'Be' ing

Some days my senses are so alive it almost hurts. I feel I’m floating, slow motion in a parallel universe-savouring every detail... the women gliding past elegantly balancing buckets on the heads, their babies peeping out from behind where they’ve been safely strapped with a colourful chitenje, wide smiles, the smell of burning plastic mingled with fried potatoes, a waft of cow manure, the distant sound of bicycle bells mingled with voices and children laughing, each grain of sand in my shoes, deeply inhaling the cool dusty air.
I feel invisible ...until a kid I know runs up to me with a raucous laugh for a ‘high five!’ and the next thing I know I’m ‘high fiving’ most of the 40 odd children on their way home from school. I smile at the familiarity of their faces- their exuberance as they run past single file – jumping to slap my outstretched hand.

I know...my blogs have slowed- probably as the culture shock wears off and I struggle to describe the nuances of day to day life. I struggle with the fact that I do not yet have a formal ‘job’ and yet in another sense Im relishing the opportunity—perhaps the first I have ever really taken to just ‘be’. Not ‘cope’, ‘perform’, ‘strive’ or ‘produce’ ...just be. Africa is teaching me lessons Ive never taken the time to learn before.

How’s language going? Well- Swa- said in Chiyawo this morning
‘right now, rina can speak Ciyawo very well’.
I took that as both a compliment and a gentle reminder that I really do have obviously ‘good’ and appallingly ‘bad’ days when it comes to ‘language performance ability’. But although it may be 2 steps back- its usually followed by 3 steps forward. Like realising, for example, that the words ‘this’ and ‘that’ are not only specific to the class of the noun it is describing – but there are also different variations of the word indicating the speakers distance from the noun in time in space. In short the English words ‘this’ and ‘that’ are probably represented in Ciyawo by about 50 similar sounding words. I dunno- i haven’t counted- but it was a huge break through for me.

It’s hard- but Im in awe of the language. Every sentence ‘matches’. Someone described it like music- if you play a note- there is a chord that goes with it for the particular key- so, in Ciyawo, the noun in the sentence determines the prefixes to many of the words for a particular tense. Write me a comment if you actually read this far. I have started (another) new language learning method where I get my helper to record a simple story about something in her life, or I try and tell her a story in Ciyawo (Lots of help) and she records what I should have said – then we listen to it lots together and write out all the new words and discuss why they suddenly disappeared into another word when the tense changed...and then I listen to it lots when she’s not around, and the next day we practise the new words from the story by taking turns making different sentences with them which helps me grasp the range of meaning. Its relaxed and we both get to be creative and Im learning lots about the Yawo culture through the stories!

Ok- ive written an essay, sorry. Making up for less posts recently.

So, comments- what is with all the advertising comments?! I’m not clicking ‘here’. No way. It could set off a bomb or something!
What is maize? Yeah- i wasn’t sure before I came here either- but its corn that isn’t sweet. Speaking of which- Im gonna plant some sweet corn on the weekend! Yay

Dictionary

I've had a rivetting Saturday. After a lovely sleep in I sat down to... update my dictionary. grrr for getting so behind, but I want my whole word list (english to ciyawo) entered before my solo visit to the village on Tuesday. its almost 4pm and Im up to 't' which would be great except that all my verbs have been entered in the spreadsheet as 'to ...' so Im really only half way. Oh well, I also made some biscotti with almonds I found in Blantyre last week, so at least I have something nice to snack on.

I need you help- Im starting to get total writers block on this blog. I guess nothing is new anymore and I assume you are bored with my language learning?! (i am) Is there anything in particular you want to know about? anything I can go photograph for you? hehe. what do you want to read about? Any suggestions would be helpful- otherwise you'll just get irregular updates on my language progress until I start 'work' ...then Im sure I'll have plenty to write about :)
So, in the spirit of sharing my joy with you, here is a teeny tiny portion of my word list thus far...

