Finally, a Quiet Week at Home

After non-stop traveling for the last three weeks, I finally got to take a breather at home. Good thing too, as Rob and I both came down with 24-hour fevers (thankfully staggered by a day) the second we started heading home because we were getting so run down. But, no tests to write, no classes to plan, no proposals to edit or groups to organize, no contact with PC office, because that’s always just a headache. Only gardening with Robert and Doug. And catching up on sleep and watching nighttime lightening shows. Phew. It took us four days to plant my gardens. It was a crazy amount of work and sweat. Rainy season is WAY more uncomfortable than hot season. Same temperature, but humid. The gardens look good though! It’s been less than a week but already my tomatoes, chickpeas, beans, and sunflowers are sprouting! We planted two types of corn, peanuts (called groundnuts here), watermelon, broccoli, onion, carrot, eggplant, squash, potatoes, cantaloupe, cucumber, greens, some other stuff. I also planted some perennial native Malawian foods to show that (1) I can do it and I’m not a total failure in the garden to the Malawians who think that if you can’t grow maize you can’t be taken seriously and (2) you don’t have to till your soil every year, foods will still come back without replanting. I’m using only compost manure from my cow group. Cross your fingers, I want to be able to feed the whole neighborhood from my little Eden.

And our little family grew by one tiny little member today! A sweet baby calico kitten! She’s microscopic! Rob and I spent maybe three hours sitting in my room with her today just watching her be cute. She does the usual kitten things: pouncing, prancing, falling, meowing, purring, sleeping, eating. Never gets old. We’ve been brainstorming names. Originally I was gonna go with Skeeter, to inspire friendship between her and Doug (like the characters in the classic ‘90s Nickolodean tv show “Doug”), but after their first encounter of growling and hissing, I decided it would be assuming too much. So, the current forerunners are The Pope, Mrs. Ngoma (Robert’s landlord’s name), Amama (what people call me here when they’re being affectionate), Bo! (common greeting of small children to Azungus, often accompanied by a thumbs up), The Exterminator, Kate (like Kate the Cat, to go with Doug the Dog), and Savage Beast. Honestly, I’m partial to Savage Beast. We’re just gonna end up calling her Kitty anyway. Or Meow Meow.