Canadians in Malawi!

London

2009-02-11T00:18:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to post something new about our trip and am not even sure where I left off, but internet is expensive in the hotel and during the day we are too busy soaking up the sights of London to stop at a cheaper cafe!
Anyways, to sum up quickly, we are on our last day here in London. We have really enjoyed the stopover here and have really tried to make the most of our five days.
We went to Kensington Gardens, Buckingham Palace, have taken the Jack the Ripper tour, stopped in numerous historic pubs and also eaten a fair amount of curry.
We rented a car on Monday and drove to Stonehenge (though it was FREEZING and rainy) and Bath (though we arrived just after the Roman baths closed). It was a good day for the car as we didn't really bring winter appropriate clothing with us!
Anyways, tomorrow we will be up at 5:30 am on the tube for the last leg of our journey home!!! We are excited to see everyone in Canada and can't wait until our arrival at 12:20pm tomorrow.
See you soon!!!

Now in London...

2009-02-07T23:25:00.000-08:00

But before that, let me bring you up to date on the rest of our trip!
On Feb 1 we journeyed to Vilanculos - the journey wasn't the smoothest and involved a half an hour on the back of a pick up, then a 20 minute 'ferry' ride on a diesel glugging old boat loaded up like a minibus...once we arrived in Maxixe, we boarded the slowest Chapa (minibus in Moz) in the world and the four hour trip ended up taking six hours.
We arranged snorkelling the next day, trying for a speedboad but ending up travelling to the reef by dhow. The company was good and the snorkelling was amazing. We also stopped at a huge sand dune that we climbed up - pictures are cool.
The next day we boarded a bus straight to Maputo (yay) as I wanted to celebrate my birthday there - it was a bit of a trying day though as the bus was over ten hours and had a small cockroach problem!
We remaned Feb 4 as my birthday and I was treated to a lovely breakfast and we went to a fancy restaurant for dinner. We really enjoy Maputos vibe but were unfortunately not able to find a great club to go to.
Friday, we travelled to London where we are cozied up in a little hotel...spent yesteday walking around and plan the same for today....it is COLD!

Whale Sharks

2009-01-31T07:13:00.000-08:00

So yesterday we went hunting the elusive whale shark. Mozambique is quite unique to be hosting (i think) the only permanent resident whale shark population. The marine biologist said there are only about 1300 identified whale sharks in the world.
Anyways, it was a great day for it - sunny and clear and the ocean was relatively calm (though the sight of the large swells on a small craft made me wonder what it is like when it isn't!). The boat was refreshingly modern (especially compared to what we took for the dolphin tour in Tanzania).
We found and swam with two whale sharks...it was pretty amazing (admittedly I only went in the first time).
We are now heading tomorrow to Vilanculos...then back to Maputo for my birthday!

The Arntz-Grays have left Malawi...

2009-01-29T04:34:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a while and this will be a short post (sorry!) as internet is crazy expensive here in Tofo, Mozambique.
We left Malawi tearfully on Sunday January 25th. The last three weeks were a blur that I will hopefully capture better a bit later and featured a fabulous goodbye party hosted by Heather, Patrick and Ellene as well as send-offs from CADECOM and FUM on the last Friday in Malawi. Saturday was a blur of visiting and being visited and endless re-packing.

Although we have left Malawi, we will be travelling for a few weeks before arriving in Canada. First we are spending a couple weeks in Mozambique, which has proved amazing so far - Maputo was loads of fun and we are now in Tofo soaking up the sun on the beach - we will be in the water tomorrow looking for whale sharks...wish us luck. After Mozambique we will be stopping over in London for a few days as we have never been there, then will be arriving back home on Feb 12th!!!

See you soon!!!!

Brian Cardy

2009-01-21T00:04:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post my sincere condolences to the Cardys at this time.
Brian was a tremendous person and will be sorely missed by all of his friends and colleagues.

Being so far away from many of my friends and colleagues during this time is very difficult.
I am surrounded by many friends, but none who knew Brian and can share in stories and grieving.

Brian hired me when I was a lowly 16 with a half finished degree. He was willing to give me a chance and saw potential in me when I was perhaps not the strongest candidate on paper. That belief in me continued throughout my career in the Rural Investments Branch and deeply influenced my performance.

Through the chances and opportunities Brian offered, I grew as an employee and a person. He always supported me in my educational, career and personal goals. He was one of the first people to congratulate me when I was offered this opportunity to come to Africa, even though I would be leaving him. He has been such a supporter of Rural Development for so long, it never occurred to me that I could possibly come back to a workplace that did not include him.

Brian, you will be sorely missed. My thoughts are with your family.

Trip to Zanzibar! (finally)

2009-01-09T23:51:00.000-08:00

So sorry to keep you waiting so long – I have been wanting really badly to get a blog off about our trip, but since we got back it has been a bit of a whirlwind!
Jules and I both submitted concept papers for an EU call for proposal and were both shortlisted to submit full proposals (with a 50 – 60% chance of full funding). Unfortunately due to the legal status of CADECOM, we were subsequently dis-invited, saving me a lot of work, but unfortunately missing the opportunity for funding. Jules, however, did get to do his whole proposal, and it took pretty much all of our time to try and finish it for the deadline of 4:30 yesterday (I drove him to hand it in at 4:25 and took him directly out for beer afterwards). CONGRATULATIONS JULES!
So, back to our trip; on December 19, backpacks on, we left our house in Lilongwe and boarded the (bathroomless!) bus to Tanzania. The bus was pretty rough, I’m not gonna lie. It was incredibly bumpy (we had chosen seats in the back so all three of us could sit together – NEVER again!), my seat kept falling apart, we had an inexplicable 2 ½ hour wait at the border and it was way slower than expected. We pulled into a city at 10pm (the time people told me the bus would arrive in Dar despite being scheduled to arrive at 7pm) and grabbed all our stuff, only to have the guy beside us explain that we were in Morogoro, 200km and 3 hours away from Dar…I almost cried. Actually, I did well up. Anyways, at 1am (Dec. 21 by that point) we finally hopped of the bus and into a taxi to our hotel. Our stay was brief as we wanted to get to Stone Town on Zanzibar Island as early as possible, so we ate breakfast at 8 and headed down to the Ferry terminal.
At the Ferry terminal, we were overcome by touts trying to sell tickets – haven’t seen anything that bad since Egypt. Apparently they are also really bad in Arusha. The 1 ½ hour ferry took just over two hours – it was pretty rocky and I was a little uncomfortable as the cabin was sealed in and I felt some of my flight anxiety surfacing…then Regan felt a bit seasick, so we headed to the outside front deck and both of us felt immediately better.
Arriving in Stone Town, again accompanied by several touts, we made our way to Bandari Lodge, where we planned to spend the next three nights. Bandari was nice, the staff were good and there was even a TV with DSTV (shared) on the top floor! Stone town is really nice – narrow little alleys you can wander around in for hours/days. We did a lot of wandering and eventually ended up at the night fish market, where Jules ate spiced lobster on a stick and I had calamari. Regan had Zanzibari pizza, which would become our Stone Town staple from that point forward. Zanzibari pizza is a piece of dough, in which veggies are placed and then an egg is mixed in, along with a bit of mayo and cheese. The whole concoction is then fried. It is like an omelette with bread wrapped around it and it totally delicious (and at about $1.20, VERY affordable).

The next day, we did exactly that – wandered around, drank spiced coffee (delicious!) and met our friend Vi, who we hung out with on and off (our travel plans were slightly different but there were lots of places we crossed paths) for the rest of the trip. The next day we went on a spice tour and saw vanilla beans (and bought some – yum!), pepper, nutmeg, cardamom, and more.
After Stone Town, we headed to Jambiani for Christmas. Jambiani is on the east coast of Zanzibar, about a 1 ½ hour dalla dalla (the Zanzibar equivalent of the minibus) ride away. We arrived at Blue Oyster and our room looked gorgeous for Christmas eve. Swimming is only possible at high tide and isn’t the best, honestly – very seaweedy and a bit mushy on the ground, but the water is beautiful and the breeze comes off the Indian Ocean, so it is an amazing spot for beach reading and strolls.

Our hotel hosted a BBQ on Christmas eve and although it wasn’t exactly ‘Christmassy’, it was pretty magical. There were fires started in holes dug into the beach (so they didn’t blow out in the breeze), seafood on the BBQ as well as potatoes with garlic sour cream. The hotel had invited local villagers to come and sing and dance…tons of children from the village came and they were so excited! It really was an amazing night. After the BBQ, we headed back to our room for the traditional opening of the Christmas eve pyjamas. Regan was surprised to find custom made pyjamas made from Bingu chitenge fabric (Bingu is the current president and whenever he makes an appearance, women dressed in chitenges with his face all over them come out and dance for him).
While in Jambiani, we took a dolphin tour. In retrospect, the tour wasn’t really the most ecologically friendly so we feel a little bad about taking it. We went out into the ocean in a small motor boat to find the dolphins. We joined about four other boats in hot pursuit of a few pods of dolphins, with our captain yelling at us to get out of the boat when we got close (so we could swim with them). If we missed them or they turned unexpectedly, the captain would yell get back in, back in! Then Go! Go! Go! as soon as we were near the dolphins again…hardly relaxing and magical. But it was neat to swim with the dolphins. By the end there were about 9 boats all driving around (Regan got knocked by one and our boat hit another swimmer. We called it quits and headed back to the beach.

After Jambiani, we went back to Stone Town for one night before heading to Nungwi for New Years.
When we arrived in Nungwi, unfortunately our hotel had lost our reservation, but luckily a guy from the dalla dalla took us to a new place (in fact, the place wasn’t finished yet but they told us the beds would be finished by the evening) where we were able to secure a room. The beach was GORGEOUS (especially after we the poor swimming in Jambiani). We met up with a few more friends from Lilongwe and went for drinks at the beach bar that night. The next day we wandered down to Kendwa to hang out with Vi – the beach is just as gorgeous, but also WAY bigger than Nungwi. Great beach day!

(Jules, our friend Christine from Blantyre and Regan on the way to Kendwa)

On New Years eve, unfortunately I ate some bad fish at lunch and was sick. However, everyone else had a great time – we attended a big party at Kendwa Rocks (where Vi was staying). There were tons of people (and by this time we had met up with MORE people from Lilongwe as Patrick and Ellene had arrived) and it was a great party – there were pretty amazing fireworks at midnight also.
January 1 found us back on the ferry (which was fine for me, but a bit rough for all the other people around who had been drinking on New Years eve) back to Dar Es Salaam. We found a Thai restaurant (no Thai food in Lilongwe) so that was pretty exciting, and then we went to an Irish pub. It wasn’t all that Irish-y, but it was a pub and it was on the water so we really enjoyed it.
Rather than taking the bus back, Patrick and Ellene kindly offered to drive us back. Initially we were a bit worried that the back of their Rav4 mini (meant for 2 people) would be uncomfortable, but after the bus experience, we were pretty sure that ANYTHING would be better. And it was. We were squished together, but the bumps were DEFINITELY more comfortable and it was nice to stop where and when we wanted to. We made it all the way to Mbeya (about 2 hours from the Malawi border) on the first day, then back to Lilongwe by 8pm on the second day.
We were exhausted, but also exhilarated by such a great trip. I can’t believe we will be on the road again in two more weeks!

Tanzanian Travels...

2008-12-22T07:00:00.000-08:00

Well we are finally in Stone Town in Zanzibar!
The journey here was not for the faint of heart...30 hours of being beaten up by our bus (bumpy does not even come close to describing this experience), a 6 hour sleep in Dar, then 2 hour ferry over relatively rough ocean...and it is all worth it!
Delicious spiced coffee and great buildings here in Stone Town

Will try to write more later!

Second week of December

2008-12-09T23:22:00.000-08:00

Time is now racing by at unbelievable speed....how did it get to be the second week of December? For that matter, is it actually Wednesday??? Halfway through the week I can't believe we have arrived at already???
We leave for Christmas vacation on December 19 - looking forward to the relaxation, snorkelling, beach time and spice tours we have planned for Zanzibar, but I am really feeling the pressure of the racing time.
Regan is desperate for cash, so she is helping me at work now that she has finished school, so her assistance is greatly appreciated. I have an ambitious plan, which, if executed smoothly, might actually enable me to finish everything by the 19th.
On other topics, our car is FINALLY fixed...yippee!!! Just in time to sell! Originally we were planning to sell in December, but now I think we will post the signs now and see if we can put a January availability date....so much to do before we go!
Since it is sunny and warm, there is no mall/coffee shop/store to listen to piped music in and there are no Christmas concerts and parties going on (though there is a party this weekend), it feels decidedly un-Christmassy, which I guess should have been expected. We are trying to remedy this situation tonight with a Christmas movie night at home...trying to think of what to cook to make it seem Christmassy this evening...any ideas?

Updates

2008-12-02T19:14:00.000-08:00

NOTE - JUST REALIZED THIS NEVER POSTED...WAS SUPPOSED TO POST DEC 2

Just wanted to post somethig quickly since it has been a while...

I have been travelling a lot in the last month and will continue to do so for a bit more time...I am doing follow up training for all of the staff that attended my first M&E workshop back in August in Zomba. First up was Mzuzu, way back in the first week of November. After that, I was in Kasungu, not for the follow up training but for my second workshop, this one on Participatory M&E. During the third week of November, I went to Dedza and last week I ended up going to Blantyre and Zomba. So this week I will be travelling to Mangochi Thursday and Friday and Jules and Regan and some friends will be joining me there on Friday evening for a much needed weekend of relaxation on the beach.

Our car is still not fixed...the saga continues! First the story was that it was just the engine...the engine was fixed while we were in Cape Town. Then it was the gear box...and noone in Lilongwe (or Malawi actually) had the part. We had part suppliers looking in South Africa and Mozambique for the stupid thing....eventually (two weeks ago) someone found the part, so we agreed that the mechanic should come to our place and look at the car. Apparently we have engaged the services of the famous dissappearing mechanic. He does occasionally answer his phone (maybe once a week) and when he does, he promises to come and then doesn't show. Eventually he did come and take the part - now we are trying to see how he is doing....anyways, eventually we hope it may work again...my initial optimism definately suffered a setback.

On the 20th and 21st of November we went away for the weekend without a car...it was a fun-filled trip featuring HOURS on the minibus and a 4k walk in the heat, but eventually we arrived at Nkhotakota Pottery and Lodge. I can highly recommend the food and the accommodation was nice, the beach gorgeous, but DO NOT go there without a car! It is 4km off the road and then they charge extortionate prices just to get to the road (not even the closest town!).

Thats all for now...will try to keep posting - lately things have just been crazy. Even though we won't be back to Canada until February, our last day of work will be more like Jan 22, so we are both working at a crazy pace to try and finish up work from our mandates.

Car Rally

2008-11-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

So the weekend after my last post...

On November 7th, our friends (we refer to them collectively as 'the pilots') had a goodbye braai, since they are leaving Malawi. Since they are an entire house of all boys, I must confess that we actually ate before going as a precautionary measure - what a mistake. Two of the pilots had their parents there and the food was fantastic. Jules and I made the mistake of going out after the braai (which ended at 2am) and went dancing at Synergy. My only comment is...it seemed like a good idea at the time.

At 11am on Saturday we were up and ready for Claire's car rally (organized for our friend Garry's birthday). The idea is that it is sort of a scavenger hunt, but in a car....and Lilongwe offers a lot of interesting challenges...

The highlights:

Regan had to sell bananas with a banana seller

We had to get a photo with each member holding a live chicken

Jules shaved his head for an extra 65 points!

The team in a mini-bus with one team member as the driver (well, she is 16 now!)

(and Jules is yelling 'town, town' and banging on the side of the bus)

The entire team had to switch clothing with each other - Heather and I switched, Terri is wearing Regan's outfit, Jules is wearing Terri's and Regan is wearing Jules's...

Anyways, the whole day was a total riot and in the end, team HAG-Q (the normal AGQ household augmented by Terri Hancock) won! Half the winnings were donated to charity, so we chose to give the money to MacDonald's family (MacDonald worked with WUSC Malawi and passed away in July at 29 leaving behind his wife and two small children).

Later in the evening we returned to Claire's for Garry's birthday party, but the AGQs were so wiped out by the hectic day (and the late night before) that we didn't last long.

Sunday featured lots of relaxation (and work for me) and recovery.

Whoa...

2008-11-10T06:42:00.000-08:00

NOTE THIS WAS WRITTEN A FULL ON WEEK AGO AND NOT POSTED DUE TO TECHNICAL ISSUES...

Don't know how almost three weeks has gone by since I last blogged...have been in a work-obsessed fog....may be emerging some time soon depending on how this week goes.

Anyways, back to Oct 23 - Jules's pub night was a great success...we deep fried mars bars, cheese, zuchini, onions, tasty soya pieces and I think a few other things...most of our friends were able to make it and we had a great time.

Our car is still in a non-mobile state...apparently the gear box is totally wrecked and there are no automatic gear boxes in Malawi - we have sources looking in Mozambique and South Africa, but no luck so far! We now have to decide if we should replace the automatic gear box with a standard one but I am worried about it affecting the resale value - any comments on this one? We are mechanical idiots so no idea what we should do about it.

October 30 was a momentous occasion - Regan turned 16! We had a double celebration planned - dinner out on her actual birthday - it was really nice. On November 1, we hosted a party at our place with a DJ and tons of roasted meat (very Malawian). Most of Regan's friends from school were able to make it and the teens had the run of the house and front yard while we hid out in the back with some friends, doing occasional walk-throughs to ensure we provided some level of supervision. I think I can say that it was an unqualified success.

Last week from Monday to Wednesday I was working in Mzuzu doing follow up from my M&E workshop. I was scheduled to do the same thing in Lilongwe on Thursday and Friday, but only made it on Friday. On Thursday I attended my first funeral in Malawi - for my friend and co-worker Chris's dad. He was ill for some time and finally diagnosed with lung cancer. It was sad, but not unexpected. The funeral was in Chris's home village and was an interesting experience.

