Exciting news this morning

May 31, 2008

We’ve had an exciting start for the day today, and the emotional roller coaster continues.  Our young friend Nelson Nkhoma, eldest son of the General Secretary of the Presbyterian Synod, which oversees the University of Livingstonia came down to Lilongwe to meet us, and to have dinner with David Chapman from the University of Minnesota as I mentioned in my last blog.  Nelson was one of the first class of graduates at the Livinstonia last fall and John helped him to apply for graduate school at the University of Minnesota, a few months ago.  Nelson has been waiting to hear about his acceptance, but since he has no access to internet at the rural school where he teaches had not been able to check the status of his application for while.

He took a night bus to Lilongwe to be our guests at the our hotel here so he could meet Daved, and arrived very early this morning, around 6:15am (actually it turns out the bus left Mzuzu early and arrived here around 2am and Nelson just slept on the bus waiting to phone us until this morning).  So we went for breakfast as soon as they started serving at 7am, and John suggested that since the hotel has wireless internet access he could get his laptop for Nelson to check email while we waited to be served.  It turned out to be a pretty monumental decision.  When Nelson went to check the status of his application, it said that the decision letter was posted and when he opened the letter learned that he had been accepted. 

It was a pretty amazing thing to witness, as he and John were both sitting across from me, and at first I was worried that Nelson had not been accepted since the look on his face looked almost pained.  Fortunately, I looked at John and could see him break into a big smile as he had read the letter over Nelson’s shoulder (and being a native English speaker, was able to speed read), and was waiting for Nelson to finish reading and realize what it said.  The look on Nelson’s face when he read the news was a mixture of shock, disbelief and ultimately joy that I haven’t had the pleasure of witnessing before, and almost immediately after it registered that he had been accepted, he started to weep with joy and try to hide his face because he was embarrassed to be weeping.  We were all weeping actually as we were the first to congratulate him, and he kept repeating “I have no words” and wiping his eyes on his hand and his shirt. 

So it turns out that when we have dinner early this evening with David Chapman, Nelson will be having dinner with one of his future professors.  The challenge that still remains will be helping him to arrange financing for this.  The cost of the airplane ticket alone is probably equal to more than Nelsons annual salary as a newly graduated Secondary School teacher, but hopefully with the connection of the Presbyterian church, a sponsor can be found for him in the US, maybe from one of the churches in the Twin Cities area. 

As John and I have talked about what we considered to be our greatest accomplishments and the things that have made us the happiest while we have been here, helping David Mhango get a good job was one, and John said that if Nelson got accepted into graduate school that would be his biggest.  After the events in Mzuzu, where we were worried that we had witnessed the destruction of one Malawian’s life (which thank goodness didn’t happen), in less than a week, we get to see a life changing event of a different kind.  And since Nelson’s Master’s program is in Education Management, we know that it will have an even greater impact on all of Malawi when he returns after his schooling. 

John and Nelson have gone to the airport to collect Jeff, and I am going to lay down for a bit as I have a little headache, but the excitement will continue, and the knowledge that our friends Steve and Mary Ellen will be coming back in March, and Nelson will be coming to the US in September will make the leaving easier as there will still be strong connections to this place.  

Back to Lilongwe after relaxing at the beach

May 28, 2008

I’m sitting on the konde of our room at the Livingstonia Beach Hotel where our friends Justin and Esther Funsani arrived yesterday to be our guests for 2 days.  We were afraid Esther would not be able to join us as she has been having problems with her health for the past 6 months or more – very high blood pressure.  She is old enough to retire from her job as Chief of Police at Chileka (near the international airport in Blantyre, the largest city in Malawi), but Justin says she is a workaholic and doesn’t know how to stop.  He retired from his job as librarian at the American Embassy several years ago, and they have been building a home in Mulanje, one of the most beautiful parts of Malawi where Esther is from and where her extended family still lives. 

She has been wanting us to come to Blantyre again to see thrm, but I was reluctant to put that kind of strain on her, as she fusses to make things fancy when we are there, and in addition, it is about a 10- 12 hour trip by bus to get there.  So John and I decided that perhaps if we met at Livingstonia Beach, which is near Justin’s home village, it would be a treat for them that they would never spend the money on, and would be about 5 – 6 hours journey for both of us, so a place kind of halfway in-between that would put less strain on them.

When they arrived yesterday, Esther called me by the Chichewa name for Sister, and Justin took us aside to tell us how grateful they both were for what we were doing.  John has spoken privately with Justin when he last came about providing them with money to make up the difference between Esther’s salary and her pension, in hopes that it will encourage her to retire, as we are concerned that the job is not helping her health. We plan to repeat that offer with Esther present in hopes that they will accept.  Justin and Esther support a lot of family members, and we want to position our gift of monthly support as just another family member helping out, since they consider us to be family and in this tribal culture the extended family helps each other out monetarily and in other ways as well. 

May 29, 2008

Back in Lilongwe at our new favorite hotel the Kiboko Town Hotel.  Both this hotel and the Livingstonia Beach have wireless internet and I’m feeling really spoiled by that – and we were pleasantly surprised at how fast the connection was at Livingstonia Beach considering we were kind of in the boonies.  I think it is because we share the connection with so many more people here in Lilongwe but I’m not sure I’ll have enough speed to put more than one photo on today’s blog, so I’m sending along the photo of Esther and I with the chitenje she gave me.  These sarong type skirts are the traditional garb for women here, and although it isn’t the one in the photo, she bought enough fabric to make 2 chitenje, one for her and one for me, her sister.

May 30, 2008

I fell asleep not long after I finished typing yesterday and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.  We were both feeling pretty lazy after we arrived yesterday, and when I think about the events of the past few weeks, and the next few weeks, I guess it should come as no surprise that we’d be exhausted.  It was nice to have a down day yesterday and again today, and then Jeff will come tomorrow morning, along with Nelson Nkhoma, the University of Livingstonia graduate John has been helping with an application to graduate school at the U of M – and small world that it is, David Chapman from the U of M will be here in Lilongwe tomorrow as well on a ASAID project, and he would be the head of the graduate program Nelson has applied for.  That’s why we told Nelson we would pay for his lodging if he could make the 6-hour trip down to meet David.  Confirming the small world, Jeff was at a dinner party at a friend’s house in Minneapolis about a month ago, and David was a guest at the same dinner.  Sometimes these coincidences are beyond understanding.

I’ve spent the morning looking at job sites and actually applied for one job online.  It seems very weird to think about as I sit here listening to the sounds of Africa, people, music, cars, and Chichewa being spoken, but our thoughts are turning increasingly to home, and the resumption of our lives there in a few weeks.  

One of our worst days

May 27, 2008

Yesterday was one of the worst, or at least most stressful days we’ve had since we’ve been here.  It started well, with a fairly smooth and timely handoff of the Architecture group to the Kirks at around 9am, with us actually leaving the offices by around 9:30am.  We had hoped to leave Mzuzu at 8am, so I was already feeling a bit stressed, although 2 hours late isn’t bad for Malawi time, especially as it relates to departure by vehicle. But I hadn’t slept well, and was getting tired of the role of “tour guide” even though the group was quite delightful and fun.  My introvert nature was kicking in, and I just wanted to get to our beach place and relax alone with John for the day, since John’s old friends Justin and Esther Funsani will be coming to join us tomorrow.

The trouble came when we were leaving Mzuzu and discovered that one of the students had left their shoes in the vehicle, plus we needed to stop at the bank
ATM for more cash.  To save time, we told Mabvuto to drop us at the bank, and then go back to the University office to give someone the shoes so they could be returned to their owner, and return to pick us up.  The car park was full, and a vehicle was blocking the entrance, so he stopped on the street just long enough for us to hop out.  We got our cash and waited, and waited, and tried to call Mabvuto, and finally he showed up and hopped out of the vehicle saying “I’ve been met with a problem”, and he looked sick. 

We learned that he had been stopped by the police about a block from the bank, and was given a citation for obstructing traffic, plus his license had been taken away and he was to appear in court the next day.  John and I knew immediately that he would lose his job over this, and in Malawi, losing a job isn’t just a problem like it is in the U.S. it’s a disaster.  Mabvuto only has his Junior School Certificate meaning he finished 2 years of Secondary School as his family had no more money to pay the school fees(only primary school is free here), and with a Jr. Certificate, jobs are few and far between. Even with the equivalent of a High School Diploma, there are few jobs and while I haven’t seen an unemployment figure lately it it always over 50%.  Mabvuto has 4 children, and 2 are in Secondary School, which means school fees for them, and without his job he and his wife (who is a Primary School teacher, making little money) would not be able to educate their children, and possibly not be able to eat.

