This is my second night in my new home. It's a two room, concrete floor with a tin roof and exposed termite-riddled beams. One room is for sleeping, the other for everything else; I cook outside. There is no electricity and I share a communal tap, toilet and bathing shelter with 4 other households. The first night was hard. All by myself in the empty, dark rooms with only the termites and spiders to keep me company. The spiders, thankfully, kept to themselves (one was really really big!) and the termites just munched their way through the night – dropping their mess all over my swept floor. I was all to my lonesome as all my human neighbours where asleep and I was hungry….The water had been off (a daily event), which meant that I had no water to cook with or to drink.
Tonight, I'm back on top of the world! I have stored water in containers, have swept the termites' mess out the door (though they're at it, dropping more, as I write) and Martha, my landlord, helped me cook dinner. I was quite the pathetic mzungu (“white person” in Chichewa, the main local language), having trouble lighting my charcoal, having the wrong tools to cook nsima and then having really no clue how to make it. But Martha helped me along the way and even loaned me some of her cooking utensils. While cooking outside, I was introduced to all my neighbours and more words were added to my Chichewa vocabulary. I still managed to ruin the nsima...but I'm sure tomorrow will be better~
My home is very empty, with my belongings on the floor…I have no dresser, shelves, racks, table, chairs, rope...I do have a mattress!!! haha ya at least I have that. My mission tomorrow is to find a matt made of grass to sit on and a basket with a cover for my food. And the next day to figure out what to do about my clothes on the floor...I can't hang ropes because the termites mess falls even more every time I touch the beams.
Ntchisi is a small town that has had its up and downs in terms of opportunities for "development" (depending on your definition). A while back, Ntchisi was kind of a big stop over for people travelling from Lilongwe (the capital) to Nkhotakhota or Mzuzu, but then the road was paved between Lilongwe, Kasungu and Mzuzu, taking Ntchisi of the beaten road. But just in February, they finished paving the road from Lilongwe to Ntchisi, and the change here is quite big: fresh bread every day, instead of once a week (for some reason no one bakes locally, only some buns and donuts); the mini-bus ride takes only 2-3 hrs instead of the whole day and you can make it here during the rainy season!
Tonight, I'm back on top of the world! I have stored water in containers, have swept the termites' mess out the door (though they're at it, dropping more, as I write) and Martha, my landlord, helped me cook dinner. I was quite the pathetic mzungu (“white person” in Chichewa, the main local language), having trouble lighting my charcoal, having the wrong tools to cook nsima and then having really no clue how to make it. But Martha helped me along the way and even loaned me some of her cooking utensils. While cooking outside, I was introduced to all my neighbours and more words were added to my Chichewa vocabulary. I still managed to ruin the nsima...but I'm sure tomorrow will be better~
My home is very empty, with my belongings on the floor…I have no dresser, shelves, racks, table, chairs, rope...I do have a mattress!!! haha ya at least I have that. My mission tomorrow is to find a matt made of grass to sit on and a basket with a cover for my food. And the next day to figure out what to do about my clothes on the floor...I can't hang ropes because the termites mess falls even more every time I touch the beams.
Ntchisi is a small town that has had its up and downs in terms of opportunities for "development" (depending on your definition). A while back, Ntchisi was kind of a big stop over for people travelling from Lilongwe (the capital) to Nkhotakhota or Mzuzu, but then the road was paved between Lilongwe, Kasungu and Mzuzu, taking Ntchisi of the beaten road. But just in February, they finished paving the road from Lilongwe to Ntchisi, and the change here is quite big: fresh bread every day, instead of once a week (for some reason no one bakes locally, only some buns and donuts); the mini-bus ride takes only 2-3 hrs instead of the whole day and you can make it here during the rainy season!