We were very late in arriving - we were supposed to take a mini-bus but somehow it left without us. Luckily we were able to catch a ride with the Health Secretary who had a meeting first...however we were quite late in leaving. In addition we got totally lost on the way, so arrived at 12:30 when the mass was supposed to start at 10. Being a popular family there were many many people there to pay their respects, so in fact, the mass didn't even start until 1:30 or so. We had some food, then listened to people make speeches and then headed to the church for mass. There were so many people we wouldn't fit in the church so we sat on the ground outside. The mass was all in chichewa, so no details about what was said...sorry! After mass, people accompany the body to the graveyard...my colleagues were in a hurry to get home at that point, so we just left after the mass.

This past weekend was relatively eventful but deserves its own blog...more later

Pub Night Tonight!

2008-10-23T02:04:00.000-07:00

So since we went AWOL last week we rescheduled Jules's birthday pub night to tonight...I am pretty excited as it has been a while since we have had company and I do love to entertain.
The plan is for people to bring drinks or food that you would find in a pub, so I made chicken wings this morning and will be firing up a big pot of oil to deep fry everything in sight tonight...

In other news, both Jules and I are heavily back into work...I know we still have three months left but it just feels like time is FLYING by and I can't believe how fast everything is going. My next main challenge is to complete the draft of the M&E Framework for my organization - I have lots of ideas, but as usual, big tasks where you have to start from scratch really throw me for a loop...I have lots of ideas of what should be included and how things should work, but just need to sit down and pull it all together.

I am getting some research done while in the office, but I think this task is going to call for a full on weekend of immersion in work, the method I employed in pulling my workshop together...so even though the weather is great I have big plans to hole up on the weekend at home and just get it done. Part of the pressure is self-induced as I couldn't change my workplan to accommodate the extra week of vacation so the three weeks I left aside for drafting the framework shrunk to two. In addition, I am TERRIBLE at saying no to assisting my colleagues, so I have difficulty getting much done while in the office, as it is easy, fun and rewarding to assist them when they need it.

With the car still out for the count and no sign of when it might be operational again, we have returned to the car-less life we had before...it's not all that bad really, but things just take a lot of time...and dropping Regan anywhere can be a chore since we don't feel comfortable with her taking a cab on her own, so we have to get the driver to drive out and back everytime.

Luckily, my work has been accommodating and I am leaving early today so I can walk to pick up last minute items we need for the party - with the amount of hours I will be putting in this weekend, I don't need to worry about making up the time!!!

Anyways, wish me luck with the framework, as well as with my entertainment plans for tonight!!!

Back in Malawi!!

2008-10-21T02:23:00.000-07:00

We are finally back into our normal lives here in Lilongwe after a fabulous trip to Cape Town.
I can't believe how much the time spent in Lilongwe influenced our vacation plan!
I don't think I would normally even deign to GO to a mall while on vacation (Edmonton Mall excepted because it is pretty much the only tourist destination there (just kidding edmontonians!)). Anyways, how that changed in Cape Town!!!
We arrived on Sunday night and spent the first two nights at Ashanti Backpackers. It was clean and the beds were comfy. If you are not in a party mood, I wouldn't recommend staying there on a weekend, but the Sunday and Monday nights we spent there were fairly quiet.
On Monday, I went for an early explore and had one of the best cups of coffee I have had in MONTHS at a place called Arnolds, where we later returned for breakfast before heading to our number one destination THE MALL.
We went to Canal Walk, arriving only 20 min after opening (and only that late as we got lost), and headed directly to Cinn-a-bonn....heavenly. We then took in some shopping - Regan was pretty excited about that part of the trip! We then scoped out the movie theatre and decided to see one of the first showings at 12....we went to see Tropic Thunder - I have to say, it was pretty funny. After the movie, we went to my new favorite restaurant, the Cape Town Fish Market (it is actually a chain) - it was DELICIOUS....and so nice to have so much selection!!! This was followed by more shopping and then we went to see another movie at 7 - Jules saw the Dark Knight while Regan and I chose House Bunny (better than it sounds).
We actually left the mall after 9, having been there for the entire day and for almost 12 hours.
It was fabulous. I feel like I should be writing some heartfelt post about how much waste goes into a mall like that, but I am sorry to say it was just so nice to be there, I didn't feel that way (then). After the whole week away, those thoughts definately crept in.
The second day was supposed to be sightseeing, as we romped up and down Long Street - we went to the Slave Lodge - very emotional experience. We also did some more shopping and ended up finding a great pub (what we have been SO missing) called the Dubliner - the food and KILKENNY were great.
On Wednesday we planned to go to Robben Island, but the tours were completely booked and we were unable to go. We spent the day by the waterfront - it wasn't what I expected, more or less another giant mall, but it was nice. Regan nosed out the Hagen Daas store (delicious!) and we had lunch at Belthezar (known for its wine menu). The food was excellent, but the service and therefore the whole overall experience, was not as nice as the fish market.
On Tuesday we had moved from the Backpackers into the Ritz for a few nights in luxury. Unfortunately the pool was broken, no air-con was available and although they did have satellite, it didn't have So You Think You Can Dance - but they let us watch in the Executive lounge, so we didn't miss it (whew!).
On Thursday, we had booked an eco-friendly bike tour of the wine regions. To get to the wine region, you meet your guide downtown and then take a train. We met the guide, but then Jules ran to change some money and disappeared! We missed the train and the guide was getting worried...Regan and I were also completely freaked out by the time Jules returned almost 20 min later! Glad to have him back safe at any rate, I guess he was held up by a teller that took his passport and then disappeared into a back room and didn't come out again. Forsaking the eco-friendly train, the guide agreed we should just drive out to the region with him, so that is what we did. The wine tour was great - tastings were plentiful and it was SO nice to ride a decent bike again! The day was gorgeous and warm (up until Thursday, the weather had actually been quite chilly) and our guide was really helpful. Since we had driven, he recommended a scenic drive on the way home that was spectacular - taking us up to Gordon's Bay before returning to Cape Town and having dinner at a THAI restaurant (we have two chinese restaurants here and that is the extent of the asian selection in Lilongwe) called Yindees...it was delicious.
On Friday, we did the 'Cape Drive', driving most of the way around the southern cape...again, a ride loaded with amazing views. We stopped at Boulder Beach to see the famous Penguin colony, but unfortunately for us, penguins were not out for some reason, though we did view two poor little guys huddled up against a rock.
We also stopped for a little beach time - the waters are supposed to be a bit warmer than the freezing Atlantic waters closer to Cape Town - but 'bit' would definately be the operative word - it was pretty chilly! We ended the day by going back to the waterfront to go to the famous Mitchells pub, where they brew their own beer....and then went to movie #3 (My Best Friends Girl for Regan and I and an action flick for Jules).
On Saturday, we packed up our stuff and checked out of our hotel and then double checked the time on our tickets, realizing only then that we had in fact bought tickets leaving Sunday, not Saturday. Two hours of confusion and phone calls later, we finally managed to let everyone know that we would be back a day later than planned...unfortunately it wasn't really possible to change our tickets. We spent the afternoon in Clifton hanging on the beach. It was the first really hot day we had experienced in Cape Town, so it was a perfect day for it - it was even hot enough that we ventured into the freezing Atlantic for a dip. Although cold, the beaches in Cape Town are spectacularly gorgeous. We ate a late lunch at Wang Thai for a second taste of Thai food (I have to say, it was even better than Yindees). It was a great day lounging around in the sun. To save money, we booked into another backpackers, Cape Town Backpackers. It was nice and in a good location, but the blankets were a bit mildewy smelling...
We returned to the Dubliner for a late pub dinner, which was a great place to spend the last day.
Sunday morning we spent a few hours in the lodge while Regan studied and then returned to the Canal Walk mall for some last minute purchases and to sneak in another movie....The Love Guru - Mike Myers - cute, but I would have to say that I would rate the movies we say from best to worst in the exact order we saw them.
We arrived at the airport really early since we had to return the rental car (Budget - amazing, and SUCH a good deal!), and report that our jack knives were stolen from our luggage (only mishap of the trip besides Jules's brief dissapearing act). The check in guy laughed at us for being so early.
We flew Sunday night from Cape Town to Joburg, spent the night at another backpackers - Shoestring Airport Lodge - great value for money, and then from Joburg to Lilongwe on Monday (yesterday).
We were tired but refreshed after a fabulous trip and a nice break from reality....now....back to work!!!

Anyways

Quick update!

2008-10-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

And I mean quick! I have 4 min left of this session!

OK - our trip started out really nicely - we flew to Cape Town on SAA. I wasn't experiencing anxiety before the flight (most of you know I HATE flying), so decided that maybe I was miraulously cured and didn't take my medication....BIG mistake. The first half hour of the flight was terribly unpleasant (only to me) while I waited for the pill I took after take off to kick in.

Anyways, Cape Town is lovely and we are staying at a backpackers hostel now but moving to a hotel tonight.

I will provide more details when not so rushed - but I can report that the showers I took yesterday morning and today were pretty much worth the price of the flight....

Cape Town here we come!

2008-10-12T02:46:00.000-07:00

So we booked a last minute trip to Cape Town for this week and we leave this afternoon!
We are really looking forward to seeing a movie...and going to a Thai restaurant...and shopping in a mall...and airconditioned hotels...and...
Also, we are excited to be doing some sight seeing in Cape Town - everyone who has been there has told us how gorgeous it is!
Anyways - will try to update the blog while we are away if I get the chance - otherwise, I will post all about the trip when I return to Lilongwe Oct 19th.
Yippeeeee...........

Changes....

2008-10-07T02:53:00.000-07:00

So last time I updated, I indicated that I would be at the lake, in Senga Bay for the next 11 days.
Apparently not.
We arrived in Senga Bay in the evening on Tuesday Sept. 30. The meeting that was supposed to start at 2pm started instead around 5, so I got to my hotel room around 7pm. The hotel I stayed at is called Horizons, and was really quite nice - very clean and new....though the ceiling fan didn't really make a dent in the muggy heat.
For some reason, it is much hotter by the lake than it is in Lilongwe (which makes for a great weekend there, but isn't so nice for a conference or training). Anyways, our participants were a bit sluggish in the hot conditions (no air-con or fans), but the conference went well. On Thursday we started wondering if the facility was really the best for the upcoming week, since it was so hot and most of our lunches and breaks were an hour (or more!) later than scheduled.
So at the last minute, the conference for this week was moved to Zomba, where it should be much cooler - in fact it is the same venue we used for my M&E workshop.
So instead of staying at the beach, the plan was that I should return to Lilongwe after camping with Jules and Regan and on Sunday afternoon drive to Zomba.
Heather was also in Senga Bay, so when we were both done our workshops early Friday afternoon we headed to Livingstonia beach to sit by the pool and relax until the rest of our camping group arrived.
Jules, Regan and Terri finally arrived just after dark, and we set our tent up and went out for dinner. The next morning was beautifully warm and we were up early reading books on the lounge chairs. We camped at a place called Cool Runnings, and I would definately return there - the grass for the tents was nice and soft and the prices were reasonable and facilities quite nice.
On Saturday morning, we were joined by more friends, Carmen and Francesco, and in the afternoon, Bryce (my volleyball captain) and Marie arrived. After an afternoon in the sun, we dragged ourselves up and made a delicious BBQ meal - baked potatoes, salad and steaks...it took a while to finish everything up at the same time, but it was well worth the wait!
Sunday morning was relaxing - more reading on the lounge chairs for me and Regan and a sleep in for Jules. We left at around 1 for Lilongwe, as I was supposed to meet my colleagues at 2:30. Alas, it was not to be, as the Arntz-Gray mobile decided to break down completely on the side of the road about 35 km from Lilongwe. Thank goodness for the help of friends!!! Carmen and Fran and Bryce were about an hour behind us, so Jules and I played yahtzee on the side of the road (to the delight of an audience of about 10 children), while Regan and Heather read and slept in the car. Fran is a mechanic and was able to tell us it didn't look good. A few minutes later, Bryce pulled over, just as Fran was saying 'It's too bad we don't have a tow rope', and guess what? Bryce had one.
We made an interesting caravan back to Lilongwe, Jules steering our Pajero while being towed behind Bryce, with the rest of us piled into the back of Carmen and Fran's pick up. We all made it home at least, though unfortunately Bryce's tow rope broke at the last minute (only 3 blocks from our house!). We tied it up and made it home in the end....but the engine needs a total overhaul, so we are back to the tight budget we experienced in September again - except this time, it will last for TWO more months....ah well, such is life!
Needless to say, I missed my ride to Zomba with my colleagues, but one co-worker has a father that is quite ill, so he ended up staying in Lilongwe also and will be driving up to Zomba tonight, so he has saved me from a 6 hour mini-bus ride.
Of course, that is if things go as planned....apparently we might leave tomorrow...
Life here just keeps you guessing!

Away again...

2008-09-30T03:02:00.000-07:00

This afternoon, I am departing for Salima...or more accurately, Senga Bay (the beach) for 11 days. Don't get too jealous - I will be working for 9 of them.
We have two workshops in the same location so I thought we could tie the two together with a weekend of camping for Jules's birthday. I will be doing my best to access internet while I am away, but don't expect that it will be all that frequent.
In the first workshop, I am facilitating an M&E section, but in the second I am mainly a partcipant and am looking forward to being immersed in Disaster Risk Reduction concepts.
I will miss two volleyball games, which I am not excited about, though I do wish my team luck!
And also I might miss (but will be trying my damnedness not to) So You Think You Can Dance. For those that watch at home, I am sure you realize that the show has already shown in North America, but it just started a few weeks ago here, so I am avidly watching every second.
Wish me luck in finding a place in Senga Bay that will allow us to watch on DSTV!

Life in Lilongwe

2008-09-25T01:44:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I haven't posted since last Friday! How does time pass so quickly?
Anyways...last weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday we had a chill night in. I have started watching Buffy again (SO addictive) so we watched a few episodes.
On Saturday we got up to go for a walk. Jules had a coffee while Regan and I had some beauty treatments at the salon and then we did some grocery shopping at the market. Since we have been walking everywhere lately, this whole procedure took quite a bit of time, so luckily we ran into Heather, who offered to drive us home. Before we went home though, we found a new restaurant (well, new to me - Jules's colleague had taken him there before). The restaurant is called Amina's take-away and serves local fare. What was remarkable about it was the size of the servings...Jules and I had decided to split a t-bone and rice - when they brought out the t-bone, it was the size of the whole plate! And the rice, veggies and beans were on a separate plate! Between us, we couldn't finish it all and we were stuffed. The whole meal cost $4, so it was $2 each....I don't know how they can stay in business.
After I got home I had to bake some cookies and arrange some flowers to add to my Martha Stewart costume for the Alter-Ego party. Before we left in the morning, I had sewn my apron and looked up Martha's actual number to put on a black and white striped shirt. Once the cookies were ready, I helped braid Heather's hair so that it looked crimped for her 80s rock-chick costume and helped Jules get his hair to stand up for his Einstein costume. I haven't downloaded my pics yet, so check out Heather's blog if you want a preview.
Sunday was sweet - we relaxed by the pool at the Capital Hotel (where the water is NOT green), while Regan spent the day hanging out at ABC and playing frisbee.
This week has been busy so far - I was able to work from home for two days (Monday and Wednesday) to try and finish up some followup activities from my workshop. I also had a tripartite meeting (these are meetings with the partner organization (CADECOM), the volunteer and WUSC), where we discussed what I shoudl focus on during the remainder of my time here. Although the goals are still very ambitious, I am happy that I feel they are acheivable. Some of the items originally included in my workplan have been removed and we will inclued them when we write a position description for another volunteer so they will get done eventually.
Last night, Chambo with Head won our first game of the season (and it's only our second time out!!!), so that is super exciting - we look forward to a better season than last, with a couple new players and a great core team.
Tonight Jules was invited to a formal reception - I am a little nervous that it might be a little stuffy, but we will check it out and see what it's like.
No big plans for the weekend - apparently the Portuguese Club pool is scheduled to be repaired and treated this week, so maybe it will be a good place to go on the weekend - we will see.

Random updates

2008-09-19T01:52:00.000-07:00

So this week has been productive....I think September must be the only month so far that I haven't been out of town for work! My feet are even starting to get (a little) itchy.
Jules is actually out of town for one of his rare trips next week, so I am glad that he will get to see a little more of the north while he works with farmer groups in Ruimphi.
After finally getting everything under control for my workshop Aug 26 - 29, it has taken me most of September to finalize materials for sharing and working on the follow up from it....but the end is in sight - by the end of next week, I should have a good handle on the workshop follow up stuff and be working on the M&E framework for my organization....whew!
This weekend a friend of ours is having a birthday party, combined with another friend's housewarming...the theme is alter-ego - so you are supposed to dress up as someone you've always wanted to be...it threw me for a loop for sure - it really is hard to say!
I feel like I respect a lot of people, but I am not sure I actually want to BE any of them...finally I decided to take it a little tongue in cheek and go as Martha Stewart. Though I wouldn't want to actually BE her I was a former Martha addict....
Anyways, so our weekend is shaping up - we have been a bit hermit-y lately, partly due to lack of funds and due to the flu that I had, so it will be refreshing to get out to a party. On Saturday we have tentative plans to maybe do a bit of climbing as well as we have friends going to hike in Dedza, but the jury is still out on whether or not we will go...since we have constumes to finish!
Regan has been busy lately with joining an Utimate Frisbee team and studying for her upcoming ICGSE exams....she even has to write TWO exams on her 16th birthday, poor girl.
Back to preparation for the next M&E workshop (only 2 days this time, thank goodness!)...

Not too much that is new...