mosquito -ususu
mosquito net -masikito
mother -mama
mountain - litumbi (pl. matumbi)
mouse - likoswe
mouth -pakamwa
movie house- movidiyo
mucous -manila / mamina?
friend (my) -ajangu
friends (my) -acimjangu
husband (my) -walume wangu
wife (my) -wamkwangu
my/mine -wangu
nail (building) - msomali
near -kwakuwandika
neck -lukosi
necklace -nikilesi
need, want, like -kusaka

eep!

the time has come...for me to do my own introduction in the village today. And of course, my language helpers child is still sick...so its up to me.
Lina lyangu 'Lina'. (My name is rina- remember- the letter 'r' doesnt exist in this language)Ngutocela ku Ostreyala. (I come from Australia)
Nayice ku Malawi myesi jitatu jipitejo. (I arrived in Malawi 3 months ago)
Ngutama ku Mangoci ku ce Kalonga. (I live in Mangochi in the village of Kalonga)
Ngulijiganya Ciyawo ligongo tinji kamula masengo ni Total Life Care. (I am learning Ciyawo because I will be working for Total Life Care)
Sikomo kwejinji ligongo apecele. (thank you very much for your welcome)
yes, it is the longest thing Ive ever said in Yawo- but the cool thing is- with my language learning method- i actually know how/why to say each bit (ie its not wrote learned). wish me luck- in language and on the roads. hehe

Yawo-ised English

Yes- another blog on language learning...because thats what Im doing with most of my time these days!

Malawi's colonial past is imprinted all over the Yawo language. Their words for the days of the week are a classic example. The yawo culture is aurel and a 'traditional' person here works in their garden every day, spending Friday afternoon at the Mosque- and yet their days are named as follows:

Monday- Lyakulemba (day of writing)

Tuesday- Lyawili (second day)

Wednesday - Lyatatu (third day)

Thursday - Lyancheche (fourth day)

Friday - Lyansano (you guessed it- fifith day!)

Saturday - Lyakuweluka (day of rest)

Sunday - Lyanlungu (day of God)

so, not only influenced by a culture that counts- but also a foreign culture that worships God on Sunday, rests Saturday and starts 'writing' (work) on Monday! makes sense to me- but im not sure what it means to them

the yawo spelling takes a bit of getting used to- some letters they just dont have, and they never have 2 vowels next to each other. They dont seem to like putting consonants together too often either- and when they do its in combo's like 'mj', 'mb', 'nj' and 'ng' which are fun to pronounce smoothly in a sentance. Also, every word has to end with a vowel and 'c' is always pronounced halfway between 'ch' and 'sh'... Here are a few more 'amusing' yawo edits to the english language:

trousers: tawalusa

town: tawuni

city: tawuni jekulungwa (big)

shirt: cati

hose: payipi

car: motokala

radio: wayilasi

keys: makisi (ma means plural)

and...if you didnt pick it up in the the picture above (sorry- taken from a car window, so couldnt move the sun :) )- that is a grocery store (golosale) and local tearoom (tiyilumu). gotta love it

rain, rain go away...

97 words so far this week. Woohoo! And it rained today like I’ve never seen it rain before. No wonder Mozambique’s having floods!

What have I been up to? Saving the world? Nope, waking up the un-used bits of my brain and ears and absorbing vocabulary. I started 2 lessons a day today…and didn’t die, which was good!

9-11 am with Swa- (she doesn’t like me calling her ‘Mama’- even though she has 3 kids!). Followed by review and recording the new word list, then lunch, nap, lesson prep, 2.30-4.30 with Esn- (also objects to the ‘Mama’ bit), more word list writing (I call it cementing)…then some exercise of some sort- or just blob out in front of the computer, shower, prepare dinner, read…sleep… I’ll trial this for 2 days a week and see how I go, with ‘only’ one session the other 3 days.

