Dowa Refugee Camp

The only interesting thing I've done lately is go and visit a refugee camp yesterday. It is a permanent camp, so no tents etc, and it mostly looks like a village, but it was still interesting. 

WUSC has a program where they get university students in Canada to fund raise to support Refugee students to study in Canada. We met with some of the potential candidates for Sept 2009 and answered some of their questions about university life in Canada. Then they took us on a tour of the camp. 

I was walking with a 20 year old guy named Patrick who is from Rwanda. His family fled the genocide in 1994 and then were later forcibly repatriated. His mom is an artist and author and wrote a book about the genocide in their local language that eventually made her a target, and people were trying to kill her (I guess there is a lot of violence from people afraid of being pinpointed as contributors to the genocide). In attempts to kill her, they killed Patrick's brother and sister instead, so they fled to Malawi 3 years ago and have been living in the camp. He is hoping to go to Canada to study film so he can make better African movies, and thank god for that because African movies are notoriously bad!

Sweet 16

This post is a bit belated, but since I don't have anything new or exciting to report (except that the rainy season has finally started!! yay!!) I decided to post this excerpt from an email I sent a couple weeks ago...

Oct 30 was Regan's 16th birthday and on the saturday we had a party for her. It was actually quite a fun party for her and her friends I think! The DJ ended up having to set up inside (he started outside but then it rained - for the first time in MONTHS! - so he moved the stuff in, which was probably better anyways cause it kept the party relatively contained). Us "adults" hung out in the backyard and only occasionally found a reason to go into the house to check up on things! Some funny stories:

1. Terri brought over a bottle of red wine and I put it on the kitchen counter - and one of the kids stole it! cheeky buggers.

2. In the morning after the party, our gardener came in to the house to give me something he found in the yard - a bottle of dark soy sauce that another of the cheeky buggers must have mistaken for red wine and stole from the fridge only to chuck it in the yard once they realized it was soy sauce

3. we have 2 1/2 bathrooms in the house - the ensuite master bathroom, and then the full bathroom regan and I share and the toilet/sink bathroom beside it where we keep Nali's litter box. For a long time the main hall bathroom was occupied and we realized that a "couple" was in there. Regan was really annoyed and was banging on the door but they wouldn't get out, so I asked her if she wanted my help and she said yes, so I banged on the door crazy style, yelled "GET OUT NOWWWWWWWWWWWW!!" and then stuck my pointy finger out at them when they came out and shamed them by telling them that they "do not disrespect us, our house or Regan like that". It was hilarious and Regan thought so too. Apparently the girl keeps apologizing. It was classic and I think will be something that comes up many a time at lilongwe functions

4.At one point I saw a guy go into Nali's bathroom but then promptly get out. I thought I should check if there was a problem (and was thinking that Nali probably dropped a big smelly load in his litter box). Nope. Wrong. There was a rat in the toilet! A RAT! I ran out to the backyard to get Jules, who thought I was in need of cockroach removal. He thinks it must have come up through the septic tank (there is no municipal sewage treatment in malawi) and through the pipes but then couldn't climb out of the toilet bowl. EWWW! It was still alive, soaking wet and looking up at me all pathetic and like "umm, ma'am, could you give a rat a hand?"

Garry's Birthday Car Rally

On Saturday, Terri, Jules, Janna, Regan and I were a team for a Birthday Car Rally (scavenger hunt). From 1 - 4:30 we drove around Lilongwe completing as many of the 100 tasks as possible. The whole activity was organized by Claire in celebration of Garry's birthday. The different items on the list included a variety of things including things to collect, answer, take pictures of or do. We had a great time! 

There were 4 cars and 18 people in total involved. We certainly lived up to the Malawian impression of mzungu's (foreigners) as crazy!

Item #1 was to create a team theme with costumes (10 points). We then got 5 extra points for each picture/activity done in costume. Our team had prepared a basket full of random items we thought might be helpful (though we didn't know what would be on the list until the Rally started) and it happened to include a bunch of scarves, that became our hippy team theme!

Here are some of the other photo activities we did...

#5: Fish with the kids at the reservoir on Blantyre St. - 8 points

#73: A picture of a team member selling bananas with a banana seller - 9 points

#33: A photo of the team at Robert Mugabe Crescent - 15 points

#3: A picture of your team on the little island at Claude's restaurant - 40 points

#11: Get a picture of the team outside the former presidents tomb - 15 points

# 48: Team picture with a non-team member with a hairy chest - 28 points 

(thanks Avik!)

#77: Every person on the team swap clothing and take a picture - 18 points

(nice look Jules!!)

