The coming in of Chinese government (after kicking the Taiwanese off in 2008) in Malawi is a controversial one. Some said they’re good – because they’re showering the Malawi government with lots of gifts – and the latest one being the construction of a five-star hotel, an international conference and Karonga-Chitipa motorway. Some said the gift benefits only the government as the goodness doesn’t flow down to the grassroots. Others said Chinese = no quality, as there’re plenty of low quality Chinese made products flooding the market. You can’t believe how bad the goods are – I can guarantee you any made-in-China batteries you buy in Malawi run out of batteries in less than five minutes. No joke. I didn’t believe it myself and tried 6 batteries – so I can testify it was not mere bad luck to get empty batteries! And a bag I bought had its handle broken just after one day. My landlady bought an extension cord that spoilt a few of her electrical devices. The Malawians complain a lot about the slippers, which could just give away in less than a month. Well the list goes on.. what I want to say is it’s ok if the price is low then you deserve low quality goods. Just like in the UK or Malaysia or anywhere else, we get Chinese goods everywhere and in a wide range of prices. If you pay more, you get better goods. That’s fair. But things aren’t the same here in Malawi. unscrupulous traders bring in low quality goods and sell at high prices. As this is the first wave of Chinese goods hitting local market, and they ‘look’ perfectly fine, many are selling good. And sometimes the local people have no choice. Many things aren’t manufactured locally so they have to buy imported goods. So for those who can’t afford expensive imports, they just have to turn to such low quality goods. To me, it is just another way to bully poor people.
I never said I’m a Chinese here. Because I can’t agree with many things the Chinese do here. First, it is about the bad quality goods they bring into such a poor country. You know you actually make people poorer by selling these goods although they’re much cheaper than other goods. Secondly, the Chinese don’t mingle with the local, or the expatriates, or just anybody else. Even I find it hard to communicate with them. I have a few Chinese neighbours who never seem to be interested to start a conversation with anybody else. I only had one chance to talk to them. And they thought it was ‘unbelievable’ (derogatively) for me to take minibuses.
There was during one of the interviews I went to a suburban area to talk to somebody who plays an important role in the society of traditional medicine in Malawi. His vision was to make Malawian traditional medicine as marketable as the Chinese traditional medicine. I do not disagree with his ambition because I do think how TCM is practised, regulated and marketable does worth learning from. However I do disagree very strongly with his approach as to how this should be done. He wants to ‘talk to the President’ (I sometimes think the President of Malawi is somehow equivalent to the Emperor!) to bring in as many Chinese doctors as possible in order to open clinics at rural areas ‘to give service to the people at rural areas’. And these doctors too could teach our local traditional practitioners in Malawi. Oh gosh. He really thinks all Chinese are angels. I spent one hour trying to explain to him why language can be a problem and why not everybody is well intentioned. You know that’s the beauty of the Malawian hearts I saw here. Which really makes my heart melt. They are so genuine. Perhaps too naive to be true when the rest of the world has become so.. hmm vicious (well I could use the word vicious, if to think relatively to the naivety among Malawians). They are just so kind and so.. pure.. I don’t know how to describe.. like babies whom you feel it’s your responsibility to protect them. And it makes me extremely angry when others come in to bully these innocent people. And indeed it makes me even more furious to learn the local Malawians (especially politicians) try to bully their own people. You know those looks – those LOOKS, in the eyes of the children, the women, the men, everybody – it’s completely free of viciousness.. those grins, those smiles – so genuine, so kind, so pure.. I just have no words for these.. it makes me teary whenever I think of these kind gestures..
After a few days I visited one of the Chinese clinics in town. Just out of curiosity whether they’re indeed so ‘saint’-like as described by the traditional healer leader. The moment I pushed open the door of the clinic, what greeted me was just completely out of what I had expected. There was no Chinese doctor. There was only one Malawian ‘doctor’ – I said doctor because he had a stethoscope with him. And a bed, probably for acupuncture. Simple furniture. And a poster on the wall showing the entry points for acupuncture. I asked if he was the doctor. Shyly he replied yes. I said I actually was expecting a Chinese doctor because the signboard outside of the clinic was written in Chinese. He said ah no, the Chinese doctor was taking care of another clinic in town.
‘Do you see patients? And give them treatment?’ Yes.
‘How and where did you get your training?’.. ‘ahh.. Dr xxx trained me for two years..’
‘How.. and where were you trained..?’ ... ‘just here.. in Lilongwe.. Dr xxx wants a boy.. so he took me..’
So this Dr xxx wanted to train a male TCM doctor. That’s great.
