1. Fuel Queues- In the past two weeks the fuel crisis lessened and you could actually drive up to a gas station and get fuel in your car sometimes. Without waiting for hours! It kinda freaked us all out a little bit. We've gotten so used to seeing lines all down the streets and sitting around in those for hours, that we don't really know how to react when they're gone. I hear they're coming back though, which is oddly reassuring. Have I mentioned I don't like change?
2. Using the word "queue"- Isn't that a fun word? You should type it, or spell it out loud to yourself. Q-U-E-U-E. ha! Excellent! I never used this word until I came here. I probably didn't know how to spell it, and it certainly was not a part of my daily vocabulary. Here, however, it's not unusual to chat about "queueing up" or "sitting in a queue". No longer strange.
3. Buying produce on the side of the road- We never buy bananas at the market. We always just stop on the side of the road. Apparently this selling is illegal and is the source of much turmoil in Malawi lately, but let's just face it: the market is much more chaotic than the guy at the corner of Chipiku or the dude sitting on the turn off for ABC. Speaking of shopping:
4. Shopping trips that take all afternoon and involve no less than 5 locations- When you shop in Malawi, you go where things are cheapest. Cereal can cost up to 3 or 4 dollars more at Foodworths than at Chipiku. But cheese and yogurt and cheapest and taste best from Foodworths. (And they have these delicious fresh rolls...that's why Aly and I really go.) Chipiku has the cheapest of most things, but it's small and dark and crowded. But it's a good place to fill your crate with cokes. Shop Rite has produce if you're skipping the market, but the market is cheapest. And I absolutely hate Shop Rite. Game and Spar are basically like walking into Wal Mart or Kroger, but you pay for it. Nyama has good meat and bread, and sometimes eggs. But lately we've been getting as much as possible from City Supermarket, which is new and very close by. After all, we are in a fuel crisis!
5. The market- It really is nothing weird to drive up, park on the side of the road next to the dumpster, and turn down the man who walks up selling bootleg movies, mops, and flashlight bulbs. I also say no to the dozens of boys chasing me asking if i'd like to buy a plastic bag. We also politely decline all the shouts of "sista! potatoes? onions? mangos? carrots?" as we walk to our favorite vegetable guy and tell him what we need, pay less than 6 bucks for it all, and allow our favorite bag boy to carry it back to our car. We then tip him and leave! Very routine.
6. Outages- The lack of water, electricity, or just most of the electricity is no longer odd. We have had water a lot lately, but sometimes there's no hot water, or sometimes it just goes out altogether. That also makes bathing less than 3 times a week fairly normal. But hey...this is Africa! :) I've told you about the power outages. Right now we have only a little power. We're not sure what that's all about. They call it a brown-out, because everything has that sepia sort of tone, since the lights are really dim. Fortunately we can still charge phones and computers even in a brown out. However, our fridge doesn't appreciate it. But again...all of this is very normal. We went for a couple weeks with VERY few outages, and we all were kinda freaked out. It just wasn't right!
7. Ants- They're still here. I still eat them. They still crawl on me. They still search for moisture. I basically ignore them now. I only kill them if they're on me or if they're crawling across the computer screen.
8. Carrying HUGE bundles of currency- Kwacha is what the money is called here in Malawi. The national exchange rate is something like 167K to 1 USD. The black market exchange rate goes as far up as 350MK to 1 USD. So anywhere you go, you take a few thousand kwacha. It's recommended that you keep at least 5000K on you in case you get pulled over, because that's the most common police fine (yes, you pay on the spot.) I once left the house with 265,000K on me. (We were going to buy plane tickets.) Add to this knowledge the fact that the largest bill is 500K, and you can imagine how huge the stack of money I had was. Good times...
9. Driving on the left side of the road, on the right side of the car- Only once since I started driving have I royally screwed this up, and that was at 3 am when someone called and woke me up to go sit in a fuel queue. I feel like that's excusable. I only drove on the wrong side for like 10 seconds. And there was not really any traffic. One of my biggest fears about going home in July is that I'll be unable to navigate the roundabout leaving the Jackson airport because it goes the opposite direction than these. Yes, I realize that's petty, but it's something I think about, okay? Major intersections here are always roundabouts, and they go clockwise. In the US you rarely encounter roundabouts and the go counterclockwise and I really just think I'll panic going through the one at the airport! (I also no longer find roundabouts strange, if you didn't guess.)
10. Altering lesson plans because the copier won't work- Our copier at school has more problems than the country of Malawi, I think. Okay...exaggeration. But only kinda. Today we had to take everyone's copying needs down the street to a print shop so that teachers could get what they needed for class. I have too few grammar books in one of my classes, so I have to copy pages for some of my students before we can move on to the next unit, and if the power is out, or my directions are misunderstood, or the copier simply refuses to copy, we just find something else to do for the day. This has also led to a few changes in test formats, an all sorts of similar things. Hooray for flexibility! And no longer being surprised.
