Working Through the Hardship

Monday, July 28th, 2008

So my biggest complaint about Malawi by far is the poor internet connection. I miss it at home, college, work… In fact there is only one computer at the Dedza office which has internet access – the secretary’s. Every weekday I go to her office and try to hop on her computer for 30min or so when she’s not on it. I have not checked my email in 4 days and I feel so utterly lost. Sigh. How dependant on technology are we?!
Hence an explanation for my lack of blogs/email/facebook updates.

So what has happened this past week? A lot. I did another needs assessment at Chamagwana village on Friday. Capacity wise, it was similar to the first site I visited, Luweya. They asked for much of the same (harvesting nets, shovels, 4 bags of cement, 2 pipes with a sieve, wire mesh enclosure and most importantly - training). At this site there were equal numbers of men and women working the ponds (36 each). The men said that they strived for gender parity in their work, but I wonder if it is true equality or just equal numbers? Who makes the decisions, holds the power and collects the money? When I went to interview the villagers all the women were gone to a funeral and it was only the men left in the village to show me the ponds. I’d like to talk to both for their unique perspectives but that wasn’t possible.

Awwww, so many funerals! Besides the funeral at Chamagwana, a co-worker, Judith, who was supposed to go to the village with me on Friday had to leave for home to go to her cousin’s funeral. I’ve learned that you can tell when a village is having a funeral where you see branches laid across the road where the family home is. I see a lot of branches.

A nun who works at the office asked me how I was doing after seeing so many funerals. I told her that it was difficult seeing so many, but that it motivated me even more to help alleviate the burden of poverty. I think that as a development worker you need to find a reason for working under these adverse conditions. Once the adventure and romance of travelling to a foreign land wears off you need some kind of motivation to keep going. I’ve found my motivation in the spirit of the people here.

So I keep working through the hardship. And despite the difficulties, I have now done 2 needs assessments and hope to do 2 more this week at Chinyamula and Magunditsa.
I also had a very informative meeting with a prof at the University of Malawi’s Bunda College, who runs the aquaculture program. I visited their demonstration fishponds and gathered some helpful information. For instance I now know that Makumba is the common Malawi name for species’ of tilapia, either Oreochromis shiranus or Tilapia rendalli (for you biologists out there). I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that the Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland (my old stomping ground – I did my undergrad there and my second internship) does a lot capacity building at the college. That will be a valuable connection!

On a lighter note, during the weekend I left work and funerals behind me for a trip up to Kasungu (2hrs north of Lilongwe). The secretary at work, Charity, wanted to take me to Kasungu to visit her parents (everybody here wants to take me home to meet his or her families and share a meal of Nsima with me). I thought it would be fun, and better than being stuck in Dedza all weekend shivering with cold and stuck with my nose in a book. Kasungu is much warmer than Dedza as it is at a lower altitude, nearer to sea level, as opposed to Dedza at 5300ft (1600m).

I’m really glad I went. Firstly, I experienced a Malawian baby shower. They play really loud music (ironically not so baby friendly) and talk a really long time. You bring gifts for the baby as you would in Canada but the real difference is the dancing and money throwing part. Different family members and friends are summoned to dance up to where the mother and baby are, and through money around while still dancing to the music. Before the celebration everyone goes to the bank to stock up on 20kwa bills (the smallest bill of the currency, besides coins). You may be called up often and can’t lose face by having run out of money. But throwing 100’s or 500’s can be quite expensive afternoon (FYI $1=150kwa). Women usually show up late to the shower because they don’t want to keep throwing so much money. Lol!!
While baby showers in Canada are held a few months before the baby is born, the showers in Malawi are held 6 months after the baby is born, mostly so that the family will be sure the baby survives. When I explained this to Charity and her mother it was a little awkward because I had to explain that most Canadian women had healthy babies that survived (a low IMR).

The second part of the weekend was fantastic. We went to Kasungu National Park (about 70km away). It’s Malawi’s largest NP with great wildlife. I was able to see Antelope and Hippos lounging by the lake! I was so happy to see them; yes it was my first-time. Unfortunately since it was the dry season not many animals were active so I didn’t get to see the lions, leopards, hyenas or elephants in the park. The warden was saying that the Elephants were getting harder and harder to find because of poaching. There are estimated to be only 70 left in the park. There just aren’t enough wardens to guard the entire park.
I am hoping to get down to southern Malawi to see Liwonde National Park in the future (perhaps in October?). It is supposed to be the best park for wildlife in Malawi and you can canoe down the river near the hippos. That would be incredible. I’ve also found a kayaking outfitter that takes people on 2-3 day kayaking tours to islands in Lake Malawi (although it costs $125/night). It would be expensive but what an opportunity! We’ll see how this interns finances work out come October…

Time to get back to work. Lets hope I can score some internet time later today to actually post this blog :)