And I asked what was his background qualification before embarking on ‘training’ (note: this training actually was apprenticeship, where he observed and learned what the Chinese doctor did for two years). He said ‘ahh.. no.. ‘ I asked ‘MSCE?’ (that’s equivalent to O level or MCE). Again he said ‘ahh.. no..’
So where did you work before Dr xxx took you for training?
‘ahh.. I was working in a bakery..’
Oh God. Oh great.
Dr xxx was too busy to take care of more than one clinic. So he wanted a ‘boy’ to do that for him. And that’s why the training.
‘Let me show you some medications’.
Then he took me to the shelf with some very simple OTC Chinese medications and some herbs.
‘If the patient has stomach problem, take this. pain in the knee, this; headache, this; cough, this;.....’
The list goes on. He has learned how to ‘diagnose’ (by taking information from patients, so basically patients are diagnosing themselves) and prescribe. Just matching list A to list B. As simple as that.
Not only that. He even showed me a plastic bag full of Viagra and ARVs imported from China. Oh god he’s so naive. He didn’t even know he was showing me something that was illegal. And it happened that the sale for Viagra is very good. So good that the money he can make from Viagra per day is even higher than his one month salary. Oh so how much is his monthly salary?
‘Six thousand kwacha..’ (I felt a pinch in my stomach - £24 a month?!?)
‘How much did you earn when you worked at the bakery?’
‘Fifteen thousand kwacha’ (that’s £60 a month)
‘That’s too low for your job now. Don’t you think so?’
‘Ahh.. nah.. it’s ok (grin, the grin that really makes me ache). Many of my friends now have no job. And Dr xxx will take me to China one day.. I will learn there..’
By this moment I couldn’t look into his eyes anymore. A live example of how Chinese cheats stand in front of my eyes. The Chinese doctor just wants somebody to man his shop, so that he could sell his goods – he doesn’t care about patient safety; he’s not bothered about paying his employee fairly; he’s not even ashamed of giving false hope to this poor young man about ‘taking him to China’.
What I want to say was just ‘I’m sorry’ but I couldn’t find my words.. and I couldn’t say this because he definitely didn’t understand.. in the end I asked him to go back to school to at least get a MSCE so that he could enrol into medical school to become a real doctor.
I made the conversation quick so that I could leave the clinic before my eyes got watery again. I can’t bear the thought how people come into this country to exploit the local people. I can’t bear it even more when this is done by somebody who shares the same culture with me. When a white man does it, I could somehow console myself ‘ahh those hypocrite donors..’ but when a Chinese does that it makes me extremely embarrassed..! I’m sorry – I want to say I am sorry, I am sorry we have caused you so much pain.. I’m so sorry a Chinese has done that..
Sunday, July 11, 2010
The concept of ‘wealth’ in Malawi – it isn’t about money!
It really takes me a long time to get my head around this issue – actually the puzzle didn’t start with ‘how do they define wealth?’ as I previously ASSUME (yes – lots of assumptions!!) they perceived wealth the same way as I do. In westernised context, wealth = accumulation of personal belongings that could be measured in money terms. And because we all are capitalist, that means we believe there’re limited capital out there which everybody wants to have a share from. Of course the stronger ones will win and become ‘rich’, or ‘wealthy’.
So the difference is, in Malawian (I’m not sure if it applies to all Africans?) terms – ‘wealth’ accumulates in the same way (where you need to fight for it) BUT it isn’t money – it’s social status. Whilst there’s rat race in westernised societies for money, there is rat race in Malawian society for social status. But how do you measure social status? Well it’s not as straight forward and quantifiable as in money terms. You’ll be wealthier if more people look up to you or admire you – so in order to do that, you need to give some sort of assistance to as many people as possible. That’s why the concept of extended families works in Africa but not in our society – because people value good reputation over accumulation of personal wealth. And in fact you don’t possibly have a good name if you are too rich – that’s an implication of you do not share your wealth.
