Time to wrap up January. I’m currently on my last leg back to Colby…. Flying from DC to Portland. It’s been a crazy last two weeks, as probably illuded to by my lack of postings. We spent both weeks at Mkoma Full Primary School, the primary school located right next to Mchezi CBO that we’ve worked with extensively in the past. Days were once again full of teaching. Reinier and I worked with the teachers at Mkoma, but it was tough because they could only gather from 11am-1pm, which was always during our empowerment sections which meant no observation. So we focused more on discussions and activities than watching WC teachers and their interactive methods. While I think this was sometimes beneficial, it was often difficult to talk about the benefits of discussions, games, and science experiments without seeing them in action. It was also rough that the teachers didn’t hear all of the basic facts about HIV in those lessons, so discussions were sometimes sidetracked by lessons on exactly what a t-cell is and why the immune system is important.
Homestay these two weeks was fun. The girls stayed with the headmaster of Mkoma and his family. The headmaster himself was super busy so we rarely saw him. His wife was wonderful although it took a good bit of work to convince her we wanted to help with chores. We cooked dinner one night (but didn’t finished until 9pm), started a fire, and cleaned our own rooms. We couldn’t convince her to let us help with dishes or the cleaning she normally did during the day. The family also really liked to give us our space, which made interactions difficult. They ate dinner in a separate room after us every night but two, when we insisted they eat with us. The kids were incredibly shy and would walk really quickly through any room we were in. We finally got Happy, the 18-year-old boy, talking our last day because we’d attended a church service with him the night before. He wants to be a preacher and is really passionate about Christianity.
The church service itself was unlike any service I’ve been to before. I think it was just the prayer group that was meeting, not the entire congregation. There were about 8 Malawians who attend extra meetings Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights for a few hours. We joined their numbers in song and dance. Twice during the hour or so we were there, the group broke up so that people could pray individually. Those from Mchezi paced, yelled, swayed, hit the walls, and lay on the floor. The rest of us prayed in ways I’d seen before: bowed heads, kneeling at a pew, and always silently. The energy in the room was phenomenal but I was incredibly unprepared for the format.
And now it’s Feb. 12, I’ve been back at school for just under two weeks now and am still trying to get back into the swing of college life. Funny story. One of the interns from January was actually in the DC airport with me, somehow we hadn’t realized it before. So we ended up hanging out for about an hour near my gate. It was great to look through some pictures together and start to process the month. Then I finished my trip home and finally got back to Colby.
We wrapped up the session in typical fashion at the lake, complete with our trip to Lake Malawi. We had a bonfire, ate yummy grilled cheese sandwiches, and read by the water.
Now I’m just looking forward to graduation, summer sessions, and living in Malawi! The plan right now is to do some year-round programming for World Camp. I’ll hopefully work on sustainable aspects of our program, things like continuous support for the World Camp Clubs we set up, testing to see if kids remember what they learned a few months after our regular program, setting up project menus so professional volunteers can complete a project that will really support preexisting efforts of CBOs and schools instead of planning what they’re interested in, and working with our Malawian staff to place them in year-round and bigger roles in our programming. Needless to say, I’m super excited and can’t wait for May!
Showing posts with label World Camp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World Camp. Show all posts
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Take the Bad with the Good
So this week I worked with two wonderful teachers for four days at Chimutu Full Primary School. I thought we had a great time, and we did. We talked about some really serious issues and debated everything from gender roles to teaching methods. We also talked about our families, personal goals, and present realities. The standard 7 teachers assured me they would continue to teach what they’d learned with World Camp this week.
But today, after getting home after our final day, one of our translators told me the teachers thought I didn’t care about them. They had wanted to be paid for their time but weren’t. They were upset I hadn’t checked in with the headteacher every morning when we arrived and every afternoon when we left. They also wanted me to update him on our daily activities. (In my defense, they pointed this out to me on the second day and I checked in every time after that but he never asked about our activities and I never told him). They also thought I served them Sobo from the same cups we used for our deforestation demonstrations, the same cups that hundreds of kids have touched and sit on the dirt floor of every classroom they’re used in.
Yet they told me none of this. They didn’t ask me for money (which I wouldn’t have given but would gladly have explained why we didn’t provide a stipend), they went to a Field Staff. They didn’t tell me they’d wanted me to keep the headmaster up-to-date on our program. They didn’t ask whether the cups were the same or not, they just assumed. And they concluded I hadn’t respected them enough to bring clean cups for Sobo.
But today, after getting home after our final day, one of our translators told me the teachers thought I didn’t care about them. They had wanted to be paid for their time but weren’t. They were upset I hadn’t checked in with the headteacher every morning when we arrived and every afternoon when we left. They also wanted me to update him on our daily activities. (In my defense, they pointed this out to me on the second day and I checked in every time after that but he never asked about our activities and I never told him). They also thought I served them Sobo from the same cups we used for our deforestation demonstrations, the same cups that hundreds of kids have touched and sit on the dirt floor of every classroom they’re used in.
