Life in Lilongwe

S.S.S. (Sodding Social Services)

2010-06-11T10:23:00.001-07:00

Less than 2 weeks now!!!

2009-09-02T01:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-04T05:06:00.001-07:00

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!!!

2009-07-15T01:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-13T04:00:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-06-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-21T22:59:00.000-07:00

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.

:-)

2009-06-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!

I’m sorry it’s been such a while since my last post. I’ve been fairly busy, as usual, but in a good way I think! It’s certainly better than filling the traditional “work experience girl” role and essentially spending 6 months making coffee and fetching doughnuts…

I’m really adjusting to life here in Lilongwe, I think. I still get a bit lonely, especially in the evenings as I’m quite isolated, but in a way I expected that so it’s ok. I’m starting to get used to the heat, the darkness, even the insects! The giant wasps, the hornets, the fire ants… they’re all becoming a part of my life here. The one thing that continues to bug me is the almost incessant blackouts. The power supply here is erratic, to put it mildly, and every 2 or 3 days there’s another blackout. Sometimes for only an hour or two, but sometimes for the whole day and that’s a gigantic pain in the heiney, let me tell you. You truly do not realize how much we depend on electricity until it’s taken away! I can’t use my laptop for work, can’t contact anyone (except by phone), can’t watch anything, and if it’s at night it’s even hard to read because I run out of candles so frequently. rolls eyes

But, we shall soldier on!

I haven’t been on any more field trips since the one to Mkanda about a week or two ago, but today I was asked to design a survey all by myself! The boss liked it so I’m well chuffed, I did it myself from scratch. We’re going to use it next week, apparently, to collect data and people’s case studies around Lilongwe. We’re going to ask them some more detailed questions about their lives and how they cope in food shortages, etc., so that we know what issues to focus our advocacy work on, for example. I’m delighted. I kinda feel sometimes here like I don’t contribute anything much to the Centre’s work, so I was actually really proud to be able to do this. Sounds silly, but it’s a big deal to me. It was one of my aims coming out here to be able to have more confidence in my own abilities, so this is like a little step down that road.

Having said that, I’m still learning at a rate of knots. Do any of you know that the average life expectancy in Malawi is 37 years old, as of 2004? And it’s been steadily declining since the late 80s, so it could be even lower now. It’s a frightening thought – if I was Malawian, both of my parents would in all likelihood be dead now. I’m sure my parents would never admit publicly that they are over 37, but I suspect they are… Ha! I’d be middle-aged, myself scream Obviously this life expectancy is somewhat distorted in that well-off Malawians and those in more urban areas would live to much more standard ages, but it still scared me. I hope I’m not becoming in any way desensitized to poverty… I see it every day here, and yet every now and again I learn something new that really throws me. That was one of them.

Quite a few of you have got back to me to say that you liked the photos, which I’m glad to hear! I will hopefully get to take some more soon for you to enjoy! Being the kind of girl that I am, however, I regularly forget my camera when I might need it, so I don’t get to take as many as I’d like due to being a scatterbrains. A lot of people have said that Malawi is a lot greener than you would have expected – and one or two thought I was in a jungle! But alas, I have seen no jungles as of yet I’m afraid! And no crocodiles… though I’m much gladder for not seeing those. I have also learned in my adventures here, that it is a very bad idea to poke a hippopotamus with a stick. Or, as I would have called it as a young wan, a “poppalamus”. I’m not sure poking it with a stick would be the first thing to spring to mind if I met one, but apparently people have done this… and got hurt. So – note to anyone planning on visiting Africa. If you see a hippopotamus, don’t poke it. You WILL be squashed, apparently.

I’m actually in the office as I type this. It’s five to 3, but for me to be kept busy until 3 is practically a miracle. I get on fantastically well with my colleagues here, but unfortunately I’m not sure that my role is really defined enough. I get the odd thing to do like making that survey and analyzing data, but these jobs are sporadic and I find it pretty frustrating to go into the office every morning at 8am and really not know what I am supposed to do… I keep asking, and being given odd jobs, but I’d love to have more of a sense of purpose here, rather than just “helping out”. I’m not really sure where I fit into the equation. I suppose I could have worse complaints about my job, though, so maybe I shouldn’t moan too much!

Photos, at long last!!!

2009-06-08T04:37:00.000-07:00

I can't seem to transfer them on to here, so i'll just give you all the link to my Photobucket account to see them. They're from a variety of different trips and places in malawi, and I hope to upload more over hte coming days, Photobucket's uploader seems to be the only one that's working...

:-D

http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd97/GracieMac_2007/Malawi/

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

2009-06-02T06:44:00.001-07:00

Happy birthday, Daddy!!! Imagine, me remembering someone’s birthday! I know it’s not exactly the right date, but I’m going away tomorrow for another field trip, this time to Michinji, so I might not get another chance soon, and phone is pretty temperamental – like myself!

Happy multiple-21st, Diddy-Papa, hope you have a good one!! I don’t know how you manage to be the same age every single year, but I guess it’s just because you’re special? Have good day anyway, I hear the weather at home is magnificent right now so get out there and enjoy it! Maybe cycle to visit me for a while? Might take you a few months but it would be nice! You’d get a marvellous tan as well...

So – right. What have I been up to lately? Well, good question. Mainly I’ve been preoccupied with being eaten alive by a variety of small insects. Mosquitoes, ants... you name it, it’s probably bitten me. My left ankle, in particular, now very closely resembles a Martian landscape. All red and bumpy... I’m afraid to count them, and the itching is driving me demented, slowly but surely. But sure, it’s better than being bitten by a snake.

I’m trying to keep things in perspective here.

Work-wise, I’m knackered. I have been on more field trips than I can think of off-hand, and boy am I tired. I’m feeling a bit run-down to tell you the truth. It’s been go, go, go for the last few weeks at least, and now I just feel like lying down in a cold and darkened room and hibernating. I’ve had a niggling headache since Sunday evening and I feel roasting hot sometimes and freezing others. Very weird. And my back is sore. And I’m a bit of a “Moaning Michael” today (no offence, little bro!) as a result.

I’m feeling better than I was, though. I think for the last few days, especially, I was just really exhausted emotionally and a bit lonely. I think you never realise just how much you rely on friends and family for support and comfort until suddenly you are utterly without any of them. It’s tough. I’m coping ok though, and I think my mood has picked up a bit today. So thank God for that! I’m feeling a bit more positive.

On a lighter note, though, my good old German buddy is back from doing a tour of various parishes around the country, and one of the dogs here has had a litter of puppies!! Anyone with so much as the vaguest acquaintance with me will know what a sucker I am for anything small and/or fluffy, so you will well know how excited I am by this! It’s almost too much cuteness to behold in one go! There’s EIGHT of them! Not ONE puppy, but EIGHT!!! Eight little fluffy balls of cuteness and love. And the crazy dog is gone – we used to have three adult dogs in the parish, two male, one female, and one of the males was more or less the canine equivalent of a raging sociopath. Seriously, he’d bitten people really aggressively about 4 or 5 times before they eventually got rid of him. I was terrified of him, he was totally loco... but now he’s gone to stay with someone else. Don’t laugh at me! Seriously, he is. That’s what they told me.

Oh, and I’ve been thinking lately about how much I simply CANNOT believe I have been here for over two months already. I think it bodes well for me that it feels like I touched down yesterday – I’d say ye’re all having a ball at home without me, but it surprises me how much time is flying at my end! I have only three and a bit months left here... it’s really strange to think about, because when I left, it felt like I was going to be away for aeons. Turns out time really does fly, when you’re (mostly) having fun.

Mad Ted.

Where's me culture??

2009-05-24T06:13:00.001-07:00

"Where's me culchur?", as we'd say in Cork.

Well, I’m back again from Mua! The cultural training course was fab altogether.

Mua is a really rural, isolated parish near Salima, along the shore of Lake Malawi. Apparently you can see the very edge of the lake in the distance from Mua, but my eyesight must not be the best because I didn’t notice it the entire time I was there. Having said that, I’m not the most observant of persons so that could be it also...! It was really very beautiful, all the diverse plant and animal life of Malawi seems to accumulate there, and the colour and beauty is amazing! I know I keep saying this about various places in Malawi, but it really was stunningly picturesque there.

