All Other Places Are Tame

Africa

The fascination Africa has always held for those who have visited her shores has hitherto been the fascination of Mistress, never of the wife.

She held out no lure, for she was no courtesan. A man came to her in his eager youth, asking, praying that she would give him that which should make life good, and she trusted and opened her arms.

What she had to give she gave freely, generously, and there was no stint, no lack. And he took. Her charm he counted on as a matter of course, her tenderness was hid due, her passion his pleasure, but the fascination he barely admitted could not keep him.

Though she had given all, she had no rights and, when other desires called he left her, left her with words of pity that were an injury, of regret that were an insult.

But all this is changing.

Africa holds. The man who has known Africa longs for her.

In the sordid city street she remembers the might and loneliness of her forests, by the rippling brook he remembers the wide rivers rushing tumultuous from the lakes, in the night when on the roof the rain's splashing drearily he remembers the mellow tropical nights, the sky of velvet far away, the stars like points of gold, the warm moonlight that with its deeper shadows made a fairer world.

Even the languor and the heat he longs for, the white surf on yellow sand of the beaches, the thick jungle growth gently matted, rankly luxuriant, pulsating with the irrepressible life of the tropics.

All other places.... are tame.

- Mary Gaunt 1910

The joy of books!

Well, I’m sure many of you are wondering if I’ve actually done any work while I’ve been here in Malawi. To be honest, other than editing a few documents and a research report, things have been off to a very slow start. This is largely due to the fact that my placement seems to have created a great deal of confusion at MIE, my place of employment – and I think I’m the most confused of all! I’m trying to remain hopeful and waiting patiently for it to get sorted out…but in the meantime, here is some information about the project I came to work on…

The Read Malawi project was created in response to a need in Malawi. The need is for quality learning materials for primary school students. Read Malawi is based on the belief that if learners are to become literate readers and writers, they must have:
- quality materials to read
- an adequate quantity of materials that ensure frequent opportunities for individual and group engagement
- guidance and support in how to become successful in reading
- opportunities to make connection to literacy in their communities
- the chance to envision themselves becoming the authors of future books and texts.

Some quick info about Read Malawi:
- a unique book development program
- USAID sponsored
- Partnerships include Ministry Of Education Science and Technology, Malawi Institute of Education, University of Texas San Antonio, University of Texas, IED, Intel, RealeStudios, and UCB
- distribution of a minimum of 2,500,000 books

The phases of project implementation and roll out include:
- pilot study in Zomba schools (base line data collection)
- workshop for teachers, head teachers and primary education advisors (PEA’s) on Read Aloud
- practice of Read Aloud in schools
- follow up support visits from head teachers, PEA’s and MIE
- full teacher training in the Read Malawi model
- follow up support visits from head teachers, PEA’s and MIE
- full implementation of the model
- more follow up support visits from head teachers, PEA’s and MIE
- pilot study in Zomba school (post data collection)
- revision of model based on feedback
- national role out of program in over 1000 schools
- evaluation study

(I took all of these photos at the primary school on campus for the children of MIE staff.)

Snaps - Senga Bay & Kande

This past week I attended two conferences - first, the VSO Peer Conference at Senga Bay, Lake Malawi. This conference was aimed at bringing volunteers working in the education programme area together to share learnings, challenges and successes. The second conference, the VSO National Conference, was held at Kande Beach, Lake Malawi and was for volunteers in all of the 4 programme areas - education, HIV/AIDS, health, and secure livelihoods. Some photos from the week of conferencing...

Birds at Murande Cottages, venue of the VSO Peer Support Conference. Love the one on the right. Crazy bird.

I love these massive, colourful trees. Not sure what they're called, but the burst of bright orange always takes my breath away. This one is near the bus station in Balaka.

The blooms up close.

Senga Bay fishing boats, early morning.

Sunrise at Senga Bay. It was well worth getting up at 5 am to see this.

