S.S.S. (Sodding Social Services)

Less than 2 weeks now!!!

It’s now less than 2 weeks until I return home.

I can scarcely believe how fast the time has flown by, but at the same time I am incredibly relieved. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my experience, but I am well and truly ready to go home now, I think.
I’m a bit stressed at the moment about the last few bits and pieces I have to sort out, but hopefully they will arrange themselves without too much fuss on my part. I’m a bit frustrated by all of the hoops I have to jump through for college, but to be honest that’s probably just tiredness taking its toll. I need to rest – I have exactly 9 days in between returning home and going back to college, so I’m not going to get a whole lot of opportunity, but I’ll need to make the most of what time I have.

I’m practically mad with excitement at the thoughts of seeing everyone again. Like, as in, jumping up and down excited!! Ludicrously excited, even! I’d say that about half of my luggage at this point will most likely be consumed with gifts for everyone, but that’s ok because I planned for it. I’m going to leave as much as possible behind me that I will not need, and make room. I’ll cram it in if I have to! Besides, my luggage goes straight from flight to flight so I won’t have to handle it from the time I hand it over in Lilongwe until my blessed arrival in Dublin airport!

My last while has been quite busy, actually. Last week on Friday I was honoured to be able to represent the Centre at a meeting of Civil Society organisations in Lilongwe. It mainly focused on how to promote better co-operation between the various charities and organisations operating in Malawi, and how to promote dialogue between ourselves and government. Rather ironically bearing this purpose in mind, the government representative who had confirmed their attendance on the day never showed up. Kinda sums up the problems we have in engaging them in dialogue really, doesn’t it? Apparently it happens pretty frequently too. Government officials are requested to attend meetings and conferences, say they will attend, and then either pull out at the last minute with some feeble excuse or simply never show. It’s frustrating, to say the least.

On a lighter note, I nearly had my right boob exposed to a roomful of strangers and priests last night... Yes, you read that correctly... Let me tell you... We’ve had guests the last night or two, a Zambian family who hosted one of the student priests here during his earlier studies. There’s the grandmother, I think, the daughter, 2 or 3 uncles, and a precious little 2-year-old named Joseph, or Jo-Jo. He’s adorable... and anyone who knows me will not be surprised to learn that I spent most of the evening GLUED to him. We were playing peek-a-boo with the kitchen chairs, running around the table, tickling on the couch, jumping up and down. It’s hard to say who got more overexcited, me or the baby... good times!!! We should also note, that the culture here in Malawi/Zambia surrounding breastfeeding is rather different. Baby wants boob? Boob is promptly whipped out and baby stuck on it, cool as a fishes’ fart. Bob’s yer uncle, Fanny’s yer aunt. Doesn’t matter if you’re in a church, on the street, or in a bus. Baby wants boob, baby gets boob – and not always just from mommy. In village settings it’s quite normal for baby to be fed by any lactating female, especially within the extended family. So to the mind of a toddler like this little guy, it’s not just mommy’s boob that’s available when you’re hungry, it’s any boob at all... Lo and behold, we were just settling after having dinner, baby had gone quiet for a while, when what does he do? Marches over to me and pulls the neck of my t-shirt down to get some booby, that’s what he does. The whole table just cracked up laughing, myself included – albeit in my case with a red face! Thankfully my quick reflexes (?!?) kept me nanoseconds away from having Rightie exposed to everyone...

So, this time 2 weeks I will be at home already. I hope you’re all ready, already!! LOL

For My Jennyfriend

Hi everybody...

*Hi, Dr. Nick!!*

I was soooooo tempted to call this "To Jennifer", but she'd probably still be peed off enough to hit me when I got back in September so I decided against it. Tee hee hee... You'll see why it is called this later. Keep reading!

Well, now. How are ye all, that’s what I want to know! I have really been letting this blog fall by the wayside, haven’t I? On one hand, that’s really very lazy of me, because I should be super-organised and keeping everyone up to date on my progress here. On the other hand... I’m not super-organised :-P and I suppose that being too busy to update often is a good sign, at least it means I have things to do!
The work here in the centre is, as I have said before, a touch sporadic. Around the time of field trips and their immediate aftermath, I tend to be ferociously busy and my work life is hectic. But between them, and if too much time is allowed to elapse between them, I can find there tend to be quiet periods when there appears to be little/no relevant work for me to do. That’s hard, because business generally distracts me from my surroundings a bit and helps the time pass faster.

