A Day in the Life of Bryan

So my life has settled into a bit of a routine, not anything I want to hold on to (I mean the routine, not my life), and I thought that it may, or may not, be interesting for you to hear about this.

These days I wake at about 4:30. Although during the winter months (May-August) it's usually past five, I awake when it is light enough to see the road so that I can go for a run. My runs aren't as intense, varied, or long as they used to be; I run between 35-45 minutes, and there are exactly four different paths that I have been using. Back home, I didn't run first thing in the morning very often, but here it makes a lot of sense for a variety of reasons: it gets hot in the middle of the day this close to the equator, I have plenty of other things to do the rest of the day, and most importantly-there are less hecklers and gawkers early in the morning (although this doesn't hold true these days when everyone is in the fields taking advantage of the breif rainy season). I found that this is an excellent way to start my day, and I always feel slugish for the rest of the day if I can't summon the inspiration to get out the door and run at the crack of dawn.

Here in the village we don't have any fancy technology to provide running and hot water. Instead, we take cold bucket baths. By now, I am used to this, but during the cold season, especially July and August, this was a fridged esperience. I always took advantage of my elevated body temperature after running by quickly jumping into the bafa (room where bucket bathing takes place). Then, I scurry back into the house and quickly throw on my school clothes-scuffed Timberland boots, khaki pants, and a short sleeve plaid shirt (typical)- to quell the shivering. In the meantime, one of the boys is cooking breakfast. I study Chichewa, correct homework, or just listen to the radio while I wait for the food. The three of us then eat a simple breakfast-usually maize flour porrige (phala). I make the short walk to school by 7, in plenty of time for the first period at 7:30.

I will be honest. School has become a bit monotonous as of late. However, the monotony really only gets to me on days when I'm not teaching very much, just sitting in the office planning lessons with heavy eyelids. So I try to spend a lot of time in the classroom when there are free periods available. This way the day goes by faster and I'm doing what I'm here to do-teach. I certainly don't dislike my day job (although I don't see myself making a career of teaching in high schools); I'm proud of what I am doing here, and there are plenty of moments that make it all worth while.

For the first half of last school year, classes ended at 3:30. In the middle of these never-ending school days was a 90-minute lunch break. 90 minutes was necessary for preparing, cooking, and eating lunch. The problem was that most people didn't eat lunch either because they lived too far away or they didn't have any food to cook. Also, many students did go home for lunch, and they just wouldn't return for afternoon classes. In the middle of the year, I started a campaign to do away with this lunch break altogether because it mostly entailed about 25% of the people actually eating lunch while the other 75% just waited around the school or wandered home. It was easy to convince the staff for us to make the change. Most of them already felt this way, and none of the other schools in the area have a true lunch break. I brought it up during one of the staff meetings, we quickly changed the timetable, and nowadays (thank God) the last period ends at 2:15. At this time, I tie up any loose ends at the office-manning the library, answering students questions, doing any urgent lesson planning or homework correcting, or supervising any estracirricular activities. I’m usually out the door well before 3.

As most of you know, I like to eat. I’m usually starving by the time I get home, but it doesn’t make much sense for us to have a big lunch this late in the day since, in this culture, a big dinner is mandatory. So we just whip together something quick-roasted maize or peanuts-and then get on with the rest of the afternoon.

On weekdays, the late afternoon is easily my favorite time of day because I get to do whatever the heck I want. These past two months, I have been going to the field a lot, taking care of the crops with the boys. Other typical afternoon activities include: reading (for fun), grading homework, lesson planning, chopping firewood, napping, drinking homemade wine and chatting with locals, or washing clothes.

The range in sunset times is much less dramatic than it is in Minnesota since we are so close to the equator. In the winter months, it gets dark a little before six, and these days it’s about 6:30. Since I was a little kid I always have enjoyed staying up late. But here, in the village without any electricity, my body shuts down pretty fast. As with breakfast, we usually eat together around the table. Dinner usually consists of a big carbohydrate dish and something else on the side. About 80% of the time the carb is nsima (the staple of most East African diets which is make from maize flour, tastes very simple and bland, and looks similar to mashed potatoes (but certainly doesn’t taste like them)). The other 20% of the time the main dish is either rice or spaghetti (the latter is the boys’ new favorite food, which they had never eaten before I entered their lives). Our common side dishes, from most common on down, are as follows: some type of boiled greens, beans, soupy fish, soupy meat, and a popular dish make from processed soya that is supposed to (and kind of does) taste like meat. This food certainly isn’t as good and varied as the stuff in the States, but I have grown to like it. We like to listen to the radio while eating dinner in order to catch the evening news. We chat for a little while afterwards, and I read a few pages of whatever book I am reading at the time. I’m in bed pretty fast, usually between 8 and 9. It’s nice to have a natural rythym of going to sleep and waking with the sun. However, I couldn’t sleep like this in America-with all the electricity around.

Well, I’m not sure if that was worth your time to read or not, but that’s my life in Peace Corps. It will be intense to come back to the rat-race we call America about a year from now. Tomorrow, I’m headed to the lake to relax with some friends over Christmas. Happy Holidays everyone. Be safe-Don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do (that should give you plenty of leeway).

"If America taught me anything, it's that quitting is right up there with pissing in the Girl Scouts' lemonade jar." Khaled Hosseini

CampSky Reflections

(If you don't understand what I mean by "CampSky," please refer back to previous entries.)

All in all, I felt the camp was a huge success. It was one of the more meaningful things I have done in my life, and there were multiple times where the whole scene gave me goose bumps. One of the boys that lives with me was there, and every time one of his friends asks him how the camp was, he starts giggling for about five seconds before he can compose himself enough to explain how much he enjoyed it.

In years past, the camp was about two weeks long. However, this year-due to school calendar changes and other BS that we had to deal with- we were forced to shorten it to six days. When starting to plan for the camp, we expected to have 12 days to work with. Later on, the number of days was cut in half, and instead of also cutting the activities in half, we just crammed them into those six days. This meant that we were constantly busy running around doing different things from 5:30am to 10pm every day. At first the students grumbled about the fast pace, but then they agreed with me when I told them that we have to take advantage of the fact that we have electricity at the camp. I told them we can sleep when we return home to the village, with total darkness at night.


So what did the students do at the camp? Every morning was spent in the classroom until lunch time. The topics learned about were similar to what they learn about at their respective schools, but here they had access to better resources and teachers that actually knew what they were talking about. The afternoons consisted of a wide range of activities ranging from Peace Corpish skills training (jam, peanut butter, and soap making; composting; planting tree nurseries, etc.) to Karate to elective classes on unfamiliar topics such as human rights, budgeting, and natural medicines. One afternoon we also went to two places near Lilongwe city. First, we went to the Lilongwe International Airport. Of coarse, the two (no typo) flights that were coming in that afternoon were late, but it was well worth the 90 minute wait to see the amazement on the students faces when the hundred ton hunk of metal gracefully fell from the sky. Immediately after the plane landed, we spotted another flying in, getting ready to land. At an airport that only has about five international flights coming or going on any given day, we were lucky enough to see two land at about the same time. Soon after the second plane landed, we had to rush off to our next destination. When we first arrived at the airport I started a rumor that we were going to America. The students were a bit let down when they realized this was a lie. Our next destination was the Hastings Kamuzu Banda mausoleum. For those of you who aren't Malawian history buffs, Banda was the first president (dictator) of Malawi. He is a national hero to most Malawians that I know, and the students were very interested to look at the monument. We didn't spend a lot of time there, but it was a decent evening activity before dinner.

The only regret I have is that I wasn't able to teach at all. I was always busy taking care of logistical issues such as food, security, and transportation. All this was good experience for me since I had never been in this kind of leadership role before. Still, if I'm a part of the camp next year, I will just be a teacher. Someone else can be the bad guy-yelling at everyone and taking responsibility for all the problems.

Lastly, I certainly shouldn't forget to thank all of you that donated money to make this camp possible. One thing that I have learned over this past year is that lots of donor money is wasted/mishandled in developing countries. However, I can confidently say that your money was well spent-empowering the future leaders of Malawi.

