Triple B Holiday in Mozambique

Feliz Natal y Feliz Ano Novo! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The holiday in Mozambique was where I got Triple B – Burnt, Bruised, and Bitten. Don’t worry, the latter B was not from dogs, rats, or crocodiles, though I could’ve easily been their prey. I was the target of many blood-thirsty mosquitoes, probably carrying the malaria that kills so many people. Aside from the bites, I was definitely sunburned all around and bruised from the horrendous transport. And I’m going to tell you all about it! (Mom, don’t read this, because you might faint. Just kidding.)

Traveling to and from Mozambique proved to be more physically taxing than I expected. We literally spent half the time on the road trying to get somewhere (sometimes unsuccessfully). My friends and I started our adventure on the 20th at a volunteer’s house in a game park close to the border of Mozambique, where monkeys romped around the roof at night. We woke up at the brink of dawn the next morning, took a bike taxi in the rain, and took a vehicle to the road leading to the border. We waited for a few hours before a pick-up truck finally came and picked us up. After four hours of swatting away cholera-infested flies, mucking off the mud and rain off my face, and splashing through muddy potholes, we finally arrived at the border, only to find out that no transport was leaving this eerie border town. We were optimistic anyway, and luckily a nice 4WD came by and picked us up during the evening. After driving in the rain on a poor muddy road, we found a truck stuck in the ditch on the side of the road (a common occurrence during rainy season). We were unable to pass through, so we attempted to drive around the truck but ended up stuck in the ditch. By then, it was dark and a crowd of people were standing and shouting around the truck, so we were a bit nervous. Eventually, a group of men helped drag our car back out, and we attempted to drive around the truck again. We got stuck again, but this time, a tractor was able to pull us out of the ditch. The whole ordeal costed us another hour, and it was pretty late by the time we arrived to the next major town, Cuamba. Fortunately for us, our driver happened to own a hotel there, where we stayed for the night. (Unfortunately, we still had to pay for the room.)

We woke up not bright and early (4 AM) and headed off to the train station. When we got there, we found out that there was, in fact, no train going to the next major town, Nampula. And to encourage us even more, the locals told us that there were no chapas (pick-up trucks) going there too. By that point, we felt like our vacation was not working in our favor and were facing more problems than we imagined. We sucked it up and waited by the side of the road anyway. A few hours later, a large flat-bed truck came by and we hopped on. Let’s just say for the next 9 hours, any concept of road safety was completely thrown out the window. The first hour of that ride was the most uncomfortable ride of my life. Ever. I would classify it as the worst roller coaster ride, dipping into potholes, splashing through muddy pools, and almost flying off the side of the rail. We eventually moved closer to the front of the flatbed and sat atop tiers of light bulbs. How’s that for a “light” ride? ;) After two days of sleeplessness, I was able to nap at least a little bit… without falling off the truck.

We reached Nampula 8 hours later and camped out in a budget hotel for two nights. We intended to go to Pemba, but transport took too long just to get to Nampula. Pemba was another 6.5 hours away, which would not suffice just to stay for one night when we had to travel another day to our main destination, Ilha de Mocambique. So, we decided to skip out on Pemba and explore Nampula.

On Christmas Eve, we woke up at 5 AM and clambered into a minibus where 8 Zambia Peace Corps Volunteers were half-conscious and half-coherent. (If you thought we had it bad, think again. They traveled for 36 hours straight from Zambia covered in diesel, dirt, and rain!) For the next four days, we wandered around the island, visited other islands, slept in, ate awesome food (like seafood curry!), and hung out with the other volunteers. We were in a sunburned bliss.

The Ilha was also special in that it was the place where Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama and the Portuguese had staked their claim. UNESCO dubbed it a World Heritage site, so the fortress, church, governor’s place, and other buildings still remain erected. Walking through the 15th century dilapidated buildings, in which trees were growing, people were living, and remote bars were secluded, was quite the anachronistic experience. This place was probably one of the remote tourist spots unknown to the world. There were so few tourists that we could experience the feel of the local life, yet there were just enough to feel like we were on vacation. I particularly enjoyed the ride in the dhow (sailboat) to the other islands, a unique Mozambican transport all on its own. One of the islands was so remote that I was sure that we would be living out “Lost” had our dhow abandoned us!

After four days on the island, we headed back to Nampula with the Zambia volunteers and two Dutch doctors with hopes of catching a direct transport back to Cuamba. We wanted to catch a train this time, a far better and cheaper option than the transport we took. After a week of getting different answers to our inquiries about the train schedule, we found the train station closed. And to add onto our frustration, we found out that the only day the train did NOT run was the very day we wanted to leave!

All we could do was stay for the night again and hope (since no one could give us a straight answer about anything) that there was a vehicle leaving the next day for Cuamba. We got up at 4 AM again (yes, you should be groaning by this point) and headed out to the dirt road leading to Cuamba. After waiting for a few hours and hoping (more like wishing) for a private hitch (perhaps in a hummer limo?) to come by, a flat-bed truck picked us up. It was smaller than the first we rode in but big enough to fit our party of 13. We sat through 9 hours of rumbling on a dirt road at 80 km/h in the scorching sun and eventually a short shower (this was when our rain gear came in really handy). The end result? Faces caked with dirt and mud, major back pain, bruises, and a fit of laughter. When we got there, we rode in another flat-bed truck for 4 hours to the border town, Mandimba. It was dark by then, so we stayed in a pensao (a local resthouse), where I didn’t get a blink of sleep.

We woke up – once again – at 5 AM and took off for the border. Once on the Malawi side, we were all able to breathe and relax again. After 8 days (yes, it seemed much longer than that!) of not being able to communicate at all in a Portuguese-speaking country, getting no straight answers to any of our questions, and experiencing hostility from the Mozambicans and their roads, we were all happy to be back in the “warm heart of Africa”. We appreciated Malawi even more for what it was. Mozambique was definitely a beautiful country with awesome food and culture, but it just feels good to be back in a familiar environment, the place that has been my home for the past year and a half!

I cannot sufficiently describe the experiences we spent waiting, the places we explored, the Triple Bs we incurred from our adventure, but I’ve attached a few photos for your viewing. The one of the beach is where I had written “Feliz Natal & Feliz Ano Novo, Dec. 2008” (“Merry Christmas & Happy New Year”). There’s one where I’m wishing you “Feliz Ano Novo” with the kids. :) And there’s one of the ancient Portuguese church overlooking the beautiful ocean.

So the moral of this story? Get your own car when going to Mozambique! Just kidding. I guess the lesson I’ve learned this Christmas is to appreciate every day for being alive and to be grateful. Just from being in Africa, I’ve learned to take challenges in stride, shrug my shoulders, and say “Zimachitika”. It happens. Even though we were frustrated from every challenge we faced, we knew things always worked out one way or another, and I was just happy to get somewhere alive and in one piece. I couldn’t help but laugh every time we hit a bump or mud splattered on our faces because it was a unique adventure that I would never experience elsewhere. Really, things could’ve been a lot worse. While rolling past the lush green foliage, the grassy huts, and the demure people, I remembered to be grateful for all the little things that were making my life better – the paved roads, the good weather, the kind people, the beds and roofs over our heads, the refreshing feel of a cold drink, the wonderful taste of seafood, the sound of waves crashing, the untouched shells, the rising sun… Life really can be so beautiful when you just sit still and watch it unfold before you.

Well, with that said (and a lot was said!), I hope you’re all enjoying the holidays with your beloved friends and family! I definitely miss the holiday atmosphere in the states, especially cuddling up in my blanket with a good book and cup of hot cocoa, hearing the Christmas carols, smelling the pine trees, watching the blinking Christmas lights… but I miss spending it with you all the most!

Happy 2009! See you in six months! :)

We're wishing you a Happy New Year!

