Another week has come and gone and I am faced once again with Monday morning. Oh how I hate Monday mornings. To console myself after having been jerked from the comfort of my bed and thrust into my office, I have opted to close my door (how easily I have adopted to the office culture here) and spend as much time as I want catching up on the website recap of all the episodes of Lost I have been forced to miss. Woe is me.
My weekend, although always too short, was a good one. Alexio’s visit has allowed me to permit myself some culinary luxuries that my modest stipend and keen watch on my budget ordinarily wouldn’t allow in such abundance. But oh have I been enjoying. We went for dinner with some friends on Friday night, then just the two of us on Saturday night and I stir fried up all the leftovers in the fridge last night (which included chicken! – we normally don’t have meat in the house since Regan is a vegetarian and therefore we mostly eat meat-free) into a very delicious fried rice dish, if I do say so myself. Luckily he gets reimbursed for expenses (with a receipt) so all our taxi rides will be refunded to him, and we will share my half of the costs of meals. After our dinner on Saturday we went to a small house party and had a good time drinking and dancing and talking, and ended up being invited to a bbq the following day with many of the same people, which was also a good time.
The weekend vibe was overshadowed slightly by the Zim election however. Saturday we spent most of the day in my room on the internet (when it worked) and tuning into the shortwave radio trying to follow the latest news as Zimbabweans went to the polls. It seems everything was rather peaceful though probably not exactly fair and democratic. Still, all the calls to his family relayed that things were going ok and everyone was fine. He left them with his 2-way UN radio and we made sure they knew when to tune in for security updates and when they had to call in for their daily check-in. I think it’s pretty great that the security procedures that are available to him in his job extend to the members of the household he lives with, even in his absence. Alexio’s boss wrote last week to say that since the official results won’t be ready until mid-week, he should stay here for an additional week (now 3 in total) just to be sure. The opposition party has already claimed victory, despite the fact that the official results aren’t out, but then again, so has Mugabe, so who knows. I hope this week brings change to Zimbabwe.
PS. Thanks for the call Alie!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Great Friday and the full moon
I’ve just returned to the office after an extra long weekend, thanks to Friday and Monday of Easter weekend being holidays. The weekend got off to a rocky start, but ended up being really fun.
I nicknamed Friday “Great Friday” on account of Alexio’s much anticipated arrival. What we hadn’t anticipated was the full moon and all the havoc it would wreak on our plans for the weekend.
To start with, I was very lucky that Janna and Jules bought a car last week and offered to drop me off at the airport to wait for Alexio’s plane (a driver from the Foundation would be picking him/us up and taking us to my house). Claire, Janna and I set off not long after Alexio sent me a message saying that they were finally boarding the plane (only 45 minutes late and an improvement over last time). Is it irony that just as we were commenting on the presence of the full moon and laughing about how crazy stuff happens when it’s out, that our tire burst leaving us stranded in the dark on the side of the road, 10 km from the airport surrounded by corn fields? The fact that no one was around actually consoled us a little because it meant that we were slightly less vulnerable as sitting white female ducks in an SUV than we would have been had we broken down in a sketchy neighborhood. I luckily had a flashlight in my purse that afforded us enough light to determine that the purchase of Janna’s car did not include the provision of a jack or fully inflated spare tire, so we got on the phone to get some help. One of our friends, Heidi (another WUSC volunteers, and Claire’s housemate) is dating a Malawian (Peter) who is well connected and would know what to do, so they were our first call. Then - and I personally believe that it is difficult to deny the power of the full moon when you hear this - I get a text message from Alexio saying that his plane has a burst tire and he is still in Harare (I later found out that it burst while at full speed trying to take off and it was quite a scene with people screaming and having their lives flash before their eyes. Our car burst was much less dramatic.)
Eventually Peter and Heidi showed up, and then one of his cousins happened to be driving by and stopped to assist, and the friend he had called to help arrived. In the end we had to call a tow truck, which arrived within moments of Alexio’s text message saying that they were, in fact, taking off and I would see him soon.
It was after midnight by the time we got home and I was so hungry I was almost delirious (I’m sure the double gin and tonic I had at the airport on an empty stomach didn’t help much), but the end of the story is a happy one because Janna’s car was able to be fixed the next day so they could continue with their plans to drive to Victoria Falls for the week and Alexio arrived safely.
Saturday morning we got up and met Lindsay so we could travel to the lake for the weekend. Andrea was supposed to come too but she has been sick (we now know that she has malaria, even though the first test she took came back negative). Traveling to the lake was a bit of a nightmare. We sat on a cramped bus for over 2 hours waiting for it to fill up with people so it would leave, then the trip was 4.5 hours. We finally arrived at the lodge we had reserved, and it was ok, but nothing special…until we tried to have some supper and their menu consisted of 3 egg dishes and a pizza with cabbage and tomato (their fridge broke in Feb and the owner is away so they can’t do anything about it ). We ordered the pizza to share, and it ended up being a bun with some red-ish slop on top and by no means resembled a pizza. They also did not have any bottled water, so I got on the phone and called the neighboring resort to plead for rooms there, which we managed to get, and the rest of the weekend was great. We ended up staying at Nkhotakhota Pottery Lodge, which is actually the place we originally tried to reserve but they had been fully booked at the time we called. The food was yummy, the rooms comfortable, and the beach nice (though we didn’t swim because it was very windy so the water was pretty brown). When it was time to go home, we even managed to hitch a ride half way in the back of the pick-up truck of one of the other guests before easily getting a minibus the rest of the way, and doing the whole trip in an easy 2.5 hours. We finished off the weekend with a really yummy burger at a hotel in town.
