Pretty Woman

This Sunday afternoon Kelly and I ventured to the market in search of running shoes. I’m not quite sure what I was thinking when I packed and didn’t think that I might need a good pair of shoes in Africa, but I was so hell-bent on minimalist packing that I didn’t give it much thought. As a side note to that, everyone at CCA pre-departure training who was impressed by my packing job (*thank-you, I’m blushing*) should be aware that I really didn’t bring enough stuff. I have never said that in my life, but since the houseboy ruined some of my clothes in the wash, I have been wearing one skirt and alternating between blouses every three days at work... And I only have that much to wear because Tracy and I hit the mall in Ottawa! People definitely dress up more for work here than I imagined so all the t-shirts I brought don’t really cut it...there are a few shops here where I can pick up some more clothes, but the selection is fairly poor. But I digress...

Back to the market. There is a huge used clothing market in Lilongwe where the cast-offs of church bazaars and Value Village come to rest. Amazingly, some times you can actually find some good stuff, but you have to be willing to work hard. Everything is arranged so that you have a stall of skirts, a stall of jeans, a stall of bed sheets and even a stall of ties! There is also a whole area devoted to used shoes. Once I walked in there and it was obvious I was in the market for running shoes, I had the most dedicated 10 men at my service! Running this way and that way, bringing shoes and holding them for me to slip my feet into - I felt I like was in Pretty Woman in the scene where she goes shopping and has all the people waiting on her (not of course, the scene where she goes shopping and they think she’s a prostitute). It could have been quite hectic, if not for the fact that it was kind of funny because no shoe seemed to fit! I finally found a pair – not too used looking, not too ugly and not too big or small. Now it comes to the bargaining: The guy started at 7500 kwatcha ($55). My reaction? “but they are USED shoes!” I give him credit though – always start high in the hopes that some chump will pay it. I ended up paying 3500 kwa (“maximum price!”) and he was probably still laughing all the way to the bank...


"But they are USED shoes!"

As a side note, I should add that I should have factored the cost of super glue into the price of my new used shoes. After about an hour of Ultimate Frisbee, the sole started falling off... Is it true that you get what you pay for? I think I might have gotten less

AIDS in Malawi

Everyday when I come into the office, I usually spend some time checking my e-mails, looking for anything interesting on the BBC or CBC web page and looking at the Malawian newspaper. The other day there was quite the headline: “75% Decrease in AIDS Deaths”. Wow. Apparently, since the government has introduced free antiretroviral treatment (ARVs or ARTs) to those living with HIV, the number of people who have died of AIDS has decreased 75% from the 2003 and 2004 numbers. Quite impressive, although there are still some things to remember: A 75% decrease in deaths says nothing about the amount of new infections that are happening. Yes, it is great that more people are surviving, but there needs to be a significant shift in behaviour change to ensure that people are not being infected in the first place. It seems to me that although there are signs all over the place educating people on the ABC’s of AIDS (Abstinence, Be Faithful, Condom use) people don’t seem to really talk about it. I think there is still a stigma around being labeled as being HIV+, and no one seems to want to discuss it. Fair enough if you don’t want the world to know, but at least get tested for the sake of your own health. Once people know their status, they can go on living positively - taking medication and eating well and therefore continuing to be productive members of society. There is also no mention of the problem of Access (wouldn’t Rupen be proud!). The government is providing free ARVs to people, but there aren’t enough and the chance of getting them free at the government hospitals is, I hear, slim. You have a much better chance of getting them at one of the private hospitals. But of course, then you have to have the cash. There is also the problem of getting all this medication out in the rural areas – although I hear DIGNITAS and our friend Dr. Orbinski, are doing quite well at this.

I have started doing some interviews of employees and members of the FINCOOP SACCO (Savings and Credit Cooperative) in order to help put together a draft of an HIV/AIDS and gender policy. One of the employees that I spoke with mentioned that a man once came in and wanted to close his savings account because he had found out that he was HIV+. He assumed that he as going to die and therefore didn’t need his savings anymore. Seems a little backward, no? If at any point in his life he needed to have a stash of savings – for himself and for is family – it is now. At no other time in history has Malawi had more orphans or single parent families, and therefore MUSCCO and the SACCOs are trying to play more of a role in bringing financial education to those living with HIV/AIDS. The idea is to get people saving more and accessing more credit for business ventures and therefore they will be able to support a healthy lifestyle longer. There is even a great insurance program whereby if you die, your loan is cancelled and the amount of your savings is doubled and given to your beneficiaries. Impressive! What we need to do here is make people aware of this. Not only does this help both the infected and affected, but is helps to ease the burden and mitigate the negative impacts of HIV/AIDS.