John and I were sick and started trying to problem solve a way to get this fixed.  Mabvuto had already argued with the officer for 20 minutes or so at the time it happened, but the officer gave him his phone number, so John called him.  The officer had moved to a different spot and it was very noisy to hear on the phone, so he suggested that we come there to talk.  We drove a couple of miles and discovered that there were about 10 officers, with radar who had set up a speed trap on a dangerous and busy stretch of road. 

Mabvuto wanted to talk to the officer himself first, so he went off to do that and John and I sat in the van watching and feeling totally helpless and more concerned by the minute.  John said, “I wish he would have let us come with him” and finally decided to go stand outside of the vehicle where the officers could see him.  We had decided that we would say we had insisted he stop in hopes that they would let him off.  You hate to have it be the case, but we thought the mzungu presence might make a difference.  Mabvuto came back after what seemed like forever, and said there was nothing to be done.  John said lets go back, and I stayed with the car since it wasn’t locked – so now I’m the one watching from afar feeling helpless and wanting to cry.  After a short while, Mabvuto came back looking absolutely sick and saying, maybe this was God’s will that he not have this job, and that if he had to go to jail because he couldn’t pay the fine, that would be that.  He just kept shaking his head saying, “I don’t understand, I didn’t kill anyone, and I looked before I stopped and put no one in danger – I’d never put anyone in danger”

He went back to be with John, and for awhile both of them were just standing on the side of the road together talking.  Then John crossed the street and spoke to a woman and came back saying she had told him we should all go back to the station and get this sorted out.  That sounded hopeful so we drove the mile or 2 back to the station and watched her walk back and forth from office to office with Mabvuto, until finally she came and said they had arranged to have his court hearing today.  And then some guy came and gave us the keys to the vehicle and said we could be on our way has they had no problem with us, it was the driver who was at fault and would have to go to court and pay a fine.  I asked what the fine was and started to cry saying the least we could do would be to pay the fine since it was our fault for asking him to stop and he was going to lose his job over this. 

They started talking to each other to determine the fine amount and one of the men told us we could sit in his office to wait.  This man said something about Mabvuto being able to go to court to pay his fine right away, and I started to cry even more saying to him, “ but he is going to lose his job over this and it’s our fault.”  The officer said, “no I don’t think he will lose his job” and we both said “yes he will, they will fire him for this”.  The officer tried to make some small talk with John and John mentioned that we were here as volunteers for the University of Livingstonia.  By this time, I’m blubbering, feeling like we have ruined Mabvuto’s life and wondering to myself how we can help support his family, and trying to figure how to best rearrange the next few days so we can go to court with him and try to talk the judge into dropping these charges.  The officer left the room for awhile, and when he came back it was to say he had decided that, under the circumstances since we were visitors who were there to help Malawi, it was better to give our driver a warning and that we should wait while someone brought his license back. 

At that I started to cry even harder, thanking him profusely.  I was having a hard time stopping crying as he asked more about the work that we were doing, and then telling us that he was also a Baptist minister with a new church and a project around HIV/AIDS which he gave us some information about.  I said perhaps we could find some people in the U.S. to help with his project. He talked about how much Malawi depends on the help of people like us and how important it is for us to have a good experience so we will tell others who may come back to help more.  He introduced us to the woman officer and told us she was the chief traffic officer for Mzuzu, and I think he was the chief of police. 

I was still blubbering a bit, and feeling the strain of the last few hours of worry about Mabvuto, who was in the next room all this time, and after about 15 or 20 more minutes the female officer came in the room with Mabvuto’s license in hand, and they went to get him.  They sat him down and gave him a lecture about safety and the danger involved in what he did, as well as the responsibility to keep us safe.  We chatted some with the woman who was the chief traffic officer and told her that we were on our way to meet Justin and Esther Funsani, and wondered if she might know Esther since Esther was once chief of police in Mzuzu, and is currently chief at Chileka airport district near Blantyre.  Yes, the woman knew Esther and wanted us to greet her.  John’s and my back up plan was to try calling Esther if we couldn’t have any luck any other way to see if there was anything she could do to help, but the anti-corruption movement is very strong, and we didn’t want to “pull strings” in any improper way.  I also mentioned the number of other volunteers that Mabvuto had been driving for the past few days to reinforce how good their decision had been, and how many people would have been negatively affected as we had all become close to Mabvuto. 

Finally we walked off to the vehicle and just sat there for awhile before making off, with Mabvuto talking about how we had saved his life and us talking about how worried sick we had been.  I still couldn’t really even talk without crying.  After a few minutes, we set off – by now it was about noon, so about 2 ½ hours had elapsed.  I was exhausted, and we really didn’t talk much more for the 5 hour drive to Livingstonia Beach – I think we were all exhausted and emotionally drained.  When we arrived at the hotel, I went in to try to sort out the room situation since we had called 3 times and tried to tell them that there would be only one room needed tonight and 2 for the next 2 nights, which even upon checking in didn’t seem to be clear to them so that took the last of my energy to clear up.  John stayed with Mabvuto trying to sort out the car rental since we were returning the vehicle about 3 hours later than we thought, and Mabvuto had to top up the tank with gas before returning it in Lilongwe.

I went back out to say my goodbyes to Mabvuto, and he was still a bit stunned, as were we.  He talked about the wonderful time he had with the group and all the things they had done with and for him, plus what we had done getting him out of the ticket and saving his job and how God had blessed him.  John and I immediately went to the bar for a double gin tonic to talk and process a bit.  It turns out, that even though we weren’t talking on the drive down we were both thinking a lot of the same things – how tired we are of having to work so hard to do everything here, and how hard it is to communicate about everything with English as a second language for everyone here, how much of a responsibility it feels like to help everyone, how crappy it seems that the mzungus have so much power here, etc., etc.  I told John I was feeling for most of the ride how much I just wanted to go home – and how guilty it made me feel that I could just go home and live so comfortably when so many people here have such hard lives.

I was exhausted, and went to sleep around 9pm and slept until 7am this morning, so am feeling much better today, although even writing this description of what happened is difficult.  But I’m sitting on the konde of our room, watching and listening to the big waves crashing in on Lake Malawi – they look almost like ocean waves as the wind came up during the night.  Both John and I are wishing we had more down time in the next few weeks, as Justin and Esther arrive later today sometime and then we head back to Lilongwe to pick up our friend Jeff at the airport.  There’ll be some fun times coming, but for 2 introverts, a lot of “social obligations” too.

It’s 3 weeks today before we leave and the next few weeks are going to take a ot of energy I think – but while I don’t feel the desperation to leave here that I did yesterday, I am ready to go home despite the difficulty of leaving my namesake and so many others.  Photo’s today are just of the beauty of the place.

Architecture Team arrives

May 24, 2008

We arrived here at Ngala Lodge around 5:15 pm yesterday after a memorable journey.  Our driver Mabvuto (which translates to Trouble, and is a fairly common name, but one that seems cruel to saddle a person with for their whole life – no where near as nice as some of the “favorites” I listed on previous blogs) came to pick us up at the hotel to go to the airport and meet the team in time for our flight.  As soon as we got into the mini-bus I got concerned, as it was nice enough, but I couldn’t figure out how we would fit everyone in.  While it was a 15 passenger mini-bus, that would have meant one person sitting on a fold out seat on 3 rows, and there was no place for luggage and no roof rack.  So I figured if we piled luggage on the back row we’d still have to have someone on the fold down seat to accommodate all 9 of us. 

We talked to the guy from the rental company and we decided that it might work if they didn’t have too much luggage, and if they did, we would figure something out.  The plane arrived right one time, and as they starting coming out with their luggage carts, it was clear that they had a LOT of luggage, as they were bringing lots of gifts – each person had a trunk/locker, and their personal suitcase.  I thought we were in big trouble, but the driver and rental guy started piling things in and under seats, and managed to get it all in, but then decided to take 3 of us in a separate car back to the hotel to have one of their mechanics remove the back seat to create space for luggage. 

