Favorite things and other thoughts

April 19, 2008

We just returned from a 2-day College leadership meeting at Chinteche on Lake Malawi where we stayed at a Malawian resort on the lake.  It was pretty basic, but the people were amazingly nice and helpful, and they had a conference room with snack breaks in the morning and afternoon.  It would probably be most like a little camp type lodge that you might have stayed in somewhere in the U.S., with separate cabins. 

The only glitch was a really giant spider that we saw in our cabin – I’m talking 3 - 4 inches across, including the legs, so I was pretty freaked out about that, not to mention the bat that flew through the open air dining room each night and freaked out John.  Probably not a place I would recommend, but also about a 5^th the price of the place we had stayed at a month or so ago, which was right next-door. 

The meeting went fine considering we really didn’t want to be there since this was the same group that decided to kick out our friends Bruce and Karin, but we have committed to helping the College as best we can.  This was a budgeting meeting, and this group doesn’t have experience with developing a balanced budget, but there was a gentleman who was retained to attend the meeting who has extensive experience and explained in simple terms the whole financial management process which really helped them a lot. 

The lake was beautiful as always, and we loved hearing the sound of the waves each night.  Unfortunately, because of the waves, John didn’t get a chance to swim – it was just too rough.  He has had few opportunities to swim while we’ve been here.

April 20, 2008

I think this will be a “favorite things” blog.  When we were driving to Chinteche and back for this meeting John and I were talking about the things we really love here. 

1.    Names – I love the names of people here like:

a.    Blessing

b.    Precious

c.     Happy

d.    Innocent

e.    Praise

f.      Miracle

g.    Wisdom

h.    Lovely

i.      Gracious

j.      Beauty

k.     Glory

l.      Mercy

m.  Tawonga (thank you in the local language)

2.    The hand washing ritual before and after meals, where the host/hostess pours warm water from a pitcher over your hands into a basin and has a towel over their arm for drying. 

3.    Tea – not the beverage, although I do like that too, but the break in the morning and afternoon.  It’s a great form of entertaining to invite someone for tea, and some scones, or banana bread, or cookies along with the tea and milk and sugar.

4.    Powdered whole milk.  This stuff is so handy for putting in coffee or tea, and I hate the “non-dairy creamer” stuff at home.  This is actually powdered full cream or 2% milk and it is sold everywhere here.  The powdered milk we have at home is awful because it is totally non-fat so it’s no good for coffee or anything. 

5.    Big thermos’ to put your hot water in for tea or coffee at the beginning of the day.  It makes so much sense and is such an energy saver – and of course here it’s great because you can have a hot beverage even if the power goes out, which could happen at any time.

6.    Hot water boiler pots.  These things boil water so fast, and every one has them so you can heat up the tea water. 

7.    The amazing view from our konde out over the valley and Lake Malawi all the way to the mountains of Tanzania about 20 or 30 miles away.  Sometimes it is so clear that we can clearly see the valleys on the mountains there, and the occasional glint from the tin roofs of the buildings there.  I know I have put a bunch of these on before, but here is one that shows the outline of the mountains across the lake quite clearly.

8.    Rainbows, and beautiful clouds.  We often see rainbows as we look out over the valley and lake, or drive around the country during the rainy season.  And the clouds are amazing from up where we are – I put a picture of some that we took near dusk one night.

9.    No airplane noise.  We heard one airplane fly over since we have been here, it’s going to be strange to go back to our home only 7 miles or so from the International Airport.

10. Almost no car noise.  We have become such bumpkins, often going to the window to see what car is coming down the dirt road, as car noises are rare and get our attention.

11. The constant sound of children laughing and playing.  It is such a beautiful sound, interspersed with giggles and and sometimes singing – the other day there was a wonderful little girls voice belting out a call and response song with her friends.  At home you just don’t see or hear kids outside that much any more.  I put a picture of somei kids who were playing when they saw us coming and immediately gathered together and asked us for “picture, picture!” with their huge smiles, regardless of the rags they were dressed in – the littlest one was naked and his mom told his brother to cover him. 

12. The chickens and their sounds.  From early morning to dark there is a parade of chickens through the yard, scratching, clucking, squawking, crowing, and having a great time.  It’s very relaxing and a nice connection with nature.

13. Greetings.  Always – and I do mean always being greeted with a big smile and a “hello, how are you today?”, followed usually by the response “very fine thank you, and you?”, often even by total strangers as you are walking down the street or path.  If you are walking with a Malawian, you will hear shouted greeting exchanges with people who are some distance away as well. 

