Saturday, January 22, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Safari
Just got back yesterday from a short 4 day trip to Zambia. We stayed at Wildlife again, which was nice as always. I still think it has by far the best sunset view. The sun goes down beyond the tree line on the opposite side of the slowly flowing but massive river, filled with hippos. Unfortunately it was too cloudy Friday night, our first night, to see a sunset. But we had a yummy, yummy dinner. I went on the night drive Saturday and saw the sunset from the top of a hill in the park, standing next to impala and overlooking buffalo bathing in a small pond. Epic much? We also saw giraffes, elephants, zebras, impala, bush and water buck, hundreds of beautiful birds, lots of rodents, plus a leopard.
I did get to watch the sunset Sunday night from the restaurant. It was small but incredible. I couldn’t see the sun itself but it streaked that side of the sky pink and orange. The clouds were in horizontal lines that reflected in the river. It was only Jaren, Nick, Catherine and I who had stayed back that night. The other four volunteers found a pride of lions munching on a zebra they had killed 5 minutes before. Then they drove five minutes down the road and found a hyena eating an impala it had just stolen from the leopard they saw walking away from its kill.
We drove back Monday and had John’s incredible enchiladas and fruit salad for dinner. Today I’m staying back from camp to get some work done. This week’s homestay!
I did get to watch the sunset Sunday night from the restaurant. It was small but incredible. I couldn’t see the sun itself but it streaked that side of the sky pink and orange. The clouds were in horizontal lines that reflected in the river. It was only Jaren, Nick, Catherine and I who had stayed back that night. The other four volunteers found a pride of lions munching on a zebra they had killed 5 minutes before. Then they drove five minutes down the road and found a hyena eating an impala it had just stolen from the leopard they saw walking away from its kill.
We drove back Monday and had John’s incredible enchiladas and fruit salad for dinner. Today I’m staying back from camp to get some work done. This week’s homestay!
Hair
I love looking at hair. Botswana had incredible hair everywhere and Lilongwe is just the same; little girls and women everywhere you look with beautiful braids that swirl and cross. Sometimes they wear extensions, the longest of which extend way past the waist. Sometime they show off colored streaks – red and blue are my favorite. What’s incredible to me is how hair in Botswana and Lilongwe differs from that in rural villages. You can’t find braids decorating the heads of girls at primary schools where World Camp works. The time and money to dedicate to weekly or monthly trips to the salon just aren’t available. Instead, girls have their hair cut uniformly short.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Catch up - Malawi style
So much has happened; I’m not quite sure where to start. My last real post was about Christmas. World Camp certainly keeps me busy and away from my blog. I’ll maybe tell a few stories and not outline everything, because I certainly don’t remember a lot of it and most of it’s work.
All six volunteers were supposed to arrive on Dec. 30. On the 29th, we got two emails from the office in the States saying two volunteers were stuck in airports and wouldn’t get in until the 31st. So the next day I headed to the airport with Cyrus, one of our drivers, and waited for the other four volunteers. The plane emptied and no college-aged azungu girls got off the plane. A security guard bent the rules and let me look back into the baggage claim area but no one fitting the volunteer’s look was there. So I had Cyrus wait in case they walked by really late and went to the South African office. Not to go into details, but the lady helping me wasn’t all that helpful. Turns out only one of the girls was on the manifest, but apparently that doesn’t mean she’s necessarily on the plane. So convinced none of the girls were in Malawi, I headed home. 0 for 4. Luckily, about an hour after I got home, we got an email from one of the girls saying they were all in Joburg together and would be flying in the next morning. Although I’d spent about four hours at the airport, I was glad I hadn’t left anyone behind.
The next day we started orientation a full 24 hours late. Luckily, the volunteers are great and although we were rushed we never missed important points because we didn’t have enough time. We started camp bright and early Monday morning. The school we were at was wonderful. They already had an HIV/AIDS awareness club in place and two tree planting clubs. The teachers and students came to Day 1 on a public holiday – what dedication! The teachers were committed to improving their community and the students were obviously eager to learn.
