On the Road

I’ve been moving around a lot this past month, but I’m finally settled into my new job in a new place living in a new house. The start of last month, we had our Close of Service (COS) conference. This included all of the people that I came here with back in September 2008, or at least all of us that are still around. The general purpose of the COS conference was to prepare us for the end of our service as PCVs, more specifically to show us how to fill out all the paper work, how to find a job in the empty basket we call the US job market, and how to adjust to life back in the States where everything is available all of the time and people prefer to ignore each other. Clearly most of this stuff was irrelevant to me since I will be living as a poor but happy (not to mention employed) PCV for a little over a year now, but I still had a great time at this little get-together since it was the last time all of the people in my group will be able to get together. Also, it was at the beach with perfect weather, five meals a day (I’m counting the tea breaks as meals since the tea came with food as well, such as cheese sand witches; biscuits; cookies; banana bread; etc.~always in the all-you-can-eat style), and more than enough alcohol. We were all fat and happy, and it was certainly bittersweet. I can honestly say that I have great respect for all of the people in my group, I have become good friends with many of them, and I will miss all of them dearly (although about five of us will be extending with Peace Corps Malawi-we can’t seem to get away from each other). About half of them will be leaving for good this month of September so I think I’ll be making a few trips to the airport to see them off.

After COS conference, I went to Dedza where they were having the pre-service training for the new education and health volunteers. Altogether there are about 35 of them, and I was mostly helping out with the training of the new education volunteers for a few days. They seem to be like most groups of PCVs: diverse, eccentric people that are a bit weird, but at the same time easy to get along with and interesting to talk to. I’ll be working with them for a while so I thought it was important for us to get to know each other and start trying to remember their names (people come and go so frequently in Peace Corps that it becomes a pain to remember people’s names, I have a hard time remembering names as it is). Another thing of note was the weather. I tried to prepare for it, but it was still a shock. That time of year, early July, is the coldest in this part of the world (the southern hemisphere), and that part of the country, Dedza district up in the mountains, is one of the coldest in Malawi. It was definitely getting down into the low 40s (I actually heard that there was snow flurries the week after I left) at night. To those of you Minnesotans, this probably doesn’t seem too bad. However, keep in mind that here in Malawi none of the houses have insulation or heating. The only way to stay warm is to sit next to a smoky fire or hide under two or three blankets. I still find it hard to believe that it can get so cold this close to the equator, but at the same time, it’s nice that that is as cold as it gets and the rest of the year the climate is relatively mild and comfortable, especially the area were I live which only has a slightly lower elevation than Dedza.

From Dedza I went back home for a few days. Most people there were aware of the fact that I would be leaving soon, and it was a little awkward delaying my farewells since I had to explain that I would be leaving again soon for two weeks, coming back again for a few days, and then leaving for good. I only stayed for a few days trying to put the finishing touches on things, getting ready to leave for Mitundu a few weeks later. But first I was going back on the road, living out of a backpack.

In developing countries, an acronym that is heard a lot is IGA, which stands for income generating activity. To me, it’s really just a fancy term conjured up by donors and different development organizations for what we know as “businesses.” An IGA is a small-scale business that can be easily implemented with low start up costs and a low level of skill. A good friend of mine was putting together an IGA workshop with a group of women that he has been working with. He invited me to come up and show them how to make “village wine.” I’ve been making a lot of this wine during my two years here, and although it’s very simple to make, I do consider myself an expert at making this low-grade, poor-man’s alcohol. The basic ingredients are yeast, sugar, and any kind of fruit (or other food with a fair amount of sugar, such as honey or tomatoes). These are mixed together with the right amount of water, left to sit in a covered bucket for about a week, filtered to separate the solids from the liquid, and then the liquid is left to sit for about another week. After these two weeks, you have an alcoholic drink that we like to call wine. It’s palatable, and it gives a pretty good buzz after drinking a few cups. I’ve showed a few people in my area how to make it, and one of them is selling it at his house and making some decent money.

