a market, a fancy lunch and a wedding

The market trip filled my senses. Smell: fish getting more pungent every minute in the sun. Body order of hundreds of people jammed together in a tight space. Sight: PEOPLE everywhere. Jammed into every corner, around every turn, tucked into stalls piled on top of one another. Men, women, and children. Sound: a blasting radio station reverberating throughout the market. Haggling vendors and hearing people calling me "Mzungu" (white person). Temperature: the sun beating down and then the relief of shade inside the seemingly tunneled stalls where women sell every color combination of fabric you can imagine. Chitenje are worn by everyone here-- women make dresses out of them, they wrap them around their waists, and they wear them as shawls. I didn't take photos-- it would have caused trouble. This was not my favorite part. It revealed to me a reality that without a local guide, I never would have experienced, and I was glad to leave.

Next, we crossed to the other side of the proverbial tracks and had lunch in the fanciest hotel in Lilongwe.

At only $200USD/night, this place rivals the nicest of resorts in Santa Barbara. The food in the fancy places I am being taken to is delicious. It's easy to order, and everything is in English. Everyone speaks English. In fact, they teach school in English starting at about 5th grade, so people who finish high school are fully fluent. It's easy to communicate.

Finally, after a little work and moving around of supplies from this place to that, I was taken to the wedding of one of AGE Africa's student alumnae (she had been working out in the fields and couldn't

afford to go to school before AGE Africa. Today, after a scholarship and support for high school and college, she is getting her nursing degree!) And, today, she got married. So there I was, at a traditional Malawian wedding, in the grubby clothes I had worn all day. In Malawi, weddings are open affairs, and anyone can come. Our team participated in a traditional money dance, where we danced down the center aisle together through the tent and up to the front. Then, dollar by dollar, we all tossed our money into a basket as a combined gift from our organization. It was the highlight of my day, for sure. And, given my dancing skills, I can assure you, I lived up to my Mzungu name!