One week down, and so far so good! I have already played ultimate frisbee twice, eaten at the Chinese Restaurant, been visited by the Mormons, made good friends with my dog Clare, and successfully driven on the left side of the road (with left-handed shift!) without hitting anything. Oh, and I have also withstood the tremendous temptation to not buy the kittens or puppies that the boys sell on the side of the road!! I also resisted buying the singed mice on a skewer, that are also sold on the side of the road. These are apparently a favorite Malawian snack. The boys wait by the fields as they are being burned (in preparation for planting season) and then go and collect all the poor rodents who didn't make it out. I will have to photograph someone eating one, but this is one delicacy I am NOT going to try.
So far Malawi is great. The best part is my housekeeper Mohammed, who cooks, cleans, gardens, and teaches me about the ins and outs of this place. He is just about the sweetest man I have ever met. When he tidied the bathroom the first day, he found a flowered juice glass to put my toothbrush in, and he arranges the groceries aesthetically in the pantry :) My house is a sprawling 4 bedroom/4 bathroom ranch style affair, and I am only really using half of it. Pictures in separate post. There is a large yard surrounding the property (which is quite small compared to the grounds of the other mazungos (foreigners), and it is all surrounded by a tall brick fence topped with razor wire and closed with a large iron gate that is manned by 1-2 guards around the clock.
While there is not a lot of violent crime in Malawi, there is a lot of robbery, because there is such an incredible disparity between the haves (mazungos, and a small Malawian upper class) and the have-nots (which is the vast majority of people, who make $100/month if they are lucky). And things here are not cheap. You can get just about anything you need (except dark chocolate...) but I guess since it is just the rich people who are buying those things, and not a lot of them, the prices are ridiculously high. I am so uncomfortable with the idea of all these people working for me, providing luxuries and a lifestyle that is completely unattainable to them, but I guess at least I am giving them a good job, and a living wage. Especially when I am here to provide a service to other people! It seems so backwards.
I start work for real next week, and I am sure there will be much to report. I am still trying to figure out all of the details about communication, but my contact details for now are as follows:
email: rkrepsfalk@gmail.com (same) or krepsfal@bcm.edu
phone: 510-545-4452 (this is my skype #, which should theoretically get forwarded to my Malawian cell phone when I figure out how to do that). Or if you want to dial direct, my cell phone is +265-99-338-7399.
internet: bookmark my blog! rkrepsfalk.blogspot.com.
skype name is rkrepsfalk
mail: I don't know about the reliability of the Malawian postal service, but FedEx, UPS and DHL all get delivered fairly reliably. The best address for me is
Dr. Rachel Kreps-Falk
Baylor College of Medicine, Children's Center of Excellence
Kamuzu Central Hospital
Private Bay B-397
Lilongwe 3, Malawi
* Zikomo Kwambiri = Thank you very much. Which is the only thing I know how to say in Chechwe.
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