a moth in the house – he takes it outside. That was the one place I felt safe from the lizards, in my bed in the mosquito net. But now I think I’m scarred for life. So, after I stopped crying, about an hour later, I did not have him take me to the airport but very seriously thought about it. Next time, I am outta here. It may be embarrassing to explain that the reason I left is because of the lizards but that’s good enough for me.

So you ask, what in the world do mini buses and lizards have in common. Nothing except they are the two things I do not like about Malawi. One of them I feel much stronger about than the other. Can you tell which one? I wonder if they make lizard repellant.

Anyway, have a great “mini bus and lizard free” day! I wish I could.

Christmas after Christmas

Well, we now have cold drinks and are able to keep cold food. It was Christmas for us on Saturday as we got our new refrigerator. Yeah!!!!

Then, we moved the old refrigerator into one of the bedrooms until we could see how much it will cost to fix. The next day, Ray went into the bedroom and plugged the old refrigerator in and it worked. Now, it had been plugged in for the week that it was not working so we think when they moved it, they jiggled something and it started working. So Ray, Evance and Ben moved it to Evance's quarters behind our house and it didn't work again. Bummer. They waited a while longer and it started working. Guess it will need to remain in Evance's room forever or until we get someone to come over the take a look at it.

Anyway, we are now enjoying cold drinks in the 80+ degree temperatures again.

Christmas Day – Malawi Style, 2008

Note: 2 posts today. Whoo hoo!

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We not only didn’t get to listen to Silent Night last night before we went to bed on Christmas Eve, we didn’t have one either (a silent night that is). The neighbors had an all night party with an emcee and music blaring all night. This is fairly common in our area. We live amongst the Malawian people so we get to experience the true Malawi. They like their music and they like it loud. I don’t mean loud, I mean LOUD. And as Ray puts it, “They only have about six songs that are popular here in Malawi” so they keep playing the same songs over and over and over. So about 6:00 AM, the music stopped. It started up again about 5:00 PM on Christmas Day so we knew we were in for another all-nighter. This was the loudest it has been yet. And there were multiple parties going on with lots of fireworks. The LOUD music stopped about 2:00 AM but other parties continued until morning.

We woke to water this morning. Halleluiah! When you find you have water, you immediately take a shower or a bath because water will go off again soon – that you can count on. So we both got to get clean this morning, then about 30 minutes later, “Welcome to Malawi – no water”.

For breakfast on Christmas, our family has kiski, a polish dish made with ground meat and barley. We usually eat it with scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, etc. Well this morning Ray had his usual bread with margarine and jelly since he can’t have his cereal because we can’t keep milk cold with no fridge and I had Kamba Puffs. (By the way, milk here comes in either plastic bags or cartons that are not refrigerated.) I pretended the Kamba Puffs were kiski and we laughed about it. Kamba Puffs are the equivalent of Cheetos. Now mind you, this is my breakfast of choice. I am not a cereal or toast for breakfast person so I prefer Kamba Puffs, crackers or something non-breakfasty.

We visited the orphanage today and spent some time with the kids who are still there. There are only about 30 or so kids left at the orphanage at the present time as most of them have been sent home on “holiday”. The school term for this year ended a couple of weeks ago and the new school year starts mid-January so the kids should be back by then. We have decided that since all the kids are not there, we would wait until they come back to have some type of Christmas celebration with them.

For lunch we needed something that needed no refrigeration so I made egg salad sandwiches. No, eggs are not refrigerated here. They sit out in the open at the markets and even when I purchase them at the grocery store, they are not as cold as we think they should be. So I sent Evance up to the corner market for eggs and made egg salad. I happened to have an unopened jar of mayo in the cupboard.

About Christmas dinner………..I made the mostacolli noodles and opened the canned meatballs. The meatballs were in beef-type gravy so I made more gravy (chicken because that was all I had) and we ate the canned meatballs with beef and chicken gravy over noodles. I am not sure what type of meatballs they were. The can said there was no pork in them. We think they were mystery meat and Ray said he was really glad the meat was a mystery because he really didn’t want to know what it was. It was ok but not my first, second, third, fourth or even fifth choice for Christmas dinner. We laughed a lot during dinner tonight.

Please do not in any way feel sorry for us and the experiences we are having. We love it here and wouldn’t trade these “experiences” for anything. The things we are going through now are going to give us lots to talk about when we get old(er). We are learning so much about the culture and the people that is priceless. We are also learning a lot about ourselves. We are also learning that we need to have a sense of humor about many things and we need to be flexible as things change here on a regular basis.

