Home Sweet Home

Jambo! Simba and Pumba send their love from Africa! :)

After five weeks of traveling in Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Dubai, I finally got a little taste of the motherland! My final trip was nothing short of incredible. The highlights were definitely Zanzibar (an island off the Tanzanian coast) and the safari in Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. We saw so many animals that the Lion King would have been put to shame! It was amazing to see the impalas, zebras, giraffes, and elephants all grazing and roaming together. Then we sighted the lions, cheetahs, and the endangered black rhino from afar. We saw a week-old hippo sunbathing with its parents at the Crater. :) Zanzibar was rife with amazing seafood, beautiful beaches, and alleyways to get lost in. The highlights of Kenya were feasting on crocodile and ostrich at Carnivore and visiting a kid whom I’m sponsoring through Compassion International (http://www.compassion.com/). I loved seeing his home, his center, his grandmother (I think his parents died from HIV/AIDS), and the hope of his future. I spent the latter two weeks in Ethiopia which was an adventure for us. We traveled the historic route in the northern region; toured ancient sites including monasteries, Gondar castles, rock-hewn churches, and the alleged Ark of the Covenant. Dubai was clean, expensive, and hot, but I didn’t make my way into the seven-star hotel nor dig my hole on the man-made island.

Gondar, Ethiopia: Castle

Bahir Dar, Ethiopia: Priest showing ancient document

Zanzibar, Tanzania

Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania: Week-old hippo with parents


Then it was time to make my way home. I actually got back early August and was laying low for awhile while familiarizing myself with the environment. My father asked me to write a final update about my readjustment experience after being away for two years, and I thought, “How do I write about being home that’s home to everyone else?” I may not be doing my reentry experience much justice, but I thought I’d give it a shot.

People always ask me, “What’s it like being back?” And I always tell them that the reverse culture shock isn’t what I thought it’d be – a shock. The smallest, subtlest things are what take me on by surprise. Like getting lost in Oakland trying to get back onto the freeway. Or seeing the new buildings that suddenly materialized on the Berkeley campus. Or absorbing all the new information about my friends' lives over the last two years. Or feeling that all the things that were once familiar are not so familiar anymore. Sometimes I feel like an alien in my own home.

And then there are the unsubtle things. Like how I lost my appetite for a month, because I realized that there were tons and tons and tons of food! Just looking at them makes me full. Everything here also involves so many options. When faced with too many options, I can't make up my mind. Should I get beef, chicken, pork, or all of the above? And the flat screen TV in our home. For the first time in my life, I have over 10 channels! The pace of life is so different here. People are always in a rush to get somewhere, anywhere. Then there’s the economic recession. My junior high was closed down but my high school just finished remodeling. And there’s no greater way to welcome me home than a 9.75% tax rate.

But I do have to say that it’s good to be home. The best thing about being home right now is being able to breathe in the ocean and take a hot shower every morning - even if it’s summertime! And of course meeting up with friends and family and seeing how we’re all two years older. :)

I’ve finally managed learn to give a 15-second answer about my last two years’ experience as “amazing, hard, and life-changing” and narrowed down viewing my thousands of pictures to 400. But it doesn’t take away the place Malawi left in my heart. When I’m not busy figuring out my life or readjusting, I’d start missing my nursery babies and my agogo, and I’d wonder when I’ll ever see them again. Mostly what I miss most is the simplicity of life in Malawi. Since I have been back, I have been eating A LOT on the food I’ve missed out the last two years (yay for In ‘n’ Out!) and preparing for my future endeavors. J I’ve been working a part-time job (while looking for a full-time job in the public health field) and applying for masters programs in public health for next year. I can’t wait to start learning more about all things public health. J I know this update is way overdue, but I did want to let you all know that I’m back! I’ve finally uploaded some more pictures for your viewing at http://www.flickr.com/photos/26853368@N04/, but unfortunately I reached my limit so I was unable to upload more pictures from my trip. (If any of you decide to travel eastern Africa, do let me know!) I would also love to meet up with you and share my experiences, as well as to catch up on the last two (or more) years! Maybe I can entertain some of you with a video of "preparing" a chicken Malawian style.

