Walking

Lilongwe, and Malawi as a whole, is experiencing a diesel and petrol shortage at this time!  It’s not due to a lack of oil…but it’s due to a lack of foreign exchange to purchase that oil from suppliers outside of Malawi.  So, everyone is dealing with it in different ways. 

We are using the car much much less, walking everywhere we can and only using the tank for grocery shopping.  Others who don’t live as close to school as we do, bike to work, carpool or just bite the bullet and drive.  This Friday, one of the teachers asked for help…She had managed to drive herself to school, but her car totally ran out of gas at the parking lot and she was looking for a couple of liters so she could drive herself back home! 

The school has started a daily petrol and diesel run with jerry cans.  Last week, some drivers were in lines all week and only got petrol and diesel once!  Those who were lucky enough to have a jerry can in that bus each received 5 liters!!!

Others choose to purchase on the black market, at a price double or triple what you would pay at the pump.

We hope to be able to drive out of Malawi during the Christmas break, with enough diesel to get us to the other side of the frontier and fill up as soon as we can.  That’s also hoping we can get for-ex from the bank…that’s another challenge! (read the previous banking blog if you want to understand what this means)

Waiting for the Rain

For the past few weeks, the temperatures have been warm/hot/unbearable, depending on who was talking and where they have lived before!  The thermometer recorded up to 36C in the shade, so yes, it’s been pretty hot… but after the desert temperature in Riyadh reaching mid to upper 40s this was not too hot! 

The houses and the school are not equipped with AC, so it did get hot in there, under the bearing sun, but cross ventilation by opening windows really helped cool the rooms down.  At night, we used fans blowing air on us..and that really helped.  Nonetheless it’s been warm at night and we haven’t been sleeping too well!

All these high temperatures are leading to the rainy season…and for the past few days, the news outlets have been announcing rain.  Since Wednesday, we’ve been actively waiting, spotting clouds.  We’ve heard thunder a couple of times throughout the day today and NOW, FINALLY, it’s raining.  The air has that dusty rain smell, you know the one after a long period of no rain…  The temperature has cooled down a bit already…

We hear the pitter patter of the rain on the tin roof!  Can’t wait for the morning, to see the yard all clean and greener than it’s been!

Meeting a Peace Corps Volunteer

At the conference I met Anna, a young 24 year old American Peace Corps volunteer based in Busia, Kenya.  Her two-year assignment consists of teaching deaf children in a small village 14 hours mini bus ride away from Nairobi.  She’s the only American white female in her village, and with her long blond hair, fair skin and blue eyes, she’s sure to be noticed anywhere she goes. 

She teaches deaf children who, for some, have been kept away by their families and have had no schooling, so her students ages range from 5 to 28!  She frequently goes through the village and looks for other deaf students, for whom she either finds sponsors  or even sponsors herself.  I’m not sure of the exact number but tuition for one year for one student is less than $50.00.  Not much when you consider your weekly grocery bill or your internet for the month!

Her housing is provided by her school, right on the school ground…  She says herself that a piece of plywood separates her from her girls!  You talk about total lack of privacy, constant contact with her students.  She sure doesn’t lack enthusiasm and passion for her students’ education.  She’s becoming fluent in Kenyan sign language – and even in some of the village versions, as each family develops their own sign system when they have no deaf schooling!

At the same time, she sounds so blasé about major issues, such as STD, AIDS and rape.  STDs are rampid in rural Africa and are often misunderstood.  The village people would rather listen to the local witch doctor who tells them that you can’t catch anything if you eat this or drink that!  Also, common belief is that young virgins will cure you of any STDs – which brings the case of sexual abuse!

She told me that since she’s been at the school, she knows of two instances where an older boy (remember some of her students are 25 year old men!) forced himself on a 10 or 12 year old.  The last time was just last week when she noticed a 10-year-old girl had dirt all over her back and in her hair.  Upon questioning, that little girl told Anna what had happened to her.  My first response was: “So, what did the police do?”.  She laughed, said they don’t intervene in the villages in cases such as those!   All they did was talk with the boy, tell him it’s not right and he shouldn’t do that again!  Isn’t that insane?

Anna is a special person.  She lives in physical isolation from other expats, although she has internet and email/facebook and skype contacts almost daily.  

She’s young, only 24 years old, but already so mature and driven!   She sure isn't in this for the money, as her monthly "salary" is $200!!!  I can’t say I’ve met many people her age like her!  Check out her blog, where she narrates some of her adventures..    Anna's blog

Nairobi-Lilongwe

I just returned from a conference in Nairobi and the quickest way back is on Kenya Airlines, whose hub is Nairobi and who flies all over Africa!  Seems pretty simple enough…  One plane, no connection, just an easy flight, right?  Well, not quite!  Since, depending of the day you fly,  the flight Nairobi-Lilongwe has two routes: either it’s a direct OR it has a stop in Lusaka, Zambia.  So, a flight that takes two hours and a half end up may take almost four and a half hours with the stop over in Lusaka.  It gives you time to catch up on your reading or take a nap… 

The 45 minutes stop in Lusaka is quite interesting!   As soon as some of the passengers disembark in Lusaka, the cleaning crew walks in and goes about cleaning the cabin, around the passengers, under their feet, vacuuming, dusting and picking up the trash.  You got to see it to believe if-and they are quick and pretty effective!

