We have already spent a week in Malawi, with only a few days
being at our new home in Mzuzu. Malawi is everything and nothing that we
expected. How can you prepare for somewhere you have never been before, or even
heard about before having the opportunity to travel there? Lilongwe was big and
full of people, mostly friendly, and very intimidating. The market was intense
with every little nook of space being occupied by a vendor or customer. In the
market you can buy everything from fresh fruit to electrical commodities to
rope to clothes and everything in between. And yet there was still some modern
elements with stores such as game that reminded us of something like a walmart.
As intimidating as Lilongwe was, right next to the city is
Kauma Village. We walked there our second day in Malawi to visit the village
chiefs and were automatically transferred from a busy city to a rural
environment that had mazes of housing and hundreds of children. When thinking
about Africa, Kauma Village is what comes to mind.
With our brief introduction to Lilongwe over, we travelled
north to Mzuzu by bus. Mzuzu is definitely more where we are suppose to be. It
has the city element with the market and stores for shopping, but it is
literally in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains and trees. The
people are friendly and it is just small town enough that everyone knows who
you are. We always have random people come up and say "Are you at the
university? Where are you coming from?" Of course it's easy to recognize
our team - we are the newest white people to arrive. It's not so bad being a
visible minority - not as different as I thought it would be. Of course
everywhere we go we get looks or calls at us, but that is easy to get used to.
It is especially interesting to experience the difference in treatment when I
am with Mike to when I am not. Whenever we are together Mike is always
addressed first, but mostly people don't approach us. When I am on my own I
have almost every other person saying hello.
So far = so good.
Settling in and unpacking is keeping our minds busy, and so far that is a good
thing. Now we just have to get used to getting up with the sun - at 6 in the
morning. I think that we will be just fine over the next 9 months; Malawi is
starting to grow on me.
