A Driving Lesson

Hi there friends and fam!

We've been a little MIA the past few days from the interwebs - sorry about that. A pipe burst in the Tidzewe Center where UNC Project is housed, so there was minor flooding over the weekend sometime late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. This resulted in the loss of our internet at the guest houses for the day, but not a big deal because we're all back up and running now!

The past few days have been pretty great. This past weekend, all of the roommates on our side of the guest house thought that Saturday would be the ideal time to truly venture out and explore a bit. We also all wanted to visit the cheaper grocery store that our fellow house-mates had told us about, Shoprite, and refill our empty water jugs. The dilemma is that in order to venture out to do some true grocery shopping, one of us had to step up to the challenge of driving the communal car.... on the left side of the road! Thank goodness the car is automatic or we'd be left to exploring by foot and via 2 wheels, which can be awesome in its own right, but difficult when carrying home groceries, cases of beer, and huge jugs of water. We quickly realized that in order to get the best prices on household stuff, you've got to visit a few different places - 7eleven for water, Shoprite for granola, Spar for meat and cheese, the vegetable market for vegetables and fruit, etc. So, what started out as a quick, run around town turned into a 4 hour adventure in how to manage a left-sided car around roundabouts. Operating the care was truly a community effort of helping each other watch out for pedestrians and other drivers.

This was taken after Jenny did a hail Mary, and proceeded to laugh at my lackluster driving ability.

Brian, from next door, offered to let us share in his Shake Shake carton. For those not aware of the amazing power of the Shake Shake, it’s a Malawian “beer” consisting of fermented corn and sorghum. Before partaking in the Shake Shake, another fellow roommate described it as if you poured a bowl of cornflakes, added milk, and let the mixture sit for days until it fermented. It looks like horchata, my favorite Mexican agua fresca, so I was down to try it. It could not have been more disgusting. It was thin with a pungent aroma and had some corn husk grit that clung to your throat even after you swallowed. Pretty gross, but a requirement for any Mzungu (white person) passing through the area.

The initial reaction to Shake Shake.

Also this past weekend, Jenny and I took a little walk around the block that makes up the Kamuzu Central Hospital compound and the nature conservancy that we border. It was great to see the other side of the wall that’s behind our house.

We're trying to get lots of pictures of the area around where we live, because it's completely different than home. It seems like the sky goes on forever.

Also - we've yet to talk about this amazing thing called the AfriCAN cafe that's on the campus of KCH (Kamuzu Central Hospital) and Bwaila Hospital. Jenny and I both agree that this place would KILL IT in Carrboro. Yes, that is a shipping container that has been transformed into an outdoor cafe. You can buy sodas and small baked goods inside for a little afternoon snack. If this whole nursing thing doesn't work out, we're bringing this to the states!!


Hope you are doing well - we've heard that the weather in the triangle has been gorgeous and unseasonably cool these past few days :)  Enjoy it now! We all know the oppressive heat of summer is coming!


Suzann