Language Lessons and Culture Shock

It seems possible for someone to get by only speaking English in Malawi, as a matter of fact their official language is English, a relic from their colonial British history I imagine. The most common language in the country isn’t actually English though, it’s a local language called Chichewa.

At this point I only know the very basics of Chichewa, words like sorry (Pepani), how are you (Muli bwanji) and thank you (Zikomo). Francis, the gentleman who takes care of the university guesthouse, where Thomas and I are living, has taken it upon himself to teach us more than just the basics of Chichewa. Every morning Francis greets us with a Chichewa phrase and then picks a topic for us to learn, for example, today was animals. He writes a list of words from the daily topic in English and translates them into Chichewa. His patience with us is truly virtuous. I can get a simple phrase wrong over and over again… a hundred times wrong, Francis will smile and kindly correct me each and every time. He makes living in the guesthouse very comfortable and it’s always fantastic when he buys us a bowl of ripe mangoes or tomatoes with some money we leave with him. Too bad it’s the end of mango season now, but apparently it’s cucumber season coming up next. That’s something I’ll be looking forward to in the near future. 

My morning walk to work takes about ten minutes. I think it’s one of my favourite parts of the day because temperatures are still cool enough that I don’t break into a drenching sweat after a couple strides. This is something that occurs at most other times of the day, especially in the afternoon. I think I’m getting acclimated to the heat but it could also be a cooler week due to the heavy rains we keep having, it is the rainy season after all.

Humidity is often a good indicator of when it's going to rain. 

Right before it rains it gets really humid and I break into a sweat, 

but once the rain starts it cools down to something more comfortable. 

The road that I walk along passes beside a schoolyard where young children gather for class. As soon as Thomas and I come into their sights one kid sounds the alarm with a shrill scream of some unknown Chichewa word. All of a sudden the other kids join together and start a synchronized chant. It goes something like  “Mzungu how are YOU! How are YOU! Mzungu how are YOU!”  The kids put a lot of emphasis on the “you”, in “how are you”, you see? This continues until we’re out of sight. Sometimes Thomas will acknowledge them with a loud "HELLO, I AM GOOD". This only seems to excite the kids more as we notice their chant get even louder. I normally just give them a wave or thumbs up.

Most kids that we come across find us fascinating, either we’ll get stared at, followed, nervously waved at or a combination of the like. It’s always fun to see a kid’s reaction when I give them an acknowledging hello or a simple thumbs up. Sometimes it feels like I’ve made the highlight of a kid’s week, judging by their jubilant reaction.

It took some time before I actually felt comfortable with the differences between Malawian and Canadian lifestyles. I believe “culture shock” is the correct term for this feeling. I was welcomed to Malawi by friendly and accommodative people but it wasn’t until I gained some experience with the culture that I could actually relax and start enjoying the experience. Figuring out public transportation was the one event that really boosted my confidence and gave me a better feeling of independence. Before figuring out the public transportation system I relied on asking co-workers for rides into Lilongwe. They were always happy to arrange rides but for the most part I felt trapped at home until I tried taking the minibus transportation system.

We're all in this together. This is how most people complete their

 daily commute. There's always venders trying to sell different

 things to people waiting for their minibus to depart. 

If you don't say anything they quickly move on.

 It seems impolite but that's how the locals handle it.

  

A minibus is essentially a minivan used to transport anywhere between 18 to 24 people back and forth between two destinations. Keep in mind that these vehicles are really meant to sit eight to ten people comfortably. The minibus drivers honk their horn as they drive down the highway, signaling to people walking on the side of the road that they still have vacant seats. If you want to get on the bus you simply wave it down.

This was a small taxi that brings you around Lilongwe. 

I would say it has a little more power than a golf cart. Look how happy 

Thomas and I are with all the extra room compared to the minibus. 

Fuel costs are actually expensive compared to most other things in Malawi. It makes sense to cram as many people that's physically possible into a single vehicle, a good strategy for keeping transportation costs affordable to the general public. It costs 600 kwacha to travel from Bunda campus to Lilongwe and it’s a journey that takes about one hour to complete using the minibus system. At this time, fuel costs are around 600 kwacha per litre and 600 kwacha is equivalent to just over one Canadian dollar.

These are some Canadian coins that have similar value to the kwacha bills.
The largest bill available in Malawi is for 1000 kwacha,
that's equivalent to about two Canadian dollars.  

Tangent: I've been told that the Malawian kwacha was once worth about half the value of a British pound but has undergone some serious inflation since 1971. It can be inconvenient to withdraw larger amounts of cash or pay for anything expensive here. To be honest this probably isn't an issue that many people deal with due to the large disparity between socio-economic classes, but sometimes the ATMs will run out of bills and close for the day. Malawi also has minted coins but they're virtually worthless, I thought they looked similar to some of my Canadian coins. As I suspected, Malawi coins are produced at the Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg, hometown connection! 

Speaking of shocking, we ran out of electricity yesterday. I thought we had a blackout caused by heavy rain showers but I became suspicious that this wasn’t the case when our neighbours’ lights were on at night. Turns out you have to buy electricity in prepaid units, who knew? Unknowingly Thomas and I reached our limit and needed to buy additional units. The units are activated using a code to verify your purchase and the code needs to be inputted into an electrical box outside of the house. I was a little nervous inputting the code because wasps have made a nice home out of the electrical box. I consider myself lucky for opening the box at night when the wasps aren’t active. We’re back up and running now.

Thomas and I relax outside, waiting for the electricity to come back on.

 Little did we know it would never come back on by itself! 

Gecko with an impressive sticking ability.

The blackout at least gave us the opportunity to enjoy sitting outside as the day transformed into night. Crickets start chirping, bats start echolocating and geckos come out of hiding spots to do whatever geckos do. Not that it’s a bad thing but I swear our attic is a fully functioning roost for a healthy colony of bats. It’s probably actually a good thing for me; perhaps they’re eating all the mosquitos, keeping me bite free and therefore malaria free! 

The Tropics have lots of beautiful colourful animals, 

including this mesmerizing moths. 

That's all for now. Next time I will write about the interesting wildlife that I've spotted , but also the wildlife that seems to be missing from the African landscape. Just like in Canada, most natural habitats that can be used for farming and raising animals have been modified to achieve these goals. Loss of biodiversity seems to be a serious consequence of increasing human development everywhere in the world.