November December Updates

So sorry for the lack of updates… I’m sure some are dying to know how I’m doing and what I’m doing… I’ve had a lot of things that’s happened. Some are good and some are bad… November was indifferent. December was a good month despite some not so great situations. Here’s an extra long update from the last few months.

I spent November in Dedza for 2 weeks of In-Service training with a week break and then the last week we had language intensive training. The first 2 weeks consisted of the normal group work and different sessions regarding IGAs (income generating activities), funding sources, nutrition, etc. The first week was for just the volunteers; then the 2nd week each volunteer brought a Malawian counterpart. It was a way for Peace Corps to explain and show the counterparts the role of a PC volunteer and also how they can help their volunteer. It was interesting to see the other volunteers’ counterparts. The 2nd week when the counterparts were there, Stevie and Theresa (2 volunteers) had a big fight. Theresa (who was having lots of issues medical and social) was requested by the Country Director of PC to be medically separated. She flew home during the 3rd week of November. Being medically separated a probably the best way to go home since you get all the benefits that comes along with being a volunteer. It’s like being honorably discharged of military service. It was really sad to see her go… a lot of volunteers in my group did not like her but I did. She was friendly and generous to everyone and I enjoyed her company. Our group of 22 became 18.

During our week off, I went with Cathy, Sophie (Cathy’s dog), and Kristen to Cathy’s site. The travel to her house was so exhausting. It was a really bad hitch-hiking day, especially with the dog. We also ran into Stevie and her dog, Sparky. So there were 4 girls and 2 dogs. Hitching was almost impossible. We sat on the back of a pickup for 1/3 of the way then were dropped off in the middle of nowhere to find another ride. It took awhile but 2 pickups stopped for us - me and Kristen in one, Cathy and Stevie and the 2 dogs in the other. When we got to Salima, Stevie and Sparky went to see Ken who lives in the boma (=town). Stevie had to take 2 bicycle taxis (1 for her giant backpacking backpack, 1 for her and Sparky). Luckily, I, Kristen, Cathy and Sophie ran into an ambulance for Cathy’s health center. They drove us all the way to her house! The poor girl lives in an old house with no running water and no electricity. She is having the real PC experience- carrying water to her house from the bore hole, cooking with a paraffin stove and using a pit latrine. I feel bad for her but extremely grateful for my situation. However, she is making the most of the situation and dealing with it. She is the easy going type, goes with the flow, and has adapted very well to her community. She also speaks Chichewa way better than I do. Cathy’s a real trooper. =0) We spent one day at her house, seeing how she’s living and meeting some of her neighbors. Then the next day, we stood on the side of the tarmac road for about an hour trying to find a ride to the Salima boma to see Ken. 4 freezies (cold juice in a plastic bag sold on the side of the road) each later, we paid a minibus. We hung out with Ken at his office and then went back to his house. He lives in a really nice house with running water and electricity… but the 1 night we spent there… there was no electricity or running water. His house is surrounded by a brick fence with 1 neighbor inside the fence also. We made cheese sandwiches over a paraffin stove and sat around and talked. The next morning it rained really hard but still no water from the tap, Kristen and Cathy decided to brush their teeth and wash their hair in the rain water coming down the roof. Boy, how our hygiene standards have lowered since being here. We hitched all the way to Nkhotakhota Pottery (almost to the northern lakeshore) where we met with Jill, Katie, Jen, and Brian who were already there. Brian left that day and left me his tent. Kristen and Cathy shared a tent. This was my first time to the lake and man was it beautiful. We lounged around all day. I sunbathed and read on the beach. I didn’t want to go into the water since bilharzias (shistosomiasis, sp?) is present in the water. It was so nice and relaxing. It was kind of weird to be at a vacation resort made for foreigners but when you walk farther down the beach are at a village. There are villages all around the resort. Women go to the beach to collect water and carry the buckets of water from the lake back to their homes. It was hard to see how close these people live and yet how different they live. We spent 3 days there and then went back to Dedza. Language training was tedious and long. We had 3 days of training and then it was Thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving lunch at the US ambassador’s house in Lilongwe. There was no turkey or stuffing. It was really sad. I had no turkey this year. We had 2 roasted pigs instead. I miss the 2 Thanksgiving meals I use to have with Jason’s families. I even had turkey last year at Limandri’s office! It just wasn’t the same.