Well... this will be my last update. Sometimes I still can't believe that I'm back! It really has been one great adventure. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Much Love,

Elaine

P.S. World Food Program went on the road to see Malawi and you can get a glimpse: http://www.wfp.org/on-the-road/malawi

The End of the Road

Dear friends and family,

My journey in Malawi has come to an end. I have officially moved out of my house, out of my site, and soon to be out of country. It is amazing how fast two years passed by. At first, I thought time could not be any slower, and now that the end is here, I almost wish that I could make time slow down.

The end is surreal though. My brain has not fully processed the fact that I won’t be here any longer, and that in fact, I probably won’t see most of my friends and family ever again. Including my 81-year-old agogo, who shed tears when we parted. And the pastor who burst into tears during his farewell speech that left the congregation crying. And my dear supervisor whose teary eyes nearly set off my own waterfalls. And my counterparts who promised that they would continue the work that I’ve started with the under-five and youth shelter and the natural medicine garden. Little did I know that two years with all these people would leave a mark on my heart. I already miss them and know that I’ll never forget about them.

But I know that it is time to move on, as do all my friends and family here. They wish to greet you all, especially to my parents. They say that they know it’s time for me to go home to you. They send you their love and greetings from halfway around the world.

This will be my last update from Malawi, and I want to end it with snapshots of my life in Malawi. These are some of the highlights, though there are so many that I cannot put them all down in one sitting.

Exhibit 1: My favorite part of the day was when I strolled out of my house at 8 A.M everyday. As I approached the nursery school, I could hear the 3-4-year-olds chanting my name, “Ellen-e! Ellen-e!” A few of them would run up and hug me tightly. They would look up at me with their big adorable eyes and beautiful smiles. They were my babies.

Exhibit 2: My Saturdays spent at the water tap. I would bring my 30 liter basin and 20 liter pail with my stash of laundry. After filling them up with water, I would sit on the steps of a house and scrub the dirt out of my clothes and rinse them. Two hours later, I would hang them on the line and dry them. Then, at the end of the day, I would take them up. In the meantime, my agogo would come out of her little house and sit on the step with me as we chatted about everything. And as of a few months ago, there was a missionary living in the house with whom I would talk to about faith, life, and love. They were both my surrogate grandmother and mother during my stay and my Saturdays belonged to them.

Exhibit 3: The May 19th election. The same president won his second term! For all his success in his last term, he had done something right to be re-elected by a large margin. I do believe he had about 3 million votes while the oppositions followed with 1 million and less. The vice president is a woman! There is actually a good number of women serving in the parliament as well. And the best thing about the election was that it was very peaceful. Not a fight broke out. It was a very proud moment for Malawi.

Exhibit 4: The annihilation of the roaches. Not really my favorite memory but definitely one of the most unique ones. After I got tired of not being able to urinate at night (because the roaches were fond of coming out of my pit then), I had the brightest and the dumbest idea. I mixed a mosquito treatment tablet (used to prevent mosquitoes and other bugs from entering the beds the nets were covering) with water and dumped it into my pit. When I saw a diaspora of hundreds of cockroaches all over my yard, walls, and latrine, I completely panicked, especially when I saw some of them trying to creep into my house. (What can I say? I’m not fond of roaches.) After I ran away and returned with my agogo, I found most of them plopped over dead or being consumed by my neighbor’s chickens. My agogo looked at me told me to shush my mouth and not tell a soul that the roaches were poisoned, because the chickens were going to have a little bowel problem for sure. (At least they didn’t die as I thought they might.) My latrine was roach-free for at least a few months before they started mass reproduction in my pit again.

Exhibit 5: My neighbor’s “warm heart of Africa”. My neighbor, a deputy headmaster at the secondary school, was the only one in my community who knew how to display Malawian hospitality at its best. (I can’t really say the same for the other women in my community.) He was like a uncle to me. Obsessed with pumpkins and fruits, he always loved bringing back food from his garden and cooking them for me. He knew that I especially loved tangerines and always brought me the freshest fruits for me. He helped me out in so many ways, especially when I had all kinds of problems with my house, and made my life so much easier and better. He would always tell me that though he had met many foreigners, he admired me most because of the way I lived my life.

Exhibit 6: The Asian vs. American identity. “Where are you from?” America. “No, really? But you look so… Chinese/Japanese/Korean/European [take your pick].” But I was born in America. “No you must not be. Aren’t all Americans white?” Uh… no. There are all kinds of people there. All kinds of cultures… Oh, never mind. I’m from Russia.