2008-09-16T23:56:00.000-07:00

But I thought I would post anyways - since we had to pay Regan's exam fees this month, money is pretty tight - so we have spent a lot of time in Lilongwe with not too much to do.
Unfortunately the pool at the portuguese club (which we were so excited to join as it would provide countless hours of free entertainment once the membership was paid) is completely green. They ran out of chemicals in May and have not treated the pool since. It is totally gross and I don't want to go to the club and just hang out BY the pool because #1 - I like water and want to be in it, not by it and #2 - it is free to do that anyways - the only thing we were paying for was access to the pool. What a miserable situation....
But we have been going for lots of walks, so that has been nice - and we found out that a bakery I like stocks BRIE. So I think we might indulge in a little fresh bread, brie and procuitto on Friday night as a treat!
Today is the start of the hot season of volleyball, so Chambo with head will start the season off tonight at 6:30 - I am excited to be playing again but wishing we had managed to slot at least ONE practice in during the six week break!
Anyways...on the work front, panic is setting in as I look at the crowded weeks ahead - you can now count to the end of my contract in weeks (well I guess you always could - but the number was much bigger before) and there is SO much still to do. I am trying to come up with a reasonable work plan for my remaining time here, but as weeks pass - I am so busy with other things that my work plan items get pushed to the next week...a process that can not continue indefinately!!!
Anyways - wish me luck as I continue to plug away!!!

Where do I start???

2008-09-08T04:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I have yet again to apologize for the length of time it has taken for me to get around to getting another post up. I think besides being busy, I was a bit intimidated by the fact that since I now know how to upload pictures, I should be loading pics into every blog...and I haven't had time to sort through my photos, so....
Anyways, as I am sitting here today, I figure it will be better to just get a darn blog up than to fiddle with pictures, since it seems to be a bit of a block!
So I never really did justice to Mom and Meghan's trip here with us - I know my mom kept great notes, so I am hoping she will do a guest blog and email me some of her details so I can post them.
Since my last post, I completed the daunting amount of work required in order to facilitate my week long workshop on M&E....it was a battle, but I got the job done in the end, and have recently compiled the results of the workshop evaluation - it seems that many people were extremely happy with their experience and learned some valuable lessons, so that made me feel great. I can see how teaching is a rewarding experience - one day we were doing a recap and people were all participating a lot, and I realized that they learned some of the things we were talking about from ME! I was pretty tickled.
Anyways, the week after the workshop was a bit of a blur - I arrived home on Friday night and Jules and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary (1 day late) with Regan by going out for dinner, and then Regan went to a party while we went home and crashed out. On Saturday we went to a friend's birthday/one year in Malawi party, which was really nice - we met some new people and had a brilliant evening. On Sunday, I started getting really puffy eyes - I used to get this occasionally in Canada - some kind of undiagnosed allergy I guess, so I wasn't too worried, but it did continue until Monday when I spent the afternoon at home to rest my eyes. The rest of the week was taken up with trying to capture the notes from my workshop in order to create my workshop report and thinking about the best way to divide the rest of my (too short!) time here.
I don't know if I ever reported that we were finally able to recruit a counterpart for my position here? Originally, they were hoping to hire an M&E Officer that I was to work with way back in February just after my arrival...unfortunately the recruitment was unsuccessful, and my colleagues decided to wait until new salary levels were approved before attempting to recruit again. The new salary levels were supposed to be approved in February, but in actuality were not approved until June! Then there were all sorts of administrative delays involved and we didn't actually make offers until much later. Finally we thought we had the candidate lined up and the position was filled - the officer was invited to attend my workshop as his first week of work. I am trying not to be personally offended, but in fact, since the workshop ended, he has not been seen again here at CADECOM. Sorry - slight exaggeration - we had his computer all set up Monday morning and he did pop in Monday afternoon (when I had gone home to rest my poor eyes), but since then, he has not returned.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, I asked my boss what he was planning to do, and his response was that we should give him to the end of the week!!! When he hadn't shown up for two days with no phone call or anything??? Anyways, it was not my call, but he didn't show up all week, so we are now assuming he is not interested. I wasn't too sure of him after the workshop (he was pretty quiet and I worried how we would get on), so I am not sure if I am relieved or dissapointed, but I am definately back at square one. Not having a counterpart here has severely limited the amount I can hope to get done in my year here, and now with a new recruitment scheme on the horizon, it seems unlikely that we will get someone in before Christmas.
Anyways, most of this month I will be focussed on rewriting my work plan to accommodate these new circumstances and trying to plan for my highest impact activities to be completed before I go.
This week there is a week long training in Nutrition, but I am staying back today and tomorrow to try an finish up some loose ends from my workshop...I will attend while the focus is on successful program design and indicator selection for nutrition.
This past weekend was super - on Saturday we walked around and did some errands on foot, which got us outside and also some exercise. On Sunday, unfortunately I had puffy eyes again, worse than last weekend, so I wasn't capable of doing much and just laid around watching movies - since this is something I rarely do, I have to say it was a pretty enjoyable way to spend a Sunday! I am better today, so that is good.
Anyways, have piles of work to do so I must get on with it - I promise (AGAIN - do you still believe me at ALL?) to try and update more regularly now that things are back to normal after vacations and workshops etc...

Radio Silence....Continued

2008-08-23T22:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I am sorry for the extended radio silence on this end, but I am sorry to report that it will likely continue for another week - but I do hope to get another post up before the end of the month (fingers crossed).
Mom and Meghan and the Arntz-Grays had a fabulous trip around Malawi. We viewed the majestic tea fields south of Blantyre, found out that it rains. Hard. In dry season on the Zomba plateau, saw TONS of elephants, hippos, warthogs, waterbuck, crocs and birds in Liwonde National Park, went snorkeling at Cape Maclear, and visited Senga Bay. Mom and I also discovered a great little place called Ntchisi Forest Lodge and went hiking in the temperate rain forest there.
With only one day of rest, we were back into travel gear and heading to Zambia, where we had a fabulous safari (food excepted) in South Luangwa National Park, viewing giraffes, zebra, lions, hippos, crocs and even the elusive leopard.
With spectacularly poor foresight I planned my major Monitoring and Evaluation workshop for this week, and Mom and Meghan just left on Friday...the result being that I have been working all weekend to try and finish due to my lack of focus last week...
Since I am (still) preparing, and the workshop is out of town in Zomba (we are leaving today at three), I will likely not have access to internet. It will be a hectic week (last workshop involved many 12 hour days and it was just a three day workshop whereas this is FIVE), so I expect to crawl into bed on Friday night and not emerge for some time. Hopefully I can pull together a better post with pics on Sunday - chat with you then!

Visitors!

2008-08-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

So my Mom and Regan’s friend Meghan arrived safely on Monday. Thanks to my roommate Heather, we found out that there is a viewing platform at the airport from which you can watch the plane come in. Regan and I each paid 5 kwacha to go up and waited excitedly. The plane was pretty much on time, and we could see well enough to watch our guests come down the ramp. We waved excitedly and they saw us waving down at them.
We had thought they might be too tired from their trip to do anything, so had nothing planned, but they got a second wind and we took them down to the big vegetable market, then Regan and Meghan went out for chips with Regan’s best friend from school, Hawah, while I took my Mom to see where Jules works.
On Tuesday, the girls had some sleeping in planned and an afternoon shopping trip. Mom and I attended the Rotary Club of Lilongwe lunch meeting – it was my first Rotary experience here and it was very nice. Afterwards, we went to my workplace to meet some of my colleagues, though I hope we will visit again as there were many people away.
On Wednesday we were scheduled to drop off a donation of medical supplies that my Mom arranged at Madisi hospital, about an hour north of Lilongwe. We met the Hospital Administrator, the Matron and the doctor who will be working with the drugs. The drugs were very gratefully received and I think my Mom was inspired to make a presentation to her Rotary Club upon her return to see if more assistance can be given.
Thursday was the monitoring trip I had planned to take my Mom and Meghan along for so that they could see a Malawian village. Jules and Regan joined us for the trip, since neither of them has had an opportunity to see a village yet. The day started in the regional CADECOM office, where my colleagues briefed us on the work being done under the I-Life DAP program – a program being delivered throughout Malawi by a consortium of NGOs. In Mchingi, it is delivered by CADECOM. The strength CADECOM has at accomplishing work on the ground was apparent – CADECOM’s I-Life beneficiaries are the only ones (of the seven I-Life NGOs) to succeed in motivating their beneficiaries achieve self-sustainability in an irrigation scheme, as well as in a warehouse building project.

Since we were going into a village, we dressed in chitenges, traditional wear for females:

The event we were there to witness was a bicycle handover – the community members who volunteer to be leaders of actions in their communities receive bicycles in order to complete their work (they also act as an incentive). Nine bicycles were distributed and the event was attended by the local parish priest as well as the Traditional Authority (chief). At the village level, each village is represented by a village head, and a group of village heads will be organized under a GVH (group village head). A group of GVH’s will then be organized under the TA (Traditional Authority) – so you can imagine his importance. It was thrilling after the event for my Mom to formally be introduced to the chief and to sit for a short chat.
After the handover, my colleagues took us around to show us some of the work completed under the program. We met with a Village Savings and Loans committee that had saved up 104,000 kwacha, a marketing group who had completed building a warehouse and a group involved in an irrigation scheme. It happened to be the day a new chief was being inducted, and the gulewankulu (masked dancers) were out dancing as part of the celebration. It is a rare even to happen upon gulewankulu and from our cultural training we learned that outsiders are not always welcomed into the ceremony. I don’t know if it was because we were with CADECOM staff who are known to the community or if these dancers were just more open to outsiders, but we stopped the car and got out and were encouraged to take photos and mingle with the dancers – it was an incredible experience. Once we got back into our car, dancers jumped onto the back for a ride…again, very unusual and exciting. It was a very long and tiring day, but worth every minute….what an experience for us, and for Mom and Meghan as well.
Last night we invited all the WUSC volunteers to dinner at our favorite restaurant, Blue Ginger. The food, as always, was delicious and the company was great – Mom got to meet almost everyone we know here in Lilongwe in one night.
Now it is Saturday morning and we are finalizing our packing to leave on our big trip today…not sure how often I will have internet access, but I will try to keep you up to date!

What a workshop!

2008-07-22T00:38:00.001-07:00

Now, I am not saying that I expected an easy ride here in Malawi, but I must say, the work ethic here has taken my by surprise. I guess its not even so much a work ethic, as a willingness to put up with hours and expectations that could be considered pretty unreasonable.

I have gotten used to the fact that when you go into the field, you should expect a lot of waiting around, a lot of wasted time and long days. I guess I thought that attending a workshop would be different for some reason, since you are in one location the whole time...

Monday last week started pretty much as expected - we intended to leave at 1:30pm, but didn't leave until 4. And then had to stop for gas. As a result, we were left driving a good deal of the time in the dark, which is substantially slower than driving when it is light. We arrived at the hotel at 9:40pm. Fortunately, my friend Vi, another WUSC volunteer (but in Zomba instead of Lilongwe) was also attending the workshop and arrived at 9, so she was able to order dinner before the kicthen closed.

On Tuesday, we were supposed to meet a half hour before the workshop was scheduled to begin, in order to set up. I was the only one who showed up at 8. But, by 9:30, we were ready to start. The day was considerably behind schedule and ended after 6pm - I just don't think in Canada that people would stand for it??? But anyways, by 8, we had dinner and were ready for bed. On Wednesday, a field visit was scheduled for the afternoon (we were supposed to leave at 12:30pm). Anyone could see that there was not enough time scheduled...the field visit was scheduled to be in a village over 2 hours away from the conference location. But anyways, we didn't leave until after 1:30 - arriving in the village at 4pm. There were two sites to look at - at the first, we viewed an afforestation project, as well as a manure pit. At the second, we were looking at charcoal stoves - an energy saving initiative. The sun sets early in Malawi, especially in the cold season, so we left the second site just before 6pm, in the dark and drove back to the conference center, arriving at a quarter to nine. We had planned a get together for Wednesday night, so dinner and drinks and dancing ensued until about 3 in the morning - don't know how I lasted until 2 - must have been the Malawi gin.

Thursday morning I was among the first to arrive at the conference hall and one of three who arrived on time (out of 30). Anyways, most participants managed to drag themselves in for another half day of the conference. Scheduled to end at 11, we ended at 1:30. I ended up with a lunch meeting, followed by another meeting in the afternoon. By 4:30, we were done, and I managed to drag myself over to a beach chair to lie in an exhausted stupor until 6:30, when Vi and I ordered dinner. I think I was in bed before 8pm - heaven!

On Friday, we drove back to Lilongwe. Since you can buy food at the markets on the road much cheaper than in Lilongwe, every trip involves several stops for people to buy things. I used to get annoyed at how much longer it made the drive back (On Friday we took over 6 hours to complete a 4 hour drive)...but now I am out there with my colleagues bargaining away and crowing about the number of tomatoes I managed to get for 200 kwatcha.

I was ready to fall into bed on Friday night but was persuaded to attend a Century Club party (but I did NOT do the century) - it was a lot of fun, and we met up with Isaac, who we met at the hostel we stayed at when we went to Vic falls after Easter. On Saturday, we had a lovely BBQ at Melissa and Shawn's. Sunday featured a lot of working on a new quilt, and another BBQ (where the focus was on dessert as it always it at Jessicas) after Regan's ultimate frisbee match.

Reading through all of the above gives me some insight as to why I still feel exhausted today!!!

Oh, and in other news - the countdown to Mom and Meghan's visit is ON!

6 days and a couple hours to go!

I didn't manage to download photos from last week off my camera yet, so I will leave you with a photo of my FAVORITE hand washing sink in Malawi (so far...):

On the road again

2008-07-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

This week I will be away all week (again - seems like I am out of the office almost 2 weeks of every four!) in Mangochi - I will be attending the mid-term review meeting for our Integrated Food Security Program. Through the program we work with communities to promote crop diversification and new agricultural practices. It is a three year program and we are half way through implementation.
Last week was fun and relatively calm. We had dinner guests on Wednesday and had just greeted everyone when the power went out....we made due though (getting used to coping with power outages here as they are fairly frequent) and used the BBQ to make our stirfry by putting the veggies in tinfoil.
On Friday night we went to a play called Roj of the Antarctic – it was a one woman show about racism, homosexuality and climate change – kind of a bizarre combination but it was an incredible show – the woman was quite amazing. Basically she connects the themes by saying that the same attitudes that permit discrimination based on sexual orientation and race permit the destruction of the environment. Afterwards we went for dinner at Mama Mia’s with some friends – great night.
Saturday, Jules and I went hiking with our friend Jessica – she took us to Nkhoma mountain – we had never been there before – great find! It only takes about an hour and a half to get to the top, so it is sort of a perfect sized afternoon hike – strenuous, but not ridiculous.
On Sunday, I had another day of sewing all day and have now completed my first two African quilts!
One for Regan:

And one for Jules and I:
Ours is made from fabrics that have all been made in Malawi – I tried only to buy Malawian prints for Regan’s as well. Unfortunately when I bought the blue fabric for Regan’s quilt, I was told it was made in Malawi, but now that I am more familiar with the companies that make fabric in Malawi (there are only two), I know that it was not in fact a Malawian print. But it is still pretty!

I also got a picture of a guy painting lines on the street by hand:
Hope you will see more photos more often on my blog now that I am more in the habit of keeping current with the photos...and I know how to shrink them also!

Have a great week!