I woke up this morning with the song, “Happy Birthday Jesus” in my head. Ray said he woke up with the same song in his head. It reminded me of a Christmas service several years ago at Our Savior’s when Katie K. and Katie H. sang Happy Birthday Jesus. They were both very young – maybe 6 or 7 and it brought tears to our eyes, it was so precious. I still get teary when I think about it.

Happy Birthday Jesus - Hallelujah to the King, our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. A quote from our favorite book. We hope you enjoy it.

“The Birth of Jesus
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to his own town to register.

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
The Shepherds and the Angels
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 "Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” Luke 2:1-20 (NIV)


Merry CHRISTmas!
The Smiths in Malawi

Christmas Eve in Malawi, 2008

Normally on Christmas Eve, we have my sister and her family, my parents and our children over for dinner. I make ham, a turkey breast, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole…..you get the picture. We go to the late Christmas Eve service at church then come home and put the gifts around the tree. The last thing we do every year before going to bed on Christmas Eve is listen to Manheim Steamroller’s version of Silent Night.

Now…………..our Malawi version. Feel free to laugh because it really is funny.

It is Christmas Eve and I thought I had dinner for the next two days strategically planned. Shoprite, the main grocery store in town, will be closed on Christmas Day so we went to the store today to see if we could find food for the next two days that does not need to be refrigerated. (Remember, our refrigerator died last Saturday and the freezer portion of it got hot on Sunday.) I told Ray that we need to see what kind of meat they have in a can besides tuna. We could have peanut butter but Ray had peanut butter sandwiches for lunch on Thanksgiving and I couldn’t do that to him on another holiday. I could make tuna casserole because I think I could find all the ingredients but Ray *hates* hot tuna – so that’s out. We laughed as we walked down the aisles commenting that we could probably find Vienna sausages in a can and have viennas and beans. Sure enough, there they were, a big can of viennas. I picked them up but promptly put them back after we laughed. What I did get though was a can of meatballs, in rich gravy. I thought about meatballs and noodles but the only noodles we can find that are semi-reasonably priced are either spaghetti noodle or mostacolli noodles. They do have egg noodles but I thought paying $10.00 per bag was just a bit too much, even if it was Christmas. So, we bought the canned meatballs and mostacoli noodles and that will be our Christmas dinner. Maybe it will be so good that we’ll start a new tradition.

Now, since it was in the early afternoon that we went to the store, I thought I’d buy some type of meat that was frozen that we could eat for dinner tonight. Buying frozen would allow it to stay good until I could cook it tonight. I did find a whole frozen chicken. We went about our business the rest of the day, spending some time with the kids at the orphanage and going to the internet café. We drove home, thinking I would start the chicken, which is now thawed since the temperature outside is about 85 degrees. Our night watchman greeted us with our favorite line, “Welcome to Malawi – today we have no water AND no power.” So we waited about an hour for the power to come back and then I asked Ben to start the small charcoal cooker they use to cook their nsima (pronounced “seema”) on. He does and I cut the chicken up then ……….rain. So much for the chicken. I just starting laughing – what else could I do?

Eventually it stopped raining long enough to get the chicken on the grill. Let me tell you about Malawian grills. They are not like the Weber grills we are used to in the states. They are a small hourglass shaped metal container that you put charcoal (burnt wood chips) in and place a piece of grate of some type over the top to keep the food from falling in. When we purchased the grates for the top, we got two. One we have used before but I could not find that one today because the person who knew where it was (Evance) was out for a while. So I found the other one. It was a piece of steel grate that was painted red. Well, when I put the chicken on the grate and started to cook it, I didn’t realize it but the red paint was sticking to my chicken. So I took all the chicken off the grill and searched until I found the other grate. I peeled the red paint off the chicken and put it back on the grill. I wonder if red paint causes brain damage.

Now, every time I needed to wash my hands or wash the utensils because I was working with chicken, I couldn’t turn the water on in the sink because we had no water so I had to dip a pitcher in our reserve water container to clean. The power came back on just as I was taking the chicken off the grill. It really started raining hard after we finished eating - thunder, lightning, heavy winds and rain. The rain reminded me of one of the BRAN rains where you get called into the school to sleep because it is raining so hard and the wind is really blowing. It makes me want to put my helmet over my head and pull the sleeping bag up a bit tighter around me. (My BRAN friends will know exactly what I mean.) Rain stops as suddenly as it starts here. All of a sudden, it will just downpour then when it is ready to stop, it’s like someone just turned the switch off and the rain instantly stops. However, tonight it did not stop right away. It rained for a long time and it rained very hard.