Yet they told me none of this. They didn’t ask me for money (which I wouldn’t have given but would gladly have explained why we didn’t provide a stipend), they went to a Field Staff. They didn’t tell me they’d wanted me to keep the headmaster up-to-date on our program. They didn’t ask whether the cups were the same or not, they just assumed. And they concluded I hadn’t respected them enough to bring clean cups for Sobo.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Yesterday, I made a differnce
Yesterday, I was finally back in a classroom after two years of purely coordinating. I, along with Reinier, held a teacher meeting with the two standard 7 teachers at Chimutu Full Primary School. Martha and Ms. Madala are wonderful ladies. They were interested in what we had to say and very impressed with the interactive activities we used to demonstrate topics they’re required to teach by the Malawian government.
For the first time ever, a teacher I was working with agreed to practice our sections for the rest of our group. After I reviewed a lesson she’d just observed in the classroom, Martha stood in front of Reinier, Ms. Madala, and myself and drew the outline of an imaginary character on the board named Johnny. After describing him briefly, she drew Ts throughout his body to represent t-cells, or “soldiers of the body” that are part of the immune system and work to fight off illnesses.
She talked about the fact that as a healthly boy, Johnny had more than 1,000 t-cells in every drop of blood in his body. Once he contracted HIV, however, the virus would begin to kill Johnny’s t-cells. She drew a circle over one of the Ts and continued to do so, describing how the added circles represented HIV’s destruction of Johnny’s immune system. HIV would be detectable once Johnny had less than 1,000 t-cells in every drop of blood, Martha explained.
She continued to color over the Ts until there were only one or two remaining, when she explained that Johnny now had AIDS. That meant that he had less than 350 t-cells in every drop of blood. His immune system was so weak Johnny’s body would be unable to fight off even simple illnesses such as the cough or diarrhea. Eventually, Johnny would die from AIDS.
Martha explained that although she taught her class about HIV in the government’s prescribed Life Skills curriculum, she’d never heard of t-cells. She assured Reinier, Ms. Madala, and myself that she would continue to use diagrams and detailed explains as she continued to teach her future students about AIDS.
Yesterday, I met two teachers at Chimutu FPS.
Yesterday, I empowered a teacher.
Yesterday, I impacted every single one of Martha Mkonkholo’s future students.
For the first time ever, a teacher I was working with agreed to practice our sections for the rest of our group. After I reviewed a lesson she’d just observed in the classroom, Martha stood in front of Reinier, Ms. Madala, and myself and drew the outline of an imaginary character on the board named Johnny. After describing him briefly, she drew Ts throughout his body to represent t-cells, or “soldiers of the body” that are part of the immune system and work to fight off illnesses.
She talked about the fact that as a healthly boy, Johnny had more than 1,000 t-cells in every drop of blood in his body. Once he contracted HIV, however, the virus would begin to kill Johnny’s t-cells. She drew a circle over one of the Ts and continued to do so, describing how the added circles represented HIV’s destruction of Johnny’s immune system. HIV would be detectable once Johnny had less than 1,000 t-cells in every drop of blood, Martha explained.
She continued to color over the Ts until there were only one or two remaining, when she explained that Johnny now had AIDS. That meant that he had less than 350 t-cells in every drop of blood. His immune system was so weak Johnny’s body would be unable to fight off even simple illnesses such as the cough or diarrhea. Eventually, Johnny would die from AIDS.
Martha explained that although she taught her class about HIV in the government’s prescribed Life Skills curriculum, she’d never heard of t-cells. She assured Reinier, Ms. Madala, and myself that she would continue to use diagrams and detailed explains as she continued to teach her future students about AIDS.
Yesterday, I met two teachers at Chimutu FPS.
Yesterday, I empowered a teacher.
Yesterday, I impacted every single one of Martha Mkonkholo’s future students.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Malawi Malawi Malawi
As expected, my diligent blog posting collapsed upon arrival in Malawi. I’ve been incredibly busy since I landed in Lilongwe on Dec. 30. Bikoko and I arrived the same day, and we immediately hit the ground running because all 4 interns arrived the very next day. We set up the house, updated documents, confirmed schools, and caught up on the past four months before heading to the airport. Two of the January interns are from Colby, so it’s fun to swap stories and recommend restaurants (Foss Fam: we’re going to the Lebanese restaurant asap). The third intern is from Maine but goes to school in North Carolina and the last intern is from Canada. It’s a great group.
So once the whole group was in Malawi, we had our four-day orientation filled with curriculum, city tours, consultations with Lali, our tailor, yummy food prepared by John, early mornings, and errands. Tuesday the 3rd we headed straight into the village for a 4-day 3-night homestay and camp. So far, I love this schedule and the extended homestays. We teach from 9:30am-1:30pm, take a half hour break for lunch, and then do optional creative writing workshops with the kids. It’s great to not have to pack up the car in the morning then drive to the school and drive all the way home and unpack supplies.