14. Handshakes.  Everyone shakes hands every time they meet, even friends, who might also hug or pull the person close while shaking hands.  Sometimes people have a hard time letting go and will keep shaking or holding your hand.  When you say something funny or something a Malawian really likes, you often get a dramatic “hand slap – hand shake” along with a big laugh to show their appreciation.

15. Men holding hands while they walk.  Women hold hands while they walk too, but honestly, I see men walking and holding hands more than women and certainly more than couples as that would be less common.  There is no “negative” connotation, or hidden meaning when men hold hands, it is totally normal here, and looks very sweet.

16. Soda in bottles with a deposit.  When did we stop doing that?  You can buy cans of plastic bottles here, but they are a lot more expensive, as well they should be for the environmental cost.

17. Singing.  We are sitting in the lobby of the hotel right now and can hear people singing somewhere nearby.  I could include dancing here too, as when people are very happy or excited about something, they ululate, sing or dance to show and release their joy.

More news from Malawi

April 8, 2008

We are back on the Livingstonia Plateau, having seen Steve and Mary Ellen off, and traveled back to the plateau at the same time they were traveling home.  We figured we probably got home (to our temporary home here) at about the same time they did on Sunday night. 

Our drive back from Mzuzu was an interesting one, with 9 people in a 9 passenger SUV, which sounds perfect except for all the katunudu (luggage, or things you take with you).  We had our 2 travel bags and backpacks, along with about 4 bags of groceries, and other people had their travel bags too, several fairly large, plus the college had a huge box with about 40 loaves of bread since there is no bakery up there, and 3 large boxes of toilet paper.  No roof rack, so all packed in with us.

I suspect there was more packed in there, but I really can’t remember. There were 4 of us in the back seat with one of the Malawians sitting forward and grabbing the seat ahead of her – for nearly 3 hours; and I have no idea how the 2 people in the back were sitting because the only clear space was only part of one of those sideways seats that should hold 2 people, but the footwell part was packed solid all the way to the ceiling, so they must have had their feet up on the bench or something.  This is pretty common I’m afraid, but we’ve been lucky so far.  We had some bread in one of our grocery bags that was smashed completely flat by the time we got home, so we had to get pretty creative about how to use it since it was useless for toast or sandwiches that way.

We invited our friends Bruce and Karin to come over for dinner last night, and commiserated about their “dismissal”.  They are doing wonderfully with it, and see it as something of a relief as they were getting pretty frustrated with the autocratic leadership, and some of the bad and hurtful decisions that were being made.  One of the University staff members told them that they were told at a staff meeting Saturday that Bruce and Karin were let go because they “didn’t participate in the religious community”.

We still believe that it is also because they questioned the administration on some of their decisions and offered opinions counter to administrations at meetings, and the leadership has used religion to hide behind since it would be pretty hard to say “we let you go because you questioned us.” I have some empathy with what I suspect may at least partially be a reaction to years of colonial oppression by mzungus (whites/Europeans), and I believe there is an element of “you mzunugu’s bossed us around for 100 years, and we don’t have to take it any more – take your opinions and leave, this is our country and our institution and when we want your advice we will ask for it.”  And since they take an authoritarian approach to leadership, what a perfect way to reduce any opposition from the paid staff, by creating the fear that you too will be let go if you question the leadership, or don’t adhere to the proper set of beliefs.

Very sad.  And for an institution that preaches ethics and moral leadership, very disappointing.  One of the things that have heard some of the Malawians say as we have discussed the recent problems in nearby Kenya, is how scary tribalism can be.  I think what I sometimes see in religion, is that it can encourage believers to engage in a type of tribalism.  Each religion has it’s God and it’s creed which members of the religion are expected to subscribe to, and if you believe the same way I do, you are one of us, but if you don’t, you are not one of us you can be thought of as an enemy to be converted or eliminated some how. 

As we look at history, sometimes the conversion or elimination is done peacefully, but all too often it has been done with force.  This “otherness” has historically also been associated with discrimination – which is what we see happening here with Bruce and Karin on a very small scale. And sometimes when the tribe feels enough sense of “otherness” occurs, we end up seeing things like the crusades, pogroms, Iraq, Israel, Northern Ireland, Serbia, Darfur, Kenya, Tibet etc.  It strikes me as ironic, that the person in the college who has said several times that tribalism is the biggest problem in Africa, is probably the one who most wanted to kick Bruce and Karin out because they don’t follow the rules of his tribe/religion.

