Spirit Of Wilson: A quick morning of shoes, balls, reunions, hope, shopping, hats and a very unusual (for us) delicacy

Hello, friends.
It's been a whirlwind day. I had no idea how much would get accomplished in so short of time. Our connections with the Dzaleka refugee center and the donation of balls is almost guaranteed, and it happened so easily I was quietly ecstatic. It began and ended with my driver, and an unbelieveable stroke of good luck.

Duncan, chewing on . . .

At 8 a.m., Duncan showed up. Maggie knew him and his good reputation, and that is why we had him park his car and drive hers. I think having him drive her car was supposed to cost K10,000 (10,000 Kwachas) instead of K15,000 if he drove his own. But by the end of the day, those details had long been forgotten and I really didn't care. I paid him K16,000.($21.68) Oh, and another 2,000 for some mice; and lunch; and a baseball hat with the caption, "No Problem." That's Duncan in the photo on the left, chewing on something. More about that, later.

When Duncan arrived, I started to explain to him that I wanted to connect with the "There is Hope Malawi" office at the United Nation's refugee center in Lilongwe, Dzaleka. That's when he disclosed that he personally knew Innocent Magambi, author of Refugee For Life: My Journey across Africa to Find a Place Called Home. And, he added, we don't have to drive 40 miles to Dzaleka, because the office for There is Hope Malawi was just a short drive away. In very short order I was waiting to meet Innocent, who was in a meeting. Then, out of the meeting walked Nicole Hongjin Lin, the young Chinese woman who I had met in Addis Ababa, and who was on her way to volunteer with his organization. That's Nicole, sitting next to me in the photo below.

Nicole and me outside the headquarters of There is Hope Malawi

I needed no further introduction. Innocent invited me into his office and I presented him with a red, junior-sized one world futbol, explaining that it could be punctured a thousand times and still bounce, he practically made my sale for me. It's not unusual for a good soccer ball to last as little as a week at the camp, he said, noting that this one didn't need a pump. I explained that one ball can serve approximately 30 people. I expressed regrets that I didn't have more to donate. Innocent noted an organization could hold onto one ball and serve three soccer teams that trained at different times of the week, making it possible for one ball to serve 90 players. Soccer is big at the refugee camp, he said.

Sitting in with us was Cathreen Ndege-Chirwa, director of programs. Could this ball be used in the girl's net-ball program? Innocent asked. Well, yes, and that means the Muslim girls who engage in sports separately could benefit as well. Depending on whose figures you use, Muslims account for between 13 and 30 percent of the Malawi population. They and Christians are the two largest religious groups, and from what I have learned, they coexist harmoniously. Innocent had just saved me the task of trying to make inroads with a faith community that I knew very little about.

Tomorrow, I explained, I go on safari. But when I'm back in a week, I can meet the players who will be using the futbols that my readers sponsored. I left four balls to facilitate his ability to make organizations serving the camp familiar with the One World Futbol. I also left a small version of The Shoe that Grows.

Oh, I guess I didn't mention that nine more pair of The Shoe that Grows arrived yesterday from the states. Unlike Shu, these balls are blue, and that's a photo of some of them below. Innocent was familiar with this product -- many have already been donated to the Dzaleka camp. And that's a relief for me, because I didn't feel comfortable about leaving so few.

On the way out the door, I donated 27 tank tops like the one in the photo at the right. These were part of a bundle of clothing donated by Paula Everdell-Brown, a Facebook acquaintance who teaches EMT courses, works with an ambulance company and participates in sporting events -- which resulted in her having lots of sports-related hats to donate as well as sports clothing. (Thanks, Paula!)

What a great feeling. But that blew a hole in my plans for the day, because the biggest challenge has turned out to be a cake walk.

Oh, but the fun was just beginning. There was shopping to do, including picking up some bananas from a roadside vendor. "Vendor" is used advisedly, because no-one hangs out a shingle; sellers just find a spot by the highway and pile up their wares. Malawians are industrious and entrepreneurial, it seems. The lady in the photo below sold me a large bunch of bananas for K1,200--less than $2.

I also bought a bag of oranges from another individual, who hand picked them for me from this pile dumped on the side of the road.

Not much meat here; best eat the bones as well.

It was lunch time, so Duncan and I stopped at a mall where I wanted to purchase groceries. In a fast food restaurant I said I wanted Malawian food, so we had a nice snack of quail. The bird is so delicate that you can eat the bones, and they are nutritious, Duncan explained. He was right, although he ate all of the bones on his bird. I left the tough ones on the plate.

However, there was another meal yet to enjoy: Mice. See the photo below? We drove all over to find one of these roadside salesmen.

Since you're asking, the answer is yes, aficionados include the fur in the meal -- or so they say.

Mice, explained Duncan, are an important protein source. There are lots of mice in Malawi, and it is a mouse that Duncan was chewing on in the photo at the top of this post. And the only thing not consumed is the guts. The mice are cleaned, and then eaten from head to tale, bones and all.

The mice live in burrows under the ground. Their burrows have several grass-cushioned chambers and an escape hole. A hunter finds the burrow, finds the back door, blocks the back door, and then blows smoke into the hole, suffocating the mice. Then he digs up the meal. I wanted a photo of that, so I practiced the art of the deal: I would buy the mice for Duncan if he would help me get photos of the vendor and allow me to take a photo of him eating a mouse. From his point of view--what's not to like? He would eat a couple mice and then take the balance home to share with his family. He has a daughter, 7, and a son, 2.

The first gifted hat

The day was only half over, and I was done. I went to a cash machine so I could fill the tank for the safari tomorrow. When I returned to the car, there was a young boy begging for money. I don't make it a practice of handing out money, but I had an alternative plan. After all, I AM the man with the hats -- 85 of them donated at my pre-safari birthday bash June 15 at First Class Ballroom in Everett, WA. We're not only talking baseball hats. We're talking bush hats, driving hats, even ladies' sun hats. I opened my duffel, nudged some One World Futbols aside, and came up with the hat at the left. He put it on and beamed. Afterward, I realized I owed Duncan a big thank you for the help he delivered today, so I let him sort through several base ball caps until he found one he liked. I'm glad I had one with the words, "No Problem." It certainly fit the theme for the day.