"It is when we try to grapple with another man's intimate need that we perceive how incomprehensible, wavering, and misty are the beings that share with us the sight of the stars and the warmth of the sun." Joseph Conrad

Nsanje

I have been wanting to write about this for a while, and now I have collected my thoughts and found time to write something coherent about this cultural blemish.

A few months ago I visited a village called Nyamazani, and I was amazed by what I saw. This village is strikingly different compared to most of the other rural settlements in this area. Most of the houses have roofs made of iron sheets, it appeared that almost every family has their own oxcart, there are a variety of fruit trees throughout the area, and the place is crowded with goats; pigs; and cattle. On the other hand, in my village (as with most of the villages in this area) most of the houses have roofs thatched with grass, the entire village shares two oxcarts, we enjoy cutting down trees before they can reach ten feet, and only one family is raising cattle; two are raising pigs; and a handful keep goats. Clearly the standard of living is mush higher in Nyamazani, and I wanted to figure out why.

To begin with, there are tribal differences. The largest tribe in Malawi, concentrated in the central and southern regions, is the Chewa. In my area, most of the people belong to this tribe, we speak this language (Chichewa), and the leadership-village headmen/women, chiefs, and members of parliament-belong to the Chewa tribe. However, the village of Nyamazani is a small pocket of a different tribe of people, the Ngoni. The Ngoni are descendents of the great Zulu tribe in the area of what is now the Republic of South Africa. The tree pillars of Ngoni culture, as any Ngoni is happy to tell you, are meat; women; and beer. In spite of this, they do seem to have their act together, especially when compared to the impoverished Chewa.

There is a controlled experiment set up here. We have an independent variable-the Ngoni tribe in Nyamazani and the Chewa tribe in the rest of the area. We have a dependent variable-the Ngoni village has much greater material wealth than the surrounding Chewa villages. All the other variables are more or less constant/equal-these people have farmland of the same fertility, they deal with the same weather patterns, they have the exact same government leadership, etc. What is left is the fun part-to interpret the data. (Please excuse me for turning this into a science experiment-I am a nerd, and I just finished teaching the Scientific Method to my students.)

To do this, I went straight to the source-the people themselves. I asked a variety of different people from both sides the provocative question, “Why are the Ngoni so much better off?” To this question the typical response was: “Because they have more money.” I had to press further: “Why do they have more money?” To this second question there were two different, but not entirely exclusive, ideas. The first idea was that the Ngoni are simply harder workers than the Chewa. I feel the second idea explains the divide in wealth more deeply: The Chewa people tend to have more jealousy towards one another.

I have observed this jealousy firsthand, and I feel that it is one of the biggest problems this country (or more specifically-the central region of the country) is facing. I have to be aware of this because the people I interact with, or become friends with, are victims of jealousy. For example, I have a good friend who helps me with lots of different things such as maintenance around the house, development projects at the school and in the village, and learning various things about Chewa culture. People see him hanging around with the white man a lot, and perhaps they think I am giving him lots of different things. Therefore, he has felt a huge difference in the way the people in the community treat him. A few months ago, two of his goats were stolen, his old friends no longer talk with him, and he cannot rely upon other people for help as he did in the past. It is to the point where I feel uncomfortable talking to him in public because I know people are watching us with hatred in their eyes. All this is due to jealousy.

A handful of knowledgeable people have told me that this abundance of jealousy leads to laziness, theft, and a fear of spending money if you do have it. The first consequence, laziness, is certainly present here. I’m not sure whether or not laziness is a consequence of jealousy, but it certainly is a problem. I have been told by older people that this is something new. In the past, people were working very hard farming (which is the main source of income here), and then after the harvest in March and April they received the fruits of their labor. Apparently, nowadays things are different. The work ethic has faded away, and people are content with just barely surviving. Perhaps this is due to jealousy. There is no need to work hard and gain wealth if people will just hate you for it.

People also tell me that there is lot’s of theft due to jealousy. Another friend of mine, who typically spends all day-from 5AM to 6PM-in his enormous garden, and has plenty of produce and income to show for his hard work, had ten chickens stolen from him last month. It is not uncommon for well-to-do people in the village to be robbed on a regular basis. When I arrived here last December, I was surprised to see that very few people grow cassava (a crop that grows very will here, requires very few inputs, and gives a good profit) and raise pigs (another good source of income). I asked why, and I was always told that people are afraid to have these things because they are frequently stolen. Obviously, the theft here cannot be entirely contributed to jealousy, but it certainly is a contributing factor.

The last point is most interesting to me: People here are afraid to spend their money, or even to work hard to make money, because they know people will be jealous of them. This is less of a problem for me because, as a white man, I am expected to have lots of money (If only these people knew about the debt I have with my college loans). But for everyone else, you have four options if you do find yourself with a full wallet. One, you can find a new place to live, such as a city where wealth isn’t something that attracts as much attention. Two, you can keep the money without spending it. Three, you can spend the money on silly things or give it all away to your lazy relatives. Four, you can set up an alliance with you friends and family so that anyone that threatens to steal your things or show their jealousy towards you will be punished severely. I suppose there is a fifth option: you can work hard, buy nice things, be a good person, and then in the end feel the effects of everyone’s envy.

For the most part, Chichewa is a simple language to learn. In English, we have many synonyms, while in Chichewa there is the inverse of this-one word that means many different things. However, the English word “jealousy” can be translated into at least three different words in Chichewa: kaduka, nsanje, and njiru. To me, this isolated abundance of synonyms illustrates just how important (or prevalent) the idea of jealousy is in Chewa culture. These people have a hard enough time just to get by on a day-to-day basis. Having to be conscious, or fearful, of success certainly doesn’t help the situation. It doesn’t really encourage development either, which makes my job difficult.

“We’re one, but we’re not the same. We get to carry each other.” U2

(hint)I like to read your comments

I have now become used to things so that my life isn’t as interesting on a day-to-day basis as it used to be. Nevertheless, I’m content with my life now. I have good people around me, and still feel like I am doing something important. However, lately there have been difficulties.

I have had a more difficult time dealing with some people that I encounter daily, especially beggars, punks, and co-workers. I no longer simply ignore the beggars; make jokes with the middle-aged morons; and deal with the lazyness of the other teachers at my school, but I make sneering comments at them and don’t enjoy seeing them most of the time. I must say that this attitude now towards the other teachers has become more civil: I know that all of them are under-qualified for the work that they are doing, and in spite of their lazyness and plethora of other responsibilities (farming, supporting multiple families with their meager income, being poor), they aren’t doing too bad of a job (especially my headmaster-whom I admire a lot for his dedication in the midst of hopelessness).

One big change recently-About a week ago, the Ministry of Education announced that it is completely changing the school calendar for the upcoming school year. This means that our upcoming term break that was supposed to last from mid-November to the beginning of January will instead only be two weeks long. This also means that the big education camp we have been organizing, Camp Sky, will have to be rescheduled because the new school year will now start before the camp was supposed to end on Dec. 11. This also means that my teaching duties here in Malawi will be over in June of next year. This gives me six months to do who-knows-what until my contract with the Peace Corps ends in December 2010. Certainly this change in the school year came as a surprise to all of us, especially since a change as big as this wasn’t disseminated to the public (students, teachers, lower-level government officials) until less than two months before the change will be implemented…but that’s Africa for you. This will be an inconvience for me, but it won’t cause any major problems. Right now, it has added some excitement to my life that had been becoming a bit mundane. This massive shuffling of the school calendar has put lot’s of uncertainty into things here, but it will be interesting to see what will come of all this in the next few months.

It started raining the last two weeks. Not a lot, just some showers that act as a polite warning for the “real” rains that will come about a month from now. The upcoming rainy season will paint the entire country green and things will look much more pleasing compared to the dry desolation I see out my window nowadays. However, the rains will also bring hoards of mosquitoes, muddy and impassable roads, students and teachers coming late to school, soggy firewood, and-it deserves mentioning twice-LOTs of MUD. It’s been nice to not have to deal with these things since March. Of course, the rain is necessary-especially here where its punctuality and quantity (too much or not enough, too early or too late, these variables directly affect our quality of life for the upcoming year) are of great concern to the entire country (continent(world)).