Updates! July in Malawi

2008-07-08T00:32:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it has been two weeks since I last posted! Many apologies for the lapse. Work has really been picking up - after a month of freaking out about the impossibility of completing my mandate, I finally feel like I have a plan that will enable me to be successful (I hope!). But it is a lot of work, and I am still waiting for my counterpart to be hired (hopefully within the month now), so I have been pretty busy.
We had donors from Australia arrive in Lilongwe on June 28. We had a meeting on the 29th (Sunday???) to explain our progress to date on our Floods Response Program with the 31 year old female representative from Caritas Australia, Sandya. The meeting concluded with a lunch of local food made by the sisters that live on-site here at the Catholic Secretariat. Afterwards, my colleagues hadn't planned anything for our donor to do, so I offered to take Sandya to the market. She was really sweet and fun, and we ended up inviting her to join us for dinner at Blue Ginger (mmm....daal makhani) and then the Euro-cup final game at Chameleons.
We met Monday morning at 9 to depart on the monitoring trip we had planned to Mangochi, Blantyre and Chikwawa. Unfortunately, Carsterns (my boss), was not able to depart from the office til 10, then we were further held up by a fuel shortage (frequent event - travelling on time takes a lot of ahead planning!). We ended up leaving Lilongwe after 11, and stopping in Dedza for lunch at around 1. We ate at a place called Dedza Pottery Lodge - I had never been there before - the pottery was amazing. I am definately planning on making some purchases when we return there on the trip I am planning for when my Mom and Megan (Regan's friend, not my sister) come to visit!!!
All this meant that we didn't arrive in Mangochi until 5:20pm rather than 2pm as originally intended, so our meeting didn't start until 6pm!!! Talk about a long day....seems there is no taboo in Malawi about expecting people to stay late with no notice. While in Mangochi, I was also able to visit the little boy who was involved in the accident and he is recovering well, though still in hospital.
The next day was the second food distribution in Mangochi (all together there are three distributions of a one month supply of food for each household). It was much more subdued than the launch I attended in Mzuzu, but it went smoothly and people were glad to get their distributions. We also toured the site of an irrigation project which was very interesting, and we were welcomed with friendly, singing villagers.
On Wednesday, we drove to Blantyre and then down to Chikwawa for a meeting. Since we arrived in Blantyre three hours before the meeting (and Chikwawa is only an hour away), we decided to use our time to find accommodation. After a couple of sketchy lodges, we passed a sign that said ‘Hostellerie de France’ and decided to check it out. Our first impression was of the toilet seats that were on the front porch. Once we entered the place, we were welcomed with a booming ‘Bonjour Mes Amies!’. The character that owns the place definitely belongs in my memory as one of the strangest people I have met in Malawi….with his moustache waxed into curls and long graying hair and French accent. We booked rooms pretty much on the basis of the owner – and also because the dining room and backyard were amazing looking.
We drove down to an uneventful meeting in Chikwawa and returned to lounge over a couple of MGTs (Malawi Gin and Tonics) while our French dinner was prepared.
On Thursday, the food distribution took place in Chikwawa. Chikwawa was the site of my first field visit and it was just as memorable on my second visit to the south. The villagers (well the female ones) danced and sang and acted for us – many of the songs were portraying the hunger people experienced and the relief brought by the program and the need to work in the fields to ensure that food will be available after these distributions are finished. Sandya also interviewed some recipients to find out their response to the program. We were disappointed to learn that the food rations were often only lasting for 3 weeks as opposed to a month (the supply is based on government guidelines about the minimum requirements of an average household).
Heading back up to Blantyre, we picked up another WUSC volunteer, Sarah to join us for dinner and I also stayed with Sarah that night – it was a blast.
On Friday morning, I was informed of a sudden change in plans – we had planned to take the donors to the lake for a relaxing end to their busy visit, but it seems that one of the vehicles had to return to Lilongwe, so I went back on Friday morning. I didn’t mind, as we had plans to go to the lake anyways, and I had missed Regan and Jules!
The change in plans enabled us to quickly pack up and get to the lake Friday instead of Saturday in time to celebrate the fourth of July with some of our American friends. Friday night was a great party, and Saturday was filled with lots of beach volleyball followed by swimming and reading by the lake – awesome. On Saturday night we braaied up some veggie sausages and then hung out with some friends. Sunday, we decided to leave in order to still have a day at home (As Sunday was Malawian independence day, Monday was a holiday).
I spent most of Monday sewing (my idea of a pretty awesome day!) after a walk in the Nature Sanctuary. In the afternoon we were invited to a last minute braai at our friend Jessica’s (she is an American, here doing PhD research). Although there was some meat (and veggie alternatives) involved, the focus was definitely on dessert as Jess’s baking is excellent! Nice way to end off an afternoon.
We also bought some videos on Sunday – if I had known these things existed, I wouldn’t have brought so many with me! You can buy DVDs with 9 – 80 movies on them (note – I have never purchased one with more than 18, though my roommate Heather has one with 63). The videos can be a bit of a crap-shoot as they don’t all work, but I think we got our money’s worth. I bought a horror collection with all three Final Destinations, all three Mummy’s and another one I was excited about at the time but can’t now remember….we also got the Tom Cruise collection – mostly for the Mission Impossibles – though it also has Top Gun…Regan got a romantic classic one with a somewhat odd collection including the Break Up and In Her Shoes…and the last one was a crime and action collection with all three Ocean’s and the Italian Job.
OK – I may be revealing a bit much in here about my love of bad movies…

Where I have been

2008-06-25T23:16:00.000-07:00

I realize it's been a while since I last posted.
I had a bad accident two weeks ago...it didn't involve another car, but it involved a little boy who ran in front of my vehicle. There are always people lining the sides of the road in Malawi and it is everyone's greatest fear, including my own, that one day you will hit someone.
You don't think it can happen to you though, really - I mean, I am so careful. I honk. I slow down. But it did happen to me.
I was driving for the first time without a driver on a business trip to my favorite diocesan office, Mangochi. I saw a group of children running alongside a bike and honked my horn (as is the custom here) to let them know I was coming. They moved further over to the left (you drive on the left in Malawi), so I went to pass. All of a sudden, just as I was overtaking them, one of the boys in the group veered to the right and ran straight across the road. The only thing I can think is that he was trying to beat the car across the road. There was no time to react enough and nowhere to go - I braked and swerved, but could not avoid hitting him. It was definately the worst moment of my life...I was pretty much completely disbelieving what had just happened and I got out of the car, totally panicking.
Thank God, a driver from the other direction stopped and assisted me as well as a few other people - we got the boy into the car, drove to a clinic for first aid and then to the hospital, where he is now recovering. I am so glad that he is alive and expected to fully recover.
The police did an investigation (again, I am grateful to the two witnesses that were able to explain the circumstances to the police) and declared the collision an accident.
I am still dealing with the post-traumatic stress of the incident, and am also realizing how many other thoughts I have are wrapped up in my emotions about the accident....how accepting the boys parents have been (everyone is so friendly whenever I visit the hospital), and the fact that when I do visit the hospital, the boy gets more attention....I feel a lot of this has to do with race and priviledge and I find it even more upsetting.
Anyways, I recognize that the stress of this will still be with me for a long time (well, forever really), but I am feeling much stronger this week and decided to post this.
It took me a while to decide to blog about the experience, but the purpose of the blog (besides letting you all know what is going on while we are away) is to document my year here in Malawi, and good or bad, all of my experiences here are forming this incredible adventure, so this experience belongs here along with the stories of parties, funny incidents, dancing in villages and my thoughts about our year here in Malawi.

CADECOM gets down

2008-06-09T05:45:00.000-07:00

But first,
Since I mentioned volleyball in my last post, I should update...
Unfortunately, despite a valiant effort and in the absence of our 6'6" captain Bryce, Chambo with head could not pull into a 2 wins for 6 situation. We lost the first game, came back to win the second and played well through the third but were beated by the Undutchables. 9:45pm time slot sucks. We pulled the early spot for this week, but I will unfortunately miss the game as I will be out of town for work.

On Friday, I was invited to attend a good-bye party for one of my co-workers, Father Nampimba. It was my first invite to a work event. I am also looking forward to the pre-wedding lunch we are invited to the week-end after this one. Anyways, we pledged what we would bring (mainly drinks) and I guess there was a budget for food. I expected a couple of drinks and maybe some snacky food, an hour to an hour and a half of polite conversation and then leaving. Elizabeth and Jessica had invited me to dinner with them at Blue Ginger (Indian restaurant I hadn't tried before), so I accepted and asked them to pick me up at work at 8pm, figuring 6 - 8 would be sufficient socializing time.
At 6, I arrived at the party with my little offering of cheese and crackers to hear Sexy Back playing out of an impressive sound system...I was a little taken aback - I mean, is Sexy Back appropriate music for a priest's party? I got out to where the bar was set up, and there was a box of red wine, white wine, Malawi gin, altar wine and vodka. Yes, I said Altar wine....on the bar. It was a bit surreal and I couldn't resist texting Regan and Jules (family don't attend work functions here) to let them know what the party was like. Throughout the night I was impressed with the dance club music selection until I finally asked the DJ (my co-worker Paul) whose CDs they were. They belong to my boss's boss, the Secretary General (head of ECM), Father Joseph!
Anyways, after I arrived and Father Joseph and I had gotten our glasses of wine, another coworker took the floor to open the event with a prayer. During the prayer (as I stood there with my glass of wine), they didn't turn off the music, they just turned it down...it was truly a surreal experience. Anyways, after a glass of Altar wine and tons and tons of amazing food (my cheese plate looked so SAD), it was time to open the dance floor. They let the guest of honour, Father Nampimba, choose his dance partner (me, of course!). This was awkward - they played that kind of song that always led to awkward confusion in highschool (is it fast? is it slow) - add to this the whole priest complication and you can see what I mean....anyways, it was OK - we took it as a fast song and enjoyed the dancing.
When Elizabeth and Jessica came to pick me up, I wasn't ready to leave, so they came down for a glass of Altar wine and to see the whole spread. They were just in time for the dancing out of the cake. It was awesome - the whole of ECM formed a line behind the cake and danced it across the floor. During this, the SG came up to me and asked me if I wanted to hear my Kanye song now (I had heard 'Stronger' come on while Paul was testing all the CDs and said "Oh I love this song"). So I said "sure" - I mean, why not???
After Stronger played, Elizabeth, Jessica and I sadly had to leave...next time I will know not to make plans after a work function, since Malawian catholics party very seriously!!!

What a weekend!

2008-06-03T23:23:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, our Regional Director came in to Lilongwe to visit with the volunteers. Since CIDA is here evaluating the Uniterra program (after the weekend), WUSC brought all the volunteers together from throughout the country, so our RD decided to meet with us all over the weekend. It was great to see some of the volunteers from all over the country that we don't get the chance to visit with all the time! And we met the one volunteer we hadn't met yet (though she is leaving Malawi in 5 days) as well.
All in all, there was a lot of time spent in meetings, but we also got a lot of free food (so none of the volunteers were complaining about that!). On Friday night we took it (relatively) easy in preparation for the I love Malawi party on Saturday. We had Melissa and Shawn home for a welcome home dinner from Shawn, as he has finally returned from 3 months in the Sudan working to get refugees safely out of the country. Melissa and Shawn hosted my birthday dinner just 2 weeks after we had arrived (and shortly before Shawn left), and I wanted to repay the favour. We found sweet corn (it was SO yummy!!) and pork spare ribs (pigs are not a big thing for livestock farmers here, so pork is relatively scarce...it was delicious and the company was great.
On Saturday, Heather's mom wasn't feeling that great, but she did manage to make it to our volunteer dinner at Claud's. Claud's is one of the two italian places in Lilongwe, and although I am committing sacriledge by saying this (to most Lilongweans), it is not my favorite place. They have an excellen peri-peri chicken dish, but whenever I have ventured off the peri-peri, I haven't enjoyed my meal (not for the price anyways)...unfortunately Saturday was no exception...but the gin and tonics were great.
After dinner, we headed to the I love Malawi party we have been excited about all week - it was a blast - tons of Malawians as well as Mzungus and we actually drank the bar dry (not me personally!!!) and then headed to Chezntemba - site of many past dancing excursions. Unfortunately, Chez had a band on outside and we had to wait forever for them to put music on inside...oh well...
Sunday was an all afternoon meeting with our RD, followed by a cocktail party with our CIDA evaluator. Heather's mom went to the clinic in the morning as she still wasn't well, and she has Malaria!!! And she was taking Malarone (supposedly effective prophylaxis)!!! Our friend Meilssa just got over a bout of Malaria as well, so it is odd, given that it is dry season.
We went home after the cocktail party and started a movie...I think I saw all of 5 minutes before falling asleep at like 7:30.
On Monday we had presentations for the CIDA evaluator, and were invited to join her for dinner at our favorite restaurant in Lilongwe, Babas Delhi Darbar - it was fabulous...seriously one of the best indian restaurants I have ever been to. Our Malawian guests did not feel the same way though and just picked at their food - I don't want to generalize, but on the whole, most Malawians really do not vary their diet and are not as interested in exploring new options.
Anyways, did I blog that 'Chambo with head' (my volleyball team) actually won a game last week!!! Changing our record from 0 for 5 to 1 win of 6 games??? Progress! Anyways, we face off again tonight and unluckily pulled the late game, so we don't play until 9:45...wish us luck!

Weird expression

2008-06-02T22:57:00.000-07:00

Everything is pre-paid in Malawi. You have to buy credit for your phone and input it in order to make a call. You have to do the same for your power (we have run out twice now and had to go to the gas station in the middle of the night to purchase additional credit).
Once you put the credit in, it is very expensive to make phone calls, so people are sparing with their time spent on the phone and often we communicate only through text messages. In addition, when people really have hardly any credit, they call you and hang up, waiting for you to call them back. This procedure is called flashing, and resulted in our friend Elizabeth asking two guys the other day "Now, if I give you my number, will you flash me?"

Downsides to Malawi?

2008-05-28T23:03:00.000-07:00

I think I have been firm enough in my ‘I love malawi’ posts to write this…I mean I love Malawi…there is even a party on Saturday with an ‘I love Malawi’ theme and I have had a custom malawi t-shirt made to wear to the party because I totally love Malawi..
The aforementioned love notwithstanding, I think it is OK then if I report some of the downsides…
1) Our stove is shocking. I don’t mean shocking to look at, or that the price was shocking (though it was - we paid $200, you wouldn’t pay $20 for this thing in Canada), I mean actually shocking. If you put a pan on the stove and touch the handle – shock. Touch a spoon in a pot –shock. It took a while, but we eventually figured out that if you wear shoes, the shock passes harmlessly though you to the floor and you don’t feel the shock – but that can’t be good for you???
2) Chickens. They may be cute and sound charmingly local but they are LOUD. And news to the city folk…they don’t just crow at dawn….they crow all the time. I am in the midst of a Martha Stewart attack and am baking cookies at 12:41am and they are crowing RIGHT NOW. Note that the sudden desire to bake cookies is also being affected by the shocking oven…in addition to being shocking, it has no temperature gauge, so it is taking approximately FOUR TIMES AS LONG to bake the aforementioned cookies!!!
3) Cockroaches….they aren’t pretty, and if you read my roomate’s blog, you know they don’t die easy. We have a daily battle protecting our food (and other items) against them and ourselves against the extreme heebie jeebies they can cause.
OK, seriously, I just had to make you all feel better that you aren’t here, since Malawi ROCKS.

Monday Morning

2008-05-26T01:11:00.000-07:00

It is Monday morning and I am back at work - quickly posting on my tea break.
What a fabulous weekend. Kande Beach is simply beautiful, and Lake Malawi managed to meet expectations again by being warm and clear. There were even waves this time and it was fun playing in the gentle surf.
My roomate Heather's mom arrived from Canada last week, and Alexio, Heather's boyfriend, was scheduled to come and visit from Zimbabwe to meet her while she is here. By the way, I have FINALLY added a link to H's blog if you want to check out her view of our time here.
Anyways, unfortunately, Alexio missed his flight and wasn't able to arrive until Friday evening, so we took Heather's mom with us to the beach and decided Heather and Alexio would drive up Saturday morning and meet us there.
I was lucky enough to get out of work early so we planned to leave at 2, and weren't far off - finally getting out at 2:26. It was a bit longer of a drive than anticipated, as we had to detour into Salima to get cash, since we had forgotten to make a withdrawal in Lilongwe. Most of the drive was in daylight, but we still had about an hour an a half of stressful pothole and pedestrian avoidance after the sun departed. We arrived at 6:45pm and headed straight to the bar for a decompression drink and found a number of passengers from an overland tour bus enjoying themselves. Regan hadn't changed yet, and let me tell you, arriving in a bar in a school uniform certainly is a conversation starter!
Once we settled into our rooms, we went over to the restaurant for dinner. Since I had already been there for lunch during my business trip, I was able to let the others know some important things - like that the bean burrito is actually beans on a chapati.
Jules and I headed over to the pool table next for a couple games, but then realizing that it isn't the best spectator sport, we played yahtzee with Regan and Colleen (H's mom) until they went to bed and we could continue with the rubber match.
We had booked chalets on the beach and they were amazing...the only drawback was that they had no bathrooms, and while the walk from Colleen and Regan's chalet was quite short, ours was pretty long! The tradeoff was totally worth it though, and we fell asleep listening to the waves crash. The next day featured a great deal of hammock lounging, reading and swimming. I even got to play in the most random game of malawian volleyball, which was great fun...there was much excitement and unecessary dramatic diving for the ball. Out of the first two games, each team had won once, so the rubber match was competitive and exciting, and went 5 points beyond the usual game point since you have to win by two points....so a close one. My team won just as the sun was beginning to fade from the sky.
Jules and I also learned how to play Bowa - a traditional Malawian game played with marbles or stones on a carved wooden board. We ended up ordering a board from the guys on the beach who taught us how to play and it is really nice, so I am happy with it. Heather and Alexio arrived Saturday so we all had dinner together then played a game of Hoopla before bed. Sunday featured more hammock lounging and swimming until we had to go at around 12:30.
The restaurant was quite expensive, so we had decided that we would pick some chips (fries) up on the way home. When Jules got out of the car to go order them, he was approached by a very drunk man who aggressively asked for money. Jules told him no and went over to order some chips. The other Malawians present asked the man to leave, but he ignored them. When Jules handed his money over to pay, the drunk man snatched it and started to run away. Running on instinct, Jules chased him and managed to catch him and one of the other locals assisted him in prying the money out of the guy's hand. Jules gave the guy who assisted 50 kwatcha and we left. Later, I commented that it was a bit extreme to recover such a small amount of money, but then I came around and agreed with Jules that it was better not to let him get away with it - maybe he will think twice before trying such a thing again...it was too bad really, as we likely would have given him something in the first place had he been less aggressive.
So we have been in Malawi now for 4 months and lost nothing to theft - knock on wood!

Random things

2008-05-22T23:53:00.000-07:00

I am so excited that we are going to the beach this weekend - as I mentioned, we stopped at the lodge we will be staying at on the way home from Mzuzu and it was amazing.
Yesterday I tried to buy a bathing suit but the only store I know of in Lilongwe that carries bathing suits had the same 6 suits I tried on last time and no new stock, so no luck there! (I left my only bathing suit at Sun n' Sand just north of Mangochi) Luckily I have a workout tank top and bike shorts that will suffice for the moment.
Since I couldn't buy the bathing suit, I had enough money to buy a painting from a guy with no hands. When I passed him on the way into the store I was thinking "Wow, you have no hands and you are not begging - I should totally buy a painting from you"
Anyways, I couldn't believe how dexterous he was with his arms - totally amazing - and the paints with his arms, mouth and feet.
This morning I had to go on a diesel hunt - there was no diesel at the first three stations I went to - just not a problem I would have to worry about in Canada! Anyways, I lucked out at the fourth station - what a relief - so I have enough fuel to get to the beach tonight.