The four days of cultural training fairly flew. I set out at 7/7.30 am (!) on Monday morning, as it was a 2-hour drive to Mua from Kanengo, and the course was starting at 9.30 am. The drive was pretty uneventful, apart from spotting a random guy walking butt-naked along the side of the road... I think that was the highlight of the trip there, for me anyway. I’m not sure what the driver thought. I thought at first that perhaps he was simply wearing an ensemble close in colour to his skin, but no... it WAS his skin. Apparently, the smoking of a crude form of marijuana called chamba or ham (LOL) is common in the region around Mua, so random people simply high as a kite on this stuff, walking around naked as a jay bird is not entirely uncommon. Makes for an interesting drive though...! There’s something you don’t see on Patrick St.

The course started late, as we were delayed by some German people – uncharacteristically not arriving on time! LOL – any Germans I know are as punctual as clockwork, but not these apparently... We were about an hour late starting due to this, but I suppose it didn’t make any difference in the long run. We had so many coffee breaks during the course of the day that I simply couldn’t be unhappy! There was no Barry’s, but I was content nonetheless!

The course itself was incredibly informative. It was taught by a Canadian priest who has now been living and working in Malawi for 42 years, so before you get cynical about a foreigner teaching a course on Malawian culture, remember that probably means he’s been living here longer than most Malawians, LOL!!

He was very in-depth, I learned an awful lot about tribal tradition in Malawi, the origins of the various ethnic groups present, and their different customs and even languages. We were introduced to Malawian song and dance, and I have to say that the sight of a dozen German and American guys trying to mimic tribal dance certainly brightened my day! My German buddy from the Centre, T, was there too. We got to laugh at each other in turn, it was great! I don’t quite have the natural rythm of Malawian women, I sort of “dad-dance”, so I don’t even want to know what I looked like shaking it like an Ngoni woman.

The only pain in the bum was having to walk about a kilometre or so for dinner in the evenings. The rest of the people taking part in the course stayed in a sort of hostel-type accommodation at one end of the parish. There wasn’t enough room for me, however, so I stayed in the priests’ building, with some more of the White Fathers.

I had my own room, though, so that was nice! The rest of them had to share – ho ho ho... This walk was no problem in the morning for breakfast or about noon for lunch, but dinner was at about 6.30 pm. It gets dark here at about 5.30 or 6, and by 6.30 it’s absolutely pitch black, and of course there are no streetlights, needless to say. And of course, do I have a torch? Would I think of bringing one? No no, that would be far too sensible for my style. So I had to borrow one off the priests and make my way in the darkness.

What is wrong with this, you say? Sure you had a torch, I hear you say? Yes, but a torch is not much good against a pack of dogs or hyenas, both of which reside in Mua... I was jumping out of my skin at every howl, every foot/pawfall! As is always the case, my imagination was in overdrive – I’m a city girl at heart, I think...

Of course, what happened one night but I got locked out of the building. I came back from my friends and dinner at about half 9, only to find the building locked. I knocked and I banged and I banged and I roared, but to no avail. I went around the front... locked. I went around the back where the guard should have been to let me in, again. There was a pack of dogs yowling at each other somewhere nearby, or at least what sounded like dogs, and I was bloody well livid. I’m sure I roared enough to wake the dead. I’d been at this for about 20 minutes when one of the priests came out to rescue me. Says I, “I thought there was a guard?”, and says he, “there is, but he must be asleep”.

Where is he, so I can bloody well swing for him!

Was he sorry? Ah no, no need for that. I heard him say something in Chichewa that sounded like the equivalent of “oh right, yeah. Whoops”. Grrr! Honestly, I thought I shouted enough to wake the dead, never mind the guard... I could have been eaten by hyenas outside the gate and I’d say this guy would have slept through it. Maybe he would have found my chewed leftovers outside the gate in the morning and said “whoops”... Bah humbug.

I’m glad I stayed with the priests though. There was even an Irish priest there as parish priest. I think I might have mentioned him before. He’s from Kerry, but sure we’ll let him off... (bwahahaha) I had a grand old time in the evenings, hanging out in the parochial house eating peanuts and drinking Carlsberg. I tried whiskey as well, but it tasted like horse urine to me to be honest, so I didn’t finish it. Seriously, I thought it tasted like something to disinfect your toilet. Will steer clear in future, I think I prefer my lager...

And, AND – the best bit of all was the last day! We got a real treat, in the form of an entire troupe of Malawian traditional dancers who performed for over 2 hours, in the dances of the various tribal traditions. Wedding dances, war dances, even funeral dances... The clothes were amazing! The men especially were like peacocks with all the coloured feathers... For one of the dances especially, they wore a sort of crown of brightly coloured feathers, with animal skins at their waists and ankles, along with little bells at their ankles to make a jingling noise as they danced. Then they also did a traditional dance called Gule Wamkulu which is very popular and widespread in Malawi. One person wears an elaborate costume meant to represent varying persons or things, and the dances usually have some sort of moral to them. I found it highly amusing, especially when I noted that the one meant to symbolise “white man” was the spit of my dad... he had the glasses and everything... I didn’t know he’d been in the colonial government of Malawi... Daddy, you should have told me about that!

I even bought a beautifully carved statue in the form of one of these warrior-dancers. It’s spectacular! I love the art here, I’ve bought some pieces already and I don’t know how I’ll fit them in the suitcase, but I feel that allowance from Trocaire for excess baggage might have to be used on the way back... LOL! One of the priests back in Kanengo at the Centre has said we could even varnish it with linseed oil to bring out the design more, so that will be great!

Myself and Matt will have to have an “African room” in the house when I get home... This will be the first he’s heard of it no doubt – LOL – but I’m sure I’ll bring him round. Won’t I, darling? :-P

Blomba Part 3

2009-05-17T12:57:00.000-07:00

My hands are getting fatigued from the typing. I hope you people appreciate this, now, because you’ll no doubt be overwhelming me with floods of sympathy after this. Or not...

Like I said before, myself and 2 colleagues were heading to a gig later on the Friday night in Blantyre. It was a reggae gig, with Rita Dominic there. It was very heavily advertised in Blantyre while we were there, and since we weren’t heading back to Lilongwe until the Saturday morning anyway, we said we might as well go! So I went with the driver, and my colleague who was hoping to be a doctor, “N”. I hate using these bloody code names, N sounds like a character from an older Bond film, but sure I never get to ask people if I can use their real names on the internet so code is only fair.

Anyway.

Well, what a bloody fiasco. The doors were meant to open at 8pm. Clearly what they should have written on the tickets, though, was “8pm, African time”. The two are very different things altogether. I thought the Irish were bad for punctuality, and then I came to Malawi, LOL! :-) I’m getting used to that though, so it wasn’t too bad. We arrived on time for 8pm anyway, and took our place in the queue to wait.

No-one else seemed keen on the idea of queuing though, unfortunately. The amount of people skipping the queue was a joke – they just sort of accumulated around the door then, so it was less of a line and more of a blob... Again, though, I could have managed that in itself. But they seemed to be in no rush to open to the single tiny door they were allowing people through, into the venue. I’m sure we didn’t get in until about 9.30, and we were by no means the last in the door, as I will relate to you. We weren’t the last in, but I would have far preferred to be the last in, than to have gotten in the way we did.

Basically, when they eventually did open the tiny door, it was like the crack that broke the dam. It was absolute bedlam – people were shoving their way in, trying to get past the police and security without tickets, trying to barge in, etc etc. And there was me the whole time thinking to myself, “why can’t they all just bloody well queue?” We would have gotten in about 20 times faster if there had been some semblance of order, I’m quite sure of it. They kept opening and closing the doors, alternately letting a few in and then trying to keep them out. So it took bloody forever.

As I approached the top, though, some fookin genius thought it would be a good idea to try and force our way in as a group. Pardon the French, but I don’t know whose inspired thinking this was. I was smack plonk in the middle of the blob around the doors I described to you, so of course; when the group decided to move forward I didn’t have a whole lot of choice. No more choice, I would say, than a leaf has, in what direction the river it lands on decides to go in.

N had to hang on to me around the waist to stop me from getting trampled, because I was probably the smallest person there. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, and some gobdaw in stilettos was standing on my foot. Great. Fantastic start to any evening.

Then, they decided to move to try and shove their way in. I cannot adequately describe to you the discomfort there was associated with this – sort of like being stuck in the midst of a herd of buffalo, I’d imagine, and the buffalo are being chased by something. I actually thought I was going to fall and get trampled. A mosquito couldn’t have fit between people here.

