Malawi Andy

Girlie and Sr. Lucy

2007-02-21T21:44:00.000+02:00

Girlie is trying on Sr. Lucy's veil just to see how it fits

Words of Wisdom

2007-02-10T08:16:00.000+02:00

Always bring toilet paper...

...Always

Our Students at the Boarding

2007-02-10T08:09:00.000+02:00

Rose, Kondwani, Alinafe, Deborah, Felistas, Edna, Pauline, Regina, Lucy, Prisca, Emra

At The Pool (Not ours)

2007-02-10T08:01:00.000+02:00

(From the Left) Me, Gabi, Kateri, Gary, Eva

This was at the Hippo View Lodge about 30 Kilometers from our school near the Liwonde National Park. It was not too hard to get to and less than a dollar to swim. Boats went out on the river for around $15 per person (maybe) and there were a bunch of hippos

Our Doorman

2007-02-10T07:58:00.000+02:00

Fast Food

2007-02-08T08:06:00.000+02:00

On Kasungu Mountiain

2007-01-31T22:31:00.000+02:00

From the Left: Natasha (Slovenia), Me (Guess where I'm from), Kateri (Kentucky), Gary (California)

Back Home

2007-01-31T21:33:00.000+02:00

So I am back home now and things are going well. I don't know how long I will continue to post but a few things have been popping into my head since coming back and maybe it will be good to write them down. Anyways, there were requests for pictures and now that I have a more reliable internet connection, it will be easier to do.

I have just received word on the results from the government exams the Form 4's took last year. Out of 37 students that took the exam 28 of them passed which was above the national average of a 50% pass rate. For the computer exam, 35 of the students passed with 9 of the students receiving a credit (C or above, 6 credits are required to pass overall). I am happy with the results, but wonder how good they would have been had they had a teacher who actually knew what he was doing and not making it up as he went along. Oh well.

Last Post From Malawi

2006-11-25T22:31:00.001+02:00

So the two years are finished. If I still had any concept of time, I could say something like "Wow, it's really flown by!" or "It's been the longest two years of my life!". Thanks to my two years in Africa, my time meter is shot and it honestly feels like both of those at the same time. There are a lot of things that I am glad to be doing for the last time, at least for a while (beans, rice, and cabbage), but there are also a lot of people that I would rather not say goodbye to forvever. Posting to a blog while here was sort of an afterthought (not even mine actually), but it was a good one because it became and opportunity for me to sit and think about something good, or at least funny, that happened in the week. Since that's the way I looked at it, a lot of not so nice things were left out. I'm not against talking about the not nice things, but they just weren't the kind of things I enjoyed typing. Tomorrow, we head to Rome to meet the incoming volunteers. Then we are going to Poland to visit Gabi before she heads out to mission again in Bolivia. From Poland, we will visit Natasha in Slovenia who is about as Africa crazy as a person can be. After which, we will visit Fr. Antonio in Italy for a retreat. I haven't mentioned Fr. Antonio, which is an unforgiveable oversight. He is a Comboni Father who was here in Malawi for our first year and was a big help to all of us. I have a few more things that I wanted to post, but who knows how it will go. I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go home now.

Excellent Adventures

2006-11-25T22:31:00.000+02:00

During our training in Rome, the volunteers we were replacing spent a few days with us. They talked about tips on life in Malawi, the people they knew, and the places they had been. Then we came to Malawi and went through a lot of the same adjustments, met the same people, and visited many of the same places. Now we are heading to Rome for the same meeting we had two years ago with the roles reversed. The first time, when I was looking at the returning volunteers and realized that is how I would look in two years, it reminded my of the scene at the beginning (and the end) of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures. For those who are unfamiliar, it is about a two high school students that travel through time to pass their history final, thus ensuring a peace loving, enlightened future inspired by their rock band the Wyld Stallions. Anywho, after they meet their time traveling guide Rufus, their future selves show up through a misunderstanding in the use of their time traveling telephone booth (what a great movie). The Future Bill and Ted tell the present Bill and Ted everything they will do, but it doesn't make any sense because the present Bill and Ted don't understand what is going on yet. Then Future Ted tells Present Ted not to forget to wind his watch which he inevitably does and has to remind himself when Present Bill and Ted go through the whole adventure and become the Future Bill and Ted in the very same meeting at the end of the movie. This might seem like a long a pointless tangent to the original idea of meeting our past selves going to the mission for the first time, but it is a really good movie and if I could fully explain the parallels in a coherent way you would agree that it is most excellent.

The First Wealthy Malawian

2006-11-20T23:43:00.000+02:00

On a particular trip to the market, that I was going on in order to buy various parts for the various things I try to put together for demonstrations or repairs, I got a lift from Eva and Sr. Salo who were going to the House at Bakhita Primary in town. They dropped me off and I walked from shop to shop trying to explain what I needed. Despite all of my discription attempts and hand waving the best I got were confused looks and referals to other shops. I finally found a few things that weren't exactly what I needed but just might work. It's been awhile and there were other part hunts since then, but it's safe to say that they didn't. Anyways, I stopped in at the Seven Star Superette for a cold drink while waiting for Eva to return and was sitting in in front of the store when a ragged Malwian with a backpack decided that he just might be able to convince me to give him money for bus fare to the next town. His reason was that a dog had bit him a long time ago and now he has pains up the entire side of his body. The next town, Ntcheu, was the only place to get the medicine he needed. He showed me his leg, and while it wasn't exactly pretty, I couldn't make out any sign of a dog bite. While I am not opposed to assisting people in serious need, I also don't make a habit of handing out money to every Malawian who asks for it. I told him I wasn't going to give him the money. Seeing that I wasn't trying to get away from him he sat next to me for a conversation which was fine since I was just waiting for my ride. Talking with locals in the market can be interesting but it's often difficult to get past the fact that I am not giving them money, buy what they are selling, or going to be pen pals. This man fortunately got past the money situation and talked about how he was the first wealthy man in Malawi. He said that he had even traveled to Mozambique (Next door not that impressive), Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and South Africa upon which he produced a small bag of coins from the various countries. He then mentioned that he was a political prisoner during the time of Kamuzu Banda. I wasn't too interested until he rummaged through his pack and pulled out his letter of release that looked as official as anything looks in Malawi. We talked a little while longer until he offered to sell some of his coins (back to the money situation). With such a good story and the offer of coins from countries that don't even exist anymore, I was pretty much sold. While looking through the coins again, the man very abruptly chased away a group of kids looking to get in on the action by yelling and swinging his pack around at them. That kind of soured me on the deal and I might have been convince otherwise, but just then Eva pulled up and I took that as my exit from the uncomfortableness.

Chifundo

2006-11-20T23:42:00.000+02:00

I have to admit that I didn't notice Chifundo much the first term this year in Math class. She was very quiet and didn't draw much attention to herself. By the time, I had I didn't have much hope for her to pass. She is from the village, her English was very poor and even simple concepts were a problem. She did, however, make an effort and seemed, at least, to care which is more than I can say for some of the students. Sometime during the second term, it became very clear that she made the decision that she was going to pass despite how difficult she thought the subject or how strange the accent of her teacher. She came to Girlie and Eva on Saturdays for help with her English. She began asking questions, offering answers and forcing the same teacher to repeat that which he said to fast in that same strange accent. The improvement in her grades did not come right away. The material in the second term was more difficult and she was still catching up. She was one of the few students that received an extra comment for exceptional effort on the report card and the only one of those that still did not pass. In the third term, she continued. She was still very shy and did not attract unnecessary attention, but I could tell she was improving. When I wrote the term exam, which constitutes 80% of the final score, I made it fair but certainly not easy, meaning many students that did not care and did not try would more than likely fail and have to repeat Form 1. Math is now required to advance, but then again 40% is a passing grade. I went on a marathon of grading papers so I could return them before the students left the next day, and I left the country the next month. Some students that should have passed didn't and some that probably didn't deserve to pass managed to get lucky. Many complained that it was too hard or too long. Walking back to the house after distritbuting the exams, I passed Chifundo and knowing her score asked her what she thought of the exam. She just smiled as big as she does (quite big) and said in a very satisified way "I passed!"...very easily I might add.

Citric Shortage

2006-11-13T21:32:00.000+02:00

Most of the time we just drink water, properly boiled. Eva drinks coffee and Girlie drinks tea even if the weather is has hot as the drink. Other things available that we have on occasion are Soft Drinks, Milk, Juice, and drinks of the fermented variety. Coca-Cola is the dominant provider of soft drinks and they colaborate with the local Southern Bottlers (Sobo) company which provides its own local flavors, Coco-pina and Cherry plum. Sobo Orange Squash is a non carbonated orange flavored drink that is concentrated so it must be deluted before drinking. While we usually pour a little bit of sobo a lot of water, Malawians usually pour a little water and a lot of Sobo. Most soft drinks are purchased in bottles with an additional deposit if you don't bring an empty with you. Drinks in cans are almost twice as expensive so they are not that common. Fresh milk is available in small plastic bags, but does not keep well for more than a day. Powdered milk is...well, powdered milk. We've done some experimenting and it is actually good with chocolate drink mix after a couple hours in the freezer. The fruit juice is good, but it is expensive. It also usually has the second ingredient of milk which is a little strange, but not bad. As for the fermented variety of drinks, Carlsberg (European Beer) has control of most of that which you would recognized as actually being beer. Somehow they managed to work out a deal of being the only foreign company allowed to bottle in Malawi or something. This means in most stores the only brand available is Carlsberg: Green, Brown, Special, Stout, and Kuche Kuche (Carlsbergs local brand). The fermented beer that you would probably not recognize as beer is the local Chibuku. It is a fermented drink made from corn flour. It is very gritty and doesn't taste that great but it is very popular. They also have a sweet non-alcoholic Tobwa which is similar. I like Tobwa sometimes, but as far as Chibuku, I am conent just to say that I have tried it. Last week, as we were trying to prepare for a party before leaving and we were unable to get any Soft drinks because apparently there was a shortage of citric acid and they stopped produciton. We went from store to store only to find empty shelves. Fr. Bob said he saw a truck pull into town in the morning so we rushed to see what the situation was and it was a false alarm. Empty shelves. We managed to get enough lower quality orange drinks and a few cases of the fermented variety so it worked out. We cooked a big pots of meat, rice, and cabbage over trenches dug in the back yard and spent the day eating, talking, and playing games.

Technical Difficulties

2006-11-11T00:08:00.000+02:00

After more than a month, the Form 4's finally finished their exams this week and the last one was Computers. As their computer teacher and considering that most of them had never used a computer when they started two years ago, I was a little concerned. The first day was the theory portion which did not go very well and I was not too happy about. Questions concerning ways to increase processing speed, procedures for mail merge, and DOS commands seemed somewhat out of place. The students felt pretty beat up afterwards. The practical exam held in the college lab the next day was much more in line with what the students were prepared for, but I think a few of them panicked even after I specifically instructed them not to making it more difficult than it should have been. As their teacher, I wasn't officiallly overseeing the exam, but I was there to assist with any malfunctioning computers. Just after the test began, I watched a few of them open their heads, take out their brains, and place it on the desk next to the monitor. Unfortunately, since I could not instruct the students after the test began, I was unable to advise them that this was not an exam in which body weight was important and they would need their brains despite how difficult it would be for them to hold up. Inevitably some of them forgot what to do with the floppy disks I passed out at the begininng, said very clearly were for saving all of their files, and spent the week running up the exam reviewing how to use. Others, while trying to remember how to get the disk into the computer, pressed the power button which I specifically pointed to on each computer and warned them to never press under any circumstances. I watched as one student spent precious time clicking on every button in the window except the one she should have. Some faced the typical problems that happen while using computers, but as I said before, chose to panic only making the problems worse. One girl accidently deleted all her data while using Excel. Instead of staying calm and using the Undo command as I showed them in class, she closed the progam trying to find it back and lost it for good. She had enough time to start over and still finish, but she cried instead. The official exam proctor, unexperienced with this reaction, actually asked me to see if I could get it back for her, but it was to late. Another almost lost it right at the beginning of the exam when she could not get the cursor to do exactly what she wanted. After I said that I couldn't help her, the tears were on their way and she stood up to leave. I gently pushed her back down into the chair, told her to calm down and finish. She did, but I don't know if she fully recovered. Overall, the execution of the exam went much better than expected. The power didn't go out once and nothing blew up. I believe many of the students did much better than they think even though they weren't very happy with the exam or with me for not answering their questions while they were taking it.

Computer Problems

2006-10-21T09:24:00.000+02:00

Eva's computer is having some problems and it will likely be more difficult to post as a result so I'm not sure if I'll get to post as much as I wanted before leaving...in a month.

