Upon leaving, I gave Charles instructions on how to proceed when I left. Things like checking to make sure all of the questions had been answered on every questionnaire, making sure someone witnessed the informed consent if the interviewee could not write, and mailing me the questionnaires.
The goodbyes were sad. The whole research team, plus Mary (an ECD coordinator for KASO) and Filipina (KASO’s secretary), escorted me to the airport. They all wore their Obama shirts and pins. Maria made me a huge bag of popcorn. I brought half of it out for us all to share while we sat in the waiting area after I checked my bags. The rest of it I stuffed into my carry-on and ate when I got home (yes, somehow I managed to get it through customs). While we waited for me to be able to board, I showed them all pictures from the whole project, including some videos of the community meetings, ECD and children’s corner. They loved it. Charles, Jonathan and Maria had a beer as they prepared to make me a “surprise.” They took my video camera and made a movie of some kind downstairs. They said I couldn’t watch it until I was back in the US. Maria gave me letters, one each for me, Tiane, Kim and Matt.
When I boarded the plane it was open seating, so I chose a window seat on the left side so I could see the people on the viewing deck. I couldn’t believe they were all still there, 7 people with big Obama faces on the shirts seeing me off. Having seen them wave excitedly at the plane that took off before I boarded, I knew they were waving goodbye as we took off and praying for my safe arrival.
I did not call anyone on the research team for a few days after I got back. However, I received several SMS messages from Maria letting me know that they missed me but that everything was going well. One day she said she had been scared because they ran into some Gule Wamkulu on a bridge at Kudoku village. I have talked with Charles several times now and the research is complete. They were supposed to be sending me the rest of the documents today and they should arrive in three days. The team was just finishing up a few things, particularly going to each village and thanking the communities for their participation.
Maria has interviewed for a position in a health survey. I was pretty excited to hear that her experience volunteering in the study may help her to get a job.
I'll post again with some preliminary results of the study!
Friday, October 2, 2009
The last day we split into two teams, I went with Charles and Jonathan to Mwachipa and Alton and Maria went to Fumbe. Although it was the most urban village we visited, the volunteers who escorted us to the participants’ homes at Mwachipa did not know any English. I used the little Chichewa I had acquired by then (mostly to amuse them) and they told me what I needed to know by pointing and pantomiming. We encountered one of the saddest situations in Mwachipa. We interviewed the grandmother of a two year old girl whose caretaker, her aunt, had passed away just a few days earlier. The girl’s mother died (of an eye infection) soon after she was born. So, this little girl had already been orphaned twice. The family never knew who the father was and the grandfather was away working in South Africa. I knew they were being cared for, though, because as we did the interview, a neighbor was laying new bricks around window.
I bought some popcorn from a lady in the village who was bagging it to take a street market. Village popcorn really is the best. A radio was playing somewhere and some kids came up to me while I was sitting outside waiting for Charles. They danced and danced and danced :).
Saturday, September 12, 2009
kids kids kids
Deafening ear infections, disfiguring eye infections, mumps, hookworms, unspecified diarrhea, ringworm, colds that turn to pneumonia. Malaria. Things that could be prevented with a few simple enough if we cared enough interventions...soap, shoes, clean water, vaccines, antibiotics, a net and insect repellent. If I had been born here, I would have died 30 + times throughout my childhood. I would not have lived to see age 2. It's one thing to read statistics. It's something entirely different walking door to door seeing sick child after sick child after sick child and knowing that the nearest clinic is at least two hours away...
I'm still learning a lot every day. I changed my plane ticket again yesterday, so I am leaving on Tuesday instead of Friday. The team is sad about it, but I know they can do the interviews now just as well without me. They'll send me the data. I was hoping to stay until I got approval, but my meeting with the chairman was a waste of time. I'll refrain from posting about it on the internet, but if you'd like to hear me get on a soapbox please inquire within....
I'm still learning a lot every day. I changed my plane ticket again yesterday, so I am leaving on Tuesday instead of Friday. The team is sad about it, but I know they can do the interviews now just as well without me. They'll send me the data. I was hoping to stay until I got approval, but my meeting with the chairman was a waste of time. I'll refrain from posting about it on the internet, but if you'd like to hear me get on a soapbox please inquire within....
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Research
The data collection is going very well. Unfortunately, the study still has not been approved. I got a letter today stating that I was “still missing” three things. I showed the person at the office that these three things were not missing and he gave me the phone number of someone else to call. We have a meeting on Thursday. The good news is that KASO is free to conduct the interviews using my questionnaire whether or not the committee has given us the official approval.