Sometimes social status can be lifted when you’re associated with some important people. It’s not necessary for you to have lots of money to enjoy admiration from others but merely associating yourself with people who have lots of money gains admiration. That’s why we say Africans are very communal – they do gathering all the time. And that’s why you hear people attending weddings, funerals, or any other social events ALL the time – to the extent employers find them seriously affecting work productivity lol! Very sociable – and that’s the thing we’re missing in a society that values money more than anything else. The motivation for a westernised society to connect with other people is lost – as what matters most is building up your personal wealth. On the contrary, the motivation for connecting with others is very high in African society. Although I’m trying to explain as if they have motive to make friends but the outcome of it isn’t just about lifting a person’s social status. You get happiness, you get friends, you gain something people in the ‘modern’ society are losing – that’s why you don’t hear people are ‘depressed’, ‘stressed’, or suffering from mental illness.. people gain reassurance of themselves from others. Actually we human beings are inherently sociable creature – we have the need to be socially accepted. We inherently want to be part of the society so we strive to do what the majority are doing. Only when we think we aren’t the ‘weird’ ones out in the society (or in any type of social space, not limited by physical boundary), we’re assured of ourselves and therefore not ‘depressed’ or ‘stressed’. So people here in Malawi do it by talking (or gossiping, most of the time!) and finding their niche in the society. They gain self assurance through their daily connection with others, which spend a lot of time (and therefore deemed ‘inefficient’ at work by us!) yes, but perhaps that’s the best remedy/prevention for depression. Hmm in fact I think, if the west is scared of high HIV rate in countries like Malawi, the Malawians should be afraid of high depression rate in the west! You gain one, you lose the other one – that’s what we call ‘fair trade’ LOL!!!
So the difference is, in Malawian (I’m not sure if it applies to all Africans?) terms – ‘wealth’ accumulates in the same way (where you need to fight for it) BUT it isn’t money – it’s social status. Whilst there’s rat race in westernised societies for money, there is rat race in Malawian society for social status. But how do you measure social status? Well it’s not as straight forward and quantifiable as in money terms. You’ll be wealthier if more people look up to you or admire you – so in order to do that, you need to give some sort of assistance to as many people as possible. That’s why the concept of extended families works in Africa but not in our society – because people value good reputation over accumulation of personal wealth. And in fact you don’t possibly have a good name if you are too rich – that’s an implication of you do not share your wealth.
Sometimes social status can be lifted when you’re associated with some important people. It’s not necessary for you to have lots of money to enjoy admiration from others but merely associating yourself with people who have lots of money gains admiration. That’s why we say Africans are very communal – they do gathering all the time. And that’s why you hear people attending weddings, funerals, or any other social events ALL the time – to the extent employers find them seriously affecting work productivity lol! Very sociable – and that’s the thing we’re missing in a society that values money more than anything else. The motivation for a westernised society to connect with other people is lost – as what matters most is building up your personal wealth. On the contrary, the motivation for connecting with others is very high in African society. Although I’m trying to explain as if they have motive to make friends but the outcome of it isn’t just about lifting a person’s social status. You get happiness, you get friends, you gain something people in the ‘modern’ society are losing – that’s why you don’t hear people are ‘depressed’, ‘stressed’, or suffering from mental illness.. people gain reassurance of themselves from others. Actually we human beings are inherently sociable creature – we have the need to be socially accepted. We inherently want to be part of the society so we strive to do what the majority are doing. Only when we think we aren’t the ‘weird’ ones out in the society (or in any type of social space, not limited by physical boundary), we’re assured of ourselves and therefore not ‘depressed’ or ‘stressed’. So people here in Malawi do it by talking (or gossiping, most of the time!) and finding their niche in the society. They gain self assurance through their daily connection with others, which spend a lot of time (and therefore deemed ‘inefficient’ at work by us!) yes, but perhaps that’s the best remedy/prevention for depression. Hmm in fact I think, if the west is scared of high HIV rate in countries like Malawi, the Malawians should be afraid of high depression rate in the west! You gain one, you lose the other one – that’s what we call ‘fair trade’ LOL!!!
The average age of my ‘boyfriends’ in Malawi? – 55!
That was the joke from my housemate M which when you think about that – isn’t funny at all.. men, especially successful, rich men, having more than one family is very common. Initially I was quite annoyed at how these men shamelessly wooing young unmarried ladies despite having 3, 4, 5 children. I personally had a few encounters with them which puzzled me a lot – we could talk about how many children he had just 1 second before he invited me for an overnight trip at the lake. I really didn’t understand this logic – so in the end I couldn’t resist asking ‘are you sure you don’t have to get permission from your wife for going out with a girl?’ guess what’s the response..?? Laugh! Very loudly! I mean it was not to shield his embarrassment at attempting extra-marital affairs –but that HEY YOU MUST BE KIDDINGME! kind of laugh!! As if this question was so ridiculous!
