Enjoying too much

had yet another Malawian meeting yesterday... 5 hours long to accomplish NOTHING. Plus it started 2 hours late. I am on the planning committee for the Cocacola cup, a tournament for school kids. It's actually pretty cool, a regional tournament that has schools then go to district and then a national level. Then, people are supposed to also scout a team to make regional all star teams as well. Very up my alley. I am enjoying too much, as they say here.

Our football team in in the finals this Saturday! We have been training HARD. I have been running with the team in the afternoon and, of course, doing lots of Yoga. I am making some of my students come, and we're making facepaint with crumbled blue chalk and oil. Martha and I are making American ndiwo (relish- what you eat with nsima... to see what nsima is, here is a link that explains it (think smoothe, unsalted, hard grits cooked into hard paste that you roll into balls and eat, dipped in sauce http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nshima). We're making bean or soya pieces and guacamole... they eat avocados as fruit, not savory, so its really cool for them. PLUS, they love to say guacamole.

Samantha gave me a nice idea; she wants to get me a copy of Romeo and Juliet for next term and asked what edition. If you have an old coppy to send, that rocks, but if you get a new copy, I would recommend:
Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare made easy, parallel edition
http://www.amazon.com/Romeo-Juliet-Shakespeare-Made-Parallel/dp/0748702555/ref=pd_bbs_sr_11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209647141&sr=8-11
or, we are in desperate need of poetry books,
Unsung song, an anthology of Malawian writing in English
http://www.amazon.com/Unsung-Anthology-Malawian-Writing-English/dp/9990851344/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209647550&sr=1-1
That is what we are reading right now. It is actually quite good... I love the poems, which is what were are reading. If you get it, you should read it first.

Next year, we have a novel (Smouldering charcoal) and short stories from Africa (looking for a rain god), which is AWESOME and includes short stories form all over africa.
http://www.amazon.com/Looking-Other-Short-Stories-Africa/dp/0333604490/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209648171&sr=1-1
In fact, I reccomment you reading it and then sending the copy to me haha. it will be a challange to read the novel and the short stories next year. Because students don't have books, reading is a huge challange for them, as is any english, but reading especially.

Check out some Malawian music. It's very cheezy and poppy, but really fun. It's the stuff we played at our school dance last week. It was awesome... danced so hard the room filled with sweat. THey love Zambian music, like teh Third and Jimmy. the song its over over is awesome. THe black missionaries are the most popular Malawian band.. rad.


I love you all,
KB