Soooo... I nearly ate a maggot today.

Just when I think I’m getting used to this place, something else happens to take me by surprise. I was nearing the end of an absolutely stressful day, after having a lovely meal as per usual with the priests. I thought I felt like a small treat, so I cut a muffin to eat half of it, and I’m offered some orange juice to soak the muffin with, because it’s quite bland. I gratefully accept! I pour the orange juice all over the muffin, go to take a spoonful, and... I notice that the muffin appears to be squirming. The others got a great kick out of my squealing about it, which I suppose is one good thing. But I’m sorry, I’m just not used to finding bioculture in my food!

*gags*

Apparently, apparently there were obviously worms/maggots/squirmy things in the orange when the cook went to press it, and he just didn’t notice. Either way, it certainly helped my diet along because I didn’t feel like eating much after that – it’s times like these I start to pine for the processed comforts of home a little bit :-D

Speaking of processed comforts, how about customer service? I went into town today, with my German guy friend and one of the priests, to have a look around, do a bit of shopping, etc., etc. We ended up going to the Crossroads complex in Lilongwe for a bit of shopping, and my German friend told me that here was a very safe place to take out money, because there were security guards everywhere and so there was very little opportunity for pickpocketing, etc.

So... went to get money out. It is worth bearing in mind that BOTH my ATM card and my Mastercard are supposed to be able to be used anywhere in the world. Apparently, this is not so – I tried to use my ATM first. Nope, no service here. I put my credit card in, and just as I was about to enter my PIN... the machine bloody well swallowed it, didn’t it? My credit card that I keep for emergencies? Yum yum.

I really wanted to get this sorted quickly. I’m paranoid about inconveniencing people, so I was acutely aware of both my friends waiting for me in the car. When I called the security guard to help me, he pointed out a list of numbers of staff contacts for when there are problems. This wasn’t an actual branch, you see, just a kind of room with 2 ATMs in it. I called all 4/5 number on the list. Not one answered. I tried again. 1 answered, then hung up on me. I ended up having to go home for my passport to prove who I was when the card was eventually retrieved, and come back at 5 when I waited another hour for the guy to come and open the safe/vault/whatever and get my card back. Everything just moved so slowly!!

I was so stressed out, I knew that really I’d eventually get it back but it just took so darn long and since there was nobody answering their phone despite being on an on-call list, I couldn’t talk to anyone except the security guard who had little or no English, and didn’t seem to understand half of what I was saying.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Anyway, I got it back!! I just felt really bad that the priests were more or less ferrying me around all evening... Still though, I got to make an accidental complaint about it... I say accidental, because there was another man waiting at 5 who’d had his card swallowed too. He was asking me how I got on when I lost my card, and when I told him no-one had answered their phone it turns out he actually worked for the bank, in another branch! :-D So, I guess at least they know my feelings about their on-call system now!

And I suppose, it could have been worse! German guy – actually from now on, we’ll call him T, because calling him “German guy” is weird – said to me at the time “well, look at it this way... it’s better than somebody taking your card, who is not an ATM”. LOL!! True. A nice way of putting it – he also suggested we might be able to organise a trip to lake Malawi in a few weeks, because he wants to see it as much as I do, which would be absolutely super!! I’m dying to see the lake, but I don’t want to go on my own, so this idea suits me down to the ground. Monkey Bay, here I come!!

Oh, and Mr Baby Gecko’s missus has still not moved in.