Second Visit to Mzuzu

2008-05-22T01:29:00.000-07:00

I have just returned from my journey north to witness the food distribution for our Emergency Flood Relief Program. It was an amazing (though LONG) journey.
We were unable to leave the office until 4:20pm – we had initially planned to leave the office at 1pm. Apparently the vehicle was having mechanical difficulties so we had to wait for it to be fixed. We arrived in Mzuzu at 9pm, much later than planned. I was able to stay with my friend Toni, and she (very sweetly) had pumpkin soup and a warm fire waiting (Mzuzu is COLD this time of year).
We had to get an early start the next morning to get to Karonga (3 hours north of Mzuzu) where the food distribution was scheduled to take place. My colleagues picked me up at 6am (only 15 min late – not bad considering the last time someone was supposed to pick me up at 5am they arrived at 6!) and we headed out. The road from Mzuzu to Karonga is windy and steep – Karonga is on the lake, whereas Mzuzu is at a bit of an altitude. We arrived mostly on time (well, at the same time as our Mzuzu colleagues) and headed on to the distribution – it was the furthest north I have been in Malawi and we were only 20km south of the Zambian border.
The program launch was entirely in Chichewa and Timbuka (the language spoken in the north), so I didn’t pick everything up, but the opening speeches – given by the Traditional Authority, Group Village Head, Government representative, Mzuzu CADECOM secretary and National CADECOM Secretary (my boss) were well received by the crowd of villagers. After the speeches we were treated to a number of dances . First the women danced, accompanied by their own hand clapping and singing – although the style is different than in the south, it reminded me of my first village visit in Dolo. Next, some drummers came out – one on a traditional drum, the other playing on corrugated aluminum. They began to play, and then four energetic male dancers came out – it was the first time I had seem male dancers in a village – they were amazing. I had my camera so took some shots but was unable to capture the dramatic movement. I wish I had thought to bring my smaller camera, which takes videos, along.
After the celebration, we headed to the food distribution site, where people collected their monthly allotment – a 50kg bag of maize, 2L cooking oil, 5kg of beans and a small amount of maize seed for planting. People receiving their rations seemed very grateful, though it was difficult to imagine how they would get those huge bags of maize home – some had strapped them on bikes (people manage to strap an amazing amount of things on bikes here), some would carry them, rest and start again.
After the distribution, the villagers had prepared food for us. I was internally rolling my eyes as last time I had food in a village, it was interested, but not very filling. To my surprise, we were treated to big plates of rice covered in steaming beef stew, with chicken and another type of beef as well – it was a veritable feast and we left feeling very full!
We arrived back in Mzuzu at 6 – a long but satisfying day. The next day, to my delight, my boss suggested we take the lakeshore road rather than the way we had come. It is a bit longer, but very scenic and I was happy to take the extra time. We stopped in Nkhata Bay – a legendary place amongst travelers blogs – we only saw the port and market but it was quite a neat little town. I also saw these huge fish in the market – apparently the lake is deeper in the north, so different fish are available. Next we stopped at a rubber plantation where I got to see how they tap the trees for rubber and many young men crowded around the car selling rubber balls (I bought one!). Then I mentioned our weekend plans – we are planning to leave Friday for Kande Beach – so we stopped there on the way home as well. I am SO excited for the weekend now – the beach there is beyond gorgeous and the lodge we are staying at is perfect for relaxing – chalets right on the beach with chairs on the porch – hammocks, pool and lounge chairs near the bar and sparkling blue water and soft sand on the beach (the sand ahas been our only disappointment at the lake – it’s a bit coarse).
We then drove through Salima (closest place on the lake from Lilongwe, so we have been there a few times) and home.

Emergency Flood Response

2008-05-19T05:57:00.000-07:00

This afternoon (if a vehicle is ever ready for us), I am heading up to Mzuzu with a few other colleagues from the Flood Response Project Management Team of which I am a part.
Flooding affected varius districts in Malawi in January and February of this year due to unusually heavy rain fall.
Unfortunately, this disaster has taken some time to respond to - to the point where this week will be the first food distribution to the flood victims from my organization.
Though I am sure that the food and non-food items that will be distributed through the program may have been more effective had we been able to respond more quickly, the items are still needed and will definately still be appreciated by the beneficiaries, so I am excited to see the program roll out.
Since we don't have much equipment to capture these events, I am using my camera to assist my organization in making a photographic record of the launch of the program - I hope to share some here at some point as well!
You can read more about the flood program, funded by Caritas Australia and CRS here:
http://www.caritas.org.au/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Search&template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=3744
(though note that I am not sure how the mis-information was recorded but there are only 1000 beneficiaries)

Another weekend in Lilongwe

2008-05-19T05:39:00.000-07:00

After my last post, my roomate Heather's mom arrived in Lilongwe!
We made her dinner on Thursday night to welcome her to the AGQ house (that is what the Arntz-Gray and Quinn abode is known as).
It has been neat seeing how she has reacted to a lot of the things we are used to around here and makes me excited to show all of these discoveries to my mom when she comes.
On Friday night, Heather had her second birthday party (despite the surprise party we threw her last weekend, she had her own birthday plans...). It was a blast - we had a friend offer to host and another bring a rocking sound system.
Saturday was a day of relaxation for sure! Sunday morning we were up early to enjoy breakfast before heading off to the launch of the 25th anniversary of the AIDs Candlelight memorial. It was a fairly impressive event - many booths were set up - I can't believe how many AIDs organizations there are working towards different goals - from abstinence and condoms to nutrition and ARVs.
The president arrived and toured all the booths (during which time we watched him tour the booths from the stands...a little lacking in action I must say). Afterwards, the ceremony was opened, there were prayers from different religions...Catholic, Sheik, Muslim, Evangelical...
We then lit our candles and observed a moment of silence. It is a very different experience attending an AIDs event in a country where so many people have been affected by this tragic disease. After the moment of silence there were performances by many different groups - dancers, choirs, dramatic performances. I was intrigued by the drama groups - they use these groups to go into communities and perform with messages inside the performances. When I first heard the idea back in Canada, I wasn't sure what to think (were the performances lame?), but now that I understand a bit more about culture and communication here in Malawi, I can better understand the importance of this powerful tool. The audience paid close attention and reacted strongly - I could tell that the message was being received.
The theme for the Candlelight memorial was Never Give Up, Never Forget. It was a great experience attending a memorial like that in a place like this where a message of hope is so important.

Catching Up

2008-05-15T20:55:00.000-07:00

After we got back from Mulanje, I headed off to Mangochi to finish the analysis of the baseline survey I had started the last time I was there. As usual, I really enjoyed the laid back atmosphere of the town - people walking everywhere or taking bike-taxis, friendly faces and the lovely mosques and veils from the high population of muslims in the area.
While I was there, I had dinner with one of CADECOM's new volunteers, Lisandra. CADECOM has two new volunteers, though neither is to be based in Lilongwe. Lisandra is in Mangochi working on gender and HIV mainstreaming and Vi is in Zomba working on cooperative development. Since I am working to monitor and evaluate our performance in those areas, I expect we will be working together despite the distance.
In the morning, I walked to work - when I did this, I walked past the prison for the first time. The inmates gave me friendly hellos from the other side of the chicken-wire fence separating the prison from the sidewalk. Things are definately more casual in Malawi - people were handing things in through the fence while the inmates greeted walkers-by.
The next night, my roomate Heather joined us on her own visit to Mangochi, and Cole also dropped by on his way back from Mulanje. We had a nice dinner together and some drinks in the gorgeous back patio of the Villa Tafika (my favorite hotel in Mangochi).
Once I finished my work on Thursday, Cole and I headed back to Lilongwe, but my driver was nice enough to stop a couple times on the way back for us to see the lake. It was my first visit to Club Makokolo (most exclusive hotel on the lake). The beach there is breath-taking, and the pools and bar luxurious. Cole and I had a drink with a South African couple celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary (yay them!), and I bought some salt pots from one of the vendors that paddled up to the beach while we were there.
We also visited Cape McClear while we were up there - it is a little sliver of land that sticks up into the lake in the southern part. Since it juts out, you can see the sun set right into the lake, which Cole and I did while taking a quick swim. After that we drove back to Lilongwe.
Friday I was up early, as we were planning a surprise birthday party for our roomate Heather that night. I made a chocolate chip banana cake and picked up all the groceries we needed for the party, which was to be held at Claire, Cole and Heidi's flat.
The party was a huge success - we had told Heather that we were having dinner for Cole's last night, so she had no idea that the party was for her. We had a blast and went dancing later at Chezntemba - a dance club here.
Saturday was low-key. On Sunday we went for a drive to Kasungu National Park to try and see some elephants, zebra or giraffes. Unfortunately, we were only able to see 3 antelopes. But the lodge we visited while we were there is gorgeous (though expensive), which is good to know for future! Then we stopped in Kasungu town for a really nice lunch where the menu declared that they served 'English Food'.
On the way to Kasungu, we realized we were low on gas and not being sure of where the next station was, we contemplated turning back to Lilongwe. When we saw a transport truck on the side of the road, we pulled over to ask, figuring the driver would know all about where to find gas. He directed us 3 km back down the road, but when we got to the small trading centre, we couldn't see a station. We asked the locals and were led to a lot with a bunch of derelict cars on it. One of the people there went over to one of the cars and pulled out a juice bottle, asking if we needed 5 litres or 10. We went for 10, then I took some photos of these guys filling our gas tank with juice bottles of fuel! It was totally awesome - sometimes I just can't believe how much I love Malawi!

Mount Mulanje

2008-05-13T23:03:00.000-07:00

Ugh - has it really been 10 days since I blogged? Work and weekends have been so busy! I keep thinking of blogs in my head - will have to work at getting them in writing more often!

We went to climb Mount Mulanje May 1 - 4. May 1 was a holiday (Thursday) so we booked Friday off to extend the weekend. While we were climbing, I thought of many different blog titles - amoungst the finalists: How my I-pod got me up Mount Mulanje, Hiking, hiking and more hiking, and finally: How Mulanje kicked my ass.
The hiking was beautiful and the views were stunning. So so stunning. I definately want to go back, though next time we will plan a traverse hike rather than a peak attempt.
The first day started out wil lots of promise. All three of us like hiking, and there are porters available, so hiking with no backpack was quite a treat!! We made a group of 6 all together - Peter, our guide, Abdul and Alex, our porters, and the three Arntz-Grays. After about an hour and a half, we detoured to a beautiful waterfall - absolutely amazing. After a short refresh, we headed on up. Once you have hiked about 2 - 3 hours, you start breaking through the tree line and seeing the most beautiful vistas. Then we started to get tired. We had to choose to hike to Chambe hut (4 hours) or Chisepo (7 hours). We decided to keep trucking and go for Chisepo despite being tired. Lunch refreshed us somewhat so we made good time for part of the afternoon. All together it took us 8 1/2 hours to do what the guide called a 7 hour hike - not too bad all things considered!
The huts available to stay in are great - water is provided (we treated anyways though) and a fire is lit so you can cook on it. It was so nice to get up there and be able to take our hiking shoes off...that was definately the first order of business! There was actually beer and coke available for sale as well - I can't believe it is worth it to hike glass bottles all the way up that path just to sell them for 200 kwatcha ($1.50) - I would have paid 500! There was a big group hiking at the same time and sharing the hut, so there was a very celebratory atmosphere and lots of conversation.
The next day we tried for the highest peak in Mulanje (3001m), but the "hiking" was brutal. Mostly we were scrabbling up steep rock faces, often on all fours. I had several panic attacks going up while thinking about how we were going to get down. Finally, after three hours of hiking we reached the half way point and just had to admit that it was best to turn around. Weather conditions were not great, and it would have taken us all day just to get to the top - and the guide indicated it was to get steeper yet.
We headed back down and then hiked another four hours to Chambe hut so that we would have an easier hike down on the last day. The same larger group followed us again to Chambe, so it was nice to have company.
The last day included a lot of "was it this far? I didn't think it was this far?" on the way back down to the car. We also managed to meet up with our friend Cole, who was just heading up the mountain...his guide had recommended bringing up a live chicken to cook at the top! I guess then you don't need to worry about salmonella?
Anyways, it was a rewarding experience, and I definately want to return to that beautiful place!

Impressions of Africa

2008-05-01T20:59:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Stephen Lewis’s Race Against Time. It is a printed version of his Massey lectures delivered in 2005. It is a fast and interesting thought provoking read and I highly recommend it if you are interested. It made me very happy to be here, and to be working with a local organization. He is refreshingly pro-African (and I say that since we are constantly with development workers who, even though they are here, are sometimes negative about African structures, leadership, corruption etc.).
About corruption, Stephen Lewis makes an excellent point about throwing stones in glass houses – what about our own sponsorship scandals etc? He hates to see 53 sub-saharan countries lumped together because of the negative experiences of a few, and I wholeheartedly agree. He also makes some excellent points about the need to respect the local leadership and way of doing things. The IMF and World Bank Policies of associating access to funds with imposed conditions has done a great deal of damage to Africa, especially after colonialism.
To relate a personal experience, I am working with my local organization on a proposal, with which we are passionately arguing with our donors – they are insisting that staff be cut from the program where we as a local organization feel they are desperately required. How can a donor come in and tell local organizations what to do? They are not acting in the manner of a partner, but as a parent, and it is not right.
On the topic of cross cultural misunderstanding, I have to relate an experience from today. I was asked to facilitate the first section of a workshop a colleague of mine is running on Monitoring and Evaluation. I sucked. Spectacularly. I just didn’t have the audience, everything fell flat and no-one participated. I have a lot to learn in terms of what Malawians expect and their learning and participatory styles. My colleague then tool over and (though he took an hour to go through his section that was slotted for 15 minutes) he had the people participating, laughing and answering questions.
I think it would be helpful if I could learn the language, but though I started out strong, I am now so busy with work and out of town so often that I haven’t been able to fit a lesson in for 4 weeks – how frustrating.
I am also fluctuating at the moment through incredible highs and sudden lows – I love it here and am so enjoying working with my co-workers, living in the warm and beautiful country, and learning and growing. Sometimes I will just be walking down the street and then will stop to gape at my incredible surroundings and be so grateful to be here. Then at other times, all of a sudden, I will be gripped with a longing for home, for things familiar and comfortable, where even through there is great disparity between rich and poor there is just no comparison to the disparity here.

Colder

2008-04-24T21:09:00.000-07:00

Well as it is warming up in Canada, it is cooling down in Lilongwe! It has only gone up to about 18 degrees in the last few days - I am missing the nice warm sunny days of March!
We will be staying in Lilongwe again for the third consecutive week and I am itching to get out and see another part of this country! I will just have to be patient though until next week - Thursday is a holiday, and we have booked Friday off, so we get a nice long weekend out of the deal. We haven't picked a destination yet, but were thinking of driving down to climb Mount Mulanje. I was thinking of waiting until we'd had the time to get a bit more fit, but I think we are ready enough, and our alternative plan of going to the beach on the northern lakeshore is a bit kaiboshed due to the chilly weather!
Any other ideas?

After Mangochi

2008-04-16T05:28:00.000-07:00

Before anything else - I must take a minute to congratulate Jules on finishing his last exam - glad you persevered though my dragging you to Africa mid-way through a course - I am SO proud of you!!!!!!!!!!

I didn’t realize until my hasty post in the internet café in Mzuzu that I hadn’t blogged since my visit to Mangochi almost 2 weeks ago!
So I didn’t blog about our fabulous weekend after Mangochi! We had reserved tents in a resort on the southern shores of Lake Malawi – I had been there before briefly during a business trip, but Regan and Jules had never seen it. My first impression was that the shores are beautiful – the opposite shore is closer in the narrow southern part of the lake than in the middle, and so you can see the mountains on the other side more clearly. After dinner, we were shown to our tents only to find that they had reserved us two tents with broken zippers and no mosquito nets – obviously unacceptable in a country where Malaria is a frequent occurrence. We managed to argue our way into a room for the same price of the tents. It even had a TV, and a separate room for Regan and Wiley, so no arguing over leaving the light on to read – yay! We rejoiced over the TV – though I can’t bring myself to pay the price for it, and don’t miss it every day, it was amazing to find out how fun it was to have one for a few hours, even with 3 channels.
In the morning, we negotiated inexpensive breakfasts and then headed down to the lake. Unfortunately, we were told that we couldn’t have the room again for the same price and that no tents with zippers were available. For the price they were charging for the room ($12,000 KW – almost $90), I figured we might as well stay at a nicer resort. We headed down the way to Sun n’Sand, where we were able to finagle a room for $11,800 (should have been $15,000) and negotiated out of buying Regan and Wiley breakfast as we had brought cornflakes, so altogether got our stay for almost $10,000 less. Delighted with our (albeit tiny) room – TV with (gasp) 7 channels and (excited intake of breath) A/C – a rarely seen sight here in Malawi, we headed out to the Olympic size swimming pool. I must admit that though the view is breathtaking, the beach at both the first resort, Boadzulu, and at Sun n’ Sand was disappointing – the bottom was somewhat mushy and black in spots and there was a breakwater that kind of ruined the entrance for swimming…so we pretty much hung at the pool for the rest of the weekend – it was awesome and relaxing – reading books alternately in the sun and the shade, enjoying drinks by the pool, and watching a movie on TV. They even had African dancing after dinner in the restaurant! Arriving home on Sunday in Lilongwe, we felt relaxed and refreshed.
The following week was a busy one – on Tuesday we had a power outage and couldn’t make dinner until 9pm (oh what I would give for a gas stove!), Wednesday was my first volleyball game with my new team – unfortunately, we lost, but it wasn’t for lack of effort on behalf of our cheering squad – with our roommate, her boyfriend, Jules and Regan and other friends, I think there may have been more of them than of us playing! Anyways, we had pulled a late game, then stayed for drinks and an impromptu practice, making it a late evening. On Thursday, we joined the Portuguese club – after the great time in the Sun n’ Sand pool (I even got to do laps!), I decided I really would like to be able to have regular access to a pool in Lilongwe. The Portuguese club has a pool that is about 25m long, you can access it anytime, plus it has a fun high diving board (used mostly by shrieking children taking running jumps off the terrifying thing).
Thursday was also, sadly, Alexio’s (Heather’s boyfriend who had been visiting from Zimbabwe) last night in Lilongwe, so we went to a new place, Don Brioni’s. I have to admit to not being terribly impressed. The food was good, but portions were small and expensive – in fact it was the most we’d spent per person per meal yet, but weren’t wowed by it like we have been at other places. Friday, I stupidly agreed to join my friends Melissa and Heidi for a 2 hour yoga class. Tips for anyone who has not experienced yoga outside one trial class – you may not want to do 2 hours of advanced yoga with no training!!! Although it felt good afterwards, I think there were just too many poses I couldn’t do – think I will give it a miss until I can find a slower paced class.
The weekend was another perfect one – relaxing and all spent in Lilongwe. Saturday we got to go to a new superstore here – Chipiku – where we found some excellent deals, then to the Portuguese club for laps and sun and reading (and we managed to get our A/C fixed as well – yay!). Saturday night our new friend Carmen (who drove me to aerobics until I got my car) hosted a dinner party that was amazing – despite saying she couldn’t cook, she put on a meal to satisfy Martha Stewart and a dessert to match. We learned a new scrabble game and met new people. Inspired by the successful dinner party, we decided to host a BBQ Sunday at our place – it was so fun having friends over, and we have found some like-minded game playing people to hang out with for sure, playing Hoopla, eating, then playing Settlers and Pop 5 – a perfect night.