When we were leaving on Day 3, we passed about ten students walking home on the road. A few of them ran after the bus for a few seconds, but one stayed with us for about five minutes, singing one of our morning songs into the window “Peel Bananas! Peel! Peel Bananas! Eat Bananas! Eat! Eat Bananas!”
Our first outreach project of the session was at Dzaleka refugee camp. again, a truly trying experience. Friday morning we worked with about 30 people. We did a condom demonstration and answered a whole lot of questions. In the afternoon we were given a tour by a few church leaders. It was incredible to see the living situations in the camp. The UN and Red Cross give out monthly rations of ufa (what you use to make nsima) and rice that people use to trade for other food, since they both nsima and rice are eaten with a relish (typically veggies or beans; meat is a special treat).
We saw the camp’s clinic was appeared much nicer than most of the rural clinics we see. The doctor described a wonderful clinic that helped the refugees as much if not more than the Malawians it treated. The refugees described it differently.
We saw the camp’s primary and secondary schools. We saw where the teaching college is being built for Malawians only. We walked through people’s fields of maize and small community gardens. We saw the only preschool in the camp, a single red brick building that accommodates more than 500 preschoolers. We saw the hall where refugees in transfer stay in tents. We saw the notice board where a number of refugees were reading the latest updates. We walked by a bar where we saw and said hi to a teacher from the last school. We passed the office where refugees go to get permits to leave the camp since they can’t do so without permission.
We were stopped Saturday morning in a trading center and told to pull onto a side street with about thirty other cars. Turns out a really important person was driving by and they were clearing the roads. We sat in the car for a few minutes and then heard it was President Bingu who would be passing by. So all eight azungus plus our three Field Staff piled out of the van and walked to the road. I saw the President of Malawi! it was through tinted windows and he was going ridiculously fast, but I saw him!
We made it to the camp a little late and started off talking about stigma. We quickly transferred into questions which turned into refugees asking World Camp for resources. They teach people in the villages about HIV but no one will come because they have no sugar or soap to hand out. When they teach in the camp people come and don’t ask for anything. They wanted shirts. They wanted food. They asked for money. They have ARVs but need more food to take them with. It was heartbreaking to know that WC can’t supply any of this. Is the information we come with any good if the people we’re talking to can’t make the changes they want to?
Sunday we were up early to hike Mt. Nkhoma. We left the house about a half hour after when we’d originally planned because it’d been raining all morning. We got to the mountain and the top was completely covered in clouds. The cloud cover made it cool enough but also completely erased the beautiful view. We scrambled up together in the densest vegetation I’ve ever walked through. It was incredible. The view from the top was absolutely horrible. You couldn’t see twenty feet away. We had lunch at the peak and then headed back down.
Today I stayed back from camp to plan our last outreach project and get some work done. I’m really excited to go to this last CBO. Chris, who I met with today, sounds like he’s put so much into his ten year old organization and they do truly great work.
Since I’m obviously really bad at posting in Malawi, feel free to check out World Camp’s blog since it’s updated weekly by volunteers: worldcampforkids@blogspot.com.
All six volunteers were supposed to arrive on Dec. 30. On the 29th, we got two emails from the office in the States saying two volunteers were stuck in airports and wouldn’t get in until the 31st. So the next day I headed to the airport with Cyrus, one of our drivers, and waited for the other four volunteers. The plane emptied and no college-aged azungu girls got off the plane. A security guard bent the rules and let me look back into the baggage claim area but no one fitting the volunteer’s look was there. So I had Cyrus wait in case they walked by really late and went to the South African office. Not to go into details, but the lady helping me wasn’t all that helpful. Turns out only one of the girls was on the manifest, but apparently that doesn’t mean she’s necessarily on the plane. So convinced none of the girls were in Malawi, I headed home. 0 for 4. Luckily, about an hour after I got home, we got an email from one of the girls saying they were all in Joburg together and would be flying in the next morning. Although I’d spent about four hours at the airport, I was glad I hadn’t left anyone behind.
The next day we started orientation a full 24 hours late. Luckily, the volunteers are great and although we were rushed we never missed important points because we didn’t have enough time. We started camp bright and early Monday morning. The school we were at was wonderful. They already had an HIV/AIDS awareness club in place and two tree planting clubs. The teachers and students came to Day 1 on a public holiday – what dedication! The teachers were committed to improving their community and the students were obviously eager to learn.