The good thing is that we have battery powered fans that are blowing on us to keep us cool. When Erle was here in November, he left us two battery powered fans. What a lifesaver they are. Thank you Erle!!!

This year, we really downsized for Christmas. The only gifts we purchased were for our staff. Food is one thing that everyone likes so we decided to make food baskets for them. Throughout the month, when I would see something on sale (“promotion” as they call it here) like sugar, salt (Malawians *love* their sugar and salt), I would buy them. I took our day watchman and our housekeeper to the market with me today as they can negotiate better prices than I can and we finished purchasing the rest of the food. In each basket were a few of each of the following: tomatoes, dry beans, onions, potatoes, cabbage, bananas, dried fish, mangos, carrots, eggs, cooking oil, margarine, bread, tomato sauce (ketchup), nsima flour, rice, sugar, kamba puffs (cheetos), and biscuits (cookies). We also purchased a live chicken for each of them. We gave them a small amount of cash and some airtime for their phones. We spent less than $30.00 on each of them and you would have thought this was the best gift they had ever received in their life. Ben, our night watchman told us it truly was a miracle. Zione, our housekeeper told us she didn’t think her family would be eating tonight.

I have to end here, the battery is almost out on my laptop. But our prayer is that each and every one of you have a very Blessed Christmas. And remember, Jesus is the reason for the season, not the other “stuff”.

God bless you and Merry CHRISTmas!

Ray & Alice

Update

We just got back from a trip to Mozambique. That was exciting.

Mozambique surrounds Malawi on most of three sides but the differences in hotels between Malawi and Mozambique is comical. We have options when staying in hotel rooms. In Mozambique the rooms were either 600 Mozambique Meticais or 900 Meticais. We asked to see them both. The 600 Meticais ($26.08 USD) room had a double bed and a tv, no bathroom. (There was a shared bathroom in the hotel courtyard.) The 900 Meticais ($39.13 USD) room had a bed, a tv (with only 1 station which spoke Portuguese) and a bathroom with a toilet, sink and shower. Guess which room we chose -- the room for 900 Meticais. We actually had hot water in our shower. It was great and only the 2nd hot shower we have had since moving to Malawi. The other hot shower was in a hotel in Lilongwe we stayed at back in October.

In Malawi we also had a choice of rooms. The standard double was MK3900 (Malawi Kwacha) ($28.26 USD), had two twin beds and a bathroom with a toilet, shower (no hot water) and a sink that you could only wash one hand at a time it was so tiny. Ray asked what the difference was in a standard double and a deluxe double for K5400 ($39.13 USD) and they said the only difference was that the deluxe double had a television. We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and said the standard double would be fine. (We can’t get used to watching tv two nights in a row then go home to our house in Blantyre and not have a tv.)

What did you do on the Saturday before Christmas? If you are like me (when we were in the US), this would be the “crazy weekend” for me. I would be purchasing last minute gifts, crossing items off my list, wrapping the remaining gifts, purchasing food for Christmas Eve dinner, purchasing food for Christmas dinner, cleaning the house, making sure the house was decorated and running a million miles an hour until Christmas night.

This year is different. First of all, it does not feel like Christmas. We are sitting in the living room with all the windows in the house open and we are in short sleeves. It’s probably 80 degrees outside and humid. We also have no tree, no decorations, no gifts, no lists to cross off (ok, that’s not completely true because I am making food baskets for our staff). It is strange to go into a store in Africa and hear Feliz Navidad – not what you expect to hear. Anyway, we got up this morning and drove into town to the internet café to check our email. We then came home and ate lunch.

I decided it would be a good day to defrost the refrigerator and freezer because the door would not even close any more since there was so much ice in it. When we purchased items for our house we purchased a used refrigerator from someone someone’s friend knew – you know what I mean. The area of town we went to was having a blackout so we could not even test the refrigerator but they said it worked so we took their word for it – big mistake. We paid our K50,000 ($362 USD) and took the refrigerator. It took about 2 days to get cold but the freezer worked. The fridge never did keep things cold. Drinks would be cool and we’d have to put them in the freezer for about 15 – 30 minutes if we wanted something really cold. This was NOT a $362 refrigerator. In the US, they would have been lucky to get $50 for it. The philosophy in Malawi is that cheaper is better, which we know is NOT the case. Part of the problem is the quality of products. We did purchase a new stove when we furnished the house and it is a piece of junk too but at least it’s a new piece of junk.