Malwian Business Trip

2008-04-15T04:47:00.000-07:00

At least this time I was actually packed and knew that I would be going out of town when I arrived at the office Monday. But I thought I was going to Mangochi and returning Wednesday, but within a few hours, the plan changed to me going to Mangochi and Mzuzu, then just to Mzuzu and returning Thursday. Followed by a trip to the bank to travel my travel allowance cheque, and load the gas card before driving north with one of CADECOM's drivers to Mzuzu.
Having forgotten my Lonely Planet, I had nowhere to stay and no idea where to start looking. After checking out one recommendation from some guy on the street, I texted my roomate Heather, who texted me back with numbers from our trusty Southern Africa guide. I am now in the second cheapest accommodation ever stayed in on business, the Mzoozoozoo - actually a pretty cool backpackery-type lodge. Again, I get a dorm room, but noone else is in it, so not bad at all for 800 KW ($5.92).
I would describe Mzuzu, but other than the tall tall trees and forestry operations I saw on the way up, I arrived at night and have been working today so don't feel like I have the feel of the place yet - will try to blog again when I get home - IF we have internet again - it has broken AGAIN, but Jules is working on it - wish him luck!!!

Mangochi

2008-04-03T00:38:00.000-07:00

I am in Mangochi again on business – I was here before, about four weeks ago, on another business trip. Mangochi is at the southern tip of Lake Malawi (though not right on the lake unfortunately), and has the highest concentration of Malawi’s Muslim population. It is quite warm in Mangochi, and has a very different feel than Lilongwe – more rural I guess – definitely more people biking and walking through the streets, with only an occasional car driving through. People are friendly, and there are many veiled women and children. There are definitely less white people here, though I am sure the population has seen their fair share, so I get quite a few more stares than I would in Lilongwe, especially as I walk to work rather than drive or take a bike-taxi.
I am here to help evaluate the results of a baseline survey that this office conducted prior to implementation of a food security, water and sanitation program. Not sure if I knew what I was signing up for – I came to pick up the survey results today and there is a BIG box of paper – handwritten surveys…I will do my best to get the data in today, so I can spend tomorrow doing analysis with the woman here who is in charge of the project implementation.
Tomorrow night, Jules is driving up with Regan and Wiley (Melissa’s son, who we have for the weekend) and we will go north a bit to spend the weekend on the southern lakeshore, where Jules and Regan have not yet been.
Although I love Senga Bay, I also loved the beauty of the southern lakeshore when I was here briefly before – you can see mountains all along the coast and the Cape sticking way out into the water.
I was able to send 2 CDs of pictures to Kate for uploading (THANK YOU KATE) so pictures are now available on my flickr account (www.flickr.com/photos/adventuregirl7), and I hope to insert some into my blogs soon (if I am ever home for more than one night!!!).

The Gorge Swing

2008-03-29T22:12:00.000-07:00

So we are still in Livingstone right now - we had to stay an extra day...unfortunately what the Lilongwe doctor thought was a minor infection was in fact quite major, and Regan needed to have additional care in a clinic here, so we had to stay an extra day. She is doing well now and will be looked at again in Lilongwe.
Since we mostly saw the inside of the clinic on Thursday and Friday and Regan's energy levels were back up, we decided to do something more adventurous on Friday, so we went to Fifth Gorge, where I did the gorge swing and Regan and Jules did the flying fox.
The flying fox is basically a zip line that you do in a flying superman-like position - you have to run off the platform then soar over the canyon. Regan and Jules did it in style. The gorge swing is sort of like a bungi, but the cord doesn't stretch as much, and at the end you swing rather than bounce...still it does involve walking off a cliff...my knees went weak at one point and I thought I wouldn't be able to get myself to walk off, but in the end, I did it!!!
It was great fun, and now it is Sunday morning and we are off to the clinic for one last shot, then on to Lusaka, where we plan to watch a MOVIE...in a THEATER!!! (There is not a single theatre in all of Lilongwe).

Bungi Jumping in Victoria Falls

2008-03-26T11:45:00.000-07:00

Ok - So sorry mom and Judy, but we let Regan bungi jump - she tandem-jumped with our friend Claire and totally loved it....
Our trip started out a bit on the rocky side- friday night, I drove my friend to the airport and about 2 km away, we blew a tire. We spent Sat morning looking for a couple new tires, and found them....so we thought we were in good shape to start off later that day...so we did. 45 min in, we blew tire #2. Feling cursed, we headed back to Lilongwe...we found tires at a sketchy place, but at least everything was taken care of and we were able to staret the trip over again the next day. LONG day driving to Lusaka, but we made it, and were welcomed to a lodge with no power or water..still, the beds were there. Regan and I shopped for an hour the next morning and we had real coffee - they even had decaf!!! Then we headed to Vic Falls...we got lost on the way there but eventually found the right way, and anyways, it is gorgeous here and everyone loves it here. Great place to visit - still love Lilongwe as a home base though.
Our first day was spent visiting the falls (basically getting soaked in the spray), followed by a sunset cruise on the Zambezi - totally awesome. This morning we woke up and drove to the bridge, and the bungi jumping crew (read everyone but me) jumped off the bridge - I got sme awesome photos - can't wait to share.
Tomorrow, we are spending all day in this park where you can do a gorge swing, zip cords and other exciting activities, so I will let you know how it goes...

Love you!!!

Our first BBQ

2008-03-21T21:58:00.000-07:00

At the outing for my friend Claire's birthday, we decided that it would be a good idea to celebrate St. Paddys somehow. Given that this year, it occurred on a Monday night, we decided that a Sunday BBQ would be most appropriate.
We borrowed a BBQ from our friend Melissa, since we haven't gotten around to getting one of our own yet, and as soon as we got back from cultural orientation we went out to stock up on meat. We bought 3 chickens, sausage, steak, a roast to cut into medallions, veggie burgers and all the fixings. Saturday night, as well as Sunday morning, we were busily preparing potatoes for potato salad, other veggies and marinating meat.
Basically, it was a lot of work, but fun also getting excited about hosting our first real party. We invited all of our close friends and had the BBQ going for hours - BBQs here are charcoal and very difficult to light, but once you get them going, they provide beautifully even heat and are great to cook on.
We also made home made lemonade with lemons from our lemon tree! In fact, after we made the lemonade, we realized there were still a lot of ripe lemons in our tree, so we filled a bucket with them - unfortunately, instead of taking lemons home, our guests used them instead for the lemon game, which consisted of throwing them up on the tin roof and trying to catch them when they rolled off....at least the lemons provided much entertainment!
We were able to actually find two six packs of Guinness in Lilongwe, which we thought was very suitable for the occasion, and Melissa brought some whisky, which was a treat enjoyed by all.
I meant to take photos of all the food - the potato salad I made was even decorated with egg slices, like my dad always does his - but in all the excitement and busy hosting duties, I totally forgot.
It was a great success - people came at two and I think the last guests left around midnight, so a great time was had by all, and it was very enjoyable for us to be hosting an event here.

Cultural Orientation

2008-03-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

March 9 - 15 was our cultural orientation at Mua. Mua is a small village where a mission was founded over 100 years ago. Because of the mission, there is a good hospital and church, and in addition, a cultural centre and museum are also there.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon and had time to ooh and ahh over our rooms - with giant mosquito nets that go to the floor, so you don't have to tuck them in to your mattress...the luxury!

We had a nice dinner Sunday night - meat stew, veg stew and rice. Since discovering Claire and Cole also like boardgames as much as we do, we brought Settlers of Catan with us and ended up playing pretty much every night.

Monday morning was our first cultural lesson and we met one of the Fathers from the mission who would be our cultural trainer. The day started with traditional dancing and singing followed by lessons on the matrilinial culture that is prevalent here in Malawi. Since I am sure Jules will write a detailed blog about the three cultures we studied, their history and practices, I will be light on the details here.

The cultural training was really interesting, and a description of the complex relationships between men and women, children and elders was really interesting and also gave a lot of insight into some of my experiences with relationships amongst my work colleagues. I think the training will prove useful more than once during my year here. The delivery of the training was pretty funny - at the end of the day we discussed what it was like to have a chain smoking, swearing priest obsessed with sex giving us these lectures - yes, you read that correctly - he seemed to delight in giving us all the details!

While we were in Mua, we also experienced our first visit to a medical clinic. Regan wasn't feeling well, so we took her in for some tests. When we walked in, someone ran to fetch the specialist, and while that makes me feel good that we will be getting the best treatment if we ever need it, it also made me aware (not for the first time) of the amount of priveledge we are granted here due to the colour of our skin. While the experience made me uncomfortable, I can't say that I wasn't a bit grateful at the same time. Things to think about I guess...

After three and a half days of cultural training, we began three half day lessons in Chichewa (most widely spoken native language in Malawi). I had already enrolled in language lessons, so I had a bit of an edge, but the teacher was able to make it challenging for everyone, and it was fun as well. Regan is picking up a bit of the language but not as much as she had hoped - same with me - I had originally been determined to be fluent - now I am not so sure - the language is so complex, and people speak it so quickly, it is hard to pick up! But at least I can say some simple sentences, and get some ideas across, even if it is in a halting, hesitant manner.

The last two days of the orientation were held in Senga Bay - back to the lake, which we LOVE - so we got some water frisbee, sun and sand in...but we were much more careful this time about the length of time in the sun and the amount of sunscreen applied!!!

After using the maximum water time available, it was back on the bus and back to Lilongwe!

Life in Lilongwe

2008-03-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

March 5 - 8
So after we returned from our trip to Liwonde and the beach, we returned to our lives here in Lilongwe. It was to be a very short week at work - only 3 days - followed be a week away from work for our cultural orientation (but that's another blog).
We are falling into a bit of a pattern here - I have found an aerobics class to attend on Tuesdays and Thursdays with my friends Melissa and Carmen (who was kindly providing transportation before we bought the car). For my friends at the athletic club, I should let you know that the class is definately effective, but not the luxury class we were used to in Canada! The instructor must have studied aerobics about 20 years ago when it was still good to pulse while stretching cold muscles, and he just loves to do this crazy side kicking thing that is simply NOT natural. All this delivered in a steamy little room with 2 pathetic fans and a concrete floor....but hey, its active and fun and in Lilongwe, so it rocks.
On Wednesday (my Canadian volleyball team will be happy to know) I finally made the effort to go to volleyball night at a little bar called the Shack - it's beach volleyball and I was able to find a team short on players that let me play a drop in game (drawback on volleyball is that it is organized with existing teams only, you can't just join, you have to find a team who will take you). So at least it was a start! I stayed after the game for a few drinks (the convenience of having the bar right there beside the court - jealous?) and went home. When I got home, I discovered we had guests and they were just leaving for the Shack...so...back I went - it was a fun night but I stayed out past midnight and was a little tired the next day at work!
Thursday was a hectic day at work as well - there was a lot of flooding in the southern part of Malawi in mid-January - people were displaced from their homes and crops were washed away. In response, CADECOM is working with CRS and Caritas Malawi to deliver a flood response program to provide food, seed and survival kits to the flood victims, so we were busily trying to finalize the proposal amidst all our other work.
We also started looking for a car, but it is very difficult to really get an idea of what is available, since there are no real car lots – some lots have 10 – 15 vehicles so there is not much selection, especially in the used car arena. There are some boards at a few supermarkets where people (especially ex-pats) post items for sale, and the paper. We wrote down everything from the boards and the paper and ended up looking at a few cars, but we weren’t really able to make any offers or decisions before the weekend, and we knew we would be away the following week, so no action took place on that front!
Friday was our friend Claire’s birthday, so we went out for a nice fancy dinner and then to a nice bar to hang out (Chameleons – not sure if I have mentioned before – tame place, OK for Regan to go to, nice atmosphere).
On Saturday I had to put in some time working on the proposal, knowing I would be away the next week, then we mostly took it easy and had a quiet night in.Sunday we got up and packed for our week of culture, which is a whole other blog…

Liwonde

2008-03-20T09:53:00.000-07:00

Heather and Regan in Liwonde:

So our first safari experience in Africa was in Liwonde national park. Liwonde is just short of a four hour mini-bus ride from Lilongwe. We started off bright and early - well at least that was our intention - after talking all my young and lazy friends into a 7:30 start (with much begging and pleading), who do you think was the last to arrive at the mini-bus depot??? Yep, the Arntz-Gray-Quinns, and there was no Quinn influence on our lateness - it was all us. Anyways, after getting over the embarassment and hooking up with everyone, we headed out to find us a good mini-bus - we found a nice clean one, and since there were 8 of us and - thanks to the new minibus rules of only putting 3 to a row - we took up more than half the bus, meaning no stops on the way there. We enjoyed (well mostly) the vendors coming up to our windows selling things - I swear you can just say what you want and someone will run off to find it for you in order to make the sale - anyways, we bought a radio (mainly I couldn't resist the partyish song that was playing on it and had to pay an 100KW for the batteries so we could listen to the radio on the road trip. Then we bumped our way on to the road and were off...
When we got to Liwonde town we were able to find a mini-bus willing to act as a cab and take us up to the lodge we had booked - stopping first at the 'grocery store' (read 2 aisles of NOT MUCH) for supplies (read gin and tonic) on the way. We got to the lodge and were tempted by the $20/person self contained (with a bathroom) rooms, but opted to cheap out for the dorms ($10) instead. Besides, there were these really cool benches carved out in a semi-circle that looked perfect for hanging out in.

We decided only to do 2 activities, since we intend to visit the park again at least twice, so we went for the canoe safari and night drive and skipped the afternoon drive that our friends did. The first day was spent lazing around and recovering from the mini-bus ride...we tried to get people to activate by introducing a frisbee, but ended up throwing the frisbee from bench to bench instead, defeating the purpose.
The next morning, we started out on our canoe safari in true African style...the car broke down, so we had to switch to another car before starting off. Then we drove until the road ended in a puddle. The guides put the canoes in the puddles and we got in.

Cole, Claire, Andrea and Lindsay in the canoe with our guide:

Hippo in the water:

Then they poled the canoes through reeds so thick I honestly thought we weren't going to be able to get through...but we did, and pulled into a clearing where we were lucky enough to immediately find hippos! We could only really see their ears and noses, but it was great - and we did see them go down under the water and come up again as well. There was actually one point where we were quite close and I have to admit to having gotten a bit nervous, but they left us in peace and we made it back to the lodge for lunch.

After dinner, we started out on our night drive - it was surreal driving under the stars in an uncovered truck - best sky we had seen yet in Africa. As we drove, the guide swung a big spotlight back and forth looking for night time animals. We saw impala and waterbuck and a baby crocodile, but the highlight was definately the freaky looking hippos! Out of the water, their large ungainly bodies look completely alien - added to this it is pitch black and the hippo is illuminated by a huge spotlight. They didn't look impressed to see us and most ambled away fairly soon, but we saw tons of them and it was totally amazing.
When we left Liwonde the next morning, our friends went home and the Arntz-Grays headed to the beach. We had decided to try staying at Chipoka, where we had never been. It did occur to me to wonder why Chipoka is not in the Lonely Planet, but regardless, on we charged, visions of discovering a secret beach in our minds. We got off the mini-bus and took our first bike taxi to the Chipoka lakeview lodge. The lodge was depressing and only had single rooms available so there would be no way for us to share. We checked out the beach and after seeing the stand of reeds at one end and the village at the other (perfect bilharzia conditions) we decided to head to more familliar ground and went back to Senga Bay. The lake was brown from churned up sand, but beautifully warm and we enjoying swimming and getting a little sun.
In fact, we enjoyed a bit too much sun and regretted it for the next three days while we pampered our red skin....at least we recovered by the following weekend!

We're Alive...

2008-03-17T22:36:00.000-07:00

Since my first triumphant posting from home with our fabulous (read the sarcasm here people) internet connection, it has not worked again. In addition, we were away from Lilongwe all last week for an amazing cultural orientation session so were not even able to access internet on the weekend. I am at the moment squeezing in 10 min of access at a business center while waiting to meet a woman who is selling us her car, so I won't be able to catch you up - and just in case I don't make it to the internet again, I will warn you in advance that you may be in for another dry spell as we are leaving Saturday for our first real vacation here (already??). Anyways, we are joining our friends Claire and Cole on a road trip to Zambia to view Vic falls....very exciting!!! And you read that right above, we are buying a car, thanks to a generous loan from Jules's parents - THANK YOU!!!
Anyways, I will write more detail later - sorry for the teaser, I hope to be on internet Thursday so I can post all the blogs I have written - more updates soon I really really hope!!!!
Hang in there...

