Every evening as the weather cools down and the tropical sun’s intensity diminishes, we like to go in the countryside and get some physical exercise. Sometimes we go on our own, and sometimes we have an entourage of neighborhood kids to escort us. Sometimes we pick up curious people along the way who join us for a while and then disappear. Lucas prefers running and Janet favors quick walking, so we usually split up for about 30 minutes while we carry out our respective workouts. We live just a few homes from the edge of town, so within minutes we are in a landscape of gentle hills covered by cornfields interspersed with large mango trees with continuous views of the surrounding mountains and granite monuments. The soft evening light makes the area's inherent beauty even more spectacular and at first we felt continuous urges to take pictures at every vantage point (although we were told during training not to do this so as not to be perceived as tourists). Since the network of paths cross the Mozambique/Malawi boundary without warning, our evening outings are often international events. Sometimes it is difficult to know which language to greet passer-bys in, English or Portuguese (Good Afternoon or Boa Tarde?) which I why we need to learn Chichewa, which is spoken by both populations. In the rural areas people are often quite surprised to see white people and we receive vary reactions, from running and hiding in the brush to attempts to communicate with us in Chichewa (which we cannot understand, but this doesn’t discourage some people from continuing to try) to the simpler (and universally understood) thumbs up sign. Hopefully we can continue this enjoyable evening routine after the school year starts.
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