I nicknamed Friday “Great Friday” on account of Alexio’s much anticipated arrival. What we hadn’t anticipated was the full moon and all the havoc it would wreak on our plans for the weekend.
To start with, I was very lucky that Janna and Jules bought a car last week and offered to drop me off at the airport to wait for Alexio’s plane (a driver from the Foundation would be picking him/us up and taking us to my house). Claire, Janna and I set off not long after Alexio sent me a message saying that they were finally boarding the plane (only 45 minutes late and an improvement over last time). Is it irony that just as we were commenting on the presence of the full moon and laughing about how crazy stuff happens when it’s out, that our tire burst leaving us stranded in the dark on the side of the road, 10 km from the airport surrounded by corn fields? The fact that no one was around actually consoled us a little because it meant that we were slightly less vulnerable as sitting white female ducks in an SUV than we would have been had we broken down in a sketchy neighborhood. I luckily had a flashlight in my purse that afforded us enough light to determine that the purchase of Janna’s car did not include the provision of a jack or fully inflated spare tire, so we got on the phone to get some help. One of our friends, Heidi (another WUSC volunteers, and Claire’s housemate) is dating a Malawian (Peter) who is well connected and would know what to do, so they were our first call. Then - and I personally believe that it is difficult to deny the power of the full moon when you hear this - I get a text message from Alexio saying that his plane has a burst tire and he is still in Harare (I later found out that it burst while at full speed trying to take off and it was quite a scene with people screaming and having their lives flash before their eyes. Our car burst was much less dramatic.)
Eventually Peter and Heidi showed up, and then one of his cousins happened to be driving by and stopped to assist, and the friend he had called to help arrived. In the end we had to call a tow truck, which arrived within moments of Alexio’s text message saying that they were, in fact, taking off and I would see him soon.
It was after midnight by the time we got home and I was so hungry I was almost delirious (I’m sure the double gin and tonic I had at the airport on an empty stomach didn’t help much), but the end of the story is a happy one because Janna’s car was able to be fixed the next day so they could continue with their plans to drive to Victoria Falls for the week and Alexio arrived safely.
Saturday morning we got up and met Lindsay so we could travel to the lake for the weekend. Andrea was supposed to come too but she has been sick (we now know that she has malaria, even though the first test she took came back negative). Traveling to the lake was a bit of a nightmare. We sat on a cramped bus for over 2 hours waiting for it to fill up with people so it would leave, then the trip was 4.5 hours. We finally arrived at the lodge we had reserved, and it was ok, but nothing special…until we tried to have some supper and their menu consisted of 3 egg dishes and a pizza with cabbage and tomato (their fridge broke in Feb and the owner is away so they can’t do anything about it ). We ordered the pizza to share, and it ended up being a bun with some red-ish slop on top and by no means resembled a pizza. They also did not have any bottled water, so I got on the phone and called the neighboring resort to plead for rooms there, which we managed to get, and the rest of the weekend was great. We ended up staying at Nkhotakhota Pottery Lodge, which is actually the place we originally tried to reserve but they had been fully booked at the time we called. The food was yummy, the rooms comfortable, and the beach nice (though we didn’t swim because it was very windy so the water was pretty brown). When it was time to go home, we even managed to hitch a ride half way in the back of the pick-up truck of one of the other guests before easily getting a minibus the rest of the way, and doing the whole trip in an easy 2.5 hours. We finished off the weekend with a really yummy burger at a hotel in town.
Pottery for sale (will be dangerous when I have a vehicle and am not forced to reduce spending due to space constraints and public transport concerns!)
Creepy woman and bald man head salt and pepper shakers
Enjoying carrot and dill soup. yumm!
The lake
Friday, March 21, 2008
The road
The road sucked. I already wasn’t happy that despite my plans to be in the office all week, I arrived on Monday to the news that I had to leave Tuesday to be part of a meeting in the south. I was told I would return Friday, which greatly displeased me, so I changed the plan to a Thursday evening return.
We left the office later than we were supposed to on Tuesday, arrived in a town called Mwanza, on the border with Mozambique around 8pm. I white knuckeled it most of the way after it was dark because there are no street lights and you can't see the people walking on the side of the road in the dark until you've almost hit them. I stayed at a different hotel than my colleagues cause they didn't want to pay the $20/night and chose a place for $2 but said it would be better if I didn't stay there with them. Got up Wed morning and when they came to pick me up they said that our meeting for the day had been cancelled. We visited a support group instead, which was interesting and I liked doing, but by 11:30 we were done for the day. After eating some boring lunch I went back to my room to nap and sulk, under the guise of doing some work. Around 6 the power went out and stayed out until 8:30, so I laid in the dark with too much time to think.
The first night the hotel didn't have pasta to make the spaghetti bolognaise that was on the menu, so I had picked up some pasta at the store and asked them to prepare it for me. Also asked if I could have a side of veggies since I hadn't eaten any in 2 days, but they returned saying that they only had these green leafy veggies and I said I didn't like them, so just the spaghetti bolognaise (meat and tomato sauce right?). Finally my dinner arrived at my room (I didn't want to eat alone in the empty dining room) and lifted the plate to see plain pasta with butter on it, and a hefty side of green leafy veggies. Gee, thanks.
