wedding in Mwanza

Last week end I was invited to a wedding with my friends in Mwanza. I
had never been to a wedding in Malawi, not even to a mass! I had heard
all the stories about it, so I knew more or less what to expect, but
still, the experience is worth an entry of my blog.

You probably know that is not easy to find me in a church, but I must
say that going to church in Africa can be an unforgettable experience.
The singing and dancing is really beautiful and touching, including
the ululating cries of the women. And at the end everybody end up
dancing to the music. Just great fun!

One of the things everybody tell you if you are coming to a wedding
is: bring a lot of 20 kwatcha banknotes. 20 kwatchas are the smallest
banknotes that you can find, and the reason is that during the party
you are supposed to dance throwing banknotes into a basket (or to the
air!) for the just married. So, if you don't have small banknotes, you
will end up throwing lots of money!

But probably the funniest part is to see the faces of Malawians when
they see a muzungu dancing. They just cannot believe it! We had a
farewell party the day after the wedding and at the end we started to
dance. Yo had to see the smile on their faces, and at the end a lot of
women decided to join us and learn our steps, and teach us their
moves... soooo sweet!!!

As usual, I have put a few pictures on flickr, just to give you an
idea...

rains!

The rainy season has officially started! The rivers run on the streets
of Blantyre, and a thunder just made me jump on my desk, and forced me
to write these lines. There is not another conversation, the rains,
that everybody hope will be abundant. The farmers have started to
prepare the fields, and people queue to obtain fertiliser. The
luckiest will have coupons from the government and will buy it cheap,
the others... may not get much maize this year!

It is sad that a country like Malawi, with 1/3rd of its surface
covered by fresh water, relies on the rains for the production of
crops. There are still very few irrigation systems in the country, so
most of the people just wait for the rain to fall in november instead
of using water from their lake and rivers!

Apart from rain, I don't have much to tell you! we are now in exam
period, so I just have loads of papers to mark. I have started to look
at jobs (yes, because I have to come back next year!) but without
stress, I still have a few months to enjoy Africa.

The prize after the exam marking will be a trip to Ethiopia! the 29th
of this month I will fly to Addis Adaba to meet Ivonne, and then we'll
travel for 2 weeks in the north of the country.. You'll hear more
about it soon!