The 15th century church on Ilha de Mocambique

"Feliz Natal y Feliz Ano Novo Dec. 2008"

FELIZ NATAL from Moçambique!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I´m currently in Mozambique for the holidays! Getting here was quite an adventure and I promise to update you all about it when I return to Malawi (hopefully in one piece!). My friends and I traveled for 3 days to Nampula, a little town. We are heading up to Isla de Moçambique for four days.

It has been a little funny trying to speak in a Porguese country with our broken Spanish intermixed with our Chichewa!

I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Holidays! Wish I could be there with you all!

Love,
Elaine

Nutrition Workshop Pictures

My counterpart teaching about the food groups and nutrition groups

Soy milk demonstration/practical

Soy milk!

The children waiting at the water pump

The mothers and children tasting the soy milk and cassava chips

Fay, my co-worker's supercute kid! :)

Next time

I wanted to post an update, but somehow it doesn't feel right to do so right now. I'll be back in a month with an update!

Happy Turkey Day! :)

Obama wins!

Hooray for Obama!!

I really wish I were there with my fellow Americans to celebrate, but I was definitely rejoicing with you in my spirit! My brother had kept me up all night with the polls, and at 6 AM, he texted me, "HE WINS! HE WINS!" That definitely woke me up. :)

I listened to the gracious and beautiful speeches on the BBC and then sprinted to my friend's (also a Peace Corps Volunteer) house. We cheered, laughed, and celebrated. We agreed that for the first time in our lives, we actually felt proud to be Americans.

Then I went to my health center with the biggest smile on my face. Still bubbling with excitement, I told my health worker supervisor about Obama's victory. He stared blankly at me and asked, "Who's that?" He's only the next president of USA! I guess not everyone's well informed. :)

Africa is truly rejoicing! There was a play in Kenya about Obama and McCain. I've heard songs on the radio about Obama... and I heard there is a chitenje (a traditional fabric) with Obama's picture plastered all over. I am so buying it when I see it! :)

Congratulations Obama!

Happy Halloween and Election Day!

It’s funny how much the world seems to revolve around America, especially during this election time. One of my youths (one who finished secondary school last year!) named “United States of America” as one of the continents! (Don’t tell me that wasn’t funny!)

All eyes are truly on America though. BBC wasn’t joking when they called this election an “international affair”. There’s this tension in the air (Malawian air at least) that this election will either make or break Malawi’s future. I thought it a bit petty (though clearly disguising it), but they think the world of America, sometimes for the wrong reason. For the most part, people love America because of money. Almost unanimously, Malawians are rooting for Barack Obama. Why? “Because he’s a African man, so of course he give money to his people!”, though they forget that he wasn’t actually born in Kenya. (The only one who was for McCain was my neighbor simply because he’s a conservative, even though he wouldn’t vote for his own country’s election.)

Speaking of which, Malawi’s election is coming up next year! This is campaign year, so I’ve been hearing a lot about elections, use of “non-violence” during elections, and the likes. Also a bipartisan government, the showdown is between two contestants: ex-president Muluzi and current president Bingu. Since Malawi first defeated the British imperialism in 1964, Malawians have been promoting democracy since. But like every other countries struggling for a free democracy, Malawi had its issues. The first was said to have ruled with an iron fist for over a decade, imprisoning anyone who dared speak malice against him or his government. But the good he brought was education and development, especially infrastructure development. Then came the second president in 1994, who opened the doors to foreign aid and made primary education free, but was said to have brought corruption into the government and flaunted the money at the local villagers. After maximizing his service limit (two terms), he is still attempting to run again for presidency. In 2004, the current president finally took his place as leader. According to Malawians, he was actually Muluzi’s protégé but turned his back once he took office. With his doctorate in economics from USA, he brought development into Malawi and fought against corruption, but people have complained that too much of the money is going into the towns and not the villages, thus increasing the disparity between the rich and poor. However, many of the people I’ve talked to have expressed favor for the current president because of the economic development in Malawi.

Since my service ends in July, I’ll have the fortunate opportunity to witness this election in May 2009! (Though sadly, I won’t be able to witness our monumental election with my fellow Americans! L)

Anyway, since it’s prime season for pumpkins for you pumpkin lovers, here’s a special (and simple!) recipe I use when our fields are rife with pumpkins.

Pumpkin Soup
-1 pumpkin
-1 beef (or chicken or ham) stock cube for 2 people
-1 onion
-other vegetables
1. Wash and cut up the pumpkin into edible sizes and dispose of seeds (or roast them!)
2. Place the pumpkin pieces in a pot and barely cover with water
3. Boil for 20 minutes, then add stock, onions, and vegetables. (I only add onions because I don’t really have a lot of other vegetables to work with, like carrots.)

We volunteers also have tried making pumpkin curry, which I heard is good! I’ve also tried stir-fry pumpkin… but it didn’t come out that great. Bon appetit!

In a few days, I’ll send an update about my past month’s work. Until then, have a happy halloween and election day!

Love,
Elaine

Dzaleka Refugee Camp

I’ve been wanting to write an update about this for a long time since last year, but I always felt like I didn’t have the knowledge and the words to start… How does one begin to talk human rights? About the Ugandan child soldiers who have been fighting the adults’ war for the last 20 years? About the 800,000 Rwandans were massacred in one hundred days in 1994? About the warlords in Sudan attacking UNs’ convoys and pillaging the innocents’ only means of survival? About the generations of girls brought up in brothels deep in the heart of India? About women being raped and murdered in Somalia while the world is sitting by even though UN is calling it “one of the worst humanitarian crises” at this very moment?

I just spent 2 days at Dzaleka refugee camp with a friend of mine. "Dzaleka" means "Never again", yet I'm not sure some of these refugees really believe they will "never again" see the terror and horror that siezed their lives in Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe. I didn't really spend any time with the refugees themselves, but I was walking amid the refugees, hanging out at their market, health center, houses, mess halls, schools, etc. We spent most of our time wandering around, searching for the administrators of the camp, health center, and school, and staying with a British volunteer we had met at Dzaleka. I had learned so much just from talking to people and wished I had more questions and time to ask them. I didn't meet any weeping refugees, amputee escapees, or anything like that, but I was glad that I was able to walk among the refugees' homes living their lives as normally as they possibly could.

The UNHCR first opened the camp in 1994 just eight months after the Rwandan genocide. Recently it consolidated with another camp due to some problems, so currently there are over 9,000 refugees overpopulating the camp with roughly half from Rwanda, followed by the Congolese. I was surprised that there were so many Rwandans and that after 14 years, they still remained in Malawi, especially considering how Malawi had little to offer them. But one person told me that even after hearing their fellow Rwandans sharing about the stability in their homeland, their fear still dominate their lives, forcing them to camp out in a foreign land. I guess I cannot underestimate the consequences a genocide produces, but thankfully, the UNHCR has an unconditional policy that allows them to stay as long as they want until they feel emotionally prepared to return home.

As for the Somalians, I cannot blame them for being stuck here - or anywhere - for so long. As the only anarchic state in the world, they really don't have anywhere else to turn to. It seems that Malawi also doesn't know how to handle the influx of Somalians (or even the Congolese) because their lack of governance left them with little or no documentations of their lives. As if their lives were erased or never written.

Even though these refugees escaped from their countries for a safer place to live, it seems that they're still insecure. The administrator of the camp shared that their biggest challenge has been security amongst the refugees and even between the refugees and Malawians. Though there hasn't been any major violent outbreaks (that'd be a problem for the place of "asylum"), apparently most bickering would not be internationally but actually intranationally, most especially with the Congolese.

As I walked through the camp, I tried to imagine and understand what the refugees must face and deal with. To have their homes, lands, crops, livestock, and all things we consider assets taken away from them, I couldn't imagine how they can recuperate from that, especially living in another country where the language and culture are foreign to them. It's amazing how one little war between two warlords or two power-hungry dictators can ruin so many people's lives.