Today was better though, except that we had to spend over 2 hours on a vomit inducing road. I honestly don't know how I made it through without having to ask the driver, James, to pull over. It was sheer willpower. Our task was to meet with representatives of support groups of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) from all over the district to form a coordinating committee. The meeting went well and I made the accounts woman, Clara, earn her allowance by making her translate for me. It was also the first time that it really hit home for me that my position is one of power... even though the other 3 staff members have worked for MANET+ for years, my position as "M&E Advisor" places me directly below senior management and therefore directly above everyone else in the org, and I was the authority on the trip! Power. I kinda liked it :)
So now I'm back home and happy to be. And the internet we have tried to long and hard to get working, at great expense, is in fact working and that is fantastic.What is also fantastic is that Alexio returns tomorrow night! YAY! We are going to the lake for the weekend with Lindsay and Andrea and I hope it will be fun.
We left the office later than we were supposed to on Tuesday, arrived in a town called Mwanza, on the border with Mozambique around 8pm. I white knuckeled it most of the way after it was dark because there are no street lights and you can't see the people walking on the side of the road in the dark until you've almost hit them. I stayed at a different hotel than my colleagues cause they didn't want to pay the $20/night and chose a place for $2 but said it would be better if I didn't stay there with them. Got up Wed morning and when they came to pick me up they said that our meeting for the day had been cancelled. We visited a support group instead, which was interesting and I liked doing, but by 11:30 we were done for the day. After eating some boring lunch I went back to my room to nap and sulk, under the guise of doing some work. Around 6 the power went out and stayed out until 8:30, so I laid in the dark with too much time to think.
The first night the hotel didn't have pasta to make the spaghetti bolognaise that was on the menu, so I had picked up some pasta at the store and asked them to prepare it for me. Also asked if I could have a side of veggies since I hadn't eaten any in 2 days, but they returned saying that they only had these green leafy veggies and I said I didn't like them, so just the spaghetti bolognaise (meat and tomato sauce right?). Finally my dinner arrived at my room (I didn't want to eat alone in the empty dining room) and lifted the plate to see plain pasta with butter on it, and a hefty side of green leafy veggies. Gee, thanks.
Today was better though, except that we had to spend over 2 hours on a vomit inducing road. I honestly don't know how I made it through without having to ask the driver, James, to pull over. It was sheer willpower. Our task was to meet with representatives of support groups of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) from all over the district to form a coordinating committee. The meeting went well and I made the accounts woman, Clara, earn her allowance by making her translate for me. It was also the first time that it really hit home for me that my position is one of power... even though the other 3 staff members have worked for MANET+ for years, my position as "M&E Advisor" places me directly below senior management and therefore directly above everyone else in the org, and I was the authority on the trip! Power. I kinda liked it :)
So now I'm back home and happy to be. And the internet we have tried to long and hard to get working, at great expense, is in fact working and that is fantastic.What is also fantastic is that Alexio returns tomorrow night! YAY! We are going to the lake for the weekend with Lindsay and Andrea and I hope it will be fun.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Happy St. Paddy's!
I'm back from Cultural Orientation now, and have spent the entirety of my monday morning trying to get online and then posting as much as I can. I will write one more blog very soon to wrap up the rest of my cultural orientation week and include some pictures (I have some short videos too, but I doubt I will be able to get them posted). I have also gone through every one of the 44 emails that were waiting for me, and intend to respond to you all, but please be patient as it will take me some time to do so.
In celebration of St. Paddy's JJR and I hosted a bbq yesterday for about 20 of our closest friends here in Lilongwe (read: everyone we know in Lilongwe). It was a lot of fun (especially since we could leave a lot of the dishes for Grant to do this morning!). I had Emmanuel, the gardener/security guard who works for us on the weekends climb up our lemon tree and throw me a whole bucket full of ripe lemons that we used to make lemonade and as take home gifts for all our friends.
As we were setting up, I took the opportunity to take some picutres of my house, since I have promised to post some but haven't yet. So here they are.
1) The Arntz-Grey-Quinn house
2) My room
3) The bathroom Regan and I share
4) Our super tiny kitchen
5) The back yard with our chicken coops
6) The back yard showing the service quarters were our staff do their cooking and use the toilet etc. Often the housekeeper would live there, but ours has somewhere else to stay (the chairs aren't ususally set up in the backyard, they were just there because we were preparing for the bbq)
In celebration of St. Paddy's JJR and I hosted a bbq yesterday for about 20 of our closest friends here in Lilongwe (read: everyone we know in Lilongwe). It was a lot of fun (especially since we could leave a lot of the dishes for Grant to do this morning!). I had Emmanuel, the gardener/security guard who works for us on the weekends climb up our lemon tree and throw me a whole bucket full of ripe lemons that we used to make lemonade and as take home gifts for all our friends.
As we were setting up, I took the opportunity to take some picutres of my house, since I have promised to post some but haven't yet. So here they are.