It was not until very recently that I gained understanding about this ‘logic’ – this is a socially accepted practice when successful men should spread his ‘wealth’ (a concept I will need another piece of writing to explain it.. this isn’t as simple as the ‘wealth’ we interpret in the western context). By practising polygamy, he is seen as doing good for the society as he’s not selfish to share his ‘wealth’. And girls, on the other hand, appreciate this goodness and therefore no reason to reject such kindness. People actually dislike rich men who don’t ‘share’ therefore whatever I encountered so far is merely a way of ‘expressing goodwill’. Ah – now I understand how UNGRATEFUL I am!!
However don’t worry about my safety here as these men aren’t ‘dangerous’ – they’re merely trying their luck out on a mzungu girl. Mzungu girls are generally more difficult to court and you need more money and social status to be successful (and therefore having to receive so many ‘invitations’ doesn’t mean I am particularly attractive – it’s merely my identity as a ‘mzungu’) therefore if you have a mzungu girlfriend you must be a very successful guy. Malawians are very polite and that’s what I like about them. Some people (non-Malawian Africans) say they’re too reserved and I think this actually is very good for doing my fieldwork here. People do not dare to do ‘big’ thing – that’s why you don’t hear much about robbery but just a lot of petty thefts. And men could take ‘no’ anyhow there’re plenty fish out in the sea where they could easily fish somewhere else.
Too bad there aren’t invitations from young handsome bachelors – the average age of my interviewees is perhaps 50.. ahh perhaps this is the biggest mistake in my fieldwork! LOL!
It was not until very recently that I gained understanding about this ‘logic’ – this is a socially accepted practice when successful men should spread his ‘wealth’ (a concept I will need another piece of writing to explain it.. this isn’t as simple as the ‘wealth’ we interpret in the western context). By practising polygamy, he is seen as doing good for the society as he’s not selfish to share his ‘wealth’. And girls, on the other hand, appreciate this goodness and therefore no reason to reject such kindness. People actually dislike rich men who don’t ‘share’ therefore whatever I encountered so far is merely a way of ‘expressing goodwill’. Ah – now I understand how UNGRATEFUL I am!!
However don’t worry about my safety here as these men aren’t ‘dangerous’ – they’re merely trying their luck out on a mzungu girl. Mzungu girls are generally more difficult to court and you need more money and social status to be successful (and therefore having to receive so many ‘invitations’ doesn’t mean I am particularly attractive – it’s merely my identity as a ‘mzungu’) therefore if you have a mzungu girlfriend you must be a very successful guy. Malawians are very polite and that’s what I like about them. Some people (non-Malawian Africans) say they’re too reserved and I think this actually is very good for doing my fieldwork here. People do not dare to do ‘big’ thing – that’s why you don’t hear much about robbery but just a lot of petty thefts. And men could take ‘no’ anyhow there’re plenty fish out in the sea where they could easily fish somewhere else.
Too bad there aren’t invitations from young handsome bachelors – the average age of my interviewees is perhaps 50.. ahh perhaps this is the biggest mistake in my fieldwork! LOL!
‘YOU take minibuses?!?!?’
I was waiting for my radio broadcaster friend outside of British Council at the City Centre when a boy (about 15 years old) came up to me to ‘practise his English’. Oh I was glad to help as I had nothing to do anyway why not just have a chat.
But practising English was just a camouflage – within 3 minutes he asked for 100kwacha (about 40p) from me for his ailing ‘neighbour’. Hmm that’s interesting – usually people just ask for money by extending their hands ‘money, money, give me money’; but this one was ‘professional’ – he had special tactic.. usually I would just ignore them (giving money is BAD practice – never do so as this will create more dependency on mzungus to bring more money.. I will write about this soon) but this time I had time so I chose to continue the conversation instead.
‘Hey young man, listen here, you’re smart, you speak good English, you can get a job and you can earn money for your family. If today I give you money, what do you do tomorrow? Ask for more money from me?’
Now he was confused. Perhaps he never thought I would speak to him this way. And perhaps he thought I didn’t understand his request so he repeated what he wanted – well it was merely 100kwacha from a rich mzungu (and why bother to argue!!)!
But I think he didn’t understand me – so I repeated what I said by stressing on ‘you speak GOOD English’ (as I’m not sure if he’s smart or not, speaking good English was the only fair judgement I could give). And this time he blinked at the statement – ‘I speak good English? You CAN understand me??? YOU CAN UNDERSTAND ME???’
Of course I can understand you! Oh my god! And I took it further to reason with him –
‘Young man (as if I am so old!), you see, not all mzungus are rich – I’m also like you, I also take minibuses – look at my shoes (I pointed to my sport shoes which were full of dust – which is something you don’t see on people who use only cars), I also walk like you; I am NOT different from YOU!’