Calm waters at Senga Bay.

Bobbles takes in gorgeous sunrise at Senga Bay.

Kande Beach, VSO National Conference. This is the dorm room building.

Inside the dorm room- can you sense the excitement?

Somewhere along the way.

Fishermen setting out for the day, Senga Bay.

Some shops along the way.

The bar at Kande Beach, a good venue for learning. We all got a good laugh when the dog joined us, front and centre.

Fish anyone? At a stop, men try to sell us very fresh fish through the car window.

Bigger Is Not Better

They say everything is bigger in Texas. Well, whoever said that has obviously never been to Malawi. At least when it comes to bugs.

Even though I grew up on a farm and am used to spiders, ants, weevils, and other creepy-crawlies, the bugs of Malawi have united and instilled a fear of epic proportions in me. I’m afraid. Very, very afraid.

It all culminated with The Great Flying Ant Infestation of 2010. Participation (of ants) was high, and the frenzy (of ants and myself) was tangible. This past weekend, I returned from a week away, having attended the VSO Peer Support Conference and the VSO National Conference. After a great week of learning and sharing at Lake Malawi, I was welcomed home by about a million (no exaggeration) massive flying ants that seemed to have had their own conference in my bathroom. A lovely carpet of dead (sleeping? hibernating?) ants covered the entire floor of the bathroom. But not all of them were dead. Some where in mid-flight when I opened the door, and others, sensing an intruder, seemed to immediately take flight and aim directly for me. This infestation was like a plague of biblical proportions. I fled the scene.

After regaining my composure (which I lost during my yelping, flailing retreat) and mustering up some confidence, I returned armed with a can of DOOM. Ah, DOOM insect spray – the savior and trusty companion of many a volunteer. The name says it all. I trusted what I read on the can – “Deadly Killing Action” – and sprayed practically the entire contents of this lethal stuff into my bathroom. It seems that DOOM is highly toxic and somewhat effective. The next morning, when I dared to peek into ant central, I discovered mostly dead ants (a few seemed just disoriented), a dead baby gecko who was an unfortunate casualty, a smattering of some dead bugs that looked like wasps, and some twitching Mother-of-All-Ants. These ones were HUGE. Black, shiny, invincible, and five times the size of the others. They gave DOOM a good run for its money.

James (the housekeeper) arrived soon after and swept up the ant carcasses. Thank god for James. The poor man not only has to come and clean up heaps of dead insects every day, but he also has to contend with me, cowering behind his back, whimpering and pointing to my newest insect discovery.

So, all this makes me wonder – will I eventually overcome my fear after repeated and continuous exposure to insects? Normally, I wouldn’t be so scared – but it’s the sheer size of the bugs that is most unsettling. They all seem monstrous here. I’ve seen spiders that are the size of my hand and look like they’re wearing fur coats. I found a grass-hoppery-thing on my laundry yesterday and I swear it was the length of my hand and looked like it was made of plastic.

Speaking of laundry – that’s the source of another fear. I’ve been ironing all of my laundry. Every article of clothing, every bed sheet, every towel. Yes, I iron my towels. Trust me, when the temperature is a sweltering 36C, ironing is the last thing you want to be doing. But my ironing is a carefully planned pre-emptive attack on the tumbu fly. I fear the little tumbu fly. I hope we never meet, and just to be cautious, I’ve gone on the defensive. The tumbu fly is also called “putsi” and it happily lays its eggs on laundry drying on a line outside or on soil. When the eggs come into contact with human flesh (when you put our clothes on or you lie on your bed sheets), they hatch and the larvae bury themselves under your skin. But wait, it gets better. The larvae under your skin form a crop of ‘boils’ with live maggots inside. So, you have live maggots living in boils in your skin. That’s all. No biggie. Given the alternative, ironing doesn’t seem so bad after all. So, those are my sources of comfort these days – a can of DOOM and an iron.

Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Please leave a comment below! I love comments.