1) The Arntz-Grey-Quinn house
2) My room
3) The bathroom Regan and I share
4) Our super tiny kitchen
5) The back yard with our chicken coops
6) The back yard showing the service quarters were our staff do their cooking and use the toilet etc. Often the housekeeper would live there, but ours has somewhere else to stay (the chairs aren't ususally set up in the backyard, they were just there because we were preparing for the bbq)
Winning the war
Yesterday was Claire’s 27th birthday. To celebrate, some of us went for dinner and drinks at an Italian restaurant that makes homemade pasta (yumm!). Afterwards we went to a bar/lounge called Chameleons for some more drinks. Around 12, I decided to head home in the first round of taxi’s. I got ready for bed, turned off the lights and crawled into bed. As I was trying to fall asleep I felt something on my leg. At first I just thought it was a hair or something being blown around by my fan, but it persisted and when I moved my hand to wipe it away, it was a giant cockroach! In my bed! On my leg! I jumped up faster that I ever have before in my life and ran to the kitchen to get the RAID (the can I keep beside my bed was empty, which apparently isn’t enough of a threat to these persistent buggers). Man, I was pissed. Can you imagine? The nerve of that damn cockroach. I yelled at it. “I’m gonna get you you Mother F#cker” (and yes, I did yell that, at the cockroach, while standing in the middle of my room at 12:30am wearing a t-shirt, underwear and black ballet flats, armed with a can of RAID and a determination to get revenge). Oh, and I got him alright. Sprayed him so much that I almost slipped in the pool of RAID that collected on my floor. Then sent a text message to everyone left at the bar to tell of my tribulations and triumphs, went to bed victorious.
In the morning, I searched out the broom (I suppose one setback of having house staff is that one doesn’t actually have to know where such things are kept) to get rid of the carcass. Can you believe that as I tried to sweep it out of the room, it flipped back over on its front and tried to run under my bed??! It was dead the whole night! I guess it makes some sense since it is said that if there was nuclear war the only survivors would be cockroaches. I’ve gotten much quicker with my RAID retrieval techniques though and he was dead again before he could get to my bed. I swept him outside and had Jules stomp on him, just for good measure. Ha! There! I told you you would die. Who else wants a piece of me? I dare you.
In the morning, I searched out the broom (I suppose one setback of having house staff is that one doesn’t actually have to know where such things are kept) to get rid of the carcass. Can you believe that as I tried to sweep it out of the room, it flipped back over on its front and tried to run under my bed??! It was dead the whole night! I guess it makes some sense since it is said that if there was nuclear war the only survivors would be cockroaches. I’ve gotten much quicker with my RAID retrieval techniques though and he was dead again before he could get to my bed. I swept him outside and had Jules stomp on him, just for good measure. Ha! There! I told you you would die. Who else wants a piece of me? I dare you.
Malawi has a few national parks worth checking out.
The nearest to Lilongwe is called Liwonde, and is reputed for its hippo and elephant populations. Right now it is the low season for safari’s because it is the rainy season, also known as the Green Season, which makes spotting wildlife more difficult not only because of the abundance of foliage that gets in the way but also because there is water everywhere and the animals don’t have to congregate around water sources like they do in the dry season. March 3 is a holiday here, and since Lindsay and Andrea are heading back to Boston at the end of April, we decided to seize the opportunity presented by a long weekend and take our chances. JJR, Cole and Claire (a WUSC volunteer who arrived a couple weeks ago, is from Vancouver, will be staying for as long as I am, and who is friends with my former roommate Anique) also came.
After about 4.5 hours crammed onto a local minibus, we arrived at our lodge, and decided to stay in their dormitory, which was located along a long path behind the main lodge. The dorm building was one large room, with bunkbeds and no electricity (which we didn’t realize at first, much to Andrea’s horror, but she was a trooper).
I would normally hate a dorm set up, but it was ok. The toilets were a short walk away and there was a very nice outdoor seating area that we claimed as our own where spent most of our time laying around under the thatched roofing. At night, we played charades by candlelight and told ghost stories, and there was a guard stationed outside our dorm to make sure nothing ate us while we slept (or more likely, while we made the twice nightly exodus’ to the toilets). I have been very lucky in the richness of my safari experiences and have seen quite a lot (the serengetti kinda does that) so I didn’t join in on all the activities that the other “newbies to Africa” did (ie. Canoeing safari) but did go on a night drive and was very pleased to see over 15 hippos out of the water grazing. I had never been so close to hippos out of the water and it was cool. We couldn’t help but laugh at them though because their bodies are so fat and their legs so short so their butts would waddle and shake as they ran away from our spot light and it was pretty humorous. Unfortunately we didn’t get to spot any elephants, so the hunt still continues for Lindsay and Andrea, since their time is running out. We will see what we can do to fill that gap Easter weekend.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Cultural orientation photos
Father Boucher explaining a dance
The costume
Toad sitting in a traditional African boardgameMonday, March 10, 2008
Cultural Orientation: Day 1
As part of our introduction to Malawi, WUSC provides new volunteers with a week long cultural and language training course. To be honest I wasn’t really looking forward to it. Things are getting going at work and I thought I would much rather spend the week there, but it’s pretty good actually. JJR, Cole, Claire and I were accompanied by a WUSC staff member named Joyce to an arts and crafts centre in a town called Mua. Our accommodation is lovely, and we each get our own room, which pleases me greatly. The food is ok, though it seems like it might be pretty standard fare and not too much variety. Mua is actually more often referred to a Mua Mission, as there is a large mission here, established by the White Missionaries, a group of Fathers so named not because of the colour of their skin but by the colour of the robes they wear (though all the fathers seem to be white, from the ones I’ve seen). The mission includes a hospital and the Arts and Crafts centre works with local artisans teaching wood carving skills. The village is a working village but looks far more beautiful and well planned than any of the others I’ve seen. The exteriors of the buildings are painted in colourful African motifs and there is a proliferation of plants and vines.
