Which do you prefer: water, electricity, or fuel?

My office mates are not usually funny. Or, they might be hysterical in Chichewa, but they are not usually so funny in English. However, we were all just talking about the diesel shortages, the weekend power outages, and the water line breaks which dried up 3 huge neighborhoods. I had to pass on the outcome from our informal room poll to find out which critical commodity everyone would prioritize: water, electricity, or diesel?

The winner was......fuel (more humorous when you realize only 2 of us have cars). Reasons: you can sell it to buy water or power; you can use it to drive to water or to your friend's house for dinner, or you can burn it for electricity! I had chosen water. Now I am rethinking my choice...

To that end, there was also a funny (when translated) cartoon in the weekend paper that showed a fuel line -- ubiquitous around town these days. The heading read, "Before the current President, poor people lined up for corn. Now, rich people line up for fuel."

And, what would you choose to live without for a few days (if you actually had any choice)?

It takes a village (ceremony)...

By Peace Corps standards, and by most standards, Jon and I live like kings. To share the wealth a little, we’ve adopted a Peace Corps volunteer! We feed her, share our pantry items (like Mac n’ Cheese and chocolate chips), and let (make) her take hot showers when she comes to town. In exchange, we heard her stories of “real” Malawian life and had hopeful expectations of visiting her during a village ceremony. This would give us a taste of village life while still coming home to our cushy home and spring mattress.

This week, our adoption paid off, and we got an invitation to a village goodbye party for snother Peace Corps Volunteer complete with feast, dancing, and drumming. On Sunday, we packed our car full of goodies like sugar and corn flour for the community, tasty treats for the Volunteer, and the shopping bags from our guide/friend (win-win -- he gets a ride, we don't get lost).

We arrived in Nambuma and were greeted warmly by the village chief -- a fantastic woman who also runs the secondary school in town. She immediately ushered us into her home for tasty bowls of rice with chicken heads and corn flour (nsima) with goat stomach wound in goat intestine. I had beans. We washed it all down with some locally made banana wine and Orange Fanta -- a delicious combination! After stuffing ourselves full of carbs, we got to watch the drummers and dancers warm up and were pulled into the crowd -- a highlight of the afternoon. I am not sure who was having more fun -- me taking photos or the kids having their photos taken. I'll call it a tie.

With everyone warmed up, the show began. The guests of honor (us) sat in a row of chairs in front, under a tarp. The village chiefs all sat in a line of chairs behind us (guilt) and on the ground next to us (double guilt). Speeches by the local elders and chiefs instructed the kids to behave themselves around the white people and around the dancers. Second round speeches begged us not to forget them and to help them get boreholes for clean water -- requiring about $7000 US. Small costs for some, unfathomable for them. After a last round of instruction to keep the money flowing or the dancers would get angry and eat you, the festivities began!

Our pockets were cleared out of 20 and 50 kwatcha notes (180 Kwatcha = 1$) as we watched the dancers and drummers entrance the crowd. The first round were the Guliwankulu, a secret Chewa society of medicine men or witches, depending on you listen to. No one is to know their identity -- as observed in the costumes. Their feathers and tattered clothes were pretty incredible, the man in the plastic wolf mask not withstanding. I guess these same rules do not apply to the female dancers who joined them. Between the drummers and the dancers, they likely won 5000 kwatcha! Round two involved a bunch of secondary school girls who took turns dancing in pairs. They won both money and a soccer ball! The third, spontaneous round, involved a bunch of drunk men in sticks. They received nothing. The final round was a group of women who danced a conga line and sang. They still likely made 1000.

By the end, we were tapped out of change, covered in dust, and happy as clams to have seen a taste of the "real" Malawi. Strangely, coming back into Lilongwe really did feel like coming back to the big city! A little perspective is nice.

101 of our favorite Malawian names

On this Father's day, let me take a moment to shout out a word of appreciation to my folks for being excellent parents and for not giving me a name on this list. Caryl with a "y," can be a tough name for both spelling and pronunciation. However, I officially retract any previous complaint about my given name and its spelling. I am very grateful for my name! And, to the fathers that named their kids some of the following, I can only ask, what were you thinking???

We promise that all these names are actually people's legal names.

HOW TO RAISE MALADJUSTED KIDS NAMES:

1. Acid

2. Alias

3. Archangel

4. Bloody

5. Cheapo

6. Danger

7. Exodus

8. Graft

9. Obedience

10. Toxin

11. Trouble

JUST PLAIN WRONG NAMES

12. Africano

13. Boil

14. Labia

15. Negress

16. Orphan

BIG 5 NAMES:

17. Hippo

18. Rhino

KILLING WITH KINDNESS NAMES:

19. Beauty

20. Blessings

21. Bright

22. Darling

23. Comfort

24. Divine

25. Fortune

26. Gift

27. Handsome

28. Happy

29. Marvelous

30. Precious

31. Sugar

32. Wonderful

PERSON PLACE OR THING NAMES:

33. Address

34. Booth

35. Chair

36. Coaster

37. Diamond

38. Fanta

39. Ford

40. Freezer

41. Heritage

42. Hyphen

43. Layout

44. Liver

45. Orchestra

46. Overtone

47. Planet

48. Sausage

49. Sheriff

50. Simcard

51. Soup

52. Watch

NAMES FOR HIGH SELF ESTEEM:

53. Ambassador

54. Caesar

55. Captain

56. Cleopatra

57. Doctor

58. Flare

59. Genius

60. Midas

61. Mighty

62. Love

63. Lucky

64. Prince

65. Prosper

66. Queen

67. Ramses

68. Rejoice

69. Scholastica

70. Star

NAMES FOR LOW SELF ESTEEM:

71. Fat

72. Fatiness

73. Forget

74. Godknows

75. Guest

76. Lemon

77. Lonely

78. Manginess

79. Square

LEGAL NAMES:

80. Evidence

81. Witness

LACK OF CREATIVITY NAMES:

82. Child

83. Friday

84. Obvious

HARD TO CATEGORIZE NAMES

85. Catless

86. Lickness

87. White

88. Promise

89. Remember

90. Welcome

91. Examination

EVERYONE LOVES A SUFFIX NAMES:

92. Dryness

93. Faniless

94. Fatless

95. Fatness

96. Lackness

97. Neatness

98. Loveness

99. Stainless

100. Stainwell

101. Tryness