Anyways, I made a trip up to my buddy’s site to teach his women’s group how to make this wine. The prominent tribe in that area, the Ngoni, are known as heavy drinkers so I had their interest from the start because they knew there is a good market for the stuff. The training went well, although it took a bit longer than expected, which wasn’t really a problem because they seemed to be interested and were asking lot’s of questions. I started by going over the economics of selling the wine in the village and showing them how much more profit it can generate compared to the other “beers” that are made in the area, and then I demonstrated the steps of making the wine. At the end, we all enjoyed some samples of wine, but they complained that there was more wine in the bucket to be drunk. I had to be honest with them and say that was the entertainment for the upcoming evening. Another buddy of mine showed up with another IGA, soap making, which he demonstrated that afternoon. That was about all we had time for, and the next morning we cut up the soap after allowing it to set overnight. Then we were out of there that same morning. Even though I’m not sure that any of them will start making and selling wine, I did enjoy going up there and hanging out. I also had a chance to visit an orphan care center that they are working with in the area, and I’m looking into implementing some of their ideas into the new work that I’m doing with the Youth Center.

After the IGA workshop, I was on the road again, heading to Camp Sky 2010. As you may recall, I was the director of last year’s version of the camp, and I was excited to help out again this year. This year I had a different role. I was in charge of the Junior Counselors (JCs). The JCs were students that went to the camp last year, and we selected based upon their leadership skills and their performance in the classroom. I was working with eight of them, all very bright and fun to be around. They had two main responsibilities: 1)Act as a sort of bridge between the PCV teachers at the camp and the 75 first years campers by organizing and keeping those students in line and basically just setting a good example, 2)Participate in tertiary education and career guidance activities while the other students were in their morning classes. All of the JCs had just finished their national secondary school exams. Being the “cream of the crop,” they have a decent chance of getting into a college/university or getting on some kind of career path that won’t lead them back to the village and the difficult background they are coming from. The problem these kids have, a problem that is common to most students in Malawi, especially those going to schools in rural areas, is that they don’t receive good advice about how to apply for, finance, and be accepted for tertiary education (i.e. colleges, universities, technical schools, etc.). If you ask a boy in secondary school what kind of job he wants after finishing school he’s most likely to answer doctor, policeman, driver, soldier, or lawyer, and if you ask a girl she is most likely to answer nurse or maybe accountant. Unfortunately, most of these students have no idea what these various careers actually entail nor do they have a good understanding about what kind of education these careers require or how get that education. With these JCs, I wanted to enlighten them about some of this stuff, and try to get them to put some sort of a plan together about what they want to do with their lives and how they are going to do it. We worked a lot on leadership skills, public speaking, resume writing, job interview skills, and goal setting. I also tried to give them access to facts about what is actually required to get the different jobs they are interested in.
I enjoyed working with them a lot, and I’m hoping to hear in the next year that a few of them have actually been admitted to university with reliable funding available to them. I won’t say too much about the rest of the camp, but it was a lot of fun hanging out with other volunteers and the kids and also doing something productive at the same time.

Camp Sky lasted for about two weeks, and then I headed back to Chadabwa. Again, I was only there for a few days, scrambling to get ready to move before the new volunteer arrived, saying goodbye to everyone, grading the exams from the previous year at school, and trying (but failing) to wrap up some side projects that I was working on. I was a little hectic, but everything worked out OK. The goodbyes weren’t too emotional because I was only moving 17km to the west, and I promised that I will be coming back to visit frequently (I’ve already been back twice). Moving day went smoothly. Peace Corps helped me move all my junk, and I didn’t break or loose anything (as far as I can tell). I lead a fairly simple life here, but I was still surprised by how much junk I’ve accumulated while at Chadabwa. It felt good to get rid of some of that crap or at least reorganize it.

Since two Thursdays ago, I’ve been living at Mitundu, working with Mitundu Youth Organization. You can read my previous post to get a general idea of what I’m doing here and what my living situation is like, and I will give you more details about all this in the future. This is an exciting place to live. There’s always lots of stuff going on, lots of noise, lots of people, and also lots of problems. It’s refreshing to be doing something other than teaching (I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy teaching, I really did a majority of the time, but what I am saying is that I enjoy change and having to deal with new situations).

I’ll have a new Macbook this weekend (thanks Mom!), and it looks like I’ll probably have internet access here in Mitundu or at a place nearby. Therefore, I should be able to write on here more often. I’ll end things here, and explain the exciting stuff we’re doing here in the next few weeks.