05/12/12
It's already Saturday? Time just seems to fly by, and yet it also seems to drag by for how long we have to wait for everything, like at the bank! It literally took us over an hour to get our money. Part of it was the fact that Monday is a holiday and the banks would be closed, but I've noticed that compared to America, Malawi is VERY SLOW. It usually takes us about two hours to get food from a restaurant. We joke that it takes them so long because they have to do things like kill the chickens, make the plates, get the potatoes from Ireland, weld the silverware, etc. I will never take for granted waiting in America again.
We're currently staying in Mangochi, which is the more tourist-y area of the country. What I was really surprised to find out is that this area of Malawi is mostly Muslim. It's considered scandalous to show your legs, but if you look foreign enough (such as, a white person in a clearly all black community) they'll make an exception. However, you need to be careful about taking pictures. If a Muslim man thinks you're taking pictures of his wife, he's not afraid to destroy your camera! That gave me a bit of a scare, so I'll have to be careful about that.
For lunch, we ate at a restaurant that was near the market place. The main type of fish they have here is called Chambo, which tastes like American Whitefish. However, they don't take the same precautions for fish like in America; you have to ask for it prepared a certain way, otherwise you'll get the head, bones, and eyeballs to enjoy snacking on. Yum. My friend Brittney learned that the hard way.
After lunch, our group split up. Some went to the hospital, and others went to the market. Being the typical American girl and having no desire to witness anything medical, I went to the market. It was interesting what they were selling: clothes, electronics, and even goat heads (yeah that was disgusting). I bought a lot of things, especially fabric! I also got some really nice scarves. Everyone was staring at us in the market and trying to get us to buy their products. It got me thinking: what are they actually saying about us? It is good, bad, or something else? Then I realized, I'm not sure I want to know.
We had two required visits we had to do today: visit the Diocese of Mangochi and visit the Leslie E Tassell Center. At the Diocese visit, we talked about what the area of Mangochi was like, especially since this was mostly a Muslim area. We also wanted to see what types of organizations (schools, orphanages) we could possibly visit. They arranged for us to visit the Saint Monica Secondary Girl's Boarding School on Sunday and Monday, and the Alleluya Child Care Centre and Orphanage on Monday as well. The current bishop for the Diocese is Italian, and it's been about two years since they had a bishop, since the last bishop came from Italy as well, but died within a month of his duties as bishop due to Malaria.
The Leslie E Tassell Center was originally suppose to be an orphanage, but with some recent issues, they decided to convert it to a host house for study-abroad students from not only the United States, but other countries such as Italy. There was even a swimming pool, which seemed really strange since the rest of the house wasn't even anywhere close to being finished. It was also really annoying visiting because we were being followed everywhere by Clement's (guy from Parliament who graduated from Aquinas) men. It made me think: is there something we're not suppose to be seeing?
We got back to our hotel and had some free time, thank heavens! I went to the bar with a few friends. It felt so nice being able to drink and not worry about it being against the law. Sigh, I'm going to miss being legal when I get back to the States.....
Later that night, there was a fundraiser that featured traditional dancing. At first our group thought it was just dancing, but once I saw the bucket I knew what it was for. It took my friend a little longer to realize this, "Wait, do we have to pay them?"
