Fund Raising Event at Cecilia's house (29/05/10)

There’re two social groups basically in Malawi: those with expatriates and those with the local Malawians. Can’t find anything in between. I’ve decided to do both, but prioritise the latter whenever possible. So Monday I would go for hash, Thursday circuit training, and intermittent activities if I’m invited – these for the expatriate groups. For the Malawian circle I’ve found a precious gatekeeper – ahh who else could be better than Cecilia! I went for the bridal shower two days ago and today I went for the fund raising event organised by the Catholic church attended by Cecilia. Many came to her house to do the cooking to sell food to raise fund for needy people in the church. We did nsima, chicken, pork, beef, chips, pumpkin leaves, salad and drinks – today I guess I fully understand the diet of local Malawians. Nsima is a must in their diet – even if they eat rice they have to top it up with nsima to call it a complete meal. Otherwise they would say ‘I haven’t eaten’.. haha.. just like we rice eater in Asia – you can’t really say you have eaten if you ‘just’ eat bread.. I learn the way to cook nsima. It needs skill really otherwise undone nsima could give problem to your stomach! Overnight nsima is called ndiku (hope I spell it correctly!) – I hope I interpreted that correctly: hungry children, when parents aren’t home to feed them, feed themselves a lot of nsima and nothing else – ‘that’s why they get BIG stomach!’.. ‘but after you grow up, the big stomach will go off because you know how to eat a balanced diet!’ – perhaps this explains high prevalence of kwashiorkor in children..?

Apart from nsima, the other must is soft drinks. I’ve read about how Coca-cola is so efficient in their distribution chain that it’s used as a supply chain for ORS (oral rehydration salt). And now I’ve witnessed how good it really is. There’re two things you can find at EVERY corner of the street: first, phone credits (because they run out so quickly!!! You can only send 50 text messages with credit of 1600kc, equivalent to about £6..!!!); and secondly, coca-cola or fanta (different types of fanta: fanta orange, sobo, fanta ‘exotic’!). Cecilia herself is doing business selling soft drinks at the school. You hardly find any mineral water on sale – when people are thirsty, they would ask for a bottle of soft drink (and of course, leave the glass bottles!)

So I was sitting beside a few large containers of soft drinks and Calsberg (yes even for beer people mostly drink imported ones.. I sometimes wonder perhaps only the expatriates get excited about trying local beer called kuchai kuchai). I was too bad in the kitchen Cecilia asked me ‘don’t mess things up Zoe!’ hahaha.. so actually instead of ‘helping’ (as I had intended.. well at least I had INTENTION to do so..) I was merely in-charge of snapping photos and chatting to people hahaha..

My marital status of ‘unmarried at the age of 29’ was very much controversial, and perhaps unacceptable.. hahaha.. anyhow I was wrong in assuming people must be very conservative in marriage – I met a girl who gave birth to her first born 2 years before she got married. She even told me that was ‘an accident’..! she’s now 28 and studying for accountancy. She missed university as she was taking care of her baby – hmm that’s just another way of doing it isn’t it! Here in Malawi many ‘over-aged’ (as of the definition by British standard) students enrol university via ‘mature students’ status and there’s nothing so special about it. Even in primary school, you find older children or teenagers who miss school previously. People have greater responsibilities for the family so they defer schooling I think they’re actually more mature and know for what they need university education – and in fact could be a better way when you think about problems of drunken teenage undergraduates who have no ideas why they are in the universities!

Another thing I discovered from the conversations is Malawian government’s ‘four-child policy’ – it’s a bill that once passed by the parliament, whoever gets fifth child in the family will be fined by the government. I have a feeling this may be a policy taken after the Chinese government’s. Chinese government is getting really influential in Malawian politics –from what I gathered from the locals, it sounds like the President needs to ‘kowtow’ to Chinese government. I can understand why as they are the most important donor now. The newly built Parliament building is actually a ‘gift’ from the Chinese government! Well back to the four-child policy, it has created quite a concern among the locals I guess. They joke about how you will need to kill and eat the 5^th child and how government people would ‘inject’ you without consent to make you infertile. Hmm is there actually depot contraceptive injection..?? Don’t think so but the it seems the fear is quite real..

Anyhow I went home at 4pm, as usual –because I should be a good girl who comes home before the darkness eats me up... ahhhh this’s perhaps the thing that most annoys me here..

Wesak Day reflections (29/05/10)

At this minute – exactly two weeks ago, I was struggling with my luggage which was plastic wrapped and I tried to tear the plastic layer with just a fork from the kitchen. I still could feel the silence of the room that made me feel lost and uncomfortable the minute I arrived. Just me, my luggage and the four walls.. and lots of unknowns awaiting me. It must be a lie to say I did not feel scared.

And now, I have been here for two weeks. JUST two weeks - unbelievable.

