What is going on here?

Each time I leave ABC campus, I say a quick prayer for safety and patience. You never really know what will happen, and although it's hardly ever dangerous, it is most times frustrating. Malawi has become home in many ways. I hardly am shocked anymore by the three live goats strapped to the back of a bicycle or the lady walking with a baby on her front, one on her back and a pile of sticks on here head. I've gotten used to the surroundings. There are, however times when I am reminded that this is not my home. Here are a few stories to give you a picture of what it's like living here, day in and day out.

Elijah's first chocolate cookie snack

Dan has always said that British have a strong sweet tooth. Well, Dan generalizes about a lot of things, so I usually don't give each case much thought. Today, I learned that he was at least right about the sweet tooth thing.

Elijah has been fussy all morning, so I decided to put him in the car for a ride. There aren't many nice parks to play at or a library with a childrens' section filled with books and toys. So when Eli and I go out together, it's usually to shop. Our favorite grocery store in town is owned by a British couple and is about the size of a two bedroom apartment. Last year, the owners never really talked to me, and often times seemed a little grumpy. Well this year, I like to think that Elijah and I are their favorite customers. They love to hold Elijah while I get out my thousands of Kwacha for the 'till'. Today was no different.

The owners were enjoying their usual tea with 5+ lumps of sugar and some Chips Ahoy cookies (they call them biscuits, and for the record, the cookies are so expensive that we've only bought them once, and they were stale!). As I was going for my wallet filled with Kwacha, the owners asked me if Eli could have a biscuit. "Of course!" I said, thinking it would be similar to the organic teething biscuits he has been enjoying over the past month. When I saw what they had actually given him, I said in my head "OHHHH...right....biscuit means cookie. Wow...I should have known!". Indeed, there Eli sat, on the counter at the till, chocolate all over his face. He was beeming with joy! As we walked out of the store, I tried to grab it from his hands in exchange for the keys. I felt like Indiana Jones where he tries to use a bag of sand to replace the weight of the jewels in the cave. Well, Eli is a strong boy, and not only did he hold on for dear life, but he also gave me the loudest squeal acompanied by a full blown scrunch nose communicating "BACK OFF LADY! THIS IS MY CHOCOLATE CHIP BISCUIT!".

And so, Eli has now had his first taste of chocolate bliss. I hope he enjoyed it because it will be a loooooong time before he tastes it again.

No Shoes Me!

Sometimes, the entire Robbins family likes to do the grocery shopping together on a Saturday. Like I said before, there isn't much to do but go out shopping. So one Saturday, we headed to Bowers (the store Elijah now associates with chocolate chip cookies). Bowers is located inside a little complex called Old Town Mall. It's no Cool Springs Galleria (TN) or South Center Mall (SEA/TAC) but it has an eye glasses store, the grocery store, a book store, and a few specialty shops mostly with over priced wood carved items.

The complex has a gated entrance, which is always lined with fruit vendors. Laura Stoms introduced us to Tokyo who usually sells us strawberries, but Tokyo wasn't there that day. As we sat in our car at the gated entrance, we looked at all the available items and made a few choices. There was one man selling strawberries. He was acting desperate and pushing his vegetables in through the car window saying "Looking is for free! I give you good price!" to which we have learned to reply "Don't need, already have". Then he started saying something it took us a while to understand which was "nahshoozmee!". It sounded like Chichewa, the local spoken language. It wasn't until he reached into the car and pointed to Dan's birkenstocks that we realized he wanted Dan to give him his shoes, and was communicating that by saying "no shoes me". Sure enough, Dan looked out the window, and the man had no shoes. His idea of a good price for the strawberries was Dan's shoes!

Dan and I aren't insensitive to the needs of Malawians here. We know plenty of students and others who are in need and because of a lot of your generostiy towards us, we are able to give freely and we thank the Lord for that. Now, that said, after being here for some time, we are also aware of the fact that alot of Malawians don't see white people as people. They see a walking dollar sign. We hear story after story of people being taken advantage of. We have to be wise about who we give to, and believe me, it is a daily struggle! In this case, we obviously couldn't have just handed over Dan's shoes! Dan even tried to explain to the man that he would have to give us his entire strawberry crops for the next 3 years to make that trade fair. After some time, we had to just drive away, as arguing with a vendor never really works. They get offended that you don't want their product and we get frustrated that they can't understand it isn't personal...we just don't need 5 lbs of strawberries!!!

I have to admit, I am looking forward to shopping in America again where the prices are fixed and you always know what to expect. I can count on the cashier giving me the total without begging for my shoes. As well, I won't ever feel guilty for not buying out the entire store! On the other hand, I will miss being able to purchase organic fruits and vegetables at such low prices. It seems as if the choices are endless and the food always looks and tastes amazing!

GREEN ONIONS PLEASE! ANYONE?

Earlier this week, Dan and I were going to make Pad Thai again. We also wanted to make salsa. As I went out shopping for ingredients, I couldn't find green onions anywhere! If you can, imagine driving from Krogers to Albertsons to Publix and then finally to the little fruit and veggie stand that is halfway out of town looking for green onions. Throw in a closed store due to a broken generator while the city's electricity is turned off, a man yelling at you in the parking lot of that closed store because you won't buy his rotting bananas, a muddy market place filled with Malawian men who want to walk off with your baby, and a few dirt roads and that's basically what I did. I'm certain now that there were no green onions in the entire capitol city of Malawi!

Feeling defeated, I headed home taking the quickest way I knew. I was driving along behind a huge Chibuku truck (that is the local brewing company and although I've never tasted it, I'm pretty sure it is terrible!) when it came to a complete stop. That happens all the time with people crossing the street (without looking both ways, just running into the road) and cars turning, etc. But after a few minutes of sitting behind this truck, I began to wonder if we would start moving any time soon. As I stuck my head out the window to get a better view of the traffic ahead, I saw people standing beside their cars with ignitions off! I yelled ahead to a man who was walking toward me "what is going on here?". He answered "the president is in town and will be driving down this street sometime in the next hour. All traffic has been stopped". Well that's just great! I could be stuck here for 10 minutes or three hours! I had to turn around and fight traffic the long way home.

Mr. President Bingu Wa Mutharika on one of his famous billboards promoting himself.

It just goes to show that you never know what will happen while you are out. More importantly, you never know how long it will take you to accomplish (or in my case-fail to accomplish) the task you set out to do.

And now for a few visuals. These are the types of things I see on a daily basis:

A man sells live chickens on the side of the road. Other popular things you might see are rats on a stick, puppies and kittens(not always for pets if you get my drift), sling shots, bananas, turkeys and cell phone units.

The sign reads: God is Good Plumbing Inc. and yes, it has toilet seats hanging off the sign. How is that for advertising!

The nice thing about waiting in traffic at a police stop (or waiting for the president to drive by) is that you always have good reading material. If you look closely, on the right side of the truck, it reads: 2+4=3 (check sign) Good, Excellent
Now, what does that even mean???


This is a classic example of road side workers. One man has the tool and works while the other two or three men stand by to watch. Maybe they take turns and the other two men are resting....hmmm. Still haven't figured it out yet.

Getting laundry done in a little stream beside the road.

I remember things in America shocked both Dan and I when we returned last March. Traffic lights worked and were obeyed, you could see while driving at night thanks to street lights, and the sizes of the grocery stores were packed with SO MUCH FOOD. We had experienced these things before but hadn't noticed them until we lived without them. America is the land of a million choices, and I have to say, I like having only one or two choices of light bulbs or toilet paper. It makes shopping so much easier. I guess it always takes some time to adjust to new surroundings no matter where you are.