This year, (gladly) I will have to worry about all this as well. The respective families of the two boys that live with me have given us some land to farm during the rainy season. It adds up to about two acres, which doesn’t sound like a lot until you have done all the work (clearing the land, tilling, adding fertilizer, weeding, harvesting) by hand and end each day with blistered hands and a sore back. We have only started with this whole farming thing. We’ve purchased most of the inputs and started clearing away the debris on the field from last year. So far we haven’t done a lot so I can’t say whether or not this whole endeavor will be a good use of my time-but we’ll have to see how things go. Everyone gets excited to see me going to the field with my khasu (hoe) to do work and get my hands dirty, and people have told me that everyone is encouraged to work harder (especially the lazy men that sit around drunk and depressed all day) when they see me working side by side with them. I did feel guilty when I bought the fertilizer. I can just imagine it all washing into the river and killing all the fish, but the maize simple won’t grow without it. As Sprewell said, “I’ve got a family to feed.” Now I do too so I bit the bullet and bought the chemicals. Our plan is to intercrop maize with climbing beans and soybeans with groundnuts while we will plant only sweet potatoes in another field. Hopefully, we won’t run into any major issues, and our storeroom will be full of food in March.

I think all of my writing here shows that I am having some difficulties but lots of good times as well. Lately, the newness of everything has worn off and I am comfortable with the different aspects of my life that may have freaked me out when I started living here. Also, I can now confidently say that I will be ready to leave this place a year from now. I like this place and the people here, but not enough to stay for more than two years. I appreciate change and new experiences. I don’t see myself ever settling into one place for very long.

“A man’s errors are his portals of discovery.” James Joyce

Don't Forget About Camp Sky

(see the May 10 entry if you want more information about this)

In case you forgot, we will be having a large summer camp in December (that may sound odd if live in the northern hemisphere of this planet). We are still looking for funding. Here is how you can help.

It's very simple, you don't even have to get up from your computer:
1) Go to this link: http://www.friendsofmalawi.org/grants/how_to_donate.html
2) Scroll down to "Summer School "Camp Sky" 2009 Project"
3) Click on "Donate"
4) Make a donation

We certainly appreciate any amount that you send to us (a dollar can buy about 5 kgs of maize flour here in Malawi), but large amounts are certianly more useful;-)

Munthu Wamkulu

Hello everyone, it’s been awhile. It would be nice to be able to write on this thing more often, but it has been difficult these past few months. First of all, I don’t have internet access that often (yesterday was the first time that I have looked at a computer in over a month). Secondly, when I do finally have access to a computer and internet, I am so overwhelmed by other distractions, such as emails; research on graduate schools; espn.com; amazon.com; etc., that it is difficult to find time and motivation for writing a blog. Those are my excuses-you can take ‘em or leave ‘em. Now let’s get to the content, what this is all about.

We’re about two months into the third and last term of the school year. I can sum up Term Three at my school with this metaphor: We have very little wind left in our sails. Half of the students are preparing for or writing for their national exams; the other half has very little motivation to do anything. The hot season has started. It is no fun teaching an afternoon class in this Texas-like heat while sweating in front of group hungry, tired, hot, dehydrated students. Also, there are very few teachers at the school right now. Our full roster of teachers, which is seven, is sparse enough, but these past few weeks there have only been about two to four teachers at the school every day. The teachers that do come to school are busy with (or at least pretend to be busy with) other things most of the time. All of these factors put together have left my students and me with an exhausted feeling. In the past, I would let these different problems at school bother me to the point where I was raising my voice to the staff and students from time to time (I still fell feel like I was correct when I criticized them for these things, but I have come to learn that direct, put-your-foot-down confrontations don’t get very far in this culture). Nowadays I am trying to tackle these problems individually rather than trying to fix everything at once. Someone told me that as PCVs we spend the beginning of our service banging our heads into a big wall that we are trying to break through. Eventually, we find that that doesn’t work and it is a lot easier and practical to just walk around the wall.

My life hasn’t been all bad news lately (wait- I forgot to tell you that the goats entered my garden again to destroy almost everything-including the papaya tree and sunflowers); I am doing some fun stuff. Two weeks ago I was initiated into the secret Chewa society called Nyau. Do a google search on it-it’s interesting. I am definitely oversimplifying things here, but I can quickly explain it like this: Before the missionaries came along a couple hundred years ago, this was the spirituality of the Chewa tribe. Although Christianity has flourished in Malawi, this traditional practice is still alive and well. It is centered on a dance called Gule Wamkulu, which is a big event that attracts lots of people, money, and hootin’ and hollerin’. The dancers are considered to be spirits, and they wear exotic costumes with carved masks while performing quick, dust-stirring dances. All of this has several layers of meaning that I won’t get into right now, but it is important to know that one can’t fully participate in all of this (even as an observer) until they are initiated.

Well, I have been initiated. This was a pretty big deal for everyone involved-a white man joining their secret club, and the joke around the village is that Bryan is now munthu wamkulu (a big man). The initiation ceremony consisted of being bind-folded while being led into the graveyard, killing and eating a young chicken, learning some top-secret words, and a few other things that I’m not at liberty to talk about. Killing the chicken was especially interesting, although it wasn’t anything that PETA will ever approve of. To show that I was brave enough to be in their club, I had to impale the chicken with a wooden stake up the rear end and all the way through to the mouth (I was told that if I released any of the secrets of Nyau, the same thing would happen to me). The chicken was then roasted directly over the coals of a fire, and I then ate it while dipping the meat into ashes that had been prepared as “medicine.” This was all very strange and interesting, kind of like the last year of my life.

This upcoming Sunday something exciting will happen. A new group of education volunteers will fly into Lilongwe airport. I have vivid memories of how all of this happened last year, especially how we were greeted as rock stars by the old volunteers yelling and waving big signs at the airport. We plan to do the same this year, and it should be a good time. Hopefully, I’ll be able to spend some time back in Dedza helping out with their training.

All in all, things are fine here. I have found a handful of good people that inspire me daily as we struggle with these problems that have no solutions. I can’t lie-I do have bad days. But I can always go home at the end of these days, talk things over with the two friends that I am living with, cook a good dinner over the fire, and get a good night’s rest. So far, things have always been better in the morning.

"So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten.
Sons are like birds flying upward over the mountain."
Iron and Wine

Break

[I typed this up a few weeks ago, but it is still interesting...I think.]

I haven’t had any school for the past month (at least at Chadabwa) because we had our term break. I guess the most exciting thing that I did during break was an international excursion eastward to Mozambique. This was an awesome trip. I’ll try to explain some of it in words, but I think you should check out the pictures (follow the link and instructions on the upper left column) to get a better feel for it. Mozambique has Peace Corps as well so we got in contact with a bunch of volunteers over there, and they helped us a lot (especially with our shoestring budget). We crossed the border near a town called Milange, which is near big old Mt. Mulanje on the Malawi side. We meet some volunteers here and they gave us a delicious lunch and then a free ride to a cosy town in the middle of nowhere called Mocuba. There’s a volunteer that lives here, and he let us stay at his place for two nights while we relaxed, explored the town, drank lots of beer (there is a much better selection than in Malawi), watched satellite TV, and ate really good food (the food over there is much better than here in Malawi, this is largely due to the Portguese influence (Mozambique was under the rule of Portugal multiple centuries until the 1960s)).

From Mocuba we continued our way east to the biggest city in the northern part of the country, Nampula. At the time, Peace Corps Mozambique was having a conference with a bunch of their volunteers. We just happened to roll into town at the same time, and we met a lot of these interesting people. The next day, we got out of Nampula, and we took a minibus to the coast. Our first stop was Mozambique Island. This was a very strange/interesting/beautiful place. It was the capital of the Porteguese colony until the early part of last century (I can’t remember exactly when) so it had a lot of big old buildings that tourists like to take pictures of. It is recognized as a world heritage site by UNESCO, and there’s about a days worth of cool stuff to see (which is why we stayed there for two nights and one full day). One half of the island is composed of all of the old buildings left over from colonial times. It’s an eerie place that feels like a ghost town. The southern half of the island is loaded with people. Apparently, these are the descendents of workers and servants from colonial times. This area is a true slum with poor sanitation, extreme poverty, and people living on top of each other (I don’t think I’ll ever get used to being a tourist in a place like this). One problem with Mozambique Island, from a tourist’s perspective, is that there aren’t any good beaches. There certainly are beaches on the island, but these beaches are a popular place to defecate.