How religions, which all preach love and tolerance can somehow be twisted to encourage people to engage in such unloving acts is one of the great mysteries of life I think. There are plenty of members of the local church, who do not support kicking out Bruce and Karin, and agree that they behave in a way that follows the teachings of Christ more than many Christians, thank goodness.  I just hate to see the profession of a belief in Christ become more important than following the teachings of Christ. As is so often the case, it’s leaders who feel they must wield their power, and show that theirs is the only right way, and then unfortunately use religion as a reason to behave in a way that isn’t very Christian.

April 9, 2008

You may be tired of my chicken stories by now, but they, once again provided some needed levity today.  I was sitting on the Konde (porch) when one of the nearby neighbors nearly grown chicks made a mad dash past me, through the door and into the house, only to be met by John and Smelton chasing her back out – but not without a lot squawking on her part.

Then later today we heard a lot of shouting and squawking near the side door to the house.  John and I got up to see what had happened, and found out that a chicken had somehow gotten into the outside storage room attached to the house, and then up into a vent pipe.  It turns out that an eagle flew over and all the chickens started running and squawking with Tawonga, our gardener shouting and chasing them to find cover.  Unfortunately, one or two of them ran into our little storage room and flew up onto a shelf and into said vent pipe.  I guess if you have an eagle chasing you, that’s a great hiding place.  They tried reaching in to grab it but it was too far, tried shouting to see if they could scare it out, but that didn’t work either.  So Tawonge, had to find a homemade ladder at one of the neighbors somewhere, remove the outside cover on the vent pipe and put a stick down the vent to poke at the chicken(s) so it would go out where it came in.  All this accompanied by some laughing by Smelton.  Unfortunately, we arrived after the chicken was removed, but I think Smelton enjoyed telling the story.

I’m not sure why the “invasion of the chickens” occurred today, but think it might be the universe sending us a little laughter and diversion when we most need it.  I’ve included a photo of John with Smelton and Tawonge taken a few weeks ago, so you can picture them better.

April 12, 2008

Today was our first weekend day home and without company in a month and we planned to have no plans and to read and relax.  We did, but we also had a very fun day that also seemed very representative of our lives in Malawi. 

At 7:45 this morning, we had our first knock on the door.  It was Macdonald, the guy we have been helping with the Maize Mill proposal coming to return the magazine we loaned him last night.  He stopped by to see us last night, partly because he hadn’t seen us in awhile, and that is what people do here – see each other regularly, to maintain their social networks – and because he was nearby at the hospital seeing his brother.  We learned that his brother had been riding in one of the typically overloaded open truck beds, and was thrown off when the truck hit a bump – apparently no broken bones, but probably a concussion. 

Macdonald noticed a few magazines we had out and asked if he could borrow a couple since he would spend the night at the hospital – probably sleeping on the floor or out in the open.  Hospitals here depend on the family to cook and provide all care except medical for a patient, so family is critical if you are hospitalized and they tend to camp outside the hospital doors since it’s not like there are any guest quarters (although our hospital here has actually thought of building some). 

We chatted with Macdonald for awhile, gave him some water to take to his brother, and lent him some money to go buy rice to cook for him as well so he wouldn’t have to walk the 2 – 3 miles each way back to his house to get more food.  We also gave him a draft of the proposal for the Maize Mill to be used for funding which John had just completed and he was thrilled with it.  Since I keep talking about him I’ve attached a photo of he and his wife and youngest child at their house – and who is that giant with them! 

A little later, around 9am David Mhango stopped by as I had phoned him yesterday when our carpenter, woodcarver, bat exterminator and general handyman Trynos was over and mentioned that he had a group that had planted peppers on some land granted to them by the local chief that was in need of irrigation.  I told him that David had put in irrigation at his family’s farm, having learned how to do it working on the local water system some years ago.  I called David thinking I’d just put the 2 of them on the phone, but David was on his way to a funeral when I called and said he’d stop by today instead.  When David arrived, I called Trynos to see if he could come over, but he said they were out working in their garden (which is actually their half acre to acre or so plot of land where they grow food to live on, and hopefully some excess to sell and raise a bit of cash since unemployment is about 85% and that is the only cash source for many families – every family here has one of these) so I said I’d bring David over. 

