A Funeral, Fresh Beans and the Completion of One Term.

Walking home from school last week, I took a short cut by the church where I can walk through a groundnut field thereby avoiding some unwanted attention – and I walked right into the middle of a group of women cooking for Mpingo azi amayi [women’s group]. The women cooking had already eaten, sitting and waiting for the service to end so they could serve the food. Grace, the woman that taught me how to properly weed my beans, made me sit and eat – nsima, beans and nkhwani. My guest duty complete, I helped wash dishes and then they let me help serve the food to the women as they closed service and settled on the grass. My neighbor and her friends commanded me [although politely] to sit and eat with them…I said that I had already eaten [Nadya kale] but to no avail. I just decided that dinner would consist of tea. I learned how to properly cook pumpkin properly – turns out you don’t stick the WHOLE pumpkin into the pot of water. We all have a good laugh about that J.

I feel like my presence is becoming less and less obtrusive…less children shouting ‘AZUNGU’, settling for ‘Jerini’. I feel a sense of integration as I am invited to go pumpkin picking with one of my fellow teacher’s wives, as I carry my neighbors baby on my back in the traditional Malawian way, as I bake cookies and cook pumpkin to share with my neighbors during afternoon tea, as a student gives me a huge sack of freshly picked Irish potatoes from his field. I never know what to write here; in some ways I feel like so much has happened. Then I look back and realize that what to me seemed HUGE at the time is minuet in the larger picture of life here. Last week I picked my beans and they are lying in the sun drying. I’ll be able to shell them soon. The flowers I planted bloomed yesterday…pictures to come soon. I finished painting one room of my house and hung new curtains [I think it’s very ‘Jeannine-ish]. I met one of my student’s cousins. I learned more about my neighbor’s family – and that he wants to be married by September [since I’m not getting married until September 2011, we’ve clarified that the two of us WON’T be getting married]. Last Sunday was a lovely morning. I went to church but before that I ‘pampered’ myself…I actually heated my bath water…and shaved my legs. Ah, glorious! And then I made oatmeal [from a friend’s care package] and coffee, and sat under my tree, reading until I heard the church bell pealing.

We are through with exams and have given the students their school reports for the 1st term…there were some sleepless nights spent getting all the exams marked and recorded. I had time to revise with students…and there was also quite a bit of SUDOKU playing going in class the last few days. I wasn’t about to start teaching new material…but the students needed something to do…so why not solve puzzles.

The most impression leaving event of the past weeks was the funeral I attended on Thursday. I felt I could pass it off as another teacher-ly duty – after all I had been to some 6 funeral during training...but that was not ‘home’. Getting to the village, I attached myself to the women and entered the house of mourning. The room was stuffed with women, the coffin in the center of the room with the body of the 14yr old covered in fabric, the women seated in various positions on the floor; singing, praying and weeping unbearably. As we left the house, a group of school boys came and kneeled in front of the house; the chiefs came and we walked to an open area under a tree, the coffin hammered shut [it seemed so violently final at the time] and carried to a table. Again, men and women were distinctly segregated during the speeches and sermon. Heading to the graveyard, a good kilometer away, we sang hymns in Chichewa. Graveyards here are lovely – they are in the forest with wildflowers growing all over. What struck me most was the reality of the situation. I realized that anyone of my neighbors children could realistically die – of malaria, of AIDs, of a vitamin deficiency – and I began to think about the ramifications of that; the inconsolable grief our community would have to bear, the gaping hole that child would leave; not just in the family but in a place so interconnected, the entire village. It was an overwhelming sense of concern that flooded me and as sad as I felt I was also encouraged. I’ve been struggling with my lack of a sense of purpose outside the classroom, but that feeling, this one of sorrow and genuine concern gives me confidence that I will be able to help in some way as I truly love those around me.

I will leave you with two things:
Low Moment of the week: Someone stole my Sherlock Holmes books out of my pit latrine. No more reading when I have long diarrhea squats.

Funny moment of the weeks: All of you that know me well will appreciate this. I had a meeting in a neighboring village for school the other day – so you have to imagine me in ballet flats, dress shirt and my sari skirt…riding a mountain bike :) Enjoy.