Fire Fire's New Clothes

Fire fire is our village crazy man. Named such because he likes to start fires. A fact I learned one day when an unattended fire started coming too close to the YWCA and the women had to pause the meeting to redirect the fire - all the while saying "Fire fire" and tisk tisk tisking.

Fire Fire was not always crazy. He had a wife once and speaks English fairly well. Well enough he can harass me in it. Now he spends his days picking up trash in the market place. I think sometimes for his own little keepsakes but also probably so he can burn whatever is not edible. Sometimes he does small chores for the people who own the tavern. Like carry water or sweep. He often is the the witch/villain's tavern and I sometimes can't help but imagine him as a henchmen doing evil bidding. I think they pay him in beer because sometimes he is very polite and sometimes he is drunk and not. When he is being polite he greets me as "Hello Mr. Karen! how are you?" or proposes marriage nicely. When he is drunk he is more obnoxious and aggressive and says "I want to damage you so your family will pay me money." At which point I race off huffily on my bike yelling "They won't. They will kill you! I will kill you!" No worries dear family I am not afraid of him. He does not come to my house and the village is pretty good about watching out for me.

Once I had a Peace Corps friend visiting and as we were walking to the market Fire Fire approached us thinking my friend was my father. He told "my father" that he wanted to marry me and my friend kind of moved him along saying "no, no." Then Fire fire said "Karen I want to marry you!" and I shrugged my shoulders and said "He said no. What's a girl to do?"

The sad thing is that Fire fire is in direct competition for my hand with five year old Jr. Zulu. Who I adore. One night Mr. Zulu asked Jr. why he was not wearing a jersey when it was cold and Mrs. Zulu responded that he refused to put one on because Keli was coming and he didn't want me to think of him as an old man but a fit man. So cute.

And both of them are in competition with a number of other Zambian men who have wasted no time in declaring their intentions. I have lost count. I try to explain that I wouldn't cook and they would be unhappy but that only works sometimes.

Anyway, the other day I was riding past the tavern with my neighbor Ruben and saw that Fire Fire had on new clothes. I commented to Ruben as I passed. When I came back by Fire Fire came running out saying "Mr. Karen, Come! Look! I'm clean! Look! I'm Clean!" It was pretty endearing. There is a strange place in my heart for Fire Fire.

And though I make light of it - people who are mentally ill and poor without any services available to them are tragic.


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It will cost an obscene amount of money to bring my cat home so that probably will not happen and I am heart broken. Even if I can find someone to care for him properly - I am convinced I am the only person he will ever love.

When I think about leaving him the scenario plays out like that scene from Princess Bride when Buttercup finds out Wesley has been killed by pirates and neither sleeps nor eats for days. Garbanzo also will sit forlorn in his hey strewn room saying "I will never love again." Only the movie ends there. Unlike Wesley and Buttercup there will be no joyful reunion in the fire swamp for Keli and Garbanzo. Just forlornness forever.

Been awhile

So.

I haven't written anything in a while and haven't actually prepared anything.

Most recent developments:
My shed burnt down (see flickr) with my bike inside. The bike melted into puddles of aluminum. Peace Corps gave me a new bike but the shed is yet to be rebuilt. Getting it built the first time was such a headache. But I haven't lost hope.

My best friend in Peace Corps left due to security issues. This is ok in some ways and not in some ways. I won't go into the details. But pretty terrible for me. She was a pretty constant stream of support. She will be still but delayed and not daily. Fallen now into that group of people I love who I can not easily access.

The building has started and is now half way finished. This has happened with relatively few problems. My head teacher is on it. Now I have 6months to make sure all the systems are in place and people are very very sure about what they need to do to make this project work.
It can happen. This is the fun part.

I have been thinking a lot about the twilight hours of my service, especially with my friend leaving earlier than she expected and feeling like things were left undone. I feel really good about what I need to do in the coming months to feel like I can leave things and they won't fall apart. They may fall apart anyway. But being happy and comfortable and knowing what needs to be done is a nice feeling. I know who I should work with, I know what to expect of them, and I have learned something about how to be effective here. And I really love my community.

Also. President Levy Mwanawasa died. He had a stroke several months ago while in a meeting with Prez. Mbeki and Mugabe. I watched the burial on TV yesterday with the teachers. What will happen now? An election. Zambia is peaceful country and any Zambian will tell you that readily.

So there. That is how I am. How are you?

Women: Nyanja nyanja Nyanja
Keli: Come? Come where? Me?
Women: Nyanja blah blah blah
Keli: To your house? Why? I don't know.
Mr. Mulilo riding up on his bike: Keli, they say come to their house to get what you've been promised
Keli: What have I been promised?
Mr. Mulilo checks with Women: Nyanja blah blah
Mr. Mulilo: A monkey
Keli: A Monkey!? Ok. I will come. Wait is the monkey alive? Do I have to eat it?
Mr. Mulilo checks with women: Nyanja blah
Mr. Mulilo: No, a live monkey. Just to see.
Keli: Sure! I will come!

And indeed there was a monkey. Tied to a rope in a tree in my village. Illegal. He tried to sell it to me. for $50. Thought about buying it too just to let it go. But then they would just keep catching them and then I would keep buying them and letting them go...

I did not purchase the monkey.

The day before the above episode Chester had an animal in a trap at the borehole. It looked like a very large rat but I only saw the end and it's long rat tail. I asked a bunch of people what it was. I was convinced for a day that it was an African possum. But in fact I think it was just a very large kind of rat. Like the size of a cat... and apparently they are very nice to eat.