Rotten bananas and removable fingers!

Last weekend Malchiory asked us to visit his village with him. We were intrigued to find out what kind of background he came from so we went along. We took a dalla dala to his village and then began walking through beautiful banana plantations. We were treated as a bit of a feak show though as mzungus never visit the village. Children would spot us walking up the road and would run to fetch their friends and parents who would all come out and say hi. Sarah wanted to know if she came to England if she would be treated in the same way - she thought people would shout 'African' and point at her.
Before Malchiory took us to his mothers house we stopped off to visit his aunt. Malchiory was disappointed that she wasn't there as if she was she could have shown us his uncle's skull!! Apparently a local belief is that after 12 years of being buried the wife traditionally digs up the husband then reburies all of the bones but the skull. She cleans this and keeps it in the house as she feels safer having a mans presence about!

Malchiory then took us to his mother's house (picture above) where he and his 10 brothers and sisters were born. Imagine twelve people living there?! All of his brothers and sisters are really close in age - sometimes only 8 months between them! His family were all very welcoming and insisted that we try some of their home brew which is warm, lumpy and made from rotten bananas - nice! Adam kept Malchiory's many nieces and nephews entertained (and quite scared) with his 'removable magic finger!' - a trick which he learnt from his uncle many years ago (which he now recalls absolutely terrified him as a child!).

It was really inspiring to see the background that Malchiory comes from and how hard he has worked to achieve everything he now has.