And he was stunned for 2 seconds. ‘You take minibus? YOU take minibus?! YOU.. TAKE.. MINIBUS??!??’
I am not exaggerating – he repeated the question THREE times. As if I am from Mars.
Oh then I seized the opportunity – I am desperate at making these people realise they’re not of any lower status than the mzungus! The reason why poor countries continue to be poor is because we never have the confidence that we are as good as the rich ones! This is so wrong!
‘YES! I TAKE MINIBUSES! You see, we are the same! If I work to get money, you also can do this – you see, you speak good English, you can get a job and you can earn money! One day you’ll be successful! And how rich you are is not about how much money you earn, if I earn 50,000kwacha a month I still can be poorer than you even if you earn 5,000kwacha a month – it’s about how you spend your money!’
Unfortunately this interesting conversation was interrupted by my friend who wasn’t patient enough for me to continue preaching. I was dragged away before I finished my preaching – and the boy was desperate.. I think he re-gained his ‘consciousness’ (which was to get money, not preaching from me) and went back to his begging mood ‘100kwacha! Madam! 100kwacha!’
Aaarrrrgghh!!
But practising English was just a camouflage – within 3 minutes he asked for 100kwacha (about 40p) from me for his ailing ‘neighbour’. Hmm that’s interesting – usually people just ask for money by extending their hands ‘money, money, give me money’; but this one was ‘professional’ – he had special tactic.. usually I would just ignore them (giving money is BAD practice – never do so as this will create more dependency on mzungus to bring more money.. I will write about this soon) but this time I had time so I chose to continue the conversation instead.
‘Hey young man, listen here, you’re smart, you speak good English, you can get a job and you can earn money for your family. If today I give you money, what do you do tomorrow? Ask for more money from me?’
Now he was confused. Perhaps he never thought I would speak to him this way. And perhaps he thought I didn’t understand his request so he repeated what he wanted – well it was merely 100kwacha from a rich mzungu (and why bother to argue!!)!
But I think he didn’t understand me – so I repeated what I said by stressing on ‘you speak GOOD English’ (as I’m not sure if he’s smart or not, speaking good English was the only fair judgement I could give). And this time he blinked at the statement – ‘I speak good English? You CAN understand me??? YOU CAN UNDERSTAND ME???’
Of course I can understand you! Oh my god! And I took it further to reason with him –
‘Young man (as if I am so old!), you see, not all mzungus are rich – I’m also like you, I also take minibuses – look at my shoes (I pointed to my sport shoes which were full of dust – which is something you don’t see on people who use only cars), I also walk like you; I am NOT different from YOU!’
And he was stunned for 2 seconds. ‘You take minibus? YOU take minibus?! YOU.. TAKE.. MINIBUS??!??’
I am not exaggerating – he repeated the question THREE times. As if I am from Mars.
Oh then I seized the opportunity – I am desperate at making these people realise they’re not of any lower status than the mzungus! The reason why poor countries continue to be poor is because we never have the confidence that we are as good as the rich ones! This is so wrong!
‘YES! I TAKE MINIBUSES! You see, we are the same! If I work to get money, you also can do this – you see, you speak good English, you can get a job and you can earn money! One day you’ll be successful! And how rich you are is not about how much money you earn, if I earn 50,000kwacha a month I still can be poorer than you even if you earn 5,000kwacha a month – it’s about how you spend your money!’
Unfortunately this interesting conversation was interrupted by my friend who wasn’t patient enough for me to continue preaching. I was dragged away before I finished my preaching – and the boy was desperate.. I think he re-gained his ‘consciousness’ (which was to get money, not preaching from me) and went back to his begging mood ‘100kwacha! Madam! 100kwacha!’
Aaarrrrgghh!!
Security checks at an American NGO building
Even at Lilongwe International Airport you don’t get checked this way. There is no other building at Lilongwe that hires so many security guards. I felt I entered another world immediately after I entered the iron gate (which probably also was watching me if only it has eyes!..kidding..). you need to get through two security checks where your bag will be searched, and you will be scanned. When you finally arrived at the reception, your details will be recorded and you’ll be handed a visitor card if you are granted entrance. And you don’t have to worry you’ll be lost in the building as you won’t be allowed to wander around – you’ll be seated until a messenger comes over to take you straight to where you need to get to. No messing around, strictly business. No gossip groups as I usually see at other places. Nobody stands at reception to chat. Everybody is busy. An atmosphere that reminds you that you are at a ‘very efficient’ place.