Exhibit 7: And then there were the Asian stereotypes. One of my favorite conversations with this educated community development officer went like this: “So, were you there when 9/11 happened?” A pretty good question but my answer was “No, I was at the other side of the country.” He responded, “Oh… so sad, so sad. Ah… so do you know kung-fu?” “Uh… no.” How did this intelligent man get such a stupid notion? “Why not? Don’t all you people know kung-fu?” What in the world?! “Well, no. It’s just like do all of you play football (soccer)?” “But isn’t Bruce Lee your brother?” Needless to say, the conversation ended right there.

Exhibit 8: The mosquito bites. You may not recognize me when I come back, because… my face has been pretty disfigured. I hate it when the Malawians always stare at my face and ask, “Are those mosquito bites on your forehead?! You must’ve been bitten pretty badly. Pepani, pepani, (Sorry, sorry).” I’d glare at them for a second and grumble, “Yes, those are my mosquito bites…” compounded by all the dirt and sweat Malawi had to offer!

Exhibit 9: Snakes. Apparently some snake shedded in my backyard... so I decided to not urinate after dark for awhile. Then my youths and I saw a black mamba snake hiding underneath the bricks next to the shelter we were constructing. My counterpart obliterated it with my hoe.

Anyway, those are just some snippets of my life in Malawi. I would love to share more with you, but that will have to wait until I return to America! Come August, I will step foot on American soil! It’s funny, because I don’t feel so American anymore. My friends all call me “Malawian” and even when they asked me to sing the American National Anthem, I could only belt out the first line or so and then draw a blank. Then I told them, “Pepani, ndinaiwala (Sorry, I forgot)… I guess I’ve been Malawian for so long that I can’t remember my own national anthem anymore!”

But now it’s time for me to move on… to Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia! My friends and I will be backpacking through for a month. I take off on July 1!

It is weird that I have been emailing you about my experiences and emotions but not seeing your faces. But now my adventure is coming to an end and I will get to see your lovely faces. I can’t wait to see you all!

Tiwonana Malawi! We shall see each other again Malawi!

Love,
Elaine Lo

I'M COMING HOME!!!

July 1, 2009 is the day I officially end my Peace Corps service. Can you believe it? I’m almost done! It seems so surreal that I’m actually going home…

I just spent the last few days at the gorgeous lake for our Closing of Service Conference with my health group. It’s so hard to believe that almost two years ago, we were this one group of a mess leaving Philadelphia one last time, and after losing six people, we met again one last time. I’m just amazed at how far we’ve gone…

Sorry, I know I sound overly sentimental. I’m still processing through my emotions about leaving...

O.K., so even though I officially become unemployed on July 1st, I won’t be flying straight home. For about a month, I’ll be traveling to Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia. And then, it’s back to USA!!! (Where I will be officially broke but not homeless. :))

And do I have exciting news for you! One of my friends is now in Chicago with an orphan with an over-sized heart who’s about to receive an operation! I met up with them the day before they flew out and shared in their excitement. Turns out a kind journalist/writer/benefactor, Chicago Sun Times, and United Airlines graciously offered their support to pay their way for the child’s operation in Chicago! Go to http://vascosheart.blogspot.com/ to read more about the child, Vasco, and how they got there.

Last but not least, some eye candy: pictures are worth a thousand words. :) (If you're wondering about the black mamba, it was a poisonous snake found near the shelter I was building... hacked to death with my hoe.)

Lake Malawi

Traditional Dancer shaking my hand

Black mamba snake found next to my shelter... hacked to death with my hoe

Co-worker's baby... isn't she so cute??

Mayankho - "Answers"

Workshop #2: ANAMED

After the fiasco of the Nutrition Workshop, I absolutely refused to host another workshop. Just to show how weak my will is, the Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and health workers somehow coaxed me into doing another workshop! So after waiting six months, I finally got the funding to host the Natural Medicine Workshop. We hosted two sessions for all the CBOs and their HIV/AIDS Support Groups teaching them about the uses of local plants with medicinal purposes and how to make oils and ointments, among other things. What was once weed to the participants is now medicine. (They laughed when they also learned that I eat basil, which is a really common “weed” around here!) All of the curriculum material came straight from the NGO Action for Natural Medicine (ANAMED). (If you’d like more information, go to http://www.anamed.net/.)

