When Penny, the coordinator of my program came to visit me and Lindsay in February, she mentioned how important greetings are here in Malawi I have given that a lot of thought lately. Here, when I am walking down the street, many people say hello to me; "Good afternoon, Madame, "How are you, sister?". I felt put off by all this attention at first. Is everyone saying hello to me just because I am White? Next are they going to ask me for money? Sometimes that is the case, but that is a very jaded view. In fact, greetings are incredibly important and in that way, Malawi holds up to its reputation as "The Warm Heart of Africa". It is considered rude to not greet people, even if you don't know them at all. And interestingly, in Chechwa, one of the primary Malawian languages, the word "hello" does not exist. People greet one another with a term that means "how are you?". So here, every greeting includes, "hello, how are you?", and "fine, how are you?" and sometimes, "fine, how are you", "fine, and you?" It goes around and around in a way that feels ridiculous to me but is perfectly expected and normal in Malawi. Maybe when I go home I will be saying hello to everyone walking past me!
Right now the sun is setting in a very pleasing pink and purple way. The sunsets here can be very beautiful, especially after it has rained in the afternoon and the clouds are clearing out. The cornecopia of dogs are beginning their nightly barking. I swear the entire neighborhood of dogs howls in unison at least five times a night! Sometimes I wake up and sometimes I don't, but it is hard to drown it out when one's windows literally do not close, since the weather here is temperate almost year round. It is a bit of a paradise I guess, when you get past the poverty.
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