The team seemed fine, so we went out for a nice dinner and then got up the next morning to have a good breakfast and head out for the appointment with the Malawian architect.  We had a great meeting, and in addition to describing some of the work he has done for the University, he told about how he helped to expand the training program for architects in Malawi when he discovered there were only 17 Malawian architects trained and practicing.  He is also considering a run for Parliament, and I think he’d go a good job from what I’ve seen.

After that we headed went back to town to get people to a bank and to do a few other errands before leaving town around noon.  Off we went to try a different route to the lake that we had told was now paved.  When we started off, it was paved, but after about 30 miles, it became a dirt road that wasn’t in great shape.  We figured maybe it was just a short distance on dirt and kept going even though the road was getting narrower and narrower and worse and worse.  Our driver had to stop to get directions several times to know which turn to take when the road would come to a Y, and I was convinced that we had to have taken a wrong turn somewhere as and hour or so into the drive we were on a 2 track dirt road with grass growing in the middle, and this was supposed to be one of the main roads in the country. 

At one stop, Mabvuto asked a villager how far we were from the paved road and he thought for a bit and said about 20 kms, which would be around 12 miles.  That was a relief as we had by then been traveling for 3 hours or so, and had not eaten and I knew the other route took about 4 hours, so I thought “oh good, this is about the same amount of time”.  The nice thing is that the scenery was wonderful, with small villages that looked more like the traditional round mud and thatch construction that I hadn’t seen since being in Africa.  But we were getting tired.  Finally, we came to a tarred road, but it wasn’t where I thought we would come out, and had already been far more than 12 miles.

This road took us through the Nkhotakota Wildlife Preserve complete with a road crew guarded by a park ranger with a rifle and elephant dung on the road.  Unfortnately, the tar was in horrible shape and disappeared completely every few hundred yards, and when we passed the sign that said 45 kms (28 miles) to the main tarred road I groaned.  Knowing that we had some distance to travel once we reached that road and it would probably take at least 2 hours before we got to our destination, which meant that this “shortcut” was going to take us an extra couple of hours.  On the other hand, the students got to experience some real Malawian roads, and we all got to see some really beautiful scenery.

Mabvuto did a wonderful job and he had to have been tired when we got to Ngala too, so we ordered our dinners right away and got settled in to look around a bit before it got totally dark.  The location is beautiful, and the new owners from South Africa are in the process of doing a lot of renovation, so some of the parts are in need of some work, but they are lovely people and the wonderful location made everyone very happy. 

Today has been a day of relaxation, which I think everyone was more than ready for.  The students and Professor when walking on the beach and met a bunch of the local people which they really enjoyed.  Plus they had some time to chill out, make sketches which they love, and they are having a watercolor class right now with their Teaching Assistant(TA) - photo attached..  We’ve all had fun getting to know Mabvuto too, and the students have had some time to ask us questions and get better settled and oriented before we head for Mzuzu tomorrow.  It should be a pretty easy day with at most a 3 hour drive on roads that we know – and know are bad for part of the way, but the scenery as we climb up the from the Great Rift valley will be spectacular for the young people to see.

May 25, 2008

I think everyone really enjoyed the day yesterday, and Mabvuto was invited to join the watercolor class, which he really seemed to enjoy.  He said at dinner last night that this has been a “once in a lifetime” experience, to be invited to meals and to be a part of the group.  I’m sure most people treat the driver as a servant, and since there is a daily allowance of $25 paid, send off the driver to their own devices.  Leslie, who is the Professor that organized and is paying for all this, has been wonderful about including him in all the meals and buying drinks for him so he could relax and enjoy Ngala Lodge with the rest of us.  And it has been very special for the students too, to be able to spend time with a Malawian.  So the plan today is to drive up to Nkhata Bay so the students can have Chambo, the local fish from Lake Malawi, for lunch, and hopefully arrive in good time to Mzuzu. 

We started our day today chatting with some people who are here from Wisconsin visiting their son who is ending his time in the Peace Corps.  They rented a car from Avis and drove up to Nyika National Park, got in an accident and totaled the vehicle.  Amazingly, Avis didn’t tell them that they should have 4 wheel drive to go on that road, and they made it to Nyika but not without a great deal of difficulty.  Then on the way down, they were in an accident with a truck, probably because of how narrow the road is, totaled the car, and it took them 6 hours before another car even came down the road to be able to help them.  Despite the fact that they had taken the optional insurance, they were held responsible for the damages to the car, and are now stranded and trying to figure out how to get to Liwonde National Park.  I gave them some information about our car rental company and the local bus company that travels on this road, and a taxi driver who has driven people all the way to Lilongwe.  Hope they are able to get on their way at some point soon.

More travels Malawi Style

May 21, 2008

We are safely arrived in Lilongwe after our 6-hour bus ride today.  We took the AXA Luxury coach which left Mzuzu for Lilongwe at 6:30 am and arrived here at 12:30, after paying $12 for the trip rather than the $200 or so that we have been paying for diesel fuel round trip in one of the University vehicles.  We decided after the last trip that it was just too expensive and we would try this bus, which looked and sounded quite nice.

Now that we have taken it, I would say it is a huge step up from a mini-bus, but quite far from what I was thinking of as “luxury coach”.  The seats were kind of like school bus seats with headrests rather than the big comfy seats I was picturing, and were made for small Malawian rear ends, not large American ones.  There were 2 seats on one side and 3 on the other, and the side with 3 seats was just about right for the 2 of us, but we only had that much room for the first hour and a half until we made our first stop.  From then on, the bus was packed, to the point that the aisles were standing room only for the final 2 hours after our last stop.  So while my knees were hitting the seat in front of me, and I had one bun on the seat and the other in the gap between my seat and the seat on the aisle(I’m not sure what the poor guy on the aisle had left to sit on), I was happy to be sitting rather than standing.

The luggage compartment under the bus ran out of space before we even left Lilongwe, and since we were in the next to the front seat we watched the front seat get piled almost to the ceiling and spilling into the aisle, with suitcases, bundles of corn, or tobacco.  In addition to that luggage I saw one chicken come on cradled firmly in the arms of a young girl that looked to be about 15 but was probably in her 20’s, heading for the back of the bus.  There were plenty of the usual babies strapped onto the backs of mothers, mixed in with a few “business man” types” who you could recognize because of their suits, which are often second hand and a bit shabby, but suits nonetheless, and a mixture of other Malawians mostly, although there were a handful of mzungus. Compared to the other options this is the nicest form of transport available if you don’t have money for a car, which is completely out of reach for most people. 

I was ready to be done with the trip about 2 hours before we arrived here, but even when we have taken a private vehicle or rented a car that was true.  For those people who can’t afford the $12 for the “luxury coach” there is always a minibus, which probably costs $7 or $8 and since they stop everywhere, probably takes 8 to 10 hours rather than 6, if the mini-bus doesn’t break down – which happens regularly, like I said, these mini-buses would be in the junk yard rather than on the road in the U.S.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention no bathroom on the bus either, although we did stop long enough to run off and find someplace at a bus stop several times along the way, but of course one never knows how long the bus will be stopped, so John and I chose not to drink anything before getting on or during the ride.  That worked fine, but I was getting a headache by the time we got here, which I assume was at least party from dehydration, and possibly hunger since we hadn’t brought much for food either and had left the hotel too early for breakfast.  I had read in one of our guidebooks that there was a luxury bus that had stewards with food on board, and had facilities, but it turns out that was the Shire Bus Line, which is no longer in business and whose routes have been taken over by AXA. 

May 22, 2008

We are staying at a new hotel in Lilongwe, and I really like it.  It’s called the Kiboko, is right in the middle of the old part of town where we know our way around and do most of our shopping, and has a lovely little courtyard behind the hotel and a 2^nd floor terrace bar that is nice and quiet and really cute.  It’s pretty minimalist, but very cute décor and actually cheaper than the place we have stayed here at only $55 per night for their standard room, which is small but perfectly nice. 

There is something going on with burning nearby though, and while we are coming on to the season where people burn off their fields, there seems to be even more smoke than that, which started last night around 5:30pm.  The power went out shortly after the smoke started so I thought maybe it was a fire somewhere, and it seemed to be clearing off by the time we finished dinner, but it is still very thick this morning, so maybe we can find out more when we go out. 