Our trainer for the cultural portion of the program is a 60 year old chain-smoking Father with a potbelly who wears flipflops, was born in Montreal and has lived in Malawi for 40 years. Our Day 1 morning program was a bit of a snooze. We looked at the history of Malawi, from about 2000BC, tracing the migration of the different populations of peoples across Africa and how they intersect and created the people, language and culture that exist today. I know it is interesting stuff, but I think it must be genetically engrained in my being that my brain can not focus on anything historical. The only thing I can remember from the entire 3 hour morning session, in addition to the thoughts of creative escape plans to get myself out of the room, was that chiefs pass down their name, and they are usually powerful and often sexual in nature – which goes well to explain why at some point in history chiefs took the names “Go and Fuck the Fire”, and "Fuck me" (the English translations of course) and why a chief in that line still retains the names. I actually think it’s humorous to know that the current Chief Go and Fuck the Fire is actually a woman, and wonder if that causes any awkwardness at things like parent-teacher interviews or bible study. (And know that I feel no remorse in using the word fuck in my blog, cause it’s from the mouth of a priest).
In the afternoon we learned about the matrilineal family structure, which I found much more interesting (though less humorous). It is actually a very basic and fundamental concept that underlies so much in Malawian culture, and is so foreign to North Americans. Basically the way it works, is the belief that the bloodline is passed down through the mothers, and the centrality of the family is with the woman. So for example, if a woman has a son and a daughter, the daughter will eventually marry, and her husband will have to come live with her and her family, and the woman’s son will have to leave the village to go live with his wife’s family. But the eldest son in the family will be responsible for caring for his mother and sister and his sisters children, even at the expense of his own family, and even though he now has to live with his wife’s family. Within the family, they even use titles differently than we do. A child will call his/her mother “1st mother” and any of her sisters “mother”, and same goes for father. Any children born to your mother’s sisters are called your brothers or sisters. Any children born to your mother’s brothers are called your cousins. Your mothers sisters children can marry your mothers brothers children because they are not deemed to be in the same bloodline.
So, to put that into perspective, for anyone who knows my mothers side of the family:
I would call Elaine “mother”, Terry and Michael “father”. Elaine and her kids would live in the same area/compound as me and my mom, and Do and Pops. Terry would be “the one who protects the family” but he would have to live in Fiona’s village. He would be responsible for taking care of me and Mark as well as Elaine’s kids, before being responsible for Andrew. Michael would also have to have moved out when he got married (though I’m pretty sure we would have gotten him back after the divorce). Elaine’s kids (Shannon, Reid, Elyse) would be my brothers and sisters. Terry’s son (Andrew) and Mike’s kids (Mikey, Katie) would be called our cousins. Therefore Mark could marry Shannon, I could marry Mikey, Elyse could marry Andrew and Reid could marry Katie (in fact, it’s encouraged). At the end of all that, everyone would be back living with Pops and Do! Not that it ever happens so exclusively like that, but you get the point, I hope. Interesting stuff huh?
Our trainer for the cultural portion of the program is a 60 year old chain-smoking Father with a potbelly who wears flipflops, was born in Montreal and has lived in Malawi for 40 years. Our Day 1 morning program was a bit of a snooze. We looked at the history of Malawi, from about 2000BC, tracing the migration of the different populations of peoples across Africa and how they intersect and created the people, language and culture that exist today. I know it is interesting stuff, but I think it must be genetically engrained in my being that my brain can not focus on anything historical. The only thing I can remember from the entire 3 hour morning session, in addition to the thoughts of creative escape plans to get myself out of the room, was that chiefs pass down their name, and they are usually powerful and often sexual in nature – which goes well to explain why at some point in history chiefs took the names “Go and Fuck the Fire”, and "Fuck me" (the English translations of course) and why a chief in that line still retains the names. I actually think it’s humorous to know that the current Chief Go and Fuck the Fire is actually a woman, and wonder if that causes any awkwardness at things like parent-teacher interviews or bible study. (And know that I feel no remorse in using the word fuck in my blog, cause it’s from the mouth of a priest).
In the afternoon we learned about the matrilineal family structure, which I found much more interesting (though less humorous). It is actually a very basic and fundamental concept that underlies so much in Malawian culture, and is so foreign to North Americans. Basically the way it works, is the belief that the bloodline is passed down through the mothers, and the centrality of the family is with the woman. So for example, if a woman has a son and a daughter, the daughter will eventually marry, and her husband will have to come live with her and her family, and the woman’s son will have to leave the village to go live with his wife’s family. But the eldest son in the family will be responsible for caring for his mother and sister and his sisters children, even at the expense of his own family, and even though he now has to live with his wife’s family. Within the family, they even use titles differently than we do. A child will call his/her mother “1st mother” and any of her sisters “mother”, and same goes for father. Any children born to your mother’s sisters are called your brothers or sisters. Any children born to your mother’s brothers are called your cousins. Your mothers sisters children can marry your mothers brothers children because they are not deemed to be in the same bloodline.
