The Canadians are Coming!

For the last couple of weeks, we have had visitors from Canada at MUSCCO. CCA, the Canadian Cooperatives Association, runs a Credit Union Coaching program, where people who work at Credit Unions in Canada have the chance to come to Malawi for 2 weeks to work at the SACCOs and share skills and expertise. At the beginning of last week, there were 6 new Canadians in the office, and since then they have been dispatched around the country to work at a couple of different SACCOs and will all be returning tomorrow for a debriefing, before heading home. It was really great having fellow Canadians here and I really loved and answering all the questions they had and showing them around. After 7 months, I’m the Malawian expert! I was trying to explain about the cell phones and buying airtime – both for international and local calls, and how the mini buses work among other things. These things are second nature to me now – they just make sense, even though it might not appear that way to a new arrival. It made me realise how much I’ve learned about Malawi without even trying, and how much I’ve adapted to things here, which gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling.

Monique, from CCA, came along with the coaches too. She was the person who interviewed me for this job, and was there at the pre-departure training in Ottawa. She’s the one that I’m in contact with most at CCA, and has been an incredible course of support this whole time. I was really excited to see her and had a great time just chatting everything through over lunches and meetings. In one of our meetings, we talked about what I felt were the successes and challenges I’ve had here, and what I am proud that I have accomplished. Work related things aside, what I am most proud of here is that I was able to come to a place where I knew no one, and where I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and carve out a niche for myself. I’ve said it before in previous posts, but I’ve found my place – with work, with friends, and in the city. It’s a great feeling to know that I can do these things. Even though every time I go somewhere on my own - South Africa, Australia, Ireland and Malawi – and I curse myself on the first lonely night for putting myself in these situations, I always seem to come out okay – A little stronger, a little wiser and a little more sure of who I am.

That being said, as much as I love being away from home, I also love being home. I was quite excited when Monique mentioned some job postings coming up at CCA in Ottawa. So, we’ll see where I end up in the next few months… 10 months is kind of a long time to be away, without a visit home, or a visitor from home. I’m thinking that Canada will be my next destination. Although for how long always remains the question… 

In terms of work, things are picking up at MUSCCO after a slow period of about 5 months… haha. We have some workshops planned in the next couple of weeks, so I’ll be out of the office helping to organize things. We are going to be spending a week in Blantyre, and then another week at a conference centre about an hour north of Lilongwe. So, with Gender and HIV/AIDS policies out of the way, I’m currently swimming in workshop budgets, stationary orders and confirmation phone calls.