Life in Lilongwe
I've add some pics from the trip across Zambia on my Flickr site. If you haven't seen them, yet you can find them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27531054@N03/
Also, Cynthia gave me the good idea of creating a Google map of my little life in Lilongwe. You can find that here: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&msa=0&ll=-13.960557,33.80373&spn=0.073633,0.105743&z=13&msid=113365185812763974101.00044f873997a4090858a
Click on some of the tabs to get their descriptions. You can zoom in a bunch and actually see the building. The information superhighway really is amazing. You'll see the USAID office building where I work is a weird curved building. The other fun thing to note are the trails through brush around the buildings. The thing you notice most about Malawi is how much everyone walks. This is especially true in the morning and late afternoon hours when everyone is either walking to or from work. They walk so much that all of the grassy areas have well-defined trails that look as though they've been there for centures. Which they probably have.
So I thought I'd use this blog space to explain to folks back home why I'm here and what I'm doing. WHY?: As you could probably guess, Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world. But really I think ranking poor countries is a dumb, useless thing to do. They're poor. Do you really need to compare who's the poorest of them all? I mean, does it matter that one country's citizens make about $300 a year and another country's citizens make about $500? The point is they're lacking a lot of the security we have in the US. So I won't say that Malawi is less developed than other areas. What I will say, though, is that Malawi has some big problems they need to overcome. Among those are a large HIV positve rate (about 15% of the population), high Malaria rates (One of the security guards at my house just took his 10 month old daughter to the hospital for Malaria. Thankfully she is doing better), tuberculosis, and poor economic opportunities.
The US government, along with other donors such as the UK, the EU, the UN, and China, are all working to improve life for ordinary Malawians. About 75% of the $100 million the US spends here goes into the health and education sector. The rest goes towards agriculture mostly. One of the things I've been asked to do within all of that is help come up with success stories for USAID projects. It's pretty helpful for me because it allows me to get in and see all of the projects being done. Soon I'll make trips out to the field to interview beneficiaries and get their side of the story. Also, I'm getting to do some analysis on effective ways to improve the Justice sector here and see how it can be improved. I got to meet the Solicitor General at a meeting this week where they were discussing Judicial reforms.
My day gets started around 7:30 and finishes around 5:00. This allows us to take half of Friday off, which I used today to play golf with some coworkers. Golf if cheap enough here for us to have a caddy, which I've never had before. My caddy was named Lewis (a 9 handicap in his own right for you golfers out there) and was from the central region of Lilongwe. As I talked to Lewis it was interesting to hear his perspective on politics. The political parties in Malawi are all based on what region you're from. The former dictator of Malawi, Hastings Banda, was from the Central region. When I asked Lewis about Banda, he quickly corrected me: "Do you mean Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda?". Oh yeah, that's the one I meant. Of course he thought Banda was great and all of the problems in Malawi have come from the people who replaced him. People from the other regions (and most of the outside world) think that Banda was a brutal dictator that ruled his country with an iron fist. Stories of Banda's strong rule are everywhere. He banned the book "Africa on a Shoestring" because it criticized his regime. He banned Malawian flags from being displayed for no apparent reason. And he changed his official title to President for Life Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda. Everyone thought that he would die in office. Instead he got kicked out at the ripe old age of 94 and ended up living to 101. Life is good when you're a dictator in Africa. They still celebrate Banda Day here in Malawi, and there's a huge Mausuleum/Monument dedicated to the man. I mean Jefferson Monument-sized monument.
I get to interact with some Americans, but mostly Malawians in my office. In my two meetings today, 7 of 10 in one meeting and 8 of 12 in another meeting were Malawian. So while I'm not exactly living with Malawians, I get to have a somewhat filtered perspective on life in Malawi through my co-workers. In my mind I think that I need to see poor people in order to get to the "real" Malawi. But I think that's unfair to Malawi. I wonder if it's because of my Western bias that I think that the "real" Malawi has to be poor. As if the folks I'm working with are somewhat less African or less Malawian because they've got steady jobs and aren't pushing bananas or cell phone minutes on me on the street. The truth is that it's all Africa. It's all Malawi. Some are doing better than others, and hopefully in the future all Malawians will have the chance to have such jobs if they so choose.
So that's a little on my work here in Malawi. The other aspect is that there's really a tight ex-pat community here that really tries to fill up social calendars. I didn't spend a single evening at home this week until now because I've been invited to so many events. Not to brag (well, okay, to brag a little), but one of the events was a poker night with my bosses, the heads of the USAID mission, where I ended up walking away with most of their money. I'm not sure if this was the best way to start off my internship here, but as a Texan I felt obliged to show these northerners exactly how it's done. God Bless Texas.
