Kittens!

This week was a bit of a long week with exams, spiders that are not spiders, kittens, and So. Much. Heat.

We went to watch a football match Sunday evening, and the whole town turned out. All the men who were too busy to make it to church arrived at the game! This time all the players had a uniform and cleats. Whenever someone got injured which was fairly often (this is soccer after all), the medics would run out, pour some water and rub it in. We were told that this cooled the wound down and made it better. This is the best first aid here, and it did seem to work. As we watched some girls came up and asked to braid Sasha’s hair (cici). Five sat behind her the whole game making tiny braids, and rotating out when fingers got tired. At the end of many classes she has exclaimed “These kids will give me gray hair!” And it turns out they had. The girls found one, plucked it out, and rubbed the scalp to give it color again. The kids give gray hair, and they take it away. After braiding one did happily spend awhile scratching the dandruff out of my scalp, though honestly there isn’t much.

Sasha shared morning preaching duty with Benson this week. She just had to preach one day, which was not quite as terrifying as she thought. And of course, if we speak quickly no one will understand so it will be fine. Benson preached about the story of the Jews complaining about having no water on the way out of Egypt. His conclusion was if you complain you will disappear, complain of your teachers, and poof! You will be gone. Though in this story, complaining was how Moses knew they needed water and then provided them that water. Without complaining, they would have disappeared of thirst. This has become a joke around the office, if someone complains you say “ah careful you will disappear!” and it is “very funny”. Benson came in to give a few more examples- If you complain of the heat, you will disappear. If Ryan hits you and you complain, you disappear! If you complain about the students, you disappear!”

The teachers get all the lesson planning out of the way in the morning, and spend the rest of the time sitting outside under the tree where you can get a breeze. They try to plan as many lessons outside as possible, as the students sit in the same semi-dark classroom all day. The ceilings are tall, and the window panes are gone, but it can still get very hot in there. There is always pleading for lessons to be taught outside. Unfortunately for everyone involved, because of the language barrier a chalk board is critical and most lessons must be taught in the sweatbox. We are adjusting to the heat, and adjusting to actually drinking the suggested 2L each day. Sasha was walking back to the house to pick something up and one of the quiet teachers asked for cold water, she brought him a mug of water that they had sitting inside (and not from the very hot pipes) and he drank the whole thing in one swig. Benson then asked her for a jug, and she made Ryan carry one up on their way back. It may be silly, but no one had yet asked him to grab water and she did not like being the woman who was expected to bring water to a group of men. The teachers are all great people, but this is still a deeply sexist country. It is likely no worse than 1960s US, and it is very subtle especially to us Azungu (plural of white Europeans) but Ryan is still asked of any decisions and informed of any news first even if they must ask Sasha where he is. When Sasha’s students walk by them, they say “good morning sir” first. When we are purchasing something, they look to Ryan to produce the money and Sasha gets to pull it out of her purse. The bills are far too small, and you need far too many to keep in a wallet! Small things, but they speak to the culture at large.

We have begun running in the morning, and getting up at 5am before village life has started. We got up and ran at 6 the first time, but there are too many people. Likoma has no pathways or areas that are not inhabited and we get stares and laughter while we run. It is not unheard of for people to run (we even ran into another couple where the idea to run was clearly the mans idea) but when you run you are still passing and seeing people, so you must wave and say hello. A vague smile is not enough here. Students were on their way to class, and one kept up with us around a quarter of a mile in flip flops (they have uniform shoes, but it’s a dusty walk to class) until the running caused her bag to break. No matter what time we go there are always little kids who come join us. Unfortunately, water does not come on until 6am at the earliest if it is coming on that day, and so we typically shower out of re purposed gin bottles that someone left behind. The 10 or so bottles in our bathroom does make it look like we are pretty heavy drinkers hopefully the church will not get the wrong idea about us.

Cassidy found pizza dough and we donated our pasta sauce. She made some mozzarella cheese as well, and it baked while we listened to music, and danced with her boyfriends kid Kiri, and her friend Tasha. Kiri would pick up Tasha just to show off she could, so Sasha picked them both up, then Ryan picked up all three. There is a Belgian couple next door that has been coming for 15 years for three weeks at a time to help in the nursery schools around Likoma.  

It’s midterm season here and we both conducted our first midterms from the teacher side of things. Ryan had a Life skills test on Wednesday which Sasha helped proctor. We also randomized their seating arrangement and made them put their bags at the front of the room. This cut down on the rampant cheating significantly, but not entirely. I don’t think they were used to this level of test security and I’m a little afraid that many of them will do poorly without the help from their neighbors. Thursday was form 2 Maths test and the Form 3 Chemistry test. We moved some classes around so that they could both be at the same time at the beginning of the day. We went in early wrote the questions on the board and moved the desks further apart. Then after assembly we gathered all the students and randomly assigned them a seat in either classroom so that they would all be sitting next to someone taking a different test. Sitting next to strangers really did the trick. The classroom was silent for 2 full hours. A accomplishment that neither of us thought was actually possible to achieve.

One girl raised her hand and complained that she had no chemistry in her brain, none at all. Sasha told her this was not the time to bring that up, but do her best. Halfway through the test, she just got up and walked out test in hand so Sasha had to chase her down.

We stood brushing our teeth when a mouse skittered across the floor. Then kept skittering. As it ran closer we saw it was no mouse- but a fist sized spider. Ryan chased it and missed many times (it was fast!), eventually killing it with a pop. After examining the body we learn it is not a spider at all- but a spider relative called the camel spider. They were a terror on the internet as soldiers from the middle east sent photos home of terrifying foot long spiders that chase people. They are a desert spider that will chase shade, and are rumored to gouge the stomachs of camels. Their breathing system is totally different than a spider who is an ambush predator, and relies on oxygen to diffuse in through their exoskeleton. These ones have a trachea and actually take in air, allowing them to move extremely fast. There is not much research as they die in captivity and are allegedly hard to find, but a researcher did chase one for over two hours before giving up. While their mouth parts are huge and would take a chunk out of you, they are luckily not venomous.  

We also noticed three days ago, that our cockroach eating machine was lazier than usual. She would get up suddenly and rush to another spot to laze about. She threw up twice, and as we sat with our morning coffee we noticed her stomach was moving. When we touched it, it felt like one of those massage chairs with balls rolling around underneath. She was pregnant! Apparently, cats get morning sickness too. According to google she was around 2 weeks away. Last night she walked around our room all night meowing. Sometimes she will meow a bit in the morning, but she was really making a racket all night long. After a quick search the next morning we found that this is a common behavior on the day cats give birth. They get especially noisy and restless. When we got up she finally was quiet and found a basket in the corner of the kitchen (also a favorite cockroach hunting ground) – by the time we checked on her again there was a kitten! We watched as the second one came out with an audible “PLOP”