In case you're unaware of the current issues, I've summarized the current major humanitarian crises from the book Not On Our Watch:

Congo (1996-present)
After the Rwandan genocide, the fighting didn’t stop. Instead, it flowed into its neighboring countries, like Congo (formerly known as Zaire). Since Rwanda and Uganda invaded it again in 1998 to overthrow the dictator Mobutu, it has been dubbed as the “African First World War”. Though a peace deal was signed in 2003, violence still continues throughout the country.

Northern Uganda (1986-Present)
Just two countries away from here, the rebels, Lord’s Resistance Army, have been abducting children to fight the government. The leader, Joseph Kony, believes himself to be God’s “messenger” bringing punishment to the government. But he does so at the expense of eight to fourteen-year-olds, who are brainwashed to kill and used as generals’ wives. Though a peace process has been in the works since 2005, the IRC’s warrant to arrest Kony has left the rebels unwilling.

Somalia (1991-Present)
Somalia is actually the only “failed state”, in which anarchy takes on its true meaning since the Cold War. Since “Black Hawk Down”, the U.S. has provided little, if any, support to the Somalis, showing strong interest only in fighting terrorism.

After my visit, my appreciation for the UNHCR grew. Of course it's far from perfect and has room for growth and change, but I can see that they're trying to create a place as safe and comfortable as possible while dealing with the constant influx and outflux of refugees and taking in the Malawians and refugees' needs at the same time. They're trying their best with the little resources they have. I admire how the administration is also trying to mainstream the refugees with the local villages to avoid isolation from the community. But how do they have a life for themselves when they don't have a home to live in? Land to farm on? Businesses to run? I didn't realize how difficult it would be to displaced from everything they knew and had once.

Anyway, I wanted to say more, but I couldn't put down everything I learned, so I'll stop here. I've also posted a few more pictures from Malawi at http://www.flickr.com/photos/26853368@N04/sets/72157605200076398/. I hope you enjoy them! :)

Dzaleka,
Elaine

This is the health center serving both the refugees and the Malawians

These are the primary students who mobbed us

Peace Corps' Job Description

"Waiting on people forever at the risk of never meeting the deadlines."

I don't think Peace Corps mentioned this in the job description. Yet that was what I've been doing for the past three months. This past month has been a bit hectic since I was trying to organize last-minute details for the proposal I’m working on.

Currently, my biggest assignment has been writing a proposal to the USAID (in joint partnership with Peace Corps) for funding to build an 8m x 12m shelter next to my health center where the under-five children can be weighed and immunized, as well as for youths to meet. As of right now, the mothers and their children (screaming ones who don’t have diapers, mind you) often wait up to an hour or two outdoor, which can become problematic during rainy season or hot season. This is one of the several factors that our under-five immunization coverage rate has been one of the lowest in all of Malawi (the penultimate one to be precise).

The other issue that challenges the youths is the lack of a venue for meetings and recreational activities. The youth-friendly health club I’ve been working with has been struggling a lot with attendance for various reasons. I don’t want to divulge too much here about the problems the youth club faces, but I know that they do need to have more activities to look forward to, like sports, games, movies, etc. I’ve also been encouraging the health staff to take a more active role in encouraging and advising these youths, especially regarding reproductive health.

With that said, I’m hoping that this proposal will pass and come October, we’ll be able to start building!

I’ve also been working on a few more proposals to fund other projects. The one that I’m most focused on right now is Nutrition Clinic. Before I came, the World Food Program withdrew their Supplementary Feeding Program for moderately to somewhat malnourished children from my health center, so we don’t even have an outpatient therapeutic program for these children. I’ve been trying to work on this one for awhile. Initially, I started a record book to monitor underweight/malnourished children over a period of 3 months, but the mothers were failing to show up the next month and/or the health workers were not following up when they were supposed to.

In an attempt to improve attendance, we designated a date each month for the mothers to come – the same day as the family planning clinic – so that they would have an easier time remembering and coordinating their hospital visitations. In addition, we added an educational component to the clinic that would promote self-sufficiency. After we’ve measured the children’s nutrition status, we’d educate them on different sustainable topics each month – basic nutrition groups, kitchen garden demo, food preservation demo, jam-making demo, and cooking demo. We’ve just gone through the nutrition groups and kitchen garden demo. Next week we’ll be presenting the food preservation demo: how to dry tomatoes and mangoes.

The kitchen garden demo has been a huge undertaking in addition to the work I’ve been doing for the shelter. I dragged one of my health workers with me to town to buy the mesh wire (to keep out the chickens) and the 100-pound metal pole, and it took four of us all day long to dig a 5x2 meter (x knee-high) pit out of a rock-solid floor. (Seriously, I thought we were digging up bricks and rocks. It reminded me of the time my brother and I dug up a pond in our backyard when I was in third grade.) But the point is that we want to show the mothers that they can build a small garden within their home compound, instead of going into their maize fields, and turn a dead ground into a piece of life. We’d add compost into the pit before sowing the seeds, so the seeds would then grow into a healthy bed instead of the dead rocky soil. The really cool thing about this kitchen garden is that there’d be a variety of food, alternating by legumes (i.e., soy beans), fruits (i.e. tomatoes), greens (i.e., spinach), and roots (i.e., garlic). They’re arranged in a way that would support the others. For example, the legumes nourish the soil, so the roots would benefit most from being next to them, and some of the roots (i.e., garlic and onions) are natural pest repellants from which the greens and fruits would benefit. To encourage the mothers with applying the knowledge, we also explained to the mothers that if they also dig the beds within their home compounds, we would visit their homes and provide some of the seeds. Since it’s still a work in progress, I won’t be able to know the effectiveness of the program, so I’m just hoping that it’ll be successful or be somewhat helpful to the mothers.

To take a preventive and more wide-scale approach, I also wanted to educate the villagers, not just the mothers with underweight children, about nutrition and proper food preparation techniques. Since men are the ones who usually buy the food or provide the money for food and the women are the ones who prepare the food, it is essential to include both men and women. My workshop will target mainly the Village Health Committee who was elected by their village to communicate and monitor health issues within their community. It’ll be a fun workshop with lots of cooking practicals and recipes! :)

My final major project is a natural medicine workshop. I’ve talked a lot about natural medicine in my previous update, but I didn’t want to just stop there. I want to host another workshop for Villages AIDS Committees and support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS. They’ll be able to learn about simple treatments for common colds and illnesses, as well as natural products they can use to generate incomes.

I’ll be continuing my secondary projects in November. My mentorship program fell apart for awhile because of all the exams and other problems (one of our mentors ran away after Camp GLOW and never came back), but when the new school year starts in November, I’d like to polish the program a little and start over. I might also consider teaching Life Skills at the secondary school again, but… I didn’t have the best experience last year, so we’ll see. And then there are the youths, of course. I’ll continue working with them, even though I’ve been facing a lot of challenges with them lately. I’ve also been involved with the youths at my church, though it’s not considered a Peace Corps assignment but a personal one.

I can’t believe how much this all sounds, but it really doesn’t feel like I’ve been doing a lot! I’m only here for 10 more months! I feel like I’m running out of time to accomplish all these things! I know it’s ironic that I mentioned helping people who don’t want to help themselves in my last update when I’m talking about the billions of projects I’m doing here. Will they all just go down the drain? I just hate the thought of giving up on people. I’m hoping that someone somewhere will actually learn something and think, “You know, maybe that is something worth trying and changing my life for.” Maybe they’ll start to hope and strive for a better life. :)

My yard while I was digging up a pit for my kitchen garden... using a hoe

My counterpart mixing the compost of our kitchen garden demo

A little eye candy

This was my agogo at homestay training cooking nsima

My homestay family eating in July 2008

These were the kids from my homestay village

These were 3 sisters - so cute!

My neighbor's baby is sooo cute! He's starting to talk now but can only say "Bye!",

so he always yells "Bye!" whenever he sees me! :)

This is the future Shaq O'Neill - Hope! He's huuuuge and he loves to laugh!

Baby Elaine! My friend named his baby after me!!

This little sweetheart is Kingsley, my co-worker's kid.

