Malawi update

August 23, 2009

Yesterday marked one month of time in Malawi. I was actually pretty surprised that I have been here for that long. Everything is going well here for the most part. We have been plowing through the interviews to get them translated and transcribed. I sit with a translator every day from 8:00 - 4:30 and type them into my computer as he translates them for me. Sometimes I learn a lot and sometimes, it is just monotonous. For example, I learned that in this region of Malawi, there is a matrilocal and matrilineal culture. This means that when two people marry, they move to the residence of the woman’s family and live in the compound there. Also, all marriage negotiations are done by uncles and not by fathers. If two people want to get married, their mother’s brothers are the ones that arrange it and discuss the bride price. These things are not readily apparent in the interviews but my translator explains them to me. They are important for understanding the context of the study.

Mangochi is a very small town. On our days off, we often make the trek to People’s (a grocery store with basic necessities) or go to the market. Sometimes, when we just need a thing or two, we still think it is worth it because it gives us something to do! I enjoy living here and the people are really friendly but I will also be glad to get back to Blantyre to larger stores and to things to do.

This weekend, there was a conference of all of the doctors in Malawi (which begs the question- what about all of the patients?). I didn’t go because I had to work with one of our interviewers but Andrea did and said that it was good. They held it at this resort by the lake, which I am sure was a good mix of business and pleasure for the doctors. Our boss, Frank, drove into town for it and took us to the opening party on Friday night. He passed us drink after drink and wanted to make sure that we were having a good time. One of the pathologists was exceedingly drunk and decided to show everyone what he could do on the limbo set up. He gyrated his hips in a way that I could not repeat even if I tried and ultimately got through on the lowest rung. After this party was over, Frank loaded us up in his truck and took us to the after party at a local club. I swear, at some points, I was the only person on the dance floor. I just danced and danced and danced all night. Finally, at 2 am, we asked Frank to take us back. He obliged (although I am pretty sure that he went back to the club after dropping us off). He had a presentation at 9 the next morning too- so I am sort of interested to know how that went! This weekend so far has involved a day of work, sleeping in until 8 today (which is unheard of!) and recovering from our night of craziness. I need to do some laundry etc so hopefully it is a productive day.

That’s all I got.

<3

Female Initiation Celebration and Work Things

August 18, 2009


On Sunday, Jamira was good on her promise to take me to a female initiation ceremony celebration in her village. She had said that we would leave around two so at eleven, I went into town to get more phone credit as well as check my email and hopefully update my blog etc. At the Zain store, I decided to get a new phone since people have been saying that the connection is bad and always sounds windy. The new phone is much improved (and it was cheap as well!). While I was there, I received a phone call from Jamira saying that we had to go NOW! They picked me up there and took me (laptop and all …oops) to the village. On the way, we stopped for water and I even found coke light! One can costs 190 kwacha ($1.30), which is expensive by any standards. Regardless, I was so happy to see my favorite habit that I bought quite a few cans.

When we got to the village, we first went to Jamira’s mother’s house. We found her daughters there and said hi before going to meet and greet many more people. We walked around the village for a while, stopping and chatting with Jamira’s old friends. Most of the conversations were in Yao so I didn’t understand a lot. Then we went to see the girls, who were getting ready for the ceremony. We found them sitting by the lake eating nsima (like fufu in West Africa or pap in South Africa) and chicken stew. Since they weren’t ready, we went back to the main area of the village. Jamira’s friend fed up rice with chicken stew as well. I didn’t take any of the chicken, but the sauce was delicious. After a while, we went elsewhere and saw other girls (and boys too!) awaiting the celebration. The girls’ heads were covered in sap and they had on sunglasses. They covered their mouths with various things (including money) and avoided eye contact. From my understanding, they were practicing discipline and couldn’t talk to anyone unless someone paid money and spoke to them. The boys were on the other side and had their heads covered and also looked at the floor and avoided eye contact.

I asked Jamira at this point what was involved in female initiation. She indicated again that it was the village teaching the girls how to properly behave. She said that sexual debut was not involved and that this initiation was only practiced in Nsanje. There, she explained, they have three initiations. First, they have the initiation of young girls (8-10) such as this one. When the girls have their first menses, they have a second initiation and this one may include sexual initiation. The third initiation is during first pregnancy and prepares a woman for motherhood. She indicated that for her own girls, she would rather teach them herself and avoid this ceremony. But she also said that many people that live in cities bring their children back for this. When I get back to reliable internet, I want to check this out and see what researchers say about these initiations.

