March-ing on...

Wow. Three weeks left of work. How did that happen?

This last month of work will be a lot of tying up loose ends and writing reports, and there doesn’t look like there is going to be much of an “end of internship rush”, which is kind of nice, and means that I'll have plenty of time to work on post-internship job applications! As I have been quite horrible about posting on my blog for the last little while (and if anyone is still even bothering to read this) I’ll back track a bit to March. March was quite a busy month at work – we had two weeks of workshops out of the office! We spent a week in Blantyre doing a Gender Training of Trainers workshop, and an HIV/AIDS Awareness workshop for our SACCOs in the Southern Region, and a week in Mponela doing the same thing for the Northern and Central Regions. The workshops were designed to teach participants how to sensitize others at the SACCO about the issues surrounding Gender Equality and HIV/AIDS in the workplace and to teach them how to mainstream the issues in the SACCO operations. Everyone always seems quite motivated at these workshops, which is motivating for me, but I think a lot of follow-up will be necessary on the part of MUSCCO to ensure that everything that people learned doesn’t just fade away.

There was a group of women at the Blantyre trainings, who were especially interested, and at the end of the week of training, they called me over to say they had something to show me. They had made up a song, about Gender Equality and had me come and join them to dance! It was quite hilarious for everyone involved to watch me attempt to dance Malawian style, and luckily (for me?) it was caught on film... These ladies are great. Best of luck, my Gender Advocates!


Me, somewhat unsuccessfully, attempting the Malawian Booty Shake Dance.

Other fun activities happening in March include the multiple-day St. Patrick’s Day celebrations! There is a decent contingent of Irish people here in Lilongwe, and including those wanna-be Irish like myself, it makes for a good party. The celebrations culminated in the St. Patrick’s Day Ball, held at the fancy Capital Hotel which included, among other things, 600 cans of Guinness imported by the Irish Embassy just for the occasion. Now that is true Irish spirit – government sanctioned (enforced?) drinking 


Me, Vi, Amy and Heather

I was off at the Lake this weekend as well, for a nice relaxing weekend at Leigh’s cottage in Monkey Bay. There was a big group of 8 of us that went this time, which was fun, and we went over to Cape MacClear for the afternoon on Saturday for some sunnier and less wavy swimming. The drive to Monkey Bay is always one of highlights of the trip, as the views coming down over the pass at Dedza are spectacular.


The drive to Monkey Bay

Easter is coming up this weekend, and it is time for a Malawian Road Trip! I'm sure I'll have more stories to share. Stay posted.