So pretty much every morning, I got up early (5:30) to run. I wanted a quiet village but everyone was already up, pumping water and walking to church. Then I’d take my bucket bath, have some breakfast and read on the porch before class started. One morning I went to church, which was just in front of our house. It was a short service, only 40minutes, and completely in Chichewa, but I’m glad I went and got a quick overview from a translator after.
During school, I mostly chatted with the teachers. We sat on my host family’s porch and compared Malawi and the US. Other mornings I’d read or help sweep the house. At 1:30, we’d wrap up classes and walk about 15 minutes to the trading center where the headmaster hosted us for lunch. Two days we had nsima, two days we had rice. She mad a delicious relish with rice. If time allowed, we’d chat for awhile then head back to school where we held the optional creative writing sections for the kids. All the girls and about half the guys showed up everyday.
After school we hung out at the futball field for a few hours, kicking a ball, chatting in either Chichewa or English, walking to watch the sunset, tossing a Frisbee, singing, or any other number of activities. Then it was back to the boys’ host family for dinner altogether. We had nsima, rice, and pasta on various nights with yummy yummy relishes.
One afternoon, I talked with our host dad for close to an hour. He brought out pictures of his wife and two kids because they’re visiting family up north and we couldn’t meet them. We talked about his schooling and teaching and Malawi. His English was great and it was wonderful to be able to just sit and chat.
This weekend, we took a tour of the city where we saw the first president’s burial site, a war memorial featured in the Amazing Race, and Coffin Street. We also went to a soccer game where we rooted for the Civil Servants to beat the army’s Red Lions but were defeated. Dinner out completed a great weekend.
This week, we’re living at the house and working at a city school that’s just a few minutes drive away. After camp today, we went to Baylor AIDS Pediatrics Clinic and the office of Grassroots Soccer, which is an NGO that uses soccer to raise awareness of and promote testing for HIV. Tomorrow we’re going to the Crisis Nursery and Thursday we’ll visit a permiculture site to learn about sustainable gardening and more efficient ways to farm in Malawi.
Also, the interns are keeping their own blog at worldcampforkids.blogspot.com. check it out.
So once the whole group was in Malawi, we had our four-day orientation filled with curriculum, city tours, consultations with Lali, our tailor, yummy food prepared by John, early mornings, and errands. Tuesday the 3rd we headed straight into the village for a 4-day 3-night homestay and camp. So far, I love this schedule and the extended homestays. We teach from 9:30am-1:30pm, take a half hour break for lunch, and then do optional creative writing workshops with the kids. It’s great to not have to pack up the car in the morning then drive to the school and drive all the way home and unpack supplies.
So pretty much every morning, I got up early (5:30) to run. I wanted a quiet village but everyone was already up, pumping water and walking to church. Then I’d take my bucket bath, have some breakfast and read on the porch before class started. One morning I went to church, which was just in front of our house. It was a short service, only 40minutes, and completely in Chichewa, but I’m glad I went and got a quick overview from a translator after.
During school, I mostly chatted with the teachers. We sat on my host family’s porch and compared Malawi and the US. Other mornings I’d read or help sweep the house. At 1:30, we’d wrap up classes and walk about 15 minutes to the trading center where the headmaster hosted us for lunch. Two days we had nsima, two days we had rice. She mad a delicious relish with rice. If time allowed, we’d chat for awhile then head back to school where we held the optional creative writing sections for the kids. All the girls and about half the guys showed up everyday.
After school we hung out at the futball field for a few hours, kicking a ball, chatting in either Chichewa or English, walking to watch the sunset, tossing a Frisbee, singing, or any other number of activities. Then it was back to the boys’ host family for dinner altogether. We had nsima, rice, and pasta on various nights with yummy yummy relishes.
One afternoon, I talked with our host dad for close to an hour. He brought out pictures of his wife and two kids because they’re visiting family up north and we couldn’t meet them. We talked about his schooling and teaching and Malawi. His English was great and it was wonderful to be able to just sit and chat.
This weekend, we took a tour of the city where we saw the first president’s burial site, a war memorial featured in the Amazing Race, and Coffin Street. We also went to a soccer game where we rooted for the Civil Servants to beat the army’s Red Lions but were defeated. Dinner out completed a great weekend.
This week, we’re living at the house and working at a city school that’s just a few minutes drive away. After camp today, we went to Baylor AIDS Pediatrics Clinic and the office of Grassroots Soccer, which is an NGO that uses soccer to raise awareness of and promote testing for HIV. Tomorrow we’re going to the Crisis Nursery and Thursday we’ll visit a permiculture site to learn about sustainable gardening and more efficient ways to farm in Malawi.
Also, the interns are keeping their own blog at worldcampforkids.blogspot.com. check it out.
