Sabha and I spent our first Sunday in Malawi trying to immerse ourselves in the cultural and become more familiar with the communities surrounding the CLI site. In a nutshell: I went for a run with some of the local children, went to a church service, walked around for several hours, and played soccer! A very fun-filled day!

RUNNING:

Before coming to Malawi, my plan had been to go for a run every morning as a way to both stay in shape and explore the surrounding area. Even though Sunday is technically our day to sleep in, I decided to finally get up and for a run. I was almost immediately joined by a crew of children from the nearby villages. I ran with them for about 20 minutes as they laughed and giggled beside me yelling, “Azungu, azungu,” meaning “white person, white person.” We picked up an older boy along the way who knew a fair amount of English, but I was still unable to make out his name. We eventually ran back to the edge of the CLI site where we “talked” and played for a little bit. I was shocked and extremely impressed to see that almost all of the children could count to 100 all on their own. I then started trying to teach them a few English words by spelling them out with a stick in the dirt. They had kept mentioning and motioning about a ball and the older boy knew the word, “football” so I eventually spelled out ball in the dirt for them. They immediately started pointing back down the road and motioning like they wanted to play football. We had passed a group of children with a small ball on the way, so I thought we were going to join them. They took me to a somewhat empty looking field, which I then thought was where they played football.  Eventually another boy, who knew even better English, came over and told me that they wanted me to go to town and get them a ball.

My heart dropped a little bit.

I had run around blissfully with the children – making them thirsty and out of breath – and then couldn’t provide them with any water to quench their thirst (I wasn’t exactly sure about the CLI policy). I wish that I could’ve driven to town and bought them a nice ball to play with, but I had no vehicle. Situations like this really make me think about the disparities in quality of life. Sabha and I came to Malawi knowing that it is one of the least developed countries in the world, but thus far we have lived rather comfortably and we know that it is only because we are American visitors. I don’t want to be intrusive, but I am hoping that we will be able to experience more of the “native life” before we leave. I am very interested to see the cooking stoves and living conditions. Thus far, I only know what I have been able to see from the truck and from the main dirt road as I ran by.

CHURCH:

Lester, one of the men who works at the CLI site, is also a pastor for different churches in the nearby communities. He holds a service every Sunday in the clinic’s courtyard. He then travels to other nearby areas and holds more services throughout the day. Unfortunately, there isn’t a single space large enough for him to hold just one service. As I was talking with the children after my run, I saw some people arriving in their Sunday best, but didn’t really know where it was they were going (because there isn’t an actual church on site). It wasn’t until later that I realized they weren’t just passing through. Some of the children that I spoke/played with came back for the service changed and cleaned up a bit. I’m pretty sure that all of the white people standing the back watching the service were a major distraction, but I’m very glad that Lester and the other pastors were willing to humor us. They even translated the sermon into English for us.

Watching the church service was an amazing experience – listening to the harmonies of the children, women, and men. Although I couldn’t even make out everything that Lester said in English, I could tell that he was extremely passionate – he spoke a lot about giving without expecting anything in return and about being a good husband, wife, and child. The sermon was very powerful and it was incredible to see people who have so little, go up to the front and make donations to the church. This was something I also noticed during the Catholic service I attended in Guatemala – the people were extremely willing to give.

At one point, some of the children who had run with me earlier in the morning got up to get water from one of the spigots and I felt bad for not giving them water when they had asked before. I will have to be sure to check with Mr. Rogers about the ‘policy’ for giving out water from the CLI site.

WALKING AND PLAYING SOCCER:

Katie, Russell (two family friends of the Rogers), Sabha and I went for a walk later in the afternoon – the opposite direction from early this morning. There was a community/village literally feet from the edge of the CLI property and many of the women were sitting out. We passed by pigs and goats and several other villages. The children were always amused to see us and we eventually passed by a much larger church, at which Lester was also leading the sermon. There is no one church that is large enough to serve the entire area, so he splits them up and travels group by group. The children spotted us over a hundred yards away and broke out in a run almost immediately. They giggled and laughed as we approached and start following at a safe distance. Katie and Russell would turn around and pretend to chase after them and they would run away giggling. This group of kids had a “ball” made of a bunch of plastic bags wrapped and tied together. We played with them for awhile and then continued to the ‘pond’ further down the road. It seemed that every village or community that we passed by, a new group of children would follow us at a distance. It generally took them awhile to open up and approach us. The one thing that always got their attention, however, was the camera. As soon as Sabha and I took out our cameras they rushed over and started dancing and posing. They were still slightly more hesitant to pose with us but eventually gave in.

SPEAKING CHICHEWA:

I have made it one of my goals to learn as much of the local language, Chichewa, as possible. But, I must admit that I have been a very slow learner thus far and I seem to have the memory span of a fly when it comes to learning to languages. Sabha and I generally ask Isaac, the cook, and Lloyd, for help because they have very good English and pronounce words very slowly and deliberately for our benefit. We have also started talking a lot with a group of women who work at the site everyday. They’ve been busy teaching us the standard greetings for different times of day. As soon as we think we’ve got it down, they seem to say something different and we’ve got to start over again. The women definitely get a good laugh about it – as do Sabha and I!

It is really great chat (or try to chat) with the local people in Chichewa because I think they really appreciate the effort that we’re making – no matter how slow our progress.