So, they’ve been finding miscellaneous areas where I can make myself useful. At the moment I am currently reviewing a periodic publication the Centre puts out, a press review outlining the latest issues affecting Malawian society as documented by the national papers, and giving the Centre’s take on them. It’s a fine idea, but the standard of journalism in Malawi is generally appalling. It’s rampant with sexism, bias and superstition instead of objectivity, rationalism and fairness. And don’t even get me started on the grammar and spelling. Good sweet Jehoshephat but the English teacher’s daughter in me has come out in full force!! It makes me seeth to read “MPs is ready for fight” or something of that ilk as the front-page headline of a supposedly (I say, supposedly) English-speaking national newspaper. MPs, people. As in, more than one Minister of Parliament. Plural. Gaaaaah!

*sigh*

So, unfortunately our own publications are little different. I’ve been tearing the latest issues apart in the search for errors and flaws and trying to establish how we can improve it. The Centre is supposed to be primarily an advocacy organisation, and the majority of our publications’ readership are members of Civil Society, mostly donor NGOs – as such, I really feel like the standard of expression and analysis in anything we publish needs to be extremely high. I mean, why would you pay someone to advocate on social issues if they do not display an in-depth understanding of the relevant ones? Or trust them to be, as advocates are supposed to, “the voice of the voiceless”, if they cannot express these issues effectively? The Centre does really fantastic work, geniunely great stuff, so it would be a shame to be let down by an inability to adequately get these achievements, and the requirements to maintain them, across.

*sigh some more*

That said, the time appears to be flying! I literally cannot believe it’s August already.

NOW: It’s my best girl Jenny’s birthday tomorrow, and I’m really very embarrassed because I can’t remember if she’s still in Cuba or not. If you are though, Jenny-Pie, have a cigar on me!! A chocolate one - because the real things are bad for you. And I will have your present(s) for you upon my return Chiquita!! I would post them, but honest to God I’d be terrified they’d get lost (read “possibly stolen”) in the post, so I won’t chance it. I’ll just give you them when I get back. I think yous’ll like them. I should hope so, I endured much haggling and getting ripped off by the friendly local Rastafarians at the crafts market to get them, LOL!! On the upside, my haggling skills are now almost sufficient to rival my mother’s, and that’s saying a LOT. One of them asked me for 15,000MK (approx €75!!) for a stretch of painted cloth today, and I laughed. I really did, it was very funny. They’re absolute brazen hussies the lot of them! :-D

I went into town on a workday morning?, I hear you ask in incredulous tones. Why yes people, yes I did. I’m as brazen as the “crafts...people” in the market, so I am. Fortunately my bosses here at the Centre are extremely laid-back so they let me off into town on the minibus to arrange my holidays for next week. I’m finally off on safari!! I cannot wait, I really can’t. I know I need a break so badly it hurts. I’m exhausted, but in a good way I think. It’s good for me to have something to look forward to as well. South Luangwa, here I come! I promise to take an absolute PILE of photos for you all to see when I get back! I will upload them when I can. My problems uploading photos here in Malawi have been well-documented I think (LOL), but even if I have to wait until I get back to upload them I guess it doesn’t matter at this stage. I’m nearly there!!

Apologies if that last paragraph was verging on the incoherent, I am just very excited about the safari. It’s not something I’d easily have the opportunity to do otherwise, so it’s fabulous that I can do it now.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

It's one year!!!

Until my wedding, that is! I waited until midnight last night to post that as my Face Book status, I'm so sad... :-P

Well, Matt is heading off on holidays with his folks today so I hope he has a marvellous time with them. :-) Lucky duck!! It's a really special day - it feels to me like so much has happened since we got engaged and we've really come such a long way together. I miss him a lot on days like this, of course, but never mind! It also shows that I'm more than halfway through my placement already, and MY how time has flown! Also, his sister is expecting her first baby just after I get back home in September, and I hear she's just fine :-) so that's another thing to look forward to, being an aunt-in-law-to-be... LOL...

I can't believe it's only a year! For so long it's seemed like it was forever away, and now at last it's kind of appearing on the not-too-distant horizon.