He's learning the alphabets now, so whenever he gets to "L",

he says "L-N-E" ("Ellen-e", get it? haha) and does a little dance! haha

A baby at church. She's sooo - yes it's that word again - cute!!! :D


I love the babies here, so I hope you don't mind me posting pictures of the babies and kids! haha


But here's a non-pediatric picture...


This is a toilet. I don't have one like this, but the cool thing is

the family (former Peace Corps Volunteers who stayed in Malawi)

uses the refuse and throws it into their compost to fertilize their gardens.

If that ain't recycling, then I don't know what else is!

For more pictures of Malawi, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/26853368@N04/sets/72157605200076398/

Enjoy!

The Unappreciated Agogo Generation

I can't believe I didn't post about this before...

Meet my agogo, Ellen. She was born and raised in South Africa, met her Malawian husband while working as an au pair, and then moved back to Malawi with their newly built family. She has lived in Malawi ever since since 1950-something.

Doesn't she look like Mother Teresa? :) She may as well be dubbed Mother Ellen! She has been my greatest source of support since I've stepped into Malawi. She's one of the very few people I trust in my community, whose company I thoroughly enjoy. I spend every Saturday (when I'm not busy with other things) sitting outside her house at the tap, washing and scrubbing my clothes for 2 hours while chatting it up about food, South Africa, Malawi, history, culture, hardships, and all that good stuff, but mostly about food. :)

She has shown incredible strength that I've never seen in an 82-year-old. She has watched 9 of her 11 kids die from malaria, yet she keeps fighting to live with meaning in her life. She still works as hard as any other 20-something-year-old would. She wakes up before dawn everyday to sweep the ground and clean up the mission's house. And then she farms until all the weeds have been pulled up. And (keeping in my mind gender equality is still an issue here) she cooks for her grandson(s) 2-3 times a day. As embarrassing as it is for me to admit this, she's also the one I turn to when I want a chicken killed and gutted... :/ But if it weren't for her, I wouldn't be getting my monthly intakes of soysauce chicken! She's my lifesaver!

Meeting her has made me realize how incredibly undervalued our grandparents are, because I think they have a wealth of knowledge about culture and history that we can really gain from. I didn't live close to my grandparents at all to learn much from them, but from the few times I've learned about their history - from fighting with the British in World War II to hiding in the moutains with the guerrilla to escaping Communism - I've always wished that I could learn about their whole history and record it.

I'm also starting to realize more and more how incredibly spoiled our generations have become. We've been untouched by war and poverty that once plagued our great-grandparents, grandparents, and even some of our parents' lives, so we take all the things we have for granted and are never happy with what we have. How did materialism and greed take such reign of our lives? We now expect to get a car in high school, a free college education, and the latest iphone. Sometimes I wonder if it's even a good thing for developing countries to learn about the things we have, because then they'd think "Why can't we have that?" when the options are readily available to us, and I want to tell them, "Because that's not going to save your life." Other times I wonder if perhaps we, the West, are better off living in poverty so we'd actually appreciate each day we live, each bite we eat, and each thing we own. But on the contrary, I think that even poverty cannot teach us the most important values in life. I've been baffled by why the youths in Malawi feel so entitled to nice clothes, expensive (and unhealthy) food, Western music, etc. and spend all their time complaining about their poverty but not appreciating their education or the value of hardwork and self-sufficiency.

It's been interesting for me to interact with people from different generations and trying to understand the reasons and justifications for these dichotomies. I think a huge part has been the influence of development, which may have a worse influence on developing countries than we'd like to think. A lot of us volunteers always agree that it is so hard to "help those who don't want to help themselves". That has been one of the greatest struggles for me as well, partly in fault because of the way a certain NGO has worked here.

Anyway, I think I'll stop here, because it's starting to become one of those emails where I just draw out my thoughts incoherently and prolong the conclusion. But I'll send another email in a few days to update you of my projects! I'm at the Peace Corps office to work on a few proposals, so I'll be using the free internet while I can! :)

Mother Nature

There’s always so much I want to talk about, but I never know where to start!

The first thing is that I got my electricity back! Hallelujah! Actually, I got it back two months ago but forgot to mention it in my last update! It’s nice to be able to cook and heat bath water… even though we’re now in hot season. :( That means the next nine months will be a period of enduring mosquito bites, especially during rainy season (November – February)! That means lots of DEET (I apply it liberally like lotion!) and burning cow dung (which I don’t have) and basil. And planting lots of marigold and lemongrass.

That brings me to my next issue… we have been preparing ourselves for malaria season (during rainy season when mosquitoes breed like crazy). In July, our health workers (the overworked social workers/medical assistants/community advisors combined into one) ventured into the villages and recorded the names of under-five children who didn’t have insecticide-treated nets. About 17% of our catchment population are under-five (roughly 3,000), but most of them didn’t have nets. I think it was only about a quarter of those under-five who did have them. (Of course I don’t know how reliable the data is, because I heard some mothers would lie.) We just received the nets last week to distribute to the mothers, but there was a shortage of nets so some remained without them. In fact, the shortage of nets (and everything else) is so substantial that the donor withdrew distribution of nets to other targets. The original targets included the under-five children, people living with HIV/AIDS, orphans and vulnerable children, and other needy people, but the nets were so scarce that they could only distribute them to the under-five children.

I’m not sure who the donor is for this campaign, but I do know of a few who are trying to battle malaria. At the forefront is our very own Presidential Malaria Initiative. In 2005, Bush pledged millions of dollars to eliminate malaria in 15 countries with the worst cases of malaria. Malawi was one of them. Malaria is actually the number one killer here (as you may or may not remember from my update about “death season”); HIV is not. So many die from it that anytime a person is sick, the cause is assumed to be malaria – no questions asked. Not “What are your symptoms?” or “Were you tested?” It’s “Oh, you’re sick? Poor you. You must get malaria medicine.” But as I mentioned, the millions of dollars Bush pledged are going into the nets and medicine.

Another donor is PSI/Malawi. Their nets are usually given to the Ministry of Health who use the nets to promote incentives for women and children to attend the health facilities (instead of the traditional birth attendants and traditional healers who sometime put their lives at risk). Pregnant women usually receive a net during their antenatal check-ups (so the health professionals can monitor their health) and another one upon delivery (so they can have a proper and safe delivery that doesn’t involve putting herbs into their vaginas). And usually babies who are starting their immunizations would receive nets too.

At one point, UNICEF (or some other organization) was distributing nets to health centers to sell at a cheap price. But it was stopped for some unknown reason. I remember asking someone in the Peace Corps office about it and the response was about some unknown “higher up issue”.

On the one hand, there’s a huge demand for nets. I don’t know why there’s such a shortage of nets (isn’t it cheaper than DEET?), but I can understand why mothers are trying to scam the health workers to purchase nets for themselves. To them, malaria is the face of death.

But on the other hand, even with a sufficient supply of nets, they’d all be distributed by now if it weren’t for the “scammers”. While some people want to use the extra nets for themselves so they don’t have to buy them (most people wait until the free ones come even though they’re meant for children), others use the extras to sell for profit. By the lake, fishermen were using them for fishing. It’s beyond me why people refuse to spend money on a net (it was so cheap that it would only cost them maybe about 1.5 sodas’ worth) when the money they spend for treatment at a private facility or transport to a public facility would cost them 4-6 times what the net’s worth.

And that brings me to my next point – malaria treatment. My in-charge told me that before the Americans stepped in with their large-scale campaigns, people died from malaria without any hope of survival. Medicine was and still is so expensive that even private pharmacies couldn’t afford to buy them in Malawi. In fact, the plant used to make the medicine – Artemisia – is worth $300! Holy macaroni! The reason it’s so valuable is because it’s the only treatment that can effectively treat all strains of malaria (yet another reason why it’s so hard to combat). I heard the Chinese had known about the plant’s secret for centuries and refused to share it. It wasn’t until recently that the scientists discovered the secret after ten years of research. Since its discovery, some people have taken great effort to introduce Artemisia as a natural treatment. If you look at our health center’s front yard, you’ll notice a little tree that looks like a Christmas tree – that’s the miracle tree.

