Happy New Year!

I know I haven't been uploading pictures of my place, so I thought I'd start with the basics: my bathrooms. haha I'll update with pictures of my house next time.

My "bafa" room

I just put a bucket of water on one side and another bucket of toiletries on the other side, and I just pour water on myself. :P

This is my toilet. I thought it best to cover the hole. You'd see the cockroaches... and the crap my night guard left on the side.

The boys from the youth group killing a chicken and cooking for the ladies.

Gender equality. :)

A Christmas feast at my house with the youth committee.


My neighbors - these are the cutest kids ever! :) (The little girl on the left is a brat though. She spies on me through my fence!) The baby's my favorite! haha

I'll be heading out to the lake for New Year's Eve. Peace out.

Why should it be MERRY Christmas?

Shouldn't it be JOSEPH Christmas? Ha ha ha

CHOSANGALALA CHOKUBADWA CHA YESU KRISTU!

Whew! That was a mouthful! I think I better to stick with saying “Merry Christmas!”

I’m sending my wishes early because I’ll be in the village for Christmas. I’m curious what it’ll be like. I heard that people are either at church all day or they drink beer all day.

I’ll be reflecting all day on this past year. The most interesting things (sorry, my life’s not that interesting here) that have happened since I’ve been in Malawi include:
-hitchhiking and riding in the back of a pickup truck for 4 hours
-an 18-second earthquake (2 missionaries from Chicago who were here were about to pack up and leave while I just went back to sleep thinking that I was hallucinating)
-a scorpion biting my in-charge, which was inevitably slaughtered by my night guard
-attending a Muslim wedding where I was kinda made a guest of honor, so I had to sit next to the best man who gave me a 10-minute lecture about giving more money during the “reception” aka fund-raising party
-a Member of Parliament who’s also the Minister of Finance came to my market for a political rally… I stayed, oh, maybe 10 minutes.
-World AIDS Day…

The youths and I walking to the Opening Ceremony

The youths who organized a drama, traditional dance, and choir

Anyway, last time I mentioned about World AIDS Day. On December 1, I walked for over an hour to a primary school where the opening ceremony was to take place. It was awesome. There were at least 500 people there. I didn’t realize what a huge deal it was, because the Senior Chief (one of several hand-picked by the president; I’ve been to his house but wasn’t able to meet him yet), other chiefs, and all the important district officers were present, as well as one of the Malawian reggae bands (the lead singer is a Member of Parliament but of course he wasn’t actually there). I had the privilege of watching my youths’ drama group perform about leadership. The story was about parents forcing their daughter to go into town to prostitute herself to bring an income into their family, but a pastor, business managers, and some others were teaching them that they cannot force her into prostitution and that as the heads of the family, they have to desire what’s best for her. Or something like that. There were a bunch of other dramas, choirs, musicians, and traditional dances too. There were a bunch of speeches too, including some HIV-positive survivors speaking about their experiences (unfortunately, I don’t understand Chichewa well enough to know what they shared). Overall, I’m really proud of my youth group, because they had put a lot of effort into their drama (the choir and traditional dance groups didn’t make it into the program).

The more I thought about leadership in regards to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, I realized that I had to be an example of good leadership and not just preach to the youth committee about leadership. So, I told them, “Ask me any questions you have about sex, HIV/AIDS, relationships, rape, family planning, etc.” I was amazed at how well it went and how much I actually knew. The questions they asked were like, “If I’m in a relationship, can I still be a good leader?”, “If someone got pregnant and married young, can she tell other girls to not get pregnant and marry young?”, “I heard that when a man and woman has sex, the woman is more likely to get HIV. Is that true?”, “If a man rapes a woman and he’s HIV-positive, can the woman get HIV too?”

Man. Those were some tough questions. But the discussions we had were really good. And I was able to teach them what I knew. Like how they can prevent HIV by getting a drug called PEP within 72 hours after sex.

The most recent question I received that really baffled me was “After a woman aborts and has sex with a man, why is it that the man dies?” (Did you notice how they didn’t ask if the man would die but why?) There’s obviously misinformation in there somewhere.

But on a more personal note, I wasn’t sure I should share this but I thought maybe I should. In light of Christmas, I hope that instead of stressing out about Christmas shopping or depressing yourself over other personal issues, maybe you can find a deeper appreciation for what you have and actually appreciate your friends and family more.