But before we could leave, Joseph the local electrician who we have used for several projects and repairs, arrived to install an electrical switch and a light that can be turned on and off for the attached storage room.  Our night watchman Reuben uses that room each night, and listens to his radio, but has go buy expensive batteries that her cannot afford for it, so we figured we could put a switch in there and he can plug it in.  In addition, while there is a light in there, it is either on or off controlled by a switch in the house, but since Reuben sleeps in there, we figured he wouldn’t want it on for the whole night so don’t ever turn it on.  Now that the cold season is coming however, we figured that light would also produce a little heat to help warm the storage room, and we wanted Joseph to put a pull chain on the light so Reuben can turn it on and off as he wishes from outside. 

So when Joseph arrives, he has to knock a hole in the brick, concrete and stucco wall from one of our rooms into the attached storage room outside. Unfortunately, he has no tools to do that (you wouldn’t believe the tools that people have to work with here – we’d sell them in antique shops), so he is going to go to Bruce’s house and see if they have a tool he can use.  Unfortunately, Bruce is gone, and has taken his tools with to work on a project so Karin tells Joseph to just have a look around in their storage room. Joseph finds a 5 foot long metal spear that Bruce bought somewhere and brings it back with a sheepish grin saying that is what he will use to make the hole.  Lots of metal on metal hammering ensues for and is continuing for at least 15 minutes until David and finish our morning tea and make our escape from the racket and walk to Trynos’.

David and I walked the half mile or so past the open air market, and along some paths to Trynos’ house, and when we arrived, asked after him. His children pointed us in the general direction of their garden, at which time I remembered that most people’s gardens are some distance away from their houses even though there was a garden right next to Tryons’ house (which is where I was thinking he’d be).  So we headed of down the walking path they had indicated to use for about a quarter of a mile when we came to some houses where the people came out, introduced themselves, chatted for a bit and then their 7 year old daughter led us to Trynos’ plot another quarter mile or so away. 

Trynos and David chatted for a bit, and then we walked another quarter mile or so along paths and through various family garden plots, to find a vantage point to look down into the valley another mile or so where Trynos has been granted the land for a group of about 5 people to grow peppers (they call them paprika) as a cash crop.  After inspecting the plot and the stream nearby to use for a water supply, David told Trynos that the brick he intended to use for lining the irrigation channel would not work, that it would need to be cement as brick would deteriorate too quickly.  Since Trynos’ group doesn’t have money to buy cement, it looks like John and I will be helping on another proposal – which we will be happy to do.

After we finished looking things over we started walking back and Trynos detoured to a little cluster of houses where 2 of his sisters lived, along with his 87 year old widowed father and 89 year old widowed uncle and his brother who is probably dying of drug resistant TB (which has become quite prevalent in 3^rd world countries where people do not take their medicines properly and the germs have adapted and become stronger) and HIV/AIDS.  I was greeted, offered popcorn, and went into the house to meet Trynos brother who he has been talking about since we met in April.  Trynos helps to care for him and has been frustrated about trying to get him to take his medicine, and more recently to get him to eat 

 At some point in the past, if he’d taken his TB or Anti-retroviral drugs (which are offered free of charge – a wonderful thing to know is happening here) it would probably have saved him, but as is often the case as soon as he felt better he would stop taking the drugs and there aren’t enough resources to monitor all the patients and tell them not to do that.  Now, both his TB and HIV have become drug resistant and he weighs about 100 lbs and only wants to drink Coke or Fanta as he doesn’t feel good and has mouth sores.  I don’t know how much longer he will hang on, but I think it is pretty hopeless at this point, but of course Trynos keeps thinking it can still turn itself around.  Of the 6 children in his family, only 4 are left and when his brother dies only three will be left – Trynos is probably 30.  We stayed to visit for a while and then walked back to our house.

When we got back, David wondered if he could work on John’s laptop computer to create a schedule for activities and preaching at his church for the next year since he is a deacon.  He learned about computers when he went to technical school until his family ran out of money to pay school fees, and since he has only used our computer a few times for other projects, he is very slow but John helped him lay out a very nice schedule.  I thought you’d enjoy a photo of David too, taken on our konde. 

While he was there working, Glen Nutter one of the other Mzungu stopped by for a short chat on our konde on his way home from breakfast at Bruce and Karin’s.  We talked about books and enjoyed the view for a while and then John and I went back to sitting on our konde and reading - enjoying the breeze, the view and the occasional chicken wandering through our yard.