# 14: Create a dance party outside Food Worths - 5 points for each person in the picture.

#58: A picture of the team in a mini bus - one member must be the driver - 35 points

#49: Photo at a Zain phone booth - 8 points

#10: Find Stears restaurant in the market. Moses is the owner - get a picture with him and find out the nick name he calls Claire - 31 points

(He calls her Mother Malawi. But we already knew that because we are friends with him too)

#34: A photo of each team member holding a live chicken - 20 points

#12: Wash dirty laundry in the Lilongwe River. You must be visibly in the water bent over washing clothes - 30 points

# 80: A picture of your team doing the YMCA on the middle of the market bridge - 35 points

(note: I HATE sketchy bridges!!)

# 26: "Ghost of Garry Present": a team member shaves their head (must be a team member who already has hair ie. Garry can't shave his head again) - 65 points

#57: A picture of a team member balancing a bundle of wood on their head - 40 points

# 15: Team pyramid on the green of the Lilongwe Golf Club - 17 points 

(the golf club is members only and was hosting a tournament - security guards were yelling at us as we ran in and took the pic!)

#A picture of your team with shaving cream on their faces at a roundabout - 27 points

#69: A picture of 2 team members doing a handstand outside of Shoprite - 25 points

#98: "Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" outside the half-constructed parliament building - 12 points

#72: A picture of 2 team members kissing - 5 points

#70: A picture of the team doing the robot, at a robot - light must be green - 26 points

(in Malawi they call traffic lights "robots")

#4: the team jumps in a pool - 35 points

After all that hard work, I'm happy to announce that our team won!! Half the prize money will go to the family of the late McDonald (WUSC Malawi employee). The rest refunded our individual entry fees, covered the fuel costs of the day, and paid for the different things we had to buy along the way.

Happy Birthday Garry!!

Theresa

There once was a little girl named Theresa, who lived with her mother in a very hot village in Africa. One day her mother came home and showed her a very new and unusual way to grow vegetables, and Theresa was very excited. She and her mother worked hard to make sure their garden grew nicely, and once the plants were ready, they cooked and ate the green leaves together. One otherwise ordinary day, a Visitor came to see Theresa and her mother. The Visitor wanted to know if they liked their new garden and if it made their lives any better. While they were talking, the Visitor reached out to touch one of the little ducks that they took care of in their yard, and after finishing their conversation, thanked Theresa and her mother, and left. 

The next day, while the Visitor was meeting with some other people who also had gardens, the little  girls mother sent a messanger to find the Visitor. The Visitor was told that Theresa had been crying since she had left - saying that the Visitor had wanted the duck, and blaming her mother for not giving the Visitor the duck, and saying that she wanted to be frie

nds with the Visitor and now that wouldn't happen.  Theresa and her mother managed to reach a compromise: they would give the Visitor 2 pigeons instead of the duck. Before arriving to accept her gift, the Visitor asked if there was a way to show gratitude but refuse the gift, and she was

 told "no" she had to accept the gift. So the Visitor went back to see Theresa and thanked her for the gift, and then went home to figure out what to do with her new birds.

Theresa and her mother Susan with their garden

Theresa and I with my new birds 

(that now belong to my housekeeper Grant)

Goodbye Golomoti

One of the saving graces of my time here so far, is that I've had the Vertical Gardens project to work on to keep me occupied and feeling like I was making a contribution. Last week I went to do a final evaluation of the project. All in all it went well, though I guess I may have had unrealistic expectations that have not been met. About 1/3 of the participants have healthy gardens, but all have said they really liked the project and will continue to try to make vertical gardens. 

At the final meeting, the members of the Support group of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) sang songs with my name in them, and presented me with a gift (a wood carving).

Below are some photos from my last trip (though I hope to have the chance to go back at some point before leaving Malawi to check up on them)

The son of one of our beneficiaries - what you see in World Vision commercials is true, just don't let their plea for child sponsors trick you into thinking that kids don't LOVE to play with tires! I dare you to try to convince this kid to stop playing with his!

Meeting with community leaders to get their feedback on the project 

A beneficiary and her children showing off the basket and mat they bought as a result of selling vegetables she grew in her vertical garden. She now sleeps on the mat. 

Lunch time in Mikundi: A How-To guide

If you ever find yourself in Mikundi village, and lunch time hunger pangs are distracting you from the task at hand, have no fear - this How To Guide will explain all you need to know about meeting your lunchtime needs.

Step 1: Paruse local restaurants for tasty menu items.