So. For awhile I recruited a student to help me with a few chores so I can pay for her education. She’s an orphan and the vice head girl (kinda like vice female president) and is extremely hard-working according to her aunt and teachers. She’s also incredibly shy. But I keep finding out new things about her that surprise me. Like how she was pregnant and had a child when she was 16 or 17. (She’s 18 now.) Most girls don’t go back to school after their first child, but her aunt really wanted to encourage her to go back to school since her twin sister also had a child and her younger sister dropped out of school. So, her aunt and her grandmother took care of her child while she went back to school. And then at the end of the term, she told me that she was sick and dropped off the face of earth without telling me another word. A month later, I found out that she’s pregnant again. Her aunt was obviously really disappointed, because she knew that I was giving her a really good opportunity.

I was discouraged, because well, her chances of going back to school after having her second child is really slim now. And she really had a lot of potential. But I’m also discouraged at how many girls drop out of school because of teen pregnancy and how difficult it is for them to pursue higher education. Usually about 1/10 girls would actually complete her secondary education. The other 9 either get pregnant early or marry early or don’t care enough about education to make it through secondary school. Malawians are shocked to find out that more than 50% of college students in America are actually females. I want to encourage girls as much as I can to complete their education and to emphasize my point, I tell people “I don’t want to marry until I go back to college again.” As for the girl I recruited, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that there will be a third chance.

My other issue is that my tutor, who has also been my best Malawian friend here, recently told me he wants to get tested for HIV (without any of his students knowing). I can’t imagine how nerve-wracking it can be to think that you might have HIV. It was nerve-wracking for me to think that he might have HIV. His sister actually does have HIV and it was kinda heart-breaking. The poor man has been carrying so many burdens that have angered him, broken his heart, and worried him. I wish there were more that I could do for him.

But somehow, he’s able to keep smiling without a concern and say, “It’s o.k. I know God has better plans for me.”

With that said, I hope you’ll be able to smile this Christmas too, no matter what stress or problems you have, and know that everything will get better in time. Merry Christmas! :)

My lame Rocky moment.

Sanjika Rock was where Chilembwe allegedly meditated.

It's where I go to meditate and get some privacy too away from the 3-foot spies.

Lack of Doctors and Nurses

I just read an article yesterday about the lack of staffing impeding the quality of service offered to HIV/AIDS clients. According to MSF (Medecins Sans Frontiers/"Doctors Without Borders"), South Africa's MSF has 74 doctors doctors and 393 nurses per 100,000 clients. As if that's not bad enough, Malawi's HIV/AIDS epidemic is a lot less contained than that in South Africa at its insane rate of 14% HIV positives with only 2 doctors and 56 nurses per 100,000 clients.

My health center is one of the handful of health centers that MSF has invested heavily in, so I'm priviliged to see all the goods that MSF is doing. But it can hurt your head just watching the nurses and doctors rushing about (actually, I think the doctor only comes to my site every once in awhile) and the clients waiting long hours.

Health care in general in Malawi is just bad. In my district, there are only 5 doctors, all of whom serve at the district hospital, so most villagers do not have access to the doctors. Though the health centers target the villagers specifically, the quality of health care may not be adequate enough due to inadequate staffing and inadequate supplies. In addition to lack of electricity (well, in my case, we have electricity but lots of black-outs), we cannot properly store the immunizations and medications. As for sanitation, most staff don't use gloves and have to hand-wash the bedding and sheets that women have given birth on. They dispose of syringes and other "hazardous" materials by burning them behind the health center (or in other cases, at the incinerator). Since we don't have a doctor, the in-charge of my health center is actually a medical assistant - just one notch up from nurses with just 2 years of medical education. Then, there are the 2 nurses. Well, I could go on and on, but I have to say it's pretty disappointing to see how bad healthcare is especially in comparison to America's. But I know that most people just do with what they can.

My source of life

During my homestay at training, we worked on building a well. Here's the initial stage of removing muddied water before digging a deeper hole.

After filling up the bottom with rocks, we line the well with bricks and cement.

This wasn't in my village but this is what the final product of a safe borehole looks like. All the boreholes in Malawi look pretty much like this, including the one in my village. These are the villagers gathering around to celebrate the completion of a borehole!