Around 5pm Bruce and Karin called to say they were trying to get rid of some of their luxuries before leaving, and had several cans of pate to be eaten, along with a couple of bottles of wine and would we like to come join them on their konde to enjoy them.  We ended up sitting out there and chatting until nearly 8pm and then making our way back home to make up a thermos of tea for Reuben (which we do each night).  We were not planning on staying that long, but when Karin was getting ready to open another bottle of wine and bring us a cup of soup, she said “we won’t have that many more chances to do this” so I put aside the voice in my head that said “we should be heading home because we have a pot of soup on the stove too, and should make tea and do dishes etc” and enjoyed the evening and the good company.  We are really going to miss them – and it was a perfect reminder to me of one of our lessons from Malawi, that relationships are more important than any task.

The missing photo from yesterday

Hard times in Livingstonia

April 1, 2008 

Tomorrow is Steve and Mary Ellen’s last full day here already.  We are planning to go down to Mzuzu with them, but we are still trying to arrange the transport – typical.  We called 2 days ago, and the Registrar told us he would be up yesterday and we should talk to him then – except that he was supposed to be here in the morning (for a meeting we didn’t learn we were supposed to be attending until the principal called to say it was postponed because the registrar hadn’t arrived at 3pm), and we had invited him for lunch, but when we called him to confirm that he was coming around 11:30, he said he had been delayed and hadn’t left Mzuzu yet (3 hours away).  This is typical behavior for the Registrar and the College of Education people and we are getting pretty frustrated with them. 

They called at 5pm to tell us that we were supposed to be at this meeting which has been postponed until tomorrow about their budget for next year (they never actually finished or got approval for this year’s budget ). The meeting was a surprise to us, and we understood that the Vice Chancellor had requested more people be included in a budget meeting, so we’re not sure if this is supposed to replace that meeting or prepare for it,.  Actually we know nothing about the purpose, agenda, length, or attendees at this meeting and didn’t even learn it was happening or that we were supposed to attend until the call saying it was delayed.  I guess you can tell I’m frustrated.

Things are a bit chaotic again at the Colleges also.  When we arrived back up here, we could hear some noise coming from up by the Technological College, and thought it was a party or something.  The next day we learned that the College had sent home it’s students.  While we were gone, the students started to complain about some food and entertainment issues, and went from complaining to showing up at the Principals house at 2 in the morning and shouting insults using obscene and abusive language.  An apology was requested the next day, but instead there were rumors circulating that the angry students were planning some kind of property destruction.  So the administration called the police and told the students that, except for about 15 who were sitting for exams, the college was closing and they were being sent home, to prevent the possibility of the kind of property that students at another school in Malawi caused recently. 

The principal of that College is one of our favorites to work with, so we were really sad and upset to learn of the way he was treated. 

April 2, 2008

What a sad and bad day this is.  We went to the budget meeting where, at the first break, the Registrar made the announcement that our Norwegian friends Bruce and Karin, who have been here for 2 years of a 3 year commitment, are being released and “not invited” to return.  The reason given was a story that made no sense about not having some certificate needed by immigration, but since they are the ones that told us what needed to be done at immigration, and have had no trouble extending their visas ever, the story doesn’t hold water.  Unfortunately, we know from the way the administration handled the issue with the student who we feel was wrongly dismissed, that they tend to trump things up and then lay a smoke screen to cover the truth,

We know that the administration at this very conservative Presbyterian college has been displeased with their outspokenness about some of the problems they have seen(aren’t colleges supposed to teach people to ask question and think independently?), and with the fact that they smoke and have an occasional drink in the privacy of their homes, and Karin (horrors!) wears pants to teach in – worst of all, they don’t go to church.  While I’m sure this is not the whole reason they were asked not to come back, I’m equally sure that their failure to “tow the line” was irksome to the leaders of the institution, who take a very rigid and dictatorial approach as we have mentioned before.  I’m sure we will never know the whole story here as the administration has only fed us the line about the immigration “problem”, and held to their story even after we challenged it.  Since Bruce and Karin consistently behave in a more “Christian” manner than a lot of Christians I have met, especially the ones here in administration, this is the kind of behavior that can give Christianity a bad name.

No matter that the college has no money and will now need to replace and pay for 2 teachers to cover their courses for next year, along with either paying someone to keep the outdated, donated computers and other equipment working, or learning to go back to life without them next year as they will stop working without Bruce to maintain them.  I could go on about all the other good things Bruce and Karin have done, for free out of their generosity and care for the students and people here, and I could rant a bit about my concern for the people they have provided with jobs here who will lose those jobs, and the impact this will have on the rest of the faculty and community, but it will just upset me more.  This is just one more bad, self-destructive, short sighted, rigid decision made by the college of education administration, and it is going to be difficult to function and work well with them when we have lost so much respect for them, and trust in them.  Fortunately, there are 4 other colleges in the University, and we can spend more time with them, and distance ourselves from the unhealthy behavior of the leadership at this college.