So far, KASO has measured more than 80 kids in over 50 households. Among the families asked to participate, we have had 100% participation. The families that are not included in the sample are all asking the volunteers why they have not been included.
We’ve been interviewing families from Kudoku center for the past several days. Kudoku serves 13 villages and I’ve been to seven of them. The villages are all very small, probably an average of 20-30 households each. We are only sampling the households, so a lot of households are not included. All of the households are eager to participate. The ones that we are not including are asking for us to include them because they appreciate KASO’s assistance with the ECD program so much that they want to help out. I am getting the impression that they also like having visitors.
Yesterday I severely interrupted a church service in KASO’s Kudoku building when about 20 teenage girls insisted on having a photo shoot with me right outside. Everyone in the villages wants their picture taken. And they looooove seeing the pictures afterward. If I take a picture of a group of kids and then show it to them, the erupt into enormous yells and laughter. Everyone also laughs when I take pictures of their animals. Yesterday there were chicks, ducklings and piglets galore. It was pretty hilarious when about 20 kids tried to catch a piglet for me J.
Today I have been entering data….The data collection is going very well. Unfortunately, the study still has not been approved. I got a letter today stating that I was “still missing” three things. I showed the person at the office that these three things were not missing and he gave me the phone number of someone else to call. We have a meeting on Thursday. The good news is that KASO is free to conduct the interviews using my questionnaire whether or not the committee has given us the official approval.
So far, KASO has measured more than 80 kids in over 50 households. Among the families asked to participate, we have had 100% participation. The families that are not included in the sample are all asking the volunteers why they have not been included.
We’ve been interviewing families from Kudoku center for the past several days. Kudoku serves 13 villages and I’ve been to seven of them. The villages are all very small, probably an average of 20-30 households each. We are only sampling the households, so a lot of households are not included. All of the households are eager to participate. The ones that we are not including are asking for us to include them because they appreciate KASO’s assistance with the ECD program so much that they want to help out. I am getting the impression that they also like having visitors.
Yesterday I severely interrupted a church service in KASO’s Kudoku building when about 20 teenage girls insisted on having a photo shoot with me right outside. Everyone in the villages wants their picture taken. And they looooove seeing the pictures afterward. If I take a picture of a group of kids and then show it to them, the erupt into enormous yells and laughter. Everyone also laughs when I take pictures of their animals. Yesterday there were chicks, ducklings and piglets galore. It was pretty hilarious when about 20 kids tried to catch a piglet for me J.
Today I have been entering data….
So far, KASO has measured more than 80 kids in over 50 households. Among the families asked to participate, we have had 100% participation. The families that are not included in the sample are all asking the volunteers why they have not been included.
We’ve been interviewing families from Kudoku center for the past several days. Kudoku serves 13 villages and I’ve been to seven of them. The villages are all very small, probably an average of 20-30 households each. We are only sampling the households, so a lot of households are not included. All of the households are eager to participate. The ones that we are not including are asking for us to include them because they appreciate KASO’s assistance with the ECD program so much that they want to help out. I am getting the impression that they also like having visitors.
Yesterday I severely interrupted a church service in KASO’s Kudoku building when about 20 teenage girls insisted on having a photo shoot with me right outside. Everyone in the villages wants their picture taken. And they looooove seeing the pictures afterward. If I take a picture of a group of kids and then show it to them, the erupt into enormous yells and laughter. Everyone also laughs when I take pictures of their animals. Yesterday there were chicks, ducklings and piglets galore. It was pretty hilarious when about 20 kids tried to catch a piglet for me J.
Today I have been entering data….The data collection is going very well. Unfortunately, the study still has not been approved. I got a letter today stating that I was “still missing” three things. I showed the person at the office that these three things were not missing and he gave me the phone number of someone else to call. We have a meeting on Thursday. The good news is that KASO is free to conduct the interviews using my questionnaire whether or not the committee has given us the official approval.
So far, KASO has measured more than 80 kids in over 50 households. Among the families asked to participate, we have had 100% participation. The families that are not included in the sample are all asking the volunteers why they have not been included.
We’ve been interviewing families from Kudoku center for the past several days. Kudoku serves 13 villages and I’ve been to seven of them. The villages are all very small, probably an average of 20-30 households each. We are only sampling the households, so a lot of households are not included. All of the households are eager to participate. The ones that we are not including are asking for us to include them because they appreciate KASO’s assistance with the ECD program so much that they want to help out. I am getting the impression that they also like having visitors.