I'm not exactly going to have much time to mull on it today, though, becuase I'm heading out to Kasiya for 2 nights to do some training of local data collectors for the Basic Needs Project. Apparently my boss was concerned about how I'd cope with the rather... basic conditions, i.e. no running water, no toilets, no little rural restaurants to get decent food, no roads, probably have to bring my own blankets etc and no mosquito nets... but hopefully I'll survive for two days anyway! I'll just have to be sure to bring mosquito repellent a-plenty I guess. And deodorant, because showers won't really be an option, LOL! Still though, I will get yet another chance to experience a kind of softened version of how the mojority of Malawians live, so hey, if they can survive it I guess I can too! :-)

It's been hard doing this on my own. Most of my classmates have been placed either 2 to an organisation/area, or in the kind of setting where there are a lot of expats and other young people. So they have a lot more support in some ways, I'm very isolated. Having said that, I think it's fair to say that this means I'm getting quite a unique experience and I'm developing a certain level of independence. I think I will possibly be changed more as a person as a result of being so alone here... that's my hope at least!

Moni Anthu!

Greetings, people!

Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately, I've really been incredibly lethargic the past week or two especially. Not that I've had that much to do, I just kinda feel like all my energy has seeped out through my Birkenstocks and into the floor... :-) dramatic, eh? Well, at long last I have something to look forward to, so I feel my energy returning slightly! Delighted!

As I know I've said before, I'm feeling a bit redundant here at the moment so that really affects my sense of motivation. I'm just not sure what I'm supposed to be doing, and when you role is that vague it's hard to have to put any real energy into your work. Anyway... I keep meaning to talk to the director of the centre about it, so I'll just have to get off my bum and do it I think :-) Getting off my bum is just something I haven't been great for doing lately!

BUT... last Friday I finally went into Lilongwe to find out about holidays! I have known for a while that my holidys are a tad overdue, and I need a break. I think getting out there for a little while will invigorate me and give me the motivation I need for the last few weeks. So, on Friday morning off I headed into town to find out about a safari company I've heard of with a good reputation. I know more than one person who's used it, so it's pretty trustworthy, and good value! Not exactly luxury safari now, but I don't expect that :-D as long as I get to see the animals I'll be happy out! So, this 4/5-day safari is going to set me back about €300, but I fugure it's worth it because you'd pay a hell of a lot more for going on something similar from Ireland! So I may as well seize the opportunity while I'm at it. It would involve going to Zambia, so I'd need to sort out a visa, but it's free for Irish citizens (wahoo!! I knew that harp passport would come in handy...) so I don't mind.

Apparently U.S. and U.K. citizens have to pay hefty enough visa fees, I think it has something to do with whatever Zambians are charged on entering those countries. Sort of a "if you charge us, we'll charge you" mentality. I think... oh well. No-one's worried about the leprechauns it would seem... :-P So that's me sorted! The price is all-inclusive: transport, accomodation, food, everything so that works fine for me! I get 2 weeks' holidays, so I'll need to find something else to do too - but the idea of heading to a lakeside lodge and passing out on the veranda with a copy of COSMO and a sangria sounds just fine to me :-D I'm really quite low-maintenance, LOL!

Im heading off on another field trip on Wednesday, at last! I've been vegetating in the office now for so long I don't even care that I'm apparently staying somewhere with no running water and one of the dreaded pit latrines... oh pit latrines, how do I hate thee, let me count the ways... Those things are bloody impossible to use, how the locals get used to them I'll never know! The smell!! The trying to stop things falling into them out of your pockets (I am NOT fishing it out...)!! The trying to aim!! Sorry if it's too much information, but I personally see aiming while you pee as a solely male responsibility - or at least, I did until I came here. *rolls eyes* There now, I hope you haven't eaten recently... Vile...

Other than that, I have little news... apart from being eaten alive by moquitos. Seriously, I'm starting to wonder do I taste of steak or what... I am liteally covered in bites, the itching is driving me insane. My right leg isn't fit to be seen, it looks like some psychadelic game of dot-to-dot. When I get home you can all get biros and have fun trying to form patterns by joining up the bites... 1st prize goes to whoever can make a donkey!

I can already see its' face appearing under my knee...

My first survey!!!

Well, it certainly was far from my first time administering a survey, but it was the first time I'd ever administered a survey I had designed and put together all by myself!

