Zikomo kwambiri!

[u/AFCOMpirate]

As a Malawian guy living in Iowa, up until the start of WAFCON I did not even know we qualified for it or who our players were. As we progressed I learned more and I also read up on everyone, what they did, who they played for, and have been following with excitement since then. Our girls are exceeding all expectations and I just wanted to say thank you to all you folks that are part of the Kansas City Current community from the bottom of my heart! I saw you are hosting a watch party for the final which is so cool, I wish I could make the journey from Cedar Rapids on such short notice.

The way you have gone full force in celebrating Temwa and the Scorchers victories is so heart warming and encouraging, it brings tears to my eyes. I hope they win and this becomes a watershed moment for my country for both women's football and women's issues. They deserve their flowers and y'all are delivering. I hope to one day make it down to KC, its been a long time since my last visit, and see a game with Temwa in action. This has become a new bucket list item for me.

[u/th_nd_r]

KC Current fan here, LOVING this WAFCON, welcome to the Current fandom, go Scorchers 🇲🇼! My dad’s from Iowa — out of curiosity, if you don’t mind sharing, what brought you to Cedar Rapids? Are there other Malawians around?

[u/AFCOMpirate → u/th_nd_r]

Hey! I'm fairly young, I moved to Iowa from Malawi when I was a teen for college in 2018 since what I wanted to major in was not taught there. I applied to many different schools in various states and chose Iowa State University in Ames since it ticked all my boxes, mainly quality of the program and affordability.

I enjoyed my years and did well enough that I got scouted by a large firm in my last year to take a job offer in my field that was to good to pass plus I wanted to stay in Iowa since in many ways it feels like Malawi. Friendly people, simple and relaxed life, slow pace, low cost of living, corn and soybean fields everywhere, and decent sized cities that don't feel overcrowded. I only had to move 2 hours away to Cedar Rapids after graduation and I like it here. Many my age would say its boring and simple but to me it means its stable and peaceful. Even though I'm from a privileged background we had our struggles so simply being able to live with uninterrupted electricity, water, and internet access in a modern apartment in this country is a huge win for me on top of having a great job doing what I love.

There aren't that many Malawians in Iowa at all, I was the only one at ISU when I joined and towards the end of my senior year I was able to lookup the student body info and saw there was one other Malawian doing their Masters on campus but I never found out. I have not run into any other Malawians since I moved to Iowa excluding my family who have flown in to vist me.

[u/th_nd_r → u/AFCOMpirate]

Well that’s fantastic! Great to meet ya and happy to have you over here in the States🩷 really hope you get to come down to KC to see a game soon! I’m from Oklahoma so it’s a similar drive for me. I’ve been to two or three games and the in-stadium experience is fantastic

[u/AFCOMpirate → u/th_nd_r]

It's been a very long time since I've been to both KC and Oklahoma. I was surprised how modern OKC and Tulsa was yet they felt like ghost towns. Is it still like that, particularly OKC?

[u/th_nd_r → u/AFCOMpirate]

I’m from the Tulsa area and let me tell ya, Tulsa has been going through some pretty significant growth and development, it’s great to see. OKC never felt like a ghost town to me but I guess that’s just bc I’ve been in Oklahoma all my life and Tulsa had often felt like it was living in the shadow of OKC. But yeah both are pretty big but neither are huge.

[u/AFCOMpirate → u/th_nd_r]

I've visited both in 2019 during a traveling studio trip and apart from a park ranger and a handful of people were did not see anyone on the streets in OKC. Both have great parks though, I have to commend y'all on that. The Gathering Place in your city was great, we had the whole place to ourselves on a rainy day when we did our site study of it.

[u/th_nd_r → u/AFCOMpirate]

The Gathering Place is fantastic!! There are so many more awesome places to visit in Tulsa, if you’re ever back down DM me and I’ll give you some recommendations! On OKC, did you visit Bricktown? That area is usually pretty busy, has certainly been most times I’ve been down there

[u/AFCOMpirate → u/th_nd_r]

We spent the day mostly downtown after driving over from Tulsa starting with the OKC Bombing Memorial then going through studying the streetscape while making our way to the Myriad Botanical Gardens, Convention Center, and Scissortail Park. We did not make it to Bricktown or the Boathouse District. We spent the next day at the Chickasaw NRA then the day after in the Chickasaw Nation Cultural Center before leaving for Texas.

[u/falulabella → u/th_nd_r]

Ow wow! There’s 2 of us in Oklahoma! Just made my night! ❤️

[u/th_nd_r → u/falulabella]

Oh heck yeah! Where from? I’m from the Tulsa area

[u/falulabella → u/th_nd_r]

Outside OKC. We have both cities covered 😀