Host Family Reunion

Last week I went to visit my host family from PST in Chinkhombwe Village with a couple of my PCV friends.

It was so great to see my host family again! I took lots of photos. Although we can never get all of us in one photo.  Rodric, my 10-year old host brother is missing from this one. He was tending to the goats.

My host siblings-- Vinny, Pephero and Rodric

I was especially happy to see Pephero. I brought her a lollipop and she loved it!

I also picked up this cap in Lilongwe for my abambo (host father). Here's a little nod to all my family in New York-- Go Yankees!

Amayi (my host mother) made tea and boiled cassava for a snack. She made me put extra sugar in my tea, Malawian-style. The cassava was really good. I might try making that at site.

Of course, no visit to the village is complete without eating nsima. Amayi made nsima with beans as the ndiwo (relish, or side dish). But now that I am no longer eating nsima twice a day everyday, nsima is just fine. I still can't eat a whole nsima patty though, much to my host family's disappointment ; )

It was great to see everyone again, and to get to see the village when it was so green. It was even worth the miserable bike taxi ride we had to take from the Boma to get there, which was muddy and bumpy and made worse by the fact that our drivers (riders?) were racing each other. Shiela, my PCV friend took this photo of me on the bike-taxi.

I would love to visit my host family again, but hopefully during the dry season.

Tiwonana, banja! 

Visit to the Maize Mill

During PST I spent a lot of time de-kerneling corn with my host family. Often I would come home to a porch full of strangers shucking corn (or maize, as they call it here) and a mountain of maize kernels. These kernels went into bags which went into my host family's storeroom. I never saw the next stage of the process, until today.

Today I visited my local maize mill with my friend Flora, and she showed me the next steps in the maize to ufa process.

The maize kernels we're poured into metal buckets and rinsed in water.

Then the kernels were poured into the coarse grinder.

After grinding, the kernels are warm and smell like roasted corn.

The bran has been detached at this point, but is mixed up with the kernels. Using wide flat winnowing baskets, the maize bran is separated out.

The maize bran is collected in a maize sack, and the remainders of the kernels are stored in a bucket. They are still very coarse at this point, so they need more grinding to make ufa (maize flour). That's where we stopped today though. They are going to bring the maize back for the final grind another time.

A-maiz-ing! (I couldn't resist)

Chakudya Cha Masana ku Malawi

Here are photos of some of my lunches during homestay.

Nsima and chicken

Nsima and soya pieces (cooked with onions, tomato and oil)

Ngaiwa nsima with beef and cabbage (Yum! Anything ngaiwa is delicious, and cabbage is my favorite vegetable side dish here. This isn't typical, but I enjoyed it so I wanted to share.)

Nsima and cabbage

Dinner is usually the same as lunch. The leftovers from lunch are covered and stored in our house until dinner time, then reheated and served with fresh nsima for dinner.

Other lunches/dinners:

- rice with scrambled eggs

- nsima and beans

- rice with hard-boiled eggs

- nsima with pumpkin leaves

Chakudya Cha M'mawa ku Malawi

Here are photos of some of my breakfasts from homestay in Malawi:

Ngaiwa (whole-grain maize) porridge mixed with sinjiro (peanut flour) and sugar, tea

Rice, tea

Potatoes

Chigumu, also known as African cake. It is made with maize flour. Amayi usually makes this in the evening and then serves it for breakfast the next morning. Despite it's name, it is less like a cake and more like cornbread. There is very little sugar in it. Sometimes mashed nthochi (banana) is added, which makes the cake a little more sweet and moist.

Chipisi (French fries):

Other typical breakfasts (not pictured):

- roasted peanuts and tea

- white bread and tea

Munabadwa Liti?

In Chichewa, that means "When were you born?" You answer, "Ndinabadwa pa 9 October 1940", for example. (That is the birthday of my favorite Beatle. Guess which one...)

When we learned this in Chichewa class back in June, I went home and asked my amayi (host mother) when everyone's birthdays were. She knew everyone's birthday except my middle brother Roddy. She knew he was born in August, but couldn't remember the day. That might sound strange to an American, but here in the village they do not celebrate birthdays. However, this seemed like a fun opportunity to share a little about my culture, so I made plans to do a little birthday celebration for Roddy.