I find the titles thing interesting- technically I should call Esn- ‘Mama Comfort’ because her daughters name is Comfort. If the child died, her name would change. She said when we go to the village I should call her that, but her name at work is ‘Esn-’. As you know, I don’t have children, so where does that leave me? ‘Unti Lina’ Swa- decreed proudly. Us whities are so ‘out of the box’ that they borrow our words and make new categories for us… oh yeah, and they don’t seem to distinguish between ‘r’ and ‘l’, or ‘d’ and ‘t’…or ‘m’ and ‘n’- both of which are usually almost silent at the beginning of a word…and ‘j’ can sound like a ‘d’ or a ‘y’ depending where it is… I could go on, but I’ll spare you.

I was nervous about Esn- coming today. She is a primary school teacher, and at her interview was very…forthright. I’ve had images all week of her bulldozing me into a dictionary, but yesterday, I spent an hour or so sitting on the verandah of her rented room watching the world go by while she washed her clothes in a bucket…and that edginess wasn’t there today. SO relieved! I still feel like I’m in primary school – but that’s ok- in language I’m still a toddler, so she’s being very gracious :-).
What was I doing at her house? Well- she doesn’t have a phone and I needed to get a message to her- so I did it the African way hehe.

Relationships are different out here. These women are my teachers, older than me in life, though younger in years, and I am their boss. Wealthy, educated, outside of their system and ‘powerful’. Add to that that unemployment is huge, everyone is living hand to mouth, women’s rights and opportunities are….negligible- and we’re giving them a job. This is great, but their environment makes me/ foreigners even more powerful – it’s unlikely they’ll get jobs elsewhere in Mangochi…their only bargaining power is their life stories, their dreams... Child born to a single mother, child gets cerebral malaria, hospital has run out of medication/child doesn’t get medical help quick enough, severely disabled child now living with grandparents. Mother wants to provide for child, provide a house, money to pay for specialist, ongoing rehabilitation, knows that there is better money to be made in South Africa…she needs money to get a passport.
Woman married, only to find several years later her husband takes a second wife. He stops supporting her and her children financially. They need to eat.

Pregnant woman goes to hospital for check up. Her previous three babies have all died before the age of 2. The hospital convinces her to check her HIV status. It’s positive. Her only real options for not passing the virus to her child is to find an HIV negative wet nurse who is willing to remain celibate for 6 months while feeding…or pay 6 months mans wages for formula. She wants the child within her to live, to have a chance at living a life better than hers.

A grand mother knocks on the gate. She has no food to feed her family- comprised largely of the 5 orphaned grand children. Harvest isn’t ‘til April

The agony is that these stories of women I’ve met here are completely true. How do we/ I respond? For those I’m directly employing- am I paying enough? Do I give a gift or a loan? To whom? Why was I born so ‘lucky’?! Can a whole poverty cycle be turned around?
I guess that’s why I’m here.

A Foreigners guide to Malawian Cooking

We had a short 'formal' language lesson today and hit the markets to give me a chance to show off my newly aquired language skills. ahem ...panic! With the visual cue of a language helper at my side, people were coming ot of the wood work (ok- market alleyways) to greet me...unfortunately not all in Chiyawo- there was Chichewa and who knows what else thrown in the mix- but the experience got me off my 'Im doing great' high-horse and reminded me that I need to actually speak this language with comprehension one day...and that will require more than the 2-3 hrs a day I've been putting in this week. Time to ramp it up.

Anyways, we came home and cooked up a feast to provide maximum opportunities for Mama Swabila to state the obvious in chiyawo for my benefit ( I am chopping the tomatoes, you are washing the pot, we are cooking...) I am amazed at her patience.

I am also amazed at the Malawian womens ability to make delicious meals from simple ingredients. If you had asked me a month ago to make a 3 dish meal using only milly meal, oil, salt, tomatoes, onion, green and eggs- I probably would have cooked you 3 omelet’s. You may not be interested in cooking- but just in case you are, I have put ‘recipes’ (I use the word very loosely) below.

‘Greens’
Finely slice required quantity of green leafy vegetable (keeping in mind it will shrink lots). The locals love the bitterness of the dark green outside leaves of Chinese cabbage as well as pumpkin leaves (de-strung) so don’t be scared to branch out. Steam in a pot with a little water and salt. Finely dice 1 large tomato and place on top of steaming greens. When the tomato looks really soft, stir through the greens and serve hot with Ugali.