We really covered a wide range of topics in a span of five days. Not only did we define traditional medicine, we discussed how natural medicine could be used to complement western medicine. (In fact, did you know that the anti-malarial medicine was made from Artemisia, a plant the Chinese kept secret for thousands of years?!) We embarked on a nature walk within 500 meters radius and found at least 25 local plants that had medicinal purposes. As people presented their most common illnesses, we taught them about the uses of specific plants to treat common illnesses. For people living with HIV/AIDS, they often suffer from opportunistic illnesses, like coughs, bronchitis, oral thrushes, etc. We especially taught them about the use of Artemisia, the $300 plant used to treat all strains of malaria and other illnesses, and moringa olefiera, also known as the “miracle plant”. For those who have dental problems (which is a major issue here), we showed them how to make dental powder using eucalyptus leaves. People’s favorite activity were the oils and ointments from chili pepper (good for arthritis and massage!), garlic (used for coughs), and other local plants. They learned how to make natural oils and ointments with cooking oil, candle wax, and kerosene. O.K., so I wouldn’t go near any fire if I were using the kerosene oil, but it’s actually used for scabies, a really common skin problem found in children. One of the highlights was watching a guy lather avocado all over him and calling it “natural lotion”. :)

The workshops went well overall and I felt pretty satisfied by the end. There were some kinks and issues that frustrated me, but this wasn’t quite as disastrous as the Nutrition Workshop (though there’s nothing quite like cholera to give you a scare). Although I have to admit I enjoyed the first week’s participants more than the second, because they seemed much more grateful, enthusiastic to learn, and more helpful. The second week’s participants complained a lot, who had unfortunately been too spoiled by the previous NGO. But all in all, people learned a lot and enjoyed themselves. Our award ceremonies ended with a lot of singing and dancing. They were happier still when I promised to help them start their nurseries with their own special plants!

The members even discussed about forming a coalition to start making natural oils and medications and then hosting a ceremony for me before I leave. Right now, these are all just words, so hopefully they’ll make them reality. I would be so happy though to see them do something with what their newfound knowledge!

Even I myself have discovered a stronger appreciation for Mother Nature around me. Forget all this witch doctor stigma; whatever happened to just living in harmony with our environment? The gifts that we’ve been given through our flowers and plants – so simple and so obscure – are to give us health, life, and hope. For the first time in a long time, I felt a surge of pride that I had actually done something worthy for the people here. I actually felt like that this was what people wanted and that they were gaining something from it, and I was so glad to have been part of that.

Anyway, pictures are worth a thousand words, so enjoy!! :)

So that was the most recent project I’ve been working on. Three more months to finish everything up!! In two weeks, I’ll be going away for a conference to figure out my next step in life. Anyone got any ideas??? :)

Teaching about food groups

Nature Walk

Chili Ointment Practical

Not juice! Scabies Lotion (kerosene and cooking oil)

Studying the ANAMED poster

Week 1 Participants

Week 2 Participants

Outbreak!

One beautiful Sunday morning would start with songs of praises to the heavens above and end with wailings of a grieving mother. As evening approached, I saw men lined up outside my health center and the women sitting in the grass singing softly. A few women’s cries pierced their harmonies. I saw my supervisor and a few other health workers discussing in hushed voices. My counterpart eventually came over and told me the case – a 17-year-old girl was DOA – Dead on Arrival. But the reason she was robbed of a proper funeral in her village was vibrio cholerae. She vomited and passed stool nonstop and by the time she arrived, it was too late. Cholera had claimed another life. Clothed with rubber gloves, ellow workers wrapped the body with plastic, disinfected the floor and room with chlorine, and stood guard at the door. Do not enter: Biohazard.

The Cholera Grim Reaper started showing up at our doors during rainy season. The beginning and the peak of season fared well for us in terms of cholera cases, but an outbreak in the capitol sent the Ministry of Health into a flurry of advertisements, campaigns, and debriefs. Over 1,000 were sick, resulting in many deaths. Then, about two moths ago, we started hearing about cholera cases in our district and then in our catchment area. As of last year, we had 0 cases. As of yesterday, we have 14 cases and well over 30 in our district.

