Malawi, Malawi, Malawi…What can I say about you so far? Actually I could say quite a lot but I won't have an infinite amount of time to type this so I will pick and choose some of the most important/interesting things.
I have yet to discuss some of the weird Malawian customs…
Sweeping: So, people here in Malawi sweep dirt. And when I say sweep I don't mean rake…I mean sweep with a broom made from weeds (or something). They bend over and nearly break their already overworked backs (of course this is the women not the men) and sweep their yards. The result is a barren wasteland…true story. It's quite sad. What are they sweeping you may ask? It's he leaves mostly. Why? Because they just do. Actually I was told there was an initiative by the Malawian government to have people sweep to control mosquitoes. Now it's just a practice and habit and no one thinks about it.
Male Contact: Here it's completely cool for men to hold hands…seriously. It's seen as a sign of friendship. So, typically when two men are greeting each other they'll exchange their verbal pleasantries and then lingeringly grasp each others hand and swing them too and fro…kinda like children do when they skip in America (or at least used to). However, in this culture (mostly in villages) it's not cool for a man and a woman to hold hands. But along the same lines women can hold hands as a sign of friendship, no problem. In the cities though people get scandalous and you may see some opposite sex hand holding going on.
Greetings: The jury is still out on my opinion of Malawian greetings. So generally most people greet each other (either a standard "how are you?" or "how have you spent your day?") especially if you know each other. A simple smile or hand wave isn't enough here like in America. Also something interesting is most people (again typically women) stoop down all the way to the ground to give their greetings…especially to a chief or authority figure of some kind.
Meetings: There is no such thing as a start time for meetings. When there is one it's a loose round about figure (give, never take, about 1-2 hours). Once the meeting does start there's a long procedure of "ulemu kwa" (which is giving honor to various people, eg. chiefs, guests) then you MUST pray at the beginning and the end of every meeting. During the meat of the meetings it's always funny to hear people say "pepani" (sorry) ten thousand times before they speak. I was later told that the "pepani" in this context is less of a "sorry" and more of a "excuse me." Also, Malawians always sound professional when speaking even if it's just off the cuff. They are good extemporaneous speakers (and they expect you to be the same).
Staring: You know how in the states if kids are staring at someone we slap them on the hand (or wherever) and tell them that isn't polite? Well here in Malawi I have yet to see that. Parents don't teach that here. In fact I'm led to believe, through my few months experience here so far, that the exact opposite may be true. They may be encouraged to stare at a stranger or a strange thing. Dunno why. But the fact of the matter is that all Malawians (regardless of age or education level) will stare a "strange" person down! If looks could kill I would have been brutally murdered about 60,000 times by some of these people. However, I kind of chalk it up to a child-like curiosity that isn't beaten out of people here like it is in America…so I try not to be too hard on people.
Okay so now just a few general notes on my life here in Malawi.
It's hella hard! I knew what I signed up for but you never REALLY know what you're getting into until you're actually in it. And boy am I in it! I still don't really have any furniture in my house (so I'm sleeping on my mattress on the floor), my fence isn't finished, my kitchen area leaks, and I can't speak Chitonga well. All in all there are moments when my life here downright sucks so far…but then there are the moments that make me happy or excited and they bring things back into perspective for me a bit.
I have been riding a bicycle more than I ever have in my life. To give you an idea of how much I may ride my bike in a week I will say I ride it at least 10k per day. (about 6.5m for those of you in the States). And that's just on days when I go to the CDSS to teach (Agriculture, Form 4, kinda the seniors). Some days I go visit one of my counterparts who lives an extra 6k round trip. however some days I go to a neighboring village which is maybe 3k away (about 2m) which is 6k round trip which isn't very bad at all. It's just all WAY more biking than I'm used to. I'm getting used to it a bit though now. I eventually learned to use the gears on the thing which was exciting…so now I'm an old pro. Now I've just got to understand bike repair…where's the "mountain bike repair 4 dummies" book when you need it?
Anyways, I'm doing well here so far. I have my ups and my downs but that's what the experience is about. I can't wait to start my projects so I will possibly have defined things to do to help pass the time.
Here are a few pictures....jpg)
My host family during our pre-service training.
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The Environment 09 group at swearing in on April 22.
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My we-bitty house. It'll feel like home after quite a few internal additions/adjustments. And some external stuff too.
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Me and Lyn. It's actually funny. We new each other before meeting here in Malawi. When I went to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity for a few days Lyn was in Americorps and her group was in Baton Rouge. We talked about Peace Corps and how we were both applying. Turns out we were put in the same group! It's uncanny!
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These are a few of the kids in my village. The one holding the orange (yes it's an orange but it's green) is my least favourite right now for more than one reason. The little boy behing her is my most favourite at the moment. This could all change in a day.
That's all I can do right now. Hopefully there will be time for a few more pics in a day or so. we'll see. I'm now in the city for the 4th of July festivities so I have net access for the next few days.
I'm trying to upload the video of my speech to Youtube. I will email the link to those in the know.