But this is what happens when the community doesn't take care of their borehole well. The water from the pump drains out into another hole (thus dubbed an "unprotected well"), creating standing water, which allows mosquitoes to breed. And guess what? Mosquitoes carry the malarial virus that results in the number 2 deaths for under-5 children. See how something as simple as chlorinating your water or covering standing water can do to save lives?

World AIDS Day

This Saturday is World AIDS Day. This year’s theme is leadership. I found myself asking, how am I leading people in the fight against AIDS? How are our people leading others in the fight against AIDS?

I believe that education is the first and foremost issue in battling this epidemic. If we cannot talk openly about sex and the oppressive cultural practices, how can we fight this epidemic that’s killing off millions and orphaning millions of children every day?

One of the focuses this year is on preventing mothers-to-child transmission (PMTCT).

6 in 10 babies will develop HIV/AIDS after birth.

3 in 10 babies will develop HIV/AIDS if the mother was taking ARV medication during pregnancy.

1 in 10 babies will develop HIV/AIDS if the mother was taking ARV medication during pregnancy and stops breastfeeding after 6 months. But the most daunting issue that scares mothers is that HIV-positive mothers are encouraged to stop breastfeeding their babies after 6 months… in a place where mothers usually breastfeed their babies until they stop weaning at around 2 years old.

Here’s a picture of an HIV-positive mother with her child. I don’t know if the child is HIV-positive; I wasn’t sure if I had the right to ask her.


I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. It seems as if this information would be of more significance when told to Malawians than to the rest of the world. But I guess a part of me is tired of living in ignorance. I once lived in ignorance and I don’t want the rest of the world to continue living in that same shadow of ignorance. I know it’s so easy for us to get caught up in all the trivial issues of our lives, like what colored A&F shirt should I wear today? Or why doesn’t that person like me? Why can’t I pay my bills with my six-figure job? Sometimes we forget that there’s a tiny little virus that’s killing millions off by the minute. And at the moment, there is no cure. Even the treatments can only temporarily inhibit the virus from destroying our immune system, yet if we missed one treatment, the medication is no longer effective and our bodies will start breaking down. But the reality is that there’s no cure. People can only fight for their lives if they haven’t given up on themselves already. I’ll spare you the details of how HIV/AIDS can slowly take one’s life. But I guess my take for today is this: get educated and get involved. Don’t let yourself fall into this bubble of ignorance and selfishness. Ask yourself, if you had HIV/AIDS, what would your life be like? If your husband cheated on you and now your baby has HIV, what would you do? What’s more important to you – the $40 shirt or the $40 education fee for an orphan? What’s at the forefront of your mind – how to get more people to like you or how to give more people better opportunities to live? What do your actions reflect – empowering yourself so that only you can advance in life or empowering others to make good decisions and actions so that they too can pay it forward? What it comes down to is this... what is at the core of your heart?

Tower of Babel

The Bible mentions God scattered people after they tried building a tower to reach him, and in order to prevent them from scheming against him, he gave them different languages to speak.

With that said, I’m absolutely baffled at how complex language can be. I’ve learned Chinese, Spanish, English, and now Chichewa. Chinese is hard because it’s the only language that’s based on pictographs, so words are interpreted based on the “pictures” that they represent. Spanish is all about male and female properties. The Bantu language has got to be one of the most complicated languages. For one thing, the “l” and “r” are used interchangeably, so I can never spell anything correctly (I used to be a Spelling Bee buff so that was driving me crazy). And the other thing is that you basically form a sentence out of ONE word. The way that I’d describe Chichewa is like this: since Spanish and French operate on male/female/neutral properties, Chichewa operates on ten noun classes. If you know Spanish, you’d know that you’re supposed to conjugate nouns depending on the male/female properties and the verbs according to I/we/he/she/they/informal you/formal you. Well, in Chichewa, there are ten ways to conjugate I/we/he/she/they/informal you/formal you and the verbs are conjugated depending on the noun subject of the sentence, so there are ten additional ways to conjugate the verbs. (All verbs usually start with “ku-“ and the “ku” is dropped when conjugated in a sentence.) Let me give you an example:

Kusewera – to play

Ndikusewera – I am playing.
Ndinasewera – I played.
Ndidzasewera – I will play.
Ndidzidzasewera – I will play myself (it doesn’t make sense technically but there’s a way to conjugate to indicate an action being done to oneself)
Tikusewerana – We are playing each other.
Mukuseweredwe – You are being played.
Akuseweretsa – They are playing (something).

