Just a small town [boy] living in a lonely world
0 Comments Published by Ben on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 4:09 AM.
I got a good night's sleep Sunday night, had a quick breakfast on Monday, hopped a bike taxi to the boma just in time for an 8:30 meeting that didn’t start until 9:30 (I forget that things run slow here…), hung out with the data entry team in the meantime as they finished up entering the last of the surveys, had a day long meeting of which I understood little (it was all in Chichewa, and did teach me the word for elderly, and that the words for blind, skin, and epilepsy are very similar) but met a few key people (including a police officer…always good to be friendly with someone in the police department in a foreign country), talked a bit with the study manager and then walked home. It was a good day.
During the meeting, one of the people translated bits and pieces, and we chatted intermittently. At one point she said, "Did I see you and your friends on bikes yesterday?" (A group of us went to the boma for internet and to get some things for dinner in the market and took bike taxis back). I laughed and responded, "Do we really stick out that much?"
Along the walk back today, I also ran into a few people that I recognized from town or people who work here at the inn, and exchanged greetings in passing, and kept going. It helped that I learned a useful response to "Azungu! Give me money!" which is to say back "give me mbuzi (a goat)." - kids either laugh or are speechless. But with most others, there was not much to it unto itself - we just said hello - but there was something nice about the symbolic gesture. Then it occurred to me: it's small town living, and I kinda like it. Sure, people are up in your jam a bit (and I *do* stick out here), but it's not half bad. At least for a few months. Then I'll be ready to be back on the T, headphones in ears, reading a book, and with that classic Northeasterner leave-me-alone face. But for now, I'm pretty happy here.
During the meeting, one of the people translated bits and pieces, and we chatted intermittently. At one point she said, "Did I see you and your friends on bikes yesterday?" (A group of us went to the boma for internet and to get some things for dinner in the market and took bike taxis back). I laughed and responded, "Do we really stick out that much?"
Along the walk back today, I also ran into a few people that I recognized from town or people who work here at the inn, and exchanged greetings in passing, and kept going. It helped that I learned a useful response to "Azungu! Give me money!" which is to say back "give me mbuzi (a goat)." - kids either laugh or are speechless. But with most others, there was not much to it unto itself - we just said hello - but there was something nice about the symbolic gesture. Then it occurred to me: it's small town living, and I kinda like it. Sure, people are up in your jam a bit (and I *do* stick out here), but it's not half bad. At least for a few months. Then I'll be ready to be back on the T, headphones in ears, reading a book, and with that classic Northeasterner leave-me-alone face. But for now, I'm pretty happy here.
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