October 9, 2013
It is not Fall here or pumpkin season, but I am constantly
reminded with the friends Facebook statuses about Pumpkin Spice and how lovely
the weather is. I should stay away from Facebook being that Fall is my favorite
season, however it is like fall here too. I can walk and crunch leaves although they are
falling because of the heat and not the cold, it makes me feel like we are in
the same season! Instead of Pumpkin Season or Hunting Season, it is Mango
Season, Hot Season and Fire Ant Season here…basically the same thing right?
September was a far less emotional time than August and a
pretty busy month. I was able to educate the communities on different trees and
have the tree nurseries started. There are 6 village tree nurseries and the
good news is that many of the women’s banking groups also want to start tree
nurseries. I planted moringa with the HIV support group. After 3 weeks of
trying to get Pump Aid to come and visit I finally went and spoke to the man in
charge as I clearly was not getting anywhere with anyone else. He came and
picked me up and we went around to my villages to assess the water situations.
Good news is Mkhomba and Soko villages are getting Elephant Pumps. They
will begin the digging shortly in Soko, they were suppose to last week, but this is Malawi after all, no one ever sticks to the time table they tell you.
Grassroots Soccer Training was amazing! It is a program that
educates youth from ages 12-19 about HIV
and Malaria. It is high energy, fun and uses soccer skills to teach them about
ways to prevent HIV and how to stay safe. My counterpart for GRS is great; she
is the Youth Parliamentarian and a reporter at local radio station. I think it
will be great for youth in the area to get to know someone who they hear on the
radio. I am especially excited about the awesome excel sheet I get to monitor
and evaluate this program to see the success of each participant. It is a very
organized program. We should be starting the actual program with local
secondary schools around the end of October, whenever she responds.
I also started the training of groups who will be the
leaders implementing the programs in the communities instead of me. Each
community has 10 leaders and they are in charge of taking what they learn from
the trainings and implementing it into their community. Our first training was
about how to be effective leaders and utilize the local resources for
sustainable development. My patience must be better as only 23 of the 60 had
showed up for the first meeting, but I was quite happy as I viewed it as a
success. Just bringing my expectations down to reality, thanks to the advice
from a former PCV!
This past weekend I went to Liwonde National Reserve! It was
beautiful! About 40 Peace Corps volunteers helped with the Annual Game Count. I
now feel like I am in Africa as I was able to see a few different packs of
elephants, water buck, hippos, impala, great kudu and monkeys! I didn’t see any
lions or rhinos, but maybe next year.
After the Game Count, my PCV friend Christy came to visit and
helped me show people how to make Fuel Efficient Cookstoves! We also made a few
recipes from our Malawi Cookbooks. I had the idea of making every recipe while
being here, but I decided I would rather not eat Ox Tongue. I will show
Malawians a few of these recipes instead of the same old Nsima they eat each
day.
Other Random Adventures:
*On one of my hitched rides from Lilongwe to Malawi, we came
to a roadblock. At this point a swat team/police hopped in the bed of our truck
while we drove though this part of the road. They shot tear gas at the
villagers. The villagers were revolting against the police as they would not
turn some thieves over so they could take justice into their own hands and burn
them alive…CRAZY SCARY!
*Azungu Traps aka gutters filled with garbage where people
pee and who knows what else. I did not know why they were called Azungu Traps
until I face planted in one when trying to jump the short distance of maybe 4
feet across. Now I know you cannot leap in a skirt.
*I had my hair braided in the Rasta braids…it looked awful, a
bit better when I have a handkerchief covering my head so I didn’t look bald. However, Malawians told me I looked smart. I
cut them out with my Leatherman…definitely the most useful thing I brought to
this country from fixing my toilet to cutting fruit. ha