Therefore, we headed north to find a good place to get a tan. Before dawn one morning we took an overcrowded, hot, dirty bus for a daylong journey to the city of Pemba. We had to stand for about half the bus ride, which took about 8 hours, but it was worth it since Pemba is absolutely beautiful.

We spent two full days and three nights at Pemba laying on the beach, eating cheap seafood, snorkelling over the small coral along the coast, and meeting all kinds of interesting people. The beach was great, but by this time I was starting to home-Malawi. The whole time we were in Mozambique things were a bit difficult because everyone knows Porteguese and very few people know English. At least the numbers are very similar to those in Spanish so I was able to get by on the little bit of Spanish that I learned from college and high school. However, I wasn’t able to talk with the local people at all, something that I enjoy doing (although I did find a guy at the market in Pemba that knew Chichewa-we chatted a while and he was so happy that he gave me a dozen free tangerines). It was time to head west for Malawi.

From Pemba we went back to Nampula where we spent two nights. Nampula isn’t all that interesting, but we stayed there for two nights so that we could catch a train going to Cuamba, another town in the middle of nowhere that reminded me of the Wild West. The train was a nice change from the buses and minibuses, but it was another long ride that took us all day. I can sum up all of the transportation in northern Mobiq with two words: long and uncomfortable.

Especially compared to Malawi, everything is very spread out in that country. To get from one hospitable town to another we had to catch a ride before sunrise everyday, and then we would get to our destination in the late afternoon. On top of the distance, the roads are horrible. It was only about 15 years ago when there was a civil war over there, and partially for this reason, the infrastructure is very poor. This means that we spent a majority of the time riding on unpaved, rutted out roads. But in hindsight, it was all worth it. The day we left Cuamba we managed to travel 500km all the way back to Lilongwe. I will never forget this trip (hopefully this blog and my pics will help we remember things).

After all this I went back to my site, to my home. I had some school work to finish up and people to talk to before I hit the road again. When I’m gone from my village (this seems to be true for most of us PCVs here), I always feel bad because the people in my village put me on some sort of guilt trip when I get back. Of course, these people are poor. They never have and never will have the opportunity to travel like I do. Needless to say, they have a lot of questions when I get back (How much did that cost? Can you bring me next time? Etc.), and they never fail to tell me how long I was gone for and how much I was missed. I was back home for a few days, answering everyone’s questions, and then I had to say goodbye again. At least this time it was “work” related.

A girl from my group has a really nice school that was recently renovated by the African Development Fund. They have all kinds of crazy science equipment (more than they will ever be able to use), a computer (!!), a science lab that is nicer than the one at BLHS, and a bunch of new buildings. Thankfully, a while back they decided to share some of this wealth. We put together a week long science camp at this school to help form 4 students (high school seniors) from nearby schools prepare for their MSCE exams, which they will write in a few months. Most of the students in Malawi, including the ones at my school, don’t have all this stuff at their schools. They primarily learn by copying what is on the chalkboard and reading the dearth of books they can find in the library.

Therefore, this was a valuable experience for all of them. I also brought four of my students, and they were smiling the entire time. These were the best students from their respective schools so it was cool for me to teach more advanced students, students that actually understand and can speak English. (**DON’T get this camp confused with Camp Sky (see previous blog post)). That camp is still coming up, in December, and we are still looking for help with funding from YOU).

I’m looking forward to a busy Term 3 at school. It’s hard to believe that next month will one year in Malawi. I hope that everyone is well back home. I love being here, but at the same time I can’t wait to get back to the States to see ya’ll.

“We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Independence Day

Happy forth of July!!! We had a big party at the Ambassador’s house yesterday with a couple hundred Americans, country music, hot dogs, and cheeseburgers. It was an authentic Independence Day party, but it all felt very out of place to me since it was set in a third world country. Most of the volunteers in Malawi have been in Lilongwe the past few days so there are lots people to talk with that I haven’t seen in a while and new people that have come into country since I began my service. Peace Corps is strange because there is such a high turnover of people. Most of us are only here for two years so people are always coming and going. I have meet a lot of cool people in my time here, but many of them are already gone by now.

Here is a picture of my newest mud stove. As you may or may not know, deforestation is a huge problem over here, especially in the area where I live. Therefore, we are trying to persuade people to construct these mud stoves. They do a good job of conserving the heat that is generated by the firewood so that less firewood is used, less trees are cut down, and the world is a happier place. Furthermore, they are easy and free to make with mud, bricks, and ash. Earlier I made one in my kitchen, but the construction of that one wasn’t the greatest (it was my first time) and I wanted to make another in an area where more people can see it. This one is located in the front of my house so that everyone can see it as they pass by. As have only used it a few times because it is a bit susceptible to the southeasterly wind that we get. Both times I had a bunch of people come over to see what the crazy white man was doing. I explained to them what it was all about, and we made informal agreements that I would help them make one in their kitchens. Once I find the time, I will start doing this.
But time is something that I don’t have a lot of right now. I am happy to say that my life is very busy these days. I was concerned last year during training that I would face a lot of boredom (because that was what training was like-BORING), especially while at site in the village. However, a lack of things to do hasn’t been a problem for me at all. In addition to school, I’ve got a lot of other projects that I’m starting to get going on. These other projects include things like mud stoves (mentioned above), my garden (which is nice and green-even during this dry season), a women’s group that is making peanut butter that I sell for them to my rich friends in town, a group of scattered amateur beekeepers that we are trying to organize into a cooperative group that can sell in bulk, a tree nursery at the school, a girl’s dormitory that we are trying to build at the school and get funding for, and something called Camp Sky that I talked about a few posts ago. My idea is that a majority of these projects will fail (no matter how hard I work) so I want to try and start a bunch of things, and maybe by the time I leave this place, I will have at least a couple of successful endeavors that I can brag about.
I a few weeks I’m going to be ready for a vacation. We have a three week break coming up at school, and I planning to spend two of those weeks traveling on the Mozambique coast. It should be pretty exciting, and even just the planning of it is fun. Well I don’t have a lot else to say right now, but I do have some other things to do—so I think I’ll end things here. Post comments or send an email it there are other things you would like me to talk about on here.

"Sanity is not truth. Sanity is conformity to what is socially expected. Truth is sometimes in conformity, sometimes not."
Robert M. Pirsig

No School, No Holiday

Where has the time gone? It still feels like I just got here, even though I am now approaching the nine month mark. Thoughts about my departure have also started creeping into my head although I still have over a year to go (although I could stay longer…). Nevertheless, as the past races away and the future’s uncertainty puts a lump in my throat, I am trying to make good use of every day and moment.

This past week we didn’t have any school so I did a lot of traveling around on my bike. The highlight of the week was when I visited the mother of Fredric (it is more appropriate for me to say that she is OUR mother), one of the boys that is living with me. She lives in a village that is about 45 km away from my site, and Fred doesn’t see her very often because she lives so far away (I won’t explain why she lives so far away because it depresses me to think about it and it’s a long story). We left at the crack of dawn. Along the way we stopped to visit the mother of one of my Form 3 students. This boy lives with his grandparents in a village close to the school. Therefore, his mother, who is constantly struggling to pay his school fees, had no idea that her boy hasn’t been coming to school more than once or twice a week. She was very grateful that I told her about all of this, and I was happy to tell her. I don’t have a problem if my students are lazy and don’t come to school (I try to focus my energy on the students that want to learn), but I do get pissed off when their parents or guardians, who are poor and have a great burden to pay the school fees, don’t know about the situation. To fix this problem, I have taken it as my responsibility to visit the homes of each of the students in my Form 3 class to let them know if and how their child is learning at school.