When we were leaving on Day 3, we passed about ten students walking home on the road. A few of them ran after the bus for a few seconds, but one stayed with us for about five minutes, singing one of our morning songs into the window “Peel Bananas! Peel! Peel Bananas! Eat Bananas! Eat! Eat Bananas!”
Our first outreach project of the session was at Dzaleka refugee camp. again, a truly trying experience. Friday morning we worked with about 30 people. We did a condom demonstration and answered a whole lot of questions. In the afternoon we were given a tour by a few church leaders. It was incredible to see the living situations in the camp. The UN and Red Cross give out monthly rations of ufa (what you use to make nsima) and rice that people use to trade for other food, since they both nsima and rice are eaten with a relish (typically veggies or beans; meat is a special treat).
We saw the camp’s clinic was appeared much nicer than most of the rural clinics we see. The doctor described a wonderful clinic that helped the refugees as much if not more than the Malawians it treated. The refugees described it differently.
We saw the camp’s primary and secondary schools. We saw where the teaching college is being built for Malawians only. We walked through people’s fields of maize and small community gardens. We saw the only preschool in the camp, a single red brick building that accommodates more than 500 preschoolers. We saw the hall where refugees in transfer stay in tents. We saw the notice board where a number of refugees were reading the latest updates. We walked by a bar where we saw and said hi to a teacher from the last school. We passed the office where refugees go to get permits to leave the camp since they can’t do so without permission.
We were stopped Saturday morning in a trading center and told to pull onto a side street with about thirty other cars. Turns out a really important person was driving by and they were clearing the roads. We sat in the car for a few minutes and then heard it was President Bingu who would be passing by. So all eight azungus plus our three Field Staff piled out of the van and walked to the road. I saw the President of Malawi! it was through tinted windows and he was going ridiculously fast, but I saw him!
We made it to the camp a little late and started off talking about stigma. We quickly transferred into questions which turned into refugees asking World Camp for resources. They teach people in the villages about HIV but no one will come because they have no sugar or soap to hand out. When they teach in the camp people come and don’t ask for anything. They wanted shirts. They wanted food. They asked for money. They have ARVs but need more food to take them with. It was heartbreaking to know that WC can’t supply any of this. Is the information we come with any good if the people we’re talking to can’t make the changes they want to?
Sunday we were up early to hike Mt. Nkhoma. We left the house about a half hour after when we’d originally planned because it’d been raining all morning. We got to the mountain and the top was completely covered in clouds. The cloud cover made it cool enough but also completely erased the beautiful view. We scrambled up together in the densest vegetation I’ve ever walked through. It was incredible. The view from the top was absolutely horrible. You couldn’t see twenty feet away. We had lunch at the peak and then headed back down.
Today I stayed back from camp to plan our last outreach project and get some work done. I’m really excited to go to this last CBO. Chris, who I met with today, sounds like he’s put so much into his ten year old organization and they do truly great work.
Since I’m obviously really bad at posting in Malawi, feel free to check out World Camp’s blog since it’s updated weekly by volunteers: worldcampforkids@blogspot.com.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Two Faces
As we drive by, kids always have one of two looks on their faces. The first is pure joy. They seem to love waving at the full bus of azungus driving on the bumpy, muddy road. They run from every corner of the village when they hear the rumble of the approaching car, standing, waiting, on the side of the road for the chance to wave and give a huge thumbs up. Their smiles reach from corner to corner as they lose their balance waving their arms trying to grab our attention.
The second look is complete concern; concern that their wave will go unanswered; concern that they will go unnoticed in the sea of kids; concern that we won’t return the next day for one final wave. Eyes widen as mouths turn downward to form frowns and all concentration is poured into ensuring the azungus notice their frantic waves.
The second look is complete concern; concern that their wave will go unanswered; concern that they will go unnoticed in the sea of kids; concern that we won’t return the next day for one final wave. Eyes widen as mouths turn downward to form frowns and all concentration is poured into ensuring the azungus notice their frantic waves.
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