So many things have happened in just 14 days. From knowing nobody to making friends, who could possibly last a lifetime. From fear to fondness. From feeling lonely to feeling contended. From no access to research data to overwhelmed with data. From a non-vege to almost a vegetarian. From ‘can’t start my day earlier than 9’ to ‘can we make it earlier than 8?’..

I must say Buddha has looked after me so well. It was His birthday yesterday and I didn’t even realise – though I did see Him on a poster while waiting for an interviewee to finish his phone calls. That’s perhaps a sign to remind me ah do not forget your guru – being in a place with no physical access to Him doesn’t mean you have the excuse to forget. I thank Buddha for the teaching to accept adventure with calmness, to live with whatever that comes along and to let go when things are passed.

Happy birthday, my dear friend.

Bridal Shower (27/05/10)

Cecilia brought me along for a friend’s niece’s ‘bridal shower’ – a pre-wedding hen-party-like ceremony. Only ladies are invited. Simple food was served and loud music was played. There was a ‘counselor’ giving explanation to the group about how a bride should behave – from grooming, dressing, how to interact with groom’s family, etc etc.. I wonder if sex education was given at the same time lol! I actually didn’t know what people were talking about because everything was spoken in Chichewa however you could tell from the body language!

Then the fun bit came when the music was played very very loudly and everyone danced to the bride to ‘give blessing’ – by throwing money into a basket. The same concept of Chinese bringing ‘ang pow’ to wedding dinner. This was done for many rounds. So you ought to stand up and throw money otherwise ‘it’s embarrassing to just sit there..’ (quoted from Cecilia). From conversation later I learned that Cecilia threw in 1000kc – no wonder she had all new notes! She changed the 1000kc into smaller notes so that she can keeps on throwing in 20c/50kc per 20/50kc. The act of throwing money into the basket and dance around the bride was just fun!

And I was the only one holding camera and snapping pictures everywhere – felt myself like a tourist at times.. but ahh.. yes I am!

First Movie Night (25/05/10)

I already started to miss my weekly movie dose (from orange Wednesday) not even two weeks into my fieldtrip.. and I still have more than 2 months to go.. ah! I guess you won’t realise how much your life is dependent on internet until you lose it – now I don’t know what’s going on in the world (except the same news reported by BBC World Service via radio which gets repeated again and again..); I don’t even really know what’s going on in Malawi as the two mainstream newspapers are no more than 20 pages.. very thin in information. I feel my life is very much secluded. And I miss my TV... MYYYY lovely idiot box called TVVVVV.. no matter how boring the terrestrial channels are in the UK I still love it I guess just because we’re the generation who grew up with TV (instead of computer and internet!). I miss talking to my housemates of course. I miss talking with my office mates. I miss my bicycle (especially when I need to walk a veryyy long way...). I miss Sainsbury’s where I can get fresh and affordable food without having to haggle. I miss the freedom of walking/cycling around without having to worry about getting home before dark.

Ah!

But no complains. I gain so much more too, at the same time. Guess the change is good for self reflection (haha.. too much reflections! What else can you do at night apart from writing down reflections for the day’s interviews?!). Perhaps the lyrics in Ah Sang’s (a very talented Chinese artiste who, unfortunately, passed away at very young age because of breast cancer..) song reflects what I shall do now so well: ‘partying is a sign of loneliness of a group of people; being alone is a way to party with yourself’ – ahh I have soooo much time to party with myself right now!!!

Today’s party with myself (actually not alone – I was with Berna, my housemate – thank god there’s somebody to keep me company I can’t imagine coming home to one silent room and nobody to talk to – will killlll me.....) is watching a movie. I’m so glad I brought the hard drive which stores so many movies inside (thanks to Rudy!). We watched ‘while you were sleeping’ together and had a good laugh. It’s dramatic, unrealistic but ahh very good to watch a romantic film and imagine that I would probably also bump into a handsome-charming-love-only Mr Right the next minute! The probability of meeting your true love in life is just less than one in a million - and even you have found him it needs perfect timing and 'enabling mechanism' (the phrase I use a lot for my research!) for it to have a 'happily-ever-after' ending! Ah life is just too difficult sometimes isn't it..?!

It’s so refreshing after a week of just interviews, reflections, interviews, reflections.. and now I’m playing music ver y loudly from my laptop..!

Drive mad - never mind (20/05/10)

I think this trip, though interesting, might cost me my life – not because of mosquitoes but because of the crazy drivers. So far (after only 5 days in Blantyre), I was nearly banged by cars twice. They came so close, I mean VERY close (less than a metre). They don’t care if they bang you really. Yesterday I was walking home in a road wide enough for two big lorries to pass by. And this crazy car zoomed past me within half a metre away. And today, this minibus driver, drove up to the pedestrian pavement to avoid jams. There’s no place safe enough to walk really. The pavement is not only for pedestrians. Cars can go anywhere they like. These minibuses can stop anywhere and go anywhere. Very convenient but very dangerous.