Friday, October 21, 2011

Liwonde here I am

I woke up this morning wanting to be nowhere else. I woke up completely drenched wet after a bad night of sleep (well into the hot season now) and a few days of being sick in bed, but somehow, I felt extremely happy to be here, to be in my new home in Liwonde and I was quite excited to up on my bike and go to work. Maybe it was the fever I had that was making me delusional, but I think I’ve reached a point of well being within this complex environment.

A lot happened over the last two weeks. I completed my placement in Salima at the District Water Development Office. I am now in Liwonde, about 250 km south of Lilongwe and 150 km north of Blantyre on the Shire River. It is nice, but super hot at this time of the year. The Shire River is full of crocodiles and hippos, and also delicious fishes. Having to move sucks anywhere in the world. It only gets better when you don’t have a vehicle to travel the 200 km between the two locations and even then, there is no petrol or diesel available, unless you are really lucky. Salima had had no diesel for four weeks, and the one time they had a delivery, the cues were two days long. People had to sleep in their car the night before to get in line to get something the following day. And most didn’t as the army, the hospital and the police go first and fill their jerry cans and barrels. It has been stressful to not be able to plan, but wing it and hope for the best. I don’t have many things, but enough to not be willing to move by minibus (I had to, but only for part of my things). I have a mattress, cooking stuff and containers, bags, a bike. But I would have lost a lot of money letting these things behind or even selling them. Until the last minute I was hoping for a nice Samaritan, with diesel and a pickup to give me a ride. And it happened. The consultant I’ll be working with in Liwonde had to bring a report and meet with the government in Lilongwe and somehow his driver magically managed to find enough diesel to come pick me in Salima (a 50 km detour). We couldn’t fit everything, but almost, the rest I took on the minibus the next time. And they didn’t charge me anything. AMAZING!!

I found a nice little place to live. It’s about 2 km from my office, and 1.5 to the market. It has electricity, a shared flush toilet and cold shower. I share a staff house with a family. Staff houses are small compounds at the back of a big house where the guard or gardener or house lady would live. Perfect for me. IMG_2445 [1600x1200]I have my own space (one big IMG_2447 [1600x1200]IMG_2450 [1600x1200]IMG_2451 [1600x1200]

room and a smaller one for storage) and I can do what I want. The family I share the compound with is lovely. They are 40 years old, have 5 kids, 4 live there, and the oldest just got a cute baby. I think the baby’s dad went away or something. The woman speaks a broken English, and I speak a broken Chichewa, but we can communicate. She took care of me when I got sick at the beginning of the week. We all cook together outside in the fenced veranda. I can do my own things if I want to, but we often share. At night, they make samosa and mdazi to sell around town the next day as a way to make money. But let me tell you that now that I have seen the process behind the confection of those delicious snacks, I can tell you they are not making a lot of money. So for the samosa they make the chapati one by one and prepare the inside stuff (potato, onions and curry), I helped, it takes a few hours. Then they have to put all this together in a samosa like shape. They work from 7:30 to 10pm on this. The next morning around 4, the mom is up, getting the fire going to fry the goodies. Each is K30, so about 20 cents. They make about 200 a night. The mdazi are like a doughnut hole. They make them late in the afternoon normally and fry them the next morning. K10 each, so 6 cents. CRAZY. The kids are selling the snacks at the road block, the market, the bus depot and they change shifts according to the school sessions. Boys in the morning, girls in the afternoon. The mom works around the compound, cleans and cooks, the dad takes care of the main house. I think they are fabulous. Different life than the village life, but really interesting to get to experience this side too. I really appreciate them and they have taken me with them as if I was a daughter or a friend. I try to help and I learn a lot. I pay about 40 $ a month. 

Ill explain in my next blog why I moved and what my new placement will be here, as it will be fairly different. I’m super excited to be part of this project.

That’s it for today. Hope all is good.

Ge

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