Heart attack narrowly avoided!

I almost had a heart attack yesterday!  I’m OK, but it deserves some explanation!

The children had been invited to a birthday party yesterday afternoon and we were ready to leave, had the tank’s keys in hand and were about to load up!  Francisco, the gardener, calls to get my attention and says “Look at Pele (our big black lab)

So, Emma, Alex and I all three look at Pele who is proudly sitting in the middle of the driveway, holding a HUGE spinny lizard in her mouth!  You may know that I don’t like critters…even less when I don’t expect them!  Of course, Emma and I start screaming…even louder when Pele moves toward us and you can see the lizard still wiggling in her mouth.  She’s so proud of herself!  She’s caught a lizard and wants to show it off to us.  She moves closer, drops the lizard at our feet and sits!  Of course, the lizard tries to make an escape, Pele jumps on it, grabs it back…and does it again, drop, sits, stares at us…  all the while Emma and I are still screaming at the thing! 

Francisco saved us!  He grabbed his broom and a dustpan, swept the now badly injured and almost dead lizard and dumped it all in the trash…

What emotions that little thing caused…and a good story for the birthday party!

For Ex Banking

I am very grateful that my new school is sending me to the AISA (Association of International Schools of Africa) annual conference in Nairobi, Kenya.  And, since the Malawi Kwacha doesn’t have any value outside of Malawi, getting forex is a priority.  The school ordered USD for me at the bank, and when they were ready to be picked up, I was sent to the main branch, passport in hand.  Not sure if you are aware of how bad the Foreign Exchange, or lack of for ex situation is right now in the country.  We don’t have enough forex to purchase diesel, petrol, even the gaz to put in cokes and beers….  So, you MUST order your forex well ahead of time and hope that you can get it before leaving the country. 

Anyways, I left school a little early yesterday to go to the bank, for what I think will be a quick transaction, since they have the USD ready for me and they know exactly the time I will show up!  I should have known better…  Let me start at the beginning.

The main branch of our bank is a huge building, smack in the center of town.  In front of it, you have merchants selling all kinds, going from recharge cards for your mobile to fruits and veggies and used clothing!  Almost a market without stalls!  You enter the building into a huge low ceilinged room, with lines upon lines of people waiting to be helped and the tellers behind bullet proof windows in the back of the room.  So, after spotting the forex window, I get in line and wait a few minutes.  The teller on the other side of the window is nice enough, takes my passport, finds the USD order from the school, already approved with a bunch of official stamps.  She hands me a paper to fill in, with destination, flight confirmation number, my address here and while in Kenya…  I basically sign my life away!  She takes the passport, the order letter and the form I just filled in and disappear for about 10 minutes to make copies of all documents.  She comes back..I’m thinking; OK, we’re done with the paperwork, hand over the money so I can go back to school and life in general….Not so fast!  She opens the forex drawer, which looks empty, looks like there is about 30 GBP and about 400 USD…nohting else!  She pulls the USD, start counting, counts again, a third time, gets up and goes over to her supervisor’s desk…  It looks like there is a problem as they both go talk to a second supervisor.  Meanwhile, I’m standing on the other side of the bulletproof window, watching this as it unfolds.

She comes back and asks me to step to the side and wait, as they don’t have the exact change!  They have 3 100USD bills, and 2 50 USD bills and one 5 and one 10… since I’m supposed to pick up 325 USD, they can’t give me the exact change.  After me waiting on the side, the supervisor’s supervisor comes to the window and explains what I had already figured out..that they couldn’t give me the exact change!  So, their solution to the problem is first to ask me if I have change….What a joke!  I’m there to collect USD as I have none!!  Then, the second solution they have come up with, since I cannot give them the change they need is to send the supervisor on foot around town to check at the other forex offices to see if they have change..  It’s already been an hour that I’ve been inside the bank, and still no money! 

So, I arm myself with patience, stand and lean back and do what I love to do…people watching!  Since they still have my passport, I’m NOT leaving the teller’s window, just lean on the wall right there and observe people as they take care of their bank transactions.  Since this whole ordeal took almost 2 hours, I had PLENTY of time to do my people watching and here are some of my observations about the banking habits of the Malawians!