I looked around idly. As nobody seemed to be interested to chat with me. So it was so boring I had to read the mission statement of the institution – one strong message is they want to bring democracy and ensure maintenance of human rights to developing countries. Hahaha.. you know what I was laughing at!!!
I looked around idly. As nobody seemed to be interested to chat with me. So it was so boring I had to read the mission statement of the institution – one strong message is they want to bring democracy and ensure maintenance of human rights to developing countries. Hahaha.. you know what I was laughing at!!!
Peter Mawanga Concert 27/06/10
Excellent!!! Thumb’s up!!
Actually we (I went with my house owners F and I) almost left because it took so long for the concert to start.. it was supposed to start at 2pm but because the sound engineer didn’t come so it took them almost two hours to tune the instruments.. arrgghh – tell me about ‘African time’!! however I am soooo glad we stayed otherwise I wouldn’t have chance to see Peter Mawanga – this band plays so well I would definitely say they deserve a concert at the London O2! I heard that they did have a concert somewhere in London some time ago so perhaps I’ll see them again in the UK!
There’re three things in Malawi I find most rewarding – people, music, and starry nights!
People – needless to elaborate more, super friendly. Although I do have difficulties to connect with those who don’t speak English but language isn’t the primary factor in friendship. They provide me with a very different outlook of life. Very different – that difference intrigues me and makes me wonder why I only see things one way and what possibly could other ways be.
Music – so far I’ve been to two concerts and both are amazing.. I find African music very communal – it naturally gathers people to sing/dance along a very popular example is the World Cup theme song This Time for Africa! Wow this song is just soooo popular – once you play this song you engage EVERYBODY, IMMEDIATELY! That’s also the one of the most popular songs (after waka waka) among local clubs nobody gets tired even if it was played continuously 2 or 3 times! They are particularly good with drums and you know how drums attract crowd. And you get drums everywhere you go they aren’t as expensive as violins, guitars; aren’t as massive as pianos; drums are musical instrument for the people.
And thirdly – starry nights! In the UK I only had ONE chance to see this – that was when I was at Lake District and that gained lots of wow WoW WOW from us! But here.. you get that EVERY NIGHT. Yes, EVERY night! Yeah! Every night it’s so pleasant to just sit outside and look at the sky..! unless there’s too much cloud, you don’t have light pollution to block you from this nature beauty! You have development, you lose the sky – yes this world is fair in this sense!
So now, my next mission is to get a Peter Mawanga’s CD!
Actually we (I went with my house owners F and I) almost left because it took so long for the concert to start.. it was supposed to start at 2pm but because the sound engineer didn’t come so it took them almost two hours to tune the instruments.. arrgghh – tell me about ‘African time’!! however I am soooo glad we stayed otherwise I wouldn’t have chance to see Peter Mawanga – this band plays so well I would definitely say they deserve a concert at the London O2! I heard that they did have a concert somewhere in London some time ago so perhaps I’ll see them again in the UK!
There’re three things in Malawi I find most rewarding – people, music, and starry nights!
People – needless to elaborate more, super friendly. Although I do have difficulties to connect with those who don’t speak English but language isn’t the primary factor in friendship. They provide me with a very different outlook of life. Very different – that difference intrigues me and makes me wonder why I only see things one way and what possibly could other ways be.
Music – so far I’ve been to two concerts and both are amazing.. I find African music very communal – it naturally gathers people to sing/dance along a very popular example is the World Cup theme song This Time for Africa! Wow this song is just soooo popular – once you play this song you engage EVERYBODY, IMMEDIATELY! That’s also the one of the most popular songs (after waka waka) among local clubs nobody gets tired even if it was played continuously 2 or 3 times! They are particularly good with drums and you know how drums attract crowd. And you get drums everywhere you go they aren’t as expensive as violins, guitars; aren’t as massive as pianos; drums are musical instrument for the people.
And thirdly – starry nights! In the UK I only had ONE chance to see this – that was when I was at Lake District and that gained lots of wow WoW WOW from us! But here.. you get that EVERY NIGHT. Yes, EVERY night! Yeah! Every night it’s so pleasant to just sit outside and look at the sky..! unless there’s too much cloud, you don’t have light pollution to block you from this nature beauty! You have development, you lose the sky – yes this world is fair in this sense!
So now, my next mission is to get a Peter Mawanga’s CD!