Maturity Level

2006-10-21T09:08:00.000+02:00

I think in the classroom the Form 1 students are the most difficult. Probably because there are so many 12 year old girls and I am teaching them math which they have a lot of trouble with. I am currently trying to teach them algebra while even the idea of negative numbers is still beyond there comprehension. Rita helped my grade their homework on negative numbers when she was here ask her. Outside of class, however, I get along with the Form 1's the best which I think has to do with me being on about the same maturity level as them. While the upper classes are usually too cool for anything I do the Form 1's are more likely to play along. One form 4 students is named Cecilia so I would at random times say "Cecilia, you're breaking my heart" to her much concern and confusion. Then I finally sang the actual song for them and now the form 1's are always asking me to sing the "Cecilia" song. One afternoon when I was feeling particularly immature I got a group of form 1 students singing the chorus of the song in the corridor replacing "Cecilia" with the name of whoever happened to be walking by. Of course, other form 1 students thought it was hilarious, but eventually the form 4 students walked around to avoid us.

Ransom

2006-10-21T08:51:00.000+02:00

One of the workers came to Gary this week asking for a loan of 100 Kwacha (less than a dollar). While it isn't uncommon for people to ask us for money this particular situation was. He said that before he went to sleep, he tied his goat to a tree near his house. The next morning he woke up and the goat was missing. A note left near the tree said that if he wanted his goat back he would have to pay K100. He went to the police, but they could not or perhaps just would not help so he came to us since he didn't have the money. We don't normally give money away, but since this was such a good story and he only wanted a loan it was worth it this time.

MSCE

2006-10-21T08:37:00.000+02:00

Now that the Form 4 students have had their graduation they get to take the government certification exams. These take place over a five week period with a one two hour test each day. They can take as many of the tests as they want or are able to pay (there is a fee per subject, but are required to pass English and five other subjects in order to receive a certificate. There are a few subjects, like Home Science that are girls won't be taking so they get a few days off. They've been taking them for over a week now and I ask the girls how the tests are going only to get a lot of groans, sighs, and "very difficult".

Burgerland

2006-10-16T22:16:00.001+02:00

Yes, it is as glorious as it sounds. The first time we stumbled upon Burgerland in Lilongwe the clouds parted and rays of the sun shined on the entrance. A chorus of angels could be heard while the proprietors walked around in flowing white robes...well, sort of but I'm getting ahead of myself. A few weeks, months, or some other time span of which I no longer have any concept of ago, it was absolutely necessary for the men of Bakhita to be somewhere else. While I think we would be justified in leaving for only the sake of being anywhere else, it wasn't difficult to find another legitimate reason for a weekend trip to Lilongwe. We had an open invitation from Br. Walter, the principal of the Don Bosco Technical College, to stay for a weekend and we thought it would be useful to see how their computer classes were set up. We also had a list of various parts that we need to get from computer stores in Lilongwe. The Don Bosco Technical College is a school run by the Salesians and is combined with the local parish. In the compound, they have courts for Basketball, Volleyball, Tennis, and netball, two soccer fields and a playground. They are currently building a new church so the masses are held in the Youth Center Hall. The college has courses for Accounting, Auto Mechanics, Carpentry, Brick Laying, and Tailoring. One of the major appeals of staying there was the big comfy couches made by their students. Good enough to sit down and stay there for the rest of your life. After seeing the school, we had time to go to the city center where we found a comptuer store a little off the main road in a cluster of electronics/stationary stores. He had very few things on the shelves, but Gary managed to buy a CD burner and place an order for some Network parts which were later delivered to Bakhita buy the owner himself. I think he was desperate for customers. Around the corner from the computer store we found Burgerland (Clouds parting, Angels Singing, etc.). It was even sharing space with Pizzaland, but it was not open yet. Burgland was run by a Muslim who looked to be in his forties. I can't be sure of his age because I am terrible about that sort of thing and while he never actually said that he was Muslim, he was wearing the Muslim uniform: Long beard, white hat, very comfortable looking long white robe-like shirt. We asked about the Burgland Special which we ordered immediately after hearing it was double cheeseburger. While waiting for our order, he asked where we were working and how long we've been in the country. He wasn't familiar with the Canossians, but talked about the Catholic Sisters he knew growing up. It turns out that he was something like fifth generation in Malawi from India and he mentioned some of the problems Indians in Malawi had getting pushed around in the past. He was very friendly and when our order was ready he threw in some chips and drinks for free. The burgers were good...on nearly the same level as when God created earth and it was good.. We ate, watched the TV for a while (watersports or something), and talked with the owner a little while longer. All this and no one was accused anyone of being and infidel or a terrorist. It was a perfect cultural exchange all based on the preparing, selling, buying, and consuming of cheeseburgers...is there anything they can't do.

Something I Won't Miss

2006-10-16T22:16:00.000+02:00

Mosquitoes. I really can't stand them. A good way to express how much you don't like something is to compare it to something else that is commonly disliked and say that you dislike it more than that. I really can't think of anything approaching the level of which I don't like mosquitoes so I'll say that I detest them more than whatever it is that would make you think "Wow! Really! More than THAT!" I guess as far as mosquitoes go they really aren't that bad. They are small and when they bite it only itches for an hour or so. Even here in Balaka there aren't nearly as many as you might find around the lake and people from countries with jungles would probably come to Malawi for a break from mosquitoes. Coming from a country with an actual winter the problem comes from them being around all year. And the worst of it isn't when there are ten, fifty, or a hundred mosquitoes, but when there is a single mosquito that insists on buzzing around my head at night. If it is outside of the net it jars me awake and I sleep uneasy until I am certain that it is outside the net. If I see one flying inside the net, It sets off a reaction of flailing hands around trying to crush it. If it manages to escape the first onslaught (they usually do), then I am forced to thoroughly search the entire net/bed area with the aid of my desk lamp while cursing their general existence. Usually, very little sleep follows.

2 Months

2006-10-10T21:34:00.000+02:00

I was looking at the calendar the other day, which I do occasionally only find out a month or two went by without knowing it, only to realize this time that I only have two months left before I am back home. With everything I still feel I have to finish and everything I'll have to figure out when I get back is a lot for my overloaded brain to deal with and only results in my eyes crossing and incoherent mumbling. There are a lot of things I won't mind getting away from, but there are a lot of people I'd rather not say goodbye to forever. I guess that's how these things usually work though. Anywho, as for what to do when I get back, after hiding under the bed for a few weeks, if anyone has any ideas that I might be interested in let me know. I mean, that is, if you see an ad for someone with an engineering degree and experience living in Africa, maybe you could save it for me.

Friends and Neighbours

2006-10-02T20:44:00.000+02:00

A few months after Girlie arrived in Malawi, she was made aware that she had a few relatives through marraige here. They stopped by to visit briefly, but invited us to stay at their house in Blantyre if we ever wanted to get away. So a couple weeks ago we finally managed a trip. The plan was initially to visit Jane, the cousin of Girlie's sister-in-law. Her family imigrated from India and she was born here in Malawi. Her husband, who recently passed away, was originally from Sri Lanka and had a business. She was now busy running a nursery school in Blantyre and her kids are married and living in the UK. Confused yet? Hang on tight. We also had dinner with another of Girlie's cousin-in-laws (through the same in-law) who was born in Malawi, moved to India when she was six and moved backed to Malawi briefly before moving to New Zealand. She was also neighbour of Girlie's brother who lives New Zealand and mentioned a couple of times how she can see the roof of his house from her patio. She was in town for a few months helping her mother who still lives in Malawi and is having some health problems. They were really great and very welcoming to people they have never met before. When I met Joyce, I went right in for the respectful Malawian handshake and she went right for the hug. Joyce could talk with the best of them and had many good things to say about the joys of New Zealand and Microwaves. The conversation was made even more interesting by her background since it gave her an Indian/Malawian/New Zealand accent that was pretty trippy at times. We stayed at Jane's house for the night where she provided us with various types of meats, beverages, and Sportscenter. It was defininetly one of those bizarre "Where exaclty am I" momments.

Slide Presentation

2006-09-26T21:39:00.000+02:00

Oh yeah, and I had a few of the more capable computer students put together a slide show for graduation. All I really did was show them how to use power point and adjusted the timings. It had pictures from around the school, a few funny remarks (added by me), and a lot of the cheesy hand clapping sound effects. It went over very well though and now the students are asking for a copy.

Graduation

2006-09-26T21:31:00.000+02:00

This weekend we had the very first Form 4 Graduation here at Bakhita. It was a little strange since they have about a month left school with the government certificate exams they still have to take starting in two weeks. I was sort of on the Graduation Committee so I had a hand in the planning. "Sort of" meaning that I had to attend the meetings, but I didn't have to plan or run them so it was easy to find an excuse to duck out early. After a few bad experiences planning other various feast days at this school, I expected it to be complete chaos, but it went surprisingly well. I thought graduation ceremonies were long at home, but this one started at 8:30 a.m. with mass and ended somewhere around 4 pm. In the morning, it was mostly the girls performing dramas, dances, songs, speehes and poems. An interesting drama was put on by the Form 1's warning the Form 4's not to "break their pot". It was about a girl who didn't listen to the advise given at her initiation ceremony that she shoudn't run around with boys. She went out with any boy that was handsome and rich, and then she ended up pregnant and alone. It was performed very well and the lead actress is much more alive on stage than in math class (always falling asleep). In the afternoon, there were more songs, a few speeches, and the presentation of awards and diplomas. Everyone else got to leave, but I was convinced by the students ("but sir") to set up a disco from 4 to 6. I worked out a system plugging an mp3 equipped laptop into the TV and setting a college girl up as the DJ. They listened to a some Malawian music, but mostly Hip hop. I tried to sneak in some decent rock and roll only to get complaints...that is after they got bored of watching me jump around like an idiot. Again the complete chaos and mass distruction that I expected never happened so I'd say it was a success.

Fashion

2006-09-16T14:05:00.000+02:00

In the secondary school, the students are required to where uniforms during school hours. This includes a maroonish colored skirt, black shoes, and a cream colored blouse. After classes and on weekends, they are free to where whatever they want. In the evenings, they just change into casual cloths and many of them where an African Chitenji (wrap). On the weekends, however, they have the time and motivation to really get themselves pretty. Some go for the full-on African dress with head wrap. Others go for designer-looking jeans, skirts, blouses, hats, scarves, sunglasses, and anything else they can get. It's pretty safe to say that I am fashion retarded so they might be achieving the current standards of fashion, but even if they aren't they are giving it their best. One Saturday, I passed a group of girls decked out in their finest heading to the boarding so I asked where they were coming from thinking there was a purpose. They responded with a casual "nowhere" so I asked where they were going in my vain attempt to find meaning and got the same response. So I don't know why they do it and apparently neither do they. They are just teenager girls in every good and terrifying sense of the word. The day of parent-teacher meetings I let the girls use the computers while I was doing the parent-teacher thing. After I was finished, I went in to check on them and was hit by a cloud of perfurm that nearly knocked me on my feet. Maybe that time it was for their parents. Who knows?

Vagrants

2006-09-05T20:47:00.000+02:00

Coming home from Church on Sunday's, I have found the girls walking with boys or talking to a small group of them hanging outside our gate on several occassions. Usually, I join in the conversation until the boys feel uncomfortable and leave which usuallly happens immediately after I greet them, but I have even told them directly that they should be moving along. I realize its not bad, but there is something about the way they are just hovering around that is very vulturish. I am begining to develop an involuntary reflex response in the arm that many Fathers might have which causes a motion that would be suitable for the cocking of shotgun. I talked to the girls who don't seem too interested in the vagrants, and they said that when a teacher chases the boys away the boys say they don't care and will "keep the fire burning." Knowing this might not help the twitch in my arm, but it isn't a problem as long as they keep the fire burning somewhere else.

More Zambia

2006-08-28T22:56:00.000+02:00

After our stay in the Zamian village, Fr. Gabriel and Br. Ruben made their way back to Malawi and we headed for Victoria Falls. We were lucky enough to stay at Simonetta and Enrico's house and even get a ride from them to the bus staion at 3:30 am. They came to Zambia as Comboni volunteers from Italy. They met while volunteering, got married, had a few kids, and are now living in Chipata. We met them through a mutual friend in Balaka. An amazing thing about their three boys, other then an endless supply of energy, is that at the ages of 8 to 11, they are able speak Italian, English, or Chinyanja at any given moment. They occasionally made a mistake and started speaking to me in Italian and then immediately switched gears to English. When around Zambian kids they didn't have any trouble speaking Chinyanja. Simonetta said that they have even corrected her English.

