Road to Recovery

Today it appears that I'm on the road to recovery. Hallelujah! I was starting to lose hope. Though I woke up with a feeling of light-headedness (Which I also had Wed. while at the hospital--all hospitals do that to me...), that eventually passed late this morning, and for the most part I'm starting to feel 'normal' again. This is a very good thing, as I'm now getting more focused on the work I need to do before departing the country next Saturday, Dec. 15 for a visit home over the holidays. Due to my sorry physical state this week, I have been unable to work on marking those research papers I assigned my Chanco students as their end-of-semester assessment. Each paper is an average of 10 pages typed, so I won't be doing much more than marking those for the next week. Hence, my postings may be a bit lacking in excitement, but I'll try to do my best at embellishing and exaggerating for the benefit of my 4-6 faithful readers.

One of my observations yesterday is something I've been meaning to write about for awhile. I had to make a quick trip into Zomba to run a couple of errands, and Sister Anastasia (remember her? My next door neighbor) needed a ride to the bank, so she came along with me. Of course, I wasn't feeling so great, so I wanted to make it a very quick trip... American style-- zoom in, zoom out... This is difficult to do in Malawi, as whenever I go anywhere (in Zomba, especially), I get stopped by groups of people (sometimes blocking the car door, ironically--the 'Celtel' girls who peddle pre-paid cell-phone cards are most skilled at this method) wanting to sell me various things, and sometimes begging for money. Usually I can handle this situation in stride, kindly telling them I'm not interested, sometimes buying something, and quietly going my way.

Yesterday, however, I just was not in the mood. After dropping the Sister at the bank, I went up to the local PTC (People's Trading Center--one of the common grocery chains here), where this occurrence is rather common. I managed to get through it without incident (i.e. no money exchanged, few words spoken), walked over to the pharmacy, stopped at the PTC on my way back, and then decided to give some biscuits to a crippled man and some children who were asking for money. I generally try to give people food when I can.

Happy to then make my escape, I headed down to Chancellor College to pick up some materials left by a student who was ill towards the end of the semester. I then went to pick up the Sister at the bank, hoping we'd then be on our way. Not so. After getting in the car, she informed me that she also needed to go to the PTC to get some meat. Though I had mentioned that I'd planned to go there while she was at the bank, she never let me know that she also needed to shop there. I think this may be a cultural difference, as I never asked her directly whether she needed to go. As soon as she told me, I made 'a face,' and said, "Oh, no... You know, every time I go there, people surround my car trying to sell me things and beg for money. Do you really need to go there?" Of course, her answer was, "Yes. They have the best meat." Actually, I think she said it more politely than that, but my state of mind yesterday influenced the way it sounded at the time.

Of course, wanting to help her out and not be so selfish in my fragile physical and mental state, I agreed to go back. Of course, once I got there, I decided to stay in the car, thinking that would discourage too many people from approaching me. Not so. The same people still came by, even though they'd just seen me a few minutes earlier. The kids asking for money, followed by the guy selling strawberries, followed by the guy selling mangoes, and the guy selling bananas. In fact, one guy came to the car 3 times, selling all three of those things (if I'm not mistaken... though I was pretty hazy yesterday, so maybe I just imagined it was the same guy...)

In the end, the Sister took a good 10-15 minutes to shop (though it felt like a lifetime), eventually emerging with 3 full bags of groceries (or was it 2? Again, haziness...sorry...). I'm not sure why she didn't tell me she was picking up more food than that. I certainly would've followed her into the store. However, once I'd committed to staying in the car, I decided I'd better stick with that commitment. Luckily, the car is well-equipped with decent air-conditioning, or I'd certainly have passed out... it was hot. Very hot. And I was hazy. But I survived, and the Sister was grateful for my help. I suppose that's all that matters.

And, I'm feeling better today. Perhaps the good kharma's returning again. One can only hope so. Tomorrow afternoon, I'm attending a 2-hour meeting here at DCE (Domasi College of Ed.) about end-of-semester grading. Ya, on Saturday. Isn't that against the law here? More on that adventure 'mawa'. Betchya can't wait, eh? Tiwonana!