New Developments

It has been a long time since I’ve actually written anything of note, so here’s a post to fill you in on what I’ve been up to these last few weeks and new developments in my life.

It’s hard to believe that the end of November is fast approaching. I’m coming up to the 4 month mark in my internship and have actually decided to extend my contract for another 3 months. My initial 6 month contract ended at the end of January, so now with the extension, I will be working until the end of April, and be home in June. I like my job, but its not exactly what I want to be doing, however I realize that this is just ‘step one’ so I’m taking the opportunity while I’m here to meet as many people as I can and see what other possibilities are out there. Extending my contract means that I’ll be around long enough, hopefully, to see some of the implementation of the policies we have been working on at work, and play a bit of a role in the new HIV/AIDS mainstreaming project (fingers crossed). An extra three months in Malawi means I have 9 months under my belt, rather than 6, and I have more time here to see what other options I have (read: get someone to give me a job). The last thing I want is to be yet another jobless intern-returnee, so I’m hoping to have something lined up for my life post-internship. More than anything, I just like being here, so its also just good way of staying a bit longer.

I’ve moved flats, and am now temporarily roommates with my friend Francesca. Kanthu and I got word that we needed to move out of our place by December 1, as the flat is actually owned by an organization who has an expat coming to Malawi and they will be needing the place. I realized after to talking to friends about rooms for rent that I was getting a ridiculously good deal on rent by living in a flat in Area 11, rather than renting a room in a full house and having to pay for such extra trivial things as walls and guards. Area 11 is actually really safe, nice, and cheap and moving to Francesca’s meant that the actual move was easy as she lives just round the corner. You don’t get a huge garden and swimming pool like you might in some of the other expat-y areas, but we have an avocado tree outside the door, so that is good enough for the moment. (un)Luckily, Francesca is moving to Washington in mid-December, and I’ll be able to take over her room. I’ll be living with Rusty, a quirky middle-aged South African lady and it should be really good as the place is much ‘homier’ than my previous flat. Rusty has a very cool “Afro-Boho” sense of style which I love about the place as well. She is currently on holiday until the middle of December, so I decided to move in a bit earlier to be roomies with Francesca for a few weeks. It’s great as we just stand in the kitchen, drink tea, chat and eat whatever happens be in the fridge, straight out of the container.

The last few weekends have been quite busy. Believe it or not, a few weekends ago, I was part of an International African Football tournament. Yes, that’s right. Anna and competitive team sports. I’ve been playing football on Tuesdays with the Lilongwe Womens Football Club, which is really just a bunch of expat women who play for “the fun and the fitness”, and we were invited through some connection to play against a team in Mozambique, in a town called Metangula, just on the other side of the Lake. It was a very LONG bus ride for a very SHORT game, but the atmosphere was something else as I think the whole town turned up to watch us play. We lost, of course, but only 2 -0, so we didn’t get killed, but after the game the entire crowd stormed the field (which was really just a patch of ground at the airport – which was really just a strip of dirt and a building) and circled around us cheering. Quite the scene – big enough in fact to get a TV crew, National Mozambique Radio, and the mayor all out for the evening. It is election time in Mozambique, and any cause for a crowd is also cause for a FRELIMO political rally!


Anna the football star


Me being interviewed for National Mozambique Radio

I was lucky enough last weekend to be invited to my friend Leigh’s parent’s cottage in Monkey Bay. Leigh is South African and works for GTZ (Germany’s version of CIDA) and whose parent’s happen to live in Lilongwe as well. The weekend was fabulous. The cottage (and by cottage I mean Beach House with veranda, swimming pool and lawn down to the beach with palm trees and baobabs...) was gorgeous and we had a great time sipping drinks, having a Braai (BBQ, for the non-South Africans), going swimming and just generally lazing about. We drove to Cape Maclear on the Saturday afternoon and hired a boat to take us out to an island where we had picnic and went snorkelling. I knew Malawi was famous for its fish, and the millions of kind of Cichlids, but I wasn’t prepared for the sheer volume of fish in the water, or for the bright colours! Will, if you are reading this, I felt like I was swimming through the aquarium you used to have. Amazing. We also got to watch the boat guys feed the fish eagles. We bought fish from two boys in a dugout canoe and watched as the driver threw the fish in to the water. These huge eagles would then soar down majestically from the treetops and swipe the fish right out of the water in one fell swoop. Mike, remember the Okavango?


The Cottage


Swimming with the fishies.

Oh yeah, I also got a wicked tan last weekend. I hear it is snowing in Canada??

So, all in all, I’m doing well. I feel a bit less guilty for not posting for ages now that I’ve crammed everything in to one Super Post.

Until next time...