I think it’s amazing that there’s so much value in one little plant that it’s such a shame to think of so many potential medicinal plants being destroyed by deforestation and environmental degradation. Though natural medicine has been around for eons, the movement to use natural medicine as a complement to western medicine didn’t start until about ten years ago (perhaps coinciding with the discovery of artemisia’s secret?). You can learn more about it at http://www.anamed.org/.

I’ve been trying to set up natural medicine workshops for villagers, but the challenge is that we already have traditional healers (herbal doctors) are often associated with witchcraft. In reality, not all traditional healers practice witchcraft but because they both use natural means of “treatments”, natural medicine carries a negative stigma.

To be honest, I wasn’t interested in natural medicine much before I came here. My knowledge went as far as the bitter concoction my parents made for my colds (and which I adamantly refused to drink) and the “cuppings” and “back carvings”, but that was about it. I have yet to use acupuncture. Since I’ve been here, I have a newfound appreciation for our ancestors’ knowledge and methods of Eastern treatments. I think that we overrate Western medicine to the point of neglecting our ancestors’ methods that have worked since the beginning of time. What I like about ANAMED is that they actually try to experiment and see if a specific plant is effective or not, so we’re not blindingly believing in a plant’s potency.

So to advocate the use of natural means of improving your health, I’ll give you a few pointers! (Keep in mind that they’re not cures but are complementary to other forms of treatments to improve your health.)

-Garlic is good for boosting your immunity and memory, and reduces high blood pressure. It can also treat amoebas, colds, and fungal infections like athlete’s food
-Chilli pepper is good for flatulence and hemmorhoids! as well as rheumatism and hair loss. It can also help a woman with labor pains if you stick a chilli in her mouth!
-Lemon is good for coughs, fever, cold, and herpes labialis (canker sores).
-Eucalyptus is good for coughs, sore throat, and helps with diabetes and urinary infection. (It can also be used to make toothpaste!)
-Ginger is good for nausea and vomiting (especially during pregnancy) and hookworks.
-Onions are good for improving memory, gastrointestinal infections, and fungal infections.
-Aloe is good for burns, wounds, ulcers, conjunctivitis, and loss of hair.
-Pineapples are good for amenorrhea (lack of menstruation flow), oedema, external inflammation, and indigestion.
-Peanut leaves are goodf or sleeplessness.
-Coffee is good for migrains and nausea.
-Pumpkins (yes we eat them here!) are good for tapeworks and stimulating lactation after giving birth.
-Honey is good because it tastes good! :) It’s good for exhaustion (sleep is good too), heart diseases, liver damage, and most especially wounds.

There’s a whole lot more (see? isn’t it fascinating?) but I don’t want to write incessantly (or is it too late?)! I think it’s so interesting that the plants we live with and are used for ornamental or seasoning purposes can actually have medicinal purposes! I hope this gives you a newfound appreciation for Mother Nature and her gifts to us!

Baobab tree - the oldest tree in the world!

It's about 5,000 years old - can you imagine someone like the pharaoh passing through and embracing this tree? I'm sure once upon a time, it was worshipped by the Malawians. But this tree also has a lot of medicinal properties (and other uses) as well!

(By the way, can you see me standing next to the tree? haha)

Camp GLOW was a GO!

“When you educate a woman, you educate a nation.”

I just spent 10 days with a group of 78 teenage girls with raging hormones. These are girls who like to wake up at 4 AM screaming and singing at the top of their lungs; clog our toilets and flood our floors with water; walk around their dorms stark naked; start their mornings with gospel songs and dances; and end their nights with laughter and conversations that could be heard from miles and miles away.

And I loved it.

The girls on stage singing and dancing in the morning

Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) was a huge success. For those of you who contributed to the camp – WE THANK YOU WITH ALL OF OUR HEARTS. We are truly grateful for all your support and wish you could have seen just how much you have helped to change these girls’ lives.

Though I was a bit stressed with planning all the recreational activities, competitions, prizes, AND being a counselor, my favorite part was just hanging out with the girls. I have to admit that I wasn’t too excited at the thought of being with teenage girls, but they had exceeded above and beyond my expectations of them and for them.

We invited 80 girls from all over Malawi who had great potential for their futures. The camp was preceded by two days of training for the counselors, followed by six days with the campers. Each day consisted of smaller sessions, assemblies/speakers, recreational activities, and competitions revolving around the theme of the day – Women in Malawi, Environment, Health, Self-Esteem, Career, and Future. We had special visitors from Opportunity Bank, USAID, Peace Corps, and the U.S. Embassy. They learned about things, from gender roles to vertical gardens to journalism. But the most important thing was that they walked out of the camp with more confidence and dreams of becoming Malawi’s future leaders.

One of my girls drew a picture of her future goal - to become a nurse

I don’t know how else to describe the success of the camp except through my perspective, so I guess I’ll talk a bit about what I’ve learned and experienced. I had nine girls in my group: some were quiet and shy, a few loud, a few strong, etc. One of the highlights was pillow talk- a time allotted before bed for girls to ask us questions and discuss their choice of topic. It became apparent that these girls are smart and brilliant. They were asking me questions I had no idea the answer to: “Why do STIs cause esotopic pregnancies?”, “Can a 3-year-old boy transmit HIV to a 3-year-old girl?”, “Why does gonorrhea cause blindness in babies?”, etc. Uhhh, yeah… I’ll get back to you on that.

And then we started talking about their initiation ceremonies. A few girls who had participated explained how the ceremonies influence girls to get married at a young age by talking of things that are meant for adults and things that are not ever spoken in public. I’ll spare you all the details. But I encouraged the girls to think about how girls can maintain this important rite of passage into womanhood without encouraging early marriage. We then started discussing about the impact of HIV/AIDS from initiation ceremonies.

The other highlight was the night activities. We had a cultural showcase (broken up by tribe), quiz bowls, poster contests, cake-decorating competitions, an indoor relay race, talent show, and a disco dance. I tell you – these girls LOVE to sing and dance! It was so much fun watching these girls become like little kids!

My group of girls - the Canadians!

(Don't ask me about the name - I have no idea how they came up with that)

The best highlight was to personally watch the camp transform their lives, especially for a special girl in my group. Here was a girl who displayed so much potential, maturity, intelligence, diligence, and respect. She was one of those girls you’d see in class raising her hands, answering questions in her almost perfect English, diligently paying attention, interacting with all the girls, and well-mannered in every sense. The last day of camp, she sat down with me and started telling me her life story – one that touched me and inspired me. Orphaned by both parents at a young age for an unknown reason, she lived with her older sister, who also had a family of her own to care for. Unable to support her school fees, she had to turn to other financial sources. Since she didn’t know her father’s family at all, she tracked down her relatives and sought assistance. They provided the finances for a short while before they stopped supporting her. She then turned to her mother’s sister for assistance. With seven children of her own, it wasn’t long before she had to stop financially supporting her. In the end, she turned to the director of the Ministry of Education who agreed to assist with her school fees. After explaining her challenges to me, she told me that Camp GLOW had changed her life and has really encouraged her that she really can do anything she wants and be anyone she wants. In her parting letter to me, she wrote, “I will never forget you, because you have really changed a lot of things and I will never be like those girls who always let themselves down.”

Another girl in my group also wrote, “I tell you, ‘I can do anything’, it’s a lot like a song, but really from now [on], ‘I CAN DO ANYTHING!’”

At the end of it all, I sat there thinking, “Wow, these girls are so amazing.” I’ve always taken gender equality for granted, but these girls have had to face so many challenges and obstacles – from their parents’ lack of encouragement or lack of parents to the pressure to bring some source of money into the family whether by farming or working for “sugar daddies” – yet they’ve persevered in spite of them. I can only hope that Camp GLOW has encouraged them and empowered them just a bit more so that they won’t give up on becoming the generation who will fulfill the purpose of “gender equality” and make Malawi a better place for girls. These are the Girls who will Lead Our World.