I lost one of my shoes in the fray, and of course I couldn’t retrieve it because I could no more move than fly. Then – surprise, surprise – one of the policemen ended up going mental with the baton to beat people away from the door and restore some semblance of organisation and order. I mean, I don’t know what people expected. I really don’t.

Grrrr.

Long story short, I ended up getting a clatter across the back with the baton myself, and hobbling around the venue with one shoe, trying to avoid the broken glass scattered around the floor. I was insistent on retrieving the lost shoe at any cost, but when I told the venue staff I’d lost it, they asked me to wait until later to get it back. Ha. Fat bloody chance, mate.

I am standing, due to your own lack of organisation and other peoples’ stupidity, in your venue wearing one shoe surrounded by broken glass and a fresh pool of someone else’s blood. Wait for the shoe? Eh, no. I don’t fancy HIV much myself, so waiting is not an option. Get me my bloody shoe. I made quite the pitiable sight, I assure you – standing there barefoot, muddy and sobbing. I wasn’t hurt really, more shocked.

The whole thing was just so farcical – and it was a shame, because I think I would really have enjoyed the music itself if the evening hadn’t got off on such a hairy foot (pardon the pun). I was distracted and downcast for the rest of the night, and to tell the honest truth I was just dying to go home the whole time. I’m able to laugh about it a bit more now though – like I said, I wasn’t actually hurt, and now that I’m over the shock it’s a good story for the grandchildren, as they say at home... :-) I’m still vaguely annoyed, as you may have guessed, about the series of stupid events that precipitated it, but I’ll get over that too.

I’m heading to a place called Mua early tomorrow morning to undergo a cultural training course with another group of the White Fathers – the priests’ order I’m currently staying with – for the next few days. It’s meant to be very good, and I’ve already met a lot of the priests in question from there, so I’m really looking forward to it. Onwards and upwards! I’ll have a good few days, and I certainly won’t let Friday’s fiasco hold me back. There’s even an Irish priest in Mua! I met him a few days ago and surprised myself at how excited I was to hear another Irish accent, LOL!!! They’re all lovely so I’ll be well taken care of, and with any luck come back more able to deal with situation like the one I outlined above! :-D

Blomba Part 2

2009-05-17T12:49:00.000-07:00

Well, we arrived in Blantyre anyway without further incident, thank God.

I think it’s a real mark of how accustomed I am becoming to less-than-luxurious conditions, that when I arrived at our lodge and saw that my room had both electricity and an ensuite, I nearly cried tears of joy! It was dirty and not exactly the Hilton, but heavens above, it had electricity! The joys!!

We settled in, anyway, and the following day we set off in the morning to have a look around Blantyre. Apparently the people who conduct most of the project research in Blantyre are volunteers who only get a lunch allowance, so they work at their normal jobs in the morning and then do the interviews, etc., in the afternoon. So while we waited for them, we got to look around Blantyre. It’s really a very nice city, and in many ways it’s much more developed than Lilongwe. It’s more or less the business and commercial heart of Malawi, more so than the capital. It certainly has much more of a “Western” feel to it in some aspects, what with the big shopping centres and car dealerships and restaurants. I kind of liked that at the time – it was nice in a way to go somewhere where my surroundings were a tad more familiar, in appearance at least.

And I found some makeup! Huzzah!! I can never find makeup in Malawi, it’s all in varying shades of mahogany – for obvious reasons... so, not wanting to look like I’ve fallen face first into a vat of melted chocolate – greedy pig that I am – I wanted something just a touch closer to my natural shade.

People, there was a Revlon shop. A REVLON SHOP!! The tears of joy nearly returned, I practically jumped on the poor bewildered shop assistant! I don’t care what it costs, GIVE ME THE MAKEUP.

So, delighted with myself after this small triumph, I set about my work with the others that afternoon, interviewing households as per normal about rent and basic need costs. It was interesting, and we managed to collect a fair volume of information, so that was fantastic! It didn’t take very long, and soon enough we were off to Zomba, about an hour and a half’s drive from Blantyre. It’s supposed to be a city, but to be truthful it’s more like a town, I don’t know that its size really merits being called a city... it’s is absolutely stunning though. It’s kind of nestled among the feet of the mountains, surrounded by forest and lush terrain.

The vistas we got en route were incredible. I thought it wouldn’t get any better or more picturesque, when we arrived at the lodge we were staying in. It was quite a few hundred feet up the mountain, and as we arrived we drove past papaya trees and cornflowers and palms (I think!). I took so many photos there – we woke up in the morning and the hills and mountains were covered with mist, it was like something out of a film. So beautiful – my only regret is that I really don’t think my photos do it justice, my having only a humble, amateur camera!

I have to say I found Zomba even more interesting than Blantyre, despite its having limited shopping prospects, LOL! We spent the morning interviewing households again, and I got on very well with one of the guys who was doing the research also, a local guy who was hoping to study to be a doctor. He was really nice, we’ll call him N. We went about Zomba interviewing and doing our thang (LOL!!), then we took a spin up – I think – the highest mountain in the area, you could drive right up to the summit almost, where there was a very nice hotel! We had a walk around the hotels’ gardens, and what did we see there only a group of small baboons having a gander? Seriously, I kid you not, there were baboons! I was beside myself! They were hysterical to watch, they’re so cheeky though! Thankfully, however, they were placid and not at all dangerous like the larger baboons can be.

I thought things couldn’t possibly improve on monkeys! They did though – we were just about to get back in the car when who arrives at the hotel only Rita Dominic! Who is Rita Dominic, I hear you ask? Well, she’s only the most famous Nollywood star in Africa! That’s right people, Africa has its own Hollywood, and Nollywood is to Africa what Bollywood is to India. She was very pale, I thought that was a bit funny... but she was very nice, she waved at us and exchanged a few pleasantries. It was gas that we met her when we did, because myself and the other 2 who had come with me had bought tickets to go to an event in Blantyre – a reggae gig featuring the Black Missionaries and Lucius Banda, where she was to be guest of honour. We ended up unable to see her at the event in question because of the crowds, so it was hilarious we met her when we did, and nearly 2 hours away from Blantyre. I mean, what are the chances, in all fairness? Which brings me neatly onto my next post...

:-)

Blomba Part 1

2009-05-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

I’ve decided to call this series of posts (yes, a series) “Blomba”, because I’ve just returned to Lilongwe after spending 5 days between Blantyre and Zomba!

I was on another field trip with my colleagues from the Centre to interview households, and to be honest I was excited about seeing Blantyre especially as I’d heard a lot about it from others, and was anxious to see it. It’s a bit more of a “party town” than Lilongwe, and the architecture was supposed to be more cohesive with a sort of colonial style. I’m a real nerd for architecture – in fact, I’m a real nerd in general, I think it’s fair to say – so I was pretty excited about seeing the place, not to mention seeing more of Malawi than just Lilongwe... it was a 4-5 hour drive, though, so I stocked up on water and provisions and off we set.

There were 3 of us going – myself, the driver, and another lady from the office. We were going to meet the people who are generally responsible for the BNB project in Blantyre, because the project I'm working on is a national thing, when we got there. We would spend 3 days there, then head to Zomba – another major city in Malawi – for 2 days to do further work.

As I said, it was a long drive to Blantyre so about halfway there we decided to stop in a small town for petrol and snacks, and whatnot. (The whatnot especially was delicious, LOL! I love that phrase) I promptly hopped out of the back, but I was stopped by someone. I’m kind of used to this at this stage in time, though, so it didn’t bother me terribly. Especially in rural areas, you really stick out like a sore thumb as probably the only white person they’ve seen in a while. You get a lot of people trying to talk to you and shake your hand and stuff, and usually this is no problem. I got the sense, though, that this guy wasn’t exactly 100%. I’m not sure how best to put that, but he seemed definitely off-centre. I shook his hand, though, and gave him the usual niceties that I give to people I don’t know from Adam, LOL! Only problem was, he wouldn’t let go of my bloody hand...