About 5 minutes after we returned home from this awful meeting, just as we sat down for lunch, I got a call from my dear friend at home who has been “step mom/step parent” of our two cats while we are gone, telling me that one of our kitties had died.  My sweet Candy was somewhere between 18 and 20 years old, as I got her from a shelter who picked her up as a stray, so we are unsure of her exact age.  The shelter had named her, and I am sure they picked the name Candy because of her cotton candy fur, and sweet as candy disposition. 

She has been unable to jump up on furniture for a couple of years due to some arthritis in her hips, but that hadn’t kept her from enjoying life up to now, still playing on occasion, and really enjoying sleeping near a heat vent at my friends house, or the radiator at our house.  John said he had never known another animal, cat or dog that liked having her ears rubbed as much as she did, her eyes would close and she would lean all her weight into your hand, purr, and just bliss out.  She was one of the most mellow and “zen like” creatures I have ever known, never getting too excited about anything, and seeming to take life as it came, finding fun in a piece of dust on the floor, or whatever else came in her path (I used to call her the “Queen of Fun” cause she could find fun anywhere with anything), or curling up for a nice nap in the sunshine.  When she wanted some attention she would come and ask with her little squawk, or by rubbing on you until you couldn’t ignore her.  I learned a lot about how to live life from her.

It went very quickly with just 3 days since she fell over and then started to have trouble controlling her bowel and bladder, until Elizabeth found her in the middle of the floor of her kitchen looking disoriented after coming home from work on Tuesday. The vet couldn’t pinpoint exactly the cause, but it almost sounds to me like she might have had a little stroke.  Before we left, there was a blood test result that indicated the possibility that there could be a cancer growing somewhere, and while there had not been any symptoms, who knows.  The vet told my friend Elizabeth that she could keep her for a few days and do a battery of unpleasant sounding tests, and after talking with her for a bit gave Elizabeth a few minutes alone with Candy.  Elizabeth told Candy she had to tell her what to do, and she laid her head in Elizabeth’s hand and closed her eyes.  One of the other things I thought was so sweet about Candy was that she would always come and want to be held if her tummy was upset from a hairball or something – I always knew when she didn’t feel good because she wanted comforting.  She would have been miserable all alone in the hospital for those tests when she wasn’t feeling good, let alone the prolonging of her suffering, so Elizabeth made the right decision with Candy’s help. 

It is so disorienting to be so far from home, and not having seen Candy for 3 months now.  It is hard to register that she is gone, and won’t be coming to the door to greet us anymore when we come home, or come up and squawk to ask for rubs.  She was such a good friend, and I will miss her terribly.  John and I have been reminiscing about her, and I had brought pictures of both cats, so have been looking at her. It’s been fun telling John about her before he met her when she was younger, but he remembers when she would jump up on the bed every night before her hips started to get bad.

One of our neighbors happened to stop by after we got the news and found John and I crying on our patio, and I could only tell them that a friend at home had died.  Smelton, our cook and helper came out to see why we had left all food on the plates and gone out to the patio and I told him the same thing. He was so sweet and sat on the porch silently after saying how sorry he was about the bad news.  He said calls from home should only bring good news, so you know that all those that you care about are OK, and then just shook and lowered his head and looked so sad for us.  Malawians don’t keep pets, so it seemed easier to say a friend had died, knowing they’d understand that, and I knew it was true as she was a good friend.

It was a horrible day, and I’ll be glad when it is over.

April 3, 2008

We are in Mzuzu, and I’ll send this tomorrow.  Bruce and Karin were in Mzuzu when all this happened and were given the news by phone after requesting multiple times to know what was happening, so it was good to see them when they got back, although we only had a short time since we were riding down in the same car they rode up in.  They are doing well, and looking at the bright side, knowing that this will all turn out for the best, and still trying to figure out what they can do for the institution before they leave.  They are gracious and generous people, and we will miss them terribly.  Our Malawian neighbor Titus, who is also a teacher at the University, nearly started to cry when he heard the news from them today.  I know there’ll be a lot of unhappy people when this news gets around, including many of their students who loved them 

John and I are still reminiscing about Candy and tearing up when we think about her, but I am so grateful that she had such a good long life, and short bad time at the end – and especially that she had such loving care from my friend Elizabeth. 

