Life in Lilongwe

Sunday, April 5, 2009

My First Few Days

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!

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4 Comments:

At April 5, 2009 at 3:17 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Grace honey, you are amazing and I love you so much sweetheart.

 
At April 8, 2009 at 3:23 AM , Blogger Geraldine Moorkens Byrne said...

it's nay preachy :)
Very interesting to hear about the effects - the real daily effects - of climate change on lives out there!

 
At April 8, 2009 at 5:33 AM , Blogger April said...

Thanks so much for the birthday wishes! :) I've never been wished happy birthday from somebody in the Southern Hemisphere before :). And about climate change, I think about it this way... you do what you can do and God will take care of what needs to be done that you can't do. Climate change has happened before and will probably happen again, but it is encouraging to know that God never changes. I just hope I don't live to see the next ice age! :)

 
At April 8, 2009 at 2:50 PM , Blogger shinygurrl said...

glad to hear things are going so well. id have been surprised if things hadnt been an eye opener from the start!

 

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