Then December came. December was a good month. I think it’s because I was in high spirit, knowing that Jason was coming to see me on the 22nd. My countdown for Jason’s arrival began on October 2nd (when he bought the ticket). I returned to my house fearing that I would find that the bats have taken over my house. To my surprise, there were none. However, I think they poked a hole through my roof and now I have a leak in the living room instead. I guess I would trade the bats for a leak.

I was at my house for about 5 days when I got my first ever visitor on Friday! Tracey had come to stay with me for a night and we would proceed together to Kristen’s house for her birthday the following day. Kristen is probably one of my favorite volunteers in PC. She lives down the same unpaved crappy road about 55 km from my house. I took Tracey to meet my village chief, Chinkole, who does not speak any English. I think the chief likes her better since she speaks better Chichewa than I do. In my defense, Cathy and Tracey both are surrounded by people who know little or no English at all so they’re forced to speak it. Everyone that lives around me, speak English very well. We were stuck at the Chief’s house for like 3 hours because she would not let us leave! She wanted to chat with us. But it was then that I decided that I would visit the chief more often to force myself to speak Chichewa. Anyways, on the 6th of December (Kristen’s bday), Tracey and I got up early and went take a matola (truck that carries 50+ people along with luggage, livestock, and everything else on the back) which is the only way to get to Kristen’s house. I asked the driver multiple times to make sure he was going all the way to Kristen’s site. Each time, he reassured me that he was. 500 Malawi Kwacha to get us there. I even had a traffic police ask to be sure! We waited on the truck from 7am until 9:45am when the truck was finally full with people and crates of Chibuku (local beer sold in milk cartons). Let me remind you that the road is as bad as can be so we’re going really slowly. We are also making a million stops to let people off and to pick up people. 2 hours into the ride, we’re still about 20 km from Kristen’s, the driver tells us (in Chichewa) that he wasn’t going any farther because he wanted to go back 20 km to transport maize! He wanted to charge us 500 kwacha for both. After bargaining with him for about 10 minutes, he finally kicks us out for 400 kwacha. Bike taxis wanted to charge us 400 kwacha to go the rest of the way. I laughed at them! It was only supposed to take us 500 kwacha to get all the way on a vehicle. Little did I know that it was big mistake to try and save about $3 US! Thinking that there would be other transport options along the way, Tracey and I started walking. I had to carry Kristen birthday present, a grass mat. There were no other means of transport that day. We kept asking people along the way how much farther. The answer was ALWAYS the same: pafupi (=close). I was tired and cursed Kristen the whole way. We walked from noon until 2:30pm, the hottest time of the day, in Africa. Some nice guys stopped and talked to us as we rested under the shade of a tree. They offered to bike us to the next village. We still had about 10 km left to go… both are exhausted. There were no bike taxis to be found and not one car passed us. Feeling really hopeless and not having any other option except walk. A minute later, we hear a vehicle! We waved them down. It turned out to be a bakery truck but there was no room. It was a boxed truck with only sitting room in front with the driver and the passenger. There was a middle space, which Tracey took. I was left sitting on the passenger guy’s knees! How awkward and uncomfortable! But we were excited to have a ride. We get dropped off at the turnoff for the lodge when we ran into Katie who was also attending the birthday. She had NO problems getting there. We walked the 1 km to the lodge and when we finally arrived; I realized that I had left the grass mat (which I lugged for 2.5 hours) in the bakery truck! Those guys were really nice and drove the mat all the way up to the lodge for me. We left my house at 6:30am and finally got to Kristen around 4:30pm. It was a horrible day. But once we got there, everything else was fine. There was Kristen, Ross, Becky, Cathy, Katie, me and Tracey. It was a lot of fun. We played games, talked, and had a nice dinner. The lodge was really nice too which is really random. Who would stay there? There’s nothing around for tourists to see, only villages in the middle of nothing down a really bad road. The next morning, Cathy, Katie, me and Tracey woke up at 4am to get on the road to go home. With no luck, we ended up going to Kristen’s house and spending a night at her house until Monday when the ambulance for her hospital goes to Blantyre. Besides the transport issue, everything else was fine. In Malawi, transportation is ALWAYS an issue.

