Full Moon

When I came to Mzuzu, it was a moonless night. Pitch black, except for the open fires, the few lit homes, and the stars above. Yet people were walking the main road between Lilongwe (the capital) and the northern region, no flash light or "torch", they walked in the dark. I wondered if the people were scared to walk in the dark, but I didn't ask.

In the past two weeks, I have watched the moon grow and noted how some things have changed.

So far, I have gained some extended family from the pastor's house. There are four adopted girls (some blood related, some are children of church members) and some adopted boys who appear and disappear and reappear. We have dinners and lunches together. I have exchanged some dollars for kwacha. I have eaten nsima (a kind of finely ground corn meal, just think of the taste of grits, but the consistency is more like a dough than the chewiness of grits. it's eaten with the hands, like bread - it's their main staple food, much like bread is for American homes). I have cooked some American foods for my Malawian family. I've even managed to get either food poisoning or water contamination - that made me call my mom at 2am (eastern time) crying because I was in so much pain. It sent me to a clinic, twice. As the moon as grown to full term, I have even experienced some unwanted attentions (you know what they say about people's behavior under a full moon), and have had to stand my ground. A lot has happened in the past two weeks while the moon grew larger.

I think my natural self was watching the interaction between the earth and the sky this whole time. I have felt the weather and the earth's rhythms effect even my mood. I'm listening to my body more than I ever have - it's amazing what your body will tell you if you actually have the time, space, and external silence to listen to it. I have come to understand that Americans don't listen to their bodies because we have so many other inputs, and there's no time to note our feelings, both emotional and physical. We also miss out on seeing the beauty of a constantly changing, but wonderfully familiar world. Crickets will always chirp, rain will always be wet, the sunshine will always be warm, ants will always find a way into the food supply, the laughter of children will always melt a stony heart, and a full moon will always be beautiful.

I took some time to just be in awe of the supernaturally lit sky. The sky is so pristine, and the moon was so brilliant (brighter than truck headlights turned on bright), that the sky around it looked like daytime. Even the most bright colors in the day were visible against the darker shades. The tin roofs of the homes glistened like they were pure silver, and not rusted, unimportant tin. The silver sky jewel is so brilliant that people walk about without a torch, (the light from a flashlight or a cellphone) and speak at a normal volume rather than hushed tones.

All in all, the full moon tells me that two weeks have passed. It tells me that time is going on without much effort on my part, and what is happening is meant to happen WHEN it's meant to happen. I'm grateful for this illumination.