So, to put that into perspective, for anyone who knows my mothers side of the family:
I would call Elaine “mother”, Terry and Michael “father”. Elaine and her kids would live in the same area/compound as me and my mom, and Do and Pops. Terry would be “the one who protects the family” but he would have to live in Fiona’s village. He would be responsible for taking care of me and Mark as well as Elaine’s kids, before being responsible for Andrew. Michael would also have to have moved out when he got married (though I’m pretty sure we would have gotten him back after the divorce). Elaine’s kids (Shannon, Reid, Elyse) would be my brothers and sisters. Terry’s son (Andrew) and Mike’s kids (Mikey, Katie) would be called our cousins. Therefore Mark could marry Shannon, I could marry Mikey, Elyse could marry Andrew and Reid could marry Katie (in fact, it’s encouraged). At the end of all that, everyone would be back living with Pops and Do! Not that it ever happens so exclusively like that, but you get the point, I hope. Interesting stuff huh?
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Winning the war
Yesterday was Claire’s 27th birthday. To celebrate, some of us went for dinner and drinks at an Italian restaurant that makes homemade pasta (yumm!). Afterwards we went to a bar/lounge called Chameleons for some more drinks. Around 12, I decided to head home in the first round of taxi’s. I got ready for bed, turned off the lights and crawled into bed. As I was trying to fall asleep I felt something on my leg. At first I just thought it was a hair or something being blown around by my fan, but it persisted and when I moved my hand to wipe it away, it was a giant cockroach! In my bed! On my leg! I jumped up faster that I ever have before in my life and ran to the kitchen to get the RAID (the can I keep beside my bed was empty, which apparently isn’t enough of a threat to these persistent buggers). Man, I was pissed. Can you imagine? The nerve of that damn cockroach. I yelled at it. “I’m gonna get you you Mother F#cker” (and yes, I did yell that, at the cockroach, while standing in the middle of my room at 12:30am wearing a t-shirt, underwear and black ballet flats, armed with a can of RAID and a determination to get revenge). Oh, and I got him alright. Sprayed him so much that I almost slipped in the pool of RAID that collected on my floor. Then sent a text message to everyone left at the bar to tell of my tribulations and triumphs, went to bed victorious.
In the morning, I searched out the broom (I suppose one setback of having house staff is that one doesn’t actually have to know where such things are kept) to get rid of the carcass. Can you believe that as I tried to sweep it out of the room, it flipped back over on its front and tried to run under my bed??! It was dead the whole night! I guess it makes some sense since it is said that if there was nuclear war the only survivors would be cockroaches. I’ve gotten much quicker with my RAID retrieval techniques though and he was dead again before he could get to my bed. I swept him outside and had Jules stomp on him, just for good measure. Ha! There! I told you you would die. Who else wants a piece of me? I dare you.
In the morning, I searched out the broom (I suppose one setback of having house staff is that one doesn’t actually have to know where such things are kept) to get rid of the carcass. Can you believe that as I tried to sweep it out of the room, it flipped back over on its front and tried to run under my bed??! It was dead the whole night! I guess it makes some sense since it is said that if there was nuclear war the only survivors would be cockroaches. I’ve gotten much quicker with my RAID retrieval techniques though and he was dead again before he could get to my bed. I swept him outside and had Jules stomp on him, just for good measure. Ha! There! I told you you would die. Who else wants a piece of me? I dare you.
Monday, March 03, 2008
Liwonde
Malawi has a few national parks worth checking out.
The nearest to Lilongwe is called Liwonde, and is reputed for its hippo and elephant populations. Right now it is the low season for safari’s because it is the rainy season, also known as the Green Season, which makes spotting wildlife more difficult not only because of the abundance of foliage that gets in the way but also because there is water everywhere and the animals don’t have to congregate around water sources like they do in the dry season. March 3 is a holiday here, and since Lindsay and Andrea are heading back to Boston at the end of April, we decided to seize the opportunity presented by a long weekend and take our chances. JJR, Cole and Claire (a WUSC volunteer who arrived a couple weeks ago, is from Vancouver, will be staying for as long as I am, and who is friends with my former roommate Anique) also came.
After about 4.5 hours crammed onto a local minibus, we arrived at our lodge, and decided to stay in their dormitory, which was located along a long path behind the main lodge. The dorm building was one large room, with bunkbeds and no electricity (which we didn’t realize at first, much to Andrea’s horror, but she was a trooper).
I would normally hate a dorm set up, but it was ok. The toilets were a short walk away and there was a very nice outdoor seating area that we claimed as our own where spent most of our time laying around under the thatched roofing. At night, we played charades by candlelight and told ghost stories, and there was a guard stationed outside our dorm to make sure nothing ate us while we slept (or more likely, while we made the twice nightly exodus’ to the toilets). I have been very lucky in the richness of my safari experiences and have seen quite a lot (the serengetti kinda does that) so I didn’t join in on all the activities that the other “newbies to Africa” did (ie. Canoeing safari) but did go on a night drive and was very pleased to see over 15 hippos out of the water grazing. I had never been so close to hippos out of the water and it was cool. We couldn’t help but laugh at them though because their bodies are so fat and their legs so short so their butts would waddle and shake as they ran away from our spot light and it was pretty humorous. Unfortunately we didn’t get to spot any elephants, so the hunt still continues for Lindsay and Andrea, since their time is running out. We will see what we can do to fill that gap Easter weekend.