Akukuseweretsa - They are playing you.

I’m pretty sure there are other rules that I haven’t learned yet or forgotten. And this is just conjugating verbs! I don’t even want to start with conjugating with the nouns.

That’s Chichewa, people. At least it’s not clicking.

Anyway, this week has been packed with activities. I feasted and played ball at the ambassador’s house (though I was disappointed that there weren’t rackets so I couldn’t play tennis… I know right? The ambassador has a tennis court too? And a swimming pool too!). Then, we played softball with the JICA (Japanese) volunteers. And let’s just say that we were SCHOOLED (I didn’t play, but of course I would’ve led our team to victory!). These Japanese take the sport very seriously! But I did get to play a bit when they decided they had enough of the slaughtering. Then, we went to a Thanksgiving Moon house party that one of the Peace Corps staff was hosting.

Come Monday, I will be returning to my rat-infested house. Welcome home.

My host family and some neighbors.

My amayi cooking in the kitchen. I probably helped build that fire. haha

My family eating lunch at home. :)

Probably not the most appropriate picture to follow... but this was my chimbudzi ("toilet" = hole in the ground).

Gule Wamgulu ("traditional dance"). Nyau. They're said to be a secret society because they meet in graveyards at night and never reveal themselves in public.

In Food Coma

FOOD!

Food was pretty awesome! I only ate half my plate (dude, I gotta eat more) and half my desserts. What a bummer. There was a whole pig laid out on a platter but I didn't get to take a picture. Sorry. The day at the ambassador's was pretty awesome. The nicest house in all of Malawi... and probably one I'll never own even in the states. Anyway, I played some pool (I sucked as usual), grubbed, and played some rough n tumble. OMG. These boys are freakin huge... 6 feet tall, 200-pounders, larger-than-average homo sapiens. One of my teammates told me, "Just stand there and look cute. They won't hit you cuz, you know, you're small." Dude, he was so wrong. These guys were like bodyslamming me! Anyway, but it was still good to let out some energy... especially after all that grubbing.

Ambassador's House

Here are some pictures of the beautiful house that I'll never own in this lifetime.

-The chair on the left is a Chief Chair.

-There's a beautiful grand piano that I so love, a volunteer playing his violin, and some volunteers dancing.

:)

Folks

Anyway, I'm in a picture with probably the cutest baby in all of Malawi (he's my neighbor)... Too bad you can't actually see his face! haha He's staring at me because he thinks I'm an alien. Well, now he doesn't. haha The women keep trying to get me to breastfeed him. No way jose.

(I'm standing in the assembly hall where the president comes every year to celebrate Chilembwe holiday. My house is right behind. You can probably even see my papaya tree.)

My site periodically receives visitors from the states, because sponsors from the National Baptist Convention want to assist the mission. The most recent were 3 men from Chicago: a retired English professor, a preacher, and a... I'm not quite sure what he was. (I think they're from Alpine Church... apparently the pastor of their church is Barack Obama's spiritual advisor.) The preacher was my age and he wanted American food so bad, so he tipped the driver to take us and my site mate to the nicest restaurant in town for a good ol' American meal. He's a funny guy. He said that his grandfather (a former congressman) never looked at the menu, so when we arrived at the restaurant, he asked to talk to the chef and encouraged him to cook real American food. haha (I captured the moment because I thought it was so funny.) The meal was pretty sweet. The best and probably only burger I'll have in Malawi. :P

These are my site mates (other Peace Corps Volunteers). Eric (on the right) is an Education volunteer who lives 5 minutes from my house. He always makes me cook the chickens. Linda (on the left) is another health volunteer from my group. The one in the middle... that's Mini-Me. :P Look below for another picture.

We were a little traumatized.

Mua Mission

During training, we went to a cultural museum called Mua Mission. It was gorgeous, probably the most beautiful places I've seen in Malawi. I was absolutely blessed to learn some historical and cultural issues... because unfortunately, most Malawians (the younger generations at least) don't really know the culture and history of Malawi anymore. Now I'm on a quest to find an elder and learn as much as I can to preserve as much history about Malawi as I can.

OK, that's it for today! I'll come back again tomorrow! I'll be in town until Monday...