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.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Playing Catchup with Posts!
I've been great about writing blog posts on my laptop, just not about posting them here! With only one internet account for the five coordinators with all of our work, it's hard to get online! But I have been writing a lot on my own. So now that I have the chance to post, I've got lots to catch you up on! I'll date each entry, even though some of them are a little old by now. I'll try to be better about claiming the computer every few days, instead of every few weeks, but we'll see!
A quick overview: I love Malawi! I've already experienced a number of highs and lows, but I also feel so comfortable here. I'm amazing that this is only my third time to Africa and my second time in Malawi, because it seems like I've already experienced so much! But with that said, there is so much more to learn! I can't wait to get to our first camp tomorrow... everything I've been doing for the past week and a half has been leading up to Monday!
Again, sorry this post is so long! But there are a number of posts in one. I'll try to get pictures up soon, but the internet's pretty slow, and there's frequent power outages that make working on the computer difficult. I have been posting on World Camp's blog close to every day though, so definitely check that out. There's pictures and stories there from orientation. Less feelings/experiences and more facts/information, but great nonetheless! http://www.worldcampforkids.blogspot.com/
12 May: Post 2! Or is it day 2 yet?
All my time spent at layovers transfers directly into the number of blogs I can write. I definitely wasn’t expecting to get 2 done before I even reached Malawi! Now I’m in the Joburg airport, waiting for the final leg of my trip. After I typed up my last blog in Dublin, I wandered into a café. I was pretty hungry so I picked up a salad, since it felt a whole lot like lunch time. I didn’t realize it was 6am local time and 1am Maine time. I’m not quite sure what time zone my body was in. The salad with tuna I ordered wasn’t what I expected either. There were four whole potatoes, not to be outdone by the four whole tunas. The potatoes turned out to be delicious, but the tuna wasn’t quite for me. So far, all my flights have gone smoothly; I’ve slept more than I expected, and got to watch a few movies. It was super fun to watch Couples Retreat, since it was filmed at a hotel my family stayed at a few years ago.
Joburg is completely covered in fog. I thought we were still in the clouds when our wheels hit the runway. My plane leaves in about an hour and a half. Hopefully this last flight goes smoothly and quickly! It’s just about 4 more hours until I’ll be back in the Pick Palace, playing bao and sipping a pineapple Fanta. :)
16 May: Finally in Malawi!
I cannot describe how happy I am to finally be back in the WC House! Everything’s all set up – our fifth and last coordinator arrived today, so we’re ready to really get into the preparations. Up until now, we’ve been running around setting up the house, buying supplies, updating documents, and interviewing Field Staff, the new title for our updated position of Translators. I already have great stories. On the second day I was here, Jaren, Rachel, and I headed over to Metro to do all of our bulk shopping. We bought sooooo much stuff. And didn’t have enough money. So Jaren drove back to the house and Rachel and I stayed to wait it out. Linda, one of the employees, brought us each a plastic stool to sit on and stayed with us to talk. She was wonderful. She is from the North, and still lives in her home village. She has two boys, one is 12 and I think the other is around 8.
Today, we decided on what area we’d each be in charge of. I’ve been assigned three aspects of the WC program. First (and what I’m most excited for) is Field Staff coordinator. So it was my job to interview all of the new Field Assistant applicants yesterday and I’ll be in charge of picking, calling, organizing, and paying Field Staff for each of our camps. Our Field Staff is made up of two jobs: Field Assistants, who are paid and work with college volunteers, and Field Interns, who volunteer their time and work with our high school program. Both positions require translation in both directions (English to Chichewa and back), cultural awareness and information, liaison between foreign volunteers and local Malawians, and anything else we could ask for. The Field Staff are amazing people who love what they do and are tons of fun.
I’m also Cook Group coordinator. I’ll be in charge of assigning cook groups, or groups of volunteers who are responsible for dinner each night. We set a budget and they cook delicious food! For our group of 16 people, the budget will probably be around 2,500 Malawian kwacha, or $20. Yummm! And my last job is Outreach/Activities coordinator. I’m getting more and more excited about this as I start to get into it. It’ll be my job to arrange activities on our days off. We’ll probably go visit a church and a mosque in Lilongwe. We’ll go to the fabric market to buy yards of fabric, then have Loli over, who is a tailor who makes beautiful clothing and bags. There’s also a place called the Crisis Nursery, that I wrote about in that paper if you read it. Children who are younger than 2 years are dropped off by their families and are given the proper care and nutritious until their family comes to pick them up. We’ll do outreach programs every Friday and Saturday. The first week, it looks like we’ll head to a refugee camp. I don’t know much about the camp yet, but a church group requested we come and spend time educating people about HIV. Although World Camp hasn’t worked with a religious organization in a number of years, this church asked specifically for a condom demonstration, so I’m not sure exactly what to expect!