I woke up earlier than John so am sitting in the little courtyard having my coffee, and we’ll go do some shopping after we have breakfast, mostly for gifts for our workers and Malawian friends.  There are a lot of shops in Mzuzu, but they mostly carry the same things, so we enjoy coming down here where there is more to chose from.  We also took in a CD with loads of digital photos that we have taken so we can give them to people before we go, as there is no where in Mzuzu to get digital developed.

Later today we will have our mini-bus (very different than the public mini-buses, or so I hope) delivered, along with a driver to go pick up the team of 6 people from the school of Architecture at the U who are coming to do some work at the University in Livingstonia.  We’re meeting them at the airport, bringing them back to this hotel for the night, then tomorrow morning meeting with the Malawian Architect who designed the Women’s dormitory the President of Malawi promised to pay for at last years graduation that we came to attend.  The team will be here for about a month and are hoping to be able to help create a master plan for the layout of buildings at the College of Education mainly, but will probably get involved in a variety of things. 

After the meeting, we will head off for a short stay at a new resort on Lake Malawi that we found on the internet.  We wanted to take them to the Nkhotakota Safari Lodge, which we stayed at a month or so ago and loved, but they were booked, so we are trying this one instead.  Hopefully it will be nice.  They are here mainly to work, but we wanted them to have time for a little rest before they start, and for them to be able to see one of the beautiful tourist attractions of Malawi – the Lake.  The other reason for taking them is that they arrive so close to the weekend, and for reasons of culture and “protocol” they need to be formally introduced to the Synod officials in Mzuzu and Ekwendeni before going up to Livingstonia.  They would have had to wait until Monday for that anyway, so we figured they might as well enjoy ourselves at the lake while we wait. 

Today's photo is just a really cute one that John took of a couple of kids in Lilongwe.

Traveling in Malawi

May 20, 2008

This will be my description of the adventures we experienced in traveling to visit Dr. Trywell Nyirongo yesterday in Nchenachena, the town which is about 20 miles from Livingstonia, and then continuing on for anotherr 80 miles or so to Mzuzu. 

As we were getting ready to leave Livingstonia yesterday, it began to rain lightly, and I had no idea the excitement that was going to cause.  David Mhango came to the house around 8:15 so after having dropped his luggage on the way to the hospital around 6am to see his wife and new baby one last time before going back for 2 weeks to complete his training.  We told him we’d feed him breakfast before the local transport we hired came to pick us up at 9am for the trip to Nchenachena.  We asked them to come at 9am and they actually arrived even earlier than that, but unfortunately it was raining by then, and it was the same tiny pick up truck we had used a few weeks ago for the trip to our cook, Smelton’s house. 

That meant a quick search for plastic bags to put our travel bags/luggage into, and something for David to wear since we would be riding in the back.  I had brought a rain poncho thank goodness, and I was feeling very guilty and privileged to be in the cab, even though I had to sit sideways the whole way as it is not really meant for 3 people.  John was in the middle this time, so he was the one that had to lift up his behind every time the driver needed to shift which was often.  Just now when he came out of the shower I saw a perfect circle bruise on the back of his thigh about 3 inches across.  I told John I was feeling the preferential treatment routinely given to whites/mzungus here, and he reminded me that we would have been ridden in the cab just by virtue of our age – which made me feel a little better.

I could tell it was going to be an interesting ride when we started going down the back road off the plateau to Vunguvungu and began almost immediately sliding uncontrollably sideways on the mud.  Somehow during the time we’ve been here, we have never really driven on the slick mud before (one time on another stretch of road off the plateau, but the rain had stopped and it only lasted for a few hundred meters, but was pretty terrifying), and it is just like driving on hard packed snow with a little water on top, or on ice. No traction or control.  The difference was the road we were traveling on which was very different from the roads back home – a very bumpy, sometimes deeply rutted, or thickly mudded, mountain road with steep hills, hairpin turns and no guardrail.  There were several times when I wondered whether I should plan to open the door and jump from the vehicle if it went over the side, or stay with it.  We went into the ditch a couple of times, I think on purpose a couple of times as at least there he could get some traction and stop sliding sideways down a hill – and the 4 wheel drive didn’t help except to get out of ditches or thick mud.  The roads have quite a pronounced “crown” in the middle and big drainage ditches to deal with all the water during the rainy season, and when we were going into the ditches I kept thinking the truck was just going to flop over on it’s side.  In addition to David, we picked up quite a few passengers (and one live chicken in a bag), and I was worried for them also.

There were a few places where there was some gravel or rocks that hadn’t been packed deeply into the road so we could occasionally get traction, but most of the road was like driving on ice, and on a very dangerous road.  It is normally about a 1 hour trip to Nchenachena from Livingstonia and it took us about 3 hours, and we were pretty wrung out by the time we got there.  Dr. Nyirongo had been expecting us for nearly 2 hours and he and his wife Marilyn greeted us warmly and let us settle down a bit.  Dr. Nyirongo attended Richfield high school in 1961, and went to finish College in the US, going on to Medical School in Iran and Belgium – all sponsored by the Unity Unitarian Church that we have attended in St. Paul.  His son Thomas just graduated Cum Laude from Lawrence University in Appleton, also sponsored by Unity.  Thomas hopes to attend medical school and follow in his father’s footsteps here in Malawi. 

It was a reminder of what a small world it is when we learned about this just before leaving Minnesota back in December.  The only “disaster” was when I opened my travel bag last night and discovered that it wasn’t completely wrapped in plastic and wasn’t waterproof.  It had gotten wet and muddy, and my already skimpy wardrobe for this 2-week trip was wet, and one of the t-shirts was covered in red mud.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do about that as I tried washing it out in the hotel just now and it I can’t get that mud out of a white t-shirt - so my wardrobe might be even skimpier than I had planned.  I am amazed at how many times I can wear something here in comparison with at home. 

We really enjoyed spending time with him and learning more about all the things he has done to help the community, including the building of a rural hospital in Nchenachena.  We went to a celebration in the village and met a young couple who are Peace Corps volunteers teaching in the local secondary school.  We also were introduced to the Traditional Authority or Paramount Chief of the whole area, including Livingstonia – I mentioned meeting a local chief in one of my earlier blogs, and I still don’t entirely understand the structure of the traditional governance that operates parallel to the elected government, but hope to get John’s friend Justin to sort it out for me.  Trywell is considering a run for parliament, as he has not seen that the current M.P. has done anything for his entire term and is frustrated at the number of things that need to be done. 

We got up early this morning and Trywell planned on giving us a lift with one of his ambulance vehicles to Phwezi, which is only about 4 miles away on the tarred road, where we could catch a mini-bus to Mzuzu today.  Trywell goes to Mzuzu most every week, and had planned on transporting us the whole way, but then was asked to attend an important meeting a few miles back up the road to Livingstonia, and I had told him before we came that we could take a mini-bus, but would need help getting to a pick up point. 

I don’t think I’ve talked yet about the transport system here.  There are a few nice buses that go on a schedule between the major cities (one or 2 a day in most cases), and we are taking one for the first time tomorrow to the capital city of Lilongwe.  Most of the transport however, is an informal system of privately owned mini-buses that go between most all of the cities including some of the smaller villages – not including Livingstonia unfortunately, because of the horrible roads leading there. Mini-buses operate on a fill up and go basis and while there are regular places where they stop, you can flag one down and they may stop.  There is no schedule and because they operate on a “fill up and go” basis, there are times when you can sit there for a long time waiting to leave.  They are regulated (supposedly) by the government, in that they control the raising of fares, and the number of people that can be carried.  They used to just pack people in like sardines literally, and after a few accidents where a lot of people were killed or injured, the government said they had to carry no more than 3 people per seat (supposedly).  This prompted a near strike, as the price of petrol has recently gone up and the mini-bus drivers were being told they could not raise fares and had to carry fewer passengers. 

So we finished our breakfast this morning, and were getting ready to ride over to Phwezi, except that the ambulance wouldn’t run.  They tried fixing it, they tried to push start it, and finally after an hour Trywell came into the house and said he had flagged down one of the local Matola, which is another form of transport.  These are also privately owned, but are unregulated and operate informally, although usually on certain days, and are pickup trucks you just pile into the back of.  He said we should take that to Rumphi and then get a mini-bus to Mzuzu.  So in we piled with the 10 or so people already there.  We stopped in various places along the way and picked up an additional 10 people along with 4 large bags of corn, a passenger vehicle tire, and various luggages - with some people sitting on the sides of the truck, others like myself sitting on the bed, and a few standing and holding on to a “roll bar” like metal thing behind the cab.  There was not a spare inch of space in the bed of that truck.  We were crossing our fingers and hoping it wasn’t going to rain again as it was looking a bit threatening, and since it was fairly cool – probably 60’s – it would have been really miserable if it had, but under the circumstances the matola ride was was a bit of an adventure. 