That’s it for the heavy stuff for now. NEXT TIME: Anna buys shoes at the market...

Meat and Banana Soup

Leroy and Findlay, two of my co-workers, decided that it was high time I got away from eating Chicken and Chips takeaway for lunch and had some real African food. Today they took Elsie and me to this random little restaurant on the outskirts of the city for meat and banana soup. Yes, meat and banana soup. Not two things that you would normally put together, but are actually quite complimentary. I was reminded of the banana burgers in South Africa. Picture this: An open air restaurant with loads of flies, plastic lawn chairs and low wooden tables, a chipped enamel bowl of broth, a hunk of boiled goat ... and a cooked banana. In Africa style, it is all eaten with your hands (except for the broth of course – you get a spoon)

According to Leroy, meat and banana soup is the perfect hangover breakfast.

Eat your heart out Mel’s Diner...

Gender Awareness Workshop in Mzuzu

Last weekend I traveled up to Mzuzu with my co-workers Innocent and Violet (as well as Lena and her baby son, who were travelling up to Mzuzu for the weekend to see her husband) to help facilitate a Gender Awareness Workshop for the SACCO members in the Northern Region. This was, I hope, the first of many office trips, as it was really nice to get out of Lilongwe and see some more of this beautiful country! There isn’t too much on the road between Lilongwe and Mzuzu (the biggest city in the North) but the road is well paved and there is a lot to look at out the window. The whole way is dotted with small, mud brick houses, and the occasional small town – even the smallest places have the requisite magenta and black Zain cell phone shops! There are always people walking on the side of the road – people going to and from work, the fields, the markets, carrying any myriad of things. I think this was what I remembered most about traveling in Africa a few years ago, and the picture that has stuck most in my mind - women in chitenjies, walking slowly in a line and swaying, with buckets of water on their heads. For me, it optimizes the romanticized notion of Africa... although the more you learn, the more you realize the fact that these women have probably walked for miles, have back and neck problems, have many more hours of work to do before they can rest, and the water they have worked so hard to get may even be making them and their families sick. Ugh. We all have miles to go before we sleep.

The workshop was held at the St. John of God Centre, which was a really great facility – a gorgeous, big room, complete with power point presentations and lunch and refreshments provided. It was facilitated by Mrs. Makhambela, a gender specialist from the Malawi Human Right Resource Centre, and over the two days, she presented on a number of different issues including Sex vs. Gender (ie gender as a cultural construction), Equity and Equality, Women’s rights as Human Rights and Gender Based Violence. This was all done in order to sensitize the SACCO members to gender issues in the hopes that they will go back to their SACCOs and present what they have learned at the workshop. The goal is to get people thinking about these issues as a first step to developing a gender policy for the organization and mainstreaming gender into their programmes. I think all the information was well received, and although there were only 5 women out of 18 participants, everyone seemed quite motivated about this issue. Gender awareness is nothing new, but there is still a bit of a perception – as one older man felt – that ‘doing gender’ basically means that men will have to do women’s work. He was concerned that this was going to change the culture and that the men would be expected to cook and take care of the children. It’s important to realize that talking about ‘gender’ is talking about men and women and placing equal value on the work of both. As I was sitting there listening to the presentation, it occurred to me that it wasn’t so long ago that we in Canada were dealing with these same issues.

The information was presented in English, but most of the discussion was in Chichewa. Unfortunately for me, I felt that the majority of the most interesting information was probably in the discussion, and I couldn’t understand what was going on. Violet was translating a bit for me, but it’s hard to ask someone to do that for you all day! I need to learn some Chichewa! I didn’t realize how important this was going to be, because I was under the impression that everyone spoke English. While this is true, people mostly just use it in the workplace, and for formal things, and all the office chatting and regular life stuff happens in Chichewa. I’m not going to kid myself into thinking that I can become fluent, but a basic understanding - just so I have some clue about what is going on with out having to ask all the time - is definitely needed.