According to my supervisor, one case is considered an outbreak, because chances are others are already infected. Cholera’s main transmission is fecal-oral. Rainy season spread it like wildfire… or should I say flashflood? And the little black flies become carriers that contaminate our food, water, and bodies. Hungry season is often the peak of cholera because the empty stomachs allow the vibria to release the toxins that induce the dehydration by means of vomiting and diarrhea. Once you’re out of water, you have little chance of surviving.

I tell you, it’s not pretty and it’s definitely not fun. People become so dehydrated they shrivel up like prunes and become immobile. Worst case scenario is probably how it’s like in the movies: eyes rolled back, vomiting, diarrhea, and sometimes bleeding. My counterpart shared about a major outbreak a few years ago when hundreds were going to his hospital that originated from one source. Due to his lack of proper hygiene, he had infected many others. The wards were flooded, so the health workers set up two tents: male and female. And the health workers never went home but stayed instead to ensure the patients were rehydrated, or the deceased properly wrapped, or the wards thoroughly sanitized. That year, over 50 died. Even now, the health workers are assigned night duty at my health center to handle any incoming cases since we’re now getting an average of 3-4 new cases per week.

Though cholera can be easily treated through rehydration, sometimes people don’t respond and die from complications. My supervisor told me, as if he were begging me, “I don’[t want another cholera funeral.” After a person dies, he immediately wraps her up in plastic and buries her the same night if possible. The aforementioned girl was buried no more than eight hours after death. Mummifying the deceased in plastic may seem unwarranted, but there was a case once upon a time that revealed cholera could indeed spread from a person’s graveyard to a borehole 100 meters away within 10 years. Cholera can actually survive in water for many years.

Since the onset of cholera, the health workers tested the quality of the water for all of their boreholes. They conducted litmus tests sent from Unicef and found that most were inadequate. In fact, almost half were considered unsafe. All I could think was, if these are protected boreholes, then where else are they supposed to get safe water?

Cholera actually thrives in environments of bad hygiene and sanitation. The most common contributing factors are improper hand washing, improper care of food, and lack of pit latrines. Where there are toilets in America, there are maize fields in Malawi. The field is one big latrine. The advantage is fertilization for the maize. The disadvantage is cholera. In my catchment area of 18,000 people, only 68% of households own a pit latrine – a proper hole in the ground.

Unfortunately, most people are still unaware of how easily cholera can be prevented and how dangerous it can be. I walk into the market and I see flies swarming all over the dried fish, hanging carcasses of raw meat, bowls of muddied water for washing fruits, and the strewn remnants of food due to a lack of refuse bins. The marketplace is the prime breeding ground for cholera! I remember last year’s cholera prevention campaign fared rather unsuccessfully. After blaring into the megaphone and talking to sellers, most just said “Yeah, yeah, yeah” and few were at least honest enough to tell us they didn’t care enough. The next time I walked into the market, I noted not one person had heeded our advice.

This year tells a different story. The outbreaks and deaths put many people on edge. Even the police and other community leaders partnered with us to prevent an epidemic like the ones they saw in the ‘90s and 2001-2002. The chairman of the marketplace wanted to ban the sale of dried fish and raw meat, though few people were willing to give up their means of living. So now we just see plastic hugging the raw carcasses and newspapers covering all foods.

I’ll tell you one thing that really scared us. The girl I started off telling you about? Turned out she vomited the whole way to the health center, which was not cleaned up. Worse still, her guardian took her soiled clothes and washed them IN THE RIVER! The very same river people bathe in, wash their clothes in, and drink from… All we could do was pray and hope for the best.

Though the cases were coming in steadily from various villages, the red flags started going off when we received five cases from the same village within three days. Not only were they from the same area, they were from the same household. The sixth member came in right as we were about to leave for their village. We practically ran to their village! It started with a child’s death at another hospital, where he was somehow overlooked as a cholera case. Shortly after, another child got sick and it spread to several others. We noticed that the contaminated household didn’t have a pit latrine and their surroundings were inadequate. After surveying 59 households in the same village, we found only 33 had pit latrines, 16 of which were considered satisfactory. We called a village meeting, explained thoroughly about the etiology and preventive measures for cholera, then distributed another round of chlorine.