In Rumphi, we immediately hopped on to a mini bus to Mzuzu, and at the beginning of the journey, we had the “regulation” 3 per seat for a total of 15 passengers, but at one point we had 20 people it there too.  I was in the back seat were the ceiling sloped and couldn’t sit up straight without hitting my head so rode kind of stooped over.   This mini-bus would have junked years ago in the U.S.   Total travel time for both vehicles – about 2 hours.  I had been feeling like my time in Malawi wouldn’t be complete without a ride in a Matola and a Mini-bus, and after we left Nchenachena, we stopped in Mhuju which is where John attended the wedding of Pete and Pat Dalum, while he was in the Peace Corps – so without the matola ride, I’d have missed that too.  Pete and Pat live in Wisconsin and we have seen them several times, so it was really fun to see the place where they were married and where the wedding I’ve heard about occurred – they had a catholic church wedding and then a village wedding complete with the exchange of cows.  All in all, quite an adventure, this next to the last trip to Mzuzu – and I didn’t have to go down the Gorode road that I mentioned a few blogs ago was starting to really bug me.  I guess you have to be careful what you ask for. 

Quite the beginning for the next 2 weeks of travels for us.  Tomorrow we go to Lilongwe to pick up a group of 5 architecture students, a graduate assistant and architecture professor who we will bring back up to Mzuzu via Lake Malawi for 2 days.  After we hand that group over to the University to be shuttled up to the plateau to work for the next month on a campus master plan, we head back to Lilongwe.  We hope to spend a few more days at a different place on Lake Malawi with John’s old friend Justin and his wife, see Justins home village which is nearby, then head back to Lilongwe again where we will pick up another friend, and go back up to Livingstonia for our last week.  It’s going to be pretty crazy for the next few weeks, living out of a very small travel bag – hopefully I can get some laundry done when we are at the lake resorts, and maybe even restore the one t-shirt with the red clay stain.  We’ll see, and I should have pretty frequent internet connections to keep you posted along with some photo’s I hope. 

May 21, 2008

We just arrived in Lilongwe and I'll be doing more posts soon.  The photos today are of me with Dr. Nyirongo and his wife, and a photo taken at the water tap near the hospital where people must come to carry water to their homes.  In addition, there is a photo taken from the back of the Matolo when we were in Mhuju.

 

 

Baby Susan and More

May 17, 2008

The usual mixture of emotions today – a day filled with ups and downs.  Yesterday we went to the hospital to meet baby Susan Mhango, my namesake, and we took some great photos, which are shown here.  It was to be John if it was a boy or Susan if a girl.  It was a little overwhelming to think that this baby is named after me, and the honor and responsibility involved in that.  How do you leave Livingstonia when you are leaving your namesake behind?  As if it won’t be difficult enough to leave in so many ways.

Then this afternoon, David called to say he was on his way home from the job-training program he has been attending a few hours away, and that both his wife and the baby have malaria.  When he talked to his mother, he didn’t have much prepaid time on his phone to get information so I told him we would go up to the hospital to check and see what we could find out.  He wasn’t entirely sure that it was malaria, and we wasn’t certain that they were at the hospital rather than at home.  John and I knew from our visit yesterday that they were supposed to be discharged today, so I figured they were at the hospital, but wanted to go see how they were. 

We got there and this wonderful active baby we saw yesterday was had a high fever, was listless, sleeping, and had stopped eating.  It’s a very scary thing to see a little one so sick – and it just doesn’t seem right somehow that a 2-day-old baby should get malaria.  Apparently, the mother gets infected and then passes it on in the uterus to the baby through the shared blood system, and while it is quite unusual for it to happen, it happens.  John and I walked away saying how hard it is to keep from panicking about a newborn being so sick.  What made us feel a little better at least was that the baby was a good size when she was born  - about 7 pounds 10 ounces, and that she started to get treatment right away as they were still in the hospital.

We know one of the nurses at the hospital who is from Ireland, and I called her.  She said it is quite unusual for newborns to get malaria, but that she should be Ok having gotten treatment right away.  She was off duty today but said she’d check in later to see how they were doing.  I’m hoping she calls later, but we’ll have to see.  We’ll go up tomorrow to see how she is doing.

The other downer for the day was discovering that I received some bad grade information for the transcripts I was trying to complete for the 2007 graduates of the College of Education here.  I was so pleased, and the faculty and administration people were so happy too, to think that they now had transcripts for the 2007 graduates, and now it turns out they are wrong because I got the wrong grade sheet for one of the semesters.  I thought I had one project that I could cross off as completed when we leave, but there is no way I’ll have time to fix this before we go – and who knows what will happen after I leave. 

The up side of the day was going to a party tonight for the Roteract Club (a Roary club for college students as I understand it) of the College to celebrate the members who are graduating.  The kids did a great job planning the party and it included lots of music and dancing as well as a few speeches and gift presentations.  The music and dancing was the best, and we danced with some of the kids too.  A great way to end a day that was not a very happy one up to that point. 

May 18, 2008

I didn’t hear back from the nurse that we know last night, and both John and I had a rough night worrying about baby Susan.  It was such a helpless feeling to know that she was so sick and helpless.  I couldn’t even imagine how David and his wife and family were feeling.  I know John’s son Willie was in rough shape when they got him and asked if there were times he was worried that he might not make it and he said yes, and as he described little Will who was premature, and was only about 5 pounds when he came here at 3 months of age, with scabies and some kind of GI infection that caused him to lose even more weight, I realized how tough those little ones are even though they don’t look it. 

We finally reached David around 10am this morning and he said he had come by our house on the way to the hospital at around 5am but the house looked closed up – we actually got up around 5:30 so just missed him.  He had to walk up the mountain from the lake and didn’t get home until around 11pm last night so waited to walk the rest of the way up the mountain until this morning.  The good news is that baby Susan had already started to bounce back.  We went with him to see her around 2pm today and she was active again, her fever was down already and she was eating.  We got some more photos with David holding her, and I got to hold her too, as they wanted a photo of “double Susans”, so one of those photos is posted too.

Tomorrow morning, we will leave at around 9am to go to Nchenachena, a town about 20 miles away to visit Dr. Trywell Nyirongo who I mentioned in my last blog.  He has invited us to stay overnight and we are eager to spend some time getting to know him and find out more about the projects he is involved in here in Malawi, so there’ll be more to come about that no doubt.  David will ride with us, as that is where he is going for the rest of his training program these next 2 weeks.  He’ll go to the hospital before he comes so we can get an update too.  Nchenachena is the town he walked to for the interview to get this job, - 6 hours in each direction. 

May 20, 2008

We have visited Dr. Nyironigo, and had some real transport adventures that I will talk about in the next entry later today or tomorrow, but I wanted to get this posted.  Baby Susan and her Mom were released from the hospital yesterday and are both feeling much better.  

Such a busy time

May 8, 2008

Here we are back in Livingstonia and the trips back and forth to Mzuzu keep getting harder and harder. Thank goodness we only have to make that trip 3 more times, although from May 18 to June 3 we are going to be traveling all over the countryside, and I can’t say I’m looking forward to it. More on that as the time goes on. As we were coming up the escarpment road yesterday, I swear it is getting bumpier and bumpier, but I also wasn’t feeling too great so maybe it was just that. For the first time, I was feeling a little like what carsickness must feel like, a bit queasy and just wanting the vehicle to stop rocking and pitching. That road is really amazing and impossible to describe to anyone.

I think I have a touch of the flu, as I feel kind of achy and feverish and congested, and that might be why the trip was bothering me so much yesterday. Of course John and I have commented of late that it has become normal to have a digestive system that doesn’t seem to be functioning quite properly. We’ve been very careful about the water and raw foods, but people here eat so many fried foods that it could just be all the oil or the daily malaria drugs. You’d think we’d both be losing weight with all the walking, but instead we have both gained with all the high fat foods and Smelton’s good cooking.

