Kwathu ndi ku Malawi

Filing. It's what our brains do with information. They quickly analyze and file information away into the proper places. In our modern society where we are provided copious amounts of stimuli every single day, our brains have to quickly file and sometimes generalize in order to understand everything the eyes see, ears hear, and hands feel. And when studying psychology in undergrad I started to understand more how the brain works and just how quickly it can process so much without us even realizing it. Books such as Blink also talk in depth about this process happening in the brain. As humans, the world is a complex place we try so very much to understand. Due to this complex nature we develop coping mechanisms which sometimes have negative consequences- prejudice and stereotypes and "box like" thinking. We get so use to putting everything into a category with defined rules and behaviors as our mind expects. So how does this process relate to me here in Malawi in develo...

My heartbeat and prayer for 2015: "I Want It All (Just Give Me Jesus)" by  Daniel Bashta   I don't want just another touch I'm just looking for the real Jesus And only You will do My voice has sung a million words But I'm still looking for the real Jesus And only You will do It's all just meaningless And empty songs at best Unless You respond So Give me the real thing Not just religion Stir up my passion With more of conviction I want it all Not just a portion Give me Your presence Not just some feeling I don't want just another taste I'm just looking for the real Jesus There must be more than this My heart is cold and faith is weak But I'm still looking for the real Jesus Oh I know there's more than this It's all just meaningless The stench of hollowness Unless You respond So Give me the real thing Not just religion Stir up my passion With more of conviction I want it all Not just a portion Give me Your presence Not just some feeling ...

After filling out 28 job applications with 19 different organizations and being given 6 interviews and 2 offers, I have news of what I have chosen to do next in Malawi. While I wasn't always certain what path I wanted to take next, it became increasingly clear over the past month. I've lived in the village in Malawi for over 2 years now and I've seen a lot that can break your heart. But the events of the past month broke me. Over a year ago I met a man who became one of my closest counterparts. We planned a training together, managed a grant, started a health center vegetable garden, re-energized the HIV Support Group, and he became an expert client at the health center even being offered a chance to attend a USAID training. All these accomplishments and we can hardly communicate because he doesn't speak any English and I only minimal Chiyao! It was always interesting!  In February 2014 him and his wife had a baby girl. And to my greatest honor (and quite a bit ...

There are some weeks that are hard to talk about and maybe don't make for the best blogs but they are part of my life.  On Monday I woke up around  4:30am  to the sound of wailing and crying close to my window and I knew immediately that one of my neighbors had died. I got up and dressed by  5am  and went next door. When someone dies, the word goes out fast and the entire village comes over to that persons house to sit and some women to cook. Men normally sit in one location and women in another. In my Muslim community, inside the house where the body normally is, only men go. So from about  5am to 6am  I just sat in the backyard with other women watching the sun come up and watching the endless array of neighbors come by. Even if you didn't feel a particularly strong bond to the one who died, the looks of agony on other's faces and their wails can bring anyone to tears.  I left to get breakfast and then packed some food to bring over...

The past months myself and a counterpart from the health centre, Alfred, have been working in a village about 5km from the health center with a Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) mother group of 33 lactating and pregnant women. We have been learning about nutrition using emotion-based learning, food group surveys, improved agriculture techniques, proper breast feeding and weaning practices, cooking demonstrations, and home gardens. Recently we went to visit some of the women who invited us to their homes to appreciate their backyard gardens where they are growing vegetables. These small gardens are important during this season since food gets more scarce and families sometimes start running out. As we went to one house where several mothers are working together on a garden there was an Agogo (grandmother) standing nearby. She started to tell us that she was so inspired and impressed by her neighbors starting home gardens that she built a fence on her own, prepared bed...

I've lived in Malawi for 19 months now. And today I was just reflecting on how once difficult tasks are now so easy. I was discussing with a fellow PCV about making brownies and it dawned on me how normal it felt to not even consider an oven. So here's a Q&A blog featuring 10 questions on how things get done kuno ku Malawi (here in Malawi).  1. Where do you get water? - A few yards from my house is a borehole. This is basically a long pipe reaching down into the ground that you must manually pump up and down to get water. I collect it in buckets and take it home. Most days my neighbor kids are more than happy to help do this for me. Occasionally the borehole can break down in which I would have to go about 1km to find water. Did I mention I share this 1 water source with hundreds of people in my village? The bucket lines can be long.   I have a water filter provided by Peace Corps that makes the water safe to drink once I pour it through.  2. How do y...

It has begun. Today was officially, in my book, the first genuine day of hot Malawian summer. And it is hot! But that doesn't stop us. It's really true that your second year of Peace Corps is just the best. So, as I sit sweating in my hot Malawi house, let me introduce you to Mr. Chilembwe Juma.   Juma is one of my counterparts who leads projects with me. He has been with me from the start and is a village pillar. He has gone to two Peace Corps trainings with me: Action for Natural Medicine and Behavior Change Communication/Go Girls! He is a husband, father, member of the Health Center Committee (HCC), farmer, trilingual, and knows more people than I can count. He helped me conduct a nutrition training for 10 members of a HIV Support Group, translated two 10 page nutrition guides into the local language, built a gazebo for me in my backyard, helps me teach people living with HIV/AIDS about nutrition and food groups on Fridays and lastly, he is a strong partne...

Today was a great day. One of those days in the village that makes you never want to leave. For about the past 2-3 months I have been traveling a lot and this past weekend was one of the first times in a long time I just spent in the village doing different tasks and chores.  One of those tasks was to prepare for a program I was facilitating today. Where I live in Malawi it is very flat, dusty, and hot. About 7km from my house is the huge Shire River stemming from Lake Malawi. Just the kind of place where you would expect to see elephants, crocodiles, impala, warthogs, hippos, etc. It is known as Liwonde National Park. At the end of the long, dusty street I live on you find a wilderness safari camp where people from all over the world come to stay and see animals. But since I live and volunteer here I regurarly get to visit the park for free. So any average Monday can easily turn terrific! Today I biked the 7km from my house into Liwonde Nation...

Right now Ebola is a media sensation and for a good reason. People are dying and there's not really a cure. One good thing is that Ebola is a relatively hard disease to get as it requires direct contact with bodily fluids. But I don't want to write about Ebola. I want to write about Malawi and what I work on here that's maybe not such a media sensation but its a huge part of my life and the lives of those around me.  In Malawi we don't have Ebola yet. But we have other things. Here my life goes like this: every night as I lay down to go to sleep, I also tuck in an insecticide treated bed net called a LLIN around my bed and under the mattress. Every hotel I visit also has these hanging from the ceiling. Everywhere you go they are there. The "why" is this: in Malawi many people die from malaria (malungo in Chichewa) each year and WHO estimates "around 1 million" die around the globe every year. Children under 5 years are especially vulnerable and ...

So here's an honest assessment. I get a living allowance of $185 dollars every month from Peace Corps to live here. I use that to travel, for rent, to buy food and clothes, to buy cooking materials and household goods, etc. And at the end of every month the stipend is always running pretty low even though I live alone and my responsibility is just for me.  In Malawi, what I make is an average, common salary for hard working teachers, clinicians, forestry officers, etc and sometimes much more than those engaged in only subsistance farming. But these people many times do not live alone. They have spouses and children to care for and extended family to help. They have expenses such as high school which is not free but instead another fee. My stipend is far more than many here make and yet my neighbors and friends are always very generous. Many times much more so than I.   The privileges I've always had are becomi...