Soon, it was time to celebrate! A group of drummers drummed and sang and a crowd gathered around them. This crowd danced and danced and at a certain point, the drummers moved to another part of the village and the crowd followed, dancing. There were two groups of initiates (led by different elders) so there were two sets of drummers and dancers. In a central location, the girls and elders sat silently. At a certain point, it was time to give money and dance. I had gone to the Zain store and split my large bills into small ones so I was able to give a big stack of bills that were each worth about 14 cents. As you gave the bills, you danced and soon Jamira and I were getting low and shaking our booties. I was SUCH a spectacle. It is hard to describe the number of people who did a double take when seeing me at this event. Others wanted to dance close to me. Jamira’s oldest daughter Vanessa (age 11) took on the task of chasing away men who got too close.

As we tired and headed back, one of Jamira’s friends approached me and asked how long I had been in Malawi. She wanted to know also if we had these kinds of ceremonies at home. I said that no, we did not and she said that I danced like a true Malawian and that she liked my shape. She even said that I danced better than her. I am sure that she was just flattering me but it was nice to feel accepted in this way.

After the ceremony, we walked back to Jamira’s mother’s house. The girls (initiates) were there eating rice and drinking Fanta and looked much happier and relieved. We said goodbye and headed back to Mangochi. This was hands down the best day of my trip so far. I got to see something that I doubt many muzungus get to participate in. Sometimes I get tired and frustrated here, but that day made everything feel alright and worthwhile.

After this ceremony, Jamira went to Blantyre to see a specialist about her condition. She was convinced that she was not suffering from malaria and wanted to get checked for many other things. This is important for her but it also puts the project on hold. In the interim, I decided to meet with another of the translators and check his progress on his transcripts. We had an appointment for this morning at 8:00 am but at 8:30, Jean (our supervisor while we are here) came in and said that he had to attend his niece’s funeral and wouldn’t be coming in. So today, I am sitting in our new place, watching TV and drinking tea and trying to get caught up on my blog posts (even though I don’t know when I will have a chance to upload them!) It is a little frustrating to never know what your schedule is going to be and to feel a lack of control over the situation and feel like you’re wasting your time. But, we have plenty of time to complete the study here so I just try to keep that perspective. I should be back in early December so that is also something to look forward to and remember.

Drive Back to Mangochi

August 15, 2009



Today, we left our super sweet hotel in Lilongwe and headed back to Mangochi. It was a bittersweet day- I am going to miss my bathtub, hot water and wireless internet so much but it is also nice to be back in a familiar town and have a reality check that all of those things are unnecessary. I went to the tourist area in an attempt to get a Barack Obama chitenje (cloth that is tied and used as a skirt). I wanted four meters so that I could make a skirt and shirt out of it. In Mangochi, this would cost between 800 and 1000 kwacha. The asking price at this place, however, was 8,000. Haha unfortunately for them, I am not a fool that would spend about 60 bucks on 4 meters of cloth. Instead I offered 1400 kwacha and we settled on 1500. However, the man selling it didn’t want to let it go that cheaply and someone went off to the market with 500 kwacha of my money to pick up another one. He told me it would take five minutes as I had explained that I had to leave within the hour and still needed to finish packing. Thirty-five minutes later, he was nowhere to be found. I sucked it up and paid another 1500 kwacha and got the one there. It was so annoying to be taken when I knew what things should cost…