Once again, thank you! Even though you are halfway around the world, YOU have also made an impact on Camp GLOW and the girls at this camp. Thank you for supporting girls’ education in the U.S.; for creating gender equality in the classroom and workplace; for defending women’s rights when no one else believed in it; for encouraging them to fulfill their dreams and aspirations; for telling our sisters, daughters, and friends that “Girls can do anything”!

Power to the Girls,
Elaine

P.S. My work with gender will not stop here. I’m part of the Gender and Development committee for Peace Corps Malawi, working on ways to promote awareness about gender equality and gender development.

P.P.S. I apologize if my thoughts seem scattered. I had insufficient and inadequate sleep for the last 10 days. But feel free to ask me more questions about anything!

The group of girls in my hostel

The girls made origami birds that I taught them (you can see me behind the right arm)

Me and two of my girls

And finally... a non-GLOW picture...

Me and my coworker's baby Hope - isn't he so cute?? :)

Nostalgia

Sometimes I have these flashbacks of my first days (more like months) in Malawi and I remember just how harsh and foreign the conditions can be. The days of building fire. Unsuccessfully. Of hovering by a candlelight. Of drawing water from a water pump. Of my hands numbing from washing my clothes in the freezing cold water. Of bathing with cold water.

It all started with a man’s $7,000 mistake (cutting down a tree by himself instead of with others) resulting in destroying our whole mission’s electricity transformer… meaning I don’t have electricity. Yes, I know, it’s a privilege taken for granted all too much, but sadly, I actually rely completely on it since I have no alternative mean of cooking and heating water without it. Usually, I would stress, but it has happened so many times (that is… black outs, unpaid bills by the mission, bad wiring, melting sockets, etc., but not a destroyed transformer) that I have resorted to just shrugging and telling myself, Oh well, I’ll figure something out.

Even though we were told the transformer would be replaced in two weeks’ time, I somehow doubt it will be. Another site about 16 kilometers has been waiting three months… and the site where my friend is located 8 km from me has waited two years. It doesn’t surprise me, since Africans don’t have a good sense of time… even if they are the only electric company in Malawi.

I’m starting to contemplate the idea that I might have to live my last year of service without electricity (which was what I thought coming to Malawi anyway), so I’m trying to adapt as quickly as possible. The first thing I did was, after a week of waiting for market day (Tuesday and Saturday), buy a charcoal stove... which I still have to master. (It can’t be harder than building a fire… can it?) I’ve been making paper briquettes, so I don’t have to use regular charcoal… which is just too expensive and too detrimental for the environment. I just have to pretend that I’m camping everyday!

And I’ve resorted to taking cold baths… even though it’s winter (which was exactly what I had to do last year when I first moved to my site). It’s not the most pleasant experience, but I’ve learned little things like… NOT pouring cups of cold water on myself! Instead, I’d scrub myself with a loofah while squatting to maximize contact with my body heat. And I’ve mastered washing my hair without touching my face and body. Granted, I’m not as clean as I’d like to be… but I figured it beats losing all my body heat through the water vapors. (By the way, if you don’t know this already, I do bathe outdoor.)

But in all honesty, it wasn’t that fun losing electricity. It’s one thing to not ever have electricity and become accustomed to building fires and all that good stuff, but it’s another issue to be totally unprepared when you rely completely on electricity.
My situation really isn’t that bad, but the unfortunate issues are:
1) our health center operates completely on electricity, so it’s crippled without it,
2) our water taps also depend on electricity, so our whole mission is crippled without water, forcing people to walk to further to water pumps, which might cause…
3) the water pumps to dry out earlier than usual since it is dry season and is currently overused by my mission

Other than the electricity ordeal, I also had these other moments. I had become so accustomed to the lifestyle here that I have forgotten so easily how strange they once were to me. I tried to think… if YOU were here, what would stick out to you? I thought of things like… the roosters crowing at the break of dawn and often at my door… the hens and chicks parading around, digging into my garden… the Land Cruisers (private vehicles) and Toyota caravans (public vehicles) rumbling over the rocky roads and kicking up dust… men on bicycles carrying their usual katundu (“parcels”, i.e. firewood, boxes, chickens)... women carrying buckets and pots of water or vegetables on their heads… the children running around barefoot twirling some old bicycle tire… the pounding of maize and women’s heaving breaths before the sunrise… the overwhelming smoke and smell of burning plastic and leaves… the eee and the ah-ahhhh and the ohhoooo departing their mouths… the tinsmen pounding into the metals fashioning watering cans and charcoal stoves… the acapella chorals reverberating in perfect harmony in an abandoned house on a Sunday morning… Palibe wina opanda nanu…

Amazing, isn’t it? They created this… indescribable feeling within me. There are some days when I feel at such a loss about why I’m here or what I’m really doing… some days when I’m bubbling with anger within me… some days when I just yearn to be at home in my own bed eating watermelon… some days wishing that I could do away with all the guilt within me… some days wondering if I should be doing something more than just reading and thinking… some days when I think that people just have absolutely no idea… But when I stepped out of my own shoes for a moment – just a moment – to see the little niches of Malawi that makes it special and my life different, all I can think is, Life ain’t a cakewalk, but right now, it’s worth the walk for a piece of that cake. :)

Conate to Camp GLOW Online!

Thanks to those of you who were waiting patiently to donate online! Thanks to those of you who have already sent your non-tax-deductible checks!

If you would still like to make tax-deductible donations, please...
1) go to www.peacecorps.gov
2) click on "donors", then "donate to volunteer project"
3) type in "malawi" under keyword search
4) you will see this: MALAWI Camp GLOW 2008 - Perlman M. - MD 614-196 - $3,014.27 (the amount we're trying to raise)
5) make your contribution!

That's it! Thanks again for your continual support!

I'm actually pretty excited about this camp! I'm one of the camp counselors, as well as the activities coordinator, and there will be 2 girls from my area who will be attending!

Let me know if you have any questions!! Zikomo!

FOOD CRISIS

Maybe some of you have heard; maybe some of you haven’t. There is a crisis taking place in our world.

We are running out of food. The food and gas prices are going up. There’s competition for maize for food and biofuel.

Did you know that just last year, while consumption rates increased (shopping for A&F), donations to the World Food Program decreased (byebye food)? In fact, it decreased so much that WFP had to withdraw aid to perhaps the most heavily damaged people – the refugees and the displaced.

I think being Americans and the richest country in the world, we don’t see the impacts of the crisis. Of course, the rich are always the last to feel it. It’s not so much that people – particularly the Africans – just lack food. I’m not saying that we should just keep handing out food (or “redistributing” America’s surplus food), because that’s all the international aid seem to keep doing - creating dependency rather than self-sufficiency – when they could create a better balance of investing in immediate relief but more so in long-term benefits, such as basic financing and agricultural skills. (Never underestimate the good checking and balancing can do, something that no Malawians seem to know how to do.) And it probably would help if the agricultural officers were…. actually working. The health workers, even the ones who had been here 7 years, could not seem to identify who our agricultural development officers were. I’ll be honest – the government and the world are pouring tons of money into HIV/AIDS and the likes, yet little of that money touches the agroforestry department. Don’t get me wrong, HIV/AIDS is a major problem that needs to be addressed immediately… But the reality is that while 14% may be affected with HIV/AIDS, it’ll be the 75% who are starving and malnourished, including those with HIV. Those with HIV don't die from AIDS; they die because of their illnesses, which are exacerbated by their inability to nourish their own bodies.

So guess who bears the brunt of the world’s problems?