My small world story from yesterday was connecting with Dr. Trywell Nyirongo in Mzuzu. I learned about Dr. Nyirongo before leaving the U.S. as 40 years ago he was sponsored by, and lived with some members of the Unity Unitarian church that we attend in St. Paul. Dr. Nyirongo came to the U.S. to attend High School and college starting in 1961, and I got an email address for him from a church member and tried contacting him before leaving in January, but didn’t hear back from him. His story is quite an amazing one – he had gone to Tanzania and Uganda first as he was determined to get an education, and then was chosen to be part of a very small group of young people who were chosen by the dictatorial government of the time to leave African and receive a Secondary School education. John’s friend Justin Funsani, and the former ambassador that we met in Lilongwe were part of that same group, and many of them know one another even though they went to very different places for their education.

I kept thinking I should call him ever since we arrived, but hesitated to do so as the road from Livingstonia to Nchenechena where he lives was impassable during the rainy season so I knew that even if I could reach him, I wouldn’t be able to get to see him despite the short distance of only about 20 miles. Plus of course, we have no transport and I wasn’t sure how I would get there even if the road were open. But after Smelton arranged transport to his house a couple of weekends ago, it occurred to me that I could hire transport in Livingstonia somehow.

When we were at David Mhango’s last weekend we were talking about it again as some of his training and work will be based at Nchenechana and I mentioned wanting to meet Dr. Nyirongo. As soon as I said it, David recognized the name as Dr. Nyirongo is very well known, and is thinking about running for Parliament. John knew I was thinking about hiring transport and suggested that we could take David to his training in Nchenachena on May 18 and visit Dr. Nyirongo at the same time. So I decided to try one more email, and to my surprise got an answer the next day this time, and Dr. Nyirongo was very excited about meeting us having heard the Unity Church contact person that we were here in Malawi. I sent him another email message to check his phone number and he replied immediately, while I was sitting at the Internet cafe to say it was correct.

A few hours later, we were all loaded into the vehicle and leaving the Presbyterian Synod compound in Mzuzu where the University offices are for our trip back to Livingstonia, when we saw our friend Macdonald, and Paulo, who is one of the owners of the new pizza place in town where we had our going away party for Bruce and Karin the night before. They were chatting with a Malawian man and we stopped to say hello. After a few seconds, the Malawian man said “is Susan Goll here?” When I said “yes, I’m Susan Goll” with a little question mark in my voice. He says “I’m Trywell Nyirongo” and I think I screamed a little with shock. I said “you didn’t mention in your email that you were in Mzuzu too” and he commented that since I had said we were leaving Mzuzu for Livingstonia soon, there’d been no point.

We chatted for a while and he said he wanted us to come and stay the night when we come to visit on May 18, but I’m not sure how we are going to do that since we need to be in Mzuzu on May 20. Although John suggested that we could stop to see him and continue to Mzuzu if there is public transportation, or maybe Dr. Nyirongo could arrange some transport. I told John maybe helping Trywell with some of his community development work could be our next project in Malawi at some point in the future, as I don’t think either of us see coming back to the University unless something drastic changes with the leadership, although John has mentioned he could see himself working with the College of Nursing again here, as could I.

May 9, 2008

More bad news from home – our house was broken into. Our friend Cathryn who is staying there sent an email saying that someone broke in through an unlocked, and I think partially open window, ransacked her dresser drawers, grabbed a bunch of her heirloom jewelry, 3 generations and lots of money’s worth, and left through the front door. It happened sometime yesterday afternoon, and our neighbor Jim across the street who was out in the yard didn’t even see anything, and he and all the neighbors keep a close eye on each other’s houses.

I don’t know yet if any thing in our room upstairs was taken, but it didn’t sound like it. She said they took out the silver chests from the linen closet on the first floor, but didn’t take the silver, just left the chests out and open – John’s Mother’s silver is monogrammed so would maybe be harder to pawn. The police told Cathryn that her jewelry might show up, as it will likely be pawned. I sure hope so. I feel so bad for her, and am just grateful that her cats didn’t go out the open window after the thieves left, so at least that loss wasn’t added to the rest. It is so strange to get this kind of news from thousands of miles away – unreal, disembodied, hard to process. This makes 3 deaths, and one house break-in we have learned about in a little over 4 months. That’s a lot of bad news to process from afar.

May 10, 2008

We had electricity for the whole day yesterday for the first time since we got back from Mzuzu. First we had a problem with the main switch on our house here. It is a shame, but just like in the U.S. you have to watch your builder all the time, and the builder of our house, which was new in 2007 really skimped on a bunch of stuff. We’ve had repeated problems with the electricity, plumbing, windows, and in one of the hard rain storms a small leak in the roof – and these were nice, and quite expensive houses by Malawian standards.

After the main switch got repaired, we learned that there was a scheduled power outage the following day that was supposed to last about 3 hours and instead lasted over 6 - then the next day and the next day more outages that were not announced. I realized how spoiled we had gotten with having power that worked reliably for the past few weeks as the rainy season has started to wind down.

It was nice because David Mhango was able to come home for a weekend visit and we could make lunch for him when he came by to visit today. He was so funny, he said he had told his family at 6am he was going to come visit us, and they told him that was too early. He said it had been a whole week and he was eager to see us and didn’t want to wait. Thankfully he did wait.

There was a wedding in town today and you could hear all the excitement all day today and last night before. We could have gone, as everyone is invited to these things, but since we had never met the bride and groom decided not to, but were loving the music and seeing the bride and groom ride up and down the road after the ceremony. It was one of the students who graduated last September, and since he met his bride here working at the small hospital, he came back here for his wedding and asked many of the College people to be a part of it, including “giving him away.” (Both the bride and groom are escorted by their families.)

May 11, 2008

Sunday morning sitting on the konde, one of my favorite things to do any day, but on Sundays I feel like I can stay as long as I like. It’s not quite the same these days though as there is an Australian Mining company doing some test drilling for Uranium directly across the valley from us. The beautiful wooded hillside is now scarred with roads and clearings – we watched them bring in the caterpillars and bulldozers and knock over trees like they were twigs. I can hear the engines from their equipment even though it is Sunday and they are over a mile away, and there is smoke coming up from something, which we also see commonly now. I don’t even want to think about what that beautiful hillside will look like if they find quality ore there and set up mining operations.

It’s been an odd thing. When I first heard about the possibility of Uranium mining I was kind of excited thinking that it would bring money and probably jobs for people, but we understand that the local authorities have been paid off to keep quiet about it, and there are almost no jobs as the company brought in their own people who stay on that side of the valley and don’t even bring any money to the local merchants. Let alone the health concerns as the testing is taking place on a hillside that drains down into a small river, which then drains into Lake Malawi. The locals are very concerned and are feeling quite powerless, as they were told that this was going to be something quite different than it has turned out to be in size and scope, and they feel like the government is steamrolling it, and that the local authorities have been duped and bribed. The poor are treated the same worldwide it seems.

May 14, 2008

The Vice Chancellor and his wife have returned to Livingstonia and the knowledge that we are leaving soon has become very real. We are trying to make as smooth a transition as possible and pass along our completed and in process projects, debriefing where we are. It’s challenging as so much of what we did, is still in process, and it’s also been challenging to let go of the outcome of not only our projects, but also whether the College will survive.

They seem well aware of the precarious position of the College of Education, which they helped to start, and with that, the University of Livingstonia that they also helped to start as the umbrella for all 5 colleges. That has to be incredibly frustrating, and must weigh very heavily on them. On the other hand, John and I are getting frustrated because we seem to keep going over the same things with them that we have been telling them via email and phone conversations for the past few months. It seems that they are not able to take in our assessment that the problems they are facing are all caused by the lack of financial, managerial or administrative leadership, structure and any kind of accountability – and the suggestions we have made for fixing those problems we know are not easy. Maybe it’s just too much to accept since by virtue of their titles, they have the ultimate leadership role, coupled with their confusion and frustration about the difficulty involved in fixing the problems.

It triggers all sorts of unhealthy behavior in me too, as I keep trying to find a way to do more, and fix things somehow that are beyond my capability to fix. It’s been yet another lesson in letting go, and a constant reminder of the serenity prayer, as so much of this is out of my control. I keep getting hooked into how hard these students have worked to get here, and how they deserve so much better than they are getting and then I start getting angry. I think the straw that broke the camels back for me was the student that was dismissed improperly back in March, and the students who were recently told to go home due to non-payment of fees, which was handled so badly. And of course, the dismissal of our friends Bruce and Karin, who were such advocates for the students and staff members. And all of those things relate back to the poor financial, managerial and administrative leadership and accountability, which I can’t fix, but someone needs to – and if not the Vice-Chancellor, who.