I got into the car in kind of a bad mood. The morning had been stressful and I was just tired of a lot of things. We drove back to Mangochi in silence and when we got there, we went to get a bit of food and something to drink. We also have to move out of the hostel temporarily and looked at a place that we could stay. When we got back, I went to see Jamira since she had been sick (and hospitalized) with malaria. I brought a candy bar that Amy had given me for the family to share. It was enormous so it was a pretty good little gift. Then, Jamira explained that her girls were going to the village that she is from and did I want to go with her and Maxwell to drop them off? Heck yes I did. We got there and found a gathering of women standing around a young girl with a basket in front of her. The older women on the fringe had drums and baskets in front of them as well. Then there was another old woman with a whistle. Soon, someone put money into one of the baskets and the dancing began. The drummers drummed and the lady with the whistle blew it in time. Then she blew twice while pointing at me and blew twice while pointing to the circle. I didn’t wait for another invitation. I was in there before you knew it shaking my white ass for all that it was worth. I took all of the small money that I had and put it into the baskets. Everyone was yelling and laughing and I didn’t want it to end. Before too long, it was over and we were on our way back to town and to the hostel. Jamira promised that we would go back the next day (even though she was just recently out of the hospital!) I can’t wait to go. That fifteen minutes of dancing was the most free and happy that I have felt since I was in Ghana dancing with Africana. I wish that I could just stop this research business and move in with Jamira and her family and do this every day.

I am still yet to completely understand the initiation ceremony and what it entails. As far as I understand, both boys and girls get initiated in Yao culture. Boys, I believe, are circumcised but I am not entirely sure what happens to girls. Jamira indicated that girls are initiated between the ages of 8 and 10. This is to prepare them for lives as mothers and wives and the older women in the village come together and show them how to fulfill these roles and shake their hips. I am not entirely sure if it is completely innocent or if there is any kind of sexual initiation that occurs. The girls seem pretty young for any of this. Hopefully tomorrow, I can be a good participant-observer and figure some of this out. In any event, it is so exciting to have an “in” into the culture and the community.

More tomorrow…

PS- Today marks three weeks in Malawi. Eighteen left. For the first time, I think about my departure and feel like I may be sad to go.

PPS- I was on the phone tonight and couldn’t see a thing and stepped into the sewage hole. There was nothing to do but laugh…But seriously- I was like the kid in Slumdog Millionaire. So SO nasty.

RH Conference and the Vice President!!

Today was the first day of the College of Medicine Centre for Reproductive Health's second Reproductive Health Conference. It is on maternal and child health and translating research to action. The conference supposedly started at 7:30 am this morning so we got there at 7:00 to help set up. Guests eventually started trickling in around 8:30 and at 9:45, the Vice President of Malawi arrived, so we could officially start. We went through this elaborate and detailed protocol of all of the important people making remarks and acknowledging eachother. My boss was among them and I thought hers were really well-written. Which is interesting because I have no idea when she found the time to do it. The Vice President, the Honorable Joyce Banda, made some remarks that indicated that she was strongly supportive of reproductive health programs and maternal and neonatal mortality reduction programs. She was a heavy set middle aged woman and wore this green outfit that was really pretty. She came with this whole entourage and we had to stand up every time she moved. She had two "secret service" types that followed her everywhere and even had her own chair brought for it. It wasn't even that nice- just a red chair but I guess it has significance. Anyways, the story is that she had a post-partum hemorrhage when delivering and was unconscious for 6 hours. She was fortunate and the doctor at the hospital was able to revive her and save her life. The next time she went back to that doctor she apparently got a tubal ligation, saying that she wouldn't risk her life like that again. It was nice to see someone with a strong political commitment but it also left me wondering how much was rhetoric. Anyways, the conference was nice. Opened with a prayer and ended with a prayer but what else would you expect in Africa? Topics ranged from maternal mortality reduction to adolescent reproductive health services to male involvement in reproductive health and HIV issues. The other highlight was when the traditional chiefs (who were in attendance) took issue with two major things. One was having a male partner in the room during delivery. They went back and forth in Chichewa but the idea was that male presence during delivery is not an "African" way of doing things and should not be pushed. The other thing that they took issue with had to do with a traditional post partum guideline of waiting 6 months before resuming sexual activity. One woman suggested that men are refusing to wait and are cheating on their wives and bringing STI's into the marriage. She said that this should be revisited. The chief sternly said (again in Chichewa) that this rule had a role in the community and should not be questioned. Andrea was really annoyed that all of this discussion occurred in Chichewa, but I thought that it was fine. These discussions are not FOR me. These discussions are the conversations within a community that cause changes in people's thinking and progress. If people felt more comfortable voicing their opinions in their native language, that was fine with me. I could always ask at the end. Sometimes I just like the privilege of being in the room and even try guessing what is going on. Tonight, we are going for Italian dinner and then I am probably getting into my amazing bathtub. Tomorrow is another half day of conference and then more relaxing at the hotel. We are trying to arrange for transport back to Mangochi on Saturday but it is going to cost 33,000 kwacha whereas it only costed 24,000 to get here. Quite a bit of difference. We will see how it goes. Til tomorrow...