We took the bus from Chipata to Lusaka which was surprisingly nice. It was as good as any Charter bus I had been on at home. It had personal cushioned reclining seats, air condintioning, reading light, and tv sets. The trip included the feature "Fun with Dick and Jane" starring Jim Carrey which I had never even heard of as it came out since I've been here. The quality was terrible and it was obiously a bootleg copy, but there it was. We even got to watch most of it right up until the fatal scratch on the disk just as movie started to get slightly entertaining. The failed disk wasn't a problem as the next features were the best that Nigeria has to offer so I was able to sleep pretty well. At the Lusaka bus depot, we waited a few hours for the bus to Livingstone to depart, giving us to grab something to eat at a restaurant and check out the loca market.

In Livingstone, we found a backpacker lodge with space available. Not being much of a world travel, I was unfamiliar with backpacker accomodations. Based on the lodge we chose, they seem to be designed to give travelers the opportunity to go Africa without the terrible discomforts of being in Africa at a price students and discount travelers can afford. As long as you are okay with sleeping in a dorm full of strangers, it was very acccomodating and even assisted guests in having a "real" African experience complete with Bungee jumping, motorized river rafting, and vaccuum sealed trips to game parks. Nothing against the backpackers, but the whole scene was just very surreal.

The lodge offered free rides out to Victoria falls so we jumped in the mini-bus with the rest of the "rugged adventurers" and were on our way. After paying the ten dollar park fee at the gate, we walked down a nice concrete pathway and saw one of the seven natural wonders of the world. It's big. I realize that any attempt to discribe it will always be an understatement so I'm just going to stick with "big".

We had just about enough of the backpacker scene so the next day we took a bus to a small town on the way to Lusaka and stayed a night there. Passing through Lusaka, we stayed at another backpacker lodge even though we were looking for something more local. Everyone just sort of pushes young foreign looking people in the same direction so we didn't fight it. We had time to get a cheeseburger and ice cream, catch a movie, eat Subway and consider bowling (not enough time) at the local mall. By the way, has anyone seen "UltraViolet"? It's not that good, but we hadn't heard of any of the movies playing. Its poster had a pretty lady with a sword in hand so we gave it a shot.

Cornflakes

2006-08-23T21:20:00.000+02:00

I ate cornflakes yesterday. I suppose I could have been eating them this whole time since they are available in the local stores, but at regular cereal prices which are just absurd here. I didn't actually break down and buy some, but we have a friend, Roddick from Poland, who is a seminarian for the White Fathers in Lilongwe (Yes, some of the White Fathers are black) He hooked us up with cornflakes they received from the parishoners. Normally for mass, people give things like corn, bread, sugar, and cases of Coke or Fanta for offertory. You know, normal things. Being in a more urban parish, I guess it is more common for people to give cornflakes. Anyways, he said they had more cornflakes then any of them wanted to eat so he brought some for us. Unfortunately, the store we used to buy milk from stopped selling it and I was forced to eat it using milk made from powder which doesn't really qualify as milk.

Zambia

2006-08-21T21:14:00.000+02:00

The trip to Zambia was pretty awesome. We were tagging along with Fr. Gabriel and Br. Ruben who were visiting the mission checking on seminaries doing pastoral work for a couple of months. On the way to the mission, I began to wonder how the first missionaries decided they were far enough out in the middle of nowhere before building their church. From the boarder town of Chipata, we drove for 60 miles down a dirt road that would have been impossible to take with a regular car. There is one point near the mission where during the rainy season it is impossible for any of their trucks to pass. There is a river with a walking bridge they leave a truck and they leave a truck on the other side. If anyone needs to go to town they have to walk a few miles to get to the truck. Living at the mission was Fr. George, from Mexico, Fr. Raul, from the Philipines, Br. Richard from Uganda, and Br. Oscar and Br. Paul from Portugal.

Fr. George and Raul regularly go out to the villages for a few days and visit christian communities that are further away. Natasha and I went with Fr. George and Gary went with Fr. Raul. We started in the morning and drove further out into the middle of nowhere using roads that disappeared for awhile and went through dry river beds. When we arrived Fr. George began confessions as I hung around the church made from a few trees and a grass roof. The kids around were a little shy at first and wouldn't get too close so I made faces at them from a distance. After the mass we socialized for a while until lunch was ready, the typical nsima and chicken meal eaten with the hands. After mass, Natasha and I went with someone from the village to the community school. It was a two room school made from bricks, a grass roof, and a sheet of scrap metal for a chalk board which accomodate grades one through six. The head teacher brought us to the headmasters house and showed us his supply of overused books. He wasn't shy about asking for financial support at the end of the tour.

Returning to the village, we found a few girls performing some crazy traditional dances that we watched until some came and said my bath water was ready. He led me to a small enclosure made from grass and inside there was a pot of hot water and a bar of soap sitting on a few rocks. After washing as best that I could balancing on a couple stones, we had dinner and listened to the choir perform with drums and a homemade guitar. The first night sleeping in the hut I woke up to a few bug bites which didn't phase me that much until I could hear them crawling around when I put my head back down. I turned on the flashlight to see that I was covered in little black ants. The second night I shared a room with a chicken sitting on her eggs and a rooster that made his way up to the top of the was inside the roof. It wasn't a problem until about 4:30 when the rooster decided it was time to wake up. After my heart started again, I didn't wait long to find a stick chase him away. I guess I can be glad he didn't decide to jump down on my face.

Field Trip 2

2006-07-21T22:36:00.000+02:00

The secondary went on their yearly field trip this week. This time it was the entire secondary together for a trip to the lake to visit the Maldeco Fishery (Its smells about like it sounds). The buses were questionable at best, but thankfully there weren't any breakdowns. We had three of them filled with about 200 girls from pre-teens to late teens. It was...well, I'm beyond being terrified by that kind of thing at this point, but I'm sure that's how I would have felt about a year and a half ago. The bus trip with the singing, talking, shouting, and squealing is now on my list of the loudest things I've ever experienced. That was agreed with by our visitor Natasha who has 10 years experience teaching highschool. It wasn't close to Easter Mass at Outstation but still impressive. The Fishery itself wasn't all that impressive. "Here's a dock with no boats, a conveyer belt with no fish, and some walk in freezers." I think the most exciting part for the girls was getting to grab a handful of ice from the ice maker. It's not like they've never seen ice, but who doesn't love a big handful when they get the chance. After the fishery we went to the beach and the girls swam for an hour. It was...okay, I wasn't beyond being terrified this time. I kept a safe distance from the 200 pre-teen to late teen girls who are even more excited about swimming than they are about ice.

Malawian Wedding

2006-07-10T21:42:00.000+02:00

Mr. Kadangwe is a local teacher in our secondary school. He is actually a retired headmaster so he's older than the rest of the teachers. One of his daughters is attending Bakhita in the secondary, another is attending the college, and another daughter was married this weekend. The service was at the Catholic Parish and it was pretty typical. The bridal party arrived in a mini-bus decked out in balloons and streamers. There was a best man, maid of honor, flower girls, and a group of dancing kids (mostly typical). The mass was like a normal wedding except after the vows everyone started singing and the guests processed/danced up to congratulate the couple. The strange thing was that the service included the wedding ceremony and an entire mass and still managed to finish in an hour while a regular Sunday mass can't seem to finish in under two. Afterwards, the bridal party took the mini-bus and as many guests as could fit piled onto a flatbed truck and drove out to the village for the reception. The volunteers and teachers went in the Sisters' truck arriving a little late so we missed out on the meal. We arrived at the reception and they had a temporary canopy set up with speakers and a DJ. The DJ setup was basically a big speaker, microphone and a CD player/Tape deck. They introduced the bride and groom and began the presentation of money and gifts. Giving money began with individuals coming up while music was playing and tossing small bills (5 Kwacha) into a basket the couple was holding one bill at a time. It continued for a while and the people became less concerned about getting it into the basket and were just throwing it into the air or in the couples general direction. The money was gathered off the ground and given to some money counters off to the side. Then groups of people started going up announced by the DJ and danced to the music again while just tossing the money up into the air. One of the groups announced was the Bakhita teachers so I went with the local teachers and got some change from the money counters. We worked our way through the crowd and waited until it was our turn. Then we entered the circle danced around tossing money into the air. Like other times I have danced in a large crowd here, the dancing white guy got a little bit more attention. This time at least Gary and Eva were with me. The money tossing lasted about 2 hours. I guess the closest thing to compare it to is the Dollar Dance. Maybe it is for people to show off how much money they are giving, but maybe its just to meant to be a little more fun than sticking the money in a card and putting it in a box. I don't know. Then the gifts were presented one at a time by the guests. It was approaching evening at that point so after we gave our gift we had to leave which is unfortunate because I think the party at night would have been a lot of fun.

Republic Day

2006-07-07T22:13:00.000+02:00

Not only did we celebrate the 4th of July with a visit from our Slovenian Friend Natasha and ice cream, but this week was also Republic Day in Malawi. It is similarly celebrating the countries independence from Britain. It is normally celebrated on the 6th of July with a day off of work. This year it was announced on the 4th of July that the public holiday would be extended from the 5th to the 7th of July. After a lot of confusion with our school schedule, everything was worked out until on the 6th of July it was announced again that an error was made and everyone should return to work on the 7th. Surprisingly, some of our day scholars actually showed up, but the classes were still only about three quarters full

Back Online

2006-07-03T22:42:00.000+02:00

So the weblog hasn't been working for awhile thanks to a combination of things. It might have had something to do with me changing the settings to keep out unwanted comments or my crazy email address with a .mw suffix, but they thought I was something called a "Spam Blog". I don't even know what that is. Anyways they were requiring me to confirm all my posts through the website which might have been easy if internet connection in town hadn't been out of commission for a month. There was some international confusion with Belgium about new equipment or settings and they didn't realize it until everything stopped working. It's back online now but its really slow and nearly impossible to get anything done. Should that explaination I just gave seem strange, because at this point it sounded perfectly normal to me.

Anyways, Last week I noticed that the sink in my computer lab was draining slow which was weird because the only thing I use it for is the rag to clean the chalkboard. I removed the trap at the bottom to find the problem and a frog was staring back at me. I couldn't get him to come out my direction so I unscrewed the pipe from where it went into the wall to find a few frogs at the other end and a few more head the other way into the wall. After clearing the pipe I had unscrewed and pushing a hose through the wall to the gutter outside, I had removed 8 to 10 frogs from the drain. Spam Blog? Belgium? Sink? Computer Lab? Frogs? I think this post started out bizarre and took a major turn for the worst.

Technical Difficulties

2006-06-24T07:00:00.000+02:00

Hi Malawi-Andy blog readers :)

I've been talking with Andy in email and he has definitely been having internet trouble there. That is the main reason there hasn't been a new post in quite a while, but also he changed a blogger setting that had an unintended effect. Everything sounds ok otherwise. He has been watching some of the World Cup, we talked about USA losing out. Also, Italy was in our group and of course there are Italians there. I can imagine the World Cup is a very popular thing there.

Well he has a few posts waiting to be published now so I'll publish those over the next few days for him and then it should be back to normal.

Thanks for reading,
Michael

African Jumper Cables

2006-06-09T23:42:00.000+02:00

Rita and Dottie have been managing pretty well so far. There has not been any major accidents or medical concerns since they've arrived and hopefully it stays that way. They rented a car so that we could get around a little easier and not be at the mercy of the mini-bus association of Malawi. I am not lisenced to drive so Dottie has taken it upon herself. Luckily we got a car with an automatic transmission so she can focus all of her attention on staying on the left side of the road. We took a trip to Nsanama to visit Kateri and were given a tour of her nutrition center. After that the car sat for a few days and when we went to start it for a trip to the market, the battery was dead. We were ready to search the Sister's garage for jumper cables but decided to contact the car rental service number and they actaully sent someone over the same day. I was shocked. Anyways, they brought another car battery and a pair of wrenches, and I thought they might just switch batteries, but the one they brought was way too big. The man in charge of the operation then asked me to help out by starting the car when he signaled so I got behind the wheel and waited. Through the space under the open hood, I saw him lean his battery forward and connect the terminals of the batteries together with the wrenches in each of his hand. A few Westerner safety bells and whistles went off in my head. I have been well trained for the situations so I was able to brush them aside easily and turned the key. There were some sparks but not much engine activity. After I stopped, he took a closer look at the battery and I heard a faint "Is that positive?" (More bells and whistles). He reconnected the batteries with the wrenches and asked me to try again. (Bells and whistles brushed aside) I turned the key and after a few seconds and more sparks the engine started. I am wondering if it was not as dangerous as it seemed at the time and maybe I am thinking too safe.