Africa's hunger - a systemic crisis
By Martin Plaut BBC Africa analyst

More than half of Africa is now in need of urgent food assistance.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is warning that 27 sub-Saharan countries now need help.
But what appear as isolated disasters brought about by drought or conflict in countries like Somalia, Malawi, Niger, Kenya and Zimbabwe are - in reality - systemic problems.
It is African agriculture itself that is in crisis, and according to the International Food Policy Research Institute, this has left 200 million people malnourished.
It is particularly striking that the FAO highlights political problems such as civil strife, refugee movements and returnees in 15 of the 27 countries it declares in need of urgent assistance. By comparison drought is only cited in 12 out of 27 countries.
The implication is clear - Africa's years of wars, coups and civil strife are responsible for more hunger than the natural problems that befall it.
Critical issues
In essence Africa's hunger is the product of a series of interrelated factors. Africa is a vast continent, and no one factor can be applied to any particular country. But four issues are critical:
Decades of underinvestment in rural areas, which have little political clout.
Africa's elites respond to political pressure, which is mainly exercised in towns and cities. This is compounded by corruption and mismanagement - what donors call a lack of sound governance.
Darren, Lobatse, Botswana
"Poor governance is a major issue in many African countries, and one that has serious repercussions for long-term food security," says a statement by the International Food Policy Research Institute.
"Problems such as corruption, collusion and nepotism can significantly inhibit the capacity of governments to promote development efforts."
Wars and political conflict, leading to refugees and instability.
In 2004 the chairman of the African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, reminded an AU summit that the continent had suffered from 186 coups and 26 major wars in the past 50 years. It is estimated that there are more than 16 million refugees and displaced persons in Africa.
Farmers need stability and certainty before they can succeed in producing the food their families and societies need.
HIV/Aids depriving families of their most productive labour.
This is particularly a problem in southern Africa, where over 30% of sexually active adults are HIV positive. According to aid agency Oxfam, when a family member becomes infected, food production can fall by up to 60%, as women are not only expected to be carers, but also provide much of the agricultural labour.
Unchecked population growth
"Sub-Saharan Africa 's population has grown faster than any region over the past 30 years, despite the millions of deaths from the Aids pandemic," the UN Population Fund says.
"Between 1975 and 2005, the population more than doubled, rising from 335 to 751 million, and is currently growing at a rate of 2.2% a year."
In some parts of Africa land is plentiful, and this is not a problem. But in others it has had severe consequences.
It has forced farming families to subdivide their land time and again, leading to tiny plots or families moving onto unsuitable, overworked land.
In the highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea some land is now so degraded that there is little prospect that it will ever produce a decent harvest.
This problem is compounded by the state of Africa's soils.
In sub-Saharan Africa soil quality is classified as degraded in about 72% of arable land and 31% of pasture land.
In addition to natural nutrient deficiencies in the soil, soil fertility is declining by the year through "nutrient mining", whereby nutrients are removed over the harvest period and lost through leaching, erosion or other means.
Nutrient levels have declined over the past 30 years, says the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Consequences
The result is that a continent that was more than self sufficient in food at independence 50 years ago, is now a massive food importer. The book The African Food Crisis says that in less than 40 years the sub-continent went from being a net exporter of basic food staples to relying on imports and food aid.
In 1966-1970, net exports averaged 1.3 million tons of food a year, it states.
"By the late 1970s Africa imported 4.4 million tonnes of staple foods a year, a figure that had risen to 10 million tonnes by the mid 1980s."
It said that since independence, agricultural output per capita remained stagnant, and in many places declined.
Some campaigners and academics argue that African farmers will only be able to properly feed their families and societies when Western goods stop flooding their markets.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4662232.stmPublished: 2006/01/31 02:32:22 GMT© BBC MMVIII

My One-Year Mark

I can hardly believe it. I’ve made it through one year! Another year seems so long, yet I know it’s not enough time to do all that I want to do.

It’s good to be back again. I was initially wary about coming back, but once I saw my counterpart, the youths, and the babies, I was content. A part of me was still saddened, because I had lost my best youth who was my best friend (for a good cause though! like nursing school) and my other confidant/tutor/friend who was a teacher at the mission (also for a good cause! like teaching at another school). It seems that everytime I befriend someone, he or she leaves me for a better cause.

I’ve only been back at my site for one week before having to take off again for another 2-week trip. This time, it’s not pleasure. After attending a few Peace Corps demos and a really early 4th of July celebration at the Ambassador’s house, I’ll be back at my old training ground for our Mid Service Training and meeting the new health group. I can’t believe I was in their shoes just a year ago. It literally seemed like it was just yesterday (I still remember that sense of bewilderment very well, or maybe it’s just because I still feel it.)

After cleaning up my cat’s potty messes and taking cold baths due to lack of electricity, I got to thinking about my projects again… and that was when the waves of doubts started hitting me. There were a few issues.

As some of you may know, I was helping my church (in Malawi) raise money for their new church building, and I was enthusiastic about helping them. But when the time came to buy the materials, I started wondering if I really was doing the right thing. After thinking about it some more, I decided that I am. The church had been raising funds for the last 7 years and all I (and other gracious donors) did was to help cover the roofing portion.

Then I started wondering if I should also be writing this proposal for a shelter. After a youth suggested for a permanent shelter to use (we’ve been using an assembly hall that’s not always available), I discussed with my medical in-charge and counterpart, who also suggested that the shelter be used as an under-five clinic. Technically, all health centers are supposed to have a shelter where mothers and children can wait and be weighed, but mine lacked one because it was part of a private clinic. Initially, I was excited at the thought of a shelter for the youths and children, but when I came back and learned of the low attendance in our youth club, I started doubting. It was when I went to my youth club on Friday that I remembered how much I enjoyed their company and appreciated the great things they’re doing, no matter how slow they’re going or how few they are. I still have my doubts, but I try to remember of my love for the youths and children. Even if the youth club completely falls apart with not a person left, at least I know there will always be children and mothers in need of vaccination to use and appreciate the shelter come rain or sun.

I guess in the long run, I want to make sure that I’m not being more detrimental to my community by letting them think that we foreigners have the money and the solution to all their problems. I don’t want to take away the “sustainability” of their own skills and resources. The moment I cross that line and do their job for them is the moment I’ll know that I have failed my job as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

But until my next update, let’s hope I can still do something right! J

Tiwonana,
Elaine

Supporting Burma and China

Dear friends,

I know that some of you may be sitting at home anxiously wondering how some of the world’s leaders will respond to the disasters taken place in Asia, while wondering how you can assist yourself. I’ve thought a bit about how we can best support the displaced by following the news and donating to organizations that can place your funds most appropriately:

www.irawaddy.org (an independent publication of Burma and southeast Asia)
www.chinadaily.com.cn
(I don’t know how reliable these sites are but you’d get more information about the countries from their perspectives)

www.unicef.org (based on what I’ve seen in Malawi, they seem to give to established institutions, i.e. schools, health centers, and sometimes local organizations but doesn’t monitor the distribution of funds)

www.wfp.org (same as unicef, they seem to only give to established institutions but not much to local organizations)

www.redcross.org (it seems that Red Cross has the most leverage in terms of getting access and support to refugee camps)

If you would like to support other NGOs, I highly encourage you to go to www.charitynavigator.org and evaluate their ratings and effectiveness.

I’ve already gone ahead and did some research for some NGOs within China and Burma you can support from the ground. You can click on the link and view the ratings and websites of each NGO. These are the best NGOs (four stars) suggested by Charity Navigator:

CHINA:
· ACCION International
· Islamic Relief USA
· Mercy Corps
· Operation Blessing International
· PATH
· Project HOPE
· World Relief
· Kids Alive International
· Global Volunteers
· Doctors of the World-USA
· Half the Sky Foundation
· Church World Service
· Himalayan Cataract Project
· ADRA
· International Institute of Rural Reconstruction, U.S. Office
· China Care Foundation

BURMA:
· Action Against Hunger-USA
· Save the Children
· World Vision
· Kids Alive International
· Church World Service
· ADRA

And last but not least, sometimes the only and best thing to do is to pray which would never go unheard.

I hope this helps to make giving less stressful!

