I really should be writing my final graduate 15-page paper but I read this email that I wrote oh-so-long-ago and made me nostalgic for Malawi. Malawi, when will I get to see your beautiful land again?
Date: 6/29/09
Dear friends and family,
My journey in Malawi has come to an end. I have officially moved out of my house, out of my site, and soon to be out of country. It is amazing how fast two years passed by. At first, I thought time could not be any slower, and now that the end is here, I almost wish that I could make time slow down.
The end is surreal though. My brain has not fully processed the fact that I won’t be here any longer, and that in fact, I probably won’t see most of my friends and family ever again. Including my 81-year-old agogo, who shed tears when we parted. And the pastor who burst into tears during his farewell speech that left the congregation crying. And my dear supervisor whose teary eyes nearly set off my own waterfalls. And my counterparts who promised that they would continue the work that I’ve started with the under-five and youth shelter and the natural medicine garden. Little did I know that two years with all these people would leave a mark on my heart. I already miss them and know that I’ll never forget about them.
But I know that it is time to move on, as do all my friends and family here. They wish to greet you all, especially to my parents. They say that they know it’s time for me to go home to you. They send you their love and greetings from halfway around the world.
This will be my last update from Malawi, and I want to end it with snapshots of my life in Malawi. These are some of the highlights, though there are so many that I cannot put them all down in one sitting.
Exhibit 1: My favorite part of the day was when I strolled out of my house at 8 A.M everyday. As I approached the nursery school, I could hear the 3-4-year-olds chanting my name, “Ellen-e! Ellen-!” A few of them would run up and hug me tightly. They would look up at me with their big adorable eyes and beautiful smiles. They were my babies.
Exhibit 2: My Saturdays spent at the water tap. I would bring my 30 liter basin and 20 liter pail with my stash of laundry. After filling them up with water, I would sit on the steps of a house and scrub the dirt out of my clothes and rinse them. Two hours later, I would hang them on the line and dry them. Then, at the end of the day, I would take them up. In the meantime, my agogo would come out of her little house and sit on the step with me as we chatted about everything. And as of a few months ago, there was a missionary living in the house with whom I would talk to about faith, life, and love. They were both my surrogate grandmother and mother during my stay and my Saturdays belonged to them.
Exhibit 3: The May 19th election. The same president won his second term! For all his success in his last term, he had done something right to be re-elected by a large margin. I do believe he had about 3 million votes while the oppositions followed with 1 million and less. The vice president is a woman! There is actually a good number of women serving in the parliament as well. And the best thing about the election was that it was very peaceful. Not a fight broke out. It was a very proud moment for Malawi.
Exhibit 4: The annihilation of the roaches. Not really my favorite memory but definitely one of the most unique ones. After I got tired of not being able to urinate at night (because the roaches were fond of coming out of my pit then), I had the brightest and the dumbest idea. I mixed a mosquito treatment tablet (used to prevent mosquitoes and other bugs from entering the beds the nets were covering) with water and dumped it into my pit. When I saw a diaspora of hundreds of cockroaches all over my yard, walls, and latrine, I completely panicked, especially when I saw some of them trying to creep into my house. (What can I say? I’m not fond of roaches.) After I ran away and returned with my agogo, I found most of them plopped over dead or being consumed by my neighbor’s chickens. My agogo looked at me told me to shush my mouth and not tell a soul that the roaches were poisoned, because the chickens were going to have a little bowel problem for sure. (At least they didn’t die as I thought they might.) My latrine was roach-free for at least a few months before they started mass reproduction in my pit again.
Exhibit 5: My neighbor’s “warm heart of Africa”. My neighbor, a deputy headmaster at the secondary school, was the only one in my community who knew how to display Malawian hospitality at its best. (I can’t really say the same for the other women in my community.) He was like a uncle to me. Obsessed with pumpkins and fruits, he always loved bringing back food from his garden and cooking them for me. He knew that I especially loved tangerines and always brought me the freshest fruits for me. He helped me out in so many ways, especially when I had all kinds of problems with my house, and made my life so much easier and better. He would always tell me that though he had met many foreigners, he admired me most because of the way I lived my life.
Exhibit 6: The Asian vs. American identity. “Where are you from?” America. “No, really? But you look so… Chinese/Japanese/Korean/European [take your pick].” But I was born in America. “No you must not be. Aren’t all Americans white?” Uh… no. There are all kinds of people there. All kinds of cultures… Oh, never mind. I’m from Russia.
Exhibit 7: And then there were the Asian stereotypes. One of my favorite conversations with this educated community development officer went like this: “So, were you there when 9/11 happened?” A pretty good question but my answer was “No, I was at the other side of the country.” He responded, “Oh… so sad, so sad. Ah… so do you know kung-fu?” “Uh… no.” How did this intelligent man get such a stupid notion? “Why not? Don’t all you people know kung-fu?” What in the world?! “Well, no. It’s just like do all of you play football (soccer)?” “But isn’t Bruce Lee your brother?” Needless to say, the conversation ended right there.
Exhibit 8: The mosquito bites. You may not recognize me when I come back, because… my face has been pretty disfigured. I hate it when the Malawians always stare at my face and ask, “Are those mosquito bites on your forehead?! You must’ve been bitten pretty badly. Pepani, pepani, (Sorry, sorry).” I’d glare at them for a second and grumble, “Yes, those are my mosquito bites…” compounded by all the dirt and sweat Malawi had to offer!
Exhibit 9: Snakes. Apparently some snake shedded in my backyard... so I decided to not urinate after dark for awhile. Then my youths and I saw a black mamba snake hiding underneath the bricks next to the shelter we were constructing. My counterpart obliterated it with my hoe.
Anyway, those are just some snippets of my life in Malawi. I would love to share more with you, but that will have to wait until I return to America! Come August, I will step foot on American soil! It’s funny, because I don’t feel so American anymore. My friends all call me “Malawian” and even when they asked me to sing the American National Anthem, I could only belt out the first line or so and then draw a blank. Then I told them, “Pepani, ndinaiwala (Sorry, I forgot)… I guess I’ve been Malawian for so long that I can’t remember my own national anthem anymore!”
But now it’s time for me to move on… to Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia! My friends and I will be backpacking through for a month. I take off on July 1!
It is weird that I have been emailing you about my experiences and emotions but not seeing your faces. But now my adventure is coming to an end and I will get to see your lovely faces. I can’t wait to see you all!
Tiwonana Malawi! We shall see each other again Malawi!
Love,
Elaine Lo