Visitors

2006-06-02T23:36:00.000+02:00

My sister and cousin have arrived in Malawi for a three week visit. I think the first thing I said to Rita when she got off the plane was "you look terrible" which, while being very true was understandable after a total trip of about 48 hours including delays and layovers, was more for her peace of mind that I am still her brother and haven't changed all that much. She suggested the possibility that since I haven't seen her in almost two years it might be just what she looks like now. Of course, after a night of rest at the Sister's house nearby she was looking like the sister, plus two years, I expected to see. To ensure Rita's safety on the trip, my parents sent along our well-traveled first cousin once removed, Dottie. She appeared to have handled the trip very well as she is an experienced traveler (Cuba, Antartica, etc.) and should be a lot of fun around the school. There are plans for to teach of few classes and talk to the students as much as possible. A few students were waiting at the house for us to arrive and Rita and Dottie were swarmed by the entire boarding that night after Friday adoration. A student came up to me after greeting Rita and said "That is your sister? She is beautiful!" Now I am starting to wonder why she was surprised.

Mbewa

2006-05-29T21:25:00.000+02:00

Eating mbewa is actually pretty common. It might seem like something people desperate for food would resort to eating, and that might have something to do with it, but you see kids selling them from the side of the road even when there is enough food so I think they are more like snack food. We've been interested in trying them, but were cautious about eating any without seeing how they were cooked. Gary talked to a few boys that come to play on Sunday about catching them. They flush them out of the grass with fire and snatch them up. They said they would bring a live one for us so that we could cook it here. Sure enough they should up the next Sunday with a small box. We actually had some of our Form 1 students cook it on our charcoal burner in the backyard. They gutted it and just roasted it right over the fire. A couple of the girls had never tried one either so we split it into small pieces for everyone to try even though I think a couple girls backed out. There isn't much meat to begin with so we really only got a taste, but it was pretty good. Just a small piece of roasted meat. I don't think I'd make a habit of eating them though being so small and not worth the trouble, but it was interesting to at least try. Girlie refused to try it, but we couldn't get her to try ngumbi so it wasn't likely that we'd convince her to taste a roasted field mouse.

No Respect

2006-05-26T23:12:00.000+02:00

I'm pretty sure that I don't get much more respect from the students as a teacher here in Malawi than a teacher would get back home. We recently divided the students and teachers into seperate houses like in Harry Potter and elected a head girl for each house. I've been teasing the head girl for our house calling her Captain and saying things like "Aye, aye Captain" and "Oh Captain, My Captain". As I thought this was pretty fun(ny), I encouraged others in our house to do the same. Then a girl from an opposing house said "Sir, you are so lame". It didn't reallly bother me that much because; for one, I agree that I am quite lame and have come to terms with this long ago; two, the fact that my students think I'm lame made me feel like an actual teacher and gave me a warm sense of fulfillment; and three, she is still in my computer class and I am able to impose my lamitude on anyone in my path. I already had them creating folders on the desktop with names like "Hubaluba" and saving files called "Ringadingelding". Once when they were doing a typing exercise in class, I made them stand up and say "Yabadabado, I'm done" when they were finished. Now that I've been challenged to unleash my lameness, there's really no limit to how far it will go...this post for example. By the way, we have to think of a name for our house so if you have any suggestions let me know.

Visit from Gary's Parents

2006-05-23T21:50:00.000+02:00

So Gary's parents came for a visit for two weeks over the holiday. We had a good time showing them around an partaking in everything they stuffed into their luggage for us. We are still enjoying the Simpon's DVDs. Gary's dad wrote a few things about the trip.

Reflections from Gary (Sr.) at Chileka Airport...

We just want to reflect on our Easter visit and personal pilgrimage to Bakhita, Malawi, Africa. Our first thought was to visit our son, Gary, who is a mission volunteer and has been in Malawi for 18 months. Our second thought was to experience Easter with his community, the sisters, and the local parish. Our experiences included many wonderful masses with beautiful music, dancing, and homilies.

On Holy Thursday our son, Gary, and Andy were selected as young apostles to have their feet washed by Father Mario. (We reminded both of them to be sure to wash their feet before they went to church!)

On Good Friday, the Way of the Cross walk through town with living stations was most memorable. The walk started about 1:30 p.m. (lasted around 4-5 hours!) and ended at the church where it was followed by services until late in the evening!!!! A long day but well worth it!! (We were very happy to see Gary and Andy as apostles during the walk.)

On Easter Sunday Father Cesare took us to an out-station church where he said Mass. There are about 20 out-station churches in the area where they are fortunate to have a priest come once a month. The weather was great, so Father said Mass outside. The church was beautiful, but very small, so it worked out very nicely for all the parishioners.

Barbara and I got to process with the others to bring Offertory gifts (orange soda and a pumpkin!) to the altar. I almost forgot to mention that we also had to dance along with the other gift-bearers! (We thought we may have been a little out of step!) Once again a beautiful experience!

...and there were so many other beautiful experiences...

Carolyn

2006-05-19T23:43:00.000+02:00

Carolyn has improved in the last few days. She started making sense again on Monday and is slowly returning to normal. Now she appears exhausted more than anything else. She came back to school today to try and get back into things, but she came to our house to rest during lunch. Luckily, they were able to postpone the exams a week and hopefully it won't be too much for her to try and take them by then. The hardest part for her is not really knowing what happened. She seems to remember visits from friends and such, but can't really explain her behaviour. Now she has to deal with the feeling that everyone is talking about her and worrying that she might be crazy. Without knowing what was the actual cause of the episode, we can't really know how to keep it from happening again. She asked me today what happened to her, and all I can really say is that we don't know, try not to worry about it and be happy that you are better. Thanks for any prayers and nice thoughts.

Troubled Students

2006-05-15T23:21:00.001+02:00

Carolyn Banda is a secretarial student currently in her second year at the college. She is very bright, outgoing, fun, and sweet. She is a good student and always has a good attitude in my drama club. She is an orphan so she stays with relatives, but moves around quite a bit. Her sister, Delia, is also a student in the college. A few days a go, as if someone flipped a switch, she went hysterical. In the morning she was normal and then in the evening, students arrived at our door telling us that Carolyn was saying weird things and not acting like herself. Eva, Girlie, and Sr. Salo brought her to the hospital that night where she continued this strange behavior: crying, laughing at the Doctor's socks, and not recognizing people. They sedated her and brought her back to the boarding to rest. The next morning the situation was the same so they brought her back to the hospital for tests and more medication. Her aunt is a nurse so they sent her home with her. The doctor's here almost immediately treat everything like malaria, but she didn't show any of the symptom's. She was preparing for five secretarial certification exams this week and we believe that the stress of preparing might have caused some sort of nervous breakdown. Unfortunately, none of us here have any experience with that kind of thing and can't really say what is going on. We haven't seen anything like this before but there have been sudden illnesses and if it isn't something common like malaria then it isn't long before someone suggests witchcraft or evil spirits. With a student taken to the hospital in the middle of the night acting the way she was acting, it happened pretty fast this time. For me it doesn't seem like a good thing to bring up even if that's what it is because it makes everyone in the boarding is nervous. We went to visit her at her aunt's house with some college students that afternoon and the behavior was the same. To me, she seemed like someone unable to cope with the death of a close relative or something similar. She recognized everyone, was able to speak English, and could answer questions when asked, but was very distressed. Her actions and speech were very erratic. She would laugh and then start crying. When given some bread and tea, she went back and forth between stiring the tea and tearing the bread to pieces. Something is seriously wrong and everyone is very worried. We managed to postpone the exams so the other students do have to worry about taking tests while all this is going on. For those that pray, it would be good to remember her and her classmates; and for those that don't, it might even help to think nice thoughts for them.

Comments

2006-05-15T23:21:00.000+02:00

I appreciate receiving comments on this site, anonymous or otherwise. Unfortunately, due to some inappropriate (and not so nice) spam comments I have now have to moderate them. This means I have to approve the comments on the website which I am only able to go to around once a month. So please continue to comment but keep in mind that they might not show up for a few weeks. Thanks

----

Michael talking now....
This is the setting that somehow also changed how Andy posts. It made his email posts into drafts instead of directly publishing them. This should be fixed now and I can just delete spam comments if I need to. That makes it easier for Andy with his poor internet and doesn't delay comments. You can still post comments anonymously without having to create a Blogger login, just type your name at the bottom of your post if you want.

Plumbing and Water

2006-05-06T23:00:00.000+02:00

Our kitchen sink was backed up for about a month. We had problems with it before but a plunger was a sufficient temporary remedy. Then finally it got to the point where all of my creative plunging techniques weren't enough and we had to get a plumber. I went to Andiamo campus on the other side of town where they have things like electricians, cobblers (shoe guys, not the desert), ice cream (the desert), and plumbers and asked the office if the plumber was available. The receptionist didn't have a clue what I was talking about until I explained that I needed someone to fix pipes and then I got an "Oh, you mean a plumBer". I had no idea that I have been pronouncing "plumber" incorrectly all this time. How embarassing. Anyways, after the standard waiting around that procedes just about everything, I finally met the plumber (Jesus from the way of the cross) and he said he would be there in a few hours. I went home and sure enough, a few hours later he showed up on a bicycle with...a plunger and a wrench. Yada, yada, yada, a month later there is a hole in the wall and the drain is clear. We managed alright. It just meant we had to make sure that all the water was thrown out the back door. Unfortunately we have not been able to give the drain a thorough test since it was repaired just in time for the water tower's pipes to jam with the calcium pushed down them during the regular cleaning cutting the water off from the entire campus. The absence of water also happened to coincide with the return of a few hundred girls to the campus for the start of a new term. It was just a few days of using water from buckets brought from the hand pump near the boarding so it wasn't bad. Of course, the minor inconvienence for us must have paled in comparison to the boarding occupied by over one hundred young women restroom situation that I can't or just don't want to imagine. Someone, other than hapless volunteers, finally worked on the water tower, and fixed the problem. I only hope it was in time for the girls in the boarding to take care of any un-niceness that I still don't want to imagine.

Jesu Ndikukulupirirani

2006-04-29T22:25:00.000+02:00

Yes, that is a single word. It's actually missing an h that should go after one of the k's, and I believe the r's are replaceable with l's. I spelled it incorrectly because that is the way it is spelled on the huge painting of The Divine Mercy at The Divine Mercy church that just opened in Dwangwa. Those familiar with The Divine Mercy should know how it translates and those who don't can ask those who do. Ha HA! What a jerk I am.

Anyways, Fr. Paul from Nkhota Kota invited us to the ceremony and it happened to fall during break so we were able to make it. It was a small outstation church in the parish and the event was attended not only by the Bishop of Lilongwe, but also the Archbishop of Blantyre which leads me to believe that Fr. Paul is extremely well connected or more persistant than I ever imagined. They even imported an extra choir from a different town with another Polish guy involved in exporting mushrooms and dried mangoes to Europe...really. The crowd was big enough that a large portion of people didn't fit inside the church and watched from outside. I was "lucky" enough to get a seat on the floor in the center aisle. After the mass we went for lunch with the Bishops, Priests, Council members, donors, and lowly volunteers. The church is in the same town as the sugar company and a few of the parishoners are managers so the lunch was at the company's country club. Very nice.

Fr. Paul's connections (or persistance) also meant we were able stay in town for a couple days at the guest house in the sugar company's management community and hang out on the beach down the road. All the visiting priests were in the house on the first night so we raided the manager's house for mattresses and stayed a while to watch his satellite television. The guest house was not sattelite equipped, but the Mushroom Guy, John, had his laptop and a few DVDs. Sometimes this volunteer business can be pretty rough. Mushroom John needed a few days rest as well so the choir he brought with him hung out on the beach with us. We would swim for a while and then go over to the fishermen nearby as they pulled in their nets and buy some for lunch. Once we helped them pull it in, but I don't think we even received a discount.

Clean Feet

2006-04-14T21:39:00.000+02:00

My feet have been washed. Not for the first time, of course, even though it doesn't occur as often as it probably should, but this was the first time by a priest. For Holy Thursday Mass, Gary and I were among the twelve apostles. Back home, the people selected to have their feet washed come up front at a certain time during the service, take off their shoes, and the priest goes down the line. Here, the apostles wear a cassock and sit up by the priest for the entire mass all the while without wearing shoes. Although, none of twelve or so alter servers they usually have ever wear shoes anyways so it was only a big deal for me. Luckily, I was on the starting end because by the time the water and towel made it down to Gary on the other end it wasn't looking too pretty. I think the priests in countries like this have a little more difficult job washing feet. Being Apostles for Holy Thursday also means participating in the Way of the Cross on Good Friday. This involved carrying the cross before it was given to the man playing Jesus, following along the way as he carried it through town, and then carrying the cross to the remaining stations after Jesus was nailed to it. They just tied him on and we hosted it on our shoulders. It was kind of tricky for us, but it must have been really uncomfortable for Jesus, who is also our plumber by the way.

Global Domination

2006-04-10T22:33:00.001+02:00

I think this is interesting even if no one else does. The billboards in Blantyre and Lilongwe (the big cities) are owned by Clear Channel.

