Rhythms

Rhythms. They are always in life. And they are always changing. A bit counterintuitive really. But, so life is here.

Teaching has become a rhythm. The days when I was continually terrified, writing every word I would utter in class for fear that I would panic, those days are gone. Me as teacher has become an extension of my ordinary self. And that creates a rhythm. A changeable one. As my relationships with students change [more intimate, more distant, being pissed at them, they being confused] so does the rhythm teaching has become.

Me as ‘Malawian Neighbor’ – for the most part – is no longer conscious work; I just am. The kids come to chat or borrow a soccer ball, I go to have my neighbor braid my hair, my neighbors comes to chat or bring peanuts or have his phone battery charged, I go to help plant maize or apple fertilizer or put in hair curlers. And so we have a rhythm. But – ever changing. One neighbor has gotten married – giving me a new person next door. That’s on the right side of my house. On the other side a family has moved and a new family has moved in. If the community was so helpful in the States the entire moving industry would cease to exist. Nevertheless – new neighbors cause changes in rhythm: negatively – I have lost two adorable children that are not afraid of my ‘azungu’ face. I have lost a woman who’s laugh is contagious. Positively – I have a lovely new family to learn to love. The matriarch is jovial, the father a stoic ‘let-the-works-of-my-heads-speak’ type. Both have been warm and welcoming and most wonderfully not at all fazed by my obvious foreignness. Their oldest daughter is also a baby of 1985 and is remarkably NOT married! She has decided we are going to be friends. A good thing – because the neighbors are plotting to marry us off to suitable Malawian men. So ya’ll can await invitations to a grand wedding, complete with nsima and thobwa.

So, life’s rhythms are constantly in change. Time and events pass leaving new ones to look forward to in their place. In September I will have the joy of welcoming 22 new education volunteers. In November I have summer school to look forward to and in December I have a ticket to Germany to visit the little sis as she works as an au pair. Her first, my second, Christmas away from home – should be good for both of us. And I, for a few short weeks, will no longer be a minority. January will bring with it a new year…and also a new rhythm.

And thus are the rhythms of life here. What are the rhythms of your life? Today? What will they be tomorrow? I’d love to know…and see how they swing in tandem with mine!

For those with woeful attention spans I present the cliff notes version:
*I’m sad over lost neighbors, happy to love my new ones.
*Trying not to kill my tree seedlings as I plant and transplant.
*For those in Switzerland: I have made a Knoepfli plate and make them at least once a week!
*I introduced Mrs. Bones [ie, hand drawn skeleton] to my bio class only to start an argument about whether Mr. Bones and Mrs. Bones would be different [How many ribs would each one have, Madame?]
*I am running. Granted it is in place, inside my house. But still – I AM running!