Because of these outbreaks, we almost postponed one of my natural medicine workshops. The participants were coming from contaminated villages and the river was contaminated, so my cohorts and I discussed the issue. We decided to commence since the cases were going to increase instead of decrease. We were nervous of an outbreak, so we took extra precautions. Imagine that – a cholera outbreak at a workshop hosted by their very own health workers! We prayed hard, worked even harder, and by the end of the week, no one died on our watch.

Despite the gloomy news (sorry for depressing you!), everything else is well! I’ve just been working hard on wrapping up my major projects. The under-five and youth shelter construction has come to a complete halt since I’m waiting for my communities to pull their act together. I’ve just finished two weeks of natural medicine workshop for the local community-based organizations and HIV/AIDS support groups. I’ll update you on that next time. I’m still working with the youths, but they’re still flaky. I’ve got a few other little projects keeping me busy. But otherwise, I’m supposed to be wrapping up my last three months here… Wow, I can’t believe how fast time’s flying by!!! I’m just thankful that I’ve made it this far intact and alive!

I hope all is well with you!! Happy Easter! :)

Election Friction

Election Friction

For the past three weeks, I was on house arrest. Well, sorta. I could move out and around my site but I was strictly forbidden to go to town or near any crowds or political rallies. And I was to prepare to evacuate… just in case.

In case what happens, you ask?

Well, you know, America’s not the only country who’s having a presidential election! This is election year for us, as well as many other African countries. In case things go haywire, we have to go into panic mode and evacuate. O.K., maybe not panic mode because we have a detailed emergency plan all worked out. The likelihood of us evacuating is probably not likely, but Peace Corps doesn’t want to take any chances with the recent violent political uprisings in Congo, Somalia, Kenya and Madagascar… all in Eastern Africa.

This tension is strange… I’ve never felt this kind of tension during an election. It’s not the will-we-have-our-first-black-president or who-will-rescue-us-from-this-mess kind but the how-safe-are-we kind. Malawi has only been democratic for 35 years and a multi-party one for the last 14 years. But 30 of those years were ruled with an iron fist and the succeeding 10 years ruled by corruption. People say that it was only in the last 5 years that they’ve seen real progress and development in Malawi.

This month, the presidential candidates registered for the election and are awaiting the Malawi Electoral Commission to determine the results for the election. But the real drama is happening with the former president who had already presided for two terms but still wants to run again. There were debates over the sketchy phrasings of the constitution and his intentions for running against the incumbent president, as well as the charges he is facing. Our main concern isn’t about who will become candidates but more how they will respond, especially from one person and his followers who are notorious for violence.

Since Blantyre is the hub of all political activities and residences, all the southern volunteers were warned to stay away, especially from political rallies. There was news of clashes between parties that resulted in some injuries but nothing drastic. For the time being, we’re no longer being held at site and can move around but with vigilance. (I was so glad, because I didn’t have meat since the beginning of January and was craving so much for a chicken burger in town!)

The next few months will mark the last stretch of the campaign. If all are approved by the Malawi Electoral Commission, the showdown will be between UDF’s Muluzi (former president), DPP’s Bingu (incumbent president), and MCP’s Tembo (opposition party).

When I inquired people of their choice of president, many preferred Bingu, though some preferred Muluzi. Those who liked Bingu extolled his efforts at developing Malawi the last 5 years and others liked Muluzi for his notorious “hand-outs”. But one mentioned that he would vote for “whoever will bring food” because we are now facing a period of famine due to last year’s bad harvest. :(

With all the excitement in the air, Malawi Electoral Commission is also really encouraging for a peaceful and safe election. Ghana has hopefully set the precedence for a peaceful election recently (which apparently didn’t have any bearing on Madagascar). Mozambique also had their election just not too long before we went there for Christmas. There have been lots of radio advertisements and flyers about how to have a non-violent and safe election. Come May 19th, my hopes and prayers are set on Malawi proving herself to be the peaceful country that she is and to be a beacon of light for other African countries.

My Projects Update

Ever since my projects have taken off since October, I’ve found myself on an emotional roller coaster ride that doesn’t seem to end - elated at times, bewildered at times, frustrated at times. What I least expected was finding myself in awkward positions when it came to dealing with questionable bureaucracies. Regardless, my projects are all coming along and the communities are all excited!

