The Hash...and things

Imagine if you were Malawian for one minute - you walk far distances to work, you harvest acre after acre of maize, your favorite food is nsima with relish, you carry even a single bar of soap on your head. What possibly could be more ridiculous to you than (a) running for absolutely no real reason, (b) seeing a bunch of white people running as fast as they can in one mass group like sheep, (c) watching these azungu's then stop for beer along the way! Bringing this sort of entertainment, live to the people working in the maize fields, is the service provided by the Blantyre Hash.

The Hash is a group that apparently has existed in Blantyre for many, many years (they have t-shirts, one guy was wearing his from 1994). And while I felt absolutely ridiculous participating in such an activity, it was admittedly, very fun. The idea behind the Hash running group is that one member volunteers to set up the run for the next week. That person is responsible for finding a route for the entire group. The group can be anywhere from 10-50 people...all expatriates. However, the route is not set along a regular paved road; rather, the route can wind through maize field, down abandoned train tracks, across school soccer fields and undoubtedly past a popular bar. The goal is to find the route by following chalk markings on the ground. At each juncture in the path, there is a large O painted. At this point someone yells, "Check it out!" and everyone scatters in different directions. What you are looking for are three consecutive solid dots along the path. You may instead find 2 dots and then an X, and alas, you've run in the wrong direction. Once someone finds the correct route, they yell something like "Onward!" and the whole herd of white people turn around and follow the leader until the next large O. There are HH markings, "Hash Halts," where everyone can catch up and get on the same path again.

About midway through this activity, there is a beer break. The group has an age range of about 20-60, and a mix of guys and girls. The guys mostly take the beer at this point, the girls sort of moan that the stop is ruining the cardio and that the beer has too many calories. At the end of the run, the group makes a large circle and sings this really hilarious, clearly British pub-inspired song that says something like, "you are a hasher for life, your never going to heaven because you drink when you run, drink it down, down, down, down..." This is when different people get pulled into the center of the circle have have to chug a beer. Guess who the lucky ones are to go every time? The newbies. Me and Kathleen (and 2 other new girls). Drink it down... or pour it on your head. So, like I said...drink it down.

My birthday turned out to be a lot of fun. Kathleen decorated my house with banners and balloons, and got me cute little things to remind me of home - mentos, kit kats, and twix, a Glamour magazine and a Nalgene bottle. It was really sweet. We went out for dinner with some new medical students from Michigan State and baked low-fat brownies made with apple sauce. I got TONS of wonderful emails and even got some phone calls and text messages (even from Australia- thanks Hannah!). In all, it was one to remember.

Other than that, today Nick arrives and will be joining the team until August. The next few months will be about passing on the torch while I try to figure out where to go to medical school. Dr. Manary will be here next week and we'll start doing some more serious data analysis and evaluation of the program. I'm looking forward to some positive results!

My mom, brother and Rob are visiting me in Africa from April 12-26. I'm so excited. We are going to tour Cape Town, South Africa for a week, then head back to Malawi for some real Africa experiences. Lucky for them, they won't have the extra special experience of getting insanely stuck in mud or having to screen hundreds of screaming babies - those days have seemed to pass. By the time they go home, there will be only very few weeks remaining of my time in Malawi (for now). I'm sad and excited to be at the end!

Thanks again to everyone who sent birthday wishes!

-dkm