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