Step 2: Select which menu item you would like to enjoy. Be sure to select the cut you want, as all selections will be prepared freshly

Step 3: Check out what everyone else is having, just to be sure you made the right choice

Step 4: Supervise the chef in his kitchen, to be sure your selection is cooked to perfection

Step 5: Walk across dirt road to buy fried dough from a child who should be in school

Step 6: Enjoy $2 of deep-fried, bite-sized, pieces of pork out of a bag while kids stare

Step 7: Comment to shocked and disgusted friends and family that you must have been in Africa too long because none of your "normal" reactions apply and you get quite excited when you get to go to Mikundi because you can eat pork! 

Mikundi: the new Golomoti

We only used about half of the budget we had to implement the Vertical Gardens project in Golomoti, so we got permission from the donor to bring the project to a new area. Welcome to Mikundi, about a 2 hour drive from Lilongwe. The local school offered to host our demonstration garden (created for training purposes), which means we have a lot of extra interest in the project... or is it just interest in the white lady? It's hard to tell because of the glare on the windshield, but I'm sitting in the car doing some work. The only reason that all eyes are not on me is because I handed Isaac the camera which drew some of their attention- otherwise I literally had about 30 sets of eyes fixed on me for a good hour and a half while I worked. Our driver, Peter, kept getting out and yelling at them to go away, and then getting back into the car and muttering about how he didn't want to travel with me anymore and that they were getting dirty finger prints all over the vehicle!

the field, the lake and a tow rope in pictures

Francesco, Carmen and their pick up to the rescue!

Bryce, his land rover and tow rope join the party

Unpacking the landrover and Pajero and packing up the pickup with a bunch of our camping and weekend stuff

A snug fit, but we're off!

the field, the lake and a tow rope

After a few painstaking weeks in the office, I've finally managed to pry my butt from it's nearly fused state in my desk chair, and have been busy with activities out of the office.

I spent 3 days last week running a workshop for some colleagues in monitoring and evaluation, gender mainstreaming and then brainstorming ideas for tools we can use to make things happen more smoothly at MANET+. I think it went pretty well and everyone seemed to learn a lot. The final evaluations were good too, except that a couple people didn't like the venue (admittedly it was a new place that I took a gamble on because they would give me a good rate - I liked it, but the rooms were quite hot.) I think my favourite part of the workshop however, was that I could make sure we were done in time to run down the sand dune and into the lake from 4-5pm each day! (I had to get out by 5 each day though because there are these little minnow type fish that would start nipping at me around that time - I think they were attracted to my pasty white legs and confused them with the fisherman's lights!!)

I was lucky that Janna was also in the same town for her own work function and was able to stay at the same place as I was - it was so nice having someone to hang out with in the evening!

Friday we changed locations on the lake and were joined by Jules, Regan and Terri, and proceeded to spend a wonderful weekend lounging by the beach. On Saturday, Bryce, Francesco and Carmen also came up. It was tough to leave today (though I doubt my sunburned skin could take any more of my relaxing)

Ours was the first vehicle to leave the beach - carrying Jules, Janna, Regan and I. It was a pleasant ride until about 35kms before reaching Lilongwe, when the car overheated and was smoking like crazy! We pulled over and decided that we needed more oil. Luckily the other 2 vehicles still hadn't left the lake, so went sent out SOSs to please bring oil. As luck would have it, Francesco is a mechanic. By the time Carmen, Terri and Francesco arrived about an hour and a half later, we had amassed quite an audience of young locals who seemed to be happy spending their sunday afternoon staring at us. Unfortunately, Francesco assessment is that the engine might be toast. Moments after they arrived, Bryce pulled over to join us, and as luck would have it, had a tow rope. In a matter of minutes, we had unloaded the 3 passengers and luggage that were in the back of Bryce's Landrover and relocated them to the back of Francesco's pickup truck, along with Janna, Regan and I, hooked the mini Pajero to the Landrover, waved goodbye to our little local friends and continuted our journey to Lilongwe! We were quite a spectacle! It was slow going, and with only a few minor set backs (the tow rope broke a few minutes away from our house, and we drove the pick up into a ditch), but we finally made it home. TIA! (this is africa!) 

Alter Egos

I've spent a very uneventful couple of weeks in the office since my return from holidays. It seems almost everyone else in the orgnaization is out in the field, so the office is pretty quiet and my motivation level is low. Luckily (surprisingly?), some of my activities have been approved and as long as they stay that way I should start having stuff to do and getting out of the office.

