Matuwi

Since the form 2s are now testing, my teaching schedule has been really light. As a result, I finally had a chance to go out into the field with our outreach team. Currently the team is conducting the 2007 survey to register all the orphans in the 37 villages that MCV serves and entering them into a new database. On Thursday, when I went with the team, we visited Matuwi, one of the larger villages that we serve. We spent the day under the shade of a tree, and orphans and their care givers came to answer questions. (The villagers had been told that the MCV outreach team would be coming today by the village volunteers.) The caregivers answered questions about the number of orphans living in their house, their relationship to the orphan(s), their income/assets, needs, etc. Incomes were typically K1000-K2000 ($7-$14) a month, but one grandmother did answer, “by the grace of god.” Their needs were typically reported as clothes, blankets, house repair, and food. Easily the most amazing statistic was the sheer number of orphans we registered. In Matuwi alone (there are 36 other villages) the outreach team registered 106 orphans*. (I was also told that there should be many more than this in Matuwi, and someone would have to come back to register more later.) I of course should have been expecting such a high number (MCV serves about 3000 orphans a year) but seeing 106 orphans all from one village was still somewhat shocking.

On a more positive note, I was able to easily see the impact MCV has made on Matuwi. In 1997 when MCV did its initial survey, the average household caring for orphans consisted of a grandmother with 7 orphans. As MCV became established, and caregivers began to see the support that those caring for orphans recieved, many more began to share the burden. Thursday, the caregivers (grandmothers, mothers, sisters, aunts) that came to answer questions were typically caring for only 1 or 2 orphans.

*in case you forgot, in Africa orphan refers to a child who has lost one or more parent.

Wow, a blog with a footnote, that's a first.

An evening at Palm Beach

Several kids were following me yesterday speaking a lot of Chichewa and Yao that I didn’t understand, but with occasional words I knew. I kept hearing the word mbale, to which I responded:

Siya mbale, Frisbee
Not a plate, Frisbee.

(As some of you know I always have a couple Frisbees on the outside of my backpack.)

Also on my walk home yesterday, I saw a group of boys throwing coconuts way up into a tall palm tree to get coconuts down. They were amazingly talented. They hit their mark every time. About 5 minutes later I ran into a second group of slightly smaller boys attempting to do the same thing. Not so amazing; they could only throw the coconuts to about half the height necessary. Apparently it’s a learned skill.

Later that night, I finally saw a couple Palm Beach hippos! There were two of them right out in front of the beach area. One of them even seemed to think he was a dolphin and sort of jumped out of the water. The local fishermen that were just heading out quickly paddled their boat back to shore. Sorry, no pictures. I didn’t have my camera with me.

MCV's Bizhub

No, MCV does not have a machine that is a combination emailer, fax, scanner, and copier. But we do have a room that is a combination clinic, nursery, and school.

The Form 1 students above are attending class in a newly constructed room at MCV. The room was added on to our clinic to serve (along with other new rooms) as a temporary nursery until the old one can be rebuilt. For the next couple weeks the room is being used as a classroom for the Form 1s while the Form 2s are taking national exams at the school. (Gracious is being used as a national exam test site, and students from another local school have joined our students to take the exams at the school. Teachers and non-testing students are not allowed on the premises, thus the temporary classroom in the clinic/nursery.) Don’t be alarmed by the fact that the students don’t have desks; they are simply all being used at the school for exams at the moment.

The idea of MCV’s Bizhub occurred to me because I am currently reading The World is Flat, (Thomas Friedman’s book about globalization). It is really strange to read a book about how technology is changing the world, and then look up and see someone walk by with a bucket of water on her head. Other than my blog, I don’t see a whole lot of evidence that globalization has hit Malawi.

Quiz

On Friday I accompanied 8 of our students who were participating in a quiz competition versus Mangochi Secondary School. This was, sadly, very similar to education day. The poor organization was, as usual, apparent immediately. We arrived with 8 students ready to participate, 4 form 1s and 4 form 2s, as we had been instructed. We were told that this was incorrect, we should only have brought 4 competitors. After we cut down our team the quiz got underway.

Despite the fact that the quiz was being recorded for national radio, all the questions were hand written on little slips of paper which were littered all over the "Quiz Master's" table. This led the "Quiz Master" to lose track of how many questions he asked. On more than one occasion, he attempted to end a round after not asking each team the same number of questions. Luckily, some of us were paying attention and were able to correct this error. We were also able to correct the wrong answers he said were correct, and the correct answers he said were wrong. Unfortunately we were not able to help the quiz master control the audience of students during the 2nd competition. During the quiz between Palmland and Joy (two other schools) he actually had to stop the competition, and kick almost the entire audience out of the hall. (Not our students. They behaved admirably.)

At any rate, despite the "Quiz Master" not having mastered much of anything, our kids were able to do well. Unfortunately, the other kids did even better. We lost by 2 points.

The picture above shows our quiz team and a few supporters getting ready to leave MCV.

Drums in the Night

In case you got the impression, that because I now live with azungu, and eat azungu food, that I have stopped “experiencing Africa.” I thought I would share some things that show I am still living in Malawi. (As if my repeated use of the word azungu wasn’t proof enough).

The last month or so has been a time for many circumcision/initiation ceremonies for the Yao people (the predominant tribe in the Mangochi area). The ceremonies are called Jhando for boys and Mzondo for girls. I have seen many large gatherings in the village near Palm Beach with people singing, dancing, and beating on drums. The drums have also added to the lively chorus of the African night. While lying in my bed, I can now hear the drums, owls, frogs, and the occasional hippo. Sadly I also hear the loud music from the nearest village bar, but it’s not so bad that I can’t sleep. Oh, and lets not forget those lovely roosters.

