The Top 10

In no particular order: The top ten things that make my life both enjoyable and amusing:

1. Banana bread from Foodworths, the top ex-patriot grocery store.

2. Fresh pasta from the Italian restaurant called Claude’s – owned by a Malawian/Italian guy named Claudio, who fully supports my growing addiction to his cooking ever since I told him about my Sicilian heritage. (I actually just had dinner there tonight….and probably will again tomorrow…)

3. The way Malawian children run up to me, crowd around, and then the bravest will reach out to quickly touch my skin. And then they all run away screaming – never fails to entertain.

4. Spontaneous singing by the women in the market. I have no idea what they are saying, but there is usually a rousing chorus that highlights the word ‘yesu’ – Chichewa for ‘Jesus’.

5. Fresh fruit being sold on the street. Pineapples, papayas, avocadoes, peaches, oranges, and mangoes…oh the mangoes. God bless the beginning of mango season. I buy ripe and delicious mangoes for about six cents each.

6. My morning walk. I leave the house around 7:15 and walk twenty minutes into City Centre on my way to work. It is a beautiful walk. The sun is shining, but there is a cool breeze. There are bright flowers in the trees that form a canopy over the shortcut I take. It reminds me every morning to be excited and grateful that I am having this experience. At least that is how I feel until the temperature hits the mid-thirties in the afternoon….

7. I have learned that almost anything is a possibility in Malawi, if you are willing to pay for it. While I know this has extremely negative repercussions for certain sectors, I take advantage of this reality in far less controversial situations. For example, when I get on a bus that typically stops a few blocks from where I want to go, I simply offer the driver some extra Kwacha and he is happy to drop me right where I want to go. Whenever I do this, I always imagine approaching a TTC bus driver and offering him at extra twoonie to drop me at the next corner.

8. Malawians call traffic lights “robots”. I was very confused for the first month when I would get directions that included “make a left turn at the robot” – still makes me laugh every time I hear it.

9. The reaction I get when I tell people that I am Jewish. It usually follows the question of which church I belong to. I am often faced with a blank look and then “you are what? Jawish?” (note the ‘Ja-‘ sound) Always amusing, but the explanation of why I don’t think Jesus is the messiah does get a bit tiresome.

10. My tan.