We continued our journey east, towards the mountains where our mother resides. We arrived in the late morning. I was introduced to everyone in Fred’s large family, and then the chief invited me over to his house to eat some mashed sweet potatoes (called futali). The chief was drunk, but we still had a good conversation about a variety of topics including agriculture, the problems of Malawi, the differences between America and Malawi, and the local cultural practices (this actually summarizes most of the conversations that I have with people in the village). After that I took a look at the nearby primary school. It was a nice school, tucked in a mountain valley. However, there are problems there. I’ll tell you about two of them. First, as the headmaster told me, “Here we have over 1,000 students versus only eight teachers.” They had more teachers in the past, but two of them were recently fired, which leads me to the second problem. The teachers were fired because they each impregnated Standard 7 students (equivalent to seventh grade). I should tell you that this isn’t an isolated incident, but this is common even in the primary schools-teachers sleeping with, and often impregnating, their female students. I try not to think about this too much.

After getting back from the school, we had a nice lunch waiting for us. The women, including Fred’s mom; sister; two aunts; and grandmother, had the intention of cooking a chicken for us (a gift which is saved for only the most special occasions), but the chicken got word of this and was hiding somewhere in the fields until the visitors left and she would be allowed to live another day. Instead we had boiled peanuts (my favorite), nsima (THE staple food of Malawi), eggs, and boiled greens, a truly local meal that I have become accustomed to and salivate over. After eating and chatting for a while it was time for us to go. It would have been more appropriate for us to spend the night (which I would have been comfortable with, and preferred, to do), especially since it was a long journey back home (three hours on bike one way). Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay because I had an important PTA meeting the next morning. We said our long goodbyes. Our mother informed me of how thankful she was that her boy is with me, and I told her of how proud I am to be a part of their family. She also made a point of telling me that she was a little upset that we were leaving so fast. I placated her worries a little by telling her that we will return latter this year, a promise that I am eager to fulfill. A sad wind blew down from the mountains as we received our accustomed gifts of peanuts and sorghum (which is specifically grown in that area and can’t be found in my area). Our sisters escorted us to the “main” road, and I will admit that I had tears in my eyes as we left, as I do now- writing about this. The strenuous ride back home allowed me to work off the gloom. By the end of our trip I was in better spirits as we chased the sunset over the African hills.

What else did I do during my week off from school? I visited the homes of a few other students. By doing this I am coming to realize that most of my students don’t have a father at home. Often times a couple will get married or start living together at a young age, the girl is usually in her mid-teens (no typo) while the father is a bit older. They immediately start having as many kids as possible. The father quickly realizes that there isn’t enough money at home to raise a family so he goes into the city looking for work. Maybe he finds work, maybe he doesn’t, but he is in town for a long time while the teenage mother waits worriedly for him back in the village. Often times he finds that all of his problems will disappear if he simply stays in the city or finds a different rural area to reside in, a different area where he can find a different girl to marry and start a different family that he will eventually destroy. This is the narrative for the families of many of my students.

Some other activities that kept me occupied last week: I visited another volunteer a school about two hours to the north of me. We had a huge PTA meeting at the school with about 180 parents/guardians in which I revealed my plans to assist them in constructing a girl’s dormitory (I will have much more to stay about this in future entries). On two separate occasions, I had dinner with two different elderly couples. They are happy for this because they get to chat with a white man and I bring some healthier foods (such as chicken, meat, or fish) to be cooked that they wouldn’t usually have. Also, I am happy to do this because the older women are excellent cooks, I get a chance to improve my Chichewa, and I learn many things about the local history. During this week, I also spent a lot of time chatting with people and organizing different projects involving the marketing of peanut butter, honey, and wine (local products that can help generate income in the village). All in all, it was a productive week. I learned a lot, although many of the things that I have learned are troubling.

Perhaps this entry has a bit of a depressed tone. If so, I must admit this does indeed reflect my mood the past few weeks. I am not exactly depressed; I think solemn would be a better way to describe things. But I must tell you, Reader, don’t worry about me. My concern for humanity catalyzes my life, and I awake every day with the opportunity to make small but meaningful changes. I have good people here to support me as we make our way along this beautiful struggle.

“I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and have done my share of eating too. I am not washed and beautiful, in control of a shining world in which everything fits, but instead am wondering awed about on a splintered wreck I've come to care for, whose gnawed trees breathe a delicate air, whose bloodied and scarred creatures are my dearest companions, and whose beauty bats and shines not in its imperfections but overwhelmingly in spite of them...”
Annie Dillard

Elections, Goats, and Chickens

Sorry I’ve been away for so long. I’ve been really busy since my last real post, but today I am making a point of giving ya’ll an update on my life because I do feel that it is important and worthwhile for you to hear what is going on over here in Malawi.

Let me start by talking about the elections. You may or may not have heard that we had our national elections two Tuesdays ago. I haven’t blogged at all about this for the sake of preventing you guys from worrying about me. If you are moderately aware of the world news, you probably heard about the violent elections Kenya had last year and similar problems in Madagascar this year. With these nearby warnings and a variety of other reasons, I was a little worried about things going into election week (I should also tell you that Peace Corps was also keeping a close eye on things during this time, and they have done an decent job keeping us safe-as far as I have been able to tell). There was certainly some tension during this time. This is a new democracy (less than two decades ago this country was run by a “president for life”), and it certainly shows. I observed men sitting on the side of the road yelling at a woman walking by and calling her a prostitute because she was wearing a tee-shirt of the opposition party. The teachers at my school would have daily arguments about the strengths and weaknesses of the various presidential candidates. The political rallies that I observed from a distance appeared more like high school pep rallies (now that I think of it, all this isn’t that much different than the States). Rather than voting for a candidate, I was told that many people will simply vote for a party’s symbol throughout their lives. The children all knew the favored party’s chants and slogans very well, and they would keep yelling them long into the night. The neighbor’s four-year old boy, Crispin, is still yelling “DPP yoyheaaa!!” on a daily basis.

In spite of all this, I must say that the elections did go smoothly. We have reelected Bingu Mutharika by a wide margin (things could have been a lot more heated if the results were closer). Bingu seems to be doing a decent job with the plethora of problems that this country provides him with, and hopefully he will keep that up in his second term. The main opposition candidate did accuse Bingu of cheating after the votes were tallied, but apparently he does this after every election so his complaints weren’t taken seriously.

Unfortunately for my students, a few of the teachers at my school also decided that Tuesday’s elections were a good excuse to take the ENTIRE week off as a vacation. Election Day was a scheduled national holiday so there was no school, but we were supposed to have school the rest of the week. What actually happened was a different story. I ended up teaching all of the students that showed up on Monday and Wednesday by myself, and on Thursday and Friday only about half of the students and teachers came to school. Well, as my friend Mr. Chembe likes to say, “Such is life.”

A couple of weeks ago we had a problem in the garden. Now that the dry season has started, the local goats are no longer tied up to trees. Instead, they are allowed to run around free all day so that they can scavenge for food. Since I was a child and we had a goat named Ice Cream, I was never a big fan of the goat species. Well, I can say that now I absolutely hate these creatures. The free-range goats of Chadabwa managed to find a weak spot in my garden fence while I was at school one day. The boys and I were just about to harvest a big bean crop, but the goats gobbled those up quickly. They also found the banana tree, papaya tree, Chinese cabbage, and mustard leaves particularly appetizing. For some reason, they didn’t eat the peas. Thankfully, some guys from the village helped us repair the fence with some sturdy elephant grass. We haven’t had any goats since, and we quickly replanted so that now the garden looks even better than it did before those damn goats got in.

Another thing that I am really excited about right now is our new chicken. I had been asking around for a while about a smaller hen that is just starting to lay eggs that we would be able to raise at our house. After a couple of weeks of asking various people I finally found what I was looking for. We have had her for about two weeks now, and she should start laying eggs anytime. The idea is that she will have a good time with the neighbor’s rooster, lay about eight eggs, and in about ten months we will have eight full-grown chickens to eat. They are easy as pie to take care of. We just had to keep her tied up in the back yard for a couple of days to teach her where her new home is. Now, she sleeps in the storage room (I want to build a coup soon because the house will start to smell a little funky if we let her and all of the babies sleep in there). We let her out in the morning to find food (and the rooster), and she comes back on her own every night looking for a place to sleep. One of my buddies is telling me that I now need to start raising pigs as well, but I think I’ll just stick with chickens.

