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 18th 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 28th 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 2nd 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.
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