So I found out that the title of our blog is a reference to a
Robert A. Heinlein book, Stranger in a Strange Land, which I have not yet read. The
premise seems interesting and one I might take the time to look into if I can
find a copy of the book. Books are not so hard to find in Malawi but any
specific title is substantially more elusive. Amazon will deliver on this
side of the planet but the freight costs more than the material in question and
I've gone through two of those fancy but apparently delicate e-reader thingies.
Do they make an Otterbox for that? No seriously, appropriate technology in
my world means something that can function in adverse environs.
Anyway,
The story told by Heilein is a science fiction piece in which the
protagonist (born and raised on Mars with powers of telepathy, a disregard for
clothing, and deep respect for water) travels to earth to be mildly mishandled
by meddlers before finding some lovely woman to show him around and unravel the
world of human schizophrenia to his innocent mind. I can only surmise
from the title that what he finds on earth is a place where he should seemingly
fit but does not.
I can see why Charlotte chose the reference. In many ways living
and working in Malawi is like travelling to a home you should know but for some
reason you find unfamiliar. It's puzzling. As you dig down into the human
layers of Malawi, you find there are stark contrasts and at the same time deep
similarities in the day to day acts of living. In my perhaps naive
opinion, I feel people the world over generally want to be happy (some
seem to assumed that the only way to be happy is to satisfyingly smack someone
else on the head but that's simply a skewed world view, that may have been
rewarded by some small advantage gained from the smacking).
The pervasive values here are either shared or at least recognizable,
but the methods are awkward to our/my Canadian cosmology and even the basics
seem to come with a twist.
You'll find people are friendly and warm but you stick out in a crowd. People notice your
strange habits, dress, style of speech, and of course the pinkish hue of your
sunburnt face. In Malawi it's not seen as rude to stare. In fact a gaping mouth
head turn as you walk past someone in the market is more than a
daily occurrence. It's a strange and seemingly confrontational moment to
us personal space defensive 'others', but a quick smile or a "Wawa!"
snaps the blank stare into an ear-splitting grin; especially if you've employed
the latter vernacular greeting. Most of the time they are laughing at you but
it's more fun if you're laughing too...
An academic teaching out of Columbia University,
Edward Said, wrote a book in which he tackles a concept of Orientalism. It
seems his thesis cuts both ways and applies in principle to more than just Asia.
His discussion confronts our ideas of the East. The ‘orient’ as defined by
outsiders influences their policies and politics towards it but it does little
in closing the distance between the outsider subject and the orient being
oriented. In our case I guess it is Westernalism meets the Heart of
Darkness...
I'm poking fun actually. I get quite ruffled by
the rampant assumptions about the dangers of Africa. Life is quite willing to
smack you on the head at any moment regardless of what continent you're one,
how good your health might seem or how safe a car you drive. Malawi in
particular is full of lots of lovely people who have just as much respect for
living in a peaceful society as your average west coaster.
One's own cultural norms, no matter how
philosophically prepared or meditated upon still define the world for our
interpreting eyes and the folks you meet in the market are equally rooted in
their own every day. We're all standing around having a little judging party.
The slippery fish in your oh so certain grasp is that each definition landed is
at best a half truth and quite often a red herring. For those of you who missed
critical thinking and logic 101, a red herring is an argument of distraction.
I've lost count how often I've missed the point.
Even after two years in Malawi (a bit of a shock to see that
statement in writing) I'm still learning the ropes. My language skills are
terrible. I'm hoping Charlotte's arrival will prove to be a motivator for
regular study. Many of those false assumptions come from clumsy
translations. Although with her around the likelihood for distraction is
high...
She's still full of that west coast zeal for the outdoors and she
gets squirmy if we're not out adventuring. It is lovely to have someone around
who understands a drive for the wilds, weird projects and whisky, but it's
interesting to see the frustrations with a different pace of life, a lack of
connectivity (no internet and bad phone lines) in someone who is just arriving
at Malawi's sometime sparse table. I’m reminded of how accustomed I’ve become
to the slow service, lack of menu items or groceries, and the general day to
day drudgeries which so frustrate Charlotte. She also reminds me that these
things don’t always have to be so. Fresh bread is easy to bake at home, and
setting higher standards is more a matter of consistency than force.
In more domestic news we’ve been setting up home and giving
charlotte some riding lessons. These went really well until she dropped the bike
on her toe after parking the bike in a ditch. Thankfully no major harms were
suffered by Charlotte and I was able to true up the front fork in a few
minutes. The neighbourhood kids thought it was hilarious.
All in all it’s lovely to have someone to laugh with (and at) in
while I’m here.
We also bought some kitesurfing gear. So there should be some
commentary on the beatings we’ll be suffering at whims of the wind gods.
To be continued...