This weekend I'm heading off to a sailing club with my Mission Director and will visit one of the Malawian churches for some cultural exchange. Next weekend I hope to hit Lake Malawi which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in Africa. I'll be sure to snap lots of pictures.
Also, Cynthia gave me the good idea of creating a Google map of my little life in Lilongwe. You can find that here: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&msa=0&ll=-13.960557,33.80373&spn=0.073633,0.105743&z=13&msid=113365185812763974101.00044f873997a4090858a
Click on some of the tabs to get their descriptions. You can zoom in a bunch and actually see the building. The information superhighway really is amazing. You'll see the USAID office building where I work is a weird curved building. The other fun thing to note are the trails through brush around the buildings. The thing you notice most about Malawi is how much everyone walks. This is especially true in the morning and late afternoon hours when everyone is either walking to or from work. They walk so much that all of the grassy areas have well-defined trails that look as though they've been there for centures. Which they probably have.
So I thought I'd use this blog space to explain to folks back home why I'm here and what I'm doing. WHY?: As you could probably guess, Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world. But really I think ranking poor countries is a dumb, useless thing to do. They're poor. Do you really need to compare who's the poorest of them all? I mean, does it matter that one country's citizens make about $300 a year and another country's citizens make about $500? The point is they're lacking a lot of the security we have in the US. So I won't say that Malawi is less developed than other areas. What I will say, though, is that Malawi has some big problems they need to overcome. Among those are a large HIV positve rate (about 15% of the population), high Malaria rates (One of the security guards at my house just took his 10 month old daughter to the hospital for Malaria. Thankfully she is doing better), tuberculosis, and poor economic opportunities.
The US government, along with other donors such as the UK, the EU, the UN, and China, are all working to improve life for ordinary Malawians. About 75% of the $100 million the US spends here goes into the health and education sector. The rest goes towards agriculture mostly. One of the things I've been asked to do within all of that is help come up with success stories for USAID projects. It's pretty helpful for me because it allows me to get in and see all of the projects being done. Soon I'll make trips out to the field to interview beneficiaries and get their side of the story. Also, I'm getting to do some analysis on effective ways to improve the Justice sector here and see how it can be improved. I got to meet the Solicitor General at a meeting this week where they were discussing Judicial reforms.
My day gets started around 7:30 and finishes around 5:00. This allows us to take half of Friday off, which I used today to play golf with some coworkers. Golf if cheap enough here for us to have a caddy, which I've never had before. My caddy was named Lewis (a 9 handicap in his own right for you golfers out there) and was from the central region of Lilongwe. As I talked to Lewis it was interesting to hear his perspective on politics. The political parties in Malawi are all based on what region you're from. The former dictator of Malawi, Hastings Banda, was from the Central region. When I asked Lewis about Banda, he quickly corrected me: "Do you mean Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda?". Oh yeah, that's the one I meant. Of course he thought Banda was great and all of the problems in Malawi have come from the people who replaced him. People from the other regions (and most of the outside world) think that Banda was a brutal dictator that ruled his country with an iron fist. Stories of Banda's strong rule are everywhere. He banned the book "Africa on a Shoestring" because it criticized his regime. He banned Malawian flags from being displayed for no apparent reason. And he changed his official title to President for Life Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda. Everyone thought that he would die in office. Instead he got kicked out at the ripe old age of 94 and ended up living to 101. Life is good when you're a dictator in Africa. They still celebrate Banda Day here in Malawi, and there's a huge Mausuleum/Monument dedicated to the man. I mean Jefferson Monument-sized monument.
I get to interact with some Americans, but mostly Malawians in my office. In my two meetings today, 7 of 10 in one meeting and 8 of 12 in another meeting were Malawian. So while I'm not exactly living with Malawians, I get to have a somewhat filtered perspective on life in Malawi through my co-workers. In my mind I think that I need to see poor people in order to get to the "real" Malawi. But I think that's unfair to Malawi. I wonder if it's because of my Western bias that I think that the "real" Malawi has to be poor. As if the folks I'm working with are somewhat less African or less Malawian because they've got steady jobs and aren't pushing bananas or cell phone minutes on me on the street. The truth is that it's all Africa. It's all Malawi. Some are doing better than others, and hopefully in the future all Malawians will have the chance to have such jobs if they so choose.
