A Petition You Might Consider Signing…

…and more empty promised to post

Ok. So petitions, like blogs, aren’t really my thing. My extreme tendency to relativism and my conflict aversion generally precludes such attempts to influence others. BUT, I think this is a useful petition AND in way of incentives (which relate a lot to my placement here in Malawi but more on that later when I actually write a blog post), signing a petition is a nice way to spend 30 seconds of your day reminiscing about your activism days or, if you never had any, feeling as though you can justify all sorts of bad behaviour for the remaining 86,370 seconds.

But seriously, CIDA recently announced a shift in aid away from low income countries in Africa to middle income countries in the Americas. Apparently leaders in a number of the countries which didn’t make the cut were not so much as sent a conciliatory “it’s not you, it’s me” letter and discovered their change in status through the media. Within a couple of weeks, we here in Malawi discovered that while CIDA would cease providing bilateral aid in Malawi, the Canadian government would still very much appreciate Malawi’s vote in their bid for a spot on the United Nations Security Council! Actually, they want it so much that they actually sent Deepak Obhrai, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs (you can call him the PS for short), to Malawi for a 24 hour period to snuggle up to the Malawian government (http://www.nyasatimes.com/national/3008.html).

Isn’t that fascinating?

I don’t proclaim to understand much about government machinations (perhaps my own cerebral limitations, but probably not… just kidding) but the PURPOSE of the petition is that it might be nice to know WHY this decision was made to stop providing aid to countries that need it most. Maybe, and I type this as sincerely as I am able to type, there is reasoning behind it that makes perfect sense. Well, those of us who have signed this petition would just like to know what that might be.

Here is the link to the petition…  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/canada-aid-shift

Below is what the petition says. Remember, if you sign it you can eat ice cream after without the guilt.

More posts to come… I promise!

 

This petition simply requests that the Government of Canada explain why it is shifting foreign aid away from low income African countries towards wealthier countries in the Americas.

The purpose of Canadian foreign aid is to reduce poverty and the shift to focusing on wealthier countries requires an explanation. Without knowing the reasons for the government’s change of direction, Canadians cannot ensure that our foreign aid is spent effectively and appropriately. After all, the current government ran an election on accountability and transparency.

More info:

The Government of Canada has announced that it will be shifting its development assistance from 8 low income African countries, such as Rwanda, towards middle income countries from the Americas, such as Colombia.

Of concern is the fact that the dropped African countries are much worse off than the added countries from the Americas.

Average life expectancy

-> Dropped countries from Africa: 48 years

-> Added countries from the Americas: 72 years

-> source: UNDP

Population living on less than $2 per day

-> Dropped countries from Africa: 72% of the population

-> Added countries from the Americas: 24% of the population

-> source: UNDP

 

Simply put, this petition requests that the Government of Canada explain its rationale for shifting the focus of Canadian foreign aid.

Countries that were dropped from Canada’s foreign aid list: 
Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Guyana, Kenya, Malawi, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Zambia

Countries added to Canada’s foreign aid list:
Afghanistan, Colombia, Haiti, Peru, Sudan, the West Bank/Gaza, the Caribbean

-> source: UNDP Source: http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/CIDAWEB/acdicida.nsf/En/JUD-51895926-JEP

 

 

 

Why this blog sucks so much…and the case of the ever-elusive ear plugs

I just wanted to inform those of you who have not lost faith in my blogging abilities (those of you who are reading this), that I will be MIA for the next little while. I am going to spend the next week in one of the peri-urban villages where TSP is working to try to better understand the project, the “beneficiaries” (development speak for “people”) and life in Malawi. It is pretty easy for azungus to maintain a comfortable buffer zone between themselves and the reality of life in a developing country, accessing comforts that the majority of the locals cannot. Actually, it’s more difficult to do the opposite since it’s necessary to venture off the beaten path and into the unfamiliar and unknown. As you know this can be a bit scary. But it’s exciting as well and I am looking forward to my village stay. Interacting with the locals has so far been the most rewarding part of my experience in Malawi. By peeling away some pride and protective armor you soon realize that people are not so different and being in a place that is different is not so scary. Of course this is not groundbreaking but it has been a process for me to internalize. For example, in walking down the street the attention I receive as an azungu can be a bit disconcerting. Often people stare unabashedly at me with very serious looks on their faces. This can be a bit of a challenge but generally simply saying “hello” (or “Muli bwanji”) is enough to remove any discomfort. Most often people’s faces light up, they break into a huge grin and carry on. To me, this is a profound but small example of the difference it can make to push yourself a bit further and to question your initial reactions that might stem from pride or fear. The rewards are tangible and gratifying.