17 May
I just want to tell the world about a man I met today named Michael. (I absolutely love that people don’t call before stopping by! It leads to the best surprises!) He was born in Malawi and went to undergrad and grad school in Michigan, if I remember correctly. Then he taught in Nebraska for a number of years. Originally, he meant to spend only four years in the States before heading back to Africa, but decided, after 16 years, it was time to return to Malawi. Before moving to the states, Michael’s sister died of AIDS; he adopted her son. The son has since discovered he is HIV positive. But he is now in high school in Lincoln, Nebraska and HIV is no longer detectable in his blood. Michael calls him his “poster child.”
Since moving back to Malawi, Michael has gotten incredibly involved in every social issue you can think of. He knows so much about the school system and the current state of HIV. He is in the middle of having children’s stories published that address all types of current issues. It will be a picture book that covers HIV, gender equality, deforestation, and similar topics. He didn’t talk about the book too much, so I don’t know a lot, but I cannot wait to read it! Right now Michael is also working on assessing the effectiveness of government teacher training with a European government (I forget which one, we talked about so many things!). That’s exactly what I’m most interested in; educating teachers so they can effectively teach the new government curriculum. So I can’t wait for Michael to come back later in the session so I can talk to him more!
Then Michael asked us about the cultural differences we notice in Malawi and what we think of them. We all laughed and said we don’t really notice those anymore. We see boys holding hands or sitting in each other’s laps and don’t bat an eye, but are surprised to see a man and woman holding hands. Michael asked if we’d noticed that people use their hands instead of handkerchiefs to blow their noses here. When he was doing cultural orientation for the Peace Corps, Michael and the volunteers asked Malawians why this is. One lady responded that it’s gross to put a dirty handkerchief back in your pocket. It makes sense to blow your nose into the ground, wipe your nose with your hand, and then wash your hands. It’s just cleaner! Then we talked about directness in the two cultures. In the States, someone will call out a person they just met if they are rude. In Malawi, one will go out of their way to avoid confrontation with a person they don’t know. So even if a foreigner does something culturally inappropriate or awkward, even if they don’t realize it and would probably like to be made aware, a Malawian will not tell them.
Michael had the most interesting view points. Having gone though primary and secondary school in Malawi, then undergrad and graduate school in the states, he knows both school systems and can praise and critique both in ways that are commonly looked over. He has impeccable English. He’s not afraid to state his views and can get into amazing and unexpected discussion with all the background needed to make his point and counter his opponent. Michael’s also planning on coming to at least one of our camps, hopefully next week. I’m really hoping to be able to sit in on teacher meetings with him; he said he’d be more than happy to give us tips on how to get into deeper conversations and develop that section of our curriculum!
In other news, the first volunteers arrive tomorrow! Two girls are coming in at 12:20 local time! And we still have so much to do before and after then! The other 9 volunteers (7 girls and 1 boy) are coming on Thursday. We’ll start orientation that evening and head to our first camp on Sunday! I cannot wait to meet volunteers and get back to the schools – I really, really miss rural Malawi and the students, but especially all the teachers!!
18 May
So today, I was reminded of exactly how much patience Malawi can sometimes require. All five coordinators were up early this morning to get lots of work done. We had one meeting at 8:30am which went great. We had another meeting planned for 10am with the Ministry of Hope, an organization that runs a number of wonderful programs throughout Malawi. At 9:40, one of the head coordinators called the local hospital to make an appointment for later in the day. They told her she needed to be in by 10 if she wanted to see anyone; but we really needed her in at the meeting too. So we dropped her off at ABC, the hospital, and went to the meeting without her and slightly less prepared than I would have liked. Since I am in charge of Outreach Programs, I’ll be talking to the Ministry of Hope a lot as we work with their already-established programs. The meeting went really well – we set up what I think will be a wonderful day at a program in a village near one of the schools we work with. On May 29, we’re going to a village to work with adults in the morning and kids in the afternoon. (I’m SOOOO excited to work with age groups other than the students we normally do – I think it’ll be a completely new and different experience with exciting and new rewards, as well as great windows with many new questions!) On the way back to the house, we all thought I should get dropped off at the hospital to stay with the one coordinator because she didn’t have cell minutes to call us with and it had been awhile since we’d dropped her off. The rest of the coordinators went back to the house so they could pick up the two volunteers who arrived today!! I sat in the waiting room for awhile until she was called in. After her appointment, we called the house to see if anyone could pick us up. But World Camp has three cars, two of which were in the shop, and the last one that was at the airport. We also called three Field Staff members and the guy who runs the house when no one from WC is here, but none of them could pick us up. So we started the long walk home. An hour and fifteen minutes later, we finally arrived. Although that time could have been spent being productive, it was great to get out of the house for awhile. It also reminded me why I’m here. Ignoring the fact that we walked along a busy road the whole time, everyone we passed was so nice and said hello. I saw children running and laughing, and miles of maize fields. We passed successful professionals who looked worried and tired and people struggling to make ends meet with beautiful smiles on their faces.