The nearest to Lilongwe is called Liwonde, and is reputed for its hippo and elephant populations. Right now it is the low season for safari’s because it is the rainy season, also known as the Green Season, which makes spotting wildlife more difficult not only because of the abundance of foliage that gets in the way but also because there is water everywhere and the animals don’t have to congregate around water sources like they do in the dry season. March 3 is a holiday here, and since Lindsay and Andrea are heading back to Boston at the end of April, we decided to seize the opportunity presented by a long weekend and take our chances. JJR, Cole and Claire (a WUSC volunteer who arrived a couple weeks ago, is from Vancouver, will be staying for as long as I am, and who is friends with my former roommate Anique) also came.
After about 4.5 hours crammed onto a local minibus, we arrived at our lodge, and decided to stay in their dormitory, which was located along a long path behind the main lodge. The dorm building was one large room, with bunkbeds and no electricity (which we didn’t realize at first, much to Andrea’s horror, but she was a trooper).
Claire infront of our dorm, Andrea being very brave in the knowledge that candles and lanters were our only source of light
I would normally hate a dorm set up, but it was ok. The toilets were a short walk away and there was a very nice outdoor seating area that we claimed as our own where spent most of our time laying around under the thatched roofing. At night, we played charades by candlelight and told ghost stories, and there was a guard stationed outside our dorm to make sure nothing ate us while we slept (or more likely, while we made the twice nightly exodus’ to the toilets). I have been very lucky in the richness of my safari experiences and have seen quite a lot (the serengetti kinda does that) so I didn’t join in on all the activities that the other “newbies to Africa” did (ie. Canoeing safari) but did go on a night drive and was very pleased to see over 15 hippos out of the water grazing. I had never been so close to hippos out of the water and it was cool. We couldn’t help but laugh at them though because their bodies are so fat and their legs so short so their butts would waddle and shake as they ran away from our spot light and it was pretty humorous. Unfortunately we didn’t get to spot any elephants, so the hunt still continues for Lindsay and Andrea, since their time is running out. We will see what we can do to fill that gap Easter weekend.
Lindsay (left) and Janna hanging out;Regan taking her turn at charades by lantern and candle light; our chill zone
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Field Visits: Day 4
Our four days of visiting finally came to a close. It was a bit of a tiring activity and one needs to learn to exercise extreme patience when it comes to field work because communication proves quite difficult since many of the places we were trying to visit were quite rural and therefore cell phone reception wasn’t always available for us to call ahead and announce our visit (and only a very small percentage of Malawians have land lines). We managed to meet 2-3 groups each day, though for some we only managed to track down the leader. Nevertheless we were still able to ask some questions and get some answers.
One of the things that stands out for me as a major lesson learned from this inaugural trip has nothing to do M&E however. When we go out into the field overnight, we receive a per diem to cover accommodation, food and incidentals. It’s a set amount that works out to about CDN$58/night, and is gratefully welcomed by any member of staff who is setting out to travel because there is no way an individual will need to spend that much money, and therefore they get to keep the excess (and I won’t try to fool you into thinking that I’m not right there with them). I probably got by on about $15-25day for food and accommodation, not completely by choice, but simply because there aren’t nice or expensive places to eat or sleep where we were working. It’s an obvious incentive. From what I see however, it also leads to a lot of wasted funds unfortunately. One of the biggest “bees in my bonnet” (as Janna has referred to it) is the MANET+ policy that whenever per diems are to be given to workshop or meeting participants (a necessary requirement is to provide for transportation costs at a minimum, or more if accommodation and food is required) an Accounts person is required to actually distribute the money. If we are talking about a one day workshop or meeting, this doesn’t bother me. The accounts person goes for the day with the program officers and then they all return. I have a problem with the idea of having a 4 or 5 day workshop where an Accounts person is paid their per diem for each day, and the only work they do is an hour or so at the beginning or end when they hand out the money to participants. Proposal budgets aren’t written to include per diems for this extra member of staff and therefore the result is that fewer participants are able to participate. I started to make a stink about it when I first learned about it, and was very quickly pulled aside by some of the women in Accounts and politely, but oh so obviously, had it suggested to me that I should shut up. “We help each other” is what I was told. Ethics or friends? Hmm, tough call. 13 more months with half the office mad at me doesn’t sound so pleasant so for now I think I’m waiting for some donors to stop by so I can drop some hints that maybe they should check some of the policies. Gotta learn to play the game sometime! If anyone asks why I’m working with the donors, besides the fact that it is part of my job, I think the answer is clear. “We help each other”.
Anyways, I digress. The whole Heather vs. Accounts battle started (and ended?) before the field visit, and was not the lesson learned from my trip. What I learned, is that when you are travelling with 3 men, to boring dirty towns with nothing to do, with per diems burning holes in their pockets, there is really only one thing to do: drink beer.
