More kid pics

2 days ago, my Exec Director came into my office and asked me to create a poster for the "25th Anniversary of the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial", which is an international memorial to people who have died of AIDS or are living with HIV. It's a programme of the US-based Global Health Council, and for the first year ever, the Global Launch is being held outside of the US...and you guessed it, it will be here in Lilongwe, and MANET+ is the local host organization. Our office has been pretty overwhelmed with preparations in anticipation of the ceremonies on Sunday May 18 (yes, this means I have to work on my birthday).

I was actually looking forward to helping out with the poster and other promo materials, because I think they looked pretty crappy last year, and this year the whole world will be watching MANET+, so we need to do a good job. So when Victor sat down in my office on Tuesday to ask me to do the poster I was happy. Then he followed it up with "So you will finish that today. Oh, and I need you to do the brochure today too."

It's frustrating to know that this task could have been given to me with far more advance notice, but I've done my best. I made my "today" deadline for the brochure, but only managed to do a mockup of the poster with a photo that I took of a little boy at my last field visit. We had to choose between getting in the car yesterday and driving 2.5 hours to the place where I took it, photo in hand to find someone who knows who the boy is and then convince his parents to give consent for us to use it in a national poster campaign, or take some new pics. So I spent yesterday afternoon taking pictures of HIV+ children from 2 of our support groups in Lilongwe (with parents who had no problem consenting). Here are some of the results (plus one of a grandma). I have made mockups with some of the ones I think are best for the poster (not necessarily the ones I have included here) and the MANET+ staff are voting on which they like best.

Saying goodbye is hard, but the parties are always fun!

It's official. Linsday and Andrea really are leaving, and we've had the party to prove it. I don't want them to go, and have contemplated various methods of detaining them, but they will go, and they will be missed.

Claire, Cole, Heidi and Peter hosted their going away party on Saturday night and a great time was had by all (which my mom knows, cause when I got home at 2:30am I started drunk-emailing people, including her, though I think I kept it together enough that she couldn't tell, but I guess the cat's outta the bag now).

Tonight Janna and I are hosting their "Last Supper". There will be friends, sausage, pumpkin, beer, and lots of tears.

Lindsay and Janna

The Girls: Janna, Regan, Lindsay, Heidi, me, Andrea

The good thing about not having dining room furniture is that it makes a great excuse for a dance party

Me and Claire - the proud (soon-to-be) co-owners of a 96 Corolla

A new car gift from Jules and Janna - Grandma and Grandpa, no need to worry when I'm out in the car, we're covered.

Me and Fred (who works at the guest house where I stayed when we first arrived)

Lindsay - I'm pretty sure this face was meant to say "I'm so sad and will miss you so much Heather, please don't make me go, you are too great to leave, how am I expected to live without your witty personality or potato salad" but somehow comes across as "are you serious? I'm leaving?"

Another field visit

Tuesday and Wednesday I spent in a town called Golomoti, which is about 2.5 hours away, and will shortly become like a second home I’m sure. Isaac and I have been given the task of running a programme on Vertical Gardening, with the help of a consultant. Mostly our job is to pay attention, take notes and do what we can to prove that the project is successful so that we may be able to convince donors to give us more money in the future.

The project is to train a group of 30 people in vertical gardening so that they can have access to fresh vegetables throughout the year. The concept is this: take a 90kg sack, fill it with soil and manure, cut slits at intervals all over the sack and plant seedlings. It requires very space or attention, and most importantly, very little water.

I like the project because I will get to see it through, from start to finish. I decided to create a baseline survey so we would be able quantify results at the end of the project. It was a bit tedious to complete the surveys with all the participants, and I learned a few lessons that I will document for others to come and tuck away in an easily accessible corner of my mind for the next time I do one, but mostly I think it will be a helpful tool. I haven’t analyzed the results yet, but there are some definite things I noticed that I hope this project will be able to improve. For example, although most people had household gardens, they only provided the household with fresh vegetables during the rainy season and harvest, leaving the family without their own source of veggies during the dry season (which is half the year, from June – November). Families would therefore have to shop at the market during this period, but their intake of veggies sharply decreased this half of the year because prices were higher and therefore produce unaffordable. You will also notice from the pictures I have posted below, that no one has running water in their homes, and instead rely on community water pumps, which explains why most people don’t farm in the dry season – when there is no rain, simply too much water is required by a garden, when you consider that all the water will get to said garden on a women’s head.