The Mass

2006-04-10T22:33:00.000+02:00

Here I am, a Catholic Missionary, in Malawi for well over a year and have mentioned very little, if anything about the actual mass. One of the great things about the Mass is that anywhere you go, whether it's in the U.S., Italy, or Malawi, it is always recognizeable. The parts, the order, and the responses are all there. So anywhere you are in the world there is a celebration that is immediately familiar. This might seem boring, but each culture adds something to the mass making it uniquely theirs while still sharing in the worldwide celebration. A few practices here might be considered a little old fashioned. It is observed more in the outstations, but there is a seperation between men and women. Men are on one side and women on the other. When possible, space permitting, people kneel in a row at the front to receive communion while the minister walks down the line.

The major cultural contributions to the mass here in Malawi are the singing and dancing. The songs accompanied by an organ, drums, and a tamborine-like instrument are sung at every opportunity contributing to another characteristic of Malawian masses: length. If we get out in less than two hours, it's a short mass. This is also affected by the substantial length of the homily. The Christmas Eve homily wasn't too much longer than others, but being at night, a kid sitting across the aisle from me lost his personally battle against sleep and fell right of the pew. Many other kids didn't even attempt to fight it and were sprawled out on the floor...with parents. They can't afford to print bulletins for eveyone so after every mass the catechist reads all the church announcements however long the list might be. At the youth Mass on Sundays and on feast days, a group of girls dance up during the entrance and exit processions. A group of about 20 people dance up the aisle for the offertory, giving things like bread, sugar, corn, cases of soda, chickens, and even goats. For Palm Sunday Mass, we started at the school next door and processed to the church waving the palms. It was such a big crowd that it broke into about 3 seperate groups singing different songs. A group of women laid chitenji (material used as skirts or head wraps, etc.) down in front of the priest playing the role of Jesus as he walked the entire distance to the church. As soon as he passed by they would grap the chitenji and throw it to the front to be laid out again. From a distance, all you could see was a big group of women slowly moving along with material continually flying in the air.

Where's Waldo?

2006-03-31T22:16:00.000+02:00

Where's Waldo?, originally uploaded by aniemerg.

Tournament Results

2006-03-28T20:20:00.000+02:00

Most of the trips to the internet lately have been disrupted by corn mills or power outages so I don't have a clue how the NCAA tournament is going...or went...is it over...what month is it anyways? The Term 1 Mini-Soccer tournament, however, ended with the Danger Sisters defeating the Lady Lions by a score of 10 to 5. The most surprising, and annoying, upset was the Pineapples victory over the highly favored Lemons. Surprising because the Lemons were pretty good and the Pinepples were a couple of Form 1 late-comers who didn't really know what they were doing, and annoying because I had to listen to the Lemons complain about wanting to play again for rest of the tournament. "But Sir, But Sir!" Term Exams start tomorrow. While writing the exams I occasionally broke out in a sinister laugh so they might be a little difficult. We'll see how it goes.

Internet Trouble

2006-03-20T23:29:00.000+02:00

I was told there was some difficulty getting into the Weblog about a week ago. I went to the internet cafe to check it out, but ran into some internet trouble of my own. Every time the corn mill nearby starts up the power flickers and the computers reboot. It usually isn't much of a problem, but on Saturday it happened around every 5 to 10 minutes. Which is about how much time it takes for the computers to complete the booting process and to load any kind of Webpage. On top of that the computer I was using wouldn't recognize my USB memory stick so I couldn't get any of the stuff off the net I wanted to use for class. I did manage to find out that Illinois won their first round game so it wasn't a total loss. I hope by now the problem has sorted itself out.

Revelation

2006-03-01T20:55:00.000+02:00

It's not extremely profound, but I think I realized how the students see me as I pace back and forth in front of the class, blathering on about supplementary angles, wildly flailing my arms around. I've kind of lost touch with...well, reality and what the people reading this blog might be familiar with so if you know what I am talking about explain it to the person sitting next to you in the language you are most comfortable with. There was a Saturday Night Live sketch with Chris Kattan where he plays a teacher shouting wild and inarticulate nonsense at his students like "Zeedle do with a bap bop and a widdle and a dee." He then completely expects them to understand and gets a little frustrated when, to the audience and to them, they understandably don't have a clue and just give him a blank stare of confusion. He then combines it with unreadable squiggly lines on the chalkboard. That's me. Many of the students in Form 1 are not very experienced with English yet and I am still trying to speak slower, but think I just end up speaking louder as I see some of the more timid students cowering in the corner covering their ears. I am currently developing a new teaching strategy to help them overcome the fear of answering when I ask a question. It will involve poking a student with a long stick while repeating a question over and over until she gives me the answer I'm looking for. A big bright spotlight might help by kicking up the intimidation factor a bit...or maybe I'll just give more group exercises. I did incorporate a broom handle that was in the class one day, but I mainly just used it for pointing and as a walking stick going from group to group. They thought it was pretty funny...and so did I, and I didn't even poke anyone with it. Well, one or two but they were asking for it.

Watchmen

2006-02-24T21:51:00.000+02:00

We are living in an area slightly off of the main road meaning there is not much lighting at night. We are careful not to walk on the road after dark for safety concerns, although there have been some poorly timed mini-bus trips that made it necessary to walk just after sunset. I think the area is safe enough as long as you are walking in a group and don't draw too much attention to yourself. The biggest concern is being noticed by drunks which Ewa and I found out walking to the Christmas Vigil mass early during twilight. They aren't really dangerous people, but get a little enthusiastic about meeting the white people walking down the road, and well...they're drunk. So far we've avoided any bad situations and I expect it to stay that way as long as we stay cautious. Here at Bakhita, we are protected by a big perimeter wall, fearless watchmen, and a pack of watchdogs. The watchmen are good family men and we are pretty good friends with them. They have surprised me a few times walking to the school after dark. Sitting in a doorway or next to a pillar, they are almost invisible, and they don't say "hello" until you are right next to them so I've jumped a few times. A late night a few weeks ago, I was in my room almost asleep when I heard a voice outside my window whispering "Gary, Gary". Considering the fact that it was so late, and me not asleep but approaching sleep, I did not overreact with an unreasonable amount of terror. I feel the amount of terror was a perfectly reasonable level. Realizing that the person outside the window was probably willing to speak to anyone inside of the window even if it wasn't actually Gary, I managed a very cautious "Yes?" after what felt like minutes to me but was probably just a few seconds. I then heard another whisper in reply, "A bicycle is outside and the back door is open". A long and shaky sigh of relief follow, after which, I put the bicycle away, said "Good Night" to the watchman, and very deliberatly locked shut and locked the door. The whole incident ended up being very reassuring about the character of our watchmen...the next morning, anyways.

Ewa In the Village

2006-02-20T21:43:00.000+02:00

Ewa In the Village, originally uploaded by aniemerg.

Here we see Ewa in her natural environment. In the village, surrounded by people, and of course, holding a baby. Notice the kids posing on the right. You can't pull out a camera without one or two kids going into a karate stance. This is on Ewa and Gary's weekly trip into the village bringing food.

Midnight Mass

2006-02-12T21:13:00.000+02:00

Midnight Mass, originally uploaded by aniemerg.

This is a youth group at the parish as sheperds for midnight mass. You can see me in the background. It was really hot with all that extra stuff on.

Responsibilities

2006-02-03T21:46:00.000+02:00

Since the new school year began, I have been relieved of some responsibilities and taken on a few more. First, I am no longer a teacher in the college. After the college of accounting ended last year with zero students, there was some restructuring which ended up restructuring me out of a teaching position. I didn't mind so much because I am still running the drama club which is much less daily effort on my part and more fun despite the frequent crises and emotional outbursts common among dramatic people. I think they've already threatened to quite twice this year. In the secondary, I am still teaching computers, but I have Form 3 and Form 4 so I spend a lot of time opening the lab for the students evenings and weekends. Instead of teaching Science this year, I am assigned to Form 1 Math. I wasn't sure about the move, but so far I am enjoying Math a little more. Science often required equipement that wasn't easily available so I spent a lot of time running around trying to get demonstrations set up only to have them not work. This year, I am in charge of organizing the Bakhita Feast, and I'm not really sure how it happened. I was in a meeting and blacked out for a little while, which I usually do in meetings, but this time I was apparently answering "yes" to all questions asked to me in my blackened state. I woke up to find out that I was running the show. I was watching/judging the rehersals and realized, as usually, I don't really know what I'm doing. My thoughts about one dance performance were something like "Most of them were in sync, not all of them were out of time, and only one of them fell off the stage...it's good, next". It wasn't that bad, but it is definitely a position for someone who is more descriminating in such matters (anyone other than me). For secondary extra-curricular activities, I have landed the sweet gig of mini-soccer patron. No, we do not have a Foosball table...we have two of them. They are in the school hall along with the ping-pong table and the big screen TV (What!?...I'll just leave you wondering if I'm serious or not). Anyway, being the mini-soccer coach, I have to try and get 35 girls in some sort of order so that everyone gets to play. I had them get in teams of 3 and come up with names. The more interesting team names are the Pineapples, the Grapes, Liverpool, and The Danger Sisters (my favorite).

Acrobatics

2006-01-23T21:11:00.000+02:00

One day I was walking home taking my usual route and as I turned the corner of one dirt road on to another dirt road, I saw a group of boys standing around in small sandy dried out ditch. Now while this in of itself is not particularly extraordinary, I noticed that they were motioning for me to watch...so I did. I then saw one of them that was standing some distance from the others start running towards the group. I didn't make too much of the concrete slab set up slanted on some bricks that the group was standing around until the boy running jumped off the concrete slab and did a spectacular flip in the air. Just as I was beginning to recover from the amazement of seeing such acrobatics on my way back from town, another boy took off running for the slab, jumped off, and did an equally spectacular flip. Now, if I were the responsible adult that I should be (I'm not), I probably should have told them that, while they have great skill and should further develop their talents, the concrete/brick construction was not particularly safe and maybe they shouldn't be doing flips off it anymore. Although, being the way that I actually am (not a responsible adult), instead of telling them they should stop, I'm pretty sure I said something like, "COOL!" and "Do it again!". Of course, they did it again, and again I was pretty impressed. I think I gave them some high fives and left them as the wreckless boys they were before I met them and me still the irresponsible adult I will probably always be.

Amayi

2006-01-16T21:22:00.000+02:00

Translated it means "Mothers" or "Moms". It is also used as a title for any woman similar to Miss or Mrs. The equivalent for guys is Abambo. It means "Fathers" and is used in the same way. Amayi here at Bakhita refers to the group of women who clean the school and cook in the Dining Hall. They are very highly regarded by me...okay probably by everyone, but I don't think I should speak for the entire group...oh, what the hell. They are highly regarded by everyone. For a long time they made me very uncomfortable because they are super respectful and probably a little timid around foreigners. Anytime I passed by one of them sweeping she would stop, do a curtsy kind of thing, and greet me with her head down. Other times if I was about to pass one walking down a corridor, she would veer way off into the grass as I passed. This got a little annoying as I don't see myself as being that intimidating or deserving of that kind of respect so I began making an effort to ease the tension. The only way I know how to make myself more approachable is to make myself more ridiculous. I began to return the curtsy and greeting they were giving me (not usually performed by men) which they thought was hilarious, and any time one of them veered out of my path, I veered out right in front of her. A couple of times one would hide behind a pillar as I passed, and I would either walk around the other side and surprise her or hide on the opposite side and slowly peak around the corner. They are no longer as intimidated and they are comfortable enough sometimes to tease me in Chichewa as I pass. Occasionally I understand, but other times I just laugh along with them. I know a little Chichewa to jab back with so it is a healthy give and take. Of course most of my jabs are usually accusing them of drinking to much Chibuku (local beer) which they don't. Amayi Pakati is my favourite. She is everywhere doing just about anything and always laughs. Amayi James is the wife of James the watchman. Her name is actually Ivy, but James was working here before her and it was awhile before we actually found out what her name was so we just called her Amayi James. Amayi Stilevia (I think this might the Malawian Silvia) works in the kitchen and was dubbed Amayi Kitchen by Gabi. She found out about it and thinks it is funny so we still call her that sometimes. Amayi Mary is always smiling and very active in the church so I see her a lot outside the school. I think her daughter has started Form 1 this year, but I haven't confirmed it yet. The other two are Amayi Mbewe and Amayi Chuma. I don't know much about them and used to frequently confuse them.