On August 3rd I asked my abambo when Roddy's birthday was. He told me it was August 4th, the very next day! That meant I had only one day to prepare.

The next day I made Roddy a birthday card and grabbed a few strawberry candies I had brought from America. After dinner I presented him with the card and sang the Happy Birthday song to him. My amayi joined in at the end. Then I gave him the candies.

He gave one of the candies to abambo, one to amayi, and one to his older brother. My amayi split hers up, saving a piece for my little sister who had fallen asleep. A few minutes later a couple neighbor boys came over, and she gave them part of her candy to have as well.

It is amazing how communal this culture is. Sharing is not even a thought. It's almost automatic. Could you imagine sharing a small piece of hard candy with three other people?

After she finished the candy, my amayi mentioned that her birthday was the next day. I knew it wasn't though, as she had told me her actual birthday when I first asked, so I called "bodza" * on her. She laughed, and said sort of apologetically, "I like sweeties." **

*Bodza - translates to "lie", but it has a more playful connotation depending on the tone, so here it is more like "fib" or "I know you are joking"

**Sweeties - sort of a generic term for candy

Food or Pet?

Here at homestay, there are quite a few creatures sharing my living space (the outside part). Try to guess which of these animals are considered food and which are a pet here in my rural village in Malawi.

A) Mbudzi (goat)

B) Chivala (grasshopper)

C) Mkhuku (chicken)

D) Mbira (Rat)

The answer is, they are all for food, sort of. My family eats goat, chicken, beef (not pictured), mice (not pictured) and grasshoppers. However, they haven't eaten these goats or chickens during my stay. The goats are kept in an elevated pen near the house, and the chickens sleep in a coop adjacent to the kitchen. My host brothers are raising the rats in an underground pen to sell, and they said some people eat them, but my family does not.

And the grasshopper? My host brother said he was planning to cook them and eat them today. Yum.

Bread Day

In Malawi PST we love Mondays. Why? Because it is the day PC gives us trainees bread, peanut butter and fruit. It probably doesn't sound too exciting, but when you eat nsima everyday, it is pretty amazing. Bread and peanut butter fills us up when we need a snack or can be a meal when we have been feeling sick and can't eat our regular meals (which has not happened to me in a while, luckily). 

The peanut butter provides a little extra protein in our diets. Peace Corps provides meat to our families three days a week plus eggs and soya pieces, but my family still has some days where we will eat all three meals without any protein. Plus, the protein portions of our meals are very small. So a little protein boost is nice.

The fruit is also especially welcome. Fruit is pretty scarce in the diets of our host families this time of year. They eat small, green oranges that grow on the trees here, which were pretty sour in July, but are finally getting sweeter. Small tangerines just finished ripening last week. (My host brother got stung by a bee while harvesting a bunch of tangerines.) You can find small bananas and apples at the outdoor market in the city, but we do not go there very often. Plus, the apples are from South Africa so they are pretty expensive. Of course, this is the "cold season" in Malawi, so the real fruit is on the way. Papayas, mangoes and pineapple--oh my!

Today we each received two apples with our bread and peanut butter, and they are my favorite fruits right now. So happy bread day to you!

Spaghetti Night

A few of the us trainees decided to cook American meals for our host families a couple weeks ago. We bought spaghetti in the store in the Boma over the weekend (695K) and picked up tomatoes and onions at the local trading post.

The day I decided to cook, I went home and found my amayi already cooking the chicken for dinner. I could see all the chicken pieces in the pot, including the feet. I told her I wanted to make spaghetti, and she got excited and said yes! And then she said we would eat it after nsima. Well, of course we would. After all, it's not really a meal without nsima.

I set a large pot to boil over the fire while I chopped the tomatoes and onions. There is no cutting board so I had to just hold them in my hands  as I cut, but the knife is pretty dull so it is relatively safe. Kind of difficult to cut evenly though. My amayi came by and tried to get me to break the noodles in half before cooking, but I told her they were supposed to be kept long and she let me be.

Roddy and Vinny, my host brothers, were very excited about the spaghetti and decided to help out with the cooking. Which is sort of unusual in this culture, as females do all the housework, but since my host sister is only three, my brothers do a little of the household chores, like sweeping and clearing the dinner plates, and sometimes helping out with cooking.