And that’s why my updates have been rather infrequent. It is such a challenge to distill my experience and explain it to you that I have simply been avoiding it. But it’s a new year so here’s to a new and improved (and updated) blog!

And if you’re wondering about the ear plugs, I simply thought the title might capture your attention. Also, Africa is a noisy, rambunctious place and I am constantly waking up in the middle of the night searching for my earplugs which have migrated from their rightful places and disappeared like socks in the dryer. Just a bit of a mystery I thought I would share with you.

So stay posted. I promise to tell you all about my village stay in a timely fashion.

Best,

Alynne

Celebrating Obama's Day

There was cake

 

 

 

Toilets!

 

Demonstration toilets in Senti

 

What do you think of when you hear the words “hygiene and sanitation”? I am guessing that for most people the words do not conjure up very strong images since hygiene and sanitation is not something people in “developed” (I am unsure of defining countries as developed and developing but will do so for ease of understanding for now) countries need to think about much. Aside from reminders from your parents to brush your teeth and wash your hands, you might never have given much though to sanitation and hygiene. I believe this is because in Canada and other developed countries, there is infrastructure and legislation that makes hygiene and sanitation easy to take for granted. You simply turn on the hot water tap, flush the toilet and put your garbage in the bin.

Accordingly in Canada we do not often think of the ramifications of inadequate hygiene and sanitation, such as cholera, dysentery and gastrointestinal infections. But, according to the World Health Organization:

• Diarrhoea caused by gastrointestinal infections kills around 2.2 million people globally each year, mostly children in developing countries.
• World-wide around 1.1 billion people lack access to improved water sources and 2.4 billion have no basic sanitation.
• In Southeast Asia and Africa, diarrhoea is responsible for as much as 8.5% and 7.7% of all deaths respectively.

Demonstration Fossa Alterna with sanplats

Inside the Fossa Alterna

While statistics can be useful in conveying information, they do not convey the reality of people living without access to clean water or basic sanitation. They definitely cannot convey the reality of people dying from preventable diseases as a result. It is important to remember that the people these statistics represent are sons, daughters, mother, fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and grandparents. They are children who play like any other children and parents who work to put food on the table like parents in Canada. Admittedly, it is exceptionally difficult to imagine life in a developing country, even when you are living in one as I am. While I am able to witness how people live I struggle to really understand their lives since it is obvious that I am an outsider with the ability to return to Canada and my life of relative luxury.

My partner, TSP (Training Support for Partners), is working in three peri-urban areas to promote improved sanitation and hygiene behaviour. The areas in which we work are extremely densely populated (even by Malawian standards), making sanitation and hygiene that much more of a challenge and necessity. There are no sewage networks or septic tanks and people are responsible for building their own pit latrines to deal with sewage. There are many people who are unable to afford the 2000 Kwacha (about 20 Canadian dollars) to build a latrine and others who do not own the property and may not have permission from the landlord to do so. There are some families who share latrines but others who do not have access at all and are forced to “go” elsewhere, the railroad track, the riverbank, wherever. While this is obviously a sanitation and waste management issue, it is also an issue regarding privacy and quality of life. I am sure that most, if not all of us cannot imagine the reality of this. Perhaps in part because it is not something we are accustomed to or inclined to think about!

TSP has trained masons to construct sanitation platforms, or “sanplats.” They are used to build latrines that are more safe and hygienic than traditional latrines made with wood which are difficult to keep clean and are prone to collapse. They are also encouraging the use of different ecosan latrines, particularly the Fossa Alterna. It is basically a pit latrine with two pits used alternately. Ash and soil are thrown in the pit each time it is used to aid decomposition. While one pit is in use the other is left and the decomposed material can eventually be used as fertilizer.