Yesterday I severely interrupted a church service in KASO’s Kudoku building when about 20 teenage girls insisted on having a photo shoot with me right outside. Everyone in the villages wants their picture taken. And they looooove seeing the pictures afterward. If I take a picture of a group of kids and then show it to them, the erupt into enormous yells and laughter. Everyone also laughs when I take pictures of their animals. Yesterday there were chicks, ducklings and piglets galore. It was pretty hilarious when about 20 kids tried to catch a piglet for me J.
Today I have been entering data….
Sunday, September 6, 2009
More on the lake
The project has begun! KASO started collecting data Wednesday, the day after we went to Senga Bay.
I'll start with the trip to the lake, though. I took the team + Richard (KASO's director) and two of KASO's nearly full-time volunteers as a thank you for all of their hard work on my project and to celebrate Labor Day (a few days early). It was incredible. I'd already been a couple of times on this trip (it's only an hour and a half away), but it was Mary (one of the permanent KASO volunteers) and Jona's first time seeing the lake. They are 44 and 37 years old and had never seen a large body of water. The expressions on their faces were priceless when they saw the lake. Even better was the sight of the whole group swimming. Everyone splashing around having fun, genuinely without a care in the world at that moment.
I didn't realize that there are no public beaches along Senga Bay. So...we were denied picnic access by three hotel/ restaurants (all owned by white people). Finally got to one owned by Malawians who let us use their patio for eating (including 2 tables and lots of chairs), their yard for cooking, their grill and their toilet facilities all day for about $15.00 total.
Both cars were stuck in the sand when we tried to leave, so there was a lot of pushing and digging when it came time to go.
I facilitated the death of two chickens that day. My unvegetarian selfish side was glad that they were freshly killed b/c I thought it significantly reduced the chance of my side of the road cabbage salad getting contaminated with salamanila as a result of knife sharing. We also got to eat rice instead of nsima, a very welcome treat! I'm getting used to the nsima, and actually look forward to it after a long hard day of biking (I'm usually starving), but I love rice much more.
I also aided in the destruction of Malawian forests by buying side of the road charcoal. I couldn't convince my friends that my four kilo bag from shoprite was enough for one meal, so we bought a basket of it as tall as me.
We all wore Obama t-shirts to the lake. I felt extremely silly walking through town that morning with the shirt on AND carrying a big bag of charcoal.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Lunch
I'm really bored, so I'll just also mention that I had fun shopping in a local market today for fresh veggies. Got an eggplant, green onions, a red onion, a tomato, a carrot (sweetest one i've ever had), two green peppers and a little orange spicy pepper for less like 70 cents. Yum! Don't worry, I will wash and cooked everything thoroughly :).
Much awaited pictures
Today was short, just went to Mwachipa to visit the ECD program. Played games like the goat and hyena with the kids, showed off my traditional dancing skills and learned to count to five in English :). Then the team dispersed to get ready for our trip to the lake tomorrow. We are bringing 2 live chickens to slaughter when we get there ... I will be eating beans.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Reveren
Dropped Matt off at the airport yesterday. Very sad to have him go and also to have my plane leave without me. In many ways it feels like I should be going home, especially since my classes technically start tomorrow. Also I really miss tofu and frapaccinos. Due to this never ending IRB process, I've extended my stay until September 18th.
Before heading to the airport, we spent a couple of hours at children's corner. I was happy to have a break from teaching activities. This time I just took pictures and videos :).
Today I went to church with Alton. It was wonderful, very small and simple - just brick walls, a dirt floor and a thatched roof. The choir of 5 sounded more like 100. Went to his home for nsima, eggs and greens. His wife was really happy to meet me and was very sweet, about half my size!
Hoping to have good news tomorrow.....internet cafe is closing now.
Before heading to the airport, we spent a couple of hours at children's corner. I was happy to have a break from teaching activities. This time I just took pictures and videos :).
Today I went to church with Alton. It was wonderful, very small and simple - just brick walls, a dirt floor and a thatched roof. The choir of 5 sounded more like 100. Went to his home for nsima, eggs and greens. His wife was really happy to meet me and was very sweet, about half my size!
