Saturday, February 1, 2014

What Malawi Has Taught Me

The rainy season is in full force with rains here almost everyday. The rainy season marks the time of year when it is busiest. Every morning people go to their farms and try their best to make their one shot in the year to provide food for their families for the year and if they are lucky to make a little profit. It also brings for me time to reflect. I have been thinking of all the wonderful things Malawi has taught me.
  1.  How to start a fire with a plastic bag.
  2. How to carry a variety of things on my head.
  3. How to kill a chicken.
  4. How to speak another language.
  5. How to pretend like I understand another language, even if I really don't understand :)
  6. Compassion
  7. Patience-what African time really means.
  8. How to clean myself without a shower ( very effectively I must say ).
  9. How to garden.
  10. How to relate to someone with a completely different culture.
  11. How to make something out of nothing.
  12. How someone can be so proud when it seems as though they have nothing.
  13. How strong a woman can really be as she carries 50 kgs on her head while breastfeeding a child and then come home to cook dinner.
  14. How to laugh at myself.
  15. How human beings can survive in any conditions.
  16. How most of the world lives.
  17. How let everything go at the end of the day.
  18. How to love nature.
  19. How to give respect to the elderly ( because if you live in a place with a low life expectancy, it is truly an honor to grow old.
  20. And most of all....I've learned about myself, my strengths, my weaknesses and how to be humble.
It is often said that when you come to call a place your home and really live with the people you are forever changed. As I always say, Malawi has given me more than I can ever give back. And for that I'm grateful.