Evening Pursuits

It took me so long to write the last post that I’m already ready for a new one on a different topic! As previously mentioned, evenings here are long (the sun goes down at 6) and slow. We’re finally getting a little familiar with the scene, and finding some friends to help us share the time. So what have we been up to?

Wednesday nights folks hang out at The Shack for the weekly volleyball tournament. Fueled by cheap cigarettes and cheaper beer, the international crowd hangs around outdoor picnic tables gossiping and nominally cheering on the various teams. In the A bracket, teams are composed mostly of Malawians with a few serious expats sprinkled in. The B bracket consists of inexperienced players, and those who want to drink beer between rotations. Nathaniel even finds someone [Dale, South African climate adaptation specialist] to play rounds of darts with.

Friday we host our first real dinner party. Dave [visiting American pastor] and Haley [teacher and, currently, pastor’s wife] live down the street from us and are thankful to take a break from the fishbowl of living in a church-owned house with a church-loyal staff. Cooking up homemade pasta sauce and pasta with only one big pot takes a little juggling, but Dave and Haley are sufficiently distracted by the joy of drinking wine and beer (pastors don’t drink here) that they don’t seem to notice. : )

We’ve also brought a little homemade yahtzee set. Here’s us playing in the dark one night when the power is out. Don’t mind the typical Brooks picture face – we're having a good time:

 And last night, in need of some longer entertainment and with the help of loyal Wikipedia, we divvy up the Bananagrams tiles and make a scrabble board on the back of our corn flakes box. Christin, our new roommate, joins us for a round.

“New roommate?” you may ask. Yes, we were going back and forth on having someone join us here, but were rattling around in the house a little (not a lot of furniture, books or tchokies to help it feel full!) and are excited about using the extra income to travel while we’re here. Christin [education researcher for the World Bank] posted that she needed a place to live, we responded and had her to dinner Tuesday and, wanting to get out of her hotel, she moved in yesterday. So far so good! (Don’t worry, Laura, there’s still plenty of room for visitors!)

Next steps? Homemade Scattergories and the founding of a pub trivia night!