Pumpkin Enchilada

Pumpkin Enchiladas
(These are good, I swear! And if they’re not, well, you just haven’t been living in Malawi for the last year and a half. It can also be made into soup or casserole if you omit the tortillas.)

Filling
1 Ten or Twenty Kwacha pumpkin
1 tsp cumin
4 or 5 cloves garlic
Whole heckuva lotta salt (to taste)
1 small onion, very finely chopped

Tortillas
Water
Salt
Flour

Topping
Salsa
Cheese

There are a lot of theories on cooking pumpkin (bake it, boil it). I say quarter it and steam the heck out of it. After you’ve steamed, it scoop out the mush, and give the peel to your cat. Mix the mush with the spices and the onion. Simmer on low heat (you know, if you can do that). To make the tortillas you just mix all the ingredients, flour a rolling pin (or coke bottle, nalgine, or wine bottle) and roll em out flat. Put filling in tortillas, top with salsa and cheese and stick them in a frying pan. Cover with the top of your water filter and stick coals on that - just on the top. Cook til the cheese melts.

April and May are the months when I never want to leave Malawi. The fields are still green from the rains, with long grasses that wave in the wind. The skies are blue, tinged with clouds only where they hover in long ribbons above the crest of Nyika’s mountains. The roads are dry, the birds flit and the temperature is pleasantly mild. Then along comes June. Suddenly the temperature plummets like someone doing a cannonball from the high dive, the sun packs up and goes to the lake for his annual sabbatical, not to be seen again until August and slowly but surely everything begins to turn brown and die. It’s just not a happy time. But, so help me, I really love weather like this.
I have, however, corrected some errors I made last year, which have really helped me to cope with this cold season better. First, I have talked my headmaster into letting me wear trousers to school, explaining that if I continued to wear a skirt my legs were in fact going to freeze and fall off. He was surprisingly reluctant about it, considering how supportive he’s been of almost every other issue I’ve brought up.
I’ve also started drinking coffee, finding that if I don’t have something hot and strong to kick me in the mouth in the morning, I’m not going to be able to get going. Making coffee in Malawi is rather a more interesting process than in other places, since we don’t have a coffee maker. It has been especially interesting for me, as I didn’t know how to make coffee in the first place.
There are two ways to make coffee. First, you can do “cowboy coffee”, boiling the water, then placing in grinds and running it through whatever sort of filter you can come up with - tissue, toilet paper, strainer, your hand, whatever. Or, you can get a french press. Most people, surprisingly enough, have the latter. I’ve started adding cinnamon to the coffee grounds, and putting chocolate powder, milk and vanilla into the actual drink. The result is something that may have resembled coffee in a past life and is truly delicious.
I’ve also been taking frequent breaks from the cold. My first weekend back at site I ran off to the lake to watch the football (soccer) game at a British couple’s house. The game was Britain versus America, and it was a bit awkward rooting for the opposition when your hosts are feeding you, letting you sleep in their spare beds, letting you use their water to take a scalding shower and letting you borrow their books. In the end though, we tied, so I guess it was alright.
I also skipped off to my sitemate’s village, which, although it is only twenty minutes away from mine, exists under its own sunny temperature bubble. Her parents had come to Malawi, and in honor of their visit she had organized a show of traditional dances. Watching the dances was really fun. They’re not generally performed except at specific ceremonies, so I haven’t had that many chances to see them in the past. In the beginning of training I saw a bunch of traditional dances, but those were all Chewa tribal dances. These were Tumbuka dances, although they didn’t do Malipenga, which is the typical dance, they did perform Vimbuza, which is a dance done to expel evil spirits, and Batoska, which is a women’s dance.
When I wasn’t busy running away to warmer climes I was busy planning a boys version of the girls workshop I did in March. The basic theme, as it was for the girls, was sex and everything attendant to it (relationships, diseases, pregnancy, anything else you can think of). Since the girls day was only girls, I had the boys day be only boys, and imported Zeb (1/2 of our group’s married couple) and “Tin Tin” (not his real name, though it would be so cool if it was) to run the classes.
They did an amazing job. Although I couldn’t attend the workshop (being a girl and all) I got to hear about some of the questions the boys were asking, and the issues that were covered, and it was truly amazing. Not to mention I had good reviews after from the male teachers who observed the workshop.
After the girls workshop we had decided that instead of having broad topics we should really just focus on sexual health. The point was basically to try to get the boys comfortable talking about sex. Malawi is very closed up about any issues relating to sex, the idea being, I think, that if you don’t talk about it, it won’t happen. But when you’re talking about some place with a one in twelve AIDS infection rate, clearly something isn’t working.
The only part of the workshop I really got to hear first hand was when Tina, Alyssa, and I went up to the school to drop of snacks. At that time, to emphasize the point that every topic was safe, that there was no embarrassment, the guys were having all the boys sing (at the top of their lungs) words that would normally be taboo. They were handling the topics with such maturity, and it was obvious that it was working, and that the boys were really loosening up and feeling comfortable. Meanwhile, in the other classroom, Tina, Alyssa and I are on the floor in stitches looking at each other giggling “hehe, they just said a dirty word.”
About two weeks after the workshop, I travelled down to Lilongwe and found something rather surprising waiting for me in my mailbox... my close of service packet. It included, among other things, a booklet about readjusting to American life. It was crazy to see it sitting there. No matter how many times I say it, I still can’t believe I’ve been here almost two years. A majority of people from my group will be home in less than two months. I, on the other hand, am pretty sure I’m staying until June or July of next year.
I’ve been thinking about this decision since January really, but it’s never been anywhere close to final. Now though, it’s looking like a pretty set deal. I could still change my mind, or the paperwork might not go through, but barring anything unexpected, I’ll be staying here an extra six months.
The biggest drawback, of course, is that I won’t be home. I really can’t express how much I miss family and friends, how much I miss even little traditions or normalcies I always took for granted before. It’s something I thought would fade with time, but it hasn’t. I still get periods where I am almost drowning in longing for everything that is home. Despite that though, the fact is that I really like my life here, and the work I’m doing, and the people I’m with. And while home will still be there in an extra six months, when I leave Malawi it’s going to be for a very long time, and, moreover, even if I came back it wouldn’t be the same.
I guess ideally I would love to be in a world where I could be in both places at the same time, or go home every now and again. Since that’s not possible, I’m going to stay here, and enjoy my life here just a little bit longer, and I guess be that much more grateful to see a plate full of tex-mex food when I get home.