Smells of Service

There has never been any shortage of stimuli to the olfactory sense during our service here in Africa. Unfortunately, most of the odors encountered during our daily activities are of the sort we would have categorized as moderately to severely offensive back in America, however after a year’s worth of nasal conditioning it’s rare that we rank a smell above mildly stinky these days. Domesticated animals perennially rank among the foul culprits polluting our air with their stank aromas. We have plenty of pigs, cows, goats, chickens, ducks, and turkeys around so that piles of feces or pools of urine, as well as fetid wallowing holes, are never too far out of smelling range. People’s bodily functions also contribute to the rank odors: our latrine, despite Luc’s regular attempts to achieve some degree of sanitation with bleach, regularly lapses into the stinky category, especially on the warmer days. Even worse are the open gutters and cesspools where the human waste accumulates from those without access to pits. There is a lot of sweating here, and people are usually in close proximity to each other, so we are often smelling plenty of BO. Farting is also not uncommon, although it has recently become illegal in neighboring Malawi (unclear how they’re going to enforce that one)! Janet often remarks that she never really appreciated cologne or perfume as much as she does on this continent. During rainy season the high humidity can keep our house funky, as mildew accumulates and our not totally dry things get a little moldy, although a good dose of detergent or chlorine helps reverse some of the damage caused by these perpetrators. Conversely, during dry weather, smoke from fires, either for cooking or for clearing fields, and dust can hang suspended in the air we breath in quantities sufficiently irritating to remind us of the smog we felt we had temporarily left behind in LA. Even worse is when people burn their trash releasing dark toxic laden clouds to pummel our noses and lungs. The market concentrates its own set of odors. Piles of decomposing fruit and vegetable discards produce putrid aromas, and the tables of desiccated fish and shrimps add to the assault, especially when damp weather has slightly re-hydrated them. Vendors, with no means of refrigeration leave their pig, goat, and bovine carcasses out however long it takes to sell an animal’s worth of meat, so you can usually smell how good or bad of a day they are having. Any kind of confined space, but especially crowded modes of public transportation, usually include in an amplified state all of the above smells. Although it may sound like Africa is a really smelly place, not all smells go in the unpleasant category. Top on the pleasant list should be the abundant Plumeria flower, whose Hawaiian perfume is such a special treat Luc will often gather them by the handful to make Janet smile. Fresh bread is always exciting, as are non-rotten fruits, like the always pungently tropical smelling pineapple. Neighborhood cooking can produce delightful scents; we notice them most often when walking home hungry from school. Our own kitchen contributes some fine fragrances, especially when Janet is in the baking mood, which is frequent during the cold winter evenings as our toaster oven is one of the only ways to heat our little home. The smell of rain or fresh countryside breezes always provide a breath of delicious air. Hopefully this blog hasn’t been too unpleasant. Things really were pretty smelly when we got here, but after a year of coexisting with all kinds of odors, our noses hardly even register any except the most extreme examples anymore.