1. When they do a deposit, the cash can be stored in their pockets, in a plastic bag or in a huge sports bag!  Mind you, 500 MK is less than 3 USD…so a business making a Friday deposits has millions…  in bricks, bound together with rubber bands.  A guy made a deposit of bricks that could have built a fort in a preschool classroom.
2. When they make a withdrawal, it’s usually a smaller amount, ranging from a couple of hundreds of MK (and I felt bad for those guys, who waited an hour in line to withdraw 300 MK or about 2 USD – as this was all they could afford!).  My favorite was that older man who withdrew probably about 500, 000 MK…small packs of Kwachas.  He stuffed his pockets and when he ran out of room, he opened his dress shirt and stuffed it as well.  He truly looked like a bad stuffed costume!!!  The ladies use similar tactics but instead of stuffing their dress shirts, they stuff the front of their bras…  Yickes!  I really will wash my hands every time I handle money from now on!
3. A guy could stand in line for over an hour before reaching the teller.  So, what they do is go in pairs.  One worker and one employer.  The worker stands in line while the employer sits on the side.  When the worker is at the front, then the other guy, who is actually doing the transaction, goes to the front of the line and takes care of his business.  Couples use the same strategy, with the husband in line and the wife waiting on the side.
4. Smart dress doesn’t mean clean…au contraire, mon cher!  Some guys wearing suits may have looked smart, but the BO was overpowering!
5. My least favorite smell right now, when stuck in a low ceilinged room for 2 hours, is the “Parfum D’Afrique”…  that BO that doesn’t leave your nostrils…  I know it may sound harsh, but when such a concentration of people is together in a non-ventilated area, it’s just too bad and overpowering!

After almost another hour, the supervisor came back, gave the change to the teller and I finally received the cash I had come for!  It was a relief to finally walk out of there…with enough money to take a taxi and eat for 5 days while in Nairobi!

Fruits and veggies Galore!

Everywhere you go around Lilongwe, you can see guys selling fresh fruits and veggies.  I guess they buy them from the market and sell them for a small profit.  Anyways, it's quite convenient, avoids a trip to the grocery store and allows you to get fresh fruits and veggies anytime you need them.

This afternoon, upon leaving school after a long day of teaching, working and parent teacher conferences, we all loaded the Tank and headed back home.  We usually don't drive to school, as the walk is only about 5 minutes...but the rain and the threat of more rain made a vehicle more convenient.

So, we are pulling out of the school gate and I see the merchants peddling their goods... I wave at them as we needed bananas, lean forward to grab some money from my purse and raise back up and look at the window!  At that time, I fell out laughing... I had 5 guys who had RUSHED to the car to sell their goods, their arms loaded with their goods RIGHT under my nose on the other side of the window...the choices tday were tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, bananas, strawberries, potatoes and garlic. 
After some haggling over the prices (it's expected and necessary, as they always start real high), I decided on a large bunch of bananas and some cucumbers.  The strawberries looked yummy too...tempting and after haggling, he still wasn't meeting my target price...so, we were driving off when he said "OK! "  No regrets on that impulse buy...yummy delicious and sweet berries for dessert tonight!
Got to love the convenience and the prices... 800 MK or about 5 USD for a HUGE bunch of bananas, over 1.5 kgs of stawberries and 3 huge cucumbers!  No wonder we eat so much more fruits and veggies here...

Trees around

The Baobab, the most magnificent tree, standing all alone, towering over its surrounding, the true King of Africa!

The Plumeria, the funny looking tree, with no leaves except at the end of its branches

The Jacaranda , with its gorgeous little purple flowers that last for a very short time, unfortunately…

The Bougainvillia, a classic tree covered in magnificent pink flowers…

The Codiaeum, with his green and red leaves…kind of reminds me of a giant Chritsmas pointsetta..

The papaw tree, bearing its large fruits at the end of stick like branches…can’t wait to get my teeth into one of its fruits

And there are other tress whose names I don’t know…  I guess it’s time to start looking them up!  Might as well learn something while I’m here!

One yard on the way to school

On the Khonde

When we moved into our house, we received a bunch of keys, literally a bunch that fits nicely in the palm of your hand.  Thankfully most of the keys were on smaller key rings labeled with various areas of the house…  There was a set labeled Khonde and from the looks of it, it was a well used set as the paper is all browned up and used.  Now, what exactly is a Khonde?  In other parts of the world you would probably call that area a Porch, a terrace or a veranda. 

Actually, my house has 3 Khondes, one off the bedrooms, one off the kitchen, and the main one, furnished with wicker furniture, is off the living room and is the one we use the most.  I have to admit it is probably the prettiest spot of the house, overlooking the park like setting that is my yard.  I just love to sit there and just chill, read a book, have a drink, or type this blog entry! 

Sunset seen from the Khonde

With the Malawi climate, it is an extra room that we will be able to use all year long…even in the rainy season as it is covered.  And when we have parties, it is a great spot to hang…Soon we will have a braai/barbecue pit right off the Khonde which will enable us to finally have a party worthy of that name!  More on that in a later entry…  Meanwhile, I’m chillaxing on my khonde, enjoying the wind we’ve been experiencing the past few days and listening to the numerous birds around…

Beware of advertising!

I got played!  This past week I saw an ad for a market at one of the lodges in town…  It featured artifacts, handmade furniture, bootsale, and many more items….  With the kids in tow, we set out early Saturday morning to find the lodge where this great market was taking place…  We arrived, were let through the gate and discovered a beautiful lodge, very zen and relaxing…  The market part of the deal, however, was a real bust!!!  Very little artifacts and handmade furniture, while the majority of the sellers were individuals trying to unload their used clothing, toys, videotapes, books…  It was more flea market or garage sale than anything else.  The kids and I were crushed, having expected some true African artisans!  Oh well, next time, we will hopefully be more successful!  My little finger tells me that there is a Fair next weekend at the school… Can’t wait!