Miss my friends and family! <3

Lilongwe! And Some Other Things I Forgot!

August 12, 2009


I am in Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi. Tomorrow starts a conference on reproductive health that is sponsored by the College of Medicine Centre for Reproductive Health. I was supposed to be presenting but they moved me on and off the program about 4 times- no lie. But the good news is that my boss is here! She put us up in this NICE hotel with a bathtub (I have been in twice in like 24 hours) and a comfortable bed and wireless internet and a big breakfast in the morning. No joke it feels like heaven. Haha I sound so spoiled. I have been in Malawi for only 19 days and I am already craving Western amenities. Anyway, we got here yesterday and checked in and Amy came soon after. We went to dinner and she listened to our concerns about the project and our experience in Malawi. She also offered some good ideas on what we could have done differently to better collaborate with the people at the centre.

This morning, we got up and went over the status of the project. It seems like we may be done translation within a week or so. Then the question is whether to go back to the village in an attempt to locate more of the women's husbands. It is going to take some resources but I am in favor of this because I haven't yet been to the field. It seems kind of crazy that "my" project will be almost entirely conducted without me! After we finished all of this, we went out into the city. Amy had hired a car and driver and he took us to all of the sights including President Banda's tomb, the Ministry of Health (and the others as well!), and the hospital. We also went to the tourist area and saw some curios for sale. I had to explain a million times that this was a looking day and not a buying day. The thought of bargaining was tiring.

I am back in the hotel now. Dinner is Indian food (score!) in about an hour. It is so nice to be able to blog or write emails or whatever I want to do online. I spend so much time on this computer! They are going to have to tear it from me at the conference.

Other thing I forgot! We went to Nkopola Lodge for the day a while ago and we saw monkeys! They swooped down and stole things from people as they ate and it was a good day :) There is going to be a big music festival there in October that we are looking forward to. Should be a good time. Also exciting is a potential plan to see my friend Brent in Botswana in December. He is working on a PMTCT project with the Peace Corps and is almost done his time there. It would be pretty sweet.

OK, anything else that I write would be just me blathering on because I have internet access. Until next time...

Cape Maclear Weekend :)

August 10, 2009


This past weekend we went to Cape Maclear to escape work drama and relax for a bit. Cape Maclear was reported in my travel guide to be a backpacker’s “mecca” and tourist haven. It a very popular place on Lake Malawi and intersperses villages with resorts and hotels. We left Saturday morning and spent Saturday and Sunday night at the Fat Monkey resort area. Fat Monkey is a really cute backpackers place with rooms as well as cottages and a nice bar/restaurant area. They did a really good job of integrating the local vendors but maintaining limits so that guests were not harassed. The sellers were on the left side of the property in a bungalow and we could go to them to buy whatever we wanted. They sold everything from earrings and jewelry to patch pants to photo albums. A subset of these sellers organized boat trips to an island with snorkeling and lunch. Matt, Andrea and I decided to go ahead and do that. We met one of the guys, Loless (pronounced lawless), who is a tour guide with long dreads. He was very good at interacting with tourists and in some ways reminded me of Junior (although way more into drugs and not as nice or good-looking). Nevertheless, he had an outgoing personality and was fun to spend the day with. The island was primarily made of rocks (and was terribly inaccessible!) and when we got there, we saw schools of brightly colored fish. Loless brought us over early and we were able to get the best spots as he fed the fish and they all came up to the surface. Then boatloads of muzingu’s started coming over- seriously BOATLOADS. The guys collaborate and bring the tourists to this island and set them up for snorkeling and everything. Then they begin making lunch. Lunch was enormous fish (gutted and bleeding and some still breathing) and rice with tomato and spinach stew. (SIDE NOTE: I decided to become a vegetarian. I had not been eating a lot of meat so it shouldn’t be a hard switch. It is easy over here- the trick will be cutting out burgers when I get home.)