Committee members having a meeting in Kauma

A typical hand washing station outside a traditional latrine

Despite these challenges it is inspiring to see local leaders who are committed to promoting sanitation and hygiene in their communities. Yesterday there were committee members from another area visiting Mgona, one of the areas TSP is working. In the bus on the way over the committee broke into song, modifying a traditional song to include sanitation and hygiene messages. Of course it was in Chichewa so I understood little of the lyrics but their performance was inspiring nevertheless. And it is in those moments when I feel the most hopeful that change is possible.

Thanks for reading…and thinking about toilets! That’s all for now. I am heading to the market to purchase some household items, a pillowcase, hangers, candles for when the power goes out! It’s always an adventure finding what you are looking for at the many stalls and then agreeing on a price! Perhaps I’ll tell you about it in a later entry!

Tionana (“See you later”),

Alynne

 

Crisis in Zimbabwe

3,000 Dead from Cholera in Zimbabwe 

November 26, 2008
(The Independent)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/3000-dead-from-cholera-in-zimbabwe-1035149.html

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s President, is trying to hide the real extent of the cholera epidemic sweeping across his nation by silencing health workers and restricting access to the huge number of death certificates that give the same cause of death.

A senior official in the health ministry told The Independent yesterday that more than 3,000 people have died from the water-borne disease in the past two weeks, 10 times the widely-reported death toll of just over 300. “But even this higher figure is still an understatement because very few bother to register the deaths of their relatives these days,” said the official, who requested anonymity.

He said the health ministry, which once presided over a medical system that was the envy of Africa, had been banned from issuing accurate statistics about the deaths, and that certificates for the fraction of deaths that had been registered were being closely guarded by the home affairs ministry.

Yet the evidence of how this plague is hurting the people of Zimbabwe is there for all to see at the burial grounds in this collapsing country. “When you encounter such long queues in other countries, they are of people going to the cinema or a football match; certainly not into cemeteries to bury loved ones as we have here,” said Munyaradzi Mudzingwa, who lives in Chitungwiza, a town just outside Harare, where the epidemic is believed to have started.

When Mr Mudzingwa buried his 27-year-old brother, who succumbed to cholera last week, he said he had counted at least 40 other families lining up to bury loved ones. He said: “That’s sadly the depth of the misery into which Mugabe has sunk us.”

Unit O, his suburb, has been without running water for 13 months. The only borehole in the area, built with the help of aid agencies, attracted so many people day and night that it was rarely possible to access its water. Residents were forced to dig their own wells, which became contaminated with sewage. The water residents haul up is a breeding ground for all sorts of bacteria, including Vibrio cholerae, which causes severe vomiting and diarrohea and can kill within hours if not treated.

The way to prevent death is, for the Zimbabwean people, agonisingly simple: antibiotics and rehydration. But this is a country with a broken sewerage system and soap is hard to come by. Harare’s Central Hospital officially closed last week, doctors and nurses are scarce and even those clinics offering a semblance of service do not have access to safe, clean drinking water and ask patients to bring their own.

As the ordinary people suffer Mr Mugabe is locked in a bitter power struggle with the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai over who should control which ministries in a unity government. The President has threatened to name a cabinet without the approval of the Movement for Democratic Change, which could see the whole peace deal unravel.

Talks were continuing between the two parties in Johannesburg yesterday with little sign of a breakthrough, but pressure is growing from around the region and beyond to strike a deal as the humanitarian crisis deepens. Hundreds of Zimbabweans have streamed into South Africa, desperate for medical care. Officials in the South African border town of Musina say their local hospital has treated more than 150 cholera patients so far. “[The outbreak] is a clear indication that ordinary Zimbabweans are the true victims of their leaders’ lack of political will,” the South African government’s chief spokesman Themba Maseko said.

Yesterday Oxfam warned that a million of Zimbabwe’s 13 million population were at risk from the cholera epidemic, and predicted that the crisis would worsen significantly in December, when heavy rains start. “The government of Zimbabwe must acknowledge the extent of the crisis and take immediate steps to mobilise all available resources,” said Charles Abani, the head of the agency’s southern Africa team. “Delay is not an option.”

The Zimbabwean Association of Doctors for Human Rights has accused the government of dramatically under- reporting the spread of the disease. Doctors and nurses – whose salaries can just buy a loaf of bread thanks to hyperinflation – tried to protest last week against the health crisis, but riot police moved in swiftly.

