Once again, apologies for the long gap! This time it’s actually not a product of my own laziness but rather a lack of internet. We went on holiday last week so I don’t have access every day and when I’ve walked to the wireless spot for the last 4 days, it’s been off. Thanks largely in part to other human beings turning off the router or electricity going out 5 minutes before I arrive. Thanks, Universe. And then we do finally get it to work, but not on my computer, so I’ve had to be borrowing one from the brothers. But today, it’s finally working so I’m seizing my opportunity! I’m very excited as I’ve been feeling very disconnected and homesick without any communication.

Things have been going well with living at Banda’s place. It was 3 weeks last Saturday and we seem to stay well together. We cook and clean and do dishes together. The pair of us had a terrible cooking day the other day, with Banda first burning beans and then rice and then I turned the dinner pasta into pasta porridge mush. But other than that, we seem to do ok. We had a lovely laundry lesson yesterday and it turns out, I’ve been doing it wrong the whole time! No more bleeding knuckles for me!! So I’m gonna keep practicing on that because it’d be nice not to have to pay someone to do it, plus it’s a bit of a pride issue with the other madames. He loves my fried rice which is awesome since that means I get to eat it all the time! And I’m just getting spoiled with food in general. I never bought meat here because it’s expensive and we get it 3 times a week at school for lunch anyway. But Banda eats all of his meals at home, so he does buy it. So basically I get meat every day, sometimes twice a day! Alyson’s gonna start gaining weight in Africa, the likes of which have only been seen by one Chris Tavares. :)

There has been massive flooding in Karonga lately because we had torrential rain storms for a week straight. Several houses were knocked down and something like 10 people have died as water levels inside were up to the windows and outside of buildings it was above neck-level. The marketplace was closed because it was completely flooded out, so they set up outside of the market. It’s still like that 2 weeks later. Not going to lie, working our way through that crowd was rather panic inducing. Gondwe’s shop has dramatically downsized as one of the walls of their main shop was washed away.

Met a geologist from Paladin the other day as he picked us up and gave us a lift to town. It was fun to hear all about his job and the workings of uranium exploration. Only lasted 5 minutes and yet it was just one of those random meetings that I love about Malawi.

Vitu’s still a little problem. He quickly went from adorable to annoying as he shows up at the house constantly, screams “Mzungu” at the top of his lungs, demands money from us, calls Banda a liar, and tries to break his way into the house. Thank goodness for locks.

We tried to go to Banda’s home village during the first week of holiday, so that he could present me to them. Oh the pressure. Terrifyingly nervous, but it had to happen at some point and I knew in the end I’d end up loving the trip, so I got over the nerves. Got up at 5:30 to prepare for the journey and then got delayed by rains. We intended to walk to town, but with the rains decided for a lift instead. None of the brothers were picking up their phones, nor were the half dozen taxi numbers that we tried. Finally Brother Paul came through and dropped us at the bus depot. Unfortunately I started having back spasms about 30 minutes in and since we were squeezed in so tight – Banda was already halfway off the seat due to lack of space – there’s no chance at shifting to a more comfortable position. I have been having constant back pain for the 4 months of being here – if you remember I messed it up shortly after coming here – but there are no chiropractors here and even if the problem’s more serious, there’s no way in hell I’m letting some untrained doctor poke around; oh and no chance at pain meds because Lord knows, then I’d be a drug addict. Anyway, the pain is always there but it dulls sometimes and then I’ll do something that kicks it up again, like shifting books in the library or hauling buckets of water. It just so happens that I hauled water the day before our trip. And being on the minibus aggravated it even worse with all of the bumps and sitting in a god-awfully-uncomfortable position. Result = back spasms with pain shooting up my spine and down into my legs. So I ended up crying silently because the pain was so excruciating and I knew that I had 7 more hours to travel in that same manner. Banda noticed pretty quickly and insisted we get off at Chilumba – about an hour’s drive. I tried to make him continue on his own because his family was so excited to see him and we’d already canceled once before. But he maintained that he would only go with me. Felt incredibly guilty, but there was simply no way that I could stomach that pain for 7 hours. So we turned around and came home. Tried to get a taxi but the prices were outlandish, so instead settled for the front seat of the minibus. Still uncomfortable, but at least there was space to shift a bit. So next time, we’ll aim for that seat or else a coaster which has established seating so there’s a bit more space. Definitely a disappointing experience. Banda was wonderful of course, trying to assuage my guilt, insisting that I lay in bed for the rest of the day and making sure I eat his prepared meals. And his mother called and said that she wished me a quick recovery and that she “accepts and welcomes” me as her daughter-in-law. Very sweet. And makes my stomach butterflies calm down a bit when I think about going there.

Banda’s birthday was on Saturday and it turned out to be just not our day. Went shopping like usual. It was raining heavily which meant we were soaked 30 seconds into the shopping. I then spent a good hour walking through every inch of the market – three times – in an attempt to find a present for Banda. I even had a backup option, but failed to find either. Eventually gave up and we went home. Where we realized that I had somehow lost the keys. Big mystery because we both saw them in my bag as I was climbing into the car for the last time. Who knows. We’ll probably find them in the brothers’ car a couple of weeks from now. So we ended up sitting on our front porch, wet and starving, waiting for Clifford to come and break us into our house. We did get to enjoy some lovely Snickerdoodles though and watched “Penelope” which Banda calls the “pig-face movie” and simply loves.