That said, a couple of fun things have happened:

1) Terri is now here!! She arrived on Sept 9 and I think is starting to settle in. She has a great place to live that is close to work, and we've been keeping busy going to aerobics some evenings, doing errands on Saturdays and laying by the pool at a local hotel on Sundays. It's been great and is a schedule I hope we can maintain!

2) There was an "Alter Ego" theme party on the weekend, attended by only the coolest Lilongwe has to offer.  In honor of my usually unknown love of Bon Jovi and other old school rock, I dressed as an "80's rock groupie, and crafted some duct tape band buttons that said things such as "WWBJD? What Would Bon Jovi Do?", "Axel Rose Rocked My World", "Aerosmith World Tour '85" and "Van Halen Rocks". Getting my hair crimpy was a total group effort but totally worth it thanks to Terri, Janna and Regan! Here are some pics:

Terri as an silver medal olympic rower, me, Jules as Einstien 

and Janna as Martha Stewart (post jail years)

... she even baked squares to pass out at the party, made the apron the morning of the party and found Martha's actual prison number!

Claire as a Christian fundamentalist (the other side of her sign said "Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve") and Megan as Sarah Palins pregnant teenage daughter (Ann dressed as Sarah Palin - hilarious! - but unfortunately I didn't get any photos of them together with my camera)

Terri and I! 

(you can't tell in the photo, but my shoes match my bra and the back of my shirt says "Rock is Life" spelled out in duct tape)

Victoria Falls and everything after

We left Bulawayo and travelled to Victoria Falls. We stayed at an AMAZING place called The Kingdom. I loved it. I never wanted to leave. It was an amazing resort. Alexio flew his mom and grandma to join us for 2 nights and we all spent the time relaxing. On the second day we spent a few hours at the falls – which were only a short walk from the resort – and it was awesome seeing the falls from the Zim side, since last time I saw them I was in Zambia. Later that night Alexio discovered a bit of a misunderstanding when he visited his mom and grandmas room. It is not their tradition to introduce a boy- or girlfriend to your family until you are announcing your engagement, so they were unclear about our “status”. They were also unsure of what kinds of questions they could ask me, because they were afraid of offending me and didn’t know what would be appropriate in my culture. Alexio cleared everything up and I was mini- interviewed the next day before we took them to the airport.

After the falls we started our journey back to Harare. We stopped at a national park called Hwange, and spent 2 nights in a treehouse lodge, then returned to Bulawayo. After a couple of nights relaxing in Bulawayo (and a morning spent swimming in a FREEZING Holiday Inn pool) we headed for Gweru. As we approached Gweru however, the car started giving us problems. We made it to Antelope Park, and handed the car over to their mechanics department. Our intended 2 night stay quickly developed into a 4 night stay as they tried to find the part required to get us back on the road. Unfortunately the distance to town was too great for us to walk, and transport wasn’t available, so we weren’t able to use any of this time to visit people we had wanted to see. On the upside, we were able to take part in an activity one night called the Night Encounter, where we took some of the young lions (who were now too old to do the walks) out to help them hone their hunting skills. It was really cool driving around in the safari vehicle looking for game and then watching the lions trying to hunt. We were out with 3 females, and they didn’t make any kills, but they put on a few good chases!

The morning of the 4^th day we decided to pay for a transfer into town, leave the car behind and then hitchhike back to Harare. As we were preparing to leave, one of the managers said he had a friend who had a similar car that was broken down and therefore might have the part. He called and came back reporting that the guy had the part and would be willing to sell it for about $120, and Alexio reported to me that he heard the name of the guy – and it turns out it was Lovemore, a guy I dated when I lived in Gweru! Needless to say, I got on the phone with him, and an hour later he had arrived at Antelope Park to get me. I hadn’t mentioned that I was with Alexio, so I think it was a bit of a surprise for Lovemore, who Alexio pointed out drove all that way WITHOUT the part. So we all had to go to town to get it, and in the end Alexio only paid $50, which I think was pretty cheap considering he ended up with me and the part J

We spent an entire day getting the part, and then watching the mechanics work on it. By the end of the day, it still wasn’t working, and it seems the part we replaced was only part of the problem. We lucked out and Antelope had a car going to Harare early the next day and they offered us a ride, which was so wonderful. The car was towed to a mechanic in town and Alexio will have to return for it once it’s fixed. We spent our last night in Harare at the best hotel the city has to offer – Meikles – and then, early Sunday morning I was back on a plane, landing in Malawi and feeling like it all ended way too quickly.

Our Chariot

The Odometer when we got to Vic Falls.
Our total trip (before it died) probably added 2500kms to it

Gardening crew at The Kingdom

Alexio with his grandma and mom