Once we got back to the house, we heard that the daytime watchman, Ngoni, had stopped by the house. He’d been really sick for about the past week – with what a local clinic had diagnosed as malaria. He was in for work yesterday and it was great to see him again, although he didn’t look as good as I remember. He didn’t come to work today, but had stopped by with his whole family while I was on my walk. He was lying on the bench outside and couldn’t sit up. He wants to go back to his village to get traditional treatment for his illness that had majorly relapsed since yesterday. He believes his deceased grandmother’s spirit is inside him and causing him to become ill. In order to remove her spirit, he must go to his home village and visit her grave. There, a number of ceremonies will be performed. He must also hold a huge feast for the entire village. He has refused to go to another hospital and will need to raise the money to get home soon. I can only hope he recovers soon, whether from traditional or modern medicine.
After hearing about Ngoni, the volunteers arrived; two girls, from North Carolina. One will be a senior and one just graduated college. They’re incredibly nice and I’m glad they’re here! After dinner, we took an inauguration trip to McDaud’s the local McDonald’s spinoff for ice cream! Tomorrow, we’ll take them on a town tour and have them help us with the last few preparations before the other 9 volunteers come in on Thursday.
It feels like the session’s really starting now – volunteers are arriving and soon we’ll be back in schools! Today was hard, but incredible nonetheless. I learned a lot about so many aspects of life in Lilongwe I hadn’t realized before; I cannot wait to get back to the villages; I can only hope Ngoni recovers; and soon the house will be full with volunteers!
A quick overview: I love Malawi! I've already experienced a number of highs and lows, but I also feel so comfortable here. I'm amazing that this is only my third time to Africa and my second time in Malawi, because it seems like I've already experienced so much! But with that said, there is so much more to learn! I can't wait to get to our first camp tomorrow... everything I've been doing for the past week and a half has been leading up to Monday!
Again, sorry this post is so long! But there are a number of posts in one. I'll try to get pictures up soon, but the internet's pretty slow, and there's frequent power outages that make working on the computer difficult. I have been posting on World Camp's blog close to every day though, so definitely check that out. There's pictures and stories there from orientation. Less feelings/experiences and more facts/information, but great nonetheless! http://www.worldcampforkids.blogspot.com/
12 May: Post 2! Or is it day 2 yet?
All my time spent at layovers transfers directly into the number of blogs I can write. I definitely wasn’t expecting to get 2 done before I even reached Malawi! Now I’m in the Joburg airport, waiting for the final leg of my trip. After I typed up my last blog in Dublin, I wandered into a café. I was pretty hungry so I picked up a salad, since it felt a whole lot like lunch time. I didn’t realize it was 6am local time and 1am Maine time. I’m not quite sure what time zone my body was in. The salad with tuna I ordered wasn’t what I expected either. There were four whole potatoes, not to be outdone by the four whole tunas. The potatoes turned out to be delicious, but the tuna wasn’t quite for me. So far, all my flights have gone smoothly; I’ve slept more than I expected, and got to watch a few movies. It was super fun to watch Couples Retreat, since it was filmed at a hotel my family stayed at a few years ago.
Joburg is completely covered in fog. I thought we were still in the clouds when our wheels hit the runway. My plane leaves in about an hour and a half. Hopefully this last flight goes smoothly and quickly! It’s just about 4 more hours until I’ll be back in the Pick Palace, playing bao and sipping a pineapple Fanta. :)
16 May: Finally in Malawi!
I cannot describe how happy I am to finally be back in the WC House! Everything’s all set up – our fifth and last coordinator arrived today, so we’re ready to really get into the preparations. Up until now, we’ve been running around setting up the house, buying supplies, updating documents, and interviewing Field Staff, the new title for our updated position of Translators. I already have great stories. On the second day I was here, Jaren, Rachel, and I headed over to Metro to do all of our bulk shopping. We bought sooooo much stuff. And didn’t have enough money. So Jaren drove back to the house and Rachel and I stayed to wait it out. Linda, one of the employees, brought us each a plastic stool to sit on and stayed with us to talk. She was wonderful. She is from the North, and still lives in her home village. She has two boys, one is 12 and I think the other is around 8.
Today, we decided on what area we’d each be in charge of. I’ve been assigned three aspects of the WC program. First (and what I’m most excited for) is Field Staff coordinator. So it was my job to interview all of the new Field Assistant applicants yesterday and I’ll be in charge of picking, calling, organizing, and paying Field Staff for each of our camps. Our Field Staff is made up of two jobs: Field Assistants, who are paid and work with college volunteers, and Field Interns, who volunteer their time and work with our high school program. Both positions require translation in both directions (English to Chichewa and back), cultural awareness and information, liaison between foreign volunteers and local Malawians, and anything else we could ask for. The Field Staff are amazing people who love what they do and are tons of fun.