I had a few meetings with the District Commissioner, District Health Officer, a CBO (community based organization), and local leaders to begin the project of building a guardian shelter for the health center. One of the HSA (health surveillance assistant) for my health center, Mr. Manjolo, came and helped me start a garden. I finally got a grass fence put up and was excited to have a garden. Without a fence, the goats, pigs, and cows would eat all your plants. We planted: tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley, broccoli, watermelon, cabbage, and sugar cane. A few days later, it began to sprout!

By the 18th, I was too excited to think about or do anything because Jason was coming in 4 days. So I left my house and went to Blantyre and then was in Lilongwe by the 20th, just sitting around waiting to pick him up. I made arrangements to get to and from the airport and also bought our bus ticket from Lilongwe to Blantyre.

Finally, the day I have been waiting for came. It took Jason 3 days to get to me. He drove 14 hours from Missouri to DC since flights through Chicago were delayed or cancelled. Then he flew from DC to Rome, Rome to Addis Abba with a 14 hour layover in Ethiopia, then the next day flying to Lilongwe. Along with many hours of travel, he lost 8 hours because of the time difference. Poor Jason! He was exhausted! He arrived with 2 extra large luggages, all for me! We were dropped off at the Peace Corps office and I showed him around the office and he got to see a little bit of Lilongwe since our bus to Blantyre wasn’t leaving until 4:30pm. We arrived in Blantyre around 9pm and were picked up by Allan (my Malawi dad- note that he’s not a Malawian dad because he’s from Mauritius but lives here). He took us to the Food Court for dinner. We spent the night at Allan’s nice house because Allan was driving us to my house the next day with the entire luggage along with a used full size refrigerator which Jason paid for. Trust me, if you came here, you’d understand why the fridge is very necessary. It was hot and dry before but it’s rainy season now so it’s hot and unbearably humid. We spent the day around Blantyre, waiting for Allan (a very busy man) to take us to my site which is about 1 hour drive from Blantyre. We finally arrived at my house around 5pm and were greeted by about 15 health center workers. They all helped carry the luggage and fridge into my house. We made dinner, ate, and then I unpacked the 2 luggage of things for me.

On Christmas Eve, I bragged about my garden and showed Jason all the sprouts that were growing in. Then I took him to the Chief’s house and then to the local market, which happened to be Market Day. Then we walked back from the market so he could see the village. He also got a tour of the health center. That evening the rain began to pour. It wasn’t just rain, but a heavy storm.

On Christmas day, I woke up to find my fence had fallen over during the night. Worst of all, It fell on top of my garden, killing everything! It would have been a really sad Christmas if Jason wasn’t here. We just spent Christmas together at my house. He needed the rest from all the traveling plus I had the best present ever (Jason) along with bits of home like SPAM, Vienna sausages, Mac & Cheese, shampoo, jammies, shoes, my Chucks, new backpack, a camcorder, etc!
After Christmas was when our Malawi adventure began. Jason got his first bike taxi ride as we left my site. The poor Malawian taking Jason was smaller than him and couldn’t make it all the way to the road. Jason wanted me to tip them each 50 kwacha (the ride is only 50 kwacha each) making it 100 kwacha each. But I couldn’t, I have to live here and I don’t want them thinking that I was rich and expect a tip every single time I get a ride (which is quite often). He insisted and I gave them each 80 kwacha. We were picked up by a German guy, Bert, working for Illovo (biggest sugar company in Malawi). He was very nice and told us about how he was bitten by the Malawi bug and have been here for 20 years. He dropped us off at Mrs. Su’s house (lady that is in charge of the construction project at the Buddhist temple/orphanage in Blantyre). She’s from Taiwan but has lived in Malawi for 30 years and has a business. She has basically adopted me. Every time I’m in Blantyre, I eat and stay at her house for free. She’s even loaned me a rice cooker. I’ve gotten to know everyone at her house (Mr. Su, her niece Shayla, Hector (her children’s friend doing his PhD in the UK), her nephew Lu, and all her house workers) very well so I wanted Jason to meet them. All her kids live in the UK, either with PhD or working towards one. We stopped by and had lunch with them. Then Lu dropped us off at Doogles, a backpacker’s hostel, where we were staying for the night.

