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!)