Last week my boss asked me to put together a survey/questionnaire based on a similar project conducted in high-density areas of Lusaka, Zambia. It basically follows families over a period of time, and it covers a range of issues poor households may or may not be faced with in their everyday lives - waste disposal, sanitation, access to water, access to adequate healthcare, shocks (e.g. deaths, sickness), redundancy, violation of labour rights, etc etc. Basically covering as many aspects of the lives of the poor as possible in order to identify what issues most urgently need to be addressed, and possibly make policy recommendations based on this.

I was a bit intimidated to be given this to do all by myself as I've been feeling a bit redundant in the office here, and this was a very sudden thing, and I wasn't really given much by way of a guideline. I got to it, though, and I tried to cover as much as possible without making it so long that the interviewees would get frustrated :-) It was big deal for me anyway - I felt like I had finally been given some responsibility in an area of our Basic Needs Basket programme, rather than just following others around.

As it turned out, I was more or less leading the group, and I loved it! I had to explain the the aim and purpose of the survey to the volunteers who would be administering it with me, outline what we were asking and why, and basically make thoroughly sure they understood what was expected, as they would ultimately be communicating all this to the interviewees. We chose three densely-populated areas around Lilongwe, and selected the houses at random.

It started off well - people were fairly receptive and I took plenty of photographs! The kids were predictably cute, I played peekaboo with them while they hung off the side of the car... LOL! They're adorable, the kids are one of the things I will miss most when I leave - not that we don't have kids at home, but the ones here definitely have an added... innocence or something? Maybe my perception is biased because I'm white, but they just get so excited about stuff! They were stroking my hair and giving me high-fives... it was hilarious!

So, that was the first town. The surveys themselves went without a hitch - I did notice some technical stuff I wanted to change about the way the questions were phrased, etc., but other than that it went well, and seeing as it was my first time doing anything of the sort I think it went pretty well :-)

We moved on to the second village. It was going well, just like the first one, only this time my skin, as always, caused me trouble... as I previously said, in Lilongwe especially - moreso than other Malawian cities, etc, I've been to - being white gets you a lot of attention. In most cases this is perfectly positive, as it was with the children. At other times, it's not so positive, and this was one of them. This drunk guy - there are a lot of these here - wandered over, absolutely pissed, saying he wanted to shake my hand. I looked at his hand. It was covered in some kind of yellow goo *grimace* I didn't shake his hand, but I said hello. I'm not shaking a gooey hand, thankyouverymuch.

Well, now.

He approached me on and off for the entire... I'd say, 20 minutes?... we were sitting there trying to do the survey, alternately trying to get my attention, shouting at me, asking me for money, telling me he was sick, and throwing tantrums because I was studiously ignoring him. I think he grossly underestimated my cold-shoulder-giving capabilities, because he seemed to think he could wear me down in time. Needless to say, I found him annoying, but I gave in to neither my urge to punch him in the face, nor my urge to tell him yes he was sick, but if he drank less beer he'd be doing much better. Fool. I just pretended he wasn't there, TBH, and eventually he teetered off because the locals were laughing at him and I didn't appear to hear him. Thank goodness.

Anyway - these things happen. I think I'm becoming a bit more acceptant of this kind of crap, really. Before I came here, it would have stuck with me for some time that someone had shouted at me, and genuinely left me upset. I was upset afterwards alright, but TBH I'm so used at this stage to things taking me aback that I get less disoriented by it. That's a good thing, right?

The last village was slightly less eventful than the previous two :-P not much happened besides the administering of more wonderful surveys (LOL!), BUT I did get covered in ants at one point... I was sitting on someone's front porch when I looked down, and lo and behold I'd sat on an anthill... again. (No, this is not the first time I've been covered in ants here) Cue me performing an impromptu version of Riverdance trying to get the hordes of tiny insects off my trousers... they seemed to find it amusing though, so that was good :-)And as per usual in Malawi, I had the stress of a long working day washed away by the entertainment that is wandering livestock... there was a mommy hen and her chicks wandering alongside the road, and I managed to get photos of them - they're on the Photobucket account I previously posted a link to if any of you want to look.

I'm too lazy to post the link again... *sticks out tongue*

Love you all. Even more so now because I've had wine...

Lilongwe Hat Party!

Well, I had a very eventful night Saturday night! In both a good and a bad way...

