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10/16/09: Somewhere near the Wheelhouse, Malawi

When Marietjie told us that the people in Malawi love to exchange their crafts for tourists’ old clothing and other sundries, I immediately regretted letting Kevin talk me into leaving a few short-sleeved shirts and my old pair of flip-flops at home. I regretted it even more when I kept seeing people walk out of the truck with old pairs of socks and hats and return with wooden bowls and goblets. So on our last day in Malawi, I demanded Kevin that we go through all of our things and get together all the things we didn’t need or want so that we could get a bunch of other things that we also don’t need (but I want).

We came up with:

1 Masterlock combination lock (originally brought two for the lockers on the truck, but they were too big; Kevin wouldn’t let me barter the second one “just in case we need it later on”)
1 small notepad and pen (NOT one of our good Pilot pens, obviously)
1 Kenya Airways pillow (given to us by Pamela)
12 or so clothespins (also given to us by Pamela)
1 pair broken sunglasses (mine, I think I sat on them)
1 salmon-colored nightie and matching flowery bikini top (sound familiar?)
1 sparkly blue flapper dress and matching scarf (one broken strap on the dress due to Kevin’s overly-vigorous manner)
15 or so small hair bands
15 or so bobby pins
600 kwacha (the last of our Malawi money)

Armed with this miscellaneous assortment of goodies, we walked into the shops and offered up our items for trade. We ended up with:

2 small wooden bowls with lids
2 miniature wooden chairs (Malawi is well-known for their wooden chairs, but Kevin wouldn’t let me buy a life-sized one)
1 wooden giraffe
1 small canoe (don’t know what we’ll do with this)
1 small drum and matching drumstick
1 flowery bikini top
1 blue flapper dress and matching scarf

I think we may have been able to get something for the blue flapper dress and scarf, but that was the last thing we had and Kevin kept opening the bartering with “Sorry, this is all we have,” and apologetically holding up the blue dress at arm’s length and looking disgustedly at it. I tried to explain to him that we needed to talk UP our things for exchange, not look disgusted by them even if those were our true feelings, but his inner morality compass wouldn’t even allow for that little bit of exaggeration. Shockingly honest man I married, huh? Luckily, there are some markets in Livingston that also allow bartering, so I have high hopes of exchanging that blue dress and matching scarf for a small hippo. Kevin is not allowed to come.

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Picture of the Day: Explanatory sign in the bathroom showing how to use (and not use) the toilet