Flies

2006-01-02T21:16:00.000+02:00

The flies in Africa are brutal. I wouldn't say that there are any more of them here but they are relentless. If one is around it will continually buzz around your head and then occasionally dive bomb you in the eye or decide to land somewhere on your face like your lip. Then it won't fly away unless you physically brush it off with your hand. There is one fly that escorts me to the computer room in the school. As soon as I leave the house, he starts buzzing around my head until I get there and then he is buzzing around my head all the way back. At first, I thought it was different flies each time but then he introduced himself and now we talk from time to time. He says that he just likes the company. I was riding in the back of a truck with a few locals going somewhere I can't recall at the moment and there was a mom holding a her son. He was young, but certainly not a baby. He was healthy looking, probably old enough to walk, and if something made him uncomfortable he was definitely old enough to take some action to remedy the situation. During the trip, he had two flies just hanging out on the corner of his eye, and he made no effort to do anything about it. I watched for a little bit and the flies didn't even move when he blinked. I guess if you grow up here its just something you can get used to. I, on the other hand, couldn't stand it for to long and had to brush them away.

Krisimasi

2005-12-25T02:04:00.000+02:00

It's hot, humid, and rainy so it must be the Christmas season. I guess it doesn't really seem like Christmas but it'll do. I was a sheperd for Chirstmas Eve mass which means I dressed up in ratty old clothes and did an African shuffle up the isle with a big stick along side a bunch of other sheperds and angels. It didn't take much to get in the group other than ask. They were pretty excited that I wanted to. I think they have an Azungu quota they need to meet since last year there was also one white guy. While other Christmas services are content you to use fake animals here in Balaka we use real goats. I hope everyone has a Happy Christmas season, cold weather, and lots of snow.

Krisimasi Yabwino!

Andy

Covert Operation

2005-12-19T21:37:00.000+02:00

I believe that Girlie may have been sent to Malawi on a secret mission. I don't have any solid proof yet, but I think her objective is to use her cooking skills to fatten us up. I became suspicious when we were talking one day when she said, "Sr. Pat sent me here to fatten you up." She may have inadvertently revealed further details of her diabolical plot in that same conversation, however, I was eating a Malaysian desert that could only have been made using black magic or some other-worldly form of confectionery procurement so I distracted. I will continue to investigate after we finish our debate on which dictionary to use when playing scrabble: American-English or British-English.

Into the Village

2005-12-16T20:35:00.000+02:00

Last weekend, I went into the village with Ewa to bring some food to a few homes of elderly or sick people without. Mr. Kulapa went with Gary and Ewa first to be show them where the houses were and to introduce them to the people that needed the most help. The type of village we were heading to is the type of place where electricity, indoor plumbing, and any hope that the people speak English ends. In order to get to this particular village we exited our gate on to the dirt road and instead of turning right which normally brings us to the parish, the town, or the market, we turned left.

The first house we stopped at was only about a 10 to 15 minute bike ride away. Some clarification is needed concerning the word "house" since my definition has changed slightly. Now when I refer to a house, it only means that there are walls, a roof, and some sort of hole or space as an entrance. This is all that can be assumed by the word "house". Anything less than this such as walls but no roof or an obvious space where there should be a wall doesn't quite qualify, and while it might soon be a house or is still being used as one, it is still at the very best, an incomplete house. Now if a house has glass windows, concrete floors, or a tin roof instead of grass then I would probably say it was a "nice house". Anything extra such as electricity, plumbing, or perimeter walls usually bumps it up to a "really nice house".

The house we came to first was just a "house". It had all of the necessary walls and a grass roof, but that's about it. I remember it as having concrete floors, but now that I think about it we were sitting on mats so that probably distracted me enough to not realize the floors were dirt. There were also a couple of windows, but they were lacking the common window characteristic of having some sort of barrier (glass, screens, bars, curtains, or chicken wire) that prevents just anything from entering through them. Not much distguished these windows with just holes in the wall other than there distinct rectangular shape. I suppose the mats could have been used to prevent rain from coming in, but as it was the greater portion of a row of bricks in the places that weren't holding up the roof were missing so the rain would probably have entered anyways. Despite some of its drawbacks, it was a house and the situation could have been worse so let's not start complaining about what we have.

The first woman we visited was named Maria. I have a difficult time judging ages, but I would say she was in her 40's or 50's. This judgment is also likely affected by the fact that this woman probably had AIDS. We went in and found her resting on a mat so we sat on the mat beside her. We were followed in by a group of children that were probably not hers, but they might have been relatives or neighbors curious about the visitors. We talked with her for awhile with the little Chichewa that we know, myself understanding the main point that she did not want us to forget about her. We then filled a basket with corn flour brought to us by a girl with a look that she took care of things and prayed the Our Father with them. We said goodbye shaking her hand and those of all the children that were not too shy or afraid to touch us and went to the next house.

New Arrival

2005-12-10T21:25:00.000+02:00

So we were looking at our community of three Americans and two girls from Polish all in our twenties and decided that we just weren't diverse enough. So we traded one American girl and one Polish girl for a Malaysian with an Indian background. And to deversify our age range a little bit, she is in her 40's. If only we could get 90 year old man from South America and a decent short stop, then we'd really have something. Anyways, the new volunteer is Girlie. Nope, not a description, that is her name. I think a more accurate description would be to say she is confidently feminine. She was a secretary starting at the age of 19 and then moved on to business administration for 9 years before coming here. Her parents, whom she was helping care for passed away last year, and she decided to do something for herself and quite her job. Ironically, this eventually led to her doing something for a lot of other people. She spent some time in the UK with her sister and began a search for a volunteer position bringing her to the Canossians and to us in Malawi. She is still waiting for her official assignment, even though nothing is ever really official here, but we anticiapate that she will be working in the secondary office, teaching English for Business Communications in the College, and possibly Bible Knowledge for the secondary. She is a master of the Chinese, Indian, and Malaysian culinary arts and is rumoured to be good at giving foot messages. We're pretty excited to have her here.

Return of Ngumbi

2005-12-02T22:16:00.002+02:00

The first really big rain of the year means that the Ngumbi have returned. We were sitting in our living room at night and heard some strange sounds on the porch. We finally checked it out to find massive flying termites around the light and crawling on the screens. In the morning, it was cloudy and rainy and there were Ngumbi flying around everywhere. At one point there were so many in the air it looked like it was snowing. Granted, it was big brown snow that never really fell to the ground, but it still like snow. Everyone around is collecting the Ngumbi as they fly around the lights at night and sweeping them up from the rain gutters. The sisters collected about 10 full buckets and plan on frying them later today.

Birthdays

2005-12-02T22:16:00.001+02:00

We've celebrated a few birthdays in the past few months. Mine was in October, Gary's was in November, and so was Ewa's. Thanks to an article in the paper placed by my mom, I was inundated with cards and letters which was really cool. One, because it was good to hear from so many people and two, because it made the other volunteers jealous. So thanks to everyone thinking of us here in Malawi. We celebrated the birthdays like most birthdays are celebrated, I think. We invited the priests teaching at the local seminary over to say mass in our living room and then they joined us for dinner followed by a rowdy game of Uno...that's normal, right? I think I am losing all concept of reality. Anyways, we managed to make cake and have a few drinks and it was a really good time.

Kateri and Gabi

2005-12-02T22:16:00.000+02:00

Kateri and Gaby have left Balaka. Kateri departed a few days ago for her new job in Nsanama. She will be living with the sisters there working as a nutritionist and in the dispensory, whatever that means. She's not that far away so she plans on visiting every couple of weeks because she'll miss us of course and not just to check her email. It also means that I get her old room. HA HA! It really isn't much better than mine, but I welcome the change. Anything different is good. Gabi left for Rome yesterday. She will spend about a week there decompressing from two years in Africa and then she'll be on her way to Poland. We just found out last night that her flight to Nairobi was delayed and she had to catch a later flight to Rome so she spent the night in the Nairobi which could be very boring unless she paid the $50 visa fee to actually leave the airport.

Summer Break

2005-11-28T22:17:00.000+02:00

It is summer over here so we are on break from school until January. The Montfort Fathers have a house on the lake that we used for a couple days so we managed to swim a little. The people living around the lake are used to visitors and are ready to do business. They even set up right on the lawn and wait for you to come out to buy their wood carvings, paintings, and necklaces. I enjoy looking at the carvings and paintings, but I wasn't really interested in buying anything. Since they are very persistant once you show any interest, I tried to keep my distance. One night a group of kids with some homemade instruments came and played a few songs for us. Now that I am back in Balaka, I am starting to setup everything I need for Computers and Science class to run smoothly next year. I will not be Math and Economics in the college next year, but the clubs are moving into the actual timetable and more emphasis will be put on attendance so I guess its like I am becoming the Drama teacher. I am also opening the computer lab so local students can come and use them over break. My hope is to have them a little more familiar with how they work before classes begin. So far, few have actually come, but it is summer break so I'm not too surprised.

Dentist

2005-11-19T21:29:00.000+02:00

I have always been a little unsure about going to the dentist here, but it has been about a year and a half since I've seen any dentist so I thought I should at least have a checkup. Plus, Ewa and Gary went and said that it was a good set up so I decided to go. I have to admit it went really well. Once he pulled out all of my teeth with a rusty pair of pliers, he hooked me up with an excellent set of wooden dentures. The splinters are kind of a pain, but over all they are functional and a pretty good look for me...Alright, so it wasn't that bad. The Italian mission across town have set up a few clinics: General, Heart, Vision, and Dental. The dental clinic was very well supplied with all of the modern dental equipment and the dentist seemed very capable. Gary even recently entrusted him with a root canal which is alright so far. As good as the dental practice was, it still had a few distinct Malawian qualities. I walked up to the building a was greeted by a couple of guys sitting on the bench outside. Just inside the door, I asked the receptionist if I could get a cleaning. She gave me a confused look and yelled out the window to the guys on the bench. One of them said "Sure, as soon as the mopping is finished." So I went back outside and waited with who I now knew as the dentist. After a few minutes, I was shown into a typical looking dental room including the chair, tools, sinks, cabinets, and even the radio playing in the background. The dentist took a quick look at my teeth and found two small cavities (no x-ray required) that he could fill as long as I had time. There was no dental hygenist so he went right on with the cleaning. Somewhere in mid-cleaning his cell phone rang which he didn't hesitate to answer and make another appointment for tomorrow. He also had a few short conversations with people passing by. He moved right on to filling the cavities and since he didn't have an assistant, there were frequent trips to the cabinet and out of the room to get everything he needed. After everything was finished, I waited while he put everything away. He came back with the book and I paid my bill right there. I was beginning to wonder why he even had the receptionist. Everything went well and ended up paying 2300 Kwacha for everything (about 18 dollars).

Rainy Season

2005-11-11T23:10:00.000+02:00

We are entering the rainy season. It isn't full on yet but it rained a few times last week. It keeps the dust down and it is clowdy at least part of the day cooling it off a little bit...not much but a little. The last rainy season was not rainy enough for the corn crop. The reserves are already running out and the prices are getting too high for most of the people who really need it. T he families in the villages work their own fields and depend on growing enough for the whole year. Many of the people around us expect to run out a couple of months before the next crop comes in. A few weeks ago the president officially declared a national emergency, and it is expected that 4 to 6 million people won't have enough food this year. We've been helping out our workers loaning them money to buy the bags of corn they need and we now have plans to buy as many bags as we can to help our workers and others around us. The parish here also does a lot of work to feed those in need. We've offered our help but they seem to have the help they need already. The biggest difficulty is finding the corn to buy.

Ramadan

2005-11-04T21:59:00.000+02:00

I guess that is spelled right. I assume it is just as it sounds. Anyway, the month long Islamic fast just ended this month. Why do I care? Well, I didn't take too much notice during Ramadan. A few of our students are Muslim so instead of forcing everyone into the dining hall on my lunch duty, I had to excuse the Muslims since it wouldn't be very nice to make them sit there while everyone else eats. Other than that i didn't matter that much until we were invited to the house of some of our students to celebrate Eid. It is the end of Ramadan when the fasting is over and everyone gets together for the express purpose of eating. It is very similar to celebrating Easter at the end of Lent. Now I expected to go to our student's house and enjoy a nice Malawian meal with family. That wasn't a wrong expectation, but it also wasn't exactly right. Instead of the small get together at a small house it was a huge get together at a big house. We pulled in the gate and parked in the driveway. Rita and Monica, the students that invited us, told us to go around back while they put their stuff away. In the back a tent was set up with a bunch of tables, chairs, and stacks of plastic plates. A group of people sitting on the back patio called us over as soon as they saw us coming. They greeted us and immediately offered sodas. In the mean time we sat and talked to another Bakhita student that was there. There were four students total. I don't know their exact relation but as far as I can tell they were some form of cousins. She explained the family relationship of everyone as they arrived to the party. Uncles, aunts, cousins, wives, grandmas, grandpas, grandpas' brothers, and so on. If you've ever experienced a holiday with my family, that is a pretty good comparison to what I was unexpectedly thrown into. The food finally started coming out of the house in tubs and we were invited to help ourselves and sit anywhere we like...so we did. I think I ate four different types of rice, potato salad, rib-like meat, spicy mangoes, and even desert. After the meal, we stuck around for awhile and talked to a few grandmas and maybe some great aunts and uncles. We were even invited to stay at several people's houses if we should ever need a place to stay in Blantyre. The whole thing was very unexpected and very surreal. At least someone in the family had some money for the house and all the food so it might not have been very representative of Malawi as a whole, but it was fun to see an entire Malawian family in action.

