GARDENING WOES

 

Gardening is getting to be “the thing” around here lately. Take, for example, Jared’s “garden.” He has planted tomatoes… POPCORN? and cantaloupe, in various cans and steri milk bottles, all of which sprouted. Jared and I have our own little plot in the main garden growing cucumber, zucchini, basil, and cantaloupe.  Our garden has lately become a fast-food joint for bugs and grasshoppers. It started with a few bites on the beans, and then the buggies realized there were other rare         delicacies within the vicinity. The little gluttons gobbled up all the beans, Jared’s and my cantaloupe, the radishes, and the lettuce. Real annoying little pigs. We got Guard Dust, but it didn’t help much. We then got Sevin Dust, and it’s… well, we haven’t really tried it yet. About the only thing we’ve harvested yet, thanks to our dear friends the bugs, is radishes and lettuce. Our corn is the most pathetic I’ve ever seen, since we didn’t use fertilizer. We’ve got 2-foot corn with no tassels, and 6-8 inch corn with tassels. As you can see, we’re pretty poor farmers. So much for gardens! J 

Matthew

 

 

Eating at the Nursery

            One day I was invited to eat at the nursery.    After the nannies had prepared the food I would come over to eat.  Of course we had the traditional meal of nsima and relish.  If you don’t know what nsima is, it is a porridge made of cornmeal and water.  This is cooked until it is a thick pasty substance that doesn’t have any flavor.  But with relish, which usually consists of cooked cabbage, rape, eggs, or other vegetables, helps it taste a lot better.  Of course if you’re extra traditional, you eat this with your hands, taking a blob of nsima and a little bit of relish and eating it.  Anyway, I ate in the nursery the extra traditional way which you can expect to be fun, and it was!

Kris

 

 

"EATING OUT" AT MAMA SOPHRET'S HOUSE by Matthew

On Sunday, the 5^th of November, we received an invitation from Mama Sophret, one of our nursery caretakers. She wanted to know if we 6 kids (NOT the animal type) would like to come over for “lunch” at her house. Mom and Dad said OK, so she (Mama Sophret) said she would be over at 2 o’clock to pick us up. (Malawians don’t eat at the same time we Americans do.) She showed up at 2:08, and then we left. The short “path” we followed led us through a “community” which was, of course, teeming with curious kids which yell, upon seeing you, “MAH-ZUNG-OO!” which means white person. We got to her house, which was a nice little place. We went inside, and were greeted by her 3 kids, also her nephew and niece, and her husband, Dada Nyasulu (who worked for the McGills, friends of ours from CCAP). After washing our hands, we got to eat nsima, (a type of maize “porridge”) chicken, mangoes, & cookies (supplied by us), with pop afterwards. A what you might call “rich man’s meal” for Malawi. No Pepto-Bismol needed! J