It is not just cholera victims who are suffering. Willard Mangaira, also from Chitungwiza, described how his 18-year-old pregnant sister died at home after being turned away at the main hospital because there were no staff and no equipment to perform the emergency Caesarean operation she needed. Yet he added that if the situation in Chitungwiza was deplorable, what he had left behind in his village of Chivhu, 100 miles away, was beyond description. Adults and children alike were now living off a wild fruit, hacha, and livestock owners are barred from letting their animals into the bush to graze until the people have fed first.

Bought foodstuffs are beyond reach. The official inflation figure is 231 million per cent and the real level is higher: some estimates say basic goods double in price every day. Few can afford to give their deceased relatives a proper funeral. Death used to be a sacred time, with families taking a week to celebrate the life of the deceased before burial. Now the dead are buried instantly.

Lovemore Churi buried his father within an hour of his being confirmed dead. “I did not have the money to let mourners assemble and then start to feed them,” he said. “If mourners hear that someone is already buried, they don’t bother coming and one does not have to worry about how to feed them. That is the way we now live.”

The disease: Deadly, but preventable

* Cholera is caused when a toxin-producing bacterium, Vibrio Cholerae, infects the gut. It is carried in water containing human faeces.

* In its most severe form, and without treatment of antibiotics and rehydration, it causes acute diarrhoea and dehydration, and can kill within hours of symptoms showing.

* John Snow, a doctor in 19th-century London, was the first to link it with contaminated water when he studied an outbreak in Soho in 1854, which had killed more than 600 in a few weeks.

* Until then, it was thought to be spread by a mysterious “miasma” in the atmosphere. Snow showed the outbreak came from a single contaminated well in Broad Street. He had the handle of the well removed, and the epidemic stopped almost overnight.

* Preventing cholera relies on proper sewage treatment, sanitation and water purification.

 

One Month in Malawi

First, thanks to everyone for your comments and other messages. They brighten my day. They also remind me that people might actually read things I post, which is both reassuring and a bit confusing in terms of deciding what and how to write…

Second, this post is epic, entirely random, and perhaps not all that informative. I feel there are important subjects to discuss but that I wanted to provide some (perhaps too much) context. So read at your own discretion.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It has been nearly a month since we arrived in Malawi and the time has flown by. When people ask how I am enjoying it my answer inevitably includes something about how different it is from Canada and how I am still adjusting. In the past week I have just begun to feel that the vice of culture shock has started to loosen its’ grip on my brain! I am quite certain I have never experienced culture shock to that extent and attempting to explain it is rather daunting. So maybe I’ll leave it for now. Suffice it to say that I now feel that I am coming up for air and will try to convey a bit more of my experience thus far…

 

Part I: “Moving” Day(s)

Eeeeehheeeeyyyyyy (like “uhuh” but uniquely African).

So, after 12 hours pounding the pavement in the hot, I mean hot, sun, we managed to find two, count ‘em, two, potential places to live. We opted not to take the one close to work because it is a bit expensive (relatively speaking) and would not provide the same opportunities to interact with locals.

Our accommodation of choice is in Chinsapo, which is sort of a village on the outskirts of the city (city limits seem to be somewhat amorphous). The house is in a fenced-in compound with two other families in separate houses. It has two bedrooms (visitors welcome!!!!), a kitchen, living room and bathing room (not to be confused with a bathroom). The concept of rooms with different functions is a bit misleading since there is really nothing to differentiate them, other than the use. The bathing room is used for bucket showers, wherever I decide to put the hotplate becomes the kitchen.

There is no running water but there is a standpipe and a latrine in the compound. I will have to learn the bucket-on-head technique. The electricity was not completed before the landlord’s husband passed away but there are wires everywhere (literally) so I am hoping to get connected asap. I have decided to afford myself this luxury (and it is a luxury) to cook on a hotplate, iron my clothes (appearances are important and work dress is quite formal) and charge my gadgets.

So this morning I managed to purchase a “mattress” (ridiculously expensive piece of foam with a cover which is also a luxury as most people sleep on grass mats), two bed sheets, and a pillow. The whole endeavour took about four hours, more than an hour of which was spent waiting in line, two of them actually, to use the bank machine (in the hot sun). The first line was exceptionally long because only one of the two machines was working but after waiting in line for about 45 minutes the machine decided to stop cooperating. On to the next line at the bank across the street for another half hour wait. The lines have been really long for the past week or so since it is month end and people, those who have jobs and bank accounts, are waiting for hours to use the few functioning bank machines. I am curious to see if it is always like this and am planning to avoid bank machines next month-end.

