I think the title is pretty self-explanatory; probably the 200th blog post about it coming out of Malawi this morning, but the event is surely to be an interesting ordeal. All PCVs in Malawi were invited to have lunch with President Bingu, thus swarms of usually grungy and scruffy volunteers have made the trip to Lilongwe, shaved, showered, and even dressed up. Contrary to popular belief, the Environment group cleans up nicely.
This will be an interesting luncheon for numerous reasons. First, there is a over-arching assumption the food will be good, after all we will be dining at the State House. Secondly, I can't speak for the Central and Southern regions, but people in the North generally don't like the President. He was a spectacular leader his first run, but the second time, and last time, he has failed in many respects. The primary issue is the quota system, which is stifling the generally well educated North. With the quota system all universities in Malawi must accept students in proportion to each region's population, regardless of exam scores. Thus, more students from the South and Central regions must be accepted because of higher populations than the North, even if all the students in the North score higher on the entrance exams.
The scores in the North are usually higher because the education system is better, due to the early influence of missionaries. It's frustrating to meet all these brilliant kids in my village, hard workers, that don't have a chance at university. It's saddening to hear them talk about their dreams of becoming journalists, doctors, lawyers, all of which they are more than capable of becoming if provided the proper opportunity. Their voices drip of dreams lost, voices reserved for old age, as they talk of framing tobacco as their fathers and their grandfathers have done. There are a couple of students in Mwazisi that have made it to university and the community proudly speaks of them as the ones that made it out.
The third reason this will be an interesting meal is because Wellesley prepared a proposal for President Bingu. This proposal discusses several plans to improve the education system. Her plan is to hopefully hand it to him, that he reads it, and changes his ways. Perhaps even put Wellesley in charge of the Ministry of Education...oh that's an amusing thought.
In other news, this is my first time in Lilongwe, the city I only passed through before. It's nice, a little strange though seeing shopping malls, cars, and all these things from home. The city is so abundant: food people, sounds, smells, its overwhelming to the senses and quite tiring. Sunrise and sunset, my most favorite times of the day in Mwazisi, are not the same, the night sky is cloudy and the stars invisible.
P.S. I finally got mail. Finally. 1 package (with American chocolate!) and 2 letters (Nina and Howley). I guess the mail situation has been sorted out and a particular volcano in Iceland has lost its impact. Also, Destroyer, my sitemate, is COSing tomorrow, back to America. He will be missed.
Basi.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Volcanoes in Iceland
I’ve been in Malawi for about 5 months. Since I arrived I have not received a single letter or package in country, with the exception of one Fedex box which was sent express. It’s a little depressing but not enough to be a significant bother. It is, however, quite upsetting when every other person in my class is getting letters and packages almost every week. For example, Wellesley gets loads of packages filled with candy, chocolates, and bits of America that we miss enormously. I feel like the one kid in school who nobody likes.
People have sent mail, or at least they claim to have, and maybe it’s just my awful luck in life. I heard rumors through the PCV wire, which sometimes works as well as a game of telephone, that a volcano erupted in Iceland, causing a major disruption in mail heading to Lilongwe. Why? No idea, but apparently many flight routes were disrupted. So, now that things are settled, mail has resumed and the Lilongwe Post Office is backed up with an overload of letters and packages, causing further delays in delivery. My mail could be crammed in a dark corner of the Lilongwe Post Office, hopefully, or it could be in Malaysia, Timbuktu, a black hole, the Bermuda Triangle, or even the Lost island, who knows. At this point I have abandoned all hope and look forward to no mail or tasting an American chocolate bar for 2 years. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
While I was stateside I had my words to say about America. I guess it’s always easy to complain about the place you live in when you are living there, and free to complain. This maybe a case of green grass or home sickness, but being in Malawi has made me realize how much I love America. Yes, it still has its problems, as any country does, but overall it’s a great place to live. The excess culture and media are bothersome, but you are free to pursue any life you wish and have the opportunity for that pursuit. All you need is hard work.
Malawi is wonderful, but the culture of obligation is stifling. My sister recently returned from volunteering in Haiti and was explaining how the people there are much nicer and helpful than in the US, which is generally true, because from my observations it seems the less you have the more giving you are.