The next day, we took a minibus to Zomba and hiked up the Zomba Plateau. It was horrible. Well, maybe just that I’m out of shape. Mind you, I live at sea level which means 0 elevations. I huffed and puffed and we had to stop many times so I can rest. About 2/3 of the way up, I abandoned my backpack. Jason ended up carrying his backpack, my backpack, the sleeping bad, and tent while I carried a water bottle and a Malawi guide book. I don’t think I would have made it up any other way! After 3 hours, we finally arrived at the top and went to the Ku Chawe Inn (fancy shmancy hotel/resort on top of the plateau) for lunch. We weren’t staying there. I ran into a Peace Corps Response volunteer (PC volunteer before but rejoined PC for different type of assignment), Sarah. After lunch, Sarah took us to her campsite, The Trout Farm. It was really cute so we camped there. A few hours into the night, it began to rain. I woke up because the inside of our tent was wet! We were on top of a puddle and the water was seeping into the tent from the bottom not the top. I had tested the rain flap before, it was good. I woke Jason up and we had to move the tent. We moved it under the gazebo thing nearby. The inside of the tent was wet and so was the sleeping bag. I’m lucky to have such an awesome boyfriend. He took his clothes and dried the tent. Then he went right back to sleep.

The next morning, we hung everything out to dry. Sarah left for Cape Maclear and we told her we’d meet her there the next day since we were heading there anyway. We met the couple camping next to us. Nice folks from South Africa. They told us they were driving around the whole plateau that morning before lunch and that we were welcome to come. After the hike up and the tent situation last night, I took the offer immediately. Zomba Plateau was amazing. We got to go a little off-roading too since the guy was a hardcore 4x4 enthusiast. We took a lot of pictures, at the very top, Chingwe’s Hole, William’s Fall, and everywhere else. We had lunch with them at Ku Chawe and I ran into Mrs. Su and her actual children who were visiting from the UK. That night we dried our clothes with the fire we made. It rained again that night but we were safe under the gazebo.

We left the Plateau in the morning and hiked down. It was a lot quicker going down, only 1.5 hours. We barely made it in time for the only AXA (bus company) bus going to Cape Maclear. These big buses are cheaper than the minibuses. They are the big charter buses that also take standing passengers. We stood for awhile until people started getting off. About halfway through the ride, the bus comes up to a truck going very slow. He decides to overtake the truck, but side swiped the truck in the process. We stopped to see if the truck was okay. They were carrying maize and it was spilling on the side. The bus driver picked up a side piece of the bus, stuck it in the luggage compartment and continued on. We were dropped off at the Cape Maclear turnoff and got on the back of a pickup with about 15 other people and a ton of boxes and luggage. We were barely hanging on and they stopped to pick up more people and more luggage. A car came with an older couple and I flagged them down. They asked where we were going and I told them, Chembe Eagle’s Nest (highly recommended by the South African couple). Lucky us, they were staying there also! Hop on! When we arrived, they told us they were taking their boat on the lake that afternoon, if we were interested. Interested? I was ecstatic! We found Sarah and then pitched our tent (praying for no rain). We had the sweetest tour of that part of the lake. Jason even got to fish a little. It was absolutely beautiful there. We enjoyed 2 relaxing days at the lake and eating good food from the restaurant that was there. Jason read and I flipped through celebrity magazines and played Sudoku on the beach.

