It never ceases to amaze me the generosity of poor people. Famalies who have almost nothing to give are ussually the most eager to share what they do have. My Christmas in Mwazisi is proof of that. For Christmas I was given a massive bag of Mangoes, a bundle of bananas, copious amounts of honey from two different beekeepers, a Guinea Fowl, and enough rich food and meat to put my stomach in a rough state on through New Years.
Sharing food is a very important part of Malawian culture, so all of the people who had me over to eat and chat on Christmas really made my holiday. These last few months I have felt like I've been running around like a mad man trying to keep the EPA project on track while always dealing with the chaos of keeping up with farming in the rains. So it was nice just relaxing and hanging out with friends for a few days.
I went to Davey Nysulu's place in the afternoon on Christmas Eve to see his daughter who I named this time last year Patti Mtende Nysulu. They insisted on giving her an American name so I named her after my Mom and gave her a Timbuka middle name which means Peace. I brought over a bag of porridge flour for Patti and a couple children's books sent by my aunt Kathy for the rest of the children. Davey played some Christmas music for me while his wife served me tea, and rice with honey on it, along with chidongwa, a locally made sweet beer made from millet and maize flour.
That night I had dinner with Nya Nfuni and her son Kazito. Nya Nfuni is my neighbor who cooks for me. Usually I buy her food and she just cooks extra of whatever she makes for her family, she brings my food over to my house because she's married and it's not really proper for me to eat over there all the time. Nya Nfuni is by far one of the people I love most in Mwazisi, so I was really happy to spend christmas eve with her and Kazito. We had a good meal of Nsima with eggs cooked in tomatoes and onions as well as my favorite village green, pumpkin leaves cooked in peanut flour. After dinner i pulled kazito on my knee and read t'was the night before Christmas. He enjoyed the pictures but asI tried to translate, i also had to explain why it wasn't scary that this strange man would sneak into your house while you were sleeping. Then i played some Colorado Christmas music my Mom sent from KBCO while we made a stocking for Kazito with a blue sock and decorations and glue that Corie sent to make Christmas crafts. To comfort Kazito I hung the stocking in the kitchen outside so Santa didn't have to come into the house. The next morning Kazito came screeching over, "Santa apokala chawananga!" Santa filled his sock with sweets, biscuits, bananas, and Colorado playing cards...Fancy that!
I went over to Benidicto Gondwe's house for Christmas morning breakfast with his present on my head, a top bar bee hive I made for him. After having tea with his wife's prize Chigondamoyo (a sweet corn bread with sunflower seeds and honey mixed in.... so damn good!) Benidicto gave me a Christmas box with a jar of honey and about 2 KGs of goats meat.
I went for church services at the Catholic Church where Devin a volunteer in Kapenda (within biking distance) found me. I invited him to come down and watch the big football tournament called the Christmas Bonanza. But most of the teams hadn't come yet so they didn't start until the day after Christmas. It was a fun three day tournament that people came from all around to watch. The pitch was packed with folks who carried their lunches and hung out all day watching 6 games a day. Mwazisi's Gam United made it all the way to finals and lost to the town stars in rainy muddy mess that ended in penalty kicks.
Devin and I had our Christmas dinner with the EPA project's chairman Cuthbert Kachali and which turned out to be another stuffing meal. Cuthbert slaughtered a sheep, and his wife Queen must have spent the whole morning cooking, because there was about 6 different pastries and African cakes she baked dutch oven style. After the first few courses I was uncomfortably full, but Queen force fed me untill I think she must have gotten full from watching me eat. The Kachalis live a bit far from me so I stayed the night there after also making stockings with his kids. This time Santa brought balloons, more sweets and Colorado Key chains...Whoda thunk it!
The next morning Cuthbert's son Geoffory, Devin, Cuthbert and I took a hike to check some of his hives. The mountains behind his home were beautiful, and the forest's back there still look pretty virgin, it was a great way to hike off some of the overeating of the past few days. Cuthbert sent me back with an entire sheep's leg which Devin and I butchered and smoked over a fire while we gazed up at one of the best starry night skies I have seen in several months. I couldn't help thinking of how lucky I am to be here.
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