In Malawi, and many other developing countries, people who have almost nothing are the most generous, and kind people, always offering what they have to visitors, complete strangers. Find me one person in the US that would do that for anyone. Different countries, different cultures, and I appreciate both for their positive attributes, now more than ever, there are good people in every country, and bad ones just the same.
People have sent mail, or at least they claim to have, and maybe it’s just my awful luck in life. I heard rumors through the PCV wire, which sometimes works as well as a game of telephone, that a volcano erupted in Iceland, causing a major disruption in mail heading to Lilongwe. Why? No idea, but apparently many flight routes were disrupted. So, now that things are settled, mail has resumed and the Lilongwe Post Office is backed up with an overload of letters and packages, causing further delays in delivery. My mail could be crammed in a dark corner of the Lilongwe Post Office, hopefully, or it could be in Malaysia, Timbuktu, a black hole, the Bermuda Triangle, or even the Lost island, who knows. At this point I have abandoned all hope and look forward to no mail or tasting an American chocolate bar for 2 years. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
While I was stateside I had my words to say about America. I guess it’s always easy to complain about the place you live in when you are living there, and free to complain. This maybe a case of green grass or home sickness, but being in Malawi has made me realize how much I love America. Yes, it still has its problems, as any country does, but overall it’s a great place to live. The excess culture and media are bothersome, but you are free to pursue any life you wish and have the opportunity for that pursuit. All you need is hard work.
Malawi is wonderful, but the culture of obligation is stifling. My sister recently returned from volunteering in Haiti and was explaining how the people there are much nicer and helpful than in the US, which is generally true, because from my observations it seems the less you have the more giving you are.
In Malawi, and many other developing countries, people who have almost nothing are the most generous, and kind people, always offering what they have to visitors, complete strangers. Find me one person in the US that would do that for anyone. Different countries, different cultures, and I appreciate both for their positive attributes, now more than ever, there are good people in every country, and bad ones just the same.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Winds of Change
The winds of change are blowing, have been blowing for some time, through these mountains east of Vwaza Marsh. Mwazisi is on the cusp, the verge of apparently becoming an actual trading center. The World Bank has earmarked Mwazisi as an important area and plans to roll out a four phase infrastructure project to develop the village. Not sure exactly why Mwazisi, of all the villages in Rumphi West, was selected. Anyone who’s been here will tell you it’s a ghost town; a village once that began to grow but was abruptly abandoned with maybe 4 or 5 small shops making up the trading center.
My guess is it’s an important location for tourism, central to both Vwaza Marsh and Nyika and literally next to the border to Zambia. Considering also that after Mwazisi, the next village that will potentially be targeted is Hayway which is a border town and the last large community before Chilenda gate to Nyika and up to Chitipa. The DEB was also placed on a priority list for completion, probably because of the attention Mwazisi was getting from politicians. This is great news for me, makes my life easier if the funding gets here faster and they electrify the building (for free).
The four phase project, touted by the TA and MP as part of their “promises to the community,” is electrification, roads, water pipes, and telecom and internet. All financed fully under a World Bank ISP mandate, which also stipulates that all government buildings will be wired for free, so schools, health centers, and the DEB, which is technically also a government building. The electrification phase is poised to be completed by end of August, 2 years in the making. Between political, funding, and logistical hurdles, Mwazisi can finally see the light at the end of the development tunnel…and it’s fluorescent. They promised that once the electricity is in the other projects will just roll in easily and quickly.
Is this model sustainable, these large infrastructure projects? Who knows, but the community is pretty excited, as anyone would be. Sustainable is an interesting thing. Consider this: the last major infrastructure project, undertaken by the Malawian government, were telephone landlines to Mwazisi, by MTL. There was a service disruption, which as expected of MTL, they took quite some time to get to fixing. Eventually, people started cutting the wires down and using it as clothes lines or to hang bee hives. And by now all the lines from Mwazisi to Bolero have been cut down, all that remains are poles. Will ESCOM, the only Malawian electric company and contractor for this project, make the same mistake? We will see.