Blogging...from HOME!!!

2008-02-29T19:28:00.000-08:00

Yep, you read that correctly...I am at home right now AND on the internet, which is totally awesome! I even managed to upload a couple photos to flickr. But not many and it took hours, so for the rest you will have to wait until Kate uploads the CDs I sent - should be in a couple weeks.
We have actually had internet since Wednesday, but it is still a bit tricky, tends to come and go a bit and with three of us vying for the computer, plus our strangely busy social lives, I haven't actually been on that much...
In fact, I have been a bit homesick for the last week - in some ways, I am surprised that I haven't felt homesick before this. Not too much and I am definately getting over it, but it is there. I think some of those feelings have come up since I am now getting more into my work and am noticing some of the differences in work relationships etc. I am used to a fair amount of autonomy at work and am getting a bit frustrated here that someone has to accompany me to every meeting, and they are all very busy, so that means it can take weeks to set up a meeting with someone...oh well.
This morning we are up bright and early to pack for the long weekend (Monday is a public holiday here and Jules and I have also booked Tuesday off - very nice!). We are going to Liwonde National Park...there are hippos and elephants there for sure - crocodiles too, so I am very excited and am packing my camera!
The group of people we are going with did not book Tuesday off, so they will leave Monday, while Jules, Regan and I will explore somewhere else - either Dedza or Zomba on Monday/Tuesday.
I will let you know how the trip goes when we return Tuesday evening as I don't expect to have internet access (though maybe in Zomba - we will see).

Last week

2008-02-24T05:01:00.000-08:00

My first business trip was so amazing, I was sure it would be hard to top - and it was! I had a great trip last week, but this time I definately experienced a few negative things! We were working on a baseline survey with a group of consultants, so it was challenging to plan things for everyone.
The first night was fine - we went to Dedza (just 90km south of Lilongwe), and found a decent lodge for $2100KW ($15.55) - unfortunately, the lodge was way out of the consultant's price range, so we had to drive around looking at skecthy $500KW ($3.70) resthouses. Eventually they found one, but it made for a late night.
The next day we headed into the field...in Malawi, field work is about a whole lot of waiting. We waited for the consultants to eat breakfast, then went to the diocesan office to meet people, then to another village to meet more people, and then finally drove to the village we were surveying. Basically the result of this was that we left the lodge at 7:30 and began surveys at 11.
But working in the field was great also. I listened in on one of the surveys, following along the Chichewa interview by looking over the interviewer's shoulder as she was writing in English. It was interesting to hear the opinions and experiences of the woman we were interviewing. It also drove the level of poverty home to me. In one of the questions, the woman indicated that she felt her household was fairly well off compared to others in the village. They own an axe and a lamp and 2 other household assets and that's it. They grow enough maize to feed the whole family each year, though she did indicate that one of her children misses school to work.
The life that the people in the villages lead is a very simple one - yet many of them do have basic needs met. But they don't have access to so many of the things we take for granted, it is mind-boggling. And for many, being hungry is a fact of life. The illiteracy rate is alarmingly high, and it is diffiucult for extension workers to conduct trainings etc due to this. Still, education about HIV and AIDs has clearly been communicated as people seem to have a high level of awareness - lower levels of awareness on gender and human rights issues, and all in all, the focus is definately more on immediate needs like food and water.
Anyways, it was great being out in the villages for several days. Our next accommodation did not work out as well as the first, since despite the fact that we have a bigger travel budget, there were no rooms left in Salima for us and we had to spend the night at the same lodge as the consultants - spending just $500KW and having to share a communal pit toilet!!!!
I don't mind sharing, but the bathrooms were located in such a way that you actually had to walk outside to use them. And it rained. All night.
Our next stop was in Mangochi - one of the places on this trip that I hadn't already been to. We stopped for a drink at a great resort on the lake on the way - the southern part of the lake is quite beautiful and it was great to do a bit of sight seeing along with work! After being promised a self contained room (read room with private bath), it turned out that our executive rooms were in fact dorm rooms again. Then at 11pm, a self contained room became available, so they gave it to me, but it was DIRTY....I couldn't tell if I was better or worse off...but whatever!
I got a lot of insight into how things work here and in my organization on the trip, so I think it was very productive and my brain is busily trying to work out solutions to many of the challenges I identified. I am really glad I got to go, see 3 new villages and meet new contacts.
This weekend, though low key, has been fun as well. We spent yesterday at our friend Melissa's and she made us ceasar salad from scratch (she is a bit of a Martha), which was delicious with a glass of white wine and just spent the afternoon conversing. In the morning, Regan and I went for pedicures, then Regan headed to a pool party for a friend from school. After we met up wioth Regan again in the evening, we met other friends at a local watering hole called Chameleons - very classy but was a bit too low key as we were wanting to find somewhere to dance....maybe next weekend???
Today we went for a long meandering walk, and then found a yummy yummy indian restaurant, then here, to the internet cafe.
All in all a great week followed by a great weekend.
We are struggling with internet at home but a hopeful that we may get it set up next week some time! In the mean time, I am burning a CD of pictures tonight to send to Kate to upload to flickr for me, so you should be able to share some pictures soon!
In addition, next weekend is a long weekend, plus we have taken the Tuesday off, so we are heading to Liwonde - one of Malawi's best game parks - hippos, here I come!

Short Notice

2008-02-18T00:43:00.000-08:00

So, I arrived at work this morning and asked when we would be heading on the road to do the baseline survey we will be completing in order to establish baseline indicators against which we can measure the effectiveness of our programmes (thats how they spell programs here - little by little I am being drawn over...). I knew that I would be travelling a bit this week but wasn't sure when...turns out it is today?? At 4.
I guess I am just not in the loop yet. The travelling is a 13 day trip overall, but I am intending on jumping off the wagon on the weekend and re-joining the group next Monday, so that I can get a little home-time in!
I had such a great experience on my first trip (and wait til I manage to get the pics up!), I am evry much looking forward to this one. It is great for me to be able to get out and meet the people working in our diocesan offices...wish me luck (and Jules luck managing the house on his own for the whole week!).

Where to start???

2008-02-16T06:46:00.000-08:00

I had such an amazing trip, I don’t even know where to start.
We first left Lilongwe in true Malawian style – an hour and a half late and with 5 people jammed into an extended cab pick up. But it was a blessing in disguise, as it turned out that three of the people in the pick-up were contacts at three different dioceses in Malawi and during the drive I got to make some contacts as well. So we left Lilongwe and travelled through Dedza to drop off one collegue, after which we stopped to pick up Irish potatoes (normal potatoes to us, but small) and then tomatoes at a vegetable stand where I got some pictures of the female farmers working there – they were delighted to see their images on the LCD screen of my digital camera. Then we went to Zomba, where we dropped off the second of my collegues and then stopped for lunch. Zomba mountain is the second highest in Lilongwe (right after Mount Mulanje). Then we drove to Blantyre and met my boss, Carsterns there briefly. After greeting him, we headed down on one of the most scenic drives (so I am told) in Malawi. The road twists and winds from the highlands in Blantyre through to Chikwawa in the Lower Shire valley. My third collegue in the truck works in the Chikwawa diocese, so John was with me for the whole journey. John had a Canadian student stay with him a while ago, so he related well to me and was happy to show me all the sights along the way.
If I wasn’t in love with Malawi already, I am now firmly in love with this country, especially after my visit to the Chikwawa region. I have never met more friendly and open people.
Once we got to the area, we checked into our rooms and then went for dinner. Having ordered an unadventurous chicken curry with rice for lunch, I was encouraged by my colleague from national office (Winston) to order local goat with nsima. I have to say, the nsima is really growing on me…and the local goat was good as well. After a couple after-dinner drinks, we retired to bed, where the one mosquito that made it through the screens in my room made it into my net. In the morning I got up and lathered my hair in my (cold, dribbly) shower, only to run out of water mid-lather…I managed to fill my Nalgene bottle at the sink to rinse out. After breakfast we started into our meeting. The meeting was a great experience for me to see how Malawians interact in a business setting, as well as get an idea of the challenges they are facing implementing programs in their world of few resources. When I started to realize what it was like to operate in this communication challenged world, I wondered if I would really be able to deliver the mandate I was hired for. Now, after the meeting, I realize more than ever the challenges that we are facing, but I have ideas about what to do and where to start, so I am feeling very hopeful that I can help my organization develop an effective monitoring and evaluation system.
After a productive meeting, Winston and I walked through the active area of Nchalo, and then played a game of pool while waiting for our dinner. It was fun and nice to get to know one of my national office colleagues a little bit better. The next day, we headed into the field to check the M&E tools Winston developed for his Food Security program with the Village committees. I was so excited to get into one of the villages and see one of the places where my organization is trying to improve food security.
We drove to the first village we visited and met with the Village HIV/AIDs committee. The committee was impressively organized, though I was a little disturbed by the protocols – the women greeted me from a subservient position, then took positions on the floor while men sat on benches, and we sat on chairs. After the initial protocol though, once the committee meeting started, men and women both took positions on benches and participated equally in the meeting. It was a great experience, but I didn’t get to see much of the village, and only got one picture of a small girl (though she was beautiful).
Then we headed to the next village, which I had been told was much further than the first. After heading south for about an hour, we stopped for a drink in what I am sure you would all think was an extremely rural area, though it wasn’t rural by Malawian standards. I tried a local drink called Thobwa, but I have to admit I couldn’t finish it. It’s a mix of water, flour and sugar. I guess it keeps the locals full when taken for lunch, and is only 10 kwatcha (7.4 cents).
After our refreshment break, we headed down to the village. We took a road that was in such bad repair that if you go to the village and it rains, you have to stay there for the night. Hoping for dry weather, we headed in. The road definitely had some challenges – gorges where the road had been washed away, fortunately we had something close to a four wheel drive, and Winston was able to negotiate the road OK. We pulled into the village, and I was informed that the chief of Dolo was a woman. The protocols were very different in Dolo. Once the women started to gather, they began to sing and clap, then began dancing to the rhythm. It was a truly astounding site, and better yet, my colleagues encouraged me to snap away. In fact, the villagers were happy to be my subjects. After the dance, we met again with the local committees – this time I sat with the Livestock committee. I was impressed with how knowledgeable they were, and the experience incited me further to learn the language so that I can communicate more directly with people here. After official business was concluded, I was again treated to dancing and singing, and was then presented with maize from the village. Afterwards, I shook hands with everyone I could and the villagers walked/danced me to the car, then danced around the car as we drove out of the village. It was truly magical, and I am so grateful to have had this opportunity – I only wish Jules and Regan had been there with me.
On the way out, our car got stuck for a minute or two, but we managed to push it out. We had a brief follow up meeting (that went a bit late) then headed back to Lilongwe. I had heard cautions about driving at night, mainly due to foot traffic and potholes, and the warnings are well heeded. Fortunately, Winston was driving and took utmost care in avoiding all hazards, but at the cost of a slow pace.
Despite getting home at 12, I can’t believe how wonderful the trip was and look forward to more in the future!

Day to day life

2008-02-11T23:07:00.000-08:00

I have had a few questions about day to day life here, so thought I would try to answer - it's actually a bit difficult, since in many ways, it's not that different. You wake up, go to work and come home and have dinner.
One of the main differences is the security concern - our house has a brick fence with glass sticking out the top, and a gate that is padlocked at night. We have two staff (which is taking quite a bit of getting used to), one night guard (Thomas) and one day guard (Grant)/housekeeper. Since washing machines are even more rare and expensive than stoves, it is nice to have Grant do our laundry, as it must be done by hand. He also keeps the house tidy, and helps prepare food for dinner. Poor Thomas's job I fear is less interesting - stay awake all night and keep an eye on the property. I really don't know if the risks of being broken into are as high as people think they are or if it is somewhat overblown, but best to be on the safe side I guess.
Another hige difference is the disparity between rich and poor - there was a big difference in Brazil as well, but it seems even more striking here. There are people who walk large distances into town (like 10k) since they can't afford the 90 kwatcha mini-bus on their 2000 kwatcha monthly salary (minimum wage was just raised to 125 kwatcha/day (the Canadian dollar will get you 135 kwatcha). Other Malawians (and ex-pats) live a very different lifestyle, employing many people and having huge homes.
Transportation is by mini-bus or walking or taxi (see last blog for more on the taxi service here!) if you don't have a car. I walk to work, but it is quite far...I generally get picked up on the way by a co-worker (see last blog for more on the Malawian walking allergy - I guess once you have a car, you use it!).
The work environment is definaltely different - we have computers - Jules and Heather (our housemate) both have internet at work, but people haven't taken to outlook etc the same way that my blackberry addicted workplace did back home. My workday is long, but with many breaks - I am actually going to try and reduce the lentgh of my day at some point once I am more familliar with what I am doing. The scheduled breaks are different for me as well. My day:
7:30 - Arrival
7:45 - Prayers (most organizations do start with morning prayers)
10 - 10:20 - Tea (my workplace provides tea, sugar, bread and butter)
12 - 1:30 - Lunch
3:30 - 3:50 - Tea again, no bread this time
5:00 - Leave
Jules's workplace is less regimented! As a volunteer, my workplace doens't mind if I take a bit more flexibility (thank goodness!).
Access to buy things is limited. My workplace is isolated and there is no cafeteria, so I am getting used to being prepared - if I am not, I have nothing to eat or drink!
Even in more bustling areas, you can find somewhere to sit down and eat, but there are less places to ust pick something up.
At night, you basically hope you have all groceries you need by 6, as that is when it gets dark, and is no longer advisable to be walking around (last night, we realized we were out of bread - Thomas gets bread and tea every night, so we had to make some rice so he would have something to eat!). You can also go out for dinner - a few places that mostly cater to ex-pats (though there are generally Malawians there as well) are open in the evening, but it will cost 1000 kwatcha each way for transport and you can be stuck waiting for a taxi that isn't coming (that happened to our friends last time we went out, and we had to send our taxi back to get them after we got dropped off).
That's our routine for now...will let you know how things change as we go on!

The Internet

2008-02-10T02:08:00.000-08:00

Woo hoo!!! I have access to the internet today!!! For as long as I want! Well, at least until the generator that is supplying power to this internet cafe during this power outage lasts...
I know I have probably complained quite a bit about the lack of internet here - it is frustrating to try an work in an environment with no internet after living in the blackberry world.
At any rate, I have many blogs started in my head, and will do my best to bring you all up to date!

Let's start with my birthday....I have to say, I have a GREAT birthday weekend...despite the fact that we couldn't move into our new house as the repairs were not yet completed. On Saturday night, we went to a crazy ex-pat party...hosted by ex-pats who are simply not living the volunteer life that we are here. As we approached the party, we went past countless white SUVs parked on the road and entered a huge house. The party was great fun though, and we met quite a few people there. On Sunday, our (then soon to be) neighbours, Melissa and Shawn, hosted a welcome barbeque and made me birthday cookies...it was an awesome night of eating and chatting...and the best thing is that our new house is only 6 houses away, so transportation is not an issue. I don't know if I have blogged about the transportation barrier, but basically, there is a pretty good public transport system here in the form of mini-buses, but they only operate until 6pm. So there is no going out at night without a car. We originally thought we might buy a car, but have now examined our finances in more detail, and think we are better off without one (financially). However, that means to go out at night, you depend on taxis. And there is no taxi company here. Basically there are guys that drive you around when you call...and you have to store up a big selection in your phonebook to ensure you can get one that is working, whose car isn't broken that day and who has petrol in the engine. Often you can cycle through 5 numbers and not get someone to pick you up. We have now built up a repository of at least 6, but are still looking for more!!! In addition, as you can imagine, there are no meters, so you are pretty much at the taxi driver's mercy when it comes to negotiating price!
Anyways, as I said, my birthday was well spent, and we had a great weekend. Wednesday was moving day, and we moved in true Malawian style. WUSC staff helped us out and drove me down to get a flatbed truck, then we went to pick up out custom made beds from the vendor we had ordered them from on the side of the road. Then to the guesthouse to pick up all our bags, plus the mattresses we had bought - I truly wish I had had the foresight to leave my camera unpacked so you could see how the truck was loaded. What I thought for sure would take 3 trips took one - bags precariously balanced on mattresses and furniture - we drove behind the truck just to watch if anything might fall off....at one light, the guy got out of the cab, climbed on top of the pile and fixed a bag more securely in place.
Anyways, we are all moved in now, with just the matter of curtains and a few other homey touches to take care of. I am hoping that after this weekend, we feel more settled in.
I bought a manual sewing machine, but it I can't quite operate it yet - fortunately we have someone coming by to look at it this afternoon.
I am embarking on my first business trip this coming week. For all my work collegues, I have to share the travel allowance - $7000MKW ($51/day) - that is supposed to include all meals, AS WELL AS ACCOMODATION. Wish me luck, and think of me as you spend my whole daily allowance just on food at ROMA!
I also bought a bike, though everytime I mention biking or walking to work to my collegues at CADECOM, they recoil in horror and are trying to figure out someone who can pick me up. Though 80% of Malawians can not afford a luxury like a car, I guess the people who can simply don't understand why you would walk anywhere...I guess that isn't all that different than Canada, but there seem to be more of us 'crazy' walkers there.
So now it is the weekend again and we spent most of yesterday out buying stuff for the house (can't believe how many little things you have to buy) and today, I started curtains, only to realize I could not operate the machine, so hopefully I can get to those this evening.
That's all for now - hope to have better access next week, but not sure, since I will be travelling to Chikwawa, the southernmost region of Malawi.
And for the people dying for photos, I ask just a little more patience - it will take so long, I will have to wait until we have access at home - hopefully withing 2 - 4 weeks.
Talk to you soon!

