After a month of trying to liase with the highly recommended Chichewa tutor for the peace corps, I finally had my first lesson! We arranged to meet at the Shop-Rite in old town, and since I didn’t have transport I decided to walk, figuring I could walk by the vegetable market on my way home and get some ginger from my ginger supplier. I have my favorite vendors for everything – I buy my peas and tomatoes from an older woman towards the back of the market, my greens and eggplant from the young man in the stall across from her, my carrots from an older gentleman around the corner, and my ginger from a different older gentleman who seems to specialize in cabbage, cauliflower, and the plumpest, juiciest ginger in Lilongwe.
Like most things in Malawi, getting to the lesson was an adventure in itself. I arrived at Shop-Rite and the tutor asked me when I wanted to start my lessons. Right now? Where can we go? I looked at her and shrugged. Can we go to your office? I said I guess that would be fine, but I don’t have transport and the walk here took 30 minutes. She asked if a minibus was okay and thinking there was no better introduction to the minibus than with my Chichewa teacher I said, sure, let’s go! The two of us and about 25 others crammed into the 15 passenger van with a crack in its windshield and a huge sticker reassuring us that “This vehicle is protected by the blood of Jesus.” Two miles later we squeezed ourselves out.
The lesson itself was fantastic. In an hour and a half with her I learned more than I’ve learned in the 5 months I’ve spent picking up phrases here and there and studying on my own. Now the challenge will be to continue to practice since it’s really easy to get by with English for my work.
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