I was invited sorta last minute to a house party in Area 43 in Lilongwe. It was in the home of one of the girls I met on the cultural training course in Mua - she said she had been trying to call me and text me to invite me last week, but had never been able to get through to me for some reason. Funnily enough, though, I decided to go into town that morning to do a little shopping, and I met her by perfect chance outside a shop in Lilongwe on the day of the party! She invited me to come, and of course I haven't had much opportunity to socialise since I came so I jumped at the chance! It was going to be a "hat party". I wasn't sure what one was, but the premise is simple enough :-P you have to wear a hat, basically! Bit self-explanatory, eh?

I arrived early for the party, which was meant to start at about 5pm with a barbeque! I'd brought pork ribs to put on the BBQ, so of course the minute I came in the gate the 3 guard dogs came shooting out at me wuth the smell from the meat :-) the guard had to more or less beat them off me all the way to the door! It was quite funny, although I kept thinking I was going to trip over one. I help chop the meat and salads and so on with my friend, with the dogs running all over the place. At one point we went out of the room for a second, only to discover that a big hunk of cheese had gone missing off the counter, and my friend suspected that the dogs had nabbed it - I loved this, it reminded me so much of Anchorman -

"Baxter, you ate a full wheel of cheese? I'm not even mad, I'm impressed"

*LOL*

The other guests arrived bit by bit throughout the evening, some were late for the BBQ and just came for the music and drinks, etc afterwards. The food was absolutely divine! Pork ribs and chops and sausages... *drools* and of course, plenty of Carlsberg! I was in my element, naturally! I probably overdid the ribs and I certainly overdid the beer (my head told me so this morning...), but I was enjoying myself! There was a fantastic mix of people there working for various NGOs and organisations, and different nationalities both foreign and Malawian, so it was a good mix! I got on really well with a lot of people there, and I even got a few phone numbers too, so hopefully I can extend my social network a bit here :-)

Of course, everybody else was enjoying themselves as much as I was, and as the night progressed and so did everyone's state of inebriation, I had to fend off more than one rather overenthusiastic would-be "dancing" partners. By "dancing", read "thinly veiled excuse to grope woman". No, I do not want to go back to yours, "to see your house", thank you. You want me to admire the architecture of it, no doubt... Get stuffed. I wasn't quite sufficiently drunk for that sort of thing, and TBH I just found them extremely annoying. Some guys just don't understand anything more subtle than "get lost, ye gobdaw". I tended to gravitate towards other women for most of the night, for the aforementioned reasons!

The entertainment, though, it must be said, was superb! They had a DJ to begin with, which I was impressed enough by, with a big sound system and great music. We all danced in the garden, it was the cat's pyjamas as my folks would say! Just when I thought I couldn't be any mroe impressed, I realised they had actually booked a band for later in the evening! Not an orchestra, you understand, more of a girl group. They were wearing next to nothing, but sure they sounded good anyway and I suppose the fellas were distracted then so I was happy out :-P LOL!

So, I had a superb evening all in all... until I went to get my bag, and realised someone had been into it while I wasn't looking :-( They'd stolen about the equivalent of 50 euro - which is a hefty enough chunk of my monthly allowance, let me tell you. I was gutted, though mainly angry with myself, I think, for not being more clued-in. My hosts were terribly embarassed about it, cue much ringing of the police and trying to decide what to do. Apparently someone had stolen a CD/DVD player fromt eh house aswell, and while I thought surely it would be obvious if someone had electrical equipment on them, we eventually decided that the cash would be untraceable and there was little point pursuing it. This was quite late on in the night and the culprit had probably left anyway :-/ Cue much crying and sniffling and wanting to go home, of course.

For some strange reason, though, they didn't quite take all of the money in my purse, they left about 1000 Kwacha, about 5 euro. For the taxi home, I don't know, LOL! They were obviously a more thoughtful calibre of thief... and sure, perspective is all I suppose. I'm able to be a bit more philosophical about it now. All my cards etc were intact, and my phone, and I had had my digital camera in my pocket - which is worth a lot more than 50 euro! - and if that had been taken it would have been a huge loss, so all's well that ends well I guess... Plus I got the number of one of the girls from the band, and another girl who works for the EU, they were really really lovely to me in the aftermath, so I'll text them soon to say thanks and who knows I might have new friends! That's worth more than 50 yo yos any day.

:-)