I then braved the market solo to find said purchases. I think the market experience is a good analogy of my experience thus far in Malawi. It has been an emotional rollercoaster (for lack of a better cliché). At the same time, it is difficult to isolate emotions and symptoms as there are so many variables to consider. I am not sure my emotional tendencies are due to the heat, my malaria medication or my, so far, limited success in speaking Chichewa.

 

Part II: “Moving” Day(s) Continued…

It’s Saturday and a cool 26 degrees in Lilongwe today!

That last bit was four days ago and the move is not yet complete…for a variety of reasons, the most salient being the electricity (or lack thereof). While the electrician has completed the work, the power is not yet connected but is supposed to be sometime next week. So for now I am still a fixture at the guest house where I have been since arriving…

www.mabuyacamp.com

I highly recommend the place if you plan to visit Lilongwe and admittedly I have become rather too comfortable here! Regardless, I hope to move to our new home in the next week or two and will post pictures as soon as I can (probably not very soon)!

 

Part III: A Day in the Life

I want to convey a lot more about Malawi and what I’m actually doing here (determining this is a work in progress) but feel that providing some context might be helpful. So here you go…

I am generally wide awake (like clockwork) at 5:15 in the morning but my intellect rails against getting up at what it considers to be unreasonably early. As such I generally avoid being vertical before 6:00 a.m. By African standards this is actually quite late as it seems most people are up with the sun or before. My coworker Grace assures me it is not uncommon for her to be up at 4:00 or 4:30. So sleep is another luxury that is afforded to me as an azungu as, unlike the majority of women in Malawi (more than 50% of people live below the poverty line of 11 cents a day), I do not spend hours of my day walking miles to a water point which after waiting possibly for hours may or may not have water, washing clothes (that are always dirty due to either dust or mud, depending on the season) by hand (with or without soap depending on whether or not I can afford it), cooking for a large family (there are so many children) over a charcoal fire, or doing any other number of what we would consider chores but in Malawi are daily challenges.

I leave just before 7:00 and walk to the minibus “stop,” which are apparently designated stops but there is nothing to indicate such. It seems people (not azungus) just know where they are. This can create some strenuous moments as you see a minibus careening towards you when walking on the side of the road (no sidewalks). So, a minibus is any style of minivan masquerading as a bus. However that is not to suggest there are schedules as they are privately owned and they generally do not leave until full, which varies from immediately to a half hour from when you get on…

Often people think it is hilarious watching large azungus (such as myself) trying to gingerly get on and off the minibus. Malawians manage to squeeze past each other with next to no squeezing space. So this should give you a sense of the notion of “personal space.” I often find people resting there hand on my leg without seeming to notice. The first minibus goes to the bottom of the hill and then I walk about five minutes to the Shoprite to catch another one to city centre, or “area 12.” Waiting for the minibus to fill ensues…

Lilongwe is divided into numbered areas that make absolutely no sense to me. Various areas have been pointed out to me repeatedly but so far I have not been able to discern any sort of pattern. “City centre” is where the government ministries, banks, diplomatic missions, executive hotels and corporate and NGO offices are and it is by far the most developed area in Lilongwe. It is in stark contrast to “old town,” where the main market is. The division between city centre and old town is the result of Lilongwe being named the capital of Malawi in 1974 (prior to that Zomba was the capital) and the subsequent development of city centre. The Lilongwe Nature Sanctuary separates the two.

Minibuses are not all created equal and some of them when faced with traffic jams opt to veer off the pavement and surpass traffic by driving beside the road. This is always an extremely bumpy option that no one ever seems bothered by.

After anywhere between a half hour and an hour fifteen (makes it difficult to plan), I get off the bus to walk another ten minutes to work. This is one of my favourite parts of the day because I can walk in relative quiet anonymity (the azungus generally work in city centre and are less of an anomaly) under intermittent shade. The other day while walking a girl stopped me and asked if I could employ her. This happens frequently as people assume that as an azungu you have the power and authority to give people jobs.

