my house.

I'm going to paint a picture of the house I live in to help you step into my shoes a little better. This may not interest you at all, but because my camera isn't working, I thought this was the best alternative to share my space with you.

I live in a house about the size of a classroom. It has four rooms- my bedroom, Pearson/Moinca/Edina's bedroom, an eating room and the kitchen.

The Kitchen

There is no furniture in this room, just two giant basins of water (carried from the borehole throughout the day), a basket & sieve for the maize flower, and two big bags of unprocessed maize in the corner. All of the dishes sit in large tubs beside the water basins. All of the cooking happens outside in the cooking shed which is made of bricks and cement and has a fire in the middle of the floor. Monica and Annettie cook in here all the time and I worry about their lungs. Sometimes I step in here and I have to leave because my eyes sting so much. I want to take the roof right off of this structure but it's there so they can cook during the rainy season- just crazy. We wash the dishes on a small patch of grass beside the cooking shed. It amazes me how much time women spend at ground level, either hunched over or sitting.

The Eating Room

There is a short table, a shelf for the dishes and a large straw mat where the sitting and eating happens. In the evenings, there is a candle perched on the table which lights up our food and faces. Usually dinner time consists of Annettie, Monica, Edina, Pearson, Alfred (a cousin to Pearson) and one or two other visitors eating nsima and chatting until about 8:30pm. Pearson's house receives many visitors because he is so connected with the community. Typically, I don't think a Malawian household has two random visitors over for dinner every night but I dig it.

My Bedroom

I have a single bed made of wood with a straw rug folded in half as my mattress. I bought a snuggly blanket to sleep on and another one to cover myself but Monica and Pearson gave me two more because they said I would be too cold ("You are an adult! Why didn't you buy a better blanket? You are too economic"). I have a footstool as a nightstand which holds a stack of letters I haven't sent yet (your addresses are on the internet an hour away), my bugspray, antimalarial pills and toothbrush. A pile of books sits underneath. All of my clothes live in my guitar case on the floor and my guitar leans in the corner. My bednet makes my room feel like a 9 year old girl's royal dream. 

i wake up every day and laugh.

love kate