My first major project, the Nutrition Workshop in October, was nothing short of chaotic. Those were perhaps the 3 of my most tiring days at site. Everything that we had planned out was turned upside down and was not made any easier by my counterparts’ inconvenient demands. But in the end, it was a success. We educated mothers with malnourished children from our Nutrition Clinic in a 3-day workshop about nutrition – from the basic food group lessons to food demonstrations. The most successful lessons were the no-oil scrambled egg and soy milk demonstrations (performed by yours truly :)).

By the way, great news! I had mentioned previously that UN’s World Food Program withdrew their supplementary feeding program from our district. Even though our district has the highest rate of malnutrition, we had absolutely no program to assist and monitor malnourished children or mothers. World Food Program recently just resumed the supplementary feeding program again for the moderately malnourished children and women! (Its chances of becoming a permanent program are nil due to decreases in donations so I’m still a proponent for teaching them self-sustainable skills and knowledge.) I’m hoping to combine my Nutrition Clinic with the feeding program so that we can still provide them porridge flour and cooking oil while teaching them about proper cooking techniques, kitchen gardens, and food preservation! (To make donations to these kind of programs, go to http://www.wfp.org/.)

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to focus much of my attention on the nutrition programs because of the Under-Five and Youth Shelter construction. After USAID and Peace Corps approved my proposal for building a shelter next to my health center, we immediately began buying and building early November. My youths assisted with the bulk of the labor – from hauling 50 tons of quarry stones and sand to 20,000 bricks to 2,500 kgs of cement – with much help from me. :) Aside from the manual labor, I was also the point person for arranging transport and meals, buying all the materials, and corresponding with my health staff, the district officials, and my site’s administrators. The latter has been frustrating, to say the least. Sometimes I feel like I’m pulling teeth just to get a simple task done. Let’s just say that there is “mismanagement” of funds… and priorities.

Our challenge as of now is the lack of funds to complete our project. We have used up all of our funds – due mostly to the local builders’ inaccurate planning and budgeting, improper use of funds, items being stolen on the mission, etc. – and can only finish the structure and the roofing. We may be able to finish most of the flooring but not plastering the walls. While I have considered asking for external donations (aka you haha), I thought against it. The communities I have worked with – the mission, the youths, and the health staff – have failed to contribute their portions to the project, so I insisted that they be responsible for raising the appropriate funds to complete the building. Though this puts a delay in our construction, I felt this was a necessary lesson for the community to learn how to plan and budget properly and to take responsibility for their own mistakes, as well as not take donations for granted as they often do.

While we were still working on the construction, my youth-friendly health club wanted to organize a Youth Open Day. It was a community event, in which several youth clubs were invited to display their performance arts at their best while incorporating the theme: “Youths should attend health facilities for services”. We had 7 youth clubs, in addition to our youth-friendly health club, present their best drama, choir, poem, or traditional dance with 3 judges awarding the best performances. With assistance from the District Youth Officer, we were able to reward all of the participants with footballs, netballs, and solar-powered radios. My greatest regret was not being able to watch the whole event (I left early for the long journey to Mozambique L). It was a such huge success that the assembly hall was packed and overflowing (at least 500 people and more!) and everyone had a great time!

The remaining major projects are the Natural Medicine Workshop in March and Income-generating Activity Workshop in April. Since the schools are now starting, I’m considering if I should teach Life Skills and restart Sisters’ Club again. But with six months left, I’m not sure how much I can really accomplish!

My experiences in working with bureaucracies left me speculating if I really want to pursue a career dabbling in law and policy. It was never really my intention to do so, but from talking to several people who believed my skills and talents are greatest used in law and policy work, I’ve had to reevaluate my future goals. But in all honesty, I don’t know how much I can – or want to – deal with corrupted and inept administrations and policies, much like what I’ve seen in Malawi, and the emotional pressure from the “oppressed” parties. If I’m dealing with a minor form of corruption, then how much worse would the major forms be?

But if it weren’t for the youths and children I work with, I might’ve halted the projects already. Dangling the children on my knees and laughing with the youths have been my greatest joys the past few months. I’ve really enjoyed getting acquainted with the youths while working alongside with them. Even being away for a 2-week holiday seemed like ages (more for them than me haha). They remind me that some things are really worth fighting for.

Well, that’s all my food for thought for now. :)

Youths chucking bricks

Unloading 20,000 bricks

The boys drying off by the fire after getting rained on

Before: Building the foundation

During: Building the Structure

After: About to come!