So I’ve also probably mentioned that Malawian pronunciation is very similar to English…except for their r and l. they reverse them both…and so spellings of words are fluid (fruid)…you can write (wlite) either one—as most people don’t write it isn’t much of an issue. But I find it in school—for spelling test for far I’ve gotten fal as the answer… and sometimes you see thing written and you don’t know what they are until you say them outloud…or change the letters…lots of the names would seem “normal” but they’ve switched letters—lodreck (rodreck), estere, lobert, etc…and they aren’t consistant…it isn’t every r that is an l and vice versa…but ok. At school the kids want to go pray…and at church we bow our heads to play for God’s lighteousness and glace…they have meetings for the church modelmen (I think they are moderators of some sort but I’m not sure).
Last Sunday during the announcements the abusa announced that Friday was going to be Christmas colors. I don’t know what that entails but I’m imagining a deck the halls type thing…he said we will be singing songs about Jesus’ birth not his death at the Christmas colors service. Ok then. It takes me about 45 minutes before I realize they have switched the letters…Christmas carol service…makes so much more sense…of course someone else heard that Friday was the Christmas cows service so…
It was a nice service…with lots of music and choirs. The youth did a skit and though it was all in Chichewa it was quite entertaining—pageant…angel Gabriel was a very energetic lacy mummy that made many appearances…the hymns out of the book were also in Chichewa which confused the students from the guest house as they found the right hymns in the English version. But it was a nice reminder that we are in the Christmas season…
Thursday, December 15, 2011
power cuts-extended version
As we know things have been getting worse…but really last Friday was the monster…it was evidently (at least what I’ve been told) a main line problem…nkhoma was out for over 30 hours…from before I woke up until 10 on Saturday. It was the last day of school…I still wasn’t feeling 100% but went in and couldn’t do any of those last minute things to close up that need power but it was good…the kids had a short day (730-10) with Christmas presents and partys and fun…who needs power? Then iwent home to conserve my energy—I was keeping the veitch boys so mom and dad could go out for their anniversary. No problem because usually the power comes back around 2 when it is out before I get up…used my computer until the battery died…and then the power didn’t come back at 2…or 4…or 6 when they got dropped off…so we played outside until we couldn’t see…went inside to cook dinner over gas…then watched 45 minutes of Despicable Me until the computer they brought over died…then we didn’t know what time it was because all of our electronics were dead (my phone died around 10am). As two of the three I was keeping had already fallen asleep on me I deemed it bed time and right into bed they got. Easy as anything. Breakfast the next morning also over the gas…eggs and tomato and rolls. Then they played outside a bit longer and went home…the power came on at 10—lots of cheering…and then went out again at 11…not nice…but only gone for another hour or so…
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
fable from Mao's Last Dancer
by Li Cunxin
Frog in the Well
There was a frog that lived in a small, deep well. He knew nothing but the world he lived in. His well and the sky he could see above it were his entire universe.
One day he met a frog who lived in the world above. ‘Why don’t you come down and play with me? It’s fun down here,’ the frog in the deep well asked.
‘What’s down there?’ the frog above asked.
‘We have everything down here. You name it. The streams, the undercurrent, the stars, the occasional moon, and we even get flying objects coming down from the sky sometimes,’ the frog in the well answered.
The frog on the land sighed. ‘My friend, you live in a confined world. You haven’t seen what’s out here in the bigger world.’ The frog below was very annoyed. ‘Don’t you tell me that you have a bigger world than ours! My world is big. We see and experience everything the world has to offer,’ the well frog said.
‘No, my friend. You can only see the world above you through the size of the well. The world up here is enormous. I wish I could show you how big it is,’ the frog above replied.
The frog in the well was angry now. ‘I don’t believe you! You are telling me lies! I’m going to ask my dad.’ He told his dad about his conversation with the frog ont eh land. ‘My son,’ he said with a saddened heart, ‘your friend is right. I heard there is a much bigger world up there, with many more stars than we can see from here.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me about it earlier?’ the little frog asked.
‘What’s the use? Your destiny is down here in the well. There is no way you can get out of here,’ the father frog replied.
The little frog said, ‘I can, I can get out of here. Let me show you!’ He jumped and hopped, but the well was too deep and the land was too far above.
‘No use, my son. I’ve tried all my life and so did your forefathers. Forget the world above. Be satisfied with what you have, or it will cause you such misery in life.’