We left Sarah on New Year’s Eve. We left Eagle’s Nest at 6am and walked through the village to catch a matola to Monkey Bay which was where the AXA bus was leaving to go to Lilongwe. We were going to Dedza Pottery in Dedza which is on the way to Lilongwe (depending on which road you take). The matola was packed with people and a ton of stuff, especially dried fish. Jason stood in front with the men, catching wind with their faces while I was in the back with the women, sitting on top of dried fish. We get to Monkey Bay just in time for the AXA bus to leave. I assumed we were going to the M1 (the main tarmac highway in Malawi, going from the very north all the way to the very south) which would take us right to Dedza. We got to Golomoti (where we were supposed to get off), one of the back tires of the bus blew, making a loud boom. With all the commotions, the conductor forgot to tell us to get off. We ended up taking the M5 (other highway) towards Salima, which is the wrong/long way to Dedza. I will never assume again. It was too late when we found out. So we decided to go to Lilongwe, stopping in Salima (where Ken lives) and then Dedza. I called Ken and he met us at the bus depot and met Jason. Then he left. We were at the bus depot for 3 hours while they fixed the tire on the bus. After fixing it, they told us they sent for another bus and so we had to wait. It was already 2pm and we were still an hour and a half away from Lilongwe and Dedza was another hour and a half to two hours from Lilongwe. I decided to talk to the supervisor of AXA to refund our money from Salima to Lilongwe so we can find other means to get to Lilongwe. He was very rude and would not give me the money back and just told us to wait, that another bus was coming. After waiting for 3 hours, I was not going to wait any longer. I wanted our money back because if we waited, by the time we get to Dedza, it would be dark. He was very rude and said “I don’t want to talk to you because you’re a women, I want to talk to him” and pointed to Jason. Oh my gosh! That made me so angry! He outright discriminated against me because of my gender. This is normal in their culture. But if you guys know me, you know that I would not allow that to happen. He tried to pull Jason aside and I was not having it. While Jason talked to him, another bus coming from Nkhata Bay (the north) arrived. I told the AXA guy “Don’t you ever disrespect me because I’m a woman. What is your name?” I pulled his name tag out of his shirt pocket, read his name and said “I will complain to AXA about you. You don’t disrespect me because I’m a woman.” Then I threw his name tag back at him and walked away. I was so angry; I could have punched him in the face. The next part was all too fitting for Malawi. There was a bus load of people trying to get off the bus and all the people from our bus trying to get on. There was absolutely no order to this. People pushed and shoved. There were security guards and AXA employees that did nothing. Jason and I were crammed and squished in the middle. Luckily, in a crowd of all Malawians, we were pretty easy to spot. Our conductor grabbed my hand and pulled and Jason pushed me into the bus. It was horrible. That whole process took about 45 minutes. We finally arrived in Lilongwe about 3:30pm and had to catch a minibus to Dedza. We sat on the minibus and waited for it to fill up for about half an hour. Now that I was sure we were going to Dedza, I called Dedza Pottery to book us a room there for the night. During that half hour on the minibus, people selling things would come up to your window and offer to sell it to you for a good price. We were offered everything you can think of, from combs, to tooth brushes, to hard boiled eggs, to belts, passport books, calendars, DVDs, sodas, silverware and dishes, toys, firecrackers, jewelry, etc. EVERYTHING! We were dropped off at the turnoff around 6pm, the sun had set and there was little light left. We had to walk another half an hour to get to Dedza Pottery. By the time we got there, it was pitched black. If you look at a map, from Cape Maclear to Dedza should not have taken 12.5 hours!

I was so glad to finally get to Dedza Pottery. This place is exactly like Nkhotakhota Pottery, owned by the same guy. They make all kinds of pottery, clay and ceramic things. The room we got was very nice; it even had a heater on the wall and a mini bar. We had dinner there and went to bed. It was New Year’s Eve and we were both exhausted and did not wait to countdown. We were passed out by 10pm.

On New Year’s Day, Jason bought a ton of pottery as souvenirs for his family and friends. Then we walked to a few local art shops on the way to road. We didn’t even get to the road before a couple from the Netherlands (I think) in an ambulance offered us a lift. After the horrific travel the day before, I was very grateful. We talked to them and found out that they were staying in the same hotel we were in Lilongwe so we got a ride all the way to the hotel. Since Jason was leaving the next day, we had a ton of things to take care of. We had to drop off the tent and sleeping bag at the transit house and so he can see it. To my disbelief, the guard would not let him in. I was told that I needed to have a letter from the PC office for any visitor to go into the house but I was never told this before. David, the guard, made Jason wait on the street. David is now on my Black List. We stopped at the Curio stand and ordered wooden keychain engraved with names and also bookends engraved with Jason’s last name. Then we went to the PC office to use the computer to transfer pictures from our cameras onto the hard drives so Jason could take both sets of pictures home. To no surprise, all the computers were taken and with a long waiting list. We left and headed back to the hotel and ran into Moni who I was really excited that Jason finally got to meet! We had pizza for dinner and talked in the lounge at the hotel with Moni.

And finally, the day I dreaded came. On the 2nd of January, we had breakfast with Moni and found that the people across the hall from us were going to the airport that morning. Though Jason’s flight wasn’t until 1, we took the 8:30am free ride to the airport anyways. Our adventure was over and I sat with him at the airport until he went to the departure gate.

Despite some unwanted yet not totally unexpected experiences, we had a great time. Malawi was so much brighter, happier, and more beautiful because of Jason. I had a great end of 2008 with him. He also enjoyed himself and got the REAL Africa experience. =0)