I generally arrive at the office just before 8:00 and inevitably everyone is there before me. I spend the day in the field or the office and attempt to learn some Chichewa simultaneously (save work details for another post to avoid making this one even more of a tome).

Lunch usually consists of nsima and relish, either eaten communally at work (as in from the same plate), or purchased at a restaurant in the market, which is actually more of an outdoor, covered hut with plastic chairs that serves food. What continues to amaze me is that there is an errand boy (for lack of a better term that I can think of to explain) who does the cleaning and other chores and cooks nsima for lunch with vegetables from the garden outside! My personal favourite relish so far is made with oilseed rape leaves. There are apparently different varieties of oilseed rape, the one you are probably familiar with is canola, which was developed in Canada and is grown specifically in North America. My least favourite relish is “usipa” which are small fish around 2 or 3 inches in length.

The minibus ride home is essentially the same as the morning but in reverse. Although a couple times last week the ride was interrupted due to an “acute gas shortage” (ran out of gas) which was rectified by the money collector running to the nearest gas station.

Since it is generally not advisable to be out after dark in Lilongwe (unless you take an expensive taxi), the evenings are generally spent reading or writing emails (although I will be moving to the village shortly and my ability to access internet will decrease considerably). I am generally engulfed by fatigue by around 8:30 p.m. and fall asleep to the sounds of traffic outside the compound muffled by ear plugs (except when there is a party outside my dorm room until 4:30 a.m. as was the case a few nights ago).

Oh my gosh, this post needs to end….

Random details:

·      The field truck does not have a radio (or back doors that you can open from the inside) but my coworkers enjoy listening to a few songs on their cell phones, particularly “Red Red Wine” by UB40 and Dolly Parton’s It’s Too Late to Love Me Now. Unexpectedly, I have a new appreciation for Dolly. 

·      The development machine is ever-present and seemingly ubiquitous. At a roundabout it is not uncommon that every second vehicle is that of an international NGO or aid organization. Logos are very often seen on t-shirts and chitenges as well. One t-shirt was prompting “accelerated child survival development.”

·      I hope to do a billboard expose at some point. One billboard supporting nurses warns “soon there will be no angels left on earth.” I just find the marketing and language particularly interesting.

·      It seems that almost everyone has a cell phone. There are two main service providers that provide pay-as-you-go service and as such you can buy extra airtime at pretty much every corner (literally as there are either plastic tables set up for this purpose or people selling airtime on the street).

·      Babies. They are everywhere. Women tend to grap them by one arm, sling them over their shoulders and balance them on their backs while securing them with chitenges.

Thanks for reading. I’m working on posting some more photos.

 

~Alynne

 

 

 

First Impressions & Technical Difficulties:

Muli Bwangi? (How are you?)

Ndili Bwino. Kikomo. Kaya enu? (I am fine. Thank-you. And you?)

Ndili Bwino. Zikomo. (I am fine. Thank-you.)

Zikomo. Zikomo. (Thank-you. Thank-you.)

Having been in Lilongwe, Malawi for one week, I have had this “conversation” many, many times. My Chichewa (“language of the Chewa people”) is rather limited so it generally results in eruptions of laughter from Malawians, particularly when they continue speaking in Chewa and I start to fumble for words, even English ones.

Chabwino. (It’s good)

I should also mention that my translations may not be exact. Zikomo. (Sorry.)

My best intentions to write on this blog faithfully did not last long. This is mostly the result of technical difficulties. Internet connections are hard to come by and sketchy at best. High-speed internet is only one of the luxuries I now realize I took for granted.

Chabwino.

Perhaps some background information on Malawi would be useful…

Formerly known as Nyasaland, Malawi is a landlocked country in southeastern Africa, bordered to the northwest by Zambia, to the northeast by Tanzania and to the east, south, and west by Mozambique.

Formerly a British colony (since 1891), Malawi gained independence in 1964 and became a single-party state under the presidency of Hastings Banda who, six years later, declared himself president-for-life. Interesting aside, according to the omniscient wikipedia…

“While in office, and using his control of the country, Banda constructed a business empire that eventually produced one-third of the counry’s GDP and employed 10% of the wage-earning workforce.”