Our second day ended earlier than expected because we weren’t able to make contact with or locate one of the groups we had intended to visit. We found an ok place to say, ate some decent lunch and at 3pm strolled into a local bar. It had a pool table, which qualifies it as a classy joint I suppose. It wasn’t large, Cole and I were obviously the only white people, and I was the only female. I enjoyed the first hour or so because I beat Paul (the driver) at a game of pool and attracted a respectably sized audience in the process. Then Isaac beat me at the next game thereby placing the universe firmly in balance once more. I really wish I enjoyed beer. It would make my life so much easier (and more fun). Around 5 (aka Beer 4 or 5 for the guys) I realized that the drinking wasn’t going to stop and that getting a ride back at Beer 4 was better than waiting for the men to decide it was time to go. “Call me when you want to go for dinner” I said as Paul dropped me off. Around Beer 8 (7pm) Cole called to see if I was hungry (I was) and they came back to get me. There was a restaurant just up the street so I convinced them that we, in fact, did not need the car and should walk. I was the only one who ate, but must admit that the Beer 9-11 conversation was rather entertaining. Having never grown up in a world where it was deemed acceptable to drink and drive, my stomach turns at the knowledge of how much it happens here though, and I was pretty upset that after walking me back to my room they actually got back into the truck and went out. As the sober voice of reason (and the one who would be up until they got home worrying) I even called then when I heard the engine, saying that it was a really bad idea that they were in the car. I was told “Noted. We’re not going far. We’ll be careful”. Of course they made it home safely, around 1am (and Beer Unknown) and I got to be woken up by the sound of the horn as they tried to get the attention of the gate guard to let them into the parking lot. Ah, the joys of field work.
One of the things that stands out for me as a major lesson learned from this inaugural trip has nothing to do M&E however. When we go out into the field overnight, we receive a per diem to cover accommodation, food and incidentals. It’s a set amount that works out to about CDN$58/night, and is gratefully welcomed by any member of staff who is setting out to travel because there is no way an individual will need to spend that much money, and therefore they get to keep the excess (and I won’t try to fool you into thinking that I’m not right there with them). I probably got by on about $15-25day for food and accommodation, not completely by choice, but simply because there aren’t nice or expensive places to eat or sleep where we were working. It’s an obvious incentive. From what I see however, it also leads to a lot of wasted funds unfortunately. One of the biggest “bees in my bonnet” (as Janna has referred to it) is the MANET+ policy that whenever per diems are to be given to workshop or meeting participants (a necessary requirement is to provide for transportation costs at a minimum, or more if accommodation and food is required) an Accounts person is required to actually distribute the money. If we are talking about a one day workshop or meeting, this doesn’t bother me. The accounts person goes for the day with the program officers and then they all return. I have a problem with the idea of having a 4 or 5 day workshop where an Accounts person is paid their per diem for each day, and the only work they do is an hour or so at the beginning or end when they hand out the money to participants. Proposal budgets aren’t written to include per diems for this extra member of staff and therefore the result is that fewer participants are able to participate. I started to make a stink about it when I first learned about it, and was very quickly pulled aside by some of the women in Accounts and politely, but oh so obviously, had it suggested to me that I should shut up. “We help each other” is what I was told. Ethics or friends? Hmm, tough call. 13 more months with half the office mad at me doesn’t sound so pleasant so for now I think I’m waiting for some donors to stop by so I can drop some hints that maybe they should check some of the policies. Gotta learn to play the game sometime! If anyone asks why I’m working with the donors, besides the fact that it is part of my job, I think the answer is clear. “We help each other”.
Anyways, I digress. The whole Heather vs. Accounts battle started (and ended?) before the field visit, and was not the lesson learned from my trip. What I learned, is that when you are travelling with 3 men, to boring dirty towns with nothing to do, with per diems burning holes in their pockets, there is really only one thing to do: drink beer.
Our second day ended earlier than expected because we weren’t able to make contact with or locate one of the groups we had intended to visit. We found an ok place to say, ate some decent lunch and at 3pm strolled into a local bar. It had a pool table, which qualifies it as a classy joint I suppose. It wasn’t large, Cole and I were obviously the only white people, and I was the only female. I enjoyed the first hour or so because I beat Paul (the driver) at a game of pool and attracted a respectably sized audience in the process. Then Isaac beat me at the next game thereby placing the universe firmly in balance once more. I really wish I enjoyed beer. It would make my life so much easier (and more fun). Around 5 (aka Beer 4 or 5 for the guys) I realized that the drinking wasn’t going to stop and that getting a ride back at Beer 4 was better than waiting for the men to decide it was time to go. “Call me when you want to go for dinner” I said as Paul dropped me off. Around Beer 8 (7pm) Cole called to see if I was hungry (I was) and they came back to get me. There was a restaurant just up the street so I convinced them that we, in fact, did not need the car and should walk. I was the only one who ate, but must admit that the Beer 9-11 conversation was rather entertaining. Having never grown up in a world where it was deemed acceptable to drink and drive, my stomach turns at the knowledge of how much it happens here though, and I was pretty upset that after walking me back to my room they actually got back into the truck and went out. As the sober voice of reason (and the one who would be up until they got home worrying) I even called then when I heard the engine, saying that it was a really bad idea that they were in the car. I was told “Noted. We’re not going far. We’ll be careful”. Of course they made it home safely, around 1am (and Beer Unknown) and I got to be woken up by the sound of the horn as they tried to get the attention of the gate guard to let them into the parking lot. Ah, the joys of field work.
Pictures from the field
I've posted 2 blogs as well as these pics.
Maize, the staple food here. Kinda looks like a member of that kids band "Kids Can Rock!" that was around back in the day.. who remembers??!
Emily, the founder of a small support group of people living with HIV/AIDS
While travelling, the guys would often stop in small towns to eat goat meat on the side of the road. I stayed in the car and looked for photo ops instead.
Children in a small village coming to greet us (read: stare at us)
Cute kids. Need I say more?
Cole showing some local kids the picutures he took of them
A community garden
My favourite picture of the trip.
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