A Weekend at Gifti's!

FRIDAY:

So here is the pigpen that we were building. On the right are the beams on the top of the wall, and on the other side is the roof all finished. Keiran's and my job for this morning was chiseling again.

There was wet cement on the walls, so I decided to write my name to make sure they remembered me. Lol, Don't worry, Darren and the other guys didn't mind me doing it.

Leaving memories

So we got onto chiseling and took around 200 action shots of me doing it. I deleted down all the way to these five. So here are some photos of me chiseling. And remember these are concrete walls, so you had to put alot of force into each hit.

Sorry if I blinded you in this photo. Lol ;)

DESTRUCTION IS SO AWESOME!!!

Dat face.

A close up of the hammer making contact with the wall.

The joy I felt when this happened,

We finished our job and headed back to the little brick house for some lunch and blogging/resting for the next two hours.

This is how we keep cool here in Malawi

As the 2 o'clock bell came, I headed out with Village Shop manager Tom and Project manager Evance to go to Nchalo to refill the shop with pop.

On our way to Nchalo. Notice Tom in the back riding Malawi Style for 20 kilometers down the highway on the ledge of the pick up. Don't ask me why they are so risky. Lol

And here is the guard tower for the guard to watch and make sure no-one is stealing sugar cane from the crops. These are the Illovo Sugar Cane Company and they are the main distributors around this part of Malawi, so that is why they have the guards.

As Tom and Evance went shop searching for pop sellers, I went and checked out the market. The pants here range from $3 to $8 and t-shirts the same due to how expensive the marketer sells them for. I had a short amount of time to look at the t-shirts before I was back in the Ford heading to the depot to buy the pop from there.

And of course they had the pop. Lol - So we bought eight crates of 21 bottles for 31000 kwatcha. (1000 kwatcha = $2.50)

Yesterday I started getting a cold, and it was slowly building up. I was to go over to Gifti's for the weekend, and I didn't want to be dying over there. Lol. At 5 PM Gifti came over, and we carried all of my bedding and things over to his house about a kilometer away. By 6 PM it was completely dark. That is the time it gets dark every night of the year.

Gifti and his uncle's house.

 We were going to be eating rice and goat meat over at Gifti's cousin George's house. So after I put all my bedding and stuff down, we were on are way to his house.

The Long Way

We arrived and sat on a 4' by 6' bamboo mat and waited/chatted while George's mother made the Nsima. There are many village dogs in all the villages surrounding Hope Village. They all look like Carter's (my Canadian youth pastor) dog, Milly. They are all scared and shy of me and other people, but this one at George's house was really friendly.

Gifti required a pic of himself.

And here we are sitting on the bamboo mat. The evening was peaceful, all except my coughs, so it was nice to sit outside.

Gifti (left), Gifti's uncle Kelvin, and George.

While I waited and I listened to George talking to Uncle Kelvin about how he got mugged on his way to Blantyre, a city an hour away from Hope Village, I took some silhouette photos.

In a way a silhouette.

And I really like this one. It is of the tree branches that were above us.

The food was ready and we went inside to eat because the rain finally came. The food was different but it was also kind of good. lol

I finished my food and walked out into the rain. I have only been here for about two weeks, and it has been very hot the whole time, so it felt amazing to have rain for that fifteen minutes. It was glorious. But this good had a bad side, and the bad side was that it gets very hot after rain. Hotter than usual for about a day after, so this weekend I will try to survive. Having a cough makes it way harder, too.

Hallelujah! 

When we got back to Gifti's house, we took on the task of setting up my bed. Lol. First, I wanted to sleep inside due to a flatter ground. Then Gifti said that it is too hot, because the rain came, and so he would rather sleep outside with me.

Second, we went out and set up my bed again.

Third, we set it up again a few feet away from there. I got into my bed of a mat on the floor, a Malaria net over me, and one blanket. I tried to fall asleep, but my coughing was so intensely painful, and the wind was really tough, so it was blowing the malaria net off of me.

So: Fourth, I undid  my bedding and carried it back inside and set it up. As I set it up, I got back on my mat and tried for an hour before I could fall asleep. The rest of the night was restless, but after a super long time, it was finally morning.

My bed outside with Gifti on his mat. He doesn't use a malaria net, because he believes the Lord will protect him from malaria.

SATURDAY:

The next morning I awoke with the same terrible cough. That dry cough that makes you non-stop cough and that kills your throat. I packed away my bedding and headed with Gifti over to his mother's house for breakfast. The sun was probably already up to 35 degrees and building. Arriving, Gifti and I were given money to go to market and buy some bread for breakfast. After finding some for 800 kwatcha and finding George at the market, we headed back. In no time at all, the breakfast was ready, and we ate some bread with tea.

Standing on the sun-beaten curb, I waved down a minibus, but it turned out to be too full. On the next bus we were heading to Nchalo to go check out the market on market day.

Normal minibus style.

Out da window.

And here is the market. On normal Nchalo market days there are maybe 20 people in the market, but on market day there is probably 250 to 350 people. So the marketers put out a ton more clothes. Gifti and I walked around for an hour looking at clothes.

"Which pants are males?"

"They are all."

These marketers don't understand that girls in Canada wear pants too, so they are not all males pants, like every marketer is saying. Lol. For lunch, Gifti got to try chips and a piece of birthday cake for the first time. We left shortly after eating and buying a few things.

We got on the bus and sat there for about 30 minutes while the bus driver tried to fill up his minibus with passengers. This tiny one was waiting to go also.

We got back and sat around. We had nothing planned for the rest of the day. I decided to show Gifti that if you close your eyes in the sunlight everything you see after you open your eyes will be tinted blue. You have to close your eyes for a minutes or two.

How the Africans became so black.

Then I showed him how if you push you arms against a door-frame for a few minutes, it will make your arms float. You have to use a lot of strength in your elbows to your hands and push them against each side of the door frame for a few minutes. It really feels like your arms are floating! Credits to Madison and Brittany, my friends for showing me this. I brought what you taught me all the way across the globe! Lol. :D

Ground Control To Major Tom.

We ended Saturday with Nsima and a game of cards. I don't know what the game was called, but it was pretty fun.

SUNDAY:

I awoke with a non-stop cough, just like yesterday. Gifti's Uncle Kelvin, saw me coughing and decided it would be better for me not to go to church this morning due to the kilometer walk and being short of breathe due to cold. SO... We sat around and did nothing. Lol. After awhile, I noticed these punks watching us. lol

Here are some photos of the bathroom and the kitchen. Here is the bathroom/ bath-house. The villagers go in there and do their business. Other times they shower in there by pouring small amounts of water over themselves. And the floor in there is flat, so these people will shower where they.... you get it....

The bathroom/bath house

And this is the kitchen where they cook their Nsima over a fire.

The Kitchen

Kelvin got back, and we made Nsima. Here is a great photo of all of us as a group. Thanks goodness for cameras with set timers. Lol.

I had to tell them to smile.

And this is Nshima with Soya Meat Pieces.

As we ate, Gifti and Uncle Kelvins' landlord came by to say hi to me and give us each a piece of sugar cane. He is a sugar cane cutter. He uses a panga knife and cuts the sugar cane down, then the trucks come and pick it up and carry it to the Illovo factory where it is produced into sugar.

Sugar Cane.

After lunch, we carried my stuff back to the house. SO ends that weekend of coughing, Nsima, more coughing, marketing, even more coughing, and sleeping on mats, and those friendly people - for awhile. Lol.