2. Using the word "queue"- Isn't that a fun word? You should type it, or spell it out loud to yourself. Q-U-E-U-E. ha! Excellent! I never used this word until I came here. I probably didn't know how to spell it, and it certainly was not a part of my daily vocabulary. Here, however, it's not unusual to chat about "queueing up" or "sitting in a queue". No longer strange.
3. Buying produce on the side of the road- We never buy bananas at the market. We always just stop on the side of the road. Apparently this selling is illegal and is the source of much turmoil in Malawi lately, but let's just face it: the market is much more chaotic than the guy at the corner of Chipiku or the dude sitting on the turn off for ABC. Speaking of shopping:
4. Shopping trips that take all afternoon and involve no less than 5 locations- When you shop in Malawi, you go where things are cheapest. Cereal can cost up to 3 or 4 dollars more at Foodworths than at Chipiku. But cheese and yogurt and cheapest and taste best from Foodworths. (And they have these delicious fresh rolls...that's why Aly and I really go.) Chipiku has the cheapest of most things, but it's small and dark and crowded. But it's a good place to fill your crate with cokes. Shop Rite has produce if you're skipping the market, but the market is cheapest. And I absolutely hate Shop Rite. Game and Spar are basically like walking into Wal Mart or Kroger, but you pay for it. Nyama has good meat and bread, and sometimes eggs. But lately we've been getting as much as possible from City Supermarket, which is new and very close by. After all, we are in a fuel crisis!
5. The market- It really is nothing weird to drive up, park on the side of the road next to the dumpster, and turn down the man who walks up selling bootleg movies, mops, and flashlight bulbs. I also say no to the dozens of boys chasing me asking if i'd like to buy a plastic bag. We also politely decline all the shouts of "sista! potatoes? onions? mangos? carrots?" as we walk to our favorite vegetable guy and tell him what we need, pay less than 6 bucks for it all, and allow our favorite bag boy to carry it back to our car. We then tip him and leave! Very routine.
6. Outages- The lack of water, electricity, or just most of the electricity is no longer odd. We have had water a lot lately, but sometimes there's no hot water, or sometimes it just goes out altogether. That also makes bathing less than 3 times a week fairly normal. But hey...this is Africa! :) I've told you about the power outages. Right now we have only a little power. We're not sure what that's all about. They call it a brown-out, because everything has that sepia sort of tone, since the lights are really dim. Fortunately we can still charge phones and computers even in a brown out. However, our fridge doesn't appreciate it. But again...all of this is very normal. We went for a couple weeks with VERY few outages, and we all were kinda freaked out. It just wasn't right!
7. Ants- They're still here. I still eat them. They still crawl on me. They still search for moisture. I basically ignore them now. I only kill them if they're on me or if they're crawling across the computer screen.
8. Carrying HUGE bundles of currency- Kwacha is what the money is called here in Malawi. The national exchange rate is something like 167K to 1 USD. The black market exchange rate goes as far up as 350MK to 1 USD. So anywhere you go, you take a few thousand kwacha. It's recommended that you keep at least 5000K on you in case you get pulled over, because that's the most common police fine (yes, you pay on the spot.) I once left the house with 265,000K on me. (We were going to buy plane tickets.) Add to this knowledge the fact that the largest bill is 500K, and you can imagine how huge the stack of money I had was. Good times...
9. Driving on the left side of the road, on the right side of the car- Only once since I started driving have I royally screwed this up, and that was at 3 am when someone called and woke me up to go sit in a fuel queue. I feel like that's excusable. I only drove on the wrong side for like 10 seconds. And there was not really any traffic. One of my biggest fears about going home in July is that I'll be unable to navigate the roundabout leaving the Jackson airport because it goes the opposite direction than these. Yes, I realize that's petty, but it's something I think about, okay? Major intersections here are always roundabouts, and they go clockwise. In the US you rarely encounter roundabouts and the go counterclockwise and I really just think I'll panic going through the one at the airport! (I also no longer find roundabouts strange, if you didn't guess.)
10. Altering lesson plans because the copier won't work- Our copier at school has more problems than the country of Malawi, I think. Okay...exaggeration. But only kinda. Today we had to take everyone's copying needs down the street to a print shop so that teachers could get what they needed for class. I have too few grammar books in one of my classes, so I have to copy pages for some of my students before we can move on to the next unit, and if the power is out, or my directions are misunderstood, or the copier simply refuses to copy, we just find something else to do for the day. This has also led to a few changes in test formats, an all sorts of similar things. Hooray for flexibility! And no longer being surprised.
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