So that's a little on my work here in Malawi. The other aspect is that there's really a tight ex-pat community here that really tries to fill up social calendars. I didn't spend a single evening at home this week until now because I've been invited to so many events. Not to brag (well, okay, to brag a little), but one of the events was a poker night with my bosses, the heads of the USAID mission, where I ended up walking away with most of their money. I'm not sure if this was the best way to start off my internship here, but as a Texan I felt obliged to show these northerners exactly how it's done. God Bless Texas.
This weekend I'm heading off to a sailing club with my Mission Director and will visit one of the Malawian churches for some cultural exchange. Next weekend I hope to hit Lake Malawi which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in Africa. I'll be sure to snap lots of pictures.
3 Comments:
Jett - I am soooo envious. I wish I had stowed away in your suitcase (it probably wouldn't have been much more uncomfortable than your bus trip). Your descriptions of Malawi are so clear, and though I'm sure Malawi has changed since we lived there 15 years ago, it sounds like much of it is still the same. You mentioned the people walking everywhere; IMO the best way to really get the "feel" of Malawi is to either walk or bike as much as possible. When you ride by car or bus, you look out at them and they stare back at you (often calling out "Mzungu"). But when you are on the streets with them, interraction just naturally takes place. Of course, the walking makes for a very "fit" population (not much obesity, wouldn't you say?). Since I love to run, I would often do so through the streets/trails of Blantyre and people would look oddly at me and sometimes ask, "Why do you run?". They weren't opposed to running, per se, but the fact that you can't share conversation - unless they also ran.
It appears that you've already come to understand one of the most perplexing paradoxes about Malawi (for whites, that is). You live in one the poorest countries of the world, yet you enjoy the highest standard of living experienced in your short life - palacial home with servants and guards, golf outings with caddy, treadmills with flat screen TV's, and a social life hob-knobbing with high ranking goverment officials. I would encourage you to make the most of both worlds. The mzungus will monopolize all your time if you let them - don't fall into that trap. Cultivate relationships with some of those educated Malawians you work with. They can give you a real picture of Malawi, even take you to those areas (where they possibly grew up) where most whites would never tread. You only have two months, so make the most of it. The relationships you build with those Malawians may well be the most valuable thing you bring back with you, and since you plan on a career in some type of foreign service, they could be friends that you get to see throughout your life (unlike us, who only get to see our Malawian friends if they come to America).
Keep up the good work - the BLOG is great.
Wait, one more question: can you get Randy Galloway/ESPN on your computer?
CW -- you can stow away in my suitcase anytime, man. Just bring along some of Susie's baked goodies which I am DYING for right now.
Point definitely taken about getting away from the mzungus. The tricky part about the Malawians in the office is that they're all older folks, so it's a little harder to get them out socially. Apparently they get invited to lots of events by mzungus in the office, but never come. Maybe that's because it's too difficult to get over to Ex-Pat-land. But I'm going to be working with lots of them in the next few weeks, so hopefully we can get to know each other better. Of course since I'm only here for so long this summer, I may only get to hear their stories before I have to leave.
I do have a contact with a Mozambican who lives on the Malawian border that I need to take advantage of. He's got a friend that drives over from Lilongwe every weekend, so he said I could hitch a ride anytime. I'll keep you posted.
Note: I also get strange looks while running. But others are running home from work so I wonder if it's because I'm a big white guy in t-shirt and shorts while all the Malawians are bundled up with huge coats because it's their "winter" here, which means that it's about 60 degrees in the evenings.
Note #2: I'm afraid of mixing Galloway and Africa. Isn't that like crossing the beams in Ghostbusters???
As is CW, I am soooo jealous. First of all, does Malawi speak some Swahili? I was wondering where the mzungu came from or if it just got adopted south into Malawi like is has in Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda. ???
Also, some of my favorite experiences were when the kids and sometimes teenagers to adults would start running with me in their khaki pants and "dress shoes." Those Kenyans can run forever at 2000m above sea level.
Like you were talking about, it is really difficult to remain balanced and in "the real africa" as well as talking to people who speak your language and who relate to you. I really experienced that when I was working at the orphanage and in Naivasha with some Michigan missionaries. I often felt like I should be out seeing the poorest of the poor rather than talking with the high falutin' rich ex-pat flower growers. I know it's almost a bit ridiculous to just want to see the poverty so you know the spectrum, but I'd recommend going around to some of the poor, slum type areas and just try to soak it up. If they speak any English, ask them how they think they could get out of poverty or what they need to be able to do so... The "uneducated, illiterate" people often aren't and have some amazing insight about development, etc.
Can't wait to catch up soon.
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