As it was dark by this time, my host brothers held the flashlight for me so I could see what I was doing. I cooked the noodles, and then it was time to remove it from the fire. Mavuto (problem). There are no oven mitts here. I tried to use my skirt to grab the scalding pot, but the flames were  going up the sides of the pot a little, and I was afraid it might catch fire. Just then, amayi swooped in and grabbed the hot pot with her bare hands and set it aside. Amayis have super hands that can withstand intensely hot temperatures. 

Time to cook the sauce. I sautéed the onions in oil, then added the tomatoes and a generous bit of salt. (In Malawi, salt is the primary seasoning and is used in generous quantities when cooking. And then again when eating). I let that cook, and assigned my brother Roddy the task of stirring it.

Meanwhile, I had to strain the noodles. I still couldn't lift the pot, so Vinny dumped the water out for me. By this time the tomatoes had cooked down and the "sauce" was ready. I mixed the two in the large pot and brought it into the house for dinner. A little light on sauce, but it would do.

Everyone ate their nsima and chicken first, except me. I just took a bit of chicken, and then I tried the spaghetti. Then everyone dug in. We served it with the big flat nsima spoon, so it was funny watching the big portions of slippery noodles slide right off the spoon and back into the pot as people tried to serve themselves. We don't have any forks, so we all ate with our hands, which was pretty fun too. My amayi sent a bowl over to the neighbor's house, and then two neighbor boys came over and tried some spaghetti too. I found out later that one of the boys, Leonard, had just tried the spaghetti at Mary Beth's house across the way, so he was turning into a spaghetti-eating expert.

Here is a photo of my plate of spaghetti and chicken, lit by lantern light.

Results:

- Everyone seemed to enjoy the spaghetti, and had second helpings.

- I had a nsima-free meal, which is always a nice change

- I had fun cooking with my brothers

Cultural cooking exchange -- success!

Eating like a PCT

Here is a look at a day's menu from homestay in Malawi and homestay in Moldova.

Malawi

In Malawi, the food is heavily salted and cooked with a lot of oil. Sugar is expensive, so my host family uses it liberally in their tea, but otherwise uses it sparingly. Typically my host family adds salt to their food before  eating as well. Sometimes they add hot sauce too.

Breakfast - plain white rice and tea

Snack - plain white rice

Lunch - nsima (maize flour and water cooked into a thick porridge) with boiled greens and chicken

Snack - bread and peanut butter*

Dinner - nsima (maize flour and water cooked into a thick porridge) with boiled greens and chicken.

The nsima is freshly made each meal, while the ndiwo (side dishes) are usually cooked in the afternoon and the leftovers eaten again at lunch.  There is no electricity and therefore no refrigeration, but the ndiwo are covered and placed in a cool room between meals.

* Peace Corps supplies Malawi PCTs with two loaves of wheat bread and one jar of peanut butter each week. This is to supplement the meals provided to trainees during homestay. They also provide some fruit for us trainees, usually bananas, apples or oranges. PC also provides  our host families with chicken twice a week, beef once a week, eggs, soya pieces, sugar and salt. Otherwise we would probably not have much protein during homestay.

Moldova

Breakfast: eggs cooked in pig fat; placinte (pastry) filled with oily pickled cabbage & cheese; bread

Lunch: pasta w cheese swimming, LITERALLY, in oil; bread

Dinner: salad swimming in oil; soup in chicken(?) broth; fish fried in oil & cornmeal; & of course bread

There's a little cup of salt ALWAYS sitting on the table to dip whatever u want in it (which they do to like everything)

Childhood, All over Again

This photo has nothing to do with this post, but I know people like photos so here you go. This is one of the many roosters in the village, which love to start crowing about 3am and continue throughout the day.

Okay, back to the point of this post. Being a Peace Corps Trainee is a bit like being a kid all over again. Let me explain. I live at home, with my (host) family. I have chores, like sweeping and cooking. My amayi often wakes me up in the morning, and tells me when it is time to bathe. The amayis try to get us trainees to walk to "school" (training) together, even though it is only a ten minute walk away. If one of the trainees leaves a little early, the amayis hurry us and tell us we will be late for school. They pack us snacks, and we go home to have lunch. My amayi tells me to sweep my room and my abambo tells me to clean my lantern. Also, I have to ask them if I can go out, and I'm not allowed out after dark. All of this is kind of awkward for an adult in her 30s.

