Aubrey

This might just stand out as one of my favorite moments here. Meet Aubrey. He has been supported on a scholarship from PP for 5 years. He entered the program as his mother (the night she was dying) begged someone associated with PP to help her son get a good education. He was left living with his two brothers who created a terrible home environment for him to succeed in. They were big time thieves and drug addicts. He was an orphan at 13 years old.

I heard about Aubrey before I met him. He sounded like such a great kid. He just completed his senior year and took the MCSE (a national exam) to see if he passed to go onto college. While he was waiting for the results, he has worked everyday. Hard labor. He gets up at 6am every morning, travels 7km to the market to purchase a cows head. He then lugs it home and spend the whole day making stew with the head. He carries the stew (about half a trash can) 2 km to a market that is located between two bars. He gets harassed nightly by drunk men giving him a hard time. He returns home at 11 at night to start it all over again, for less than $5 a day. It just breaks my heart.

So the morning I met him he told us that the exam scores were out. They announce all the names of people who have passed the exam on the radio. 45,000 names!!! It takes them 3 days!!! What the......

So we worked and worked to find a way to see if he passed. We finally got in touch with his school who told us he passed with excellent results!!! It was so exciting! Only 50% of the kids pass this exam. After all their handwork and money spent. Needless to say, I cried. I was so happy for him and for all the people at PP who made this possible for him. There is noway this great kid would have made it anywhere without someone supporting his schooling after his mom passed away. These are the stories that keep you going when you see and hear so many heartbreaking stories of pain and suffering to such good people…..

This picture was taken right after he found out he passed. How cute is he?!

Part of the work here is to help get the PP office in Malawi running efficiently.

I get back to the office after a shopping trip, and there are about 7 other Malawians in the office. People associated with PP in some capacity, a girl who is home sick from school and a carpenter. I am typing up a project proposal and just look up now and then watching the discussion. I have no idea what they are saying as they are speaking in Chichewa.

After a while, Mara (the one who runs the office), looks at me and says…..Christine….we need to to go look at a bookshelf that they found - it was $340 . We need you to tell us whether or not to buy it. I was laughing in my head wondering what do I know about any bookshelf?! And what I am I supposed to say…yes…this bookshelf you picked out looks great??!

So we go, Mike, Frazier and I and I am shocked with how shotty these bookshelves are. After sitting in on the board meeting last week and realizing how tight money is, I was thinking "no way". This could put a kid through school for the year. I had them take me to many other stores, a random carpenter on the street…..

I ask Mike if he knows any friend or someone outside of the city we can commission to do this. After a while, he remembers a coffin maker who has skills. We drive out to an Area, and they think it is best if I talk to him. The quality would be better for a white person. We find the guy in a bar and I have to ask him to come out to do business. I tell him the measurements, the price we are willing to pay, measurements, and I go through all the wood selecting the quality we want. He said he will do it for $80!!!

All I kept thinking was how funny this all is. I never know what I am getting into and have had to become an "expert" on so many random things. I think that is what I like best about being in this role. I am learning so much about random things. Two days ago I was talking agricultural practices on how to have a better corn harvest and today I am in a coffin shop wheeling and dealing with the quality of wood. Just another day here…..

Damn Casual Friday

I went to work today in my new most dressy outfit and what do you know…..they have causal fridays in Malawi!! Dammit. Oh don't you worry, I can beat them in casual friday any day of the week. I have 25kg of casual clothes. Bare with me here as I have a lot of time on my hands in the evenings and have been thoroughly entertaining myself with my new camera and laptop. I will get to more of the stories of what I have seen and experienced (as opposed to how I am deciding to pick out my outfits) later. I have time. I figured I would post another outfit due to the overwhelming requests….or maybe it was just one email from my sister. Potatoes Patatos....whatever.

Is this what you thought you would get from my blog from Africa? :-P

One step closer to blending in (as if my skin does not shout it)....

So day 1 in the office. I was sitting there talking to the two women saying that enough is enough. I need to go shopping. I have been being feeling really uncomfortable about how casual my outfits have been when they all look so nice. They take such pride in how they dress and we (I am talking about any white person here) look like park rangers. I met the ex-vice president of Malawi yesterday and I was not cool with the casualness of my dress while he was dressed to the nines.

So Miriam and I took a mini-bus (an amazingly efficient mini-van that packs people in) to some shops. For any of you that have shopped in a foreign country, you know how it feels to lose your own sense of what you see as normal. I continued to fight the "ok this is cool" by thinking…..european vacation…..i kept repeating this….european vacation, european vacation every time i thought….this is cool.

So I thought about putting up some thumbnails of all of my new outfits. If not for anything other than a good laugh, but I think I did pretty good. I kept thinking….would I wear this at home? I definitely pushed that limit, but feel I am in better shape than my khaki's, tank-top and flip-flops. You be the judge.

When I came back to the office bragging that I am going to look like them they said to each other "have your camera batteries charged tomorrow" . I am screwed from either continent. For me, a laugh is worth more than my pride…..I guess :-)

So today in my new outfit my friend Mike said the girls where we ate lunch were asking him where I go my outfit. They wanted to know if it was American or if I got it here. They could not figure it out. Bingo Bango. Mission accomplished. I am in!!

An Area

A few more pictures to give you an idea of what an Area is.

The top picture is the new office for Cedor Orphan Care (one of the projects that PP supports). I was shocked to hear that they do not even have one pen or a piece of paper to conduct business. This is what I mean by extreme poverty. It is hard to imagine that an organization that takes care of 300+ orphans cannot even afford a piece of paper. This is so far from my reality it is hard to understand sometimes.

One of the shops (Hardware) in an Area just outside of city center.

I figured before I got into some of the heart wrenching things I have seen and experienced, I will start from the beginning. Let's start from the top. Malawi. Malawi is located on the SE border of Africa. It is landlocked but interestingly enough, it feels like a tropical island. Right now, it is so lush and green. It is the size of Pennsylvania (ironically enough) and has about 12mm people.

It is one of the poorest countries in the world. I have never experienced anything like this. Some of the most interesting things I have found is that the Malawians are very warm, kind and they dress with such pride. They always look so nice, and they have timeless patience. Something I am not in touch with at all!!!

I am staying in the city of Liliongwe. I will post pictures when I move into my place on Friday. Right outside "city center" are Areas. I do not even know how to describe them. All dirt roads, with tiny tiny little shops lining the streets. See the hardware store! I still have not been able to wrap my brain around this part. Traveling a little farther out are the villages. This is where a village like Kang'oma is. It is about a forty minute drive from city center. Each part has its own feeling and issues and I am sure I will touch on all of them throughout my experiences.

Although it is such a foreign place, I do not feel as out of place as I probably should. :-)