Five Things: (Belated) Lover's Day Edition

1. Polygamy

Marriage is all about love, and what better way to have more love than to have more marriages... right?! Technically polygamy is illegal in the Church of Malawi, and wives 2+ are not allowed to receive communion. However, polygamy often occurs in smaller villages because while wife #1 is busy working in the fields, there has to be a wife #2 in the kitchen cooking dinner, and maybe a wife #3 taking care of the children (makes sense to me, I could use a couple of wives of my own to help out :) ) The church encourages divorce, but the problem comes after a divorce occurs and the woman is no longer seen as a "prospect for marriage"... not because she is no longer "pure," but because she can't obey a husband. This concept is hard for a couple of independent thinkers like Stevie and I to even grasp, but unfortunately many women here are not even given an option regarding who they will marry. Elders often arrange marriages, and courting is forbidden. This also leads to secret rendezvous between teenagers, increased HIV transmission, and high divorce rates.

2. When life gives you trash... make a ribbon

The kids here are awesome. They play outside from dawn until dusk, and they can make a toy out of just about anything. A couple days ago we saw a group of about 5 young boys with hula hoops. They were short one hoop, though, and the last child was running down the street with a reel of old camera film streaming behind him like a ribbon in the wind. We saw another kid with a "car" consisting of an old steering wheel attached to 2 wheels, and you could tell he loved that thing as much as I loved my first motorized Barbie car. It's amazing to see how happy and resilient children are regardless of their circumstances, and it makes seeing sick children in the hospital a bit easier to handle. It also helps that Stevie and I are basically like some type of fascinating museum exhibit to these kids - they gather in crowds behind us and follow us as we walk down the street, and approach us for hugs like we've known them their whole lives. As we watched them play soccer one day, we even taught them some American sports cheers/chants, which they loved. Sometimes we don't know if they're mocking us or laughing with us, but we just smile and laugh :)

3. Salt of the Earth

Literally... if the world runs out of salt, it's because the Malawians ate it all. They use salt shakers with giant holes and liberally add salt to every dish... it makes me thirsty just writing about it. It's kind of undestandable when you try their favorite food, nsima, which is a cornmeal side dish with a VERY bland texture and taste. It's probably most comparable to dried marshmallow, or maybe styrofoam. People keep offering to teach us how to cook it properly so we can cook it for our families in the United States, but we're unconvinced.... we'll keep you updated if we learn to love it, though!

4. The sickest child gets the oxygen

After just a few days in the hospital, one of the most striking differences from American health care is paucity of resources. When a very sick child came into the pediatric intensive care unit (which is really just a small room with 6 beds and no fancy equipment), we had to take oxygen from another child who was "less sick" but still definitely needed oxygen. Glucometer strips are difficult to obtain, and are kept hidden in a locked desk for special circumstances. Caps, gloves, drapes, and gowns from the operating room are washed and reused. There is an x-ray machine somewhere in the hospital but there aren't any films available right now. These are just a few of the situations we have encountered where efficient resouce utilization has been a top priority, and it has already been a very eye-opening experience.

4. Media isolation

One week ago I had Facebook and Twitter updates and ESPN Score Center at the tip of my fingers on my smartphone. I had watched almost every OSU basketball game and was definitely up-to-date on The Bachelor. 2 nights ago Stevie and I were woken up by Malawians cheering because Zambia won a futbol game... last month I didn't even know that Zambia was a country (for all of you who didn't know that Zambia was a country until just now, it borders Malawi to the west :) ). Our lack of cultural awareness really struck us when we saw giant poster of Obama hanging in a restaurant here in Ekwendeni. Children on the street ask where we are from and when we say "America," they respond by asking about Obama and our government. It is a harsh awakening about our priorities in America and our narrow world view.... but seriously, did Courtney get kicked off The Bachelor yet or WHAT?! Just kidding, please don't tell us... they're DVR'ed :)