Our visit was to train the group in the establishment and management of a nursery. I will visit again in 2 weeks, with the consultant, to make sure the seeds are germinating so that we will have seedlings to plant when we go back mid-May for the main training. Everything was in Chichewa so I didn’t participate much, though I did use a translator to help me conduct some of the surveys.

It is interesting though how, as a foreigner, people are so excited by your presence. I didn’t say much during the training 1) because I didn’t have anything to say and 2) no one would understand me anyways, but the few times I did make a comment or crack a joke, everyone would applaud. I wonder if that’s what it feels like to be Oprah.

Isaac, my counterpart

Digging the nursery bed

Watering the seedlings so they don't get washed away

Kids at the communal watering pump

When this mother is finished filling her bucket of water, she will use a cloth sling to tie her baby on to her back, and the cloth on her head to cushion the bucket of water, which will be put on her head for the walk home

Why is it always Monday?

Another busy weekend has come and gone. I was glad to be busy because Alexio finally had to leave on Friday morning and I needed a reason to resist the urge to sit around moping about it. I hate that he had to go, but know that I should just be thankful that we had 3 weeks together. There are still no answers out of Zimbabwe, but his boss said that the rest of the team were starting to go back to the office so he better get his butt back there.

Lindsay spent most of the day on Friday with me in my office hanging out, keeping me company, then came over for dinner with Andrea. Saturday they booked pedicure appointments for the three of us to cheer me up, and then we had lunch before going to the vegetable market (to stock up for the rest of the weekend) and the crafts market (to stock up for their trip home). Saturday night went to a party. The Family bought a membership to the local Portugese club, and were generous enough to sign me up as the 4th member of their family (as Janna’s sister, so I told Regan she has to call me Aunt Heather all the time now) so we spent some of Sunday laying by the pool, and then had a bunch of people over for a bbq and games night.

I thought the week was getting off to a good start because last week Claire and I test drove a car that we both feel really good about, and just today heard back from the owner that our negotiations were successful, so it seems we have may have another new member of the family! We have to take it to the mechanic, and she won’t transfer ownership until sometime in early May but barring no major roadblocks, I should be easily mobile shortly!

Some crap at work this morning tarnished my shiny Monday-morning-car-news slightly, but it’s just stupid administrative stuff and mis-communications, and hopefully things will be sorted out.

I am supposed to be traveling Tuesday and Wednesday, and hope to return with some interesting anecdotes.

PS: Our kitten has a name: Nali, after The Family’s favourite Malawi-made hot sauce. I really like the name but think it’s a bit girlie, and the kitten is a boy, so we have resigned ourselves to having a gender-confused kitty and will love him just the same. And it gets better – we got him when he was 4 weeks old, and he was already litter trained! (which doesn’t mean there aren’t accidents, but never on my bed!)

PPS: Thanks for the call Laura! And for allowing an exception to your “No Blog” rule and reading mine :)

A new member of the family

Yesterday we welcomed the first ever Arntz-Grey-Quinn (first name tbd)

Still no answers... but we have shepherd's pie

It has been 8 days since the Zim elections, and presidential results still aren’t officially known, despite a constitution that requires release of results within 6 days. As we all wait with baited breath, the hopes of a quick resolution and smooth transition dwindle. If you haven’t been following, it’s a pretty interesting issue to read up on, fueled by speculation more than fact because very little information is flowing.

We still don’t know when Alexio will go home. Possibly Wednesday, possibly Friday (never if I have my way, which of course, I won’t). I’m trying not to think about it.

The weekend was good and over too quickly as usual. Ate some really good Chinese food on Friday and then went to a bbq, spent too much money at the fancy grocery store on Saturday and then went to a really great concert that night.

I was introduced to Afro pop band Malaika (from South Africa) when I lived in Zim and loved them, so we decided to pass up the regularly scheduled Saturday night expat party when we heard that they were doing a show…conveniently a 5 minute walk from my house, at the notorious Chez Ntemba night club. We arrived 20 minutes after the 8pm ticketed start time, and were among the first, which afforded us the opportunity to find a decent spot sitting on a low wall in the makeshift outdoor concert space. By 11 the opening acts came on. Around midnight Malaika took the stage and were great, and were followed by local reggae sensations the Black Missionaries. When the live music stopped around 3, we all piled into the nightclub, (figuring, if you’ve made it til 3am, why go home now?), danced until after 4 and then stumbled home.

12:30pm Sunday, and the realization that we actually had to get out of bed at some point, hit us hard. But we had another bbq to go to, so on on!

Our splurge grocery shopping trip allowed me the much anticipated opportunity to buy a potato masher, so in celebration I have invited friends over tonight for some shepherd’s pie…yumm!!!