I continue to greet many, many kids on my walks to and from Palm Beach. Lots of them have started to shout out Bye Bye a lot. I guess they either know I’m leaving Malawi fairly soon, or they just got bored with hellos. Sometimes on the walks home I find myself leading a troop of 20 kids or so. Don’t worry. I don’t think they’re trying to get me to join a Jhando; they’re just really happy that I’m white.

At school we've been busy preparing the form 2s for the Junior Certificate (national) Exams. They are taking them next week!! We haven’t had any football/netball games this term since we’ve been so busy getting ready for these exams. After the exams the form 2s will actually be done with school for the year (until January), but we plan on working out some sort of summer school for our kids. The form 1s finish up November 16th, and shortly after that I'll be leaving Malawi. Good thing I practice shouting Bye Bye everyday.

Back from vacation?

I'm back to teaching again, but am quite confused as to whether or not I'm back from vacation. Immediately upon arriving back in Mangochi, I moved from Sibale's house to Palm Beach. Although I enjoyed living with the Sibales, I was happy to move to a place where I can enjoy the beach everyday. I am staying in a spare bedroom at the resort owners' house (a South African family), and eat my breakfast and dinner at the Palm Beach restaurant. They are giving me a great deal for rent, and so it is not costing me anymore than living with Sibales.

I'm enjoying good western style food every night (no more nsima!) and can lounge at the beach all day on Sundays. The only slight down side is that I now have a twenty minute walk to the roadside everyday to get the car to MCV. And this isn't really a down side at all on the days when most villagers shout "hello" and "how are you?" (It gets a bit tiring when they shout "give me money." and "f$#&* you." instead.)

Also in residence at Palm Beach are several monkeys, a giant eagle owl, and some fish eagles. There are also hippos that live nearby and come grazing at Palm Beach during the night. I haven't seen the hippos yet but some people saw one a couple weeks ago. Hopefully my next blog post will have a hippo on it!

Nairobi (Chapter 2)

I spent one last day and night in Nairobi before flying back to Malawi. I spent the day fattening myself up at Carnivore. It’s one of the world’s 50 best restaurants and definitely one of the best I’ve ever been to. After your soup and salad, on comes the meat. While the flag is still flying on your table they keep bringing it. I ate pork spare ribs, pork tenderloin, lamb chops, lamb, beef, turkey, crocodile, and ostrich meatballs. Needless to say I did not eat dinner that night.

I also got to see a couple more movies (Transformers & The Simpsons), and go to the first decent bookstore I’d seen in 8 months.

Diani

After leaving Takaungu I continued south to Diani Beach. My commute there was quite fun. I left the volunteer house at Takaungu, took a boda boda (bicycle taxi) 2km to the main road, caught a large bus blaring reggae music to Mombasa, caught a tuk tuk (three wheeled taxi) to the Likoni ferry, took the ferry to Likoni where I caught a matatu to Ukunda, and then another matatu to Diani!

Diani Beach (a place my sister actually didn’t make it to) was absolutely gorgeous. My sister’s friend described it as the best beach she had ever been to. I’d have to say I whole heartedly agree. It’s also supposed to be the place where Brad and Angelina were first spotted together, though something tells me they weren’t staying in the same $10 a night hut that I was. Sadly it once again rained every day, even more than in Malindi. I did get in some beach time in between the rains though, and enjoyed the miles of endless white sand and crystal clear water. I also went to visit the Colobus Trust just down the road from my hut where I got to see some rare Angolan Black and White Colobus monkeys. After two nights at Diani Beachalets I headed back to Mombasa where I caught the night train, (much more comfortable then the bus) back to Nairobi.

pictures: a tuk tuk and matatu in Mombasa, camels waiting for tourists, and sunrise from a little cave on the beach.

Takaungu

Takaungu is a small village where an amazing NGO called the East African Center (http://www.eastafricancenter.org/) is located. After hearing about the EAC from two former volunteers: both my sister and Nick Booster, I simply had to check it out. I was pleased, but not at all surprised to find that just about every Kenyan there remembered both Megan and Nick. My boda boda (Kenyan bicycle taxi) driver, Hunter, told me that Nick was his best friend. And the Community Health Care workers' faces all lit up with smiles when I said I was Megan's brother. (My sister, a nurse & future midwife, wrote some of their training curriculum). I was definitely impressed with the work the EAC does, and also with the beauty of Takaungu itself.

The first picture is of the inlet next to Takaungu, and the second is me standing outside the hut where my sister lived for a month!

Gede

After Malindi, I headed south to visit Gede, a site of ancient Swahili ruins. I was blown away by the size of the place. (The picture above is actually just a small portion of the ancient town.) I spent the morning wandering around in amazement and then headed further south to Takaungu.

Malindi

After leaving Pat & Cathleen at the airport in Nairobi, I took off to the Kenyan coast to do largely the same trip my sister Megan did a year earlier. I took a night bus to Mombasa, and felt the bumps so badly that I sometimes wondered whether we were taking the road, or just driving across back country. We arrived early, and I spent the morning wandering around the old town before catching a matatu (Kenyan minibus) to Malindi.

Malindi (my first Megan recommended destination) is a town on the coast a couple hours north of Mombasa with large beautiful beaches. For some reason it has become incredibly popular with Italians. Not only do you see Italians all over the place, everyone thinks you're Italian! Instead of Jambo, many of the locals great you with ciao. I was amazed to see several Kenyans speaking fluently in Italian. I spent two nights at a resort on the beach, that had a huge pool surrounded by palm trees. (Sadly the rest of the place was falling apart; I guess that's why it was pretty cheap.) It rained much of the time I was there, but I still had time to enjoy the beach a little bit, and I hired a boat to do a little snorkeling at a nearby coral reef. I also enjoyed some great Italian food at "I Love Pizza" (good call Moogs!).