January 17, 2009

January 17, 2009

Today Owen was driving to Zomba to do some errands and invited us to come along. The roads are deeply rutted, though the mud was fairly dry today. I admired his skill at driving around the bumps and holes. There were lots of people walking, women carrying baskets, buckets and all sorts of things on their heads. We passed homes, which consist of several small buildings, one for cooking, another for bathing, in addition to the main house. Small goats, a few sheep and chickens ran around. The view of green hillsides, stripes of maize fields, banana trees with an occasional bunch hanging low, was beautiful.

Zomba introduced itself with homes fronted by small shelters. Home grown apples, cucumbers and tomatoes were offered for sale. The town center was bustling, though Owen noted that many stores had closed at noon, which is the custom on Saturday.

My first stop was a book store where I found copies of some of the Standard One curriculum books in English. I also got a Malawi Cookbook.

Next we stopped at a vegetable market where Owen shopped for the household. Negotiating the price is standard procedure around here. Waiting outside a store a little later, I decided to buy a couple of large avocadoes. I find that my bargaining skills are a bit rusty, but I’m sure all those techniques learned in China will come back to me…offer no more than half of the asking price at first, walk away at least once, and don’t “want” the item too much!

The last stop was a cell phone store where Chet and I bought phones and sim cards. We can receive calls without having to pay for the time. Calling locally is quite inexpensive, but calling the US would be extremely expensive, so we won’t be doing that! We’ll love to get calls though.

We returned to the mission for a late lunch and a welcome nap.