We have two more Gender Awareness Workshops coming up in the Centre and Southern Regions in September, and I’ll also be heading back up north in September to do some situational interviews with SACCO members and management to see what kinds of things we can put into an HIV/AIDS policy and a Gender Policy. I feel like I’m getting a much better hold on what I’ll be doing here, and have a better sense of the concrete work that I’ll be producing. I was a bit at odds for the first few weeks, kind of wondering what I was actually supposed to be doing, but I think all will be well.

Here's picture of a little market on the way to Mzuzu, and the MUSCCO truck. Lots of potatoes and tomatoes!

IPMP in Africa

It seems like we were talking all year about ‘meeting up in Africa’ - This weekend it finally happened! As Kelly B and I are both living and working in Malawi, we were able to meet up this weekend when Kelly came in from Dedza, to Lilongwe where I am living. Did all sorts of ‘city things’ like use the internet, eat at Nando’s Chicken, and get Gelato ,and then we were lucky enough to be invited to a wedding of a friend of one of my co-workers! I’d say it was quite a nice wedding at the Lilongwe Golf Club, and there were loads of people there. No invitations necessary for a Malawian wedding – just show up if you know the bride and groom. We went for the reception part, which was the guests all sitting under a big tent, with the bridal party at the front, and the MC would call up groups of people to dance up to the front and throw money. It was all in Chichewa, so luckily my friend Elsie from work was there or we would have been a bit lost. The MC will say ‘all the friends of the bride come up!’ or call up the grooms parents friends, and then you kind of dance up the aisle to the front and throw kwatcha notes into the air, that the bride or groom tries to catch in a big basket. It doesn’t matter what you throw, so it’s better to have a stash of 20 kwatcha notes rather than having only 500 kwatcha notes to throw :)

On Friday night, I was invited out for a work dinner to a fancy Indian restaurant. It was great to hang out with people outside of work and get to know everyone a bit better. The place we went was as nice of a restaurant as any fancy Indian restaurant at home - I'm still wrapping my head around the assumptions of what Africa should 'look like'. Yes, there is extreme poverty in Malawi - the kind you think of when you think of Africa - but there is also quite a bit of wealth. I want people to realize that Africa is not all starving people and dying babies. Yes, it does exist, but Africa is also fully stocked grocery stores, fancy restaurants and iphones. I do realize however that in the week and a half that I have been here, I have been contained in the Lilongwe bubble, which is not an accurate representation of the majority of the population. Spending more on dinner on a friday night than I'm sure many people in this country can't even dream of takes some getting used to. Its all quite an interesting 'juxtaposition', if you will.

I went out afterwards with Elsie, her cousin and a friend for a night out on the town. This turned into a 3 bar, 3am kind of night, which is quite a change from my usual night in the hostel when its 8:30 and we are wondering when the earliest acceptable time is that we can go to bed. We saw an Irish band play at a bar called Chameleon (who coincidentally stayed at the hostel last night, so we hung out and I was happily immersed in their 'Irish-isms') and then to another venue to hear a local Malawian band called the Black Missionaries. They are super cool! Very fun reggae, African stuff all sung in Chichewa.

I've been spending my evenings outside of work mostly hanging out at the hostel and mostly playing the most addicting game in the world, called Bao. You may have seen the boards around - a piece of wood with carved out cups for marbles or stones. It's basically dropping the marbles in the cups and trying to get rid of your opponent's marbles. The games take hours. Gin and Tonics and Bao after work. Its a good life.

MUSCCO

I have now been in the office at MUSCCO (Malawi Union of Savings and Credit Co-operatives) for a week now. I have my own office, desk, phone and internet, which is more than I was expecting when I pictured being an intern in Africa! I’m the new HIV/AIDS and Gender Program Officer here, and my job for the next 6 months is helping MUSCCO develop an HIV/AIDS and Gender policy. They have already hired a gender consultant who has done the initial research and gender audit of the organization and once she submits her report, we can start formulating a gender policy and an implementation plan. Unfortunately, writing policies was the one thing we did not cover in IPMP, so I’m going to have to learn pretty fast! lol. I’m also going to be working with some of the smaller community savings and credit co-operatives (SACCOs) to help them develop and implement their own policies, and I hope, help them to write proposals for funding so they can implement some community education programs.