‘I want to get out, I want to see the big world above!’ the little frog cried determinedly.
‘No, my son. Accept fate. Learn to live with what is given,’ his dad replied.
So the poor little frog spent his life trying to escape the dark, cold well. But he couldn’t. The big world above remained only a dream.
“Dad, are we in a well?” I asked.
He thought for a while. “Depends on how you look at it. If you look at where we are from heaven above, yes, we’re in a well. If you look at us from below, we’re not in a well. Will you call where we are heaven? No, definitely not,” he replied.
sometimes how it feels?...
Frog in the Well
There was a frog that lived in a small, deep well. He knew nothing but the world he lived in. His well and the sky he could see above it were his entire universe.
One day he met a frog who lived in the world above. ‘Why don’t you come down and play with me? It’s fun down here,’ the frog in the deep well asked.
‘What’s down there?’ the frog above asked.
‘We have everything down here. You name it. The streams, the undercurrent, the stars, the occasional moon, and we even get flying objects coming down from the sky sometimes,’ the frog in the well answered.
The frog on the land sighed. ‘My friend, you live in a confined world. You haven’t seen what’s out here in the bigger world.’ The frog below was very annoyed. ‘Don’t you tell me that you have a bigger world than ours! My world is big. We see and experience everything the world has to offer,’ the well frog said.
‘No, my friend. You can only see the world above you through the size of the well. The world up here is enormous. I wish I could show you how big it is,’ the frog above replied.
The frog in the well was angry now. ‘I don’t believe you! You are telling me lies! I’m going to ask my dad.’ He told his dad about his conversation with the frog ont eh land. ‘My son,’ he said with a saddened heart, ‘your friend is right. I heard there is a much bigger world up there, with many more stars than we can see from here.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me about it earlier?’ the little frog asked.
‘What’s the use? Your destiny is down here in the well. There is no way you can get out of here,’ the father frog replied.
The little frog said, ‘I can, I can get out of here. Let me show you!’ He jumped and hopped, but the well was too deep and the land was too far above.
‘No use, my son. I’ve tried all my life and so did your forefathers. Forget the world above. Be satisfied with what you have, or it will cause you such misery in life.’
‘I want to get out, I want to see the big world above!’ the little frog cried determinedly.
‘No, my son. Accept fate. Learn to live with what is given,’ his dad replied.
So the poor little frog spent his life trying to escape the dark, cold well. But he couldn’t. The big world above remained only a dream.
“Dad, are we in a well?” I asked.
He thought for a while. “Depends on how you look at it. If you look at where we are from heaven above, yes, we’re in a well. If you look at us from below, we’re not in a well. Will you call where we are heaven? No, definitely not,” he replied.
sometimes how it feels?...
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
candlelight
We had a gathering to celebrate sophie’s 5th birthday and wish safe travels to Ken and Colleen. We had a braii (bbq) and a wonderful time chatting and being together…and the power went out. Nothing new but we had some talk about it…and we know that it is just beautiful to see the stars in the sky on nights like this without any light pollution, and so nice to eat by candlelight with the softer glow…but we easily lose sight of that as it seems to happen every 3rd day…just something that we have to keep reminding ourselves…it is a pain in some respects but we should be grateful for what we have and enjoy whatever life throws at us, knowing it is all temporary here on earth. And tomorrow will be different as well.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
fat joe and mangos
I’ve said before that when you walk anywhere you are automatically singled out as the azungu-foreigner-soemone to ask for things…most common questions are how are you?, where are you going?, where are you coming from?, and what is your name? this is most often followed by “give me ______” (money, sweets, pen, ball, etc). and so often I try to ignore lots of what is yelled at me…but the other day I had 2 surprising encounters within 5 minutes of each other. I was leaving my house and crossing NKhoma to make some visits and came upon a group of boys…the average azungu walks much faster (even a slow one) than most malawians…so two of them ran up and walked next to me… “what’s your name?” jessi. “what?” jessi. “ok. I’m Kenneth. And this is Fat Joe.” He says with a big smile. I doubt that, I answer. Fat Joe is bigger than the skinny one but not fat as you would imagine. “do you have a pen?” fat joe asks. Yes, but I use it. “can you give it to me?” no. I use it. “oh ok.” Then Kenneth says “don’t give him anything. He is always asking people like you for things. At this point our paths split and we say goodbye. As we are getting further apart Kenneth announces to me that “this boy he is a foolish one”…obviously proud of himself to be using the word foolish. And you are the straight, normal one? I ask. “yes” lots of laughter.
