Malawi – the funny, the strange, the frustrating

So, here’s a few random stories of Malawi that I thought I’d share. The phones at home and the office were out most of this week (in fact, my home phone is still out) What would knock out a large group of phones for such a long time? One might think lightning. One would be wrong. Actually, it turns out that some people decided to dig up and steal a piece of the fibre optic cable that connected the phone lines together. Which reminds me, my water was out for a few days back in the fall because some people decided to steal a section of the main water pipe. Of course these are inconvenient, but I also find the whole thing rather amusing. In fact, the Canadian director of EI was here when the phones went down, and his reaction showed me just how used to the culture you get here. He couldn’t believe the phones were out, and wondered what I would do. I simply shrugged and said “It’s Malawi. What are you gonna do.” Then I told the fix it person in the office, and figured I’d probably have phones again in a week. Well, the office phones were on by Wednesday, so all was good. And the cellphones and my neigbour’s phone down the street worked, so I had communication if I needed it (so stop worrying, Mom :) ) The power also likes to go out from time to time here. But I have candles, flashlights, and a gas stove, so I’m fine. And my boss’s house and the office have a generator, so I can always go to a place with power if I need to for some reason. As I have said before, the pace of life is great here. In Canada, often times we are wound so tight that delays and inconveniences really seem to bother us. Here, you either get used to it, and figure you can just do things later, or you would die of a quick heart attack from stress. It doesn’t matter if you’re late getting things done since there’s always reasons for it, and everyone else is late too. Maybe it’s less efficient, but are super efficient people really that much happier? The nice thing is that I work for Canadians, so my office is pretty efficient by Malawian standards, and most of the people I hang out with are pretty punctual. But it will be tough to get back into the rat race. Anyhow, I promised the funny as well, so here’s one for you. There is a problem here in Malawi with pronouncing l’s and r’s. I’ve seen a sign for DVD Wolrd, an advertisement for picture flames at a photo shop, but my favourite was the newspaper headline “General erections to be held across the country on May 20th.” Yes, this actually appeared in the national newspaper. But then, the national newspaper here is roughly a half step above the crack journalism of the National Enquirer.
I’m sure there are lots of other quirky things about the culture here, but I guess I’ve gotten used to them. I’m sure I’ll notice it when I get back to Canada though, when I start driving on the sidewalks since I’m used to the road being full of people in my way that don’t move for cars.