SGtext

About the Smile Generator Series
Phase One
Duration: March to August 2009
Location: Zomba, Malawi (SE Africa)

My wife, Leslie, and I had been living in Malawi for four months; we were growing tired of standing out everywhere we walked. Unable to blend in, we decided to emphasize our unique position (that of pregnant white woman and tall white man walking in southern Malawi).

Every walk felt like performance art anyway, so we decided that we needed a visual that was locally available and useful as we walked about gathering our groceries. After several conversations and research, we decided to buy a goat (mbuzi) to use as a pack animal and --we thought-- the main course of a celebration feast.

Leslie researched pannier designs and found a local Halal butcher. James Sande (our friend and the caretaker of the Scottish-Malawi Partnership houses) helped me locate the goat (Billy).
We rode our bikes to a village an hour away, purchased Billy, and brought him home in a basket. Next, we rode out to another village to pick up the clay for the oven. After that, we rode to the market and purchased timbers for the stove. The construction and the gathering of materials
for the oven took a couple of weeks.

We bought a chain and found a tailor (Simon) to make the panniers; Soon after, we started to walk with Billy around town and the smiles and laughter started to flow. Part of the project was to record every time Billy generated a smile but this became very unpractical.

And, while we had been planning a feast with the meat from Billy, but his insistent bleating (four months) took its toll. We gave Billy to James; he was returned to the village from which he came. The latest news I heard from James was that he had sold him for a good profit and has started the process of obtaining a passport.