We had a farewell dinner for Steve and Mary Ellen tonight at the Indian restaurant, and that will be a loss too, but they are very much hoping and planning to come back if they can get leaves from their jobs.  It’ll probably be this fall for 3 months as they don’t think they can get more time than that.  It is another loss for us, but they made some good friends even in such a short time, and we really hope that they will be able to come back.  I think it will be easier for us to go when the time comes, knowing that they are coming back to see some of the people we have grown to care about. 

I’m attaching a picture of a suspension bridge that is a ways down the highway from us, spanning a river that is pretty scary looking right now during the rainy season – partly because I love the photo, but also because I  feel a little like we are on a “bridge over troubled waters” right now.  It’s good to know that “this too shall pass.”  The internet is horribly slow today, so I'll post the photo later.

Excitement in Livingstonia

March 26, 2008

I didn’t take the time to talk about some of the rest of the things that happened before we went on the walking safari at Nkhotakota I described in my last blog.  I mentioned that while we were still in Lilongwe,  we met John’s old friend Justin Funsani, from his Peace Corps days here in Malawi.  He took us to meet an old friend and mentor of his named Agustin Mthambala– a man who ended up being among other things, the Malawian Ambassador to France and later to Namibia.  Justin met him when Agustin was student teaching Justin’s first grade class.  Agustin was one of only 5 Malawian’s at that time, under colonial rule, who were chosen to receive a college education.  His wife was one of the first registered nurses in Malawi as well.  They are now in their 80’s and we were trying to encourage him to write his memoirs, as his first hand knowledge of the history of Malawi for the past 75 years were fascinating.  We spent the morning, and stayed for lunch listening with rapt attention to their stories.

John has been trying to get Justin who is 72, to do his memoirs for the past 10 years too.  Justin, Augustin and his wife have all lived through colonial rule, the movement for independence, 30+ years of rule by a brutal dictator (Justin was imprisoned during the time of the dictatorship for really nothing more than being educated, and working for and with Americans), and 2 post dictator presidents.  He is also a great story teller, as was Agustin.  They are still part of just a handful of Malawians who are well educated, since the higher education system is just not large enough to provide enough spaces for those who are smart, and even those who could qualify and get a higher education can’t find the money to pay for it.  I guess that’s a big part of why I am happy to be here working to try to help this new University to be a success.

We rented a car in Lilongwe, from our old reliable friend, Sputnik Rent a Car – great name huh.  It was an automatic shift again, which is such a help when you are driving on the opposite side of the road, and dealing with the people, bicycles, goats, cows, and potholes – or in some cases gaping holes.  This however, was the second time we have gotten one with about 150,000 miles on it and not much for shock absorbers, or tire tread for that matter.  So with 4 people piled in a Toyota Corolla, and their 100+ lbs of luggage(John and I didn’t have much, but Steve and Mary Ellen had just arrived for a 2 week visit with lots of gifts), we were riding low enough that we had to get out and walk most of the way when we got to the dirt road to the Safari Lodge.  There were a few places where we had clearance, but most of the road was too rough, or had ruts too deep to be able to clear with all of us in it. 

So it took us about 30 - 40 minutes to go the 3 miles or so on the dirt road to the Nkhotakota Pottery Lodge, only to find out when we got there that the Nkhotokota Safari Lodge was about 400 yards down the beach, and had a separate dirt road entrance off the main tarred road.  So we had to drive back down that road, and go up the highway a bit to get to another 3 mile dirt road to the Safari Lodge.  It only took about 45 minutes for that 6 mile trip, since we all walked over to the Safari Lodge  leaving the car with just luggage so it wasn’t riding quite so low. 

The other really fun thing that happened, at the Safari Lodge was when they announced that there was a local group coming to do some drumming, singing and dancing at dinner that first night.  There are only 6 rooms at the lodge, so when the group arrived, there was just a family with 2 kids and us at the little thatched eating area.  The best part was that it was not some hokey tourist thing -  the Lodge is small, and there are no lights or anything, so they just lined up outside the entrance to the eating area in the dark and started.  They started with mostly singing, then added drumming, and lastly, a male dancer arrived.  It must be the amateur anthropologist in me that enjoys noticing the similarities of indigenous cultures, as the dancing reminded me a lot of Native American male dancers.  We pulled up a couple of chairs, in the dark, after the family left and had our own private show, and when we left after an hour or so, the group just kept on going for the fun of it for another hour or so.  Really talented, and really fun.  They told us that the group was a very popular one to perform for celebrations, like weddings, and that the dancer also performed healings – again, very much like the Native American’s, the Navaho in particular.