Resuming Research Work.. 24/06/10
So I’m starting another round of data collection. After one week of ‘holiday’ (wasn’t COMPLETELY holiday – most parts of it involved work!!) in Zambia. My mind still lingers around good places and people in Zambia but physically I am at Lilongwe which means I need to resume my research business. Bad thing is I have not been feeling well since coming back from Zambia, thanks to all the travelling hassle which deprived me of valuable sleeping hours (you know how much I need sleep...). Ahhh.. work... crazy crazy again.. huge task.. very much overwhelmed... Today I visited one of the top people in pharmacy, who has contacts with almost everybody I have to see in Lilongwe. And got the location of each institution I’m going to visit right. Gosh I have to run all over Lilongwe! To me Lilongwe is just too big, after coming from Blantyre, which has most things concentrated at one small area where I could easily access any place by foot. Now I think I will have difficult time finding directions and planning my interview schedule as one interview location could be very far from the next one.. and I heard Lilongwe is much ‘rougher’ than Blantyre (people kept telling me that before I left Blantyre). I think perhaps I need to move out of where I currently stay because it’s just too far from wherever I need to go for the following 3-4 weeks. I need to take at least 2 minibuses to get to where most interview venues are. But moving (again) makes me feel tired.. I’ve been dragging my suitcase from one place to the other for two weeks arrgghh the task of packing, unpacking, lifting and moving.. just thinking of these makes me tiiiiiireeeeddd... but that’s the thing about intensive fieldwork – I have no room to stop and think – I need to get into action, Action, ACTION! Quickly! Otherwise I lose time and money runs out!
Ahh I am just sooo tired..
Ahh I am just sooo tired..
Living with a Burundian-Italian Couple - another eye-opening experience 22/06/10
I think meeting Mr C and D opens up the door for me. I feel my life was flushed in with so many good people suddenly. I had no plans as to where to stay in Lilongwe (apart from a very expensive guest house which I didn’t wish to move into). Mrs F texted me one hour before I reached Lilongwe to ask if I was interested to look at their house. Well I send a group email to a group of potential landlords before I left Malawi a week ago but most of them replied me via emails (which I couldn’t access when I was in Zambia). Only F texted me. The price was much better than the ones from the guest house so I said yes right away. Again it was a risk – I didn’t know who they were, no idea where they live.. I just trusted my intuition which told me this was going to be alright.
My intuition didn’t fail me. It was indeed better than alright. Florisa and her husband T are very nice people. F is an Italian and T a Burundian. Interesting match isn’t it! I somehow felt this could be a romance started at refugee camps.. true enough – they actually met when he was living in the refugee camp in Malawi back in 2003. He is just 31 and had lived in refugee camps his whole life since birth up until he was 27! Can you imagine if you are put in refugee camps as long as 27 years! And it wasn’t just one refugee camp – he had to move from one to the other – not within one country – but a few countries, because when one becomes unstable you just have to run to the next one... gosh I don’t have words to describe how I feel toward this! T once told me at times he questioned where God was (he’s a Christian) – if He does exist, why there was so much suffering in his life..?!
Through him I change my perception toward what ‘refugee’ means. Previously I had little idea what it could mean – I only understand from the TV refugee camps seemed to be a place of hell where you put up temporary until things become stable then you go back to normal life. But NO, the reality is, one could live in refugee camps throughout his/her life! And life does go on within refugee camps – they do have schools, clinics, markets.. just like a neighbourhood – the difference is, they have no freedom like us. They have no passport to move freely. They can’t even do business outside of refugee camps because the government doesn’t allow them to – as a result of objection from local community that these refugees could possibly snatch business or job opportunities if they are allowed to. However when you think carefully, there’re many valuable sources of manpower from refugee camps – there’re doctors, nurses, educated people, businessmen.. who could possibly benefit the country because they’re also good brains to contribute to the country’s economy and development. When the local Malawians lament about not having enough job opportunities, having businessmen starting up any type of businesses actually provide jobs for the local people. And having doctors and nurses coming out of the camps to work in the hospitals surely benefit the health system.. what do we worry about..?!!? This world isn’t fair is it – just because you are born in Somalia, Burundi, Congo.. you’re robbed of basic human rights to move around and live like others do!
