A Day in the Life {a journal entry}

I have been wanting to document more of our day to day life here in Malawi. Funny, embarrassing, mundane stuff that I know I will enjoy looking back on one day. My first "A Day in the Life" is found here.

2.21.16

There have definitely been some learning experiences while living here. Experiences where cultures collide and you are left feeling totally embarrassed. One afternoon, Azlee (intern) and I were going out to do some home visits. We were wearing our medical pants and had our chintenjes in our backpacks ready to tie them around us as soon as we got to the home. Neither one of us were talented enough to ride our bikes in a skirt. Soon after we left, we saw there was a funeral in the village. A very large funeral with the whole village in attendance along the main road. Funerals here are marked with tree branches. A pile of branches alert you to the beginning of a funeral and again at the end of the funeral. I knew the markers and knew that if I was driving a car, the culturally respectful thing to do is to slow your vehicle down to a crawl between the 2 piles of branches. What I didn't know, was that if you were riding a bike, you should dismount and push the bike until you crossed the branches noting the end of the funeral. As we rode our bikes (oblivious to such a cultural rule) through the funeral, someone stopped us and asked us to dismount and push our bikes. We were mortified and apologized profusely. At this point everyone who was mourning had stopped to watch us. We were already embarrassed and did not want to cause anymore of a scene, so we decided to push our bikes around the backside of the funeral as to draw less attention. We did this and came out on the other side and were a good distance from the funeral, so we decided it was safe to get back on our bikes. As we were climbing back on, another person came to inform us that we had  indeed NOT passed the branches and to please get off our bikes. Oh my goodness! We did it again?! Of course at that moment we look over and see the Sr. Chief and the village headmen attending the funeral and watching us make this huge cultural faux pas. We apologize again whole heartedly and climb back off the bikes and push them further down the road where we finally see the branches signaling the end of the funeral. Rest assure, we did not make that mistake on the way back home.....or ever again. Fortunately, Malawians are so gracious and did not harbor any hard feelings towards us!