Sorry I don’t have many good pics to put up today. If you haven’t done so already, make sure that you check out the link on the left column to all of my pictures. Also, I will try to start taking some more around where I live so that you guys can get a better idea of what that looks like. Finally, don’t forget to donate money to CampSky at friendsofmalawi.org Tell your friends!!

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”
George Carlin

Camp Sky

Hello everyone. I only have one very important thing to tell you about today. Every year the education sector here at Peace Corps Malawi puts on an event called Camp Sky (see below for some details). We have just started planning for this event, and guess who we decided to put in charge of the whole project this year????? That's right, it's me your old friend Bryan. It will be a lot of work, but those of you that know me well are aware that I am most happy when I have a lot of work to get done.

Perhaps you may be asking yourself what you can do to help me out? Well, it would be wonderful if you could send us some MONEY. It's very simple, you don't even have to get up from your computer:
1) Go to this link: http://www.friendsofmalawi.org/grants/how_to_donate.html
2) Scroll down to "Summer School "Camp Sky" 2009 Project"
3) Click on "Donate"
4) Make a donation

We certainly appreciate any amount that you send to us (a dollar can buy about 5 kgs of maize flour here in Malawi), but large amounts are certianly more useful;-)

What IS CAMP SKY?
CampSky is a two week academic camp for talented From 3 students from CDSS [Community Day Secondary Schools] throughout Malawi. Over the two weeks students have classes focused on their core MSCE [examinable] subjects – Math, Science, English. However, students also have the opportunity to take elective courses – for overall intellectual development or just plain pleasure. Students get to travel, meet peers form all over the country and learn in an environment much more conducive to learning than most of the schools they are coming from.

MISSION STATEMENT
Mission
Expose students and teachers from underserved, rural Community Day Secondary Schools (C.D.S.S.’s) to new experiences that will the will be able to utilize for individual, communal, and national development..
Objectives
-Provide training to a select group of experienced Malawian educators from country-wide C.D.S.S.’s
-Expose select students from country-wide C.D.S.S.’s to a variety of occupation-focused subjects and opportunities
-Expand student’s post-secondary opportunities by rigorous MSCE preparation
-Establish an Alumni Association which will assist graduate campers in secondary tuition, post-secondary admissions and tuition, and career acquisition
-Motivate students to succeed by establishing a fun yet hard-working and practical learning environment
-Expose students to new social and cultural perspectives that will broaden their national and global perspective.
-Expose students and teachers to ideas and skills pertaining to health and environment which they can implement into their respective communities

Before you do anything else you must also check out this lovely website that will tell you all about last year's Camp Sky: http://campskyinzomba2008.shutterfly.com/

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD

"Up ahead us we've a mighty task
To love the face behind hatred's mask
'cause on the day we understand our past
God almighty we'll be free at last"
-Mason Jennings

Vacation!!

Hello world. I just got back from an interesting vacation/adventure on the northern lakeshore. I took lots of awesome pictures so make sure you check those out using the link on the left (sorry I may not have these ones up for another months since this computer isn’t cooperating). I went with four of my good buddies; thus the official title for this sojourn was “Man Camp.”


(Perhaps you will want to look at a good map of Malawi while reading this)

The trip started of with me hitching up north to a small city/big town called Mzuzu. This was my first time being north of Lilongwe, and I must say that the North is way different than the central region I am from. In brief, there are a lot more trees and a lot less people up there. Coincidence, I think not.

The next morning the five of us took a minibus up to a small trading center on the lake called Chiweta. I can best compare this area, the northern lakeshore, to the lakeshore of Lake Superior-except with much different flora, more heat, and warmer water. From Chiweta we took a matola (large flat bed truck used for transporting massive amounts of goods and people over rugged roads) to Mlowe. From there we started hiking south the rest of the afternoon. That night we found an idyllic beach to camp on just outside of a small fishing village.

The next day we were all feeling lazy and out of it, and we didn’t get very far. Nevertheless, we did move a little further south, and by evening we were having a difficult time finding a camp site. A little before dusk we spotted a small beach that was just big enough for the five of us… so we set up camp. While setting things up, some villagers came by to inform us that we had to move because this beautiful little beach is where the local women bathe every morning (oops!). Luckily, these guys helped us find another spot to spend the night further down the trail. They also informed us that a boat going south would be stopping in the nearby village the next morning.



With this good news (good because we were collectively disgruntled with the trail’s rough terrain (which begs the question: Was this trip worthy of the title “Man Camp”?) and it’s a heck of a lot easier to sit on a boat rather than climb mountains), we awoke early the next morning to catch the boat for an hour long ride south to Ruarwe, a larger fishing village. Here we spent three nights at a nearby lodge called Wherearewe? (lake-paradise.com), which was absoloutely beautiful. It feels silly to try and describe it in words. You all will just have to come and see it for yourself (I will be happy to serve as your tour guide). Anyways, here’s a list of some of the stuff we did there: two hour hike up a waterfall with tea at the top, jumping off 50 foot cliffs, snorkeling with the colorful fish of lake Malawi, eating great food such as banana fritters; ravioli; and good old rice with beans, attempting to paddle to local dug-out wooden boats, and chatting it up with the local village folk. All I can really say about this place is that it is one of the top five most beautiful places that I have ever been too. Get there fast while it is still cheap; the owner has plans of turning it into a five-star resort!

After three days of relaxation, we were running out of money and time so we decided that we better head back to Mzuzu. To do this, we first had a six hour hike with cool weather and gorgeous scenery until we reached a place called Usisa. We were told that a matola would be leaving at 6pm to take us over the mountains and back to Mzuzu. Not surprisingly, we didn’t actually leave until about eight, but looking back on the whole experience the tardy departure was the least of our struggles.

I will never forget this dark, crowded, uncomfortable, slow, muddy, wet, and frightening four hour matola ride. First of all, the road over the escarpment was barely passable-muddy, steep and rutted out, as the rainy season in this area was just coming to a close. On three separate occasions all of us passengers had to get out so that the driver could wiggle the truck up an especially difficult section of road. Once he made it through these obstacles, there was always a mad rush to get back into the truck bed as everyone yelled “Place!, place!, place!”. The last time we all mounted to truck, I wasn’t quick enough, and I ended up standing on the outside, barely hanging over the railing as we barreled our way through the hills in the middle of the night. To add insult to injury, it was raining during the last hour or two of the trip until we finally arrived in the quite city of Mzuzu. I certainly didn’t enjoy this last leg of our trip, but I must say that it was very interesting and crazy. It is something I am glad to have experienced, but not something I ever want to experience again.

The next morning, after taking care of some business in the city, I started hitching south to Lilongwe. My first ride broke down about an hour south of Mzuzu. Luckily, we stalled next to a small village where I was able to quickly catch another ride with some guys in a truck hauling lumber south all the way to LL. This wasn’t the best ride (we probably averaged about 40 mph with a heavy load through the hills, and we had to stop ever hour or so to find water for the engine with a leaky radiator). It took us about eight hours on a trip that ideally lasts four hours. However, it all ended well with our safe arrival in LL late yesterday evening.

I’m leaving out a lot of juicy details here, but I can’t spend all afternoon writing this. My vacation’s over, and I have to get back to saving the world. Peace out.

"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Quick Update

I don't have time to write up a whole speal today, but I do have to things to tell you about. One, notice that my phone number (on the left column) now has a few more 9s. Two, you can now look at a whole bunch of my pictures by using the link, username, and password under "Links." Please let me know if there are any glitches with this. Perhaps I will have time to write a real post next weekend...

Hello everyone-I'm still alive. I know it's been a while since my last post, but I haven't had internet access for a while. Nevertheless, I'm here now, so without further ado, please allow me to give you the lowdown on my life the past month our so.

