What a workshop!

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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?"