An hint of randomness

Salima, cute small town somewhere between  lake Malawi and the Capital. This is my home now. My village, Chipse, is about 3km from Salima BOMA. I’ve been living there for a month now. So far, things are between awesome and tough, it just depends at what point during my day you ask me.

The mornings are though most of the time. Villagers wake up at 5:30, if not before, and start sweeping the floor of the house, than the backyard. They go fetch water, do the dishes, wash the floor, take a bath, then eat. By 8am, they are done with everything and they rest and chat for a couple hours. This is so different than my normal life. I find it hard, not so much the waking up at 5:30, but the having to rush to do all the tasks. Mornings were normally, back in Vancouver, a quiet, relaxing time.  I’d wake up, shower, eat, then if I have time, clean a bit, then bike to work.  I enjoyed sleeping in, walking to the market and cooking a good breakfast on weekends. Cleaning the house is not first on my list of priorities, that, I realized! It seems like they start resting the minute I go to work!

I miss having time and space to reflect, read or listen to music, time to be on my own without having to talk. The only time I have is when I take my bucket shower in the morning and at night. By the way, I’m starting to manage really well at washing using a bucket and I’ve found a good system to wash my hair! haha

Work is good and bad: a mix of learning and training; an eternal fight between holding my thoughts and sharing them; juggling between going my pace then slowing down to fit theirs. So far, I went to trainings with traditional authorities, meetings with UNICEF and my counterparts from the district, I went to the field to observe borehole repair done by the water district and also borehole drilling, development and pumping tests. I also went to team meetings with EWB in Lilongwe, went with a Junior Fellow I’m coaching to set him up in Machinga. I’m still working on my research report from my first month in Karonga. I’ve been working long hours and sometimes on weekends too. The district water officer and my other counterparts at the district are extremely busy. When people are good and motivated here, they are being asked to do everything, and they get super busy. UNICEF, who is their main funder, is asking them a lot of reporting these days. They are off schedule due to floods during the wet season a few months ago. They have to supervise and contract local entrepreneurs to build latrines for schools,  supervise the borehole installation, do training and exploring for CLTS (Community Led Total Sanitation). But all this got delayed because of the rain. Funding from any donor is tricky and requires a lot of reporting. UNICEF gave money to Salima District in January to do the work of the first quarter. They have 3 months to complete the work and report in order to get money to do work in the next quarter. So now, they need to work twice as hard and fast to catch up if they want to get the funding for the next phase of work. It puts me in a tough spot, because they will need my help on the next phase of work (siting and installing borehole) but they don’t have time right now for me to really start the work I’m suppose to be doing.

I had to come all the way to Malawi, to start wearing heels at work. People here are super well dressed, so I decided to do the same and brave the sand, the dust and the unpaved roads. I went to the local market to looked for some clothes. I found great outfits for less than a few bucks, plus I made friends with some girls at the same time, because finding clothes here takes a long time, so you have a lot of time to chat!

Life in general is ok. I can’t wait to have the weekend off to go to the Lake with my friend Andrew, who’s coming down from Mzuzu today for my birthday weekend! Yay. My plan: relax, sleep in, swim, paddle, drink wine, chat and recharge my batteries.

Another great thing, my friend Ron from Vancouver is suppose to come visit me in a couple of weeks. I can’t wait. If anyone feels like coming to Malawi, let me know, I’ll be happy to find you a place to stay in my village!

Talk to you later dear friends

Ge

 

NOTE: I’ve posted some new photos on my flicker page, check it out by clicking on the link on the side tab.