Sunday July 6th- Happy Republic Day!!

Today is Malawi’s Independence Day (they call it Republic Day) and Brian’s 27th birthday! Happy Birthday Brian!

I’m not sure if the weather is changing or if it’s because of our different room, but recently I haven’t needed socks, pants or a long sleeve shirt to sleep in. I’m fine in shorts and a t-shirt. The first couple of nights it was freezing but I think it must be getting warmer.

Since we had such a big day yesterday, most people were looking forward to sleeping in today and going to town around 10am. Lauren, Sarah, Krista and I wanted to buy more fabric, take pictures of the market, shop at the grocery store, look at the vendors and meet at Tasty Bites for Brian’s birthday lunch. As I walked down the hill, Brittany told me Jean was here looking for me! I went to the reception and found her. She came just to check up on me! I told her about our day at Mount Mulanje and she told me how happy she is that Annie has kept the lodge in a very traditional, colonial style. Since Zomba is the original capital of Malawi, she wishes they would continue to build houses with a colonial style to promote tourism. She said that as soon as Lilongwe became the capital 20 years ago, all of the government buildings were abandoned. Jean pointed out the former Parliament building is right next to Annie’s Lodge.

Jean told me that she has 8 other siblings, 8 girls and the youngest is a boy. One of her sisters passed away from HIV, and 4 of them are HIV positive. Her sister, that I met last week, has been in the hospital this week because she is ill from HIV. This is my first friend that I am aware of being HIV positive. It hits very close to home now. Jean's family is considered very well off in Malawi since they have electricity, some of her daughters live in America and most of the siblings are very well educated. So it would be a misconception to believe that HIV is only a problem in villages; it’s affecting even the very well educated people of the country. Jean says she goes to funeral after funeral when she’s here. The youngest boy still lives with their mother in Zomba and Jean prefers to have him drive her around because she doesn’t feel safe driving by herself. She said that at night even if the light is red you do not stop because you will get robbed.

I also asked her about Republic Day and she explained that the President is in the north today so there will be a big celebration but everywhere else there won’t be a celebration since the president isn’t there. Its not like at home where everyone celebrates everywhere.

While she is living here most of the time, she said in order to keep her US citizenship she must come back every 6 months. She plans to do that anyway because her 3 daughters are in the US. I asked her about becoming a Malawian citizen and she said the basic rule is you have to be born in Malawi. However, she knows of someone who was born in Malawi but both of her parents are not Malawian citizens so the government wouldn’t let her become a citizen. She said the system is just a mess and they don’t deal with situations until they arise. Similarly to the Madonna adoption situation, because they didn’t have rules and regulations on adoption until this situation came up.

I introduced Jean to Krista and Sarah and she told us that she had gotten a sign made “Welcome VT” but they hadn’t finished it yet. It’s on the road to our schools. I’ll have to watch for it!

I told Jean how much I would love to visit her project and she invited me tomorrow since it’s a holiday and we don’t have school. Lauren, Sarah and Krista said they would like to come too. Jean said she will go to the market today and make us lunch for tomorrow! I asked her about safety and she said she will cook it at her mothers which has electricity and water from the well, not the river. She said she will cook it herself to make sure its safe. Her brother is coming to pick us up at 10am tomorrow morning. I’m really excited because she keeps talking about her project but I’m having a hard time understanding it, so I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. We are going to gather up all the supplies we don’t have enough of to give to our class and bring them for the kids tomorrow. We are hoping to hold little babies!!

As I was talking to Jean I saw Annie pull away with Liz. I learned later that Annie was taking Liz to a house nearby that she is building for relatives. Annie prefers to live at Annie’s Lodge where she is close to her business but Liz said the house was amazing. Annie said she doesn’t have a lot of friends except when we come because most people around here always want something from her. She’s an extraordinary woman for creating this business on her own.

Jean left and the 4 of us were on our way to town. We first stopped at the market to take pictures of the produce but people were having a fit we were taking pictures so we quickly left. It’s Sunday and Republic Day so it turns out the fabric store was closed. We ran into Joe who is one of the bartenders at Annie’s Lodge and he came up and said hello! Joe was out getting gifts for his daughter's 3rd birthday, which is today. Krista is looking for a Malawi football team jersey so we thought Joe might be able to help us find it. He took us around town and helped us talk to the vendors. We didn’t find a jersey, but we are going to go back and check on Tuesday. We told Joe we wanted to take pictures of the market so he said he would help us get pictures. We went in the market and everyone he went up to said it was okay! He ran into a couple of his friends that let us take pictures as well. We love Joe! He takes such good care of us. He’s coming to Brian’s birthday party tonight so we are going to make a little birthday bag for his daughter!

Joe left and everything was closed so we stopped at the grocery store to buy some Malawian food. I got coffee, tea, peanuts and some snacks. I needed 4.10 kwacha in change and the lady offered a box of matches because she didn’t have enough change. She did it to the man in from of me too but I didn’t realize that until after she offered it to me. Just think if that happened at home! Jennifer said she actually craves some Malawian food when she's at home! Outside the grocery store there are usually about 4-6 crippled men who line the doors holding their hand out for money. You would think they would pull your leg or touch you but they never do anything except hold their hand out.

We met everyone at Tasty Bites and enjoyed some sweet & sour chicken and cake for Brian’s birthday. I got a Tasty Bites t-shirt! We love that place!

I needed some more clothes washed so I got 3 shirts and 3 pants washed for 360 kwacha. What a deal!

We met at 3pm for class with Dr. Kelly. Brittany talked about chapter 6 on the language. The chapter talked about Banda who believed unity was a key value. He wanted one language (Chichewa), 1 political party, 1 leader and 1 country.

Everyone is resting before the big party tonight. Of course we lost power tonight for about an hour. It’s so common we all adjust just fine. Peter and Brian have hit it off and are best buddies. We joke with them and call it a bro-mance instead of romance. So Peter is throwing Brian a birthday party. Originally Peter wanted to rent buses and take us all to Blantyre because he said there are some “rockin” clubs and he wanted us to be able to get out of the lodge. When he asked Liz, she told him that was not a good idea because it was too much responsibility for him and if anything happened he would have to worry about liability and Annie’s Lodge reputation. Peter agreed and is planning a big party here tonight. He has arranged for his friends from Lilongwe to come here. Everyone is anxiously waiting to see how tonight turns out. We told the advisor's we wished they had told us to bring cute sundresses but they said Peter has never had this many parties for our group. Usually its one farewell party at the end. So we must be special!