*sigh*

I looked at the driver, as if to say “erm, help please” and he more or less had to pry my hand out of this guys'. Awkward wouldn’t quite cover it – I got my stuff in the shop though, and came out hoping to make a swift departure. I might have known this would not be the case. My friend was there again! This time, while the driver was very considerately engaging in an extended conversation with one of the petrol attendants, he decided to come over to stroke my face and tell me I was very beautiful. Cheers for the compliment, like, but hands off the face if you please... I was absolutely mortified. This went on for a few seconds, with me performing some sort of limbo, bending-backwards manoeuvre to avoid his hand.

I was just starting to wonder when the driver or someone else was going to intervene, when I got a response to this internal question, only not quite the one I was hoping for.

You see, this guy was quite clearly not right in the head. My colleague said he was probably drunk, but I didn’t get any smell of substances off him, and to be honest he seemed perfectly lucid and able to express himself. He just didn’t seem to have any notion of appropriate behaviour towards a woman you met 2 minutes ago. I know that this stuff is inherently different in Malawi anyway due to cultural issues, but not this much. His behaviour was odd and I suspected that maybe he had mild special needs or was disturbed or something. You know what I mean anyway – so I just kind of hoped for a diplomatic few words about keeping your hands off peoples’ faces. I was sure he didn’t mean any harm, I was just very uncomfortable.

What I got, on the other hand, was a local young fella physically dragging him away, and belting him across the face. Needless to say, I was more upset by this by far than I had been by the face-touching, etc. I was totally shocked, but the poor guy didn’t give up, he kept trying to approach me even after this, and he kept being dragged off. It was all very upsetting really. :-( We made a pretty swift exit after this, though – I for one felt that my presence wasn’t going to do much to help him, since he wouldn’t leave me alone while I was there, and the more he tried to approach me, the more annoyed the others got.

We drove off, at which point they had carried him off by the arms and legs and dropped him into some sort of gutter beside the shop. :-( I nearly cried. I just felt so awful for him – it was difficult to know what to do, but in retrospect things probably calmed down a lot more by my leaving, and I doubt my intervention would have helped much. It just upset me a lot, this guy obviously wasn’t the full shebang and hurting him really wasn’t necessary. I couldn’t stop wondering if he was ok for the rest of the journey, and feeling quite guilty that I’d gotten him into trouble. I wasn’t quite sure how I should have responded, I’m still not, but hopefully he’s ok now...

Soooo... I nearly ate a maggot today.

2009-05-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

Just when I think I’m getting used to this place, something else happens to take me by surprise. I was nearing the end of an absolutely stressful day, after having a lovely meal as per usual with the priests. I thought I felt like a small treat, so I cut a muffin to eat half of it, and I’m offered some orange juice to soak the muffin with, because it’s quite bland. I gratefully accept! I pour the orange juice all over the muffin, go to take a spoonful, and... I notice that the muffin appears to be squirming. The others got a great kick out of my squealing about it, which I suppose is one good thing. But I’m sorry, I’m just not used to finding bioculture in my food!

*gags*

Apparently, apparently there were obviously worms/maggots/squirmy things in the orange when the cook went to press it, and he just didn’t notice. Either way, it certainly helped my diet along because I didn’t feel like eating much after that – it’s times like these I start to pine for the processed comforts of home a little bit :-D

Speaking of processed comforts, how about customer service? I went into town today, with my German guy friend and one of the priests, to have a look around, do a bit of shopping, etc., etc. We ended up going to the Crossroads complex in Lilongwe for a bit of shopping, and my German friend told me that here was a very safe place to take out money, because there were security guards everywhere and so there was very little opportunity for pickpocketing, etc.

So... went to get money out. It is worth bearing in mind that BOTH my ATM card and my Mastercard are supposed to be able to be used anywhere in the world. Apparently, this is not so – I tried to use my ATM first. Nope, no service here. I put my credit card in, and just as I was about to enter my PIN... the machine bloody well swallowed it, didn’t it? My credit card that I keep for emergencies? Yum yum.

I really wanted to get this sorted quickly. I’m paranoid about inconveniencing people, so I was acutely aware of both my friends waiting for me in the car. When I called the security guard to help me, he pointed out a list of numbers of staff contacts for when there are problems. This wasn’t an actual branch, you see, just a kind of room with 2 ATMs in it. I called all 4/5 number on the list. Not one answered. I tried again. 1 answered, then hung up on me. I ended up having to go home for my passport to prove who I was when the card was eventually retrieved, and come back at 5 when I waited another hour for the guy to come and open the safe/vault/whatever and get my card back. Everything just moved so slowly!!

I was so stressed out, I knew that really I’d eventually get it back but it just took so darn long and since there was nobody answering their phone despite being on an on-call list, I couldn’t talk to anyone except the security guard who had little or no English, and didn’t seem to understand half of what I was saying.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Anyway, I got it back!! I just felt really bad that the priests were more or less ferrying me around all evening... Still though, I got to make an accidental complaint about it... I say accidental, because there was another man waiting at 5 who’d had his card swallowed too. He was asking me how I got on when I lost my card, and when I told him no-one had answered their phone it turns out he actually worked for the bank, in another branch! :-D So, I guess at least they know my feelings about their on-call system now!

And I suppose, it could have been worse! German guy – actually from now on, we’ll call him T, because calling him “German guy” is weird – said to me at the time “well, look at it this way... it’s better than somebody taking your card, who is not an ATM”. LOL!! True. A nice way of putting it – he also suggested we might be able to organise a trip to lake Malawi in a few weeks, because he wants to see it as much as I do, which would be absolutely super!! I’m dying to see the lake, but I don’t want to go on my own, so this idea suits me down to the ground. Monkey Bay, here I come!!

Oh, and Mr Baby Gecko’s missus has still not moved in.

My new roommate!!!

2009-05-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read correctly. I have a new roommate.

He is a kind of medium brown colour, eats mosquitos, is scaly, one inch long, and his name is Mr. Gecko, or Mr. Baby Gecko. He's adorable!! I would never have thought I'd grow fond of a lizard of any kind, but this little fella tickles my fancy because he's harmless, and best of all he eats the bloody mosquitos that have tormented me since my arrival. Oh, how I loathe mosquitos, as Shakespeare once said, let me count the ways...

So, yes. I spotted him yesterday, on the wall across from me, looking down as if to say "What are you doing in my room, hairy pink creature?" I had no answer to this question, I could only apologise. But we quickly struck some common ground in our shared war against mosquitos, and after sharing our stories and tales of home, we became friends. Mr. Baby Gecko is a tad young to have children of his own, but he says his parents have set him up with this great lady Gecko who's fabulous looking and really knows how to prepare a hearty mosquito-based meal. She hasn't moved in with us yet, but he says she really won't mind my presence, as for their romantic times they can commandeer the space between the wall and the futon. To spare my discomfort, you know. Geckos have manners too.

Anyways.

Apart form gecko-based adventures, I've also had a few minibus-related ones... Minibuses here are quite entertaining. You're stuffed into a banged-up, 20-year-old Toyota Hiace van with what look suspicously like benches stuck into them, like some sort of human sardine tin. Then you bounce, not drive, the 20km or so into Lilongwe, clinging on to the seats in front, the people in front, the seat you're on, the roof, the window, anything for dear life. It's not for the faint-hearted, I assure you. There's no such thing as seatbelts, and if the last few days have been anything to go by, there's no such things as rules of the road either. The driving here is mental! People overtake at speed around bends, over the crest of hills, where there's poor visibility, etc... you kinda feel like you're taking your life in your hands every time you get into a vehicle here...

But, nonetheless, they're the easiest and most convenient way of getting around here, and Area 25 where I'm currently staying is so far out form the centre (about 20 - 25km) that I would never get to do anything, see anything, without them. I went into Lilongwe city today, with a German guy also staying in the accomodation I'm in. He's training (I think) for either the priesthood or the monastery, but he's absolutely great fun. I got to have a look around town, suss out where all the shops were, where to get off the minibus on the way there and back, and was instructed on where to avoid if i don't want to get robbed/pickpocketed/mugged. This guy had a rather unfortunate experience in Nairobi so I guess he knows what he's talking about first-hand! I however, have absolutely no desire to know about mugging first-hand, and nor am I the most streetwise of all folk, so I accepted this instruction gratefully!!

I'm heading back in to town tomorrow to jog my memory and make sure I remember my bearing for when I won't have help from aforementioned German guy :-D Also, I need to get some more clothes because I didn't bring enough. That's the excuse I'm using, anyway...

I bloody hate mosquitoes

2009-04-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

That is all for now.

Market Research!!!

