My first big language mistake

A few weeks ago all of the staff from the medical and rehab teams took the day off and went for a trip to the lake. It was sensational! We travelled by bus through Salima, ate roasted chimanga (corn) along the way and had a flat tyre. We swam and totally enjoyed the amazing weather and water (which is fresh not salty) We planyed volleyball on the beach and had a lovely day!! the lake is awesome!!!

That weekend was my birthday and i had been invited to stay with Kathy and her Husband Steve (They are missionaries from Canada - Kathy happens to be my project manager at SOS) They totally spoilt me over the weekend, it was lovely! anyway... back to my terrible language error...

I went to say I had fish and chips for lunch, which is chambo and chips in malawi, anyway, I accidently said that I had chamba and chips, instead of the usual chambo… so I declared that the chamba was soooo great, I loved it, I’ll definitely have that again!! Everyone was in hysterics around me, apparently I had proudly declared that I had marijuana and chips….oops!! they all asked me to say ndikukonda kwambili chamba..which is I love marijuana very much. Caused a great deal of amusement for everyone. Especially when we were stopped at the road block by traffic police and they all started asking me to tell the police man what I had for lunch… many laughs… as marijuana is extremely illegal here in Malawi, and thankfully of course the policeman found it funny as well. That’s my first big Chichewa mistake, and they all havn’t let me forget it!