In 1993 Banda agreed to a referendum resulting in a multi-party democracy and in 1994 Banda and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) lost the election to Bakili Muluzi of the United Democratic Front (UDF), who remained in power until the current president, Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, was elected in 2004. The interesting bit about that is that Mutharika was elected as the successor to Muluzi but, to Muluzi’s chagrin, soon thereafter left the UDF, citing corruption, to form the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). And the really interesting bit is that there will be an election on May 19^th. Currently Muluzi is contesting the constitutional stipulation that a president cannot run again after having served as president for two consecutive five-year terms (which he has). There are rumblings that his reason for running is simply to stick it to his successor turned adversary.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7506916.stm

In other news, here are some highlights from my first week in Malawi:

• Sleeping in a tent our first night in Malawi that was raided by ants in the middle of the night; as a result we moved to a room and had a blue-headed lizard (not the latin name) take a chunk out of a banana and then poop on our beds.
• While attempting to navigate the market in Lilongwe to buy a chitenge (a multifunctional piece of cloth worn as a skirt or dress, used as a baby sling or for any other number of things) we realized it is not uncommon for every person you meet to ask for your phone number so they can “flash” you….at any time of day. This involves them calling you and hanging up after the first ring with the expectation that you will call them back. Flashing can often happen multiple times!
• Being the unwitting center of attention as children seem to multiply exponentially in the presence of an “azungu,” or foreigner, as we so clearly are.
• Brushing up on my rusty motorbike driving skills as said children laugh hysterically when any of us have difficulty starting the bike. They did however move out of the way quite hastily whenever we were remotely close to them.
• Attending a traditional Nyao ceremony in a village, which we believe is named “Chinkuti 2.” We were given a spot in the front row, surrounded by a crush of people, to witness a funeral dance performed by masked dancers to the sound of drums tuned by heating the skin in the fire. The dancers represent spirits and the dance is performed to placate them. Unexpectedly one of the spirits asked me to marry them. I declined.
• Cooking nsima (a staple made from maize flour which serves as an edible piece of cutlery) in a small village with a crowd of onlookers who seemed to be assessing our technique…which was poor!
• On my first day at TSP, visiting the peri-urban areas involved in the project I will be working on, and being asked to make a speech to the local sanitation committee during a dance performance. People gathered after our truck was transformed into a traveling loudspeaker filled with children in the back and more children running behind. I think the azungu in the back helped as well.
• Other random highlights include strange flying insects that emerge from the ground in the evening, what appeared to be a walking (not hopping) toad, geckos on the walls, beautiful vegetation in Lilongwe the names of which I have no idea, and last but definitely not least being exposed to a rabid puppy creating a logistical challenge of acquiring vaccinations for our whole group. Conveniently our team was seeking a monikor and has since been named “Team Rabies.”

After writing this post I feel I have barely scratched the surface. However, I will leave it for now.

Tionana. (See you later.)

~Alynne

 

Development…Word!

Here’s a wordle incorporating some ideas about development…although it’s much more complicated than this image suggests! 

http://www.wordle.net/

 

Disclaimer: A Blog by Someone Who Dislikes Blogs

I have to admit it. I hate blogs! Well, admittedly I’m simulataneously somewhat fascinated by them and the effect they have on how people communicate, issues around privacy, and the ability of every Tom, Dick, and, well, Alynne, to share every mundane detail of their lives (provided someone ACTUALLY reads their blog). 

So, I’m not afraid to admit to hypocrisy. 

However, I am (obviously) putting aside my disdain to blog about my upcoming 13 month placement with Engineers Without Borders in Malawi, Africa. I’m hoping that in having this purpose my blog will not join the annals (defn: a concise form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year) of (in my humble opinion) “less than useful” blogs.

But, while I hate blogs, I love Engineers Without Borders (“EWB” henceforth) and in the past three years of my involvement with this organization have found myself doing things I might not otherwise be particularly inclined to do (ie. writing a blog, asking people for money, being extroverted, etc.)! 

I think this is a testament to the organization as I find myself doing these things because I believe in EWB, its people, mission, values, and the work that they/we do. And in doing these things I have been pushed outside my comfort zone in areas such as public speaking, fundraising, etc. and have learned a lot in the process!

And now this post has degenerated into the stereotypical narcissistic blog post so I’ll end the disclaimer there.

More on EWB and my future project in Malawi to come…

Alynne