There are donors flinging money left and right in Mwazisi, it’s a crowded market. Thus, it's only inevitable that they cross swords and since I arrived in Mwazisi 2 months ago I’ve already crossed swords with several NGOs: DAMRA, Total Land Care (TLC), World Bank, NASFARM, etc. Most of these acronymed organizations, perhaps with the exception of TLC, seem to be in the business of giving, which is generally not sustainable in the long run. Every organization has different models, some based on funding, some on educating. Peace Corps focuses on the later; to educate and tries to stay clear of the funding business. Of course in a crowded market like Malawi, if you have one man offering to teach you to fish and one offering you free fish, which would you choose? Most consumers, as do Malawians, would choose the latter, which makes our jobs that much harder. Ah, the trials and tribulations of a PCV.
So what would you do? I could break out a SWOT analysis of Peace Corps versus competitor NGOs, but at the end of the day it’s a price war, and you hope that the other guy can’t last very long in the ring. Look around and you’ll see many abandoned buildings constructed by donor funds, like orphanages and schools that were never even used. I've seen some that have remained locked since their completion. I’m not saying funding is useless, if anything it the most important aspect, nor that the other model doesn’t work, but most of the time you notice it never sustains.
To the Waters and the Wild
Technically, I’m an employee of the Malawi Government, like a consultant, in a way. I work for the Vwaza Marsh Game Reserve, under the Department of Parks and Wildlife. The one caveat to this assignment is that Peace Corps policy dictates volunteers are not allowed to enter certain parks in Malawi because of tse tse flies carrying African trypanosomiasis. Vwaza is one those parks. However, I have to enter the park because that’s where my boss is. Oddly, I was recently reading in Guns, Germs, and Steel and that the tse tse fly is one of the major reasons that necessary livestock, such as cows and horses, were never successfully domesticated in sub-Saharan Africa: they all kept dying after being stung.
Locals say that the best indicator of trypanosomiasis in an area are dead cows. If you see herds of dead cattle then you should probably leave area ASAP. Not all tse tse flies carry the disease, so being stung doesn’t necessarily mean you will get sick. Vwaza Marsh put up fly traps all over the park, especially at Kazuni gate and surrounding villages. The traps consist of a large piece of cloth colored with two blue vertical bands sandwiching a black vertical band. These are apparently colors that attract the flies, which will sting the trap and die. Unfortunately, the new bikes Peace Corps issued us are the same blue and black colors.
That said, Harry was hosting a beekeeping training at Vwaza, and I had been putting off making a trip Kazuni gate for some time. So, me and Bwana Changa threw caution to the wind and rode down to Kazuni, making the longest bike ride I’ve ever been on. The total was about 70km (44 miles) round trip, on a hilly, rocky, some parts deep sand, dirt path that hugged the border of Vwaza. It may not be much for a serious biker, but for someone who never bikes, my legs feel like jelly, my back in pain. We made it though. People said it takes about 3 hours one way, but we hustled and cleared it in about an hour and a half. To be honest, I was quite surprised we made it there in one piece, considering the flies, the ravenous dirt path, lack of biking experience, and we even came across a snake on the way. There were miles of path that stretched without a soul or house in sight.
Deep down we harbored a secret motive, a hope that we could finally see elephants, Kazuni gate is the entrance to Vwaza and gets its name from Lake Kazuni, which is also where the safari camp is located. The lake is the only large water source in the entire park, so all the animals come to Kazuni to drink water. In the dry season, the lake is the only water source, so the African elephants from deep in the park come to the lake. It’s often hard to sight theses elephants, but they are abundant in Vwaza and in this season, easy to sight out the lake. However, they are very aggressive, and a scout is recommended company.
Mwazisi borders the Northern half of Vwaza, separated by valley of hills. The villagers in Mwazisi have been passing news of elephants in the area, lots of them. They say they come at night in search of food and eat the remnants of maize in the fields. While we didn’t get to see any elephants, as they were elsewhere searching for food, we saw plenty of hippos, which were out of the water, lazying about in the sun. There were also impalas, Egyptian geese, and a crocodile today, along with lots of elephant poop…literally everywhere. The water buffalo and baboons were also elsewhere today.