2009-04-24T08:28:00.000-07:00

Wohooo!!!! I've been doing looooooads of this over the past 3 days!

The organisation I'm working with does an ongoing programme entitled the "Basic Needs Basket". The research I was describing in my earlier post was a new measure to try and extend this same programme, which has been running in urban centres in Malawi for years, into rural areas. What they do is they spend 3 days to a week going around various urban marketplaces - we did 9 over the last 3 days - and get quotes for, say, potatoes, onions, fish, vegetables, etc sufficient to feed a family of 6 for a month. They then publish this information, and compare it to people's actual incomes on a monthly basis. I've been asking lots of questions about it since I started and the disparity between the cost of living here and the amount people actually make is shocking!!

It's now estimated that it costs just under 50,000 Malawian Kwacha (approx. 250 euro) per month to feed an average family of 6. By way of contrast - a shop assistant at a popular supermarket here earns about 3,000 MK - 8,000 MK per month (approx. 15 - 40 euro). I'm not kidding - they've actually asked people this, this is what they get paid. A police officer gets between 15,000 MK and 30,000 MK a month (75 - 150 euro). So, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the majority of Malawians fall depressingly short of earning enough to fulfil their basic needs. The government-designated minimum wage here is the equivalent of a couple of cent per day.

So, armed with my sunhat - which was a pain in the bum to lug around with me - my sunglasses and a big bottle of Factor 50+, off I set to scour the marketplaces for the best value spuds I could find! I had a great time - I know I keep raving about my colleagues here but they really are fantastic. I've learned some basic Chichewa from them already - "Moni" (Hello/general greeting), "Muli Bwanji?" (How are you?), "Ndili Bwino, kainu?" (Im fine, how are you?), "Zikomo Quambiri" (Thanks very much), "Dapita" (Goodbye), "(Mu)Ana" (child/children). I'm probably after spelling ALL of those wrong, but then, I have seen none of this written down, I'm just learning how to say it so I'm probably spelling it all very phonetically. I'm hoping to get lessons soon!

The kind of foods they eat has been a real eye-opener! Almost all of the fish they eat is dried, which I hadn't really encountered before I came here. And they're so TINY!! They eat this kind of dried fish, heads and all, called kapenta - it's a pale beige colour and bout half an inch long, they often mix it with tomato paste, apparently, and eat them whole. They're supposed to be delicious, but I haven't tried them yet. I might be convinced sometime, but I'll have to work up the courage :-D Some of the larger fish have been guteed and opened up to dry, and to be honest they look more gruesome than appetising, but they're cheap so people eat them. No lemon-and-herb crusted sole fillets on a bed of Cos lettuce for these people. Oh no - but it's still interesting to see!

One thing a colleague of mine bought that it very popular in Malawi, which I will decidedly NOT be sampling, is mphalabungu. To cut a long, gross story short, it's a type of dried tree worm that, en masse, greatly resembles the droppings of a tiny mammal. "Ew ew ew ew" would sum up my reaction to it, at the time. My colleagues thought it was hilarious, my process of initial curiousity, followed swiftly by absolute revulsion. Needless to say, my curiousity didn't quite stretch to a bowl of mphalabungu stew or something. Another one I won't be trying, but which we didn't see at market, is ngumbi, a kind of giant white ant that I understand tend to be spit-roasted before eating. Both are supposed to be quite tasty, but I think I'll opt for taking my colleagues' word for it...

But I've learned a lot, even in such a short time! I've had conversations with people in situations I'm still struggling a bit to get my head around, and I think that I'm beginning to come to an understanding of the reality of abject poverty that I never could have obtained through study at college. To add to this, a lot of what I read about it in an academic context seems to make a bit more sense to me, now that I have a practical grasp of the issues involved too, so that's great. It is hard - there's no getting across to someone who hasn't seen it, what it's like to speak face-to-face with someone who laughs hysterically when you ask them how much (on average) they spend per month on the hairdresser. Not my question, I might add!! But regardless of what anyone might say, I think it's good to be affected by it, to some extent.

Before I got this gig with Trocaire, I had an interview for another placement in Kenya where I was asked to outline my biggest weakness. I always think this is such a ludicrous question - I mean, who really answers this honestly in an interview context?? "Well, I'm a complete scatterbrain and I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on" would be a completely honest answer, LOL! But another one I thought of, which didn't make me sound like a dithering idiot, was my sensitivity. In a sense, I think it's both a strength and a weakness. I'll be perfectly honest, I'm an enormous softie. I cry at films, I cry at book, I cry at songs, I cry at stories on the news, I cry at pictures... the list goes on. I find it very hard to see people scrape a living out of the ground, living in a dwelling made entirely of mud and grass, with no food, what little clothes they have torn and ragged, little or no access to medical treatment, sick and hungry and tired, and grateful for the kind of things I take for absolute granted - and not feel like crying from sadness and a little bit of niggling guilt.

I am convinced that telling them this lost me the placement. They had been really positive about me up to that point, and I suppose that to an extent I can understand where they are coming from in not wanting a huge softie on placement with them. But I in no way meant that I was going to spend the entire 6 months in hysterics and not doing anything constructive. I simply meant that I can't view poverty dispassionately. I don't think this makes me a great person - I just think I need to get up off my ass and do something with my passion. Why is it considered a bad thing to be sensitive about this? I don't know. Personally, I think a great deal more harm than good has been done by those who view poverty entirely in an empirical, macro-economic sort of way, like a series of numbers and statistics on a page. How can you hope to solve the issue of poverty if you don't feel the urgency of it, or if you don't understand its personal aspect?

M'eh. I'm whinging again - sorry, I've been doing a lot of that lately! Big shout out to my friend Savannah with her Fairtrade sugar from Malawi! Both Fairtrade sugar and Savannah rock my socks!!

I think that's all for today, my fingers hurt. :-D

The Football Match

2009-04-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

Well, last Saturday - on my first weekend in my new accomodation within the campus of the partner organisation I'm now working with - I was invited out by a colleague to see a bit of local football. Not just any old football now, but the semi-finals of the President Bingu wa Mutharika cup, between Lilongwe Silver Strikers and Blantyre Escom! Not that that meant a whole lot to me, I'm not normally remotely interested in football :-) But nonetheless, I thought, why not? It would be interesting to see a local game, and maybe get a bit more accustomed to the city centre while I was at it.

I actually really enjoyed it! I had been unsure about coming - this was the day after my sickness on the field trip in my last post, and I was still feeling decidedly un-kosher!! But I put on my sunhat and a pair of sunglasses and braved the Lilongwe heat anyway. We were not sitting in the VIP stands - though tickets were about the equivalent of 5 euro each and I could easily have afforded it, LOL!! But no, we were in the normal open-air seating, and I tell you now I couldn't have stood out more like a sore thumb if I was 8 feet tall and green with purple spots. I was a bit self-conscious at first, but I soon eased into it - apart from everyone being eager to know which team the azungu was here to support - *pffftttt!!!* - I didn't really wan't to say "I don't give a monkeys", so I decided I was supporting the local Silver Strikers.

They lost though... LOL! I probably cursed them with my support, poor things. It was a good match, though, from what I gathered in my extremely limited knowledge of football stuff, offside rule and whatnot.

What I found really funny at first, though, was the cheerleaders. That's what I dubbed them anyway!! Apparently, these gangs of about 20 or 30 men, one for either team, are paid to walk around the innermost ring around the pitch, chanting slogans for their team - most of which is entirely ad-lib - and waving the team scarves, etc. Generally to get the crowd going. You get the idea. They were very entertaining! Basically, the regular seating was just like ring upon ring of giant stone steps that people sat on, and this innermost ring was slightly cordoned off from the rest of the rings.

To get to the bathrooms, however, you had to walk around the pitch in precisely this innermost ring, and therein lay my problem halfway through the game. I'm currently drinking a ferocious amount of water to prevent dehydration - I'm aiming for 3 litres a day - and as the Frenchman once said in the Matrix Reloaded, "cause and effect, my love - I drank too much wine, now I must take a pees". Well, I really needed a "pees" halway through, and myself and my colleague had rather unfortunately positioned ourself precisely adjacent to the toilets. I was going to have to walk through the cheerleaders...

My colleague insisted on escorting me as far as the bathroom. I thought, at first, that this was probably unnecessary as I was pretty confident I'd manage to find my way to the giant sign marked "TOILET" all by myself. Ah, Grace, silly silly Grace...