Blessings,
Elaine

Images of My Life in Malawi

Finally! Some pictures of my life in Malawi! Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26853368@N04/

A Hiatus from Malawi

After 11 months in Malawi, I took a vacation with my family. We spent the first few days in Hong Kong before jetting off to Egypt. I would describe Egypt in one word: awesome! It was such a privilege to see a glimpse of the ancient life in Egypt. The moment we stepped off the plane we immediately started our tour. What better way to start than seeing the Giza pyramid and the sphinx? Our next stop was at the Cairo museum where most of King Tut’s 5,000-year-old relics remained on display, from the coffins that contained his internal organs to his golden mask. I practically came face to face with the man… because his mask was supposed to be an exact replica of his face so that his ka (spirit) would recognize him in the afterlife. Even though we spent our first night riding in a train from Cairo to Aswan, our accommodations on the Nile cruise was spectacular. During our 4-day journey on the Nile, we stopped at various ancient temples to admire the ruins and hieroglyphs. The Valley of Kings, where all the ancient rulers including King Tut were buried, was yet another site to be enjoyed. The stroll through the underground tunnels was hot and sweaty, but to have my nose almost touching the walls of pictographs was well worth it. Afterwards, we spent one night at the Red Sea… which wasn’t actually red. The water’s as clear and beautiful as it can be. Then, we went to visit the most popular temples in Luxor – Karnak being the largest in all of Egypt. Finally, we returned to Cairo and visited a mastaba, the original and oldest pyramid (believe it or not, the originals were ziggurats). It’s such a shame that so much of Egypt’s history has been damaged by the Crusades, colonization, globalization, but they’ve done more to preserve their culture and history than other countries have. I’d say the highlights were seeing these ancient relics that mystified the world for ages and watching the stories come alive on the walls. I could only try to imagine what life was like 5,000 years ago…

Then it was off to Singapore for 2 days. The Merlion is best known for its food, reflecting the conglomeration of Indian, Malay, and Chinese roots.

I’m nearing the end of my vacation. It has been such a pleasure to be able to eat Chinese food again… to drink soy milk that I don’t have to make from scratch… to be able to show my knees without worrying that others might think me promiscuous… to actually feel like I can breathe again without people gawking at me all the time… It’s nice to be able to step out of that environment and really appreciate the things that are taken for granted. The obvious is being able to eat the food I’ve grown up with all my life (not McDonald’s... I barely touched that stuff save for a few hashbrowns). For one thing, it feels nice to take hot showers… not pour cups of scorching hot water on myself when it’s 20 degrees out (in the winter). And actually use toilets that flush (the hole in the ground is not as bad as it might seem but it is when someone else uses your toilet and misses the hole). And I was finally able to catch up with all the world news… instead of receiving my Newsweeks a month or two late.

It’s hard to believe that I have another year left in Malawi without stepping foot on U.S. ground. I know it’ll fly by fast, because I have so much planned for this year. I have these to look forward to:
-my daily task of administering vitamins and recording children’s weights
-a proposal to USAID for building a shelter next to my health center, so that we can have shelter during hot and rainy seasons while weighing children and to provide a recreational center for youths
-providing technical assistance to a local community-based organization with HIV/AIDS, health, and income-generating activities
-my weekly meetings with our Youth Friendly Health Service Club and its committee
-teaching Life Skills (i.e., self-esteem, goal planning, relationships, communication skills) to secondary students
-working with the Debate Club and facilitating a tournament with 5 other debate clubs in our district
-introducing and implementing the Positive Deviance Hearth program to malnourished children and their mothers
-implementing and evaluating my nutrition program with the health workers and underweight/malnourished children
-facilitating the Sisters’ Club (a mentorship program) for at-risk primary girls
-organizing and implementing recreational activities at Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World)
-cooing at cute little babies J

That’s it for now… I’ll just end this post with a link to view some pictures from my trip to Egypt.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26853368@N04/

Enjoy!

Best,
Elaine

HIV/AIDS in Malawi Continued…

So, in my last update, I talked about transmissions of HIV/AIDS in Malawi. This time, I want to talk about this program I’ve been conducting with my Malawian counterpart, a healthworker from my health center (he’s named after Davie Jones! Haha)

Anyway, we decided that we wanted to present the Hope Kit to 10 villages within and around our catchment area. The Hope Kit consisted of fun activities that explain how HIV spreads, how it works in the body, why people with HIV should not be stigmatized, etc. There were many visual and physical demonstrations and we chose the ones that were most fitting for the villages. We targeted 10 villages with risk factors of cultural practices that contribute to HIV transmission and/or low school attendance. We spoke to the chiefs first and invited the youth clubs, the Village AIDS Committees, and a parent from each household to attend the event.

Little did I know what we signed up for.

There are moments when you think, “This is what Peace Corps is all about.” I had quite a few of those Peace Corps moments because of this program. I should’ve known that there were reasons that these villages were at risk, meaning I had to trudge through muddy roads, rain, rivers, and jungles to get to these places. We visited one village where we tried to take the short path with our bicycles but the path wasn’t meant for cycling. (It turned out that the longer path was actually faster with our bicycles too.) I kept running into the maize stalks on my bike, and I fell a couple times, especially when going down some rocks. Then we went up, up, up the hill, then down the hill, then up again, then down, then up… Then there were the rivers. Two of them. O.K., they were more like streams, but being the klutz I am, I couldn’t avoid slipping into the water. And that wasn’t my first time. I slipped in another stream going to another village. You’d think the adventure ended there, but actually… we had to cross another stream to get to our next destination. But there were no stepping stones this time. Since my socks and shoes were already wet, I was ready to walk through the stream, but the chief wouldn’t allow me, so he picked me up and carried me across! Oh man, by the end of the day, I really had to laugh because I wasn’t expecting any of it.

I don’t regret any of it, though. These villages were remote and isolated, so they were probably neglected by a lot of their community workers and NGOs. Some villages were not even assisted by NGOs, so I knew they gained much from our presentation. My initial thoughts about the presentation were that it was too juvenile and seemed somewhat repetitive to a group of people who already knew about HIV/AIDS. But my Malawian counterpart explained to me how they were actually beneficial. Our first activity, “Fleet of Hope”, involved using pictures of people (father, mother, schoolgirl, witch doctor, etc.) to tell stories in which they are “sitting” in one of the boats of the ABC - Abstinence, Being Faithful, Condoms – or in the water with HIV. He told me that this activity allowed people to share messages with their spouses and communities without having to confront them since Malawians are non-confrontational: “This man is a farmer and has a wife. When he comes home from the gardens, he is faithful to his wife so they don’t have to use condoms and can avoid HIV transmission.” I was somewhat amused by one man’s “This man isn’t abstaining or being faithful but he uses condoms every time!” Our last activity, “HIV in the body”, uses people to represent the white blood cell, HIV, opportunistic infections, ARV, and the ABC, and mobilizes them to show how each functions in or around the body. This was perhaps the most educational activity, as most people are uneducated and have never fully understood the works of HIV and ARVs. But I think the most satisfying part for me is the Q&A. I’m amazed at the kind of myths and misunderstandings people have, and the Q&A is the opportune moment to debunk them. (I don’t want people to think that I’ve been doing all the work; I want to credit my counterpart for doing all of the work in Chichewa. I just sit there and look pretty! haha)

Malawians are fond of meetings, but I know that this was a special kind of meeting they’ve never attended before. All the meetings I’ve attended in Malawi have been - for lack of better words - boring. People really like to hear themselves talk, so they can talk for hours on end without ever making a point. So I was not surprised to find some villagers sulking (and even looking unhappy!) when we first appeared. But by the end of each and every presentation, despite sitting for 2-3 hours, the villagers were laughing and singing. The smiles beaming from their faces and their inquiries about our next visit are all the thanks I need. These are the moments when I think, “This is what Peace Corps is all about.”

Until the next Peace Corps moment,
Elaine aka “Ellen”

My Malawian counterpart and a villager sharing a story during "Fleet of Hope"

They're "greeting" (which symbolizes sexual transmission) in "Wildfire"

A woman trying to figure out if this man has HIV/AIDS or not