So if you follow my facebook you might think all I ever do
is take pictures. In the age of digital photography, I manage to take a lot of
photos and delete most of them. The word obsessive has been tossed around in
connection with my name.
I find that having an outlet apart from my office work is a
good thing for my mental and physical health. I am doing a lot of walking and
my knees are doing well. I have had an issue with my hip that is improving. I
am doing quite a few other things, having guests to my home for meals, my
neighbor kids come over to color, a friend comes to sew, and I do extra reading
because I am the personnel coordinator and will be telling others to read some
of them and we are trying to figure out the best ones. I also study Chichewa.
I want to continue to study language and culture along with
my work. Walking in the mornings with my camera has been a good exercise for
this as well. I talk to people I meet, mostly Malawian’s I greet them in
Chichewa, sometimes we have conversations. Slowly slowly I am hearing more
words that are familiar to my azungu ears. Even words and phrases I know are
hard for me to hear and understand from a Malawian tongue.
I have learned about
how maize is harvested, most Malawians in this area seem to think it’s a good
crop. I have visited with men making bricks. That is quite a process as they
carry the water and mix the clay like soil and then form the bricks in a mold
and turn them out on smoothed ground to dry. Then they are stacked in a special
way so that fire can be built inside the stack to cure them. Today a man wanted
to sell me some for 20 Kwacha each. I don’t need bricks and I have learned that
this is a pretty high price. Nasho bought some for 17 kwacha each and our
language teacher says sometimes they sell for less.
Most early mornings I see women hauling what I am told is
fire wood. Long straight branches about 8 feet long bundled together are hauled
balanced on their heads which are padded with rolled up chitenjes. Sometimes
they will also be carrying a baby in a chitenje on their back. They are working
hard and I feel like a slug wondering around staring up at the tree tops. They
also wonder about me as most Malawians would not have a camera or the time to
pursue bird watching as a hobby.
Mostly the regulars in our neighborhood are getting used to
seeing me out with my camera and know I am looking at birds so they point a few
out to me and greet me warmly.. I frequently tell those who haven’t seen me
before, “Ndi Kujambula mbalame” (I am taking pictures of birds).
I have recently added not one
but 2 bird baths in our yard hoping to attract more song birds into my world.
There are many plain birds around here but there are also very exotic looking
birds with crests, or long tails, and very bright colors. We also have so many
butterflies here and quite interesting bugs. I am not seeing many new critters
on my morning walks now but generally I spot something of interest and I learn
something new from time to time.