About F, I admire her kind heart and open mind – I admire how receptive she is to another completely different culture/world. She’s an Italian, and having grown up and lived in a modern (warless) world throughout her life. And how she is, pregnant with an ex-refugee’s baby (that’s how most people would interpret it!), learning Burundian language and practice the culture. I once asked her what they do for living. I was a bit puzzled at how they could actually plan for the baby’s future as there’s no income really for their current job. They’re merely getting expenses covered and no ‘savings’. Later I found out actually personal ‘savings’ is a very westernised concept. Florisa doesn’t really know how to explain to me (as I think she thought it would be very difficult to explain to me, which indeed she’s right because it took me a long time to understand this) and but she said stayed in my mind for a long time – ‘sometimes you wonder why you need more.. there’re many ways we get what we need’. I didn’t understand how she meant at that time but later when she received donated clothes from others I started to understand. In westernised world, we acquire things by accumulating personal wealth then we acquire necessities using the money we accumulate. So everybody has one ‘set’ of necessities. But in Africa, you don’t own one ‘set’ of necessities. You SHARE what you have. So I have this bit of extra baby clothes, I give them to F. If F have extra bedsheets, she will give them to me. Something like that. People don’t get secure their future based on money they get, they depend on the support of the whole social network they build. So it’s a socially constructed ‘socialist’ way of living, if you want to label it. You don’t need the government to impose the concept of socialism, people just naturally practice that.
They are so special. I’m so glad I met them. I always believe fate brings me to many friends I met along my way in Africa and this is just one of the best examples. If not because I didn’t have internet access in Zambia, I would most probably move into another house which is more convenient to me and I would miss the chance to meet such wonderful people.
My intuition didn’t fail me. It was indeed better than alright. Florisa and her husband T are very nice people. F is an Italian and T a Burundian. Interesting match isn’t it! I somehow felt this could be a romance started at refugee camps.. true enough – they actually met when he was living in the refugee camp in Malawi back in 2003. He is just 31 and had lived in refugee camps his whole life since birth up until he was 27! Can you imagine if you are put in refugee camps as long as 27 years! And it wasn’t just one refugee camp – he had to move from one to the other – not within one country – but a few countries, because when one becomes unstable you just have to run to the next one... gosh I don’t have words to describe how I feel toward this! T once told me at times he questioned where God was (he’s a Christian) – if He does exist, why there was so much suffering in his life..?!
Through him I change my perception toward what ‘refugee’ means. Previously I had little idea what it could mean – I only understand from the TV refugee camps seemed to be a place of hell where you put up temporary until things become stable then you go back to normal life. But NO, the reality is, one could live in refugee camps throughout his/her life! And life does go on within refugee camps – they do have schools, clinics, markets.. just like a neighbourhood – the difference is, they have no freedom like us. They have no passport to move freely. They can’t even do business outside of refugee camps because the government doesn’t allow them to – as a result of objection from local community that these refugees could possibly snatch business or job opportunities if they are allowed to. However when you think carefully, there’re many valuable sources of manpower from refugee camps – there’re doctors, nurses, educated people, businessmen.. who could possibly benefit the country because they’re also good brains to contribute to the country’s economy and development. When the local Malawians lament about not having enough job opportunities, having businessmen starting up any type of businesses actually provide jobs for the local people. And having doctors and nurses coming out of the camps to work in the hospitals surely benefit the health system.. what do we worry about..?!!? This world isn’t fair is it – just because you are born in Somalia, Burundi, Congo.. you’re robbed of basic human rights to move around and live like others do!
About F, I admire her kind heart and open mind – I admire how receptive she is to another completely different culture/world. She’s an Italian, and having grown up and lived in a modern (warless) world throughout her life. And how she is, pregnant with an ex-refugee’s baby (that’s how most people would interpret it!), learning Burundian language and practice the culture. I once asked her what they do for living. I was a bit puzzled at how they could actually plan for the baby’s future as there’s no income really for their current job. They’re merely getting expenses covered and no ‘savings’. Later I found out actually personal ‘savings’ is a very westernised concept. Florisa doesn’t really know how to explain to me (as I think she thought it would be very difficult to explain to me, which indeed she’s right because it took me a long time to understand this) and but she said stayed in my mind for a long time – ‘sometimes you wonder why you need more.. there’re many ways we get what we need’. I didn’t understand how she meant at that time but later when she received donated clothes from others I started to understand. In westernised world, we acquire things by accumulating personal wealth then we acquire necessities using the money we accumulate. So everybody has one ‘set’ of necessities. But in Africa, you don’t own one ‘set’ of necessities. You SHARE what you have. So I have this bit of extra baby clothes, I give them to F. If F have extra bedsheets, she will give them to me. Something like that. People don’t get secure their future based on money they get, they depend on the support of the whole social network they build. So it’s a socially constructed ‘socialist’ way of living, if you want to label it. You don’t need the government to impose the concept of socialism, people just naturally practice that.
They are so special. I’m so glad I met them. I always believe fate brings me to many friends I met along my way in Africa and this is just one of the best examples. If not because I didn’t have internet access in Zambia, I would most probably move into another house which is more convenient to me and I would miss the chance to meet such wonderful people.
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