The rains were supposed to end a few weeks ago. However, thanks to those industrialized countries; in the developed world; with their SUVs, power plants, technology, smoke, smog, plastic bottles, fossil fuels , and Al Gore with his climate change; the weather has been slightly different this year. We have still been getting a lot of rain. The farmers in the area where I live (which I guess includes just about everyone, including myself) have all been telling me that these late rains will cause problems with the upcoming maize harvest, as a large portion of the crop may be rotting. I remember a few months ago when everyone was complaining that we weren't getting enough rains. Now we are getting too much. I guess farmers are the same all over the world: they are never content with yesterday's weather or tomorrow's forecast. But I shouldn't make it sound like we are having monsoons all of the time because we do still have some beautiful sunsets.

On a different note, Friday was the last day of Term 1 at my school. I'm now at the capital, and this afternoon I will be headed back to Dedza College of Forestry (the place where I had most of my training last year) to spend 10 days doing something called a Reconnect. I will be meeting back up with everyone that I went through training with, and we will have the chance to complain and joke about our first few months on our own, develop our language skills, and learn about other useful things like grant writing and such. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again (I've already been seeing a lot of old faces today). During this time, I should also have an opportunity to visit the family I was living with back in November. I have a nice framed picture of us to give them, and I'm hoping they'll give me another sack of spuds or maybe some peanuts like they did when I left Dedza in December. After that, a bunch of us are planning on taking a multi-day hike along the northern lakeshore. I haven't done a lot of traveling so far, as I have been busy with school, so I pumped to finally have a chance to get out and see more of Africa. I should have some cool picks from this little adventure in a few weeks.

As I said, I am now done with school, and we will begin Term 2 in three weeks. All in all, things have been going well for me. The two boys that I have living with me are now like my little brothers, my students appear to at least be learning something, my Chichewa is getting better everyday, I have lots of IGAs (income generating activities) lined up in the community, and Chadabwa is truly beginning to feel like my home. Two weeks ago, the boys helped me triple the size of my garden. It's looking pretty good, although the maize we planted is having some trouble (They keep trying to convince me that we need to apply fertilizer while I tell them we just need to make more compost. I have a feeling they're going to put down some fertilizer the next couple of days since I won't be around to stop this from happening. This country's addicted to fertilizer, but it appears to be the only immediate solution to feed everyone because there are simply too many people living here and there is not enough land to feed everyone.). It will be nice to have a break from village life for a few weeks, but I already miss everyone back home in Chadabwa.

Before I go I should tell you about the funeral I went to a few weeks ago. In the area where I live, the predominate tribe is Chewa while the predominate religion is Christianity (especially the Catholic and Presbyterian flavors). At this point, I don't entirely understand how these two cultural aspects-tribe and religion-coexist (there does appear to be some tension between the two, perhaps analogous to the superficial feud between science and religion), but both are very important parts of the Malawian culture. Anyways, this funeral was strictly of the Chewa variety, without any Christianity added. Certainly it was different than any funeral I have seen before, and although it's difficult for me to explain it in words (I will have some pictures in the future (this time around the chiefs wouldn't allow me to bring a camera) after I am "initiated" into the Chewa tribe (a friend has told me that this "initiation" will consist of spending a few consecutive nights at the village's manda (graveyard)-obviously I will have more to say about this in the future))), let me try to highlight some of the more interesting parts. The entire village community was, or more accurately-was expected to be, present. There were also many people from outside the community (they were all very surprised to see me, a white man, that far away from Town at a funeral in the village). I would estimate that there were about 300 people present. This was a surprise to me because (I say this with no intention of disrespecting the individual) the man that passed away was only an ordinary person in the village. The highlight (yes there is a highlight to a Chewa funeral) of the ceremony was the Gule Waukulu, which means Big Dance in English. This consisted of three traditional dancers, in elaborate costumes with disturbing masks, putting on a ten or 15 minute performance in which they danced while collecting money from the crowd. If I interpreted everything correctly, the idea is that the dancers represent spirits, and these spirits have the responsibility of escorting the deceased into the afterlife. The funeral definitely involved mourning, but the Gule Waukulu was more like a celebration with people laughing and enjoying the dance. I will have more to say on Chewa culture in the future since I find it fascinating, and I am becoming good friends with a guy that is always telling me that he will teach me things “DEEP into Chewa culture.”

That’s all for today folks, but I will leave you with a word of wisdom. The next time you are disgruntled with the “economic crisis” just think that it could be a lot worse if you were living in immense poverty like the people I see here every day. As Eric the Midget likes to say, “Buy for now.”

"Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another." Hermann Hesse

New Roommates, New Crops, and New Food

I’ll start things off hear with some proof that I’m not the only one hear in Africa that eats insects:

At least I cook mine. These kids just eat them straight out of the ground. I can’t decided if this picture is absolutely hysterical or disturbing.

On a different note, this upcoming weekend I’ll have a pretty big change at home: two of my students will be moving in with me. Three factors influenced this decision. First, I’ve been spending a lot of time every day just doing chores-things like sweeping, washing clothes, starting a fire, fetching water, cooking, and cleaning. It’s not that I’m incapable of doing these things, or that I hate doing them, but rather they take up a lot of my time and energy. A lot of time and energy that would better be spent at the school or out in the community doing work. These guys should be able to help me out with these things, which will make my life a lot easier (especially starting a fire, something that I still haven’t been able to master during this rainy season).

Second, my house is built for a family. Since the first day I saw it in November, I knew that I wanted to try and have students live with me. Right now there are two empty rooms that I use for unnecessary storage space. I just doesn’t make sense for me to sprawl our in this huge house when these other guys would be so much better off living right next to the school with me.

Third, and most importantly, I think these two boys will benefit greatly from living with me. One of them is an orphan, and he is currently living with his grandparents, a situation that he doesn’t like at all. The other boy lives with his single mother (the father skipped out of town when he was a baby). They live in a village that is pretty far from the school so he had a long commute every day until he started boarding in the local trading center. Nevertheless, they should both be much better off with me. They won’t have to pay rent any longer (they’ll just have to do some chores they are more than willing to do). Also, I need to stress that these two are very respectful, hard working, and intelligent. They are the top students in forms 3 and 4, and they are always asking me questions in class that I never have time to answer. They are thirsty for knowledge. I should be able to help them out a lot more if we are all living under the same roof. Most of my students will probably end up with the same life as their parents, living in the village as low-income farmers (which is fine), but these two really stand out as having an opportunity to escape this cycle of poverty. Hopefully, I can be the little push that they need to get over the hump. I excited to see how this all goes. I have spoken with some of the veteran volunteers that have been living with students for about a year now, and they say that its been great for both them and there students. I’ll keep ya’ll updated on how all this goes.

My garden’s finally looking good enough that I can put up a picture of it:

I’m pleasantly surprised by how well most of the crops are growing. I’ve started harvesting some Chineese cabbage; basil; and beans, with a bunch more on the way. Within the next month I should have a ton of pumpkins, tomatoes, and cucumbers. As you can see, I planted the cucumbers a little to close together so that they are sort of taking over everything, but I try and persuade them to keep a respectful distance from the other crops. Once I find time, I want to make another bed or two, doubling the current size. This whole gardening thing is actually pretty fun. Mom-I regret that I never helped you out planting stuff in the past at home. Missed opportunities…

… But we can’t dwell on the past too long when there are so many mice to eat!!!

That’s right folks. It’s nearing the end of the rainy season here in Malawi, meaning that the mice (or perhaps they look more like rats-let’s just use the Chichewa name: mbewa) are out in full force. Therefore, we need to trap ‘em, dry ‘em, and fry ‘em up before they go underground for the rest of the year.

Yes indeed, I have now eaten rats on a stick (I don’t think they have those at the MN State Fair). This is another good source of village protein, although they don’t taste nearly as good as the fried ants. At first, my buddy insisted that I try them just dried and salted, which was okay, but I’m not a big fan of munching on all that fur. So then I insisted that we burn the hair off over the fire (a common practice of more “civilized” folk like myself). I can’t say that mbewa is my favorite food here in Africa. I can say that the head and tail have interesting texture.

It might be a while until my next post, as I want to be around at home for a few weeks while the boys are getting settled in, so don’t get worried if you don’t hear from me for a while. Don’t forget that you can send me a cheap text message, cheap letter, expensive care package, or expensive phone call as well.