Volunteer Inidicted

2005-10-31T21:25:00.000+02:00

In wake of the weblog post, "Obituary", there was much confusion as to the authenticity of the report. This confusion and public outcry has drawn the attention of the authorities and led to a formal indictment of the contributor of the post. Ms. Kateri is now facing two counts of inappropriate humour for the subtleness of the post and its morbid nature, one count of misplaced humour for the telling of an inside joke in a public forum, and one count of defamation of British electrical standards, a law in Malawi held over from the colonial period. In the midst of the charges, Kateri has resigned from her post as the English and Typing Professor at Bakhita Technical College leading many to suspect she is guilty, however, all Canossian institution employees are required to resign under such circumstances. Sr. Evelyn, principal of the college, said that she accepted the resignation with a heavy heart and wants to remind everyone that Ms. Kateri is innocent until proven guilty.

"Kateri is a valuable asset to this organization. She has made many contributions to the school and to the country of Malawi. We will cooperate with the authorities in any way we can upholding the rule of law in this great nation. We are firmly convinced of Ms. Kateri's innoncence and hope the trial will vindicate her reputation. I, for one, believed the joke to be very appropriate and hilarious." - Sr. Evelyn, Principal

Even if Kateri survives the trial, her reputation will be forever damaged makeing it difficult to return to her classes. It is suspected that she will be relocated to a less high profile position as a nutritionist at the dispensary in Nsanama for the remainder of her service period.

While he has yet to be formal charged, the proprietor of the weblog, Mr. Andrew, is still at risk since many believe his pleas that he was unaware of the post and its content are quite lame. He will likely face a backlash from his actions of distancing himself from someone in his own community especially somone as adorable as Kateri.

Finals

2005-10-28T21:15:00.000+02:00

It is final exams week here at Bakhita. Actually, last week was exam week for the college which means I sat watching my one student take two 3 hour tests. Very Exciting. I could have graded it over her shoulder while she was taking it in order to get it out of the way, but decided against it. The secondary finals should be a little more interesting. For finals, all of the students are put in the hall together and they take a test in the morning and in the afternoon, two hours each, for a week. A teacher is assigned to oversee each of the forms for each of the tests.
The rule is you are not allowed to oversee your own exam. I'm not sure why, but I guess its so the teachers don't help the students do better on their exams. It does make answering questions about the exams difficult because if something is confusing or there is a mistake then we have to run all over the school to find the teacher to get things straightened out. The first term I was assigned for the Chichewa exam so I didn't have a clue how to answer even the simplest questions about the test because, well, it was in Chichewa so I differed to the other teacher on duty for everything. For the computers exam I get to take care of myself because it involves a practical and theory section of the test and two different groups so there is some extra coordination required. After the exams we are on our summer break.

Obituary

2005-10-21T23:10:00.001+02:00

RETURNED VOLUNTEER DIES BY ELECTROCUTION

An unnamed volunteer had only been back in the United States for 2 weeks when she met her untimely demise. She had returned from the small African country of Malawi after two years of service there and found difficulty readjusting certain small details of American life. Unfortunately one such detail cost her her life.

During her two years in Africa she became accustomed to sticking metal objects into electrical outlets in order to plug in European appliances. At first wary of such a forbidden action, she soon became used to sticking whatever object was closest - pen, tweezers, keys, screwdrivers - into the "ground" of the three holes in the socket.

After two weeks back in the US this unfortunate volunteer had a temporary lapse of mental function during which she reverted to what had become habit. While attempting to plug in a toaster, she jammed her last key into the third prong above.

Power Loss

2005-10-21T23:10:00.000+02:00

It didn't take long to realize that the power here in Balaka was not entirely dependable, especially during the rainy season when it went out almost twice a week particularly at inopportune momments. This for the most part was not much more than an annoyance, but added an unwanted degree of uncertainty in our ability to give computer exams. Since April, the power has been more or less reliable, but it still feels the need to demonstrate its ability to subvert cooking plans and various power dependent activities from time to time. However, when the power goes out before finals week when its time to type and turn in the exams it could cause some worry, unless of course you are like me and weren't interested in having the exams finished on time anyways.

Water update

2005-10-17T21:35:00.000+02:00

Our hot water is fixed...for now.

This Week In Balaka

2005-10-14T20:58:00.000+02:00

The Form 3 students have been complaining that they have nothing to show that they are actually learning computers. An obvious and fundamental lesson in computers that would be perfect for such a situation is printing. The difficulty in teaching how to print is that it requires the prescence of an actual printer which my "computer lab" is unfortunately lacking. This week I worked it our for them to save letters they had typed to their parents on a floppy disk and use the printer in the secondary office. With the class size as big as it is and the size of the office being...well, the size of an office, I had to take the students groups of four. It just so happens that the office is on the other end of the school and just about as far away from the computer lab as it can be so I got a little extra exercise this week walking back and forth. I told them they needed to walk to the office at least as fast as I was (they have slow poke issues) and it was funny watching them struggle to keep up. Some were dissappointed that the colours they chose didn't show up even though I explained many times previously that it was a black and white printer, but they got over it quickly and were really excited to use the printer.

Also this week, Fr. Andrew and Fr. Oswald from Nkhota Kota were on their way to Blantyre to buy 500 shoes for their primary students so they stopped in for a couple of nights. Fr. Andrew always makes things interesting and Fr. Oswald really enjoyed playing UNO after dinner.

Hot Water

2005-10-10T20:32:00.000+02:00

Our water heater is finally fixed. We have a solar water heater on top of our house that really hasn't work very well since we got here. Occasionally, I would get a warm shower and even less frequently it would be hot. It wasn't really a big deal until the cold season arrived. With temperatures getting down into the fifties at night and heater not really working that well, the showers were mildly jarring. The typical shower resulted in convulsions that lasted for most of the duration of the shower. But as the weather warmed up, the showers become a little more tolerable. Then one night, just before bed, a stream of water started rolling off of our roof. Apparently, a hose or pipe in the heater had broken and was emptying the tank so we climbed to the roof and turned off the valve. Now when we said we didn't have any hot water it wasn't that the water coming out of the hot tap was cold, there wasn't any water coming out at all. The showers returned to their previous frigid temperatures. We eventually got a plumber to come check it out. He was an older man with a bag of tools, a very old looking pair of cover-alls, and a Mickey Mouse hat. He climbed up on the roof with a ladder that would have easily gotten someone expelled from shop class. He then walked around our tin roof wearing socks. To make it situation even more interesting, he later asked us for a chair on which he stood on the roof while working on the heater. Safety precautions weren't much of a priority for this guy. Anyways, he fixed the heater and later that night it broke so he came back the next day and fixed the heater and that night it broke so he came back and fixed the heater. The heater broke again this time before he left so he went up and fixed it again only to have it break again that night. We gave up for awhile. Then another plumber came out to take a crack at it and our water heater is finally fixed.

Update: Before I had a chance to send this post our water heater broke.

Kateri is Leaving

2005-10-10T20:31:00.001+02:00

It is official, or at least as official as anything gets around here. Kateri is leaving. The original plan was for her to be here in Balaka for two years, but that time is getting cut short. She is moving approximately 70 kilometers away to Sanama. There is a Canossian mission there where she will be working in the medicine dispensory and the nutrition unit. The move is in response to the unsatisfactory placement of Kateri, educated in Sciences with plans of attending medical school, as an English and Typing teacher. While I think she did an excellent job in the ill-fitting position, she expressed her desire for the Sisters to find her a more suitable task. The sisters, in their on going pursuit to match people to their vocation as well as get the job done, were happy to find something better. The new position looks like a good match and Kateri is excited to be going.

Full Recovery

2005-10-10T20:31:00.000+02:00

Gary has fully recovered from his bout with malaria. (Wait a second, didn't he already recover, like, two weeks ago) We thought that the first case of malaria in the community was extremely mild and uninteresting but as it turns out...we were wrong. About a week after he was diagnosed, Gary felt fully recovered and went back to work in the school. He felt fine for the whole week and didn't have any problems until Friday when the symptoms returned with avengeance. We were gettting ready to go on the field trip for the college and Gary was curled up on the couch with no intention of moving. He later went to the doctor a found out the malaria was still there and got some stronger medicine to take care of it. The medicine caused his ears to ring so he couldn't hear anything and at night he had some mild hallucinations. People talking in his head and such. After about a week of not much more than sleeping all day, he is finally returning to full health.

What's on the Radio?

2005-10-07T21:46:00.000+02:00

Malawi radio offers a wider selection of programming than television. I don't know for sure how many stations there are but they are scatter pretty evenly across the dial. The music stations play a variety of music throughout the day. So much variety that it is nearly impossible to predict what is going to come on next. The majority of songs are either Malawian, Hip Hop, or Rap, but that doesn't stop them from playing just about anything. One day I was listening and the station went from a Malawian band (reggaeish) to 50 Cent to an old time country song to Skid Row. We were in a Restaurant in Blantyre waiting for Sr. Evelyn to pick us up and the whole time was like listening to American pop radio in the early 90's. There are also the news and talk stations. The BBC World broadcasts 24 hours a day on the radio so we can always get updates on international news. I think one that is the most interesting is the station that chants passages from the Koran. It's the Muslim station and they don't chant all the time, but I'll occasionally catch someone chanting/singing from the Koran in Arabic.

Field Trip

2005-09-30T20:57:00.001+02:00

The college and Form 3 classes went on a field trip to nearby city of Blantyre today. We rented a big bus from the local parish and had to combine secondary and college to make it work moneywise. Thankfully Malawi doesn't concern itself with terms "seating capacity" so we were able to fit everyone on. Other than that it was a very normal field trip. A few people were running behind but we the bus didn't leave on time anyways because we were waiting on the driver (Our time not Malawian time). There was even a mom who showed up with one of the forgotten lunches of a students. Of course, instead of car, she came on a bicycle taxi. The college toured the TVM televeion studio in the morning and the Coca-Cola bottling plant in the afternoon. Form 3 went to the radio station and the school of Medicine. Being both a secondary and college teacher, I went with Form 3 in the morning and during the lunch meeting switched to the college. It might have been a mistake because I was told later that the college of medicine tour included cadavers.

Form 2

2005-09-30T20:57:00.000+02:00

The way the secondary school system is set up here, the students take certification exams at the end of Form 2 and then at the end of Form 4. It takes about a week to take exams for all of their subjects and if they don't pass enough of them then they have to retake the course until they do. Form 2 just finished with their exams last week which being in the middle of the term, we get to finish the rest of the term with fewer students to worry about. Why they put the tests in the middle of the term, I am not sure. It's just another one of those Malawian quirks that I've stopped trying to figure out. I don't have any Form 2 classes so it doesn't affect me much other than make it breakfast and lunch duty a little easier to manage.

Something I Miss

2005-09-19T19:52:00.000+02:00

Being able to walk down a busy street...or an empty street...or any street, and not be noticed.

Andrew *

2005-09-16T21:15:00.000+02:00

Name: Andrew *

Nickname: Andy, Meister Klepka

Age: 24 (I am the keeper of his age - he doesn't know it and will defer to me)

Birthdate: 16 October 1980

Profession: Electrical Engineer

Current Occupation: Teacher of Physical Science and Computers; Tutor of Economics; Distributor of Yorkshire Peppermint Patties and Yummy Treats; Egg Beater; Fixer of Radios and Fans for the Canossian Sisters

That's right folks. Mr Andrew is a regular Jack of All Trades. From giving out medicinal doses of chocolate for mental health purposes to climbing up on the roof to turn off the leaking hot water tank; from "teaching" economics to his one and only accounting student to trying to keep complete chaos from reigning over his 46 Physical Science students during lab time, Mr Andrew keeps occupied.

He is the current champion of receiving packages and mail, with no missing packages en route and the most received, leading us all to believe that there is some kind of mysterious mail connection between Illinois and Malawi. We would like to thank whomever is responsible for his years of experience in the dishroom because he is, hands-down, our fastest dishwasher. He could do with a little work on grace though. If you will return your eyes to the nickname section of this report, you will see the name "Meister Klepka". This was given to him by Ania, the Polish girl who is now in Tanzania, while we were in Rome. If you don't know Polish I will give you a few hints to help you translate it. Change the K to a C. Change the ep to an um. Change the ka to a sy. Got it? Yeah... it's perfect. He might benefit from one of Athena's bibs. (Most of you probably know that Athena is his newest neice, but for those of you who didn't now you do.)