There seems to be a lot of work to do, although I feel as though I haven’t contributed too much yet. I guess I’m still getting a feel for the place and trying to take my own initiative to figure out what little things I can work on. Everyone else seems pretty chill here too, so I guess I can follow suit! When in Rome... or Lilongwe, for that matter.

I’m looking forward to going to a Gender Awareness workshop in the north next weekend, held for the Northern SACCOs and I’ll be doing some interviews there to find out what effects HIV/AIDS has had on the communities and how the SACCOs are being affected, as well as what they are doing to mitigate the affects.

Everyone here is really nice and helpful and I feel like this organization is doing a lot of good work. It’s a bit different that the usual NGO development, because it is an association of credit unions and therefore a for-profit business. This is actually quite good for the sustainability of their projects because the purpose of the SACCOs is to be self sustaining and therefore there is little reliance on outside donors! Study Groups from the SACCOs get together to discuss issues in their communities and come up with their own local solutions, and MUSCCO’s role is mainly just capacity building and connecting Study Circles with other organizations that can help them run programs.

As during our orientation with CCA in Ottawa, I feel that I have been converted to the co-operative movement! I really think that Co-ops are the way to sustainable development...

First Days in Malawi...

I have been in Malawi for 4 days now, and have spent my time getting acquainted with my new city, new job and new friends. It is hard to know how to describe this place, perhaps that it why this first post from Malawi has been 4 days in coming!

I arrived on Sunday afternoon after a marathon of flights, happily broken up though by a nice visit in Covent Garden with dear friends Jo and Charlie whom I know from my South African days. I even had a day room in London, which was nice, not only because it was in a hotel that I would never be able to afford at regular rates, but because I could have a shower and a nap! Sleep always evades me on these overnight flights, although Tyler was nice enough to let me sprawl all over his space, which helped at little :) After another overnight flight to Nairobi, and a flight touching down in Lusaka, I arrived in Lilongwe. When you approach the Lilongwe from the air, there doesn't appear to me much of a city at all! It looks like what you picture Africa to look like - dry grass, with scrubby trees and small huts and houses dotting the landscape. The airport itself is a small little building with tropical plants, with one door leading leading in from the runway, one lady working at the customs line, and one luggage carousel. To my amazement, my bags actually made it. I had my doubts, when I checked them in three days before in Ottawa, but there they were! Kudos to Air Canada and Kenyan Airways! Time for a big breath to calm my nerves, and as I walked out into the arrivals area, there was a man with a sign reading "WELCOME TO MUSCCO HANNAH". That was good enough for me :)

Henry, the driver is a man of few words and didn't say much on the drive into the city, but I was busy looking out the window and taking it all in. I'm in Africa again! Watching people walking down the dusty, red side of the road, carrying things and seeing all the small huts off in the distance made me smile. Ah, Africa. He dropped me off at the Area Three Guest House where I stayed for the first two nights of my stay. It was really nice and very clean, and my room had a big double bed, TV, bathtub and shower. This was exactly what I needed after my long plane journey. It was a bit pricey - Canadian standards pricey - so I'm now staying at a hostel until I get something more permanent set up, but it was what I needed for the first few days! The men working there were super nice, if not a bit too nice - I feel like they were waiting on me hand and foot! I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit worried and a little freaked out when I got here - there are just a lot of uncertainties of moving to Africa. I had a little moment where I wondered what the heck I had just done, and whether or not I would like the job, make any friends or be lonely for my whole time here, but it passes, as it always does and things are definitely looking good. For those of you who know Ryan's Cultural Adaptation Curve, I tend to start on a downswing, but its swiftly up from there!

I think that I'm going to like it here in Lilongwe - the city seems friendly (compared to many places I've been, the hassle factor is pretty low) and the job seems like it is going to be really good (more on the job and MUSCCO later. I think it deserves its own post!) I'm worried that I might be getting a false sense of what Malawi is like though. Lilongwe is the capital, and even though it is small, you can find anything you need at the Shoprite ( its like any small town grocery store back home), and the expat/well-to-do Malawian population is big enough that there are enough restaurants and shops to keep you busy. I know that the rest of the country and the majority of the people in it, do not live this type of lifestyle so I'm looking forward to getting out of the city and into the heart of the warm heart of Africa.