Well, it rather quickly transpired that his presence was extremely useful! I eventually had to pass through this gang of locals, whereupon they instantly took up the booming chant in Chichewa - "the azungu has joined us! Look, the azungu supports our team!!" etc, etc - something along those lines, and crowding around me and stuff. Well - apart from being more absolutely MORTIFIED than I ever recall being in my adult life, I was also more than a little intimidated, not to mention ticked off, at this massive gang of guys who basically wouldn't get the hell out of the way and let me pee! My poor, beleagured colleague more or less had to bulldoze my way out of the group, up the steps, and take me around the stadium on the outside, to use the bathrooms of the VIP area.

I was ticked off, but hey... I got to pee! plus I got to use the "VIP" toilets without paying, which they let me do for free, more or less solely because I was white (well, there was no chance of me sneaking into the seating unnoticed, LOL!!!). So, drama was over, and my colleague was very good about it. I think he was probably just embarassed for me, though it wasn't really necessary - I don't think anybody meant to be intimidating, it was just a tad annoying...

Anyway, all's well that ends well. And as we all know, all is fair in love and football.

So this is how it went

2009-04-19T02:22:00.000-07:00

Well. Let me tell you all, I had quite the experience. Whether it was good or bad, largely depends on how you look at it. I certainly had an experience I won’t be forgetting for some time. I saw a lot of things I will never forget, but unfortunately they were seen through the rather distorted lens that comes with being very ill. This is a long one, so bear with me!

I set off Thursday afternoon, as planned – myself, and four men who work for the centre. I was the only one who didn’t speak Chichewa, so one of them came as my translator. The journey was long and fairly arduous, certainly longer than the 2 hours I had expected. I had a bit of a headache, but didn’t want to take anything or drink too much water because I foolishly thought that if I drank too much I’d just end up dying for the bathroom halfway there. Peeing alongside the road isn’t quite so easy as a girl, you know. LOL

I managed quite well to amuse myself, however, with gaping at the stunning vistas as we were passing through hills and valleys, town and markets and tiny villages. We weren’t going to do any interviews until the following morning, so when we got to our destination we dumped our things in our two different accommodations – as the only girl, I stayed with the local nuns – then we headed to a restaurant for something to eat at about 7pm.

Now, the word restaurant probably conjures up pictures in your mind’s eye of Nando’s or Wagamama’s or something. This was neither. This was a tiny, tiny place obviously run and operated by a local family, and it had a very limited menu – basically tea and 2-3 different nsima (prn. “seema”) dishes. I chose nsima ya nkhuku, chicken with nsima. Nsima is very much a staple food in Malawi – absolutely everyone eats it – made from maize flour, with a sort of porridgey or mashed-potatoey texture. It’s quite bland to taste, like rice or couscous, but with the chicken dish I was served with, it was delicious. I had been told earlier that nsima can be very hard on the stomach that is not accustomed to it, but unfortunately I very much underestimated the truth of this statement, and ate away happily.
I paid for my folly the next day.

Basically, the following 24 hours revolved around throwing up, resting in the car, trying to eat something, then throwing up again. For anyone ever heading to Africa in future – approach nsima with caution, if it’s your first time, only have a little bit. I did do the interviews, but they didn’t start off well. I hadn’t slept much the night before, so I was tired. When we got to the first village, I quickly had to find the first pit latrine I came across, where I promptly gacked up everything I’d eaten for the previous 24hrs or so. I’m sure I made quite the impression on the locals... or not.

I feel kind of disappointed, really, in that I’m sure I would have enjoyed the whole experience a lot more if I hadn’t been sick. I was absolutely miserable the whole time, and my colleagues were just worried about me. The combined nausea, the vomiting, the now agonising headache, the dehydration, the exhaustion, the hunger and the fact that it was bloody ROASTING and I’d forgotten both my sunhat and sunglasses, really made for a pretty nightmarish few hours. I felt like I was going to faint on more than one occasion while interviewing people, and when I got back at approximately 5pm on Friday, I went to bed and slept until about 8am the following morning, and then I still wasn’t feeling kosher.

Having said that, I had to acknowledge certain positives to the whole experience, even through my foggy veil of thorough miserableness :-D LOL!! The local people in the villages welcomed me with so much enthusiasm and warmth that I couldn’t help but be touched by it, no matter how sick. The conditions in which some of them were living were truly shocking, and yet when I arrived with my translator, they would go to so much pain to ensure that we had a mat – probably the only one they had – to sit on! Also, what I had underestimated, apart from the mighty stomach-churning power of nsima, was just how much of a novelty I would be to the local people, especially the children.

The children were probably the best aspect of the whole event. They are, without a doubt, absolutely the most perfectly beautiful little creatures you could ever, ever possibly imagine. Anyone who knows me personally is well aware of how fond I am of children in general, but to me, these precious little things represented all that I love about human beings. They were a perfect blend of shyness and curiousity, guileless friendliness, innocence and playfulness. They would get so excited by this azungu (“white person”), smiling at them or waving at them. I even ventured a “Muli Bwanji?” (“How are you?”) with some of them, and although several of them nearly ran away in fright when I spoke, they were delighted. I absolutely adored them, I can’t describe to you how beautiful I found them. I was surprised by just how interested they were in me, though.

I suppose I am so accustomed to my own whiteness, that it didn’t occur to me that it should be interesting to these kids!! But lo and behold, I would step out of the car and immediately more or less every child in the village would be by my side semi-instantaneously. I loved it though :-D it really made my day. And in a funny sort of way, so did the care of my colleagues while I was sick. Africans, generally, are capable of so much warmth, with a lot less of the guile and polite sort of standoffishness I associate with home. The guys were so genuinely concerned about my health, and they took such good care of me, offering me drinks and giving me their hats to keep me cool, etc. I was well cared for, anyway!

Africa has been such a mixed bag so far – there are aspects of it which I honestly love, and those which I am still struggling to come to terms with. The villages were, as I expected, a shock to my senses. I have seen mud huts innumerable times in pictures and in books, and yet somehow it still came as a shock to me that people actually live in these tiny buildings made from mud, with no windows, no electricity, no running water, no locks, nothing. I can’t imagine how to explain why this is still shocking to me. Possibly because the reality of it was always so distant, it never really occurred to me to think how I would feel, if it were myself and my family living in these conditions, rather than just accepting the existence of some sort of parallel dimension where it’s normal or ok for people to live like this.

Anyway, I could go on forever about my first field trip, so I’ll try to stop now. Suffice to say that whatever impression this azungu left on the people of Kalulu village, it’s nothing compared to that which they have left upon me!

Getting stuck in!!

2009-04-15T06:27:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Well, what a few days I've had since I posted last. It's been nice up until now, mostly introductions with the people I'll be doing most of my work with, getting the feel for my surroundings, etc. It' been enjoyable, apart from a spell of homesickness over the last few days.

I'm sort of, you could say, being thrown in the deep end today. I'm going with a few others out into one of the rural districts within about 50-60kms of Lilongwe. That will no doubt entail lots of bouncing around like a ping-pong ball in the back of a 4X4, but at least it's not too far away!! Once we get there, we'll be interviewing poor households about how the bridge the gap between the cost of living - which has taken a jump of about 30-40% since last year - and their income. This is something the organisation have been doing for years in urban areas, as it's easier to easure there. They simply go around the markets to monitor the price of basic food staples, as well as the cost of basic rent and heat, etc, then compare it to people's wages to see the defecit.

It's easy enough to measure in urban areas, but once you get ot into rural Malawi, this gap becomes considerably harder to measure. To begin with, only 15% of Malawi's population are in formal employment, and these are virtually all city-based civil servants, etc. So, the rural population gets what little income they do from more diverse sources than a paid wage, and it's harder to measure. To add to this, while the urban population buys almost all food in the local market - making prices easy to measure - rural populations grow some food, trade some, pool some, and buy very little. So it's considerably more complicated.

So, basically I am very nervous about it. I have visions of me making the most enormous gimp of myself in the village - it still disconcerts me to see people in the city wearing ragged clothes with no shoes on, begging, and since most of Malawi's most abject poverty is concentrated in rural areas like the one I'm heading to, I can only assume that it's going to be quite a shock to my senses.

