I believe every city has it's own little corner that is a bit, well, odd and eclectic. In Lilongwe, which as I have learned is more of an expat town than a real part of Malawi, this little slice of odditiy can be found in the Pacific Shopping Mall. It houses book stores, Indian cafes, Malawian ethnic foods, a small vegtable market, a woman's clothing shop and even a karate studio-all run by people of various nationalities. And the cornerstone of this little electic haven is the Pace Supermarket, run by a group of Indians who could provide meat, Oreos, Coke, and MiracleWhip if you needed it. They also offered the best exchange rate in town. That was all until it burned down this morning as the bakers were preparing to make bread. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Without a store nearby, I went into town and Edison, the driver, took us to the most amazing market I have ever seen. Every type of fruit, including coconut, and vegatable could be found and would have made the food pyramid proud. If we had markets like this back home we wouldn't have to worry about organic labeling and such. Every color of the rainbow was there and then some. Crayola could add a few new colors to that Big Box of 96 or whatever it is now if they stopped by.

I am amazed that this produce coud be grown in such large quantities that I wondered why this couldn't be exported or more crops grown in this way but that is another discussion. It was a good thing that Edison was with us because a group of white females would have been attacked by every shop keeper there and would have charged us double. I would have taken pictures but if they had seen I had a camera, I'm sure the shop hawks would have descended on me and urged me to buy more. They are even courteous enough to offer you a bag. However, accepting it will cost you 20 kwacha, something they will not tell you. But you do what you have to to make money. The women, who mainly run the shops in the middle of the market, must sit back and watch this all in amusement. They are wise becase they catch the customers who are trying to escape the heckling at the front of the market. They are the ones to buy from.
* * * * *
I left work last night early enough to take a walk. Beside the school that is adjacent to where I'm staying, there was a soccer game going on. I stood at a distance and was taking a few pictures and looked down to check my camera settings. When I looked up, there was a group of boys who came spriniting toward me wanting to get their picture taken. In typical American fashion, or pre-pubescent fashion (not sure which, maybe both) they made goofy faces and threw up peace signs and other various hand gestures. Unfortunately, the little photo shoot did not turn out so well. I had to use the flash because it was dark and they didn't understand that they had to stay still untill the camera finished flashing. They kept moving before hand, so the pictures did not turn out. But for them I'm sure they enjoyed having their picture taken anyway, regardless of whether they turned out or not.