"He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough."
-Lao Tzu

(I can't think of a good title today-just read below please)

Hello everyone, I’m back in town again. [Town is what we call Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, which is about 60 km from my site (but between 90 min. to three hours travel time including a 45 min bike ride until I reach Mitundu where I can pick up a minibus that takes me to the bus depot in town, and from there it is a 10 min. walk to either the Peace Corps rest house (pictures of the outside and inside below)




or the Peace Corps office (where I am currently on the computer composing this fantastic blog)), and is a place where I can retreat from my site for a few days for both a mental break and some time to get work done at the office and on the internet.]

Please allow me to vent with my one complaint, and then we can get to the good stuff: There are seven teachers at my school. Three of us, the headmaster; deputy head; and myself, live immediately next to the school, while the other four live in Mitundu. As I have said in the past, Mitundu is the nearest major trading center, but it’s about a 45 min. bike ride away from the school. As far as I can tell, these other four have had the opportunity in the past to live closer to the school, making their lives easier with a shorter commute to work.

However, they prefer to live in Mitundu instead for a variety of reasons. First, most, if not all of them, have businesses there to supplement their teachers salary (which isn’t great, but relative to the respective national average, it’s a lot better than high school teacher’s salaries back in the states). Secondly, they thoroughly enjoy drinking, and there just aren’t any good bottle stores (bars) near Chadabwa. Finally, I heard that one of them actually did try living in Chadabwa a few years ago, but he had to leave because his family, which lives in this village, was always bugging him for money.

With that being said, they all feel that there long commute to work is a good excuse for them to show up late to school EVERY day. Take note that I said “EVERY” day. School begins at 7:30, and not a single one of them has showed up on time on any of these day during these first five weeks of school. It would make sense that if you were a half hour late for work every day you would simply depart home a half hour earlier. Unfortunately, in this case (and in an overwhelming amount of cases in this country), “sense” seems to be lacking. People are surprised to hear that where I come from, back in America, a worker is fired from their job if they show up late to work everyday. Well, that can’t be done here because there are enough teachers in the first place. If these lazy teachers are fired there simply won’t be anyone to replace them. Is a lazy teacher better than no teacher at all? What a great example these guys are for the students. How am I supposed to expect my students to show up on time if the teachers don’t????

With that out of the way, I should say that I am trying to focus my energy on working with the students and the community rather than the teachers (I must point out that I do get along very well with the Head and Dept. Head, who are good people-to the best of my knowledge). It has been difficult teaching Form 1 because their English skills are horrible. Therefore, much of my teaching in that class is done in Chichewa, but a lot of things, especially in the realm of science, don’t translate very well. Oh well, if anything they’re getting better at writing, hearing, and speaking English. I make them take a lot of notes (there aren’t many other options since we don’t have textbooks here for the students) and answer a lot of questions out loud.

It’s definitely easier for me to teach Form 3, although they’re not fluent speakers by any means. Last Thursday in Life Skills, we were having a discussion about gender roles in America versus Malawi. This somehow morphed into me leaving them all baffled when I ended class by telling them about homosexuality in the States (a concept that most of them were apparently completely unaware of). In sum, the actual teaching part (outside of the office) of being at school is going well, and I’ll see how much my students have learned this upcoming week, as they will be taking mid-term exams.

I’ve been excited to post this picture since I took it a few weeks ago. This is my new favorite food in Malawi:


The local name for it is ngumbi or inswa, but it can be simply explained to you all as fried ants! I prepared this batch myself by first boiling them, and then frying them in margarine and salt. Result: delicious. They are definitely better than the fried pig intestines I had a few months ago. They have a hard-to-describe nutty flavor and are a good source of protein in the village. But I must admit that the amayi (the women in the village) can prepare them a lot better them me. Andrew Zimmern would be so proud of me. Maybe I should invite him out to Chadabwa to do an episode of Bizarre Foods. There’s another exotic, African food that I should be trying in the near future. I won’t tell you what it is yet, leaving it up to your imagination…

My garden is looking good now that it isn’t being attacked by chickens. I should have some tomatoes; pumpkins; and cucumbers within the next month, with some different peppers; basil; cabbage; cilantro; beans; and peanuts on the way after that. Everyone around my place is addicted to fertilizer, and they are all trying to persuade me to use some. As a result, I have to constantly explain the concept of an “organic garden” that won’t destroy the land after a few years. In addition to caring for my vegetable garden, I recently planted a papaya tree seedling, and one of my students gave me a young banana tree from his grandparents large grove. The papaya was a heck of a deal-less than a dollar (although everyone in my village thought I got ripped off when I told them I paid 100MK for it). Both of these should start to give fruit during my two years here, assuming I can keep them alive.

I don’t really want to spent all morning on this silly computer so I should wrap things up here. Please send me an email, letter, or post a comment so I can get an idea of who is reading this. Also, let me know what you would like me to write about.

“The most moral activity of all is the creation of space for life to move around.”
-Robert M. Pirsig

The "Start" of the School Year

I was very excited last week, on January 5, to get the school year started. Since coming to Malawi, I hadn't really done anything significant in my role as a PCV. With the start of school, I would be kept busy with some meaningful work. Unfortunately, we had a little problem this year. Here's a little background info first. There are three major exams the students must take in order to complete primary and secondary school. First, at the end of primary school they must pass an exam (the name eludes me at the moment) in order to be placed at a secondary school. The brighter students most likely go on to conventional (boarding) schools, while the mediocre students move on to Community Day Secondary Schools (where I teach). Second, after Form 2 (equivalent to 10th grade in the States) the students take the JCE exams. If they pass, they can move on to Form 3, and finally, after Form 4, they take the MSCE exam, which basically determines the outcome of the rest of their life (this is not an overstatement). Each of these are national government exams. For better or (more likely) for worse, the evaluation of student performance is centered upon these three exams. All other forms of evaluating the students progress, such as assignments and mid-term/final exams, don't have a very big impact on the measured success of the student. At the end of each school year, in October, the appropriate students take these exams. This gives the government almost three full months to grade the exams and get the results back to the schools and the students so that everyone will know who will be going where the following school year.

However, this year three months apparently wasn't enough time to grade the exams. By the first official day of school, the scores for the exams still hadn't been released. Since I am only teaching Forms 1 and 3 this year, I had no students to teach. The results were finally released last Thursday, and some of my students finally started showing up this week. I say "some of my students" because the other teachers have told me that only about half of the students have shown up thus far, two weeks into the school year. From what I have heard, this dearth of students is due to the fact that many of them are having a difficult time collecting enough money to pay the school fees. One of the Form 4 students told me that a lot of the students won't even come until the next semester (after the harvest, when people have a little more money).

On this blog, I'm going to try to limit myself to one complaint per post so I think I have reached my quota for today, and I will now move on to happy thoughts.

Despite the late arrival of the students, I am enjoying teaching them. They are thrilled to have a strange white man for a teacher, and so far (fingers crossed), they have been very responsive and well-behaved in class. They are certainly much easier to teach, in terms of behavior, than I was in high school. This is the view of the school from my front door with the block in the foreground containing the Form 3 and 4 classrooms. Behind that (out of site) is the teacher's office building. To the right is the block containing the Form 1 and 2 classrooms.

This is the beach I was hanging out at during my aforementioned Christmas vacation at the lake:


While looking back at my previous posts, I realized that I failed to put up any pics of the outside of my house. Well, here they are:



The first shows the front of Home Sweet Home. As you can see I have a nice little porch, which the goats like to relieve themselves on. Secondly, we have my back door and yard. The little shack off to the right contains my kitchen and bafa (bathing room). In the foreground you can see my two little garden beds. I planted some vegetables, beans, squash, and peanuts. Some of the plants are growing nicely, but a lot of them were destroyed one day while I was at school. The neighbor's chickens flew over the fence and had a feast on a bunch of the seeds and seedlings I had planted. I discussed the incident with my neighbor, and we decided that she should clip the wings of the chickens. Since then, I haven't been raided by any poultry pests.

I think I'll wrap things up here. For the most part, things are going well, and I am settling in nicely. It's raining a lot this time of year, but 75 F with rain in Malawi beats a 40 below wind chill in Minnesota any day.