Take me Home

Now I do not understand Chichewa, but I am pretty sure he is yelling at me to take him home in my bag. He has a good argument.

Kinda like Church at home

I just figured out how to post a video. I am awesome. Alleluia. This is of a church service. Reminds me of a Catholic service in the states. :-) It is short as it takes forever to upload. Please note my front row seat. Nothin' but front row here....

Finding my long lost love....

After sitting down and talking with each kid we have on scholarship, I was amazed to hear that none of them have school books or access to them. Apparently no one in Malawi does. They learn from writing down what the teacher teaches in class, and then they study the notes. Crazy. I just think about how many bad teachers I have had in my lifetime. At first, I felt like crying each time I heard this from a kid, but then I just got fired up. This is just ridiculous. How can you expect kids to pass and get a good education like this?

So, I have spent the last month and a half trying to get my hands on some text books for our kids to be able to use. I am not exaggerating when I say I probably spent more time in the last month and a half trying to get these books than I did studying my entire senior year in college. These were harder to get my hands on than a Cabbage Patch Kid was in 1984. I am not kidding. We can not even get the books for Form 3 and Form 4 (11th and 12th grade) as they have not finished printing them yet. Um….we are more than half way through the school year. I asked why they are not out yet and they said because the demand is so low. Hmmm….I am definitely not an economics major, but wouldn't demand be a little higher is the supply was there at the beginning of the school year as opposed to the end? Sometimes I just give up on trying to understand. I have been learning to just let things go.

Hippos - Guppies - Potato - Patato

I went to Lake Malawi for the first time last weekend. It is the third biggest lake in Africa. It looks more like an ocean to me.

I have found that most Malawians do not know how to swim. I found it a little funny when we got there at night and one of the guys was scared to go in up to his calves. I kept laughing at him. Well, the joke was on me when the camp guard came down to the lake and asked if I would not go near the water as the hippos feed there at night. What the!?! Seriously?!?….that would have been nice to know that hippos live in the lake - thanks guys. They are only the most dangerous and territorial animal in the world. It reminded me about how nonchalant Australians are about having crocodiles in the water when swimming. Um….I don't even like swimming in a lake with guppies swimming around me.

I took this picture early in the morning. I was hanging out on the rocks and looked over to find a family of monkeys on the wall of the campsite. Well hello. I wish someone would have told me there were monkeys hanging around. I just think what would have happened if I greeted one on my way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. You know the scariest thing I worry about running into while camping at home is a squirrel. A little warning here would be nice. Maybe that is too much to ask.

Game on!

I have a new goal. Actually two. First one is meet President Bingu second is to meet Madonna. I think I can do it. I feel like I can do anything here. :-)

First off, it is soooo funny how I am famous here. When I visit a school, they think I am Madonna, and when I visit a refugee camp, Angelina Jolie. No joke! I am really getting a taste of what it feels like to be famous. Not just the reception from the common folk, but I get rushed into a meeting to meet whom I want, and everyone clears the way. I am in for a huge reality check when I get home.

Last night, I went to the Irish ambassadors house for St. Patricks Day. I dare someone to one-up me on this one. :-) I almost cried when the ambassador was talking about Ireland, its people and the history. These are my peeps. I felt very at home. I felt both of my grandmothers giving me their blessing.

I met this Minister of Women, Gender and Children Affairs last night- pictured above. She is the equivalent to someone in Obama's Cabinet. I am one level away from my goal and plan on accomplishing this one. The only people that believe I can do this are the ones I work with everyday here. They have my back. I have bets going with some friends here and I plan in it paying out big time.

HIV/AIDS Teen Group

Saturday we had our second meeting. My first week here, Ken with Face to Face AIDS (the organization that works closely with Pendulum Project and who is responsible for a lot of the funding of projects here) got a grant to start an Teen Group in a village to educate the youth on HIV/AIDS. I mentioned this group in an earlier blog. While here, Ken asked me if I would do the teaching and training on HIV/AIDS. Of course, I jumped at the chance, but was getting a little concerned as we approached the meeting. I have never taught teens about HIV/AIDS, let alone in a culture so different, where a majority of the kids are illiterate. I have found it tough enough to talk about HIV/AIDS to people at home as it is such a complex disease and I never know how specific or general to be to be able to be understood.

It went extremely well if I do say so myself. I divided the 15 kids into 2 groups and asked one to discuss and write down everything they know about HIV and the other to discuss AIDS. I have found at home, most people do not know the difference.

Before I started teaching, I pulled Mike aside as the groups were meeting and asked him if I could talk about oral and anal sex. I wanted to make sure I was being culturally sensitive. He looked at me and told me that they do not "have that here". Oops, my bad. I totally forgot. Neither Malawi or Iran has gays. Good talk, good talk.

Seeing as how they learn through drama, I found some good exercises online to demonstrate about the virus and the immune system. Not an easy task as they do not even know what a cell is.

not the best picture, but i wanted to give you an idea. oh and that is mike translating for me

E-A-G-L-E-S

A little background. Just like many people from the US think Africa is one big country, I do not think people from Malawi know that there are states in America. It is the United State of America as far as they are concerned. I have learned to say that I am from America. Saying I was from New York City just was not connecting here.

So I found it soooooo funny last night when we were going out and the guy who was driving said " I am driving like I am from New Jersey". I thought it was sooo funny. I asked him if he even knows where New Jersey is. How did the word get over here that Jersey drivers are so bad.

This picture was taken at one of the refugee camps. Again, I found myself all alone doing the E-A-G-L-E-S chant. Come on people.