Our host family in Chidedza was the Phiri family (Phiri, pronounce "peery" means mountain). Our limited ability to communicate with them means we could not learn much about each other, but we still learned a lot about daily life in rural Malawi, and had a very fun time doing it. It turns out that laughing in Chichewa is the same as laughing in English!

The extended Phiri family occupied 8-9 homes on top of a hill just outside of the village, and there were always lots of young kids around. The father and mother of the Phiri family were very gracious (and patient) with us, making sure we were fed, had clean wash water, and a clean place to stay each night. For our part, we mainly watched, tried to ask some questions/learn, and played with all of the kids. We had brought soccer balls, jenga, playing cards, and frisbees to share with the kids. It was a lot of fun.

The mother ("Amai") would make the national dish of Malawi ("nsima") with vegetables every night. We would eat with her and her husband, his mother, and sometimes one of their adult daughters every night in the grandmother's house. After dinner, we would play a version of Uno that they played with a regular deck of playing cards that we had brought). After a couple games, we were left alone in the living part of the house, the grandmother retired to the kitchen, and out main hosts left for their house across the field. The reason we stayed in the grandmother's house was that it was large enough to hold all 4 of us (2 in 2 separate rooms) -> a true rarity in that countryside!

Most homes do not have electricity in this village. Those that do have solar panels that charge batteries during the day. Our house did not have any furniture in it, and the cooking was done over a fire outside.

Here is a tour of our living arrangements, starting with the living room and one of the bedrooms. Note that we needed to stay in mosquito netting -> malaria is still quite common, expected really, in this region.

Cooking was done over a fire outside (first three pictures are from our house, the forth/clearest picture was from a different family's indoor kitchen.

No running water meant latrine bathrooms and detached shower buildings. Here's our bathroom, outside and in:

Here are some of the Phiri kids, including Paul's soccer pals. The last picture shows the girls playing a game called "Net Ball". Given a soccer ball, the girls would play Net Ball, while the boys would play soccer. They would not play with a soccer ball together, but would play cards and jenga together. We did teach them how to play frisbee, and since we all played, they accepted it as a mixed-gender activity, and even Amai came to play for a bit!