Cultural Orientation

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!