We greeted Harry, and Mr. Kataya, but missed Mrs. Kataya (my boss). George, one of the scouts, walked us around the lake pointing out various feces and animals. He gave us an update on the park’s current management situation. Vwaza used to be run by the government, after there were serious problems with the previous concession. The government, as expected, did a poor job managing the park and it faced a rough few seasons. George told us that a new company has taken over the management of Vwaza, named Ecolodges. Interestingly, he pointed out that the new owner is Indian. As we walked back from the lake we noticed a few azungus at the lodge by chalets. We all remarked how glad we were to finally see some tourists at the park.
The ride back was harder than the way there, mostly because we were tired, and more up hills. But we escaped unscathed by tse tse flies and disappointed about not catching a glimpse of some elephants. I will have to ask one of scouts to take us one of these days to find elephants. Tomorrow we decided to bike to Rumphi, which is about 80 km there and back. In the mean time I need to find my rooster; haven’t seen it since I got back from the lake, wonder where it could’ve gotten off too…
Locals say that the best indicator of trypanosomiasis in an area are dead cows. If you see herds of dead cattle then you should probably leave area ASAP. Not all tse tse flies carry the disease, so being stung doesn’t necessarily mean you will get sick. Vwaza Marsh put up fly traps all over the park, especially at Kazuni gate and surrounding villages. The traps consist of a large piece of cloth colored with two blue vertical bands sandwiching a black vertical band. These are apparently colors that attract the flies, which will sting the trap and die. Unfortunately, the new bikes Peace Corps issued us are the same blue and black colors.
That said, Harry was hosting a beekeeping training at Vwaza, and I had been putting off making a trip Kazuni gate for some time. So, me and Bwana Changa threw caution to the wind and rode down to Kazuni, making the longest bike ride I’ve ever been on. The total was about 70km (44 miles) round trip, on a hilly, rocky, some parts deep sand, dirt path that hugged the border of Vwaza. It may not be much for a serious biker, but for someone who never bikes, my legs feel like jelly, my back in pain. We made it though. People said it takes about 3 hours one way, but we hustled and cleared it in about an hour and a half. To be honest, I was quite surprised we made it there in one piece, considering the flies, the ravenous dirt path, lack of biking experience, and we even came across a snake on the way. There were miles of path that stretched without a soul or house in sight.
Deep down we harbored a secret motive, a hope that we could finally see elephants, Kazuni gate is the entrance to Vwaza and gets its name from Lake Kazuni, which is also where the safari camp is located. The lake is the only large water source in the entire park, so all the animals come to Kazuni to drink water. In the dry season, the lake is the only water source, so the African elephants from deep in the park come to the lake. It’s often hard to sight theses elephants, but they are abundant in Vwaza and in this season, easy to sight out the lake. However, they are very aggressive, and a scout is recommended company.
Mwazisi borders the Northern half of Vwaza, separated by valley of hills. The villagers in Mwazisi have been passing news of elephants in the area, lots of them. They say they come at night in search of food and eat the remnants of maize in the fields. While we didn’t get to see any elephants, as they were elsewhere searching for food, we saw plenty of hippos, which were out of the water, lazying about in the sun. There were also impalas, Egyptian geese, and a crocodile today, along with lots of elephant poop…literally everywhere. The water buffalo and baboons were also elsewhere today.
We greeted Harry, and Mr. Kataya, but missed Mrs. Kataya (my boss). George, one of the scouts, walked us around the lake pointing out various feces and animals. He gave us an update on the park’s current management situation. Vwaza used to be run by the government, after there were serious problems with the previous concession. The government, as expected, did a poor job managing the park and it faced a rough few seasons. George told us that a new company has taken over the management of Vwaza, named Ecolodges. Interestingly, he pointed out that the new owner is Indian. As we walked back from the lake we noticed a few azungus at the lodge by chalets. We all remarked how glad we were to finally see some tourists at the park.
The ride back was harder than the way there, mostly because we were tired, and more up hills. But we escaped unscathed by tse tse flies and disappointed about not catching a glimpse of some elephants. I will have to ask one of scouts to take us one of these days to find elephants. Tomorrow we decided to bike to Rumphi, which is about 80 km there and back. In the mean time I need to find my rooster; haven’t seen it since I got back from the lake, wonder where it could’ve gotten off too…
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