June 7, 2008
It’s hard to believe it’s been a week since I’ve had time to write, and such an eventful week.
We had a great dinner in Lilongwe with our friend Jeff who just arrived, and David Chapman the U of M Professor who is visiting and working here with his research assistant. Nelson made a wonderful impression with some insightful comments, and Professor Chapman reassured Nelson that he was ready for this program as well as giving him some great practical information. Unfortunately, Professor Chapman said it would not be possible to get Nelson started in September of this year, and told us it was not wise to start in January since the students move through the program as a cohort.
Nelson has to get funding from somewhere, and he has to secure his student Visa, which he can’t get until he has the funding. Visa’s take around 3 months to process so you can see why it would be impossible for him to start in September. We were afraid he’d be very disappointed about the delay, but I think he might have been a little relieved about the extra time, as he will be able to prepare better. We were just disappointed that we wouldn’t see him this fall, and his father who is a high official with the Presbyterian Church here, is going to be coming to the U.S. for 6 months on a program, so it’s too bad they wouldn’t be in the U.S. at the same time. There’s a picture of Nelson and John on the blog today taken the next day before we left.
Our bus ride up the next day went smoothly and we had a bit more room than we did on the way down. I think Jeff got kind of a kick out of the ride, but he seemed a little stunned. Not quite as much luggage piled in this time either as the bus wasn’t quite as packed at the last time. The bus has to be emptied out at one checkpoint along the road (these are set up periodically to check for contraband or drugs) and as we exited the bus I noticed a plastic bag on the floor with a live chicken in it – the chicken looked fine, although mightly confused, and I wondered how they got it to just sit there so quietly.
Our time in Mzuzu was a whirlwind, starting with breakfast with the Principal of the Nursing College as we had an assessment report we had prepared for him on their 2003-08 strategic plan requested by their board of directors. From there we went to lunch at the home of one of the students we have helped and formed a friendship with. Atusaye Kayuni is a second year student who was our Norwegian friend Bruce’s right hand man for all computer things before Bruce and Karin were sent home. Atusaye is the kind of kid who helps everyone everywhere, and his financial situation is horrible as his father was a 28 year employee of the government who is owned a lot of money for back pay and retirement that he has been in court trying to get for several years. Atusaye’s mother died of uterine cancer about 5 years ago, and since he is the eldest, his mother asked him to promise to care for his 4 brothers and sisters – a promise he has taken very seriously.
So we went there for lunch, which Atusaye and his brothers prepared, since there is no woman in the house to do that anymore, and it was a huge feast that made me feel guilty knowing how little money they have to buy such food. We met his father, who tried to explain his situation and is clearly very vulnerable, nearly breaking into tears several times as he described how first he lost his job, then the 400 cows his father left him got hoof and mouth disease leaving only a few healthy ones, then his wife got cancer and died, and he has not had money to pay school fees for his children so his oldest daughter got married young and is now pregnant. He kept saying he had failed, and I tried to tell him what a fine young man he had raised. Atusaye obviously has his hands full with his family and acting as the head of the household since about age 15 when his Mother died.
Next he took us to his Aunt’s restaurant to have cake, which was made by a friend who is a baker and caters lots of weddings and celebrations locally. Atusaye had gotten a cake for Bruce and Karin when they left too, and carried it on a mini-bus for the 3 hour trip from Mzuzu and probably up the 3 hour walk from the main road as well. That one was a little worse for the wear when it arrived from that long journey but ours was beautiful, and had “Farewell John and Susan” written on it. His aunt provided sodas for us, and we sat outside in the sunshine and enjoyed our cake, although both John and I almost started to cry when he brought it out. A photo from the celebration is on the blog today with a little bit of the cake showing at the bottom of the picture.
Atusaye wants so badly to be a Doctor, and we, Bruce and Karin, my Mom, John’s former Brother in Law and his Sister all have helped to pay his school fees for the last year – he is a second year student. We’ve spoken to the Vice Chancellor and his wife about taking him on to repair and maintain the computers now that Bruce is gone so he can pay his way, and they’ve said they think he should just receive a scholarship with no work strings attached, which we hope they will be able to arrange.
We made introductions for him to Dr. Mkandawire who is the well-known Dr. who treated my Malaria. Dr. Mkandawire struggled for a long time to become a Dr. and we knew that he would understand Atusaye’s desire and might be able to advise him. Atusaye wanted to volunteer in his clinic for the summer, but since his family needed money for food would have to find paying work instead. So we said we would give him that money so he could work with Dr. Mkandawire and learn. He had his first day this week and called us on his lunch break so excited – he was working in the lab and learning to use the microscope and could hardly contain himself for joy. That carried us through the whole day.
Our first day back on the plateau, we had 17 visitors, tying our previous record on our fist day here back in January. After having been gone for 2 weeks, everyone wanted to stop by and greet us and welcome us back. It was exhausting, but so nice to see everyone again. We had been gone long enough to really miss our friends here – which helps us to know what it will feel like when we leave here on Tuesday. As the week went on, we continued to have lots of visitors, most of whom stayed a long time trying to spend all the time they can with us. When David Mhango came yesterday, he said, “I have to see you tomorrow and Sunday and Monday and what time do you leave on Tuesday -- I have to spend all the time I can with you because it will be a long time before I can see you again”
Later today we’ll walk down to David's house with our friend Jeff, and see the family and my namesake who is nearly a month old already. Jeff walked down to see Manchewe Falls yesterday, so that’ll help prepare him for today’s walk. Unfortunately, I’m not prepared for todays walk and know that I’ll be suffering by the time I get back up here.