May 15, 2008

Time for a lighter note again. When I was walking back to our house just now, I heard a pig squealing – not in a panic, but definitely unhappy about something. I looked over and saw 2 men walking down a path not too far from out house, and am not sure if they were trying to shift the pig from one person to the other, or if one of them was trying to help reposition it on the other, but the pig was being draped across the shoulders of one of the guys for a walk to who knows where. Once the pig was settled it grunted a little as the guy walked, but seemed generally content with the situation – or at least stopped complaining.

I hate to go back to “chicken stories” again, but one of the other things I get a kick out of here is chickens being carried around in handbags – or at least that is what it looks like. You’ll be walking along and see a woman carrying something that looks like a purse, and a little head will be poking out, looking around curiously – a chicken. It’s kind of a Malawian Paris Hilton thing, except that unlike Hilton’s little purse sized Chihuahua, I didn’t figure the woman was taking our “pet chicken” out to visit. I have been surprised at how content the chicken always seemed to look sticking out of those “purses”, as I always had a feeling it would end badly for the chicken, but like the pig on the guys shoulders, the chickens didn’t seem very bothered by it

More Favorite Things here in Livingstonia and Malawi:

1. The stars. One of the side benefits of only 5% of the population having electricity and no streetlights is the amazingly dark night sky and what that means for stars. With little or no ambient light, the stars are absolutely amazing – there are so many and so bright that it doesn’t even look real.
2. Being “in the clouds”. Because we are on a mountain, we are sometimes in a fog, which is not like any fog you experience on the flat lands because we are actually in a cloud. You can see it coming across the valley sometimes, the bottom of the cloud before it reaches here and becomes fog.
3. The eagerness of children to learn. Children walk for miles to go to school here, and to go to Secondary School almost always means a boarding school because people live so far out and so few go to Secondary School. They always want to greet you in English and sometimes want to have a short conversation to practice, and they are curious and want to know about where you came from.
4. Adults are also very curious and love to hear about the U.S. and what it’s like there. They are shocked that there is no malaria there, and no bananas, and that there is no rainy season – and really shocked that the lakes freeze so solid where we are that people can drive on them, they just shake their heads in amazement at that one.
5. Eating food grown right near by. It tastes so fresh and the fruits are so sweet. It’s not pineapple or mango season right now, but I am especially going to miss the way they taste when they are picked ripe.
6. I know I mentioned the chickens on my last list (and on so many other blogs you must think I’m obsessed), but I love all the “free range” animals. We had a little pig in our yard one day and today there are 5 goats staked out to graze just down the hill from us.
7. The way they chose a cow to slaughter. All the cows are herded to where the butchering will take place so none will know which one is the one to be chosen, and the chosen one will not be alone or frightened – and a blessing is said for the chosen one as well.
Head wraps on women. They look so elegant.
8. Packaged cookies that really taste good. Must be the British influence, they do love their biscuits with tea.
9. Eating breakfast or having morning tea on the konde watching the sun come up over the mountains across the lake in Tanzania.
10. The people oriented aspect of the culture. I remember John saying that he returned from one of his trips here and was in his office when someone came in and launched into what he needed, and John's first thought was "how rude - he didn't even ask me how I was". No one would dream of starting any kind of conversation here without proper greetings and finding out how you are (as well as your family usually). It may not be good from a business or economic standpoint as people think nothing about closing down a business or school to deal with a problem that affects members of the community - hardly a productive way to do things, but the emphasis here is on relationships not on results. It will be odd to go back home where the emphasis is on results not relationship, although I have to admit there are times I just want to ask a quick question of someone and get on with whatever I am trying to do
11. More great names that I have heard this past week: Gift, Lovemore, and Trywell.

Things I’m really looking forward to back home:

1. Seeing all the people I love and miss.
2. Jack, our cat.
3. Getting to meet John’s new grandson Oliver.
4. A shower with real water pressure (some of the hotels we’ve stayed at have nice showers, but unfortunately the one at our house is pretty wimpy and dribbly)
5. A toilet that actually flushes rather than just swirling around madly and often quite unproductively. (Again a function of our house not the whole country – I think they skimped on plumbing)
6. Ice cream. I tried it once here and I wouldn’t have known if was ice cream if it hadn’t been labeled as such, and it is one of my favorite things even though I don’t eat it that often at home.
Frozen bars of any kind. They sell some on the street, but I don’t trust the street vendors for any kind of food. John and I ate a lot of those at home.
7. Movies. They skipped right over movie theaters here and just sell DVD’s. Rather than movie houses, there are little single car garage sized shops that show videos – and often double as a store or, in Livingstonia, the barbershop. Bruce and Karin had a few that we borrowed from them and it was a real treat to have “movie night” complete with popcorn sometime, and shown on the DVD player on my computer.
8. Reading the Sunday newspaper – or any newspaper for that matter – and to have them delivered to your door will be amazing.
9. Comfortable furniture – this is a nice house, but was furnished with the locally made wicker furniture and then cushions made that are only about 2 inches thick. If you want to sit and read a book, there is really no place comfortable to stretch out (we just have love seats and chairs). And our dining room table and coffee table are wicker too, so everything tips over on them.
10. Electricity all the time. We have continued to have a lot of power outages this past 2 weeks – almost daily. With the rains pretty much over, and no electrical storms for a long time, I’m not sure the reason. It will just be nice to know that we can have hot food or hot drinks any time we want.
11. A haircut. I haven’t gotten it cut since December, and it is really getting long, although I have trimmed around the front a little bit. I didn’t trust anyone here to cut mzungu hair, although I’m told there were some people in Mzuzu who were able to. John hasn’t gotten his cut since we got here either, so we look like quite a pair.

It is later in the day, and we just got a call from David Mhango that his wife had her baby – his new daughter Susan Mhango! I am honored beyond words that about my namesake and we will go to the hospital tomorrow to see her. David isn’t sure when he will be able to get away from his training program for his new job, but we will see him on Monday when we go to Nchenachena to see Trywell Nyirongo. How exciting!! More later – with pictures.

More Visiting

May 2, 2008

It has been a roller coaster again for the past few days, with some very good and some very not good things happening.  Yesterday morning, our friend David Mhango came over to let us know how he and his wife were doing.  He had a bad couple of weeks starting with the death of his step-sister.  We called him a few days ago, and not long after the funeral, he fell ill with a fever that he thought might be malaria and his wife, who is 8 months pregnant began having cramps and leaking amniotic fluid.  They walked to the hospital here in Livingstonia (about a mile up a very difficult hill) last weekend and the hospital wanted to admit her but she refused because they had bankrupted themselves to pay for the funeral so they had no money to pay the hospital.  David did not get tested for Malaria, or get any drugs for the same reason. 

I told him John and I had wanted to give them some money when we heard about his sister’s death, as we know that these funerals often bankrupt families.  People come from long distances, the funeral lasts for 3 days and huge crowds of people need to be fed during that whole time, in addition to the cost of the casket and the other funeral costs.  So we told him to see if he could arrange transport for his wife to go to the hospital as we didn’t think she should walk up again, and we would pay for that along with any medical bills for both of them.  I called him later that day and the hospital vehicles were not available as they were transporting other people, but his mother was helping his wife to walk back to the hospital and he had been able to obtain some Tylenol for his fever and was feeling a little better.  He had been giving us some updates about his wife’s condition ever since, and she was doing much better but the hospital decided to keep her there on bed rest since her due date is so soon.  He said yesterday that the baby has dropped into position and they told them she could deliver at any time. 

He also had received a letter from the government Census people asking him to contact them about the training for his job that we celebrated a few weeks ago. I mentioned in an earlier blog, that he had been hired by them after we helped him update his resume and prepare a cover letter for his application - actually he not only was hired, but was hired as a supervisor after doing exceptionally well on his tests and interview which he walked 6 hours to complete.  The letter asked him to call, so we suggested he use our cell phone so he did not have to pay for the call, we figured that was why he hadn’t called before because he didn’t have money for more cell phone units of time.  It turns out he has been promoted to deputy administrator and needs to report for training on Monday, rather than the 18^th of May  - just 3 days from now.  We were so thrilled for him, but of course this complicates things with his baby due to soon.  But what we are all hoping for is that this means not only an additional few weeks work, at a higher rate of pay, but also an impressive thing to put on his resume for future jobs.  He is so bright and wants so badly to better himself and make his way separately from his mother’s small farm.