We all felt much better afterwards so the healing worked great on us.

March 28, 2008

It has been an amazing week.  We took our friend Steve to the Primary School here, on Monday and had quite a reception.  Steve was going to come and help at the school, as he is a first grade teacher at home, but then learned that the school would be on Easter Holiday the entire time he would be here.  Since he was thinking about coming back next year, he really wanted to learn more about the school and students, so we spoke to the headmaster before he arrived to see if he could meet some teachers or students. 

The headmaster said he would make an announcement in church on Sunday that a mzungu visitor would be coming and quite a few students would come, even though it was their Easter Break.  The teachers would also be there he said.  John and I weren’t sure what to expect, but when we all walked down the ½ mile or so on the appointed morning, we could see about 50 students sitting on the grass in their school uniforms, and after we’d been there for about a half hour, there were probably about 200 - 300 students.  I’ve attached a photo of what it looked like when we first arrived that morning, with the smaller number of students.

Steve taught them some songs, which they loved, and now as we walk around the plateau, kids will come running up and start singing one of the songs they liked.  The kids and teachers stayed and the Headmaster had a meeting with all of us until lunchtime.  They introduced themselves, to Steve, asked questions and talked about some of their challenges – like lack of books, and class sizes that top 100 kids per teacher.  We brought some cookies, thinking that it would be nice to give them something for coming in on a day off, and thank goodness we brought 15 or 20 packages, as I know we only had enough for the first 3 or 4 grades.  Steve and his wife brought over 140 pencils and over 160 pens that had little strings to hang around their necks, and there were barely enough to go around for all the kids there.  The kids went running to tell their parents when they got their pencil or pen and you’d have thought they were made of gold.

March 30, 2008

On Friday, Steve’s wife Mary Ellen, a public health nurse, went to 3 rural clinics to work with Maternal and Child health, and had a great time meeting the mothers and their babies.  She had her camera with her and got some great photo’s with quite of a few of the women going home to change clothes when they saw that pictures were going to be taken. 

Steve, is now “Mr. Tutie-Tot” everywhere he goes on the plateau.  One of the songs he taught had lots of body motions, and the chorus was “a tootie tot, a tootie tot, a tootie tot tot”, so now when he walks down the road the kids will do the arm motions and start singing the song, and smile their wonderful huge smiles.  I’ll try to post a photo of a couple we ran into, one of which grabbed my hand and wanted to keep holding it while we walked – and for the photo.  What a cutie. 

We also found out that David Mhango, who I have mentioned before, who is one of the local young men we have become friends with and tried to help, got a job as the district supervisor for the upcoming census.  We helped him to update a resume and do some cover letters, and mailed them for him when we were in Mzuzu, and they notified him to come in for some testing and interviews.  He walked to Nchenachena, which is about 20 miles one way, and back in the same day to take the test and be interveiwed. 

He scored so high on their test that they automatically put him in a group being considered for supervisory positions.  (He got all 200 questions right, and the next highest score was 158).  After being interviewed, he was hired for the job of supervisor for the district.  It is only a 2 month position, but he is beyond thrilled and this should help him on his resume.  He is so smart and ambitious, but there are just no jobs, and his family was too poor to be able to pay for any post secondary school.  He was the only child in the family they could even afford to send to secondary school (which is not free here).  It can be so hard to know if we are really making a difference, and it was so satisfying to know we had made a difference in this case at least.

So yesterday, we walked to the Manchewe falls(amazing photo attached), which is a popular tourist attraction about 3 miles from here, and then to lunch at an eco-lodge nearby called Lukwe.  David was the only Malawian in a group of 8 mzungu, and I was worried that he might feel out of place, but afterwards he said he was excited to have been included and that was the only time he had ever been the only black in a group of 8 whites.  We knew he wouldn’t have money to pay for a lunch like that, so we told him that it was a congratulatory dinner for his new job so he wouldn’t worry about being able to pay, or about “receiving charity”. 

The view at this lodge is amazing, as it is perched right at the edge of the escarpment.  The couple who own it are from Traverse City, Michigan and bought it about 3 years ago, from some absentee owners who let it run down.  It’s pretty basic, mainly a backpacker type place, but the rooms looked very comfortable, and we said it would be just the place if you wanted a nice quiet place to write a book or something as it is not an easy place to get to.