A Day in the Life of Anna: Part 3 - After Work

After 3 and a half months in Malawi, I feel as though I’ve settled into a bit of a routine. When I first arrived, I couldn’t really picture a day when I would ever really feel like I had settled in, but its amazing how quickly everything becomes normal life.

If nothing much is happening after work, I catch the Area 12 minibus home from outside of Shoprite, usually after picking up at least something from there or some bananas or mangos from one of the women who carry baskets of fruit. It’s about $1 (or 150 kwa) for a bunch of 15 bananas, and they are infinitely better than the ones at home, which I now realize are tasteless! The sidewalk in front of Shoprite is crowded with mini-bus touts all yelling where their minibus is going, and trying to fill their minibus up as fast as possible. Buses only leave when they are full, so they quicker they can fill up, the more trips they can take and the more paying cutomers they have! It costs 100 kwacha to go anywhere in the city, and I go from Old Town, where I work, to City Centre and get dropped off at the Capital Hotel. From there it is about a 5 minute walk home through Area 11. Kanthu, my flatmate, and I never really seem to cross paths too much when I’m home so usually my evenings are my own if I’m in. I cook some dinner, and then either read, write in my journal, or watch Desperate Housewives DVDs, which I bought from the market and am now addicted to.

If I have any plans after work, I usually stick around the office until then and try to get where I am going before dark, as the minibuses stop running, and since I don’t have a car, I need to be at my destination for the evening at about 6pm. On Tuesdays, I’ve been playing football with the Lilongwe Women’s Football Club, which is really just a bunch of expat women who kick a foot ball around at the football pitch at the Golf Club, but we do actually have a coach and do proper drills. I’m never much one for competitive sports when I am home – it seems to be a bit of an overseas phenomenon, but it is a great way to meet people and quite fun. On Wednesday, the place to be is The Shack, a bar in town that runs beach volleyball on Wednesday evenings. The teams were set up before I arrived, and once I realized that I could go, and not play, and just drink beer, I was all in. Usually at some point during the week as well, I go out for dinner with some friends. There isn’t a huge selection of restaurants in Lilongwe, but there are enough to do a rotation, and not long ago I discovered they have gelato at Mama Mia’s, which made me quite happy. Fridays might involve heading to Chameleon for some drinks and then on the weekend, Kelly usually comes into town (although she is finished her contract in Malawi and gone now! ) or we try to head off somewhere.

That’s about it! A Day in the Life of Anna in Malawi. I think people might be surprised that what I do on a day-to-day basis living in Africa is not that much different than what it would be in Toronto, although I do admit that living in Lilongwe, the capital, is probably like living in an alternate reality to the rest of Malawi...

A Day in the Life of Anna: Part 2 - At the Office

The MUSCCO Offices are upstairs, above FINCOOP, and all the offices open on to one centre hallway. I am the first office on the right, and I share with Violet and Triza. The first thing I do when I get in – and indeed what I do for probably the first hour if the internet is working – is check my e-mail and the major news headlines. It takes a while to get productive in the morning and usually I try to get a hold of the one newspaper that is always floating around the office.

Depending on if we have just done some kind of field work or interviews there may or may not be something to type up, but Violet and I usually just putter around, working on MUSCCO’s policies or the policies that we are helping some of the SACCOs develop. At some point in the morning I’ll pop in to Leroy’s office across the hall for some guidance, or to just touch base, and I usually stop by Elsie’s office to say hello to her and Lena for a bit, and I chat for a bit with Masutano and Killian. All the people in the accounts department seem to be much busier (and more productive?) than we are. lol.

12:00 is lunch time, and usually Elsie and I will go off somewhere. Now that Killian is at the office, he and I go out for lunch a lot together as well. Lunch of choice is usually chicken and chips from Summer Park, or a salad at the Bohemian Café if I’m feeling in a healthy mood. I really like Summer Park because it is the closest thing to sitting in a park eating my lunch that there is in Lilongwe. I would bring my lunch more, but if I do, it means I have to sit at my desk the whole time because there really is no where that you can sit outside to eat without actually having to be in a restaurant. I also might run some errands, or pick up some groceries, or pop into Bookmart, the used bookstore across the road to look around.

Back to the office at 1:00, or shortly thereafter. The afternoon is much the same as the morning – we do different things each day depending on what is coming up, or what we have just done, so it is hard to describe a ‘typical’ day of office work, but that is definitely what I like about the job. The view from my desk always keeps my occupied as well. I look across the road to the Kiboko Town Hotel which always has an interesting mix of travelers coming and going. There seem to be quite a lot of beggars and street vendors around Mandala Road (perhaps because this is the ‘touristy’ part of town, if you can even call it that) and it is interesting to watch the interplay of people.

When 4:30 rolls around, it is time to knock off. Depending on the day, I’ll either head straight home, or stick around the office for a bit if I have some plans in the evening.

Part 3 to come soon...A Day in the Life of Anna: After Work