We were planning to come visit his farm and family soon, but decided we must go tomorrow as he will be gone after that for his training and we will probably not see him again before we go.  We have been going to visit since I got Malaria and missed his 28^th birthday party, but I have been concerned about making it down the path to their place in the valley below us.  I made a test run yesterday and think it will be OK as long as it doesn’t rain and make the path slippery.  I am just realizing as I type this that we probably will not see him again after tomorrow and it is difficult to believe that our goodbyes are beginning already.

Our downs came later in the day when we learned that Atusaye, the 2^nd year college student we have been helping was not being fed at the College’s cafeteria.  There have been similar problems for other students this week when the college tried to clamp down on the students who owe them money.  Non-payment of fees is a pretty constant problem, and they suddenly decided to clamp down just a few weeks from the end of the semester because they realized that they were completely out of money and couldn’t even find money to buy food this week.  It’s another example of the kind of hare brained decisions made by the administration to wait until now to enforce this policy after having fed and housed and educated them since the Semester began (and some of these students have owed money since the previous semester).

Worse yet, the colleges record keeping system is so poor that some of the students have paid and had receipts to prove it, but they were still being told they had to leave the campus and would not be fed.  Atusaye fits that description as we found a sponsor for him to cover his fees and told the principal on Friday that he should not be sent home.  Then we find out today that they have refused to feed him several times in the past few days because he was on the list of students who had not paid their fees.  I have pretty much reached the end of my rope with the poor leadership of the college, and hope that the vice-chancellor and his wife can do something when they return, as I fear that the place is doomed if they do not.  Having worked on the student records for the past few weeks trying to create transcripts for the first graduating class last year, I can vouch for the horrible recordkeeping, and worry that if the college is forced to close, they will not even be able to provide transcripts to students so they can transfer elsewhere.

We hope to talk to the Vice-chancellor who will return to Malawi in about a week, and see if some of these things can be resolved.  John and I were saying last night; we are concerned that all of the problems at the College of Education should not color our whole experience here.  With the exception of our experiences with that one college, our time here has been so wonderful and rewarding and we need to be sure we do not lose sight of that.

May 4, 2008

Yesterday was quite a day.  We promised to visit David’s family yesterday and I knew the path down the mountain into the valley where they live was going to be treacherous because of the rain the night before but off we went around 9am.  It was slow going, but we didn’t fall despite how slippery it was, and while I thought I had made it nearly to the bottom earlier this week on a test run, we still had a long way to go beyond my previous stopping point.  It was challenging, and I was grateful that it did not rain before we came back home around 3pm as it would have been a really miserable climb if it had.

We were immediately ushered inside for tea with sweet potatoes, roasted macadamia nuts, French fried potatoes, and home made doughnuts – all foods that they grow.  As always, the family members were ushered in, one by one, to greet us and shake hands, including the little ones who always look shocked when we offer our hands.  The best surprise came when David’s mother brought over her newest grandchild, David’s 4-month old niece, and handed her to me.  It is the first time anyone has let us hold their child since we were here, and one of the fist times a baby hasn’t started to cry when they saw us.  I think the white skin and the different ness of the mzungu’s is frightening for them.  The older children just stare, but the little ones are often afraid.  She was a beautiful baby and John and I took turns holding her, and I reflected to John afterwards that she is just about the age of his new grandson Oliver(4 months) who we will meet when we get back home.  There’s a picture of John and the smiling baby – who is also bundled up to within an inch of his her life – a common practice here.

After tea we took a tour of their small farm, which is really quite an operation to run with all had labor and only 6 family members to do the work.  They grow coffee, bananas, tangerines, apples, macadamia nuts, lots of corn, beans, squash, papaya, mango, and I’m sure I’m forgetting some things.  Coffee their main cash crop, and they have a lot of trees, and I think they probably have enough corn to sell some after meeting the needs of their family.  The fruit and nut trees are few and still small, so probably not sufficient to market.  David also showed us the site of his house that he hopes to start building soon, as he and his wife just life in a small thatched dirt floor place about the size of a single car garage.

His mother was warm and sweet, although she doesn’t speak much English, and his 4-year old daughter Ellen was singing and talking, and quite shockingly to me anyway, wearing jeans.  When he has brought her to our house, she’s been a sweet little dress and been very shy and quiet - and I have never seen girls or women in any of the villages dressed in anything but dresses or skirts.  He sends her to the tiny nursery school in the village, which has closed at least once before because so few parents can afford the $1 or so per month, that they need to pay.  She sang the abcdefg song, named all her body parts using perfect English and was quite animatedly talking in the English she has learned.

David and his family hold education in such high esteem although only he and his one sister have been able to go to secondary school because they family didn’t have money to pay school fees.  It is a common theme all over Malawi, and every where we go, we have parents asking if we can please help with school fees since secondary school is not free here.  He had not talked again about his desire to go on to further schooling since we first arrived, but he mentioned it again today.  Very good timing, as John and I had been saying that we wanted to continue to help David somehow after we return home and were trying to figure out how to do that.  We made a promise in front of his parents to help with tuition for higher education for him, and his mother teared up and came on her knees to thank us and shake our hands.  She is the one who gave up so much to pay his school fees when her husband was away trying to earn money and she started growing cash crops to support the family.

His parents announced that when David’s new baby is born, if it is a boy it will be named John and if a girl Susan in honor of everything we have done for David and his family – who are pictured in the attached photo.  It was really quite an amazing day, and when it came time to walk back up, David walked with us as he was on his way to the hospital to see his wife before leaving for his job tomorrow. His wife is understandably worried that he will be away when the baby comes, but we had given him some money for transport so he can get home quickly and when he told her that, she brightened up.  We teased him that he could probably walk up that mountain, go to the hospital and come back and still find us walking up the hill, and we tried to get him to go ahead with out us – but he insisted on going with us at our slow pace and insisted on carrying our backpack too.  The path had dried out quite a bit, but was still very steep and my legs were really shaking by the time we got up.  It probably took us about 45 minutes to an hour, and David usually walks it in about 15 minutes. 

So we came home, sat and rested for awhile and there was a knock on the door, Bruce and Karin wondering if we were coming to the going away party arranged by the faculty for them.  They had mentioned it a few days ago, but since we hadn’t gotten an invitation, assumed it was just for faculty, and since we are going to town with them and doing our going away parties there, weren’t bothered by that at all.  They made a subtle call to the organizer to check the guest list and learned that we were on it, so we quickly showered and dressed and walked with them.  It was a lovely party with lovely speeches, including one that was great about the “good Samaritan” of the bible, who helped the injured/dying man when all the “religious” people had passed him by, and how that is the way Bruce and Karin are – helping people when the “religious” people(and he named the titles of some of the ones in the Presbyterian community there) here do not.  A great reference to the folly of sending them away from this place because they “are not part of the religious community.”

 

May 6, 2008

We had our first going away party for Bruce and Karin last night at the good Indian restaurant in town.  As we saw their vehicle driving away yesterday morning, John and I looked at each other and said “that will be us in a little over a month.”  Kind of a sobering thought. 

This morning we were awakened at 7am by a call from David, and as soon as I heard his voice, I thought he was calling to say that the baby had been born.  Instead he was excitedly telling us about the Census training he is receiving and how wonderful it is.  After we hung up John and I looked at each other and I said, "I guess David is our new Malawian son", which is sort of the way it feels – and I’m kind of liking it.  John said, no wonder he is so excited, it is his first “real job” at the age of 28 after completing Secondary School some years ago.  I remembered what he had said when we were at his house this weekend, about having seen classmates of his working at the bank in Mzuzu and at another “professional job” and thinking “why can’t that be me.”  And now it is.  The other thing that he said that was so poignant this weekend was, “how does it look to the people in the villages when my family sacrificed so to pay my school fees, and here I am – still in the village working at the farm” – where is the motivation to go on to secondary school. 

When we think of things that we have done while we are in Malawi, helping David get this job ranks right up there at the top.