I met with Chief Kabudula and several other village headmen on Thursday, and Chief Kabudula asked me to take his picture, but not on that day. We made an appointment for the next day, because he “hadn’t washed well” on Thursday. Everyone in Kabudula washes his body twice per day, morning and night. Except in seasons when they are working especially hard in the fields. At those times they often shower in the afternoon as well.
This young lady and her sister, my neighbors in the village, did laundry on Saturday morning. They started around 6:30 (probably after cleaning up breakfast dishes), and they didn’t finish until 2 or 3 in the afternoon! Hard work.
Mr. Lungu, the single man whose house I stayed in, gets up every morning at 4:00 to start cleaning the house. Between 4:00 and 7:00 AM, he fetches water from a nearby well; starts a fire; mops the floors; heats water and takes a “bucket bath;” and makes, eats, and cleans up after a simple breakfast. Then at 7:00 he is off to the primary school where he teaches.
I, on the other hand, felt like a lazy bum the whole time I was there. Continue reading “Chores”
Kids went crazy every time I had my camera out. They would run at me yelling “Jambuleni! Jambuleni!” (Take my picture! Take my picture!)
“Karate” was their favorite pose.
I just got back from a four-day-long village stay in Kabudula, about 40 miles into the bush from our home in Lilongwe. Four days of visiting people in their homes, being stuffed with foods I’ve never tried before, and speaking Chichewa. Rather than just try to describe everything with words, I thought I’d try with pictures, one per day until I run out of good ones.
What can a day’s salary buy in Malawi? The salary for a typical worker (like a public school teacher, a housekeeper, or a security guard) is in the neighborhood of 10,000 to 15,000 Malawian Kwacha per month, which works out to about four US dollars per day. Here are some pictures of what US$4 could buy: Continue reading “A Day’s Wage”
Over the Christmas break we stayed at a cabin that belongs to some friends of ours on Lake Malawi, away from the touristy areas. While it was good to spend a couple of days away from home, our time at the beach wasn’t what you would probably think of as a normal vacation experience.
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