It sounds stupid, but I'm actually quite nervous about meeting these people, in and of itself. I'm still adjusting to the culture shock of Africa as a whole, and I'm afraid that I will be so utterly unable to relate adequately to these people and their lives that my input into the programme will not be worthwhile. I want to toe the delicate line between sympathy for their obviously difficult situations, and having respect for their dignity as human beings. Not being incredibly patronising, basically. I'm still not totally sure where that line is... I suppose I'll just have to be as friendly and open as possible, and pay attention to the other interviewers, who are all local guys with lots of experience. So I'll just have to watch them like hawks at first, LOL!!!

I'll let you all know how it went as soon as I can when I return!

Finger crossed for me en masse, please!

My First Few Days

2009-04-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

Well, they’ve been pretty good actually!

I’m just starting to get settled in, and so far I am really loving it.

I just want to first state that today is my beloved fiancé Matt’s birthday. I really hope he is having the best day imaginable and that God blesses him mightily, today and for the rest of the year. Happy birthday my darling. I am not ashamed to say, you are my sugar dandy!!! It’s also my friend April’s birthday, and since I know she’ll be reading this – Happy Birthday April!!! :-D

As I said in my previous post, I was met at Lilongwe airport by the Trocaire driver, a local man named Blessings who is an absolutely lovely guy. He helped me out with my bags and we set out post haste for (one of) my bosses’ house. I say one of my bosses, because I’ll be working not only with Trocaire, and so under their supervisors’ instructions, but also I’ll be doing a lot of work with one of their partner organisations. I headed, however, to the home of my Trocaire boss and his family.

I am struck, even so early on in my stay, by how much kindness I have been met with since I got here. I believe I am going to have some shared accommodation sorted out late on, but at this stage I am staying in my bosses’ home. They have spared no effort in making me as comfortable as possible, showing me around Lilongwe, telling me more of what I will be doing, and of course letting me use their computer to post this! :-)

Lilongwe, it appears, is incredibly difficult to navigate until you are very familiar with it. It is spread out over miles upon miles – there are no footpaths except in the very, very centre – there are little or no roadsigns, and the average driver seems to follow no code of conduct/rules of the road whatsoever. You would pretty much have to either have a very good map, a driver, or a photographic memory to navigate it. I don’t have the map or the memory, so thank God for the driver! LOL!!

It is incredibly hot, too. It isn’t even summer here, though, because we are in the Southern hemisphere. We’re actually heading into winter, but still the heat is making me drowsy a lot. I hope I’ll get more used to it, or I’m going to need a couple of gallons of coffee every single day! The sunshine is cheering, though, and the people are friendly, and these things more than compensate.

It’s rained more than you’d imagine it would in Africa. Before I left, Matt was telling me that it would be rainy season in April, whereas I insisted that it wouldn’t be. As is transpired, we were both right. The rains are still here alright – but they shouldn’t be.

I was shown around the offices on Friday, where I got talking to a local man who works there. He said that the rains should have stopped a month ago here in Malawi, but due to climate change the weather patterns have gone haywire. Apparently, rainy season used to be something you could really depend on here. You knew when it would start, and when it would finish. It was predictable, and the 80% of Malawi’s population who depend entirely on agriculture to survive would plant and harvest their crops accordingly. Now, though, climate change is pushing people who were already on the breadline, over the line into starvation, debt and further struggle because what little crops they could produce, are being ravaged by erratic droughts, floods and storms where previously they had stable, predictable weather patterns.

I guess it was something of an eye-opener to me. I know that in Ireland we’re aware of climate change, and it’s something we think about occasionally. But good grief. It’s just such a stark distinction. At home, climate change is something we think we can afford to ponder at our leisure, a sort of abstract concept we think about on a logical level but feel no sense of urgency about. Here, climate change is killing people. It is actually killing people. I mean, I really never grasped the scale, the importance of it until now, and I would have considered myself interested in the subject as people go anyway! It’s a devastating thought for me. I don’t blame people at home, really, for being complacent about it – in a way, I think you would have to see its effects here to understand the urgency of the matter – but I just wish I could grab the shoulders of the developed world collectively and give them a good shaking!! Look, just look at what we are doing!

*sighs*

I don’t know what I’m going to be like at the end of the six months, if four days is enough to produce this much astonishment in me. I don’t think it will be bad, though, for me to open my eyes. In fact, I think it will be one of those things where the pain of realisation produces greater understanding. And as much as I know it’s going to hurt, I’m looking forward to it. Does that sound preachy? It probably does, LOL :-D Sorry!

The Journey Here

2009-04-05T06:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I’m here!

I’ve finally arrived in Lilongwe. And thank God I say, because I wasn’t always convinced during the course of the journey here, that I would complete it. This is a very long spiel, but bear with me because I think it’s really worth it.

To begin with, the delightful folks at Aer Fungus (sorry, Lingus) wouldn’t allow me on the plane because of visa complications. Oh joy! Cue much panicking on my part – I had to ring Trocaire, who in turn rang the travel agents, who in turn altered my flight itinerary to coincide with what Aer Lingus were telling me. I was assisted in all of this by the most lovely woman imaginable, whom I’d get chatting to in the queue for check-in. She took it upon herself to help me carry my (HEAVY) bags across the airport to somewhere I could sit down and charge my phone, bought me a drink of water – though I could probably have done with something stiffer at that point – calmed me down, and then helped me drag my bags all the way back across the airport to check in again.

Isn’t the random kindness of strangers amazing? Doesn’t it just make your day, month, year? This woman was an angel! And thanks in part to her help, I eventually got checked in and everything was sorted. The drama - the suspense, the action! - of my journey was not over yet though. Oh no.

I had been a bit concerned, on seeing my itinerary for the first time, about the fact that they had only allowed me an hour between my 1st flight arriving into Amsterdam, and my 2nd flight leaving it. Excluding the 20 minutes early I would have to be in order to get there before the boarding gate closed, I would have 40 minutes left to find the gate I was at, get my stuff together, and get on my 2nd plane. My luggage for the entire journey was going straight from plane to plane, rather than me checking it in and out every time, so I really needed to get the flights I was scheduled to take.

But guess what. My Aer Fungus flight was delayed. Guess how much by?
An hour. MY hour. My bloody precious hour which was all I had to catch the 2nd plane. I thought I was going to cry. I could feel it coming. I looked at my phone as the plane waited to taxi in to Amsterdam, only to see that the time for the boarding gate to Nairobi to close had already passed... I got that sinking feeling you get, when you know that something you really need is totally out of reach. There was no way I’d get that plane. The only way I’d get on would be if it just so happened to also be delayed, by at least half an hour/40 minutes. I resolved to find the gate, just on the off-chance.

I’d forgotten, in the 4 years since I’d been there last, just how bloody BIG Amsterdam airport is. My boarding gate was literally about as far as possible from the one I entered through, and Sonia O’ Sullivan would have been proud of the gut-wrenching sprint I performed across the airport, shoving my way through hordes of daft tourists taking photographs of themselves on the escalators. Who the hell takes a photo of themselves on an escalator?? I ask you.

Anyway. I got to the gate and nearly cried again. This time, though, it was from joy. The flight had indeed been miraculously delayed by 45 minutes, and the queue to board was just forming as I got there. *Sniff* I looked up at the ceiling. “Seriously, God... Nice one” I would have said it aloud had I still been able to breathe.

It got better yet. There was free wine with the plane meal!!! Some of you reading this may not drink a lot, or at all. Nor do I, usually. But after the evening’s events, I felt a glass of Famille de Castillo 2007 reserve Merlot, was quite in order. As usual, 1 glass was quite sufficient to send old Two-Drink Tess here into a stupor, and the rest of the 9-10 hour flight passed by on a breeze.
Now, had that been the entirety of the good fortune I enjoyed on my journey, I would have been perfectly content with it. I’d been pretty darn blessed so far, and I was well on my way to Lilongwe.

I had one more flight to catch, and that was Nairobi – Lilongwe. I eventually navigated my way to it through Nairobi airport, which by the by, is an experience in and of itself. It’s more bloody confusing than trying to solve a Rubix cube when you’re colourblind. In fact, you’d probably have more chance with the Rubix cube.

I had been nervous before I went away, about missing the church I go to at home, and the fact that I probably wouldn’t be able to go to one while I was over. I wouldn’t know where to start looking for one, and I usually prefer to choose anything important based on personal recommendation than anything else. I’d more or less consigned myself to just bringing over some Christian music and books, and trying to feed myself spiritually as much as possible.