That being said, it is all in our best interest. We are new to this country, this culture and the language. Our host families are teaching us how to live in Malawi, and keeping us safe. I really do need someone to teach me how to cook over an open fire, clean the lantern, carry water on my head and give me an estimate on the price of a mini-bus. The being out after dark prohibition will actually continue during my service too.

So thank you to my host family for helping me learn to live in Malawi. Now I have to go sweep my room.

Happy Independence Day, Malawi-Style

I had my first American holiday here in Malawi. On July 4th we celebrated with a cross-cultural cooking demo here in the village between the American Peace Corps Trainees and our Malawian Trainers and host mothers. We each prepared locally available foods according to our cultures. So us PCTs made guacamole (they grow avocados here, and they are HUGE), mashed potatoes, potato curry, veggie kabobs, fruit salad (they grow bananas here too) and chocolate cake (the cocoa was imported, but it is chocolate so it is okay). The Malawians prepared potatoes in several different ways, including a potato salad with peas that was really good, pumpkin leaves with sinjiro (ground peanut flour), African bread (similar to  cornbread) and lots more. Everything was cooked over an open fire, even the cake (you put the lid on the pot and then put some smoldering sticks on top so it cooks evenly).

The amayis (host mothers) were amazing and even the food we cooked was only possible because of their help. They helped us start our fires, find kindling, and always seemed to know what we needed before we did, whether it was fresh water or a potato peeler. It is like an amayi superpower. So thanks to all the amayis for the delicious food!

Also part of the festivities-- four PCTs slaughtered chickens for the meal. Those chickens ended up on the grill, which was manned by Americans and Malawians. You can see that there are chicken intestines wrapped around chicken feet on the grill. There is also a head too. And no, I didn't try any of that.

Kuno ku Malawi

I've been in Malawi for almost three weeks now. The first week was spent with the other PCT (Peace Corps Trainees) at a training center. Then we relocated to a rural village where we will be spending the remainder of our training.

I am living with a host family in the village. We have no electricity or running water. The house has several rooms, including a living room and a grain storage room. I have my own room, which includes a mosquito net, water filter and a twin-sized mattress, all courtesy of Peace Corps. There are three separate buildings which are all part of the house too. These are the kitchen (with a built in henhouse), the bafa where we bathe and the chimbudzi (pit latrine). Then there is an area for dry corn storage and an elevated pen for the mbudzi (goats).

A typical day starts with kusesa (sweeping) outside. We use branches which have been tied together to make a pretty effective broom. I also sweep my room. My amayi (host mother) is always up first, and has usually already gone to the well and gotten water for us. She usually has the moto (fire) going too, with a pot of water boiling for tea. She heats water for me to bathe each day, so after my chores I take my bucket bath in the bafa. Then I get dressed and have breakfast with her and my achemwali (host sister). My achimwenes (host brothers) have school on weekdays and usually leave before me. Then I head to "class" with the other PCTs. We have class all day, with a break so we can go home and have lunch with our host families. In the evenings I might visit with the other PCTs or spend time with my host family. There is always chimanga (corn) to de-kernel so that is a frequent evening activity for everyone.

Corn is so important in this village. The kernels are ground into flour to make nsima, a staple food. We eat it everyday, usually for lunch and dinner. The corncobs are used to make the cooking fires, or burned for light in the evenings as we work on the corn. Here is a photo goats on a neighbor's maize pile. Goats are everywhere here.

It gets dark at 6:00 so we eat dinner in the light of the lantern. Sometimes we go over my Chichewa lessons together by flashlight and my host family helps me practice. We had fun drawing different animals and labeling them in Chichewa.

Stuff I have done this week: swept, lit the lantern, carried water on my head from the well, washed my clothes by hand, washed dishes with my amayi, helped prepare the nsima and masamba  (vegetables), and stripped countless kernels from their corncobs.

I'm learning a lot, from language and culture to technical training and household tasks. I usually go to bed pretty early, exhausted from the long days. It's challenging, but rewarding too. Sometimes I look around and just wonder at how much my life has changed in just a few weeks. All in all, it's pretty amazing to be here.