Lunch was delicious and soon we headed back for Fat Monkey’s because Andrea was burning in the sun. She went back to rest and Matt and I hung out with Loless some more. I can’t quite decide what to do with him. I don’t think he is entirely trustworthy (although I tend to assume that everyone everywhere is guilty until proven innocent) but he is a very likeable guy.

Another interesting thing- I was asked by two different men at Cape Maclear whether I needed a spare tire. I had told them that I had a boyfriend and they asked whether I needed this tire. One even went so far as to say that I should try many types of fruit because maybe I will discover a sweeter fruit than the one I had originally. Haha nice. But it is definitely interesting in terms of concurrent partnerships in Southern Africa and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Sometimes I can be such a nerd- making public health points out of pick up lines.

The next morning, we got up and headed to the beach area. Since we had all gotten a bit of sun, we started out sitting indoors and playing a game called Bawo. It looks similar to “mancala” but requires the thought and calculations of chess. We had a nice breakfast and then I headed to the beach to soak up a bit more sun. Matt, Andrea and Loless stayed there talking for a while and ultimately came down. Finally, it was time to go home and Maxwell, Abraham, and the girls came to get us. Vanessa and Natasha are such sweethearts. It was extremely dusty in the pick-up on the way home so I gave Vanessa my sunglasses so that the dirt wouldn’t get into her eyes. Little Tasha sat there quietly for a while but then it all became too much and she had to get moving. She was fidgeting all over the place and then stole the glasses off of Vanessa’s face. Poor Vanessa- she wanted them back but Tasha was being so bad. She let her have them for a while but soon it became an all too familiar pinching war.

Tomorrow, we are off to Lilongwe for a conference with the College of Medicine-Centre for Reproductive Health. My boss at Hopkins will be there as well. It should all be interesting. Work has been very stressful and I feel like I am in the middle of a battle. Working in an African context is very different from working in the United States and it takes a while to get used to and get comfortable with. On the other hand, our collaborators in Malawi have been pretty difficult. For example, they never should have left me in a new country at the airport by myself. All of the drama at work is terrible and it makes me want to come fly back tomorrow. But then, I look around at the beautiful country and remember the amazing people I have already met and I know I have to stay and continue on.

Days in Mangochi

August 2, 2009

Yesterday, we spent the day in Mangochi walking around and exploring the place. Matt had done quite a bit of this on his own so he knew all of the good spots to show us. We walked around the market, which was actually really fun. I brought my camera and snapped pictures of people working there (with their permission of course) and then turned it around and showed them the photo. They always seemed to get a kick out of it. We bought carrots and lettuce and onions as well as this super sour root thing. One man gave me a free sample and I don’t even know what it was but I popped it into my mouth and it was so sour. His daughter was adorable and when I went to take a picture of her, she started sobbing uncontrollably. Oops. Her mother came and tied her onto her back and she finally stopped. We continued walking and found people fixing bikes and other metal materials, welders, and carpenters. A group of three kids followed us through the whole market. I bought some wraps to cover my scandalous legs but these aren’t wrapping so well. They keep falling down when I walk. We also went to a bakery and bough some PRETTY good rolls. Some guy there kept posing with the bread and asking me to take his picture. We also ran into Jamira’s husband, Maxwell, and Geoffrey, the driver. They said that they would take us up to the mountains later that day. After that, we went home and Andrea and Matt checked the internet. There are only 2 connections that work so I went on a walk by myself. I walked down to the Shire River, which has crocodiles and hippos according to people from the area. There is a big bridge that goes over it and I walked to the town over the bridge. On my way, I ran into some ladies coming back from church and they tried to help me tie my wrapper. They tied it three different ways but I got the wrong type of fabric so it didn’t hold. I walked over the bridge and went to the village across the way. Right over the bridge, they were selling big slabs of goat meat with the heads and legs lined up along the road. Ew! I got some phone credit and captured the interest of several people along the way. One group of people selling things asked me to take their picture and posed as I did so. I went back to the house for an early dinner. Maxwell never showed so I took a quick nap and we went out and got soft-serve ice cream. Delicious! The portions were tiny compared with what we would eat at home but it so hit the spot. I then began the cumbersome task of taking my braids out. I started around six and it took until midnight.