Hoping to have good news tomorrow.....internet cafe is closing now.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Soil Village
I can't remember the Chichewa name of the village we went to today, but it translated to soil village in English. Interestingly, KASO has a center at Fumbe (dusty) village as well. We held a community meeting to introduce KASO to the village leaders from several surrounding villages and a large group of men, women, and children (actually 3 separate groups). The people were very excited about the programs, especially the Early Childhood Development programs which they hope will allow their children to have an advantage once they get to primary school. They kept thanking Matt and I, which was a bit awkward because we were not really doing anything for them. They kept telling us, though, that we were the first white people to ever set foot in soil village.
On a side note- the biking to this village was awful. It was an hour away totally uphill (nice view from the top!) and up two major highways before getting to the nice safe trails. SCARY!!!
Anyway, it has been interesting to see the beginning stages of a community development project, especially one that is completely grassroots (run totally by and for the local people). It was amazing to see how excited the people were about the programs. The KASO volunteers made a point of emphasising community ownership, how KASO would provide the necessary resources (paint, materials for ECD, group therapy, etc), but that the community development committee would need to arrange for the local volunteers to run the center and to coordinate the production of bricks and the building of the center itself.
Yesterday, Matt bought some building materials to donate to KASO. He was really frustrated to see that they were struggling with, for instance, a level that only had one functioning bubble. Today was pretty funny. The arm of his bike pedal came off. So, he, Alton and Jonathan spent several minutes backtacking to find it and the bolt that came out. They used a rock to attempt to fix it. After saying "this will probably hold for about 30 feet" the pedal came right back off after about 10. This is particularly funny because my bike has been fine this whole trip and yesterday Matt's seat fell off AND his brakes went out. Now...I'm pretty sure my bike is the only one with brakes. Anyway today he was pedaless and brakeless and was flying down a hill
when along came a whilrwind (like a dust devil out west...kind of like a dirty haphazard small tornado) and he flew right into it smack dab in the middle of an intersection. I've seen a few whirlwinds by now and this one was serious...really dark and strong and thick. He actually dissappeared for a minute and I thought he was going to be spit out in Kansas. He was fine, save for a few scratches from flying rocks. I haven't stopped laughing.
On a side note- the biking to this village was awful. It was an hour away totally uphill (nice view from the top!) and up two major highways before getting to the nice safe trails. SCARY!!!
Anyway, it has been interesting to see the beginning stages of a community development project, especially one that is completely grassroots (run totally by and for the local people). It was amazing to see how excited the people were about the programs. The KASO volunteers made a point of emphasising community ownership, how KASO would provide the necessary resources (paint, materials for ECD, group therapy, etc), but that the community development committee would need to arrange for the local volunteers to run the center and to coordinate the production of bricks and the building of the center itself.
Yesterday, Matt bought some building materials to donate to KASO. He was really frustrated to see that they were struggling with, for instance, a level that only had one functioning bubble. Today was pretty funny. The arm of his bike pedal came off. So, he, Alton and Jonathan spent several minutes backtacking to find it and the bolt that came out. They used a rock to attempt to fix it. After saying "this will probably hold for about 30 feet" the pedal came right back off after about 10. This is particularly funny because my bike has been fine this whole trip and yesterday Matt's seat fell off AND his brakes went out. Now...I'm pretty sure my bike is the only one with brakes. Anyway today he was pedaless and brakeless and was flying down a hill
when along came a whilrwind (like a dust devil out west...kind of like a dirty haphazard small tornado) and he flew right into it smack dab in the middle of an intersection. I've seen a few whirlwinds by now and this one was serious...really dark and strong and thick. He actually dissappeared for a minute and I thought he was going to be spit out in Kansas. He was fine, save for a few scratches from flying rocks. I haven't stopped laughing.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Bricks
Quick Update: At the end of last week I got sick with a fever and body aches. I don't know what was wrong with me, but I felt bad for a couple of days and am fine now. Since I'm still waiting for approval (i'm incredibly sick of writing that), I have been helping to build a kitchen for one of KASO's centers. Went to the lake yesterday and finally swam :). Tomorrow we are travelling to the site of a potential new center and will hold a community meeting to introduce the concept to the village leaders and to the community.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
week 4
Wow, I've almost been in Malawi for a month! Time to renew my Visa in the next two days.
Some highlights from the last week-
Early in the morning on Friday Jonathan's daughter (9 months old) died of Malaria. It was a pretty big blow for the whole research team, so we took the next few days off. I know that the infant mortality rate here is high, but I think it was the first time that I personally knew someone whose infant died. Unfortunately, white people are such a spectacle in the villages that the team decided it would be best if matt and i did not attend the funeral or the burial.