On the final flight, however, I was sitting next a very pleasant man from England, who was also heading to Lilongwe. He got chatting to me first, and asked me what I was doing in Lilongwe, how long I was staying, etc. You get the idea, small talk. He seemed very nice, and eventually out of curiosity I asked him what he was heading to Lilongwe for. I actually felt like bursting out laughing when he told me.

He was a travelling pastor. He spent a lot of time between England, and the cities of Lilongwe and Blantyre, also in Malawi. He came over as a guest speaker to churches he had contacts with in both cities, and when I said that I went to a similar type church at home, he duly supplied me with the email of the main pastor for his contact church in Lilongwe. I am so, so delighted about this, I can’t tell you enough how bowled over by God’s grace I was. I mean seriously, how many pastors can there have been on that plane? Not only that, but normally I would never chat to the people sitting next to me on planes – not that I don’t like to, but I usually prefer to read or sleep. It was an amazing, miraculous answer to so many prayers. I actually would not have dared to hope for something like this, I’m actually blown away...

This man was such a gent. When we got off the plane, he helped me out with the immigration forms and waited until I got all my bags before he headed off. I was so grateful to him, I was really nervous at this stage and he was so helpful. I eventually got everything together in my final destination, and it all came together when I was met in the arrivals hall of Lilongwe airport by the Trocaire driver. A lovely local guy, shall I tell you his name? You’ll understand how hilarious it was to me, when I do.

His name was Blessings.

It's Lilongwe to Tipperary, folks.

2009-03-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

*snort*

That title is a nod to my wonderful dad, who decided a few days ago that it would be hilarious to rejig the lyrics of that old favourite, "It's a long way to Tipperary". I'm sure the humour of these revamped lyrics will keep me going for the plane journey to Lilongwe, at least.

I'm flying tomorrow!! I left my beloved family and fiancé behind me on Sunday, 2 days ago, to come up here to Kildare for training. I've learned a bit more about what my role will be exactly in Lilongwe - I'll be focusing on sustainable livelihoods. That's basically ensuring that people have the capacity to fulfil their own needs well into the future rather than just doling out handouts to them. It's like that old saying, "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and you feed him for life." Something like that, except that obviously I'm not in a position to teach anybody to fish, LOL! More... facilitating their fishing. Providing the rods, perhaps? The fishing can be their idea!

You all get the gist anyway, I'm sure. I've absolutely loved my time in Kildare - the preparation I've had by Trócaire has been superb. The really have briefed us thoroughly on just about every possible scenario that may arise, plus given us literature on security and stuff. I just have to say how amazed I am thus far by how kind Trócaire have been to myself and my two classmates who have been placed with them. The whole situation is a bit overwhelming to me as I have never been to a developing country before, but they've pretty much covered everything. I really, really landed on my feet with this placement :-) so I shall count my blessings whenever I am feeling low.

You'll all have to forgive me if this post is a bit incoherent and/or rambling at times, as I've just started my course of malaria tablets and I'm as high as a bloody kite. I feel slightly nauseous and dizzy, but other than that I'm fine. I intend to take it easy tonight. My two classmates have both left as one is flying out at 6am tomorrow (!!), so he's staying with friends in Dublin, and the other's not going for some time. So I am all alonesome here in Maynooth tonight. Tomorrow, Trócaire are going to cover my taxi fare from here to Dublin airport. I was absolutely gobsmacked, I thought I'd have to make my own way by train or bus. It certainly makes things easier, but feckit... like I said, I landed on my feet with them. And that's an understatement.

I feel very productive and proud of myself today!!! Well, sort of. Maybe just "productive by comparison"... I set up my phone and internet banking today and organised for my credit card payments to be made entirely by direct debit. I hope not to have to use my credit card in Malawi, but if I need emergency funds, it's much easier for my parents to deposit moolah in my account than to pay off my card without the card, if yanno what I mean. My mum and dad are probably reading this with some alarm - I won't ask for money unless it's an emergency, I promise!!! :-) They will understand, at least, that doing all of this within a single 24-hour period is remarkable organisation by my standards. *cough*

You should see the photo for my Trocaire ID though, people. Yes, that's right, I get an ID. I am very busy and important, you know. So much so that I nearly typed "busty" there instead of "busy" - there's no need for that, most of you have seen my cleavage! *lol* actually no, make that *laugh*. I abhor the LOL, it's very cheesarific altogether. Anyway. Yes. My ID.

Basically I look like a crack addict. I was NOT, in my defence, told that photographs would be taken today - so my hair is dishevelled, I have spot on my face and a cold sore, my nose looks like a beak, and I have dark circles under my eyes. I look like someone who's coming off methadone, cold turkey. I have that haunted, lacklustre look in my deadened eyes... That, combined with the flipping suitcase stuffed with about 50 packs of drugs (malaria tablets!!!), will hopefully not a customs arrest make. That would NOT be something to *lol* about. Even though I know many of you would anyway, you misery sods. :-D

Anyway, I won't get arrested. I hope.

*think positive*

2 days to go...

2009-03-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

Oh dear goodness...

I'm sitting here in Savannah's house on a Friday night. I'm watching the film "W." about George W Bush, which incidentally is rather funny...

What's freaking me out, though, is the fact that on Sunday, I am heading up to Kildare for training before I fly out on Wednesday. Effectively, I am saying goodbye to everyone I know - my family, my fiancé Matt, my friends - in less than 48 hours. I've known this was coming for quite some time, but right now I'm starting to feel quite emotional.

Matt's engrossed in the film, and I'm currently watching him scratching his nose with more affection than I would have considered possible :-D I'm going to miss him so much... no hugs. No hugs at all, for 6. whole. months.!!!

Excuse me while I go cry in a corner.

On a more positive note, I started my packing today. Yes... today. Just today. But I shall be glad to bring with me a beautiful handmade comfort blanket sent to me by my friend Rebecca. She made it herselfs! She is SUPER talented, really she is! And everytime I snuggle my blanket, I shall think of home, and all of the lovely people who'll be waiting for me when I get back.

I mean, honestly, I'll probably love it when I get over there. I have heard it from so many people that Africa is such an amazing place, and that Malawi especially is beautiful. A part of me is just niggling away at the excitement. We shall see how it turns out though! I'm sure everything will be fine, I'm just being stoopid! LOL!!!

Just to re-motivate myself, I am going to post a few pictures of the gorgeous country I am going to be posted in, courtesy of Google - LOL:

Hello!!!

2009-03-22T09:17:00.000-07:00

This is my first post! It's another week before I head off, and the butterflies are in full swing! I'm going to miss a lot of people while I'm away!

It's an absolutely gorgeous day outside in Cork and it's probably bordering on the sinful to be inside here blogging, but I just want to say thank you to all of you, all the people who have supported and encouraged me ever since we found out where I was going. I feel much more peaceful even since this morning, when so many of you at Grace Christian Fellowship prayed for my protection and blessing in Malawi. I know that God will be with me through all of this; He's seen me through much more difficult things than homesickness, and I know in my heart of hearts that I am going exactly where He wants me to go.

It's hilarious that I actually got this placement - I really, really wanted it! I had endured several interviews before I got to this one for Trocaire, and the interview for the placement I ultimately got was by far the one I was least prepared for :-D it was just one of those days! I woke up late, I missed my initial interview slot *scream* and had little time to read through the job description again before I went in. But I got it! And when I read the description again after the interview, it described my skills and attitudes to a tee. I really think this will be a great placement for me :-)

Anyway, I wanted to keep up this blog because I know there are quite a few of you who would like to be kept up to date on my progress, how I'm doing, etc. and I thought a blog would be a great way of keeping you all up-to-date, even if I've never had a blog before! :-) I shall be putting piccies up along the way too, if I can manage it! Technology is slightly allergic to me, as some of you may well know...

Hopefully, anyway, I'll manage to keep this blog entertaining enough and not blabber on, as I am occasionally wont to do... :-D Hahaha!!! But I am going to miss you guys... so this is how I shall stay in touch! Of course, if any of you want to email me you can do that too, and I'll be on Facebook as well, my usual online haunt, as well as realweddings.ie of course. I pretty much live there :-)

Lots of online love to you all!!! I'm going to stop typing now, or I may start crying...