Mr Andrew is the fratboy of the community. I mean this in the best possible way, applying all of the positive qualities assigned to this stereotype. He likes to have fun. He is a young spirit (actually the two of us were mistaken for high schoolers while in Rome). He does what needs to be done without much complaining to speak of. He is the most easygoing of us all - being quite content to occupy himself quietly by playing guitar or watching one of the 5 Seinfeld reruns that we have on tape. And lastly, he is the distributor (and sometimes the cause) of a great many laughs.

I will close with a more personal note. I must declare that I have adopted Mr Andrew as my brother. I would like to assure his sisters that I am taking good care to make sure he doesn't miss the wonderful teasing and joking that sisters can provide. So you may put any worries about that to rest. We are having plenty of laughs here in this house. Some might begin in effort to dissipate anger, sadness, or frustration but by the end we're usually all in smiles and any grimaces remaining are from aching sides.

This report has been typed for you by Kateri *

* In order to protect the guilty from unwanted curiousity from unknown internet searchers, last names have been withheld.

Health Report

2005-09-16T21:14:00.000+02:00

It took nine full months of living in Africa, but malaria has finally struck one of the volunteers. The honor of having the first case in our community goes to Gary. He wasn't feeling very well, and while he doubted it was malaria he decided to get tested anyways. Fortunately for him, it seems to be a very mild case of malaria. He is only suffering from some stomach discomfort and aches and pains, but then again he is missing out on the malaria halucinations. Early today he said he was even dissappointed that his first experience didn't even come close to meeting expectations. Of course, he might regret saying that if he gets it again and it does live up to the hype. In the meantime, we are trying to keep away from any mosquitoes that might have been around Gary and patiently waiting for the next case.

Malawi Numbers by Kateri

2005-09-12T21:22:00.000+02:00

38 average life expectancy in Malawi

8 number of full-sized woven reed chairs carried on one bicycle

6 average number of children per family

9 number of months I have been here, as of today

122 number of kwacha per dollar

5 number of bicycles our community owns

0 number of bicycles that are currently ride-able

6 number of flat tires we've had in the past 3 weeks

3 number of kwacha for one mango

13 number of girls in the accounting course at the beginning of the year

1 number of girls in the accounting course as of today

1800 number of kwacha it would have cost me to send a 300 g package to my sister for her birthday (sorry sis, you're gonna have to wait on that)

28 number of people fit into one minibus (our record)

1 & 2 number of goats and chickens (respectively) also aboard the record setting minibus

3 for 5 number of bananas (little ones - about 4 inches) for number of kwacha

12 number of girls in the second year secretarial class

200 number of kwacha per kg to buy meat from the carcasses hanging along the road

0 number of students that turned in their last assignment

2 number of geckos I can currently see, as I sit here typing

400 number of kwacha for one hour of internet at the place across town

2.5 number of hours the average Sunday mass lasts

1.5 number of hours I waited one Sunday past the scheduled time for the second mass to start because the first one was just that long

12 number of full time teachers in our school

5 number of new teachers we have had to hire in our school, due to firings and leavings, so far this year

24 number of useless numbers I was able to come up with for this email

from kateri: Malawian Adventures - By the numbers

2005-09-06T21:46:00.001+02:00

Taken from "Malawian Adventures - By the numbers"

38 average life expectancy in Malawi

8 number of full-sized woven reed chairs carried on one bicycle

6 average number of children per family

9 number of months I have been here, as of yesterday

122 number of kwacha per dollar

5 number of bicycles our community owns

0 number of bicycles that are currently ride-able

6 number of flat tires we've had in the past 3 weeks

3 number of kwacha for one mango

13 number of girls in the accounting course at the beginning of the year

1 number of girls in the accounting course as of today

1800 number of kwacha it would have cost me to send a 300 g package to my sister for her birthday (sorry sis, you're gonna have to wait on that)

28 number of people fit into one minibus (our record)

1 & 2 number of goats and chickens (respectively) also aboard the record setting minibus

3 for 5 number of bananas (little ones - about 4 inches) for number of kwacha

12 number of girls in the second year secretarial class

200 number of kwacha per kg to buy meat from the carcasses hanging along the road

0 number of students that turned in their last assignment

2 number of geckos I can currently see, as I sit here typing

400 number of kwacha for one hour of internet at the place across town

2.5 number of hours the average Sunday mass lasts

1.5 number of hours I waited one Sunday past the scheduled time for the second mass to start because the first one was just that long

12 number of full time teachers in our school

5 number of new teachers we have had to hire in our school, due to firings and leavings, so far this year

100-200 range of kwacha paid per day for the average laborer

10,000 monthly salary, in kwacha, for teachers at BEC

8 number of bags of chimanga (corn) consumed by the average family in one year

3 average number of bags of chimanga harvested this year by the families that need 8 (due to drought)

28 number of useless numbers I was able to come up with for this email

...and then there was one

2005-09-06T21:46:00.000+02:00

At the beginning of the year there were a total of 13 students enrolled in the Accounting Progam at the Technical College. Over the course of two terms the numbers gradually decreased. Supposed reasons for the drop in the numbers included unawareness of what Accounting involved, difficulty of classes, dissatisfaction with boarding, and financial difficulties. I say "supposed reasons" because most of the students never told us they were leaving or why. They just didn't show up anymore. The exodus of students continued until at the beginning of the third term when I had a total of four students. A week into the third term, Agness had a baby making it difficult to come to class for a few weeks and almost impossible to catch up this year so she decided not to return this year. We, or at least I, had no idea she was even pregnant. The second week of term three Munderanji (directly translated to English means "Why do you hate me?") mysteriously dissappeared. Later, I found out she decided Accounting Technician was slightly too ambitious for her, and she signed up for classes to earn a lesser certificate. It was actually a good move for her, and she will still be taking the weekend classes here at Bakhita. Last Sunday, Clara Kalolo came to the house to inform us that she was accepted to Mzuzu Universtiy's Science Education program and that she would be leaving immediately. She is a good student and it is a great opportunity for her so I don't feel too bad about her leaving. On the other hand, about two months remain in the term and I am down to a single accounting student, Monica. Thankfully she was one of the better students from the start and has reasonable chance of passing her exams at the end of the year. She has promised me that she will not be leaving and why should she? She now has an entire team of personal tutors to help her prepare.

What's on TV?

2005-09-02T21:00:00.000+02:00

The short answer to this one is "not much". Here in Malawi we have a single broadcast station, Television Malawi (TVM). We prefer calling it MTV as much of the programming involves music performances or videos from Malawian bands and church choirs. The quality varies, but is usually at the same level as an amateur program on public access. The Malawian news is on a few times a day in Chichewa and in English. It mostly reports on the latest President Bingu speech or trip, and report from a local school or farm. Religious programs are common with Sunday services broadcast from a different church each week, and a program called "The Church and Hot Potatoes" debates faith issues. It's interesting...sort of. It also shows the BBC World feed twice during the day and after 10:30 so we are able to catch up on international events. There really isn't a set program schedule, at least that we can figure out, so it is hit and miss. For the most part we don't watch all that much television. Television favourites so far are and invitation to a wedding in Lilongwe which was apperently open to anyone who wanted to go and a commercial featuring a man playing a guitar made from a gas can. Visits to any house of Missionary Fathers in the area are usually pretty exciting because just like most adult men, satellite television is a necessity. The options are endless with CNN, ESPN, Movie Channels, and even Cartoon Network.

Additional Road Hazards

2005-08-26T20:28:00.000+02:00

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

2005-08-20T21:25:00.000+02:00

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

2005-08-15T21:24:00.000+02:00

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

2005-08-12T19:31:00.000+02:00

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

2005-08-05T19:56:00.000+02:00

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!

Term 3 Begins

2005-07-30T19:43:00.000+02:00

Classes are back in session and everything is back to "normal" (honestly I'm really not sure what "normal" means anymore or even if it is possible). I was totally ready to get back to school, but as it turned out my students were ready either so I had a little extra prep time. The students tend to drizzle back in over the course of the first two weeks. In the secondary it isn't a problem because if a few students are missing there are still 30 or 40 to teach. On the other hand, in my accounting classes there are only four students so if a few students don't show up...well, there aren't any. I was up to 2 by the end of the week so I had a chance to review the term exam with a little more one on one attention. Parent teacher meetings were today and they went well even thouh not many parents came. I was hoping to have more form 3 parents because I had the lab open and students assigned answer questions about the class for them, but what can one do.

Retreat

2005-07-15T19:23:00.001+02:00

Next week is our community retreat. I am usuallly apprehensive about going on retreats, but am always happy that I went afterwards. For this one it will at least be nice to get away from the school for a little while to gear up for the last, and longest, term of the year.

Chiswe Scourge

2005-07-15T19:23:00.000+02:00

I may have mentioned before that there are termites everywhere around here, and they exist in great number as evident by the frequent termite mounds of considerable size. Some of them are flying and go by the name of Ngumbi and the others are called Chiswe. I have not received any reliable information on this, but I think they are just different "casts" of the same species. The Chiswe are definitely responsible for the gathering of food and they are ravenous. They consume any and all plant life they can chew up and carry down into their holes. Sometimes they just bring their nest to the source as in some trees that are covered with a layer of mud underneath which the bark is completely eaten away. Walking along the sidewalk I noticed that the grass was moving. I stopped to look closer and it was chiswe that had cut down blades of grass and were carrying it to their hole. As I was bent down I realized I could actually hear them working and it was loud. I have become better at recognizing the sound and can catch it from meters away. We put some logs to sit on around our monthly fire and the next day or so the chiswe had already begun building up mud around it so now we roll them to concrete gutter. Gary just had a fence built around his garden to keep the dogs out made from reeds and he sprayed it with chemicals to keep them away. It doesn't seem to be helping because he found them eating out the inside of the reads and they can be heard moving around inside. The best, and possibly most hazardous, example occured one Sunday morning when we woke up without power. We weren't too concerned since the power frequently goes out, but later we learned that the power was out because the chiswe had eaten through the pole leading to the school and it fell. Luckily our school is made mostly of concrete and bricks. The chickens that are present wandering around all of the villages help keep their numbers down there. Also precautions are taken by painting trees and poles with lime and spraying chemicals on the corn supply so they can be slowed down, but I don't think they will be stopped anytime soon.

Visitor from Tanzania

2005-07-11T19:15:00.000+02:00

Laura, a volunteer working in Tanzania we met in Rome, used her vacation time to visit us here in Balaka. She is a nurse from Minnesota and has some experience in developing countries as she studied in the Dominican Repulic for a few months. She is staying with two other volunteers: Jain, a doctor from India, and Ania, pharmacist from Poland. Her experience seems a little more difficult than ours as she sees the affects of diseases and malnutrition up close. I don't think I would do well in a hospital in Africa but she seems to be handling things well. Her service if for one year so she will be goin home in a few months. Her plans are to go to medical school and continue working in mission clinics. We have been showing her as much of Balaka as we can while trying to get everything done for school before we have a retreat later this month. She was very surprised how different Malawi is from Tanzania and couldn't believe how dry it was here. She leaves today and is looking forward to a 30 hour crowded bus ride.

Noisy Neighbours

2005-07-09T07:14:00.000+02:00

Before I came to Africa, I didn't think to much about excessive noise keeping me up at night. During the first couple of weeks we heard drums being played in neighboring villages and thought it was awesome. Now it is starting to lose its appeal. Sometimes the drums go all night long and can be heard in my room with the windows closed. But it isn't just people playing drums in the village next to us. I guess we are close enough to town to hear the music being played at the bars or else someone in the small grass roof houses close by has an impressive stereo system. Sure, all of this does keep me up at night, but it really wouldn't bother me all that much if I could go and join the party. As it is, however, it isn't safe for us to be walking around after dark. The road we live on is very dark and it is believed that all white people have money. Plus, when you are walking down the road, they can see you, but you can't see them.

Straight Lines

2005-07-03T21:17:00.000+02:00

The students here at Bakhita, whether they are in College, Secondary, from the village, or from the city, love straight lines. They always have a ruler available or know exactly who they can borrow one from so they can seperate all of their answers with perfectly straight, clear, horizontal, and vertical lines intersecting at perfect 90 degree angles. The answers they are outlining are...well,....sometimes they're good. However, usually they are...somewhat...lacking in relevance to the question asked, and their penmanship is...well, it's bad. But their straight lines, beautiful.

Chicken Udate

2005-07-02T10:59:00.000+02:00

Very Tasty!