‘Eggs’
Hard boil enough eggs for 1 or 2 per person. Shell.
Heat about ½ cup oil in a pot and add finely diced onion (they use small, purple salad onions) and a finely diced tomato or 2. Stir well until the mixture resembles tomato soup. Add salt to taste.
Place whole boiled eggs in ‘soup’ to heat through before serving.
I know there is gobs of oil in this- but it tastes so good its actually my favourite ‘relish’ so far.

‘Ugali’
Ok- this is a hard one to describe, so if this ends up being incomprehensible- google it. Works for everything else!
Buy yourself some maize or white- millet meal (in Perth you can get it at Kailis Brothers in Northbridge or Kailis Sisters in Freo).
Half fill a medium-large sized pot with COLD water. As it heats, stir in 2-3 handfuls of the flour with a strong wooden spoon. It should be like thick soup. Let it boil and glop for about 10 min or until it starts kinda sticking to the bottom. Put on an apron, put up a ‘do not disturb’ sign and stir firmly with one hand while adding more flour with the other hand. This should take the mixture to quite stiff and separating from the sides of the pot - but still moist with no lumps. The stirring method is systematic, repetitive and built into the genome of every Malawian woman. Its easy and obvious- just like carrying water on your head- but for the rest of us, I’ll try and describe cos it is the difference between ‘good ugali’ and ‘inedible’.
Stir from 12 o clock clockwise to 6 o clock (simultaneously moving the porridge off the sides and the bottom of the pot) , then back through the middle to 12 o clock, then anti clockwise back to 6 o clock. At this point, you repeatedly smush the porridge with the spoon against the front of the pot- then resume the stir sequence… for 5 - 10 min until the porridge holds its own shape and is thick enough to scoop into large almond-shaped serves (use a big serving spoon).

Eating
The trick to eating is to leave your hands wet after washing - before the meal so the ugali doesn’t stick to your fingers- thereby minising burnage. Place a serving or 2 of ugali on your plate, along with some of the relishes outlined above. Break off pieces of ugali with your RIGHT hand, dip into the relish and enjoy a simple, delicious and filling meal.

Men, babies and Noun Classes

Got your attention? hehe

Its raining here...again. And the sky sounds like its hungry. Its been grumbling for hours.

I know you are dying to know how my language lesson went today... so I'll cut the suspense. Im proud to announce that after 2 hours of brain pain, according to my 'word log' I am now familar with 16 nouns and 4 verbs.

This is a man. This is a baby. This is a goat.

Where is the goat? (I point to my drawing of a goat) Where is the man? (again, I point)

The baby is sleeping. The man is walking....

which all sounds really easy doesn't it? Until I tell you that the first line actually sounds (well looks- for your benefit) like:

Awa jwamule. Aju mwanache. Aji mbusi.

notice something horrid? Of course you do- you notice that the 'this is' part of the sentence (first bit) changes for each noun! AAAAAHH

After 2 rather enjoyable hours of pointing at pictures with Mama Swabila, I watched an introduction to Yawo grammar DVD and discovered something very ... daunting :)

the Yawo people (surprise!) order their reality differently to the english language. They have over 10 differnt noun classes that have their own set of prefixes, suffixes and ways of being morphed into plurals.

Its like walking into Kmart. As department store shoppers, we know that you have to walk through the mens wear section to get to the 'fun' electrical gadgets, and through the womens wear section to get to the 'housey' electrical gadgets. They are all gadgets- but we have a standard way of spiltting them up. Same with every object/thing in the Yawo language. It belongs to a group. Its got friends. So, all the peopley relational nouns are together (like chief and uncle) and all the abstract ones in another group (like ignorance and life), then you get a group that seems to be comprised of things that have length (like rope, river and neck)...the other ones...are a bit beyond me- like goat chicken and bicycle...and you go ahah- thats things that move! but the next category has birds, trees and toilets in it?!!! Guess I'll know Im Yawo when I intuitively 'get it'. Until then...where is the goat?