Asake Faith

A Sake (Mother of) Faith is my neighbour, about my age with one son called Faith. She is one of the people that I will miss the most – but she doesn’t know it. Her English is minimal and my Chichewa is nill but I like being with her every night. We don’t talk, we don’t even sit that close – we’re both outside sitting in front our own charcoal stove, cooking our own nsima under the stars.
The relationship started soon after I moved in because of my inability to cook or even start the fire for that matter. Every night she’d watch me struggle, from her side of the court yard, as I try to light my charcoal (which she makes herself and sells) – by the third match she’d be over with some of her already glowing charcoal or a piece of a plastic from a broken bucket (stinky, but fantastic and garbage is burned anyways~). I’d eventually get my water boiling and start adding maize flour – still not really knowing the amounts or time for boiling, Asake Faith would come back over. She would stir and try to explain to what needed to happen next. This process involved me pointing at things and using the following vocabulary: eh (yes), eyi, (no), more, base (stop) and zikomo (thank you).
Now I can light my own charcoal fire (paraffin is my saviour) and know how to cook nsima. But we still hang out: peeling peas or ground nuts (peanuts), cooking a fish together, doing laundry or just sitting while I work on a report.

I miss her already…

*Sorry I don’t have a picture of her yet – she’s a little shy…This has Usta on the right: my landlord’s daughter and Susana on the left: Asake Faith’s little sister who lives here too (they are from Lilongwe district and are here because of the husbands work). Every night all the kids are outside singing and dancing with each other and playing school, so cute