this and that on life in the tropics...

On life in Malawi
A dugout painted white with Arsenal written large on it (correct font and all) paddling past in the morning.
HIV+ night watchman coughing outside in the night. (On ARV's so looking good - has 4 small kids and is only about 25...)
The cheeriness of Malawians - Ashun and Mabvuto, our gardeners/cleaners, forgotten by Vincent the boatman on early morning run to Domwe to poop scoop - uproarious laughter from everyone. Such lightness. Returning later that day having scooped poop out of the dry composter loos after 16 people had been on the island for 6 days! "Lots of poopoo!!" and lots of laughter again.
Walking along the dusty, bumpy village road which meanders around baobabs of at least 300 years old.
Electricity outages in the evening - all you hear is children laughing and playing all over the village. Families sit out on their stoeps or in the road, sharing the nsima and relish (lelish). Relish is a stew made from beans or fish or meat (usually goat).
The fabric of village life is still intact here - families are still together and old traditions still bind them. Land is passed down through the female line her, interestingly, so men must move onto their wife's family land. Maybe that's why it all still works so well!
Girls building tepee-like shelters on the beach - sticks covered with green branches and the odd old cloth. They build and then make fires for cooking nsima - hard to get to the bottom of it , but seems to be a rite of passage about becoming a woman (but the girls are all of 8 years old! Got to get working young here.)
Movie houses are reed shelters booming out B grade hollywood schlock (cheap chinese versions with 20 movies on one dvd - usually horrible kung-fu ones). Kids peering through the slats all around the little shack.
Everything is recycled out of necessity here - the best use of recycling I have seen is the way in which car tyres are shaved down into their component strips of rubber and strong nylon string. These are sold in different thicknesses and are used for everything from building (tying the reed and bamboo together) and thatching to necklaces made from the single strands. It is known as linya. Someone here once said that the whole of Malawi is bound together by linya and it is true.
(Saw a duck tethered by its back leg with linya this morning - being led along with its ducklings following it - duck are a popular relish here. Eddie caught Lyoness dealing with the preparations for duck relish once and it was too sad to see his horrified fascination with the poor dead, headless creature upended in a bucket - he couldn't pull himself away but had the dry heaves and was retching at the sight. I had to gently lead him away, much to his relief. He said, "I am not going to eat that duck, mum," in a faint voice and was reassured to find that he could stick to his macaroni instead!)