So, when I went to defrost this hunk ‘o junk refrigerator, I should have known something was going to happen. I spent 5 hours defrosting it, mopping up our concrete kitchen floor about every 10 minutes as water was draining out of the refrigerator onto the floor. Well, I should have known -- when I plugged it back in, it would not come back on. The freezer got cool but not even as cold as the refrigerator used to get and the refrigerator is now just a storage container. Ray and Evance worked on it for quite some time and at one point, most of the refrigerator parts were on the kitchen floor. So, until we get money to purchase a NEW refrigerator, we’ll live like true Malawians – purchasing perishable items daily.

Then Sunday, Evance asked Ray if he could plunge the kitchen sink (which is a common thing). The problem is this time, they could not get it to unplug. Ray, Evance and Ben worked on it and worked on the line outside for probably 45 minutes with no luck. Guess we gotta find a plumber tomorrow too.

Enjoy the rest of your Christmas week and hopefully, you will have a stress free Christmas week like us and be able to focus on the true meaning of Christmas – the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Sat, Dec 13

Yes, we are still here and fine.

More later...........thanks for your patience.

What's been going on?

Tuesday, Dec 2

Where did I leave off? Oh, it was Thanksgiving. We celebrated by having sandwiches for lunch. Ray has two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and I had a tuna sandwich. For dinner, I made chicken and attempted stuffing, with what ingredients I could find here and mashed potatoes. It worked but not as we are accustomed to. But as they say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”.

Friday was my birthday and other than the phone calls from home, no one would have know it. Ray & I went to lunch at a chicken place in the shopping strip mall but that was it. It was just another day.

I found some addition flash cards and played with the kids with them. They kept wanting to go through them over and over and over again until I finally had to stop because I was the one who was tired. Some of the kids were great at addition and others were a bit slower but we had all grade levels working on these. It was fun for them and fun for me. We’d play games by acting out the problems. If the flash card was 7 + 5, we’d put 7 girls on one side and 5 boys on the other to come up with our answer. I’d try to confuse them by having two cards that equaled the same answer and asking them how that could be. For example, we’d have 8 + 2 = 10 and 5 + 5 = 10. I’d ask them if that was right and how could that be. Sometimes we’d have to act it out just to make sure. That was fun.

The puzzle we gave them a couple weeks ago has been completely destroyed. It was so worn out that we threw it away. They played so much with it that the faces were off the pieces and most of the tabs were missing. It was in sad shape. We do have another one at our house that we have not taken to them yet but will do so in a while.

I typed, and typed and typed the school exams for this year. That was a long job. I had no problem preparing the exams that were written in English. I knew what they wanted and when I needed to leave spaces for answers, when answers were multiple choice, filling in the blank, etc. However, it was much more difficult with the exams written in Chichewa. I had to have our day security, Evance, help me. He would read the letters to me and explain to me what each section said so I knew how to prepare it. It took hours and hours to type all of these exams but it is a culmination of what they have learned in each subject all year. Each class has five or six exams to take this week. Next week will then start school break until January.

We hike the mountain to pray yesterday with some of the kids. Wow – what a journey up and up and up. I took several breaks on the way up but what an experience at the top. The scenery was beautiful and the worship was great. God is definitely on the mountaintops!! This mountain is behind our house in Chilobwe so we walked from our house. This is the same mountain Ray has said several times that he wanted to go to the top of. Well, we were not to the top but we were on the next peak down from the top. God’s glory in His creation could be seen for miles. I cried it was so beautiful. All the mountains, the villages, the town, the trees, the rocks --- all this for His glory!!! It was so worth the tiresome trip to the top.

While on the mountain, one of the groups prayed for rain. Well, since God answers prayers, it rained. It looked like it was going to rain on us when we left so we scurried down the mountain. It rained all around us and we only got a couple of sprinkles. We arrived back to our house and within 5 minutes of arriving, it downpoured. Thank God for the rain. This country needs it. The rainy season started the beginning of November and we have not had enough rain for the crops. We visited the three fields we planted and one of them (of course the one furthest away) had not had rain so the seeds will no longer grow. That one will need to be replanted if we can find money for seed and fertilizer.

When we access our email, we have found that our Cox account runs so much slower than our Gmail account so we are using our Gmail account more often. Therefore, if you wish to email us, please send your messages to asmith1133@gmail.com. The link on this blog has also been changed to use that address.

God’s blessings to you!
Ray & Alice
asmith1133@gmail.com