About 2 minutes later I pass a girl eating something…after she passes me she asks “do you eat this?” I couldn’t tell what it was—some sort of whitish fruit? What is it? “mango”…oh yes, I eat mango… and she holds it out to offer it to me. Thanks, but I like it a bit riper…they eat them still very crunchy here. “ok” and she continued on her way.
About 2 minutes later I pass a girl eating something…after she passes me she asks “do you eat this?” I couldn’t tell what it was—some sort of whitish fruit? What is it? “mango”…oh yes, I eat mango… and she holds it out to offer it to me. Thanks, but I like it a bit riper…they eat them still very crunchy here. “ok” and she continued on her way.
laminating- 3rd times the charm
So I’ve been laminating for school for ages…flashcards for math and sightwords and blended sounds…and I’ve confiscated the laminator from the hospital…really—they asked for it back and I didn’t give it…turns out they didn’t really want it just to know where it was, but still. And so we got a donation for office supplies and decided that we would get a guillotine (paper cutter), a binding machine, and a laminator…Ken and Colleen were in town getting the new things along with other supplies and colleen said she thought I should be there to pick out the laminator as I was the one who knew the most about it…don’t know that I really do…but they picked one and brought it back…I saw it the next day at school and had to send it back immediately…it only takes A4 sized papers (the size that the rest of the world outside the US uses) as we get so many donations from the US and we had just gotten 300 laminating pouches from the US that were letter sized there was no way it would work. Ken asked if I couldn’t just cut all the pouches (haha). So they took it back and got one that would do anything from A3 size and smaller…perfect. Except for when I plugged it in. the lights came on but it never heated up and so wouldn’t melt the plastic to laminate the pages…the next one that came back they had tested in the store and it works! (I tried it at school as soon as there was power)…so I still have loads of flashcards to do but now I will be doing them at school whenever there is power…and when there isn’t power I’ll have time to cut them apart…
Saturday, December 10, 2011
christmas plans
Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes...i'm doing much better...back on roughly tasty foods...still avoiding some but no longer fasting or eating only dry bread.
Christmas is coming…I hope you all have a wonderful advent season. School ends on the 9th of December and begins again on the 9th of January. The eye hospital closes on the 16th due to rainy season and the lack of patients they get…until the beginning of February…so we are going traveling…it started as a brainstorm when I returned from Mozambique in july…Jane, Ute and I were going to do a southern Africa tour…going through Zambia to Vic Falls, into Botswana to visit a friend of Jane’s, then Zimbabwe to visit one of Ute’s friends and then to Mozambique to see the ocean and then back ot Malawi…well, Jane can’t come back quite so soon and we’ve been told that Botswana in the rainy season isn’t a good idea at all…so our plans have changed but Ute and I are still going on a trip…roughly we are thinking of leaving around the 18th to go to Mozambique coast for Christmas and possibly new year…then make our way back inland to visit her friend in Zimbabwe and do some hiking in the beautiful mountains (not sure if they are on the moz side or zim…and then back to Malawi…I’ll let you know if we come up with more specifics than that but so far we are pretty unplanned…
Christmas is coming…I hope you all have a wonderful advent season. School ends on the 9th of December and begins again on the 9th of January. The eye hospital closes on the 16th due to rainy season and the lack of patients they get…until the beginning of February…so we are going traveling…it started as a brainstorm when I returned from Mozambique in july…Jane, Ute and I were going to do a southern Africa tour…going through Zambia to Vic Falls, into Botswana to visit a friend of Jane’s, then Zimbabwe to visit one of Ute’s friends and then to Mozambique to see the ocean and then back ot Malawi…well, Jane can’t come back quite so soon and we’ve been told that Botswana in the rainy season isn’t a good idea at all…so our plans have changed but Ute and I are still going on a trip…roughly we are thinking of leaving around the 18th to go to Mozambique coast for Christmas and possibly new year…then make our way back inland to visit her friend in Zimbabwe and do some hiking in the beautiful mountains (not sure if they are on the moz side or zim…and then back to Malawi…I’ll let you know if we come up with more specifics than that but so far we are pretty unplanned…
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
