Meanwhile in Malawi
A. E. Brain
By Zoe Brain
21 May, 2010
http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2010/05/meanwhile-in-malawi.html (http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2010/05/meanwhile-in-malawi.html)
From the New York Times:
BLANTYRE, Malawi — Tiwonge Chimbalanga looked like a man but said he was a woman. He helped with the cooking and dressed in feminine wraparound skirts. Steven Monjeza was a quiet, sullen man often intoxicated on sorghum beer. He said he had never been happy until he finally met the right companion.
The two celebrated their engagement — their chinkhoswe, in the Chichewa language — with a party at a lodge here in Malawi's commercial capital. It began cheerfully enough. But later, gawkers pushed their way inside, some shouting taunts, others just staring through despising eyes. Then the electricity failed. The band stopped playing, and the bride collapsed in tears.