June 8, 2008
I’m actually doing better this time than I did the last time we walked up and down that big hill into the valley. It was not wet, so the footing was much better and I think that took less effort. It took us about 35 minutes to go down, and about 45 to come back up, and David does it in about 15 either direction. The Malawians run down these hills, saying that works better, but I’d break my ankle or head I’m sure. The paths are full of erosion ruts, rocks and wind all over the place, and are so steep sometimes that I had to put my hand down to steady myself or grab some grass to pull myself up. I’m starting to get a bit stiff, so we’ll see how tomorrow feels. Jeff is out hiking again today, so he’s going to be in great shape by the time we leave.
We purposely told David that we’d come around 1:30 after lunch, thinking that they wouldn’t have to feed us if we came then. We should have known better, and after having eaten a big sandwich just before we went down, they had prepared lunch for us, with rice, eggs, chicken, chips(French fried potatoes) and then fresh papaya and banana for desert – all from their farm. David’s mother Ellen was watching us and always wanting us to take more food. We tried to explain that we had just eaten - I’m not sure it helped and we laughed later about how different the customs are here, like the relatives we remember from our childhood who were insulted if you didn’t take enough of the food they prepared vs. these days feeling like you shouldn’t take too much food if you are a guest. Times have not changed on that one here.
David has started building his new house, which will be laid out just like the one we have been living in here. He took all the measurements at our house, and has built a kiln so he could make bricks from the local clay. He has had the location picked out for a long time, and it is just up the side of the valley a very short walk from his parents with a great view out over the lower part of the vally and their farm. The money he has made from his job with the census is helping to pay for some cement and iron sheets for the roof, but he is just using mud as mortar for the bricks as cement is too expensive for that. He’ll use the cement to pour a floor.
This is a very good job, although it will be a difficult one with 36 enumerators working under him who each need to see 500 families in person over a 3 week period. He has to check over all of their work, make sure they have all the materials they need and help with any problems they may have. All on foot over about a 100 square mile area - it seems like an impossible task, but we are so happy for him to have money coming in, along with a real job with real status and responsibilities. We have sent in another resume and retyped his cover letter for him for another government job similar to this one but working on the elections, which are coming up. When we leave, we are giving him a CD with all these files on them, but since there are really no computers around here, we’re not sure what he will do – although there will be more volunteers coming over the summer that may have computers and be willing to help. He has been deciding on a program for school too, and is looking at a 2 year certificate program in Agriculture, and we reassured him again that we would pay his tuition when he is accepted.
Of course we also got to see baby Susan too, and she has grown so much already. She was sleeping the whole time we were there and I said to David that she seems to be a really good sleeper, and he said “yes, except she sleeps all day and doesn’t sleep at night and wakes up crying and disturbing the whole house.” His house is only about 1 or 2 small rooms and his brother and mother live within about 50 feet too, so I can see what he means – there is no where to go with a crying baby. There is a picture of me holding Susan again from this visit and you can see what a cutie she is with her long silky hair.
It is so strange to think that we will not see her again until she is much older. When we got ready to leave yesterday, David almost had both John and I in tears as he talked about how different it will be when he comes up to Livingstonia and we are not there, and about how much our friendship has meant to him. He looked like he was about ready to cry too, and his Mother and Father thanked us again for coming to see him, and for all that we have done to help David. We told him and his parents how much their friendship has meant to us too. Leaving is going to be very hard for so many reasons like this, but this one particularly will be hard for me.
June 10, 2008
We have left Livingstonia for the last time, and I intended to publish this blog today since we are back where we can do internet, but the internet was so slow that I decided to wait until tomorrow when we are in Lilongwe hopefully. I’m sorry this is so lengthy and wish I could have at least broken it up a bit.
It has been a very emotional time leaving. Yesterday there was a farewell party for us attended by about 30 people and arranged by Jenny Kirk, the vice-chancellors wife who unfortunately was unable to attend because after 10 years of coming to Malawi, she’s got malaria. While I’m not usually one for those kinds of parties, it was really lovely, and I was afraid there’d be lots of speeches, but there were only a couple of short ones. In fact it was wonderful to see everyone one more time before leaving.
The idea that we were leaving seemed very strange, and still does. It’s very hard to believe that we will not get up tomorrow morning and greet Smelton and Tawonge, and have David and Trynos stop by, or be working on one of the projects at the Colleges. We left around 7:30 this morning, which was good, it didn’t give us much time to think or have to say more goodbyes. The only unfortunate thing was that David Mhango was going to stop by, and thought we wouldn’t leave until 8am or so, so we didn’t see him – but he was at the party yesterday and we will be calling him from time to time.
It’s about 4:30pm and all we have done is say our goodbyes today. Lots of tears have been shed, and we still have more goodbyes to come. Nelson Nkhoma took a mini-bus for 3 hours to come up and see us only to turn around and go back later today. He brought me a chitenje, which is the sarong type cloth that is traditional wear for women here. I have to run, more later.