2008-01-29T10:19:00.000-08:00

We have a house!!!
It is the first, very depressing house we saw, but as I said earlier, it looks a LOT better now. The location is fabulous for us, though it may mean a bit of walking for Regan to get to school.
Our weekend was also fabulous...quite the adventure.
We took the 'AXA' bus, which looks a lot like a bus we would see in Canada. The difference? No bathroom and selling of standing room tickets. We were one of the first on the bus, so we were OK, with seats in the back. After you arrive in Salima (the closest town to the beach), you can take local transport to Senga Bay...this is in the form of a matola (read pick-up truck onto which they pile 21 people). We had the luxury matola on the first leg, with a steel cage over the back of the truck and a tarp over that to keep the rain off us (it is rainy season!).
Sort of perfect in terms of what we were expecting, the matola blew a tire, and we pulled over - instead of an actual jack, a bunch of people picked up the truck and replaced the tire. We were able to pile back in again in a few minutes...five minutes later, the spare blew as well. The driver called 'a friend' to take us the rest of the way. Up pulls the smallest pick up I have ever seen in my life (it only held 16 of us instead of 21).
After a while, we pulled up at our campsite area and it was GORGEOUS. The campsite is on the beach and comes complete with a bar. We had two hours of sun just after we arrived (the only 2 hours of the weekend), so we took advantage and went swimming (in hopefully bilharzia-free water). After dinner it rained steadily, but we were able to head to the hotel bar next door and enjoy a live band while ordering a few bevvies.....nice way to spend an evening.
At the campground, baboons and hyenas are frequently spotted...Regan and I did not see it, but Jules saw a baboon right in the campground - no hyenas this visit though.
In the morning, it was still pretty rainy, so we decided to pack up and head back to Salima to see what there was to do....now we know....there is nothing to do in Salima. We waited around at the bus station for hours, and were getting concerned about the bus ever coming. We decided to take a mini-bus back to Lilongwe, but I started to get cold feet as soon as I got on....to ice the cake, the driver loaded a pail of fish under the back seat (which we were sitting on). That was it for me, and we got off the mini-bus and decided to wait for the AXA bus after all. Then finally the bus came. There is enormous competition in order to get back on the bus to get back to Lilongwe, so elbows came into the situation. We got on, but had standing room - for 2 hours.
Still, all in all, a great first weekend away, and I look forward to many more to come!
I am trying to update flickr, will let you know if I am successful!

Further news...

2008-01-25T05:42:00.000-08:00

Hi all!
Thanks for your supportive comments from my last post! Things are looking up - we are getting very close - ew have narrowed it down to three houses - two of which we saw on the first day (they really do look completely different now that we know what to expect)!
Anyways, we are waiting to hear about some crazy domino effect thing - someone in one of the houses we like is moving to another house, but aren't sure if the tenants at that house are ready to move out, and therefore don't know when the house we want is available....
Anyways, we had quite the adventure last night - we went over to Regan's new babysitting job (nope, that didn't take long!) - she will be looking after another volunteer's child after school - helping him to organize his room etc. Anyways, we settled down at Melissa and Shawn's (Melissa is another WUSC volunteer who works with Jules at the farmers union, and Shawn is her husband) after a frustrating day to have a couple of beers on the back patio - as the light began to fade, Melissa suggested we go to dinner. Transportation is a real issue if you don't have a car in Lilongwe (looking for one of those too - also an interesting process!), so we were debating the merits of calling 2 cabs, or trying to borrow a car from one of Melissa and Shawn's friends. Since they were able to locate a pick-up, we travelled in traditional Malawian style, loading into the back for the trip to the restaurant. We went to a place called Four Seasons (no connection to the hotel, but a nice collection of a couple restaurants, a bar and some shops). The grounds are truly incredible, with beautiful gardens and ponds. We dined outdoors and had superb meals - although the prices were high for Malawi, they were much less than in Canada, and the evening was relaxing and fun - time to enjoy the place and stop worrying about all the details!!!
When we went to go though, the pick-up wouldn't start. Shawn tried everything, but after 2 calls to the friend who lent the truck to us, he came out to help. First they thought the battery was gone, so hooked up jumper cables - this improved things somewhat, since we could then hear the truck turn over and sputter, but still no dice in getting the thing started. Then they suggested a rolling start, and that did the trick (second rolling start of the day for Jules and I!). The streets on the way home were eerily deserted and I was glad to make it to our guesthouse without stalling out again....all in all, the evening was terrific, including the car mishap as well as driving along with the wind whipping my hair in the back of the pick-up.
Tomorrow, we start out on a new adventure...off to the beach on the local bus - we are springing for the coach, hoping for additional speed as we heard mini-buses are long trips, as well as being dangerous. Again, wish us luck - will definately bring the camera, so hope to send some photos soon!!!
Thanks again for all your support - hopefully, next update, we may have an address.

Real estate in Lilongwe…

2008-01-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been a while since my last update - internet access is so limited, it is really frustrating. I can't believe I don't get internet at work (it is on 2 computers there, my boss's and his secretary's)! I get to use them, but since I have been out house hunting every lunch, I haven't had a chance - hopefully once we get settled, things will improve!!!

So an update on our jouney to find a house in Lilongwe.
We have been so unsuccessful, iot is a bit mind boggling…we found out that WUSC used to assist volunteers by finding homes but stopped as it caused the office here too much work. If it’s that hard for a local, I am not sure how tyhey expect a bunch of transplanted mzungus to do any better.
We have already toured a few disappointing houses so far, and today was really frustrating. It started when I picked up Heather (our future housemate (if we ever find a house, that is)) and drove downtown to see an agent. After calling him for directions (to the house, we thought), we went instead to his office. Our driver went up to talk to the agent, then came down and told us we needed to talk with him. We walked up to the third floor of a rickety building and entered the office, where we were told to take a seat (??). Anyways, he spoke with us about two ‘promising’ properties but then let us know we couldn’t view them until the afternoon. After totally wasting our time, we left and called a few houses from the paper. We saw a gorgeous house that was about a 45 min walk to the nearest transport (our driver told us we would definitely need a car while the real estate agent was saying, no, no, transport very close). And a tiny recently fumigated home (cockroaches EVERYWHERE) that was close to transport, but is a bit small for our needs, given that there are 4 of us.
In the afternoon – back to the morning agent, who we had to pick up (seems most agents don’t have their own transport, so you need to pick them up for them to show you around). He took us to the same cockroach house we’d already seen in the morning and then to a house that is double our price range, totally wasting our time again.
We are getting a bit down at this point, and the houses we toured last weekend that we found depressing are looking much better….
On a more positive note, we have met some nice people at our guesthouse and have had nice group dinners on the porch every evening as the day starts to cool down.Wish us luck – hope all is well with everyone in Canada!!!

2008-01-20T07:38:00.000-08:00

Well, we are definately in the rainy season here in Malawi - our daily downpour is still going on, but we have camped out at the wireless-enabled restaurant/lodge just down the street from our (not as nice) guesthouse.
Our weekend has been pleasant - after being busy on Saturday, we intended to have a lzy Sunday...but ended up walking downtown to see if we coul dfind fabric for Regan's school uniform (they are out of them and we have to get one custom made!). Anywasy, we learned that most shops are closed on Sundays, but did find where the tailors and fabric are for later.
After a very long walk, we decided to fork out 500 kwatchas each to go in the pool at the lodge down the road (where I now sit), but the rains beat us, and it is no longer hot enough for us to part with the $10, so we just ordered food and a few kuche kuche's (local beer) and are using the free wireless we get as a result.
I am trying to upload an image, but no luck so far, so this might be blank also...
We were at the market both today and yesterday...it is totally great....yesterday for only $900 kwatcha ($6.50) we got a bottle of vinegar and 4 bottles of beer (from the groc store) and 11 mangoes, 2 avacoado, a bag of garlic, 6 carrots and 6 tomatoes.
The market is a busy place, full of friendly malawians and many mzungus (us).
Anyways - I was trying to upload an image (again) but no luck so far - eventually I will find a way to update flickr at least.

Hope all is well - talk to you soon!!!

Janna

Arrival in Lilongwe

2008-01-19T04:52:00.000-08:00

Well, I am writing here from an internet cafe in Lilongwe, quite dissapointed that the blog I worked on in draft on our lap-top from the guesthouse is totally corrupted (and it was complete with photos too!). Anyways, to add a bit more detail to my original arrival email, our stopover in Dubai was fun...we slept well on the flight and were disappointed that we had booked a $245 hotel room (that we are only eligible to receive $125 remibursement for). Anyways, we went to the hotel and they were nice enough to cancel our booking. On the advice of the adventurous Regan, we headed for the taxi stand to go into town. The taxi area was beyond any concept you may have of crowded....we waited over an hour in line to get a cab. We ate at a very nice restaurant and took pictures of the Burj.
Back at the airport on time for our next flight, we boarded an Air Ethiopia plane to Addis Ababa - though the planes are older and the service not as nice as the Emirates flight, the journey was pleasant, and after a brief visit to the duty free, we were off again, and finally landed in Lilongwe.
We were greeted at the airport and had lots of helpful boys to assist with unloading our 11 checked bags (and all arrived, which we now know is a bit of a rarity).
Lilongwe is much more like many villages than a big city and is very lush and green.
Hopefully pics will follow later!

Now that we have been here for a few days, we are getting more of a feel for the city and have gone through our first mini-bus ride alone (the first was assisted). A mini-bus is like a dub van with 4 rows of seats and they don't move until there are at least 4 to a seat...much like the collectivos we rode in Mexico.

Anyways, we are off to buy some mangoes - apparently, you can get them for about 7 cents a piece!!!

ARRIVAL!!!

2008-01-16T23:18:00.000-08:00

We have arrived, happy and safe in Malawi!
Our journey was long, but uneventful...
All I can say about Emirates as an airline is...WHAT AN ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM!

We were picked up at the airport and are staying at a guest lodge - pictures to come soon I hope!

'See you later' Bash

2008-01-13T18:37:00.000-08:00

We were amazed and very touched by the number of people who came out to wish us well on our journey at our farewell gathering last night. We reserved the upstairs of a local pub, and had people dropping by all night. It was a wonderful opportunity to see all of the people in our lives in one spot.

My mom helped out by taking pictures...

Regan's closest friends came out to wish us well too.

My mom even managed to get someone else to play photographer so we could have a photo of here as well.

At the end of the night, the last few remaining guests somehow convinced us to head over to the local country bar to ride the bull - fortunately (actually, fortunately), the bull was out of action, and no bull-riding occurred.

Milestones...

2008-01-12T03:43:00.000-08:00

So another big milestone was completed yesterday...my last day at work! Strangely, I didn't even cry once. Well, actually, when I was in early (desperately trying to clean off my disorganized desk), I wrote a few goodbye emails and completed a few last 'to-do's' and found myself tearing up a bit and feeling pretty fragile and thinking, whoa - I am going to be in for a hell of a day...but then it passed. The same thing happended when we moved out of the condo - no tears whatsoever! Partly I think it is because many of my close friends from work will be attending our 'See you later' bash tonight, so I will still be seeing them, but partly it is because this move feels so right.

Throughout the planning for the trip, I (and my patient, listening friends) have suffered through several different anxious phases - first concerned about health, then security, then Regan's school, length of our contracts, the flight etc - plus all the anxiety about how to take care of the condo, cats etc - but I have never really questioned going. I have wanted to do something like this for such a long time, and it just feels right.

So now we are getting more excited with each passing day! Everytime someone new sends me a link to their pictures of their own experiences in Malawi (many friends have managed to hook me up with people who have been there), I just can't believe we will get to live there!

Cat Custody...

2008-01-10T04:33:00.000-08:00

In an update on our cats, despite initial worries about not finding a home for them at all (I even started looking into how to import them to Malawi), there ended up being a custody battle...now that we are so near to our departure, my mom decided she didn't want to let them go live with our friends, so 'the girls', as she refers to them, with be staying with their Gran.

In other news, we have confirmed our flight and will be flying Toronto-Dubai-Addis Ababa-Lilongwe...I only wish we were arriving at a better time in Dubai - not sure we will be able to really see much when we arrive at 7:45pm and take off at 4:45am...though I did confirm that our luggage will be checked all the way through despite changing airlines in Dubai.

We still need to make a few purchases, but everything is mostly under control...now the next hurdle will be finishing work - can't believe what I hope to accomplish in the next 2 days!!! Speaking of...I'd better get in there and get at it.

Step One - Complete

2008-01-08T17:59:00.000-08:00

Well, we are now moved out of the condo!
It took us all weekend, including working through the night on Sunday until 7:15am Monday morning - brutal!
At any rate, we are now done and are living out of our 14 bags in my parents house.
We were pretty tired Monday (especially since we had to drive to Toronto that night for our last bout of innoculations), but got some sleep last night...still, I was tired today as well...takes longer than it used to to get past the all-nighters!
We had dinner with a fellow volunteer last night and I must say, every time we do things like that, this whole Malawi thing seems a little more real (I know, it should seem real by now, but sorry, that's just not the case). Anyways, I am getting more and more excited!!! In a week, I will be in Malawi!
On another note, our Nairobi, Kenya flight was re-routed, but now i am facing a 13 hour flight from Toronto to Dubai...yikes for the anxious traveller!

Three Cs

2008-01-04T17:12:00.000-08:00

On the brighter side of things...we took care of the second C today....our three major concerns prior to leaving were our three Cs...our Condo, Cats and Car.

We have sublet the condo, and aren't overly concerned about the car - either it will sell or we will store it....whatever....but we were pretty concerned about a home for our dearly beloved cats.

Our first cat, Willow, who tends to be shy...

And our second cat, playful Clio....

Anyways, we had a very kind confirmation from a friend who will take care of them...so whatever happens with C number three, I don't care....the two most important things (well three I guess) are taken care of (though we will miss our kitties very much while we are away, it is very comforting to know they will have a good home).

Chicken...

2008-01-04T17:00:00.000-08:00

OK, I am clearly not the experienced world-savvy adventurer I thought I was. I found out our flight information yesterday and we are being routed through Nairobi - with a 12 hour overnight layover. Due to the current political situation there, I am more than a little freaked out.When I expressed concerns, I got a blasé 'it will be fine' response from the organizers....wish I could be more blasé about it myself, but I must admit to being concerned...

At any rate, I asked if they could possibly re-route us, but it turns out they can't, so I am putting my faith in the very reputable airline (KLM), and assuming they wouldn't put us in danger!!! I also had a reassuring email from a friend in Nairobi who offered to take us around the city during our layover (I believe I will pass, but since she offered maybe the violence is localized?). At any rate - not for personal reasons, if you want to do something about the situation, there is a petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/kenya08/

Nayways, I am hoping the situation there improves for the sake of the people who are affected directly by the situation.

Confessions of 'stuff'

2008-01-02T19:55:00.001-08:00

As I sit here, completing my annual holiday tradition of sucking back some wine and watching Bridget Jones' Diary, I am contemplating 'stuff'. To provide some background, I should let you know that our Malawi journey really started with the epihany I experienced when in Paris in May 2006. We travelled there due to a fortunate larger than expected tax return, and it just felt so right...I decided then and there that we needed to make some changes to travel more and provide more experiences for Regan. The first step was completing my degree (I had been pursuing it part time for over a decade) - by shortening to a three year degree, I was able to finish that very summer. Then came the selling of our beloved (but very work-heavy) 97 year old home, and the purchase of a lower maintenance condo (and we even managed to find one in a historical building!). Thanks to the clean up needed to sell our home, we ended up giving away approximately 75% of our 'stuff'. We decided to take an aggressive approach to not purchasing so much 'stuff' (this has been met with some sucess, though not a complete triumph, in the furnishing department). Despite my new eschewing of 'stuff' and the drastic decision to move our whole family to Malawi, I must admit to giving in to a bit of a 'stuff' craving today in our luggage purchase. After a well intentioned Sorry - Bridget is attending the 'smug married couples' dinner - really one of my fave scenes.... At any rate, after a well intentioned visit to purchase used luggage at Value Village, we visitied Zellers to compare (Value village did have one sad little suitcase).

At any rate, I can guarantee that these really did offer the maximum size luggage in the store for a very reasonable price.....right????

Oh...now for my absolute favorite line....'nice boys don't kiss like that' 'oh yes, we ^%$&^%do' (true).
OK - I put this line in anticipating my favorite line....and it didn't come!!! Censored for TV? Seriously???

2007-12-28T07:30:00.002-08:00

Well our first (well, one of our first) major decisions about Africa is made…I finally decided on a camera to bring! I bought a sub-compact almost SLR last year, but have just not been happy with it. On the other hand, we are trying to be super-frugal so that we are in the best position possible prior to our departure, so that our line of credit doesn’t start taking too much of a beating too early!
At any rate, after much debate and with much support from Cin, I purchased my first digital SLR – the Sony A100 – mainly it made the finals due to its compatibility with my old lenses from my non-digital Minolta….so we will see how it works out. So far, I am pretty happy, but still need to work on portrait capabilities with it as I haven’t been all that happy with those.
In other news, we finally sub-letted our condo here and have to be out by January 6th! Now that we actually have to pack and move, this trip seems so much more tangible….but I am (almost) too busy to worry at this point – here’s to jumping straight in!
In addition, wrapping things up at work seems nigh-on impossible, but I guess it will all get done (since it has to)!

Going to Malawi!

2007-12-18T04:05:00.000-08:00

So we are going to Malawi (OK, so we found out weeks ago, but I have only just now gotten around to starting a blog to document our latest and greatest adventure (so far))!

Jules, Regan and I are packing up our cozy little Guelphie lives and moving to Lilongwe, Malawi for one year. Although the exact leaving date is still to be confirmed, it should be sometime in January 2008.

More to come later - just wanted to mark the occasion of actually getting around to setting this up!