Today at work I received a phone call that I should write up an abstract about our project to be presented at the conference in Lilongwe. Effie indicated that she needed the abstract tonight. I don’t have internet and really don’t feel like it is my fault that she waited until last minute. She will get it when she gets it. After work, I went with Jamira to get new wraps of the right fabric. After that, she took me to her house where I saw Maxwell and her children, Vanessa and Natasha. It felt nice to feel like a real guest. Sometimes when people are staring you know that it isn’t ill-intentioned but you feel like they think you’re from another planet. I am counting down the hours until I can sleep- I am feeling a bit frustrated and overwhelmed and just tired tonight. I wish I could bring family and friends over here. I miss you.

Mangochi- Day at Lake Malawi

August 1, 2009


We have moved from Blantyre to Mangochi and things are going well in terms of the project and life in general. We have been working with the interviewers to translate and transcribe the interviews. Everyone is really nice but it is not the quickest thing that I have ever done. Jamira is the lead interviewer and has been working with me. Her English is actually really good and she is doing well. She just needs confidence and she will be really proficient at what she does.

Funny story about work:

I went into the office the other day and was wearing Bermuda shorts. I thought that these would be best for taking because they don’t show too much thigh (or really any). When I walked in the door, the ladies told me that I was not dressed appropriately and Jamira loaned me a wrap skirt so that I was presentable that day. They were sort of joking but actually serious! In Malawi, it is rare to find a woman that shows even her knee. When it was time to go, I gave the skirt back to her and she promised to take me to the market on Monday so that I could get my own. Haha I am actually looking forward to it- no need to insult all of Malawi with my scandalous clothing.

Today we went to “Palm Beach” with the help of Jamira and her husband. We used Maxwell’s truck and paid for fuel and for his driver. They dropped us off early at this beachy little resort. It was really pretty and had a good mix of Europeans and Americans including a bunch of Dutch people. No Malawians (or really anyone nonwhite for that matter) which was kind of awkward and got more bizarre as the day went on. For the most part, the day was nice. The place was gorgeous. Mountains and palm trees surrounded us, and the place felt like a Caribbean resort or something. We all got into the Lake and splashed around a bit and they had paddleboats and ocean kayaks and things to do. Lunch was Hawaiian pizza and everything was really affordable.

However, around 3:30 pm or so, the “games” began. These included everything from tossing eggs to beach volleyball and tug of war. Off in the distance was a group of local kids who were watching and enjoying watching the muzungu’s (white people) do all sorts of hilarious things. They were never asked to participate and just sat clapping a ways off. Other men and women paused to watch on their walk home from a day of fishing. All of a sudden, one of the dogs jumped up and ran at the children, biting one and causing him to drop his day’s catch. They all ran off in a panic and the woman who owned the “Palm Beach resort” BRIEFLY yelled the dog’s name. He stopped chasing and everyone went back to doing whatever they were doing before without asking the child if he was ok or beating the crap out of the dog or even putting the dog inside. One American woman noticed that the boy had dropped his fish and went over and picked them up and handed them to him. I feel guilty for not having done a thing. I was terrified of the dog and just in shock at the lack of response by the dog’s (and resort’s) owner. After that, some children stopped to watch us from the far side and some South African guy went running at them to scare them away. This got the dog excited and he again ran after the children snapping at them. The whole thing was kind of upsetting. #1-I am already afraid of dogs. #2- The children were treated so disrespectfully. #3- No one seemed to care.

Today was really challenging for me and got me thinking about a life in Africa. Is it inevitable that I will become one of these detached ex-pats that prefer to get drunk at beach resorts instead of giving children attention? Almost all of the people at the beach resort were involved in research or medicine or other humanitarian causes. Why then did no one do anything? And why was this resort area such a segregated place? At Greene Turtle Lodge in Ghana, a very similar type of place, the community is involved in running the place. They are the cooks and the maintenance staff. If you go on a boat ride exploring, people from the community are the ones that take you. This makes Greene Turtle as much about community development as it is about tourism and turning a profit. I wish all resorts could be like this but I know it isn’t the case. Anyways, it was a weird day. Not an altogether bad day. The weather was gorgeous and the atmosphere was nice for the most part. But once again, I feel challenged to find my place on this continent that I love.


PS- Got to talk to some people from home today  Made all of the difference in my day!