The Fun Side of Africa

Being back in Malawi has been exciting for us. On the serious side of things, our puppet plays have gone well, and Dad and Mom’s Bible teachings have been well received. On the humorous side of things, there has been plenty to laugh at.

For instance, some days ago, Mom melted baby powder-scented Vaseline in one of our cooking pots at home and mixed it with herbs to use as a balm for the nursery’s babies. That very day, Mary, our cook/housekeeper, made us a local-style lunch of nsima, beans, and green beans. Upon the very first bite, we knew something was wrong with the green beans. They had a flavor that was reminiscent of the smell of a baby’s bottom. It took us a bit to figure out what was wrong with them: Mary had cooked the green beans in the same pot Mom had melted the baby-scented Vaseline in! Even though Mom had washed it out with hot water and soap, the scent and flavor of baby powder had remained, thus giving us a rather unique pile of green beans.

The majority of us were ready to toss the Vaseline Beans into the trash, but Mom insisted that they were still edible. Her opinion won (naturally), and we started to do battle. After 15 minutes or so, the last baby powder-flavored green bean was swallowed, and the day was won.

Looking back on it now, it’s easy to laugh. At the time, nobody was laughing. Ha, Ha.

In town, there are plenty of things to be amused about. Store signs like “The Drunkard Tavern”, “Califonia Street Shop”, and even “Profeshonal Office Suppliers” are quite enjoyable, but the real fun comes when you go inside a shop. They have a Jell-O imitation here called "Jelly". “Pansoanic” and “Semsong” DVD and CD players are easily found in stores. No, those were not typos. They do sell those brands here. I will include pictures of them. These are quite clever imitations of the real thing, but even the Malawians themselves have figured it out. One person we talked to at the nursery said that it works this way:

“The Chinese manufacturers are given a product design to manufacture, such as the iPhone, Blackberry, or even a TV type. They then produce the original for the USA and Europe, and produce an imitation for Africa.”

The person who said this owns a Blackberry phone imitation called an “Alcatel”. Not exactly a blatant imitation, but…

One last funny thing I can think of is the odd business name I saw in Lilongwe. The sign said “Humongous Gym”, but the building it advertised was roughly the size of a motor home. And I thought US companies over-exaggerated their products!

Of course, Malawi is not all funny. I plan on keeping records of the serious things that happen here as well. My next blog post will be about the town of Mzuzu, I hope.

- Matthew