Additional Road Hazards

I mentioned previously how what we might call a hazard, Malawians just call the road.  There are other a few driving hazards other than the actual road itself.  The Malawians call them Mbuzi, Ng'ombe, and Nkhuku.  We usually call them goats, cows, and chicken, but on a few occasions we've referred to them as "Watch Out", "Slow Down", and "Did you just hit something?".  Whatever they are called at a given time, they are everywhere and completely unrestrained.  Going to Mangochi, Kateri took out two guinea fowl at once, and on the same trip the Sister's car was temporarly detained by a herd of cattle that decided the other side of the street was a little bit greener.  The minibus trips are usually accompanied by a fairly consistent  honking of the horn or swerving when goats just don't feel like moving out of the way.

The Volunteers: Gary

After all the local teachers have left for the day, Gary is the only other man on this campus occupied by about 100 women.  Now in some fantasy world or parallel universe that might sound like a good situation, but here in reality it is terrifying.  Anywho, before joining the VOICA International volunteer service, Gary, a resident of San Diego was a Computer Engineer at Sun Microsystems.  He worked there for about two years and then decided that was just about enough taking a year off to travel the world.  An avid surfer, Gary went to various countries seeking the ultimate surf.  A year went by and when it was time to return to Sun Micro., he decided the best thing to do was to...take another year off.  Somewhere in those two years he spent some time working for his father's electrician company and a few months were spent on the slopes in Colorado.  The second year past and when Sun began to hope again that he might be coming back...he decided to head to Africa for two years.  It is an interesting twist of fate that in his flight to avoid all things computer, he is now the teacher for all of the computer classes for the college.  Not only that, once anyone has the label of knowing how to fix computers, they become the most popular person around.  Priests, Sisters, and other volunteers seem to always be asking him to assist with various computer malfunctions.  I think it is a far cry from the stress from the corporate world, and he seems to be enjoying his role as a teacher.  Other than computer classes, Gary also is in charge of Student Government, The Debate Club, Sports on the Secondary side, and maintaining a garden in our back yard.  He hasn't heard anything else from them so I think Sun Microsystems has given up on his eventual return which is probably for the best.

Ulendo Season

The months of June, July, and August are marked by an increase in the number of travellers (ulendo) to the area.  We met a few Italians visiting the local parish and seminary.  Father Alvero in Northern Malawi stopped by with a group from Spain.  We enjoyed meeting the visitors even though most of them didn't speak any English.  I think it was just nice to socialize with others our own age from at least a similar cultural background.  We also had some visitors here at Bakhita.  The father of the Sr. Giovanna, our provincial, and a friend of his came for a few weeks to help with some of the maintenance around the complex.  They only spoke Italian, but that didn't stop them from trying to talk to us.  They just spoke as if we could understand them.  If Eva or Sr. Evelyn was around they would translate, otherwise I just smiled and nodded.  They were a lot of fun though and I could figure out a few conversations on my own.  The day before Pop and John Carlo left, the students decided, or the Sisters decided for them, to put on a show in the boarding as a farewell.  The performance included traditional dancing, modern dancing, singing, and even a fashion show.  Highlights of the performances were a rendition of Dolly Parton's, "A Coat of Many Colors" by Chikondi from Form 1 and Sitinga Katola dancing to a Hip Hop song in a Michael Jacksonesque style, moon walk included.

Brick Walls

I'm not sure what kind of impression I've been giving of life here so far, but it hasn't been without difficulties.  Being sent to teach without any training or experience in a culture that I didn't (and still don't) understand has had a few set backs.  It's fairly standard procedure for me to do everything all of the wrong ways until I eventually find the right way, or at least a less painful way.  Sometimes it feels like I am trying to get through a brick wall by pounding my head against it only to find out there is an open gate around the corner that someone failed to mention was there.  Assigning homework without text books, writing tests on the board to save paper, and setting up labs without materials or attention spans longer than two seconds give me troubles from time to time.  But I have a hard head and recover pretty quickly, so things are getting better.  Not to worry, this weekend I found another brick wall, and instead of just pounding my head against it, I ran face first into it at full speed.  The drama club, of which I am the patron, wanted to perform.  Demanding aren't they.  Well, they don't have much experience with scripted plays and wanted an example to follow so we invited a drama group to perform with them so maybe they could learn something.  The preparations leading up to the event actually went really well...too well, perhaps.  The students planned and rehearsed a few songs to perform.  While they were rehearsing, I managed to get the sound system in the hall working after the Sisters intsisted it was beyond hope.  It wasn't really much of an accomplishment.  I didn't do any more than plug everything in and turn it on which left me confused as to why everyone else deemed it a lost cause.  Everything was set with the drama club from Blantyre, posters were delivered to prominent locations, an announcement was made at a town meeting the night before, and the students even prepared mendasi, doughnuts, to sell before and after the show.  The problem came when the day of the performance arrived...and people didn't.  We waited 2 hours pasted the scheduled starting time which  even accounted for Malawian Time and only 8 people from outside the school showed up.  The other drama group was anxious to start so we went ahead and performed for the Bakhita students and the 8 people from town.  The delayed starting time must have thrown everyone off because after that everything was disorganized at best.  But I ran around trying my best to keep it moving hoping that it would end soon.  We had a deal with the Blantyre group to share the money with them, but when we only made enough to cover their transportion costs, I gave it all to them.  The girls weren't really happy about it especially since they didn't think the play was even worth the money we paid, but as I said, I just wanted it to end.  Plus, they mananged to sell most of the mendasi to the students and made money that way.  After it was all over, I recovered pretty quickly and wasn't down about how it went espcially when I found out later that we were trumped by a football game in town and a wedding featuring the Alleluya Band (I'll explain later).  Plus, we performed like we wanted and even made some money for the club.  The students seem resilient so I'm sure they'll recover too.  I have my "You did your best, you should be proud, it was out of our control speech" all ready to go.

Malawian Time

I think there might be a section of the Theory of Relativity which describes how a country's level of development affects the speed at which time progresses.  If there isn't there needs to be.  I seem to be trapped in some sort of wormhole or singularity in which the very concept of time breaks down.  I am no longer able to distinguish the different lengths of time between events.  If anyone asks me when a particular event occured, "between the time we arrived in Malawi and now" is as specific as I can be.  My life can now be divided into two distinct periods: Pre-Malawian time and Malawian time.  There is also a brief transitional period referred to as "Rome" but I can't be certain if that actually happened anymore.  Here in Malawian Time, the passage of time seems to be moving fast and slow at the same time.  Things move much slower and events seem to take longer, Sunday Mass for example.  Things get done and people move at an apparent slower pace.  On the other hand by my records, which I admit are questionable, we are now finishing our second week of classes in Term 3.  WHAT!?  Didn't we just finish Term 2.  However fast time might be moving, it is certain that it is shifted by at least a half an hour.  9:30 a.m. mass on Sunday is guaranteed not to start before 10 a.m.  We are actually in the habit now of not leaving the house for anything until the time that it is scheduled to start.  I was planning an event with the drama club and we decided that it should start at 1:30 p.m.  I had the students make posters to advertise, and when I checked them the start time was listed at 1:00 p.m.  Confused I asked them why they changed it.  What did they answer? "But Sir, Malawian Time"...They KNOW!