I’m also Cook Group coordinator. I’ll be in charge of assigning cook groups, or groups of volunteers who are responsible for dinner each night. We set a budget and they cook delicious food! For our group of 16 people, the budget will probably be around 2,500 Malawian kwacha, or $20. Yummm! And my last job is Outreach/Activities coordinator. I’m getting more and more excited about this as I start to get into it. It’ll be my job to arrange activities on our days off. We’ll probably go visit a church and a mosque in Lilongwe. We’ll go to the fabric market to buy yards of fabric, then have Loli over, who is a tailor who makes beautiful clothing and bags. There’s also a place called the Crisis Nursery, that I wrote about in that paper if you read it. Children who are younger than 2 years are dropped off by their families and are given the proper care and nutritious until their family comes to pick them up. We’ll do outreach programs every Friday and Saturday. The first week, it looks like we’ll head to a refugee camp. I don’t know much about the camp yet, but a church group requested we come and spend time educating people about HIV. Although World Camp hasn’t worked with a religious organization in a number of years, this church asked specifically for a condom demonstration, so I’m not sure exactly what to expect!
17 May
I just want to tell the world about a man I met today named Michael. (I absolutely love that people don’t call before stopping by! It leads to the best surprises!) He was born in Malawi and went to undergrad and grad school in Michigan, if I remember correctly. Then he taught in Nebraska for a number of years. Originally, he meant to spend only four years in the States before heading back to Africa, but decided, after 16 years, it was time to return to Malawi. Before moving to the states, Michael’s sister died of AIDS; he adopted her son. The son has since discovered he is HIV positive. But he is now in high school in Lincoln, Nebraska and HIV is no longer detectable in his blood. Michael calls him his “poster child.”
Since moving back to Malawi, Michael has gotten incredibly involved in every social issue you can think of. He knows so much about the school system and the current state of HIV. He is in the middle of having children’s stories published that address all types of current issues. It will be a picture book that covers HIV, gender equality, deforestation, and similar topics. He didn’t talk about the book too much, so I don’t know a lot, but I cannot wait to read it! Right now Michael is also working on assessing the effectiveness of government teacher training with a European government (I forget which one, we talked about so many things!). That’s exactly what I’m most interested in; educating teachers so they can effectively teach the new government curriculum. So I can’t wait for Michael to come back later in the session so I can talk to him more!
Then Michael asked us about the cultural differences we notice in Malawi and what we think of them. We all laughed and said we don’t really notice those anymore. We see boys holding hands or sitting in each other’s laps and don’t bat an eye, but are surprised to see a man and woman holding hands. Michael asked if we’d noticed that people use their hands instead of handkerchiefs to blow their noses here. When he was doing cultural orientation for the Peace Corps, Michael and the volunteers asked Malawians why this is. One lady responded that it’s gross to put a dirty handkerchief back in your pocket. It makes sense to blow your nose into the ground, wipe your nose with your hand, and then wash your hands. It’s just cleaner! Then we talked about directness in the two cultures. In the States, someone will call out a person they just met if they are rude. In Malawi, one will go out of their way to avoid confrontation with a person they don’t know. So even if a foreigner does something culturally inappropriate or awkward, even if they don’t realize it and would probably like to be made aware, a Malawian will not tell them.
Michael had the most interesting view points. Having gone though primary and secondary school in Malawi, then undergrad and graduate school in the states, he knows both school systems and can praise and critique both in ways that are commonly looked over. He has impeccable English. He’s not afraid to state his views and can get into amazing and unexpected discussion with all the background needed to make his point and counter his opponent. Michael’s also planning on coming to at least one of our camps, hopefully next week. I’m really hoping to be able to sit in on teacher meetings with him; he said he’d be more than happy to give us tips on how to get into deeper conversations and develop that section of our curriculum!
In other news, the first volunteers arrive tomorrow! Two girls are coming in at 12:20 local time! And we still have so much to do before and after then! The other 9 volunteers (7 girls and 1 boy) are coming on Thursday. We’ll start orientation that evening and head to our first camp on Sunday! I cannot wait to meet volunteers and get back to the schools – I really, really miss rural Malawi and the students, but especially all the teachers!!
