Difference in Lifestyle

(Again, I forgot my memory card for the day, so there will not be many photos.)

Today, Leila took me to a little brick church for the church service. The seats were made of concrete and the whole building was made of brick. The building was probably 15 feet by 40 feet. I sat in the back of the church on the mens' side, but I eventually moved forward to a seat closer to the speaker, because I had kids in the back and there were some babies crying, so I couldn't really hear what Pastor Hestan was saying. 

In the middle of the service, I was called up to the front to tell where I was from and the reasons for coming. After I said all of that, they all sang a song and, one by one, came up to shake my hand. It was quite the warm welcome. 

One hour later, Leila and I biked back to the house to have lunch. We had lunch, and then I went and edited some photos for awhile on my Picasa 3 program. At 3, Keiren and I decided to bike to Bereue, a little village five kilometers away, to look at the market for buying. The bike ride was peaceful - amazing scenery in every direction. There were no hills, so the riding was speedy. 

We searched the market for a long time looking for some nice pants, but we couldn't find any worth buying. They all had sparkles on them. Lol. So I went over to the skirt section and tried to buy a skirt. Lol. A guy said a nice skirt was 1400 kwatcha, so I gave him the money. And then, he said it was 4000 kwatcha. My money was in his hand and there was no way I was buying a skirt for 4000 kwatcha. I told him to give me my money back, but he just kept trying to sell it to me. I must have said, 'No,' twenty times. I am not going to even go to his shop anymore. He was super stubborn.

Next, I went over to look at the Panga Knives. Remember, this is what one looks like.

Malawian Axe,

I asked how much for the Panga Knife. The marketer said 9500. So I said no. I went over to another guy on the other side of the market. When I asked for a Panga Knife, he went and got it. I bought it brand new for 1900 kwatcha. The knife came from the same marketer that was selling brand new Pangas for 9500. Again, he was selling it for more money, because I am a white guy, and they all think we are rich. At least this other guy was honest.

We biked the five kilometers back. On the way, one of the pedals kept falling off. I tried slamming it back in, running the bike, and biking the bike with one pedal, but it didn't work. Eventually, a guy helped me slam the pedal in place. With the pedal in, Keiran and I managed to get home by 6 PM - before dark. Dark in Malawi is 6:15ish every night through the year. After finishing a great dinner of tacos, we watched, "District 9."