Dear Malawi

Dear Malawi,

 

Thank you for 200 (or more) instant best friends all under the age of 10.

Thank you for the fact that every time I leave the house I no longer have hands because there are about 5 kids attached to each one.

Thank you for the women who can sit inside small brick houses with fires burning inside and not die of asphyxiation so I can eat a hot meal.

Thank you for zero electricity so I have an excuse to go to bed at 9pm every night and not be questioned.

Thank you for shining your sun in my eyes at 5am so I have to get up and use my morning.

Thank you for sending cock roaches to hiss in my ear and crawl on my hands in the middle of the night for that extra bit of adrenaline and excitement.

Thank you for bore holes to pump water.

Thank you for providing amazing neck muscles to your people so they can carry 500 gallons of water on their heads at one time.

Thank you for providing birds that are not shy and try to land on me.

Thank you for not letting me get impaled by your wart hog when I kind of chased its baby.

Thank you for putting loaves of bread in between two bowls to make sure I have enough bowls for my bread.

Thank you for providing a language that sounds really funny and has fun words to say such as: Mulibwanji

Thank you for the opportunity to eat an entire fish (head, eyes, everything) in one horrible bite.

Thank you for bucket showers in the brick room.

Thank you for your absolutely stunning natural beauty.

Thank you for that woman who told us not to eat food from strangers because they are probably witch doctors trying to kill us with poison.

Thank you for Hippos, Crocs, monkeys, and much more… and for keeping their mouths from biting me when I got close.

Thank you for AIDS/HIV preventions calendars on every wall (including the preschool).

Thank you for the miles and miles we walk every day to get anywhere and the bicycle taxis that come along when nothing else works.

Thank you for teaching me how to make my own peanut butter with fresh ground nuts.

Thank you for making sure I get my running in when ‘the runs’ hit most every day.

Thank you for showing my how to make Nsima and teaching me how to breath in wood smoke instead of air.

Thank you for the opportunity to teach 100 kids spur of the moment with no lesson plan.

Thank you for a squatty potty.

Thank you for making sure I’m not germaphobic.

Thank you for goat meat, greens, beans, and plenty of rice.

Thank you for the smells…. Just, all the smells.

Thank you for torrential down pours on tin roofs.

Thank you for all the old women who laugh at my inability to simply survive and their willing hands to help me.

Thank you for telling me I look like $$.

Thank you for your happy people.

Thank you for your tribal dances.

Thank you for showing me that I can work out and run around in a skirt with children trying to sit on me.

Thank you for teaching me that it’s okay to miss people.

Thank you for letting me know people eat fried cat nuggets.

Thank you that it is acceptable here to dry my underwear on a bush in the front yard.

Thank you for Dzoole Village and how welcoming its people are.

Thank you for the bat that poops on my teammates bed every night. We know he means well.

Thank you for making me a fly’s best friend by infecting my bug bites so my legs ooze.

Thank you for telling me to ‘Be free’.

Thank you for testing my bravery with massive scary bugs.

Thank you for singing and dancing for me.

 

 

Dear God,

 

Thank you for Malawi.