18 May
So today, I was reminded of exactly how much patience Malawi can sometimes require. All five coordinators were up early this morning to get lots of work done. We had one meeting at 8:30am which went great. We had another meeting planned for 10am with the Ministry of Hope, an organization that runs a number of wonderful programs throughout Malawi. At 9:40, one of the head coordinators called the local hospital to make an appointment for later in the day. They told her she needed to be in by 10 if she wanted to see anyone; but we really needed her in at the meeting too. So we dropped her off at ABC, the hospital, and went to the meeting without her and slightly less prepared than I would have liked. Since I am in charge of Outreach Programs, I’ll be talking to the Ministry of Hope a lot as we work with their already-established programs. The meeting went really well – we set up what I think will be a wonderful day at a program in a village near one of the schools we work with. On May 29, we’re going to a village to work with adults in the morning and kids in the afternoon. (I’m SOOOO excited to work with age groups other than the students we normally do – I think it’ll be a completely new and different experience with exciting and new rewards, as well as great windows with many new questions!) On the way back to the house, we all thought I should get dropped off at the hospital to stay with the one coordinator because she didn’t have cell minutes to call us with and it had been awhile since we’d dropped her off. The rest of the coordinators went back to the house so they could pick up the two volunteers who arrived today!! I sat in the waiting room for awhile until she was called in. After her appointment, we called the house to see if anyone could pick us up. But World Camp has three cars, two of which were in the shop, and the last one that was at the airport. We also called three Field Staff members and the guy who runs the house when no one from WC is here, but none of them could pick us up. So we started the long walk home. An hour and fifteen minutes later, we finally arrived. Although that time could have been spent being productive, it was great to get out of the house for awhile. It also reminded me why I’m here. Ignoring the fact that we walked along a busy road the whole time, everyone we passed was so nice and said hello. I saw children running and laughing, and miles of maize fields. We passed successful professionals who looked worried and tired and people struggling to make ends meet with beautiful smiles on their faces.
Once we got back to the house, we heard that the daytime watchman, Ngoni, had stopped by the house. He’d been really sick for about the past week – with what a local clinic had diagnosed as malaria. He was in for work yesterday and it was great to see him again, although he didn’t look as good as I remember. He didn’t come to work today, but had stopped by with his whole family while I was on my walk. He was lying on the bench outside and couldn’t sit up. He wants to go back to his village to get traditional treatment for his illness that had majorly relapsed since yesterday. He believes his deceased grandmother’s spirit is inside him and causing him to become ill. In order to remove her spirit, he must go to his home village and visit her grave. There, a number of ceremonies will be performed. He must also hold a huge feast for the entire village. He has refused to go to another hospital and will need to raise the money to get home soon. I can only hope he recovers soon, whether from traditional or modern medicine.
After hearing about Ngoni, the volunteers arrived; two girls, from North Carolina. One will be a senior and one just graduated college. They’re incredibly nice and I’m glad they’re here! After dinner, we took an inauguration trip to McDaud’s the local McDonald’s spinoff for ice cream! Tomorrow, we’ll take them on a town tour and have them help us with the last few preparations before the other 9 volunteers come in on Thursday.
It feels like the session’s really starting now – volunteers are arriving and soon we’ll be back in schools! Today was hard, but incredible nonetheless. I learned a lot about so many aspects of life in Lilongwe I hadn’t realized before; I cannot wait to get back to the villages; I can only hope Ngoni recovers; and soon the house will be full with volunteers!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Leaving in exactly 20 days!
Welcome to my blog! I thought I'd try to keep this updated while I spend the next few months in Africa, so anyone who's interested can check in and see what I've been up to. Here's the plan:
May11-Aug9(ish-still working out the dates!): Work as an Assistant Volunteer Coordinator for World Camp in Lilongwe, Malawi. I worked with World Camp in January of this year and cannot wait to get back! (check out worldcampforkids.org if you want more info!) Volunteers work with students standards 6-8 (grades 6-8) on issues like HIV/AIDS and environmental degregation.
Aug10-Dec14(ish-still working out the dates!): Study abroad for a semester with Pitzer College in Botswana! I'll do lots of homestays and study trips, try to learn as much Tswana as possible, and spend the last month of the semester doing an independent research project!
Dec14-late Dec: free time! We'll have to see what opportunities present themselves! Possibly some travel, maybe an internship in Botswana, we'll just have to wait and see!
late Dec-Jan30(ish-still working out the dates!): Work with World Camp again in Malawi!
The time keeps sneaking up on me! Final preparations are underway! Still trying to get everything together in a somewhat organizated fashion, while keeping up with homework, daily crew practices, and constantly looming finals!
May11-Aug9(ish-still working out the dates!): Work as an Assistant Volunteer Coordinator for World Camp in Lilongwe, Malawi. I worked with World Camp in January of this year and cannot wait to get back! (check out worldcampforkids.org if you want more info!) Volunteers work with students standards 6-8 (grades 6-8) on issues like HIV/AIDS and environmental degregation.
Aug10-Dec14(ish-still working out the dates!): Study abroad for a semester with Pitzer College in Botswana! I'll do lots of homestays and study trips, try to learn as much Tswana as possible, and spend the last month of the semester doing an independent research project!
Dec14-late Dec: free time! We'll have to see what opportunities present themselves! Possibly some travel, maybe an internship in Botswana, we'll just have to wait and see!
late Dec-Jan30(ish-still working out the dates!): Work with World Camp again in Malawi!
The time keeps sneaking up on me! Final preparations are underway! Still trying to get everything together in a somewhat organizated fashion, while keeping up with homework, daily crew practices, and constantly looming finals!
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