So, Saturday Esau took us to Nkhoma mountain (there was no children's corner because of the funeral). The mountain was gorgeous, rolling moutains and grasslands as far as the eye could see. We climbed to a pretty high peak, saw some lizards, had some ash blow into my mouth from a fire far far away. It was really dissapointing, though, to think of the rest of the research team burying Jonathan's child while we were up there. Jonathan was the children's corner coordinator, so all of the kids from all of the villages came to the service. I used some of the donations I received from people back home for nutritional support to buy nsima and vegetables for the kids who attended.
Sunday was the burial. I convinced matt to brave the minubus system with me. We caught a minibus to Salima where we saw the lake. The best parts were running out of gas, the frankenstein sew-up of the super cracked glass, and the fact that we missed the last minibus back and ended up stuck overnight, having to get up at 4AM to catch a bus back in time for Monday.
This week we've been doing things like printing the documents so we're ready when approval finally comes through. Today we visited Jennifer, someone i worked with here last time and who has been very sick. We brought her some staples like cooking oil, eggs, tomatoes, hand soap, washing soap, pawpaw and tangarines. She was taking care of a baby who looked to be about 10 months old. I saw his full set of teeth, though, and then asked how old he was. He is two years old, can't walk, can't talk, tiny, absolutely beautiful. I so wish I was doing my research right now...
Tomorrow we're rebuilding one of KASO's centers that has fallen apart in Yapa Village. We're going to paint and make bricks and try to help get things going again... Then Friday we're touring Baylor Pediatric AIDS Clinic and visiting the Grassroots Soccer rehearsal (a program that teaches kids about HIV/AIDS while playing on a sports team). Saturday is children's corner.
...next week begin data collection????
Sorry for the lack of updates- internet stinks. I've spent all my internet cafe energy working on my proposal (clarifications for the IRB in Malawi).
Some highlights from the last week-
Early in the morning on Friday Jonathan's daughter (9 months old) died of Malaria. It was a pretty big blow for the whole research team, so we took the next few days off. I know that the infant mortality rate here is high, but I think it was the first time that I personally knew someone whose infant died. Unfortunately, white people are such a spectacle in the villages that the team decided it would be best if matt and i did not attend the funeral or the burial.
So, Saturday Esau took us to Nkhoma mountain (there was no children's corner because of the funeral). The mountain was gorgeous, rolling moutains and grasslands as far as the eye could see. We climbed to a pretty high peak, saw some lizards, had some ash blow into my mouth from a fire far far away. It was really dissapointing, though, to think of the rest of the research team burying Jonathan's child while we were up there. Jonathan was the children's corner coordinator, so all of the kids from all of the villages came to the service. I used some of the donations I received from people back home for nutritional support to buy nsima and vegetables for the kids who attended.
Sunday was the burial. I convinced matt to brave the minubus system with me. We caught a minibus to Salima where we saw the lake. The best parts were running out of gas, the frankenstein sew-up of the super cracked glass, and the fact that we missed the last minibus back and ended up stuck overnight, having to get up at 4AM to catch a bus back in time for Monday.
This week we've been doing things like printing the documents so we're ready when approval finally comes through. Today we visited Jennifer, someone i worked with here last time and who has been very sick. We brought her some staples like cooking oil, eggs, tomatoes, hand soap, washing soap, pawpaw and tangarines. She was taking care of a baby who looked to be about 10 months old. I saw his full set of teeth, though, and then asked how old he was. He is two years old, can't walk, can't talk, tiny, absolutely beautiful. I so wish I was doing my research right now...
Tomorrow we're rebuilding one of KASO's centers that has fallen apart in Yapa Village. We're going to paint and make bricks and try to help get things going again... Then Friday we're touring Baylor Pediatric AIDS Clinic and visiting the Grassroots Soccer rehearsal (a program that teaches kids about HIV/AIDS while playing on a sports team). Saturday is children's corner.
...next week begin data collection????
Sorry for the lack of updates- internet stinks. I've spent all my internet cafe energy working on my proposal (clarifications for the IRB in Malawi).
Thursday, August 13, 2009
still waiting...
Well we did get the letter finally on Monday afternoon. Unfortunately, they needed some clarification on a few issues. I am waiting on a letter from a collaborator and then I'll be able to turn in the corrections for expediated review.
In the meantime....we are visiting the villages to let them know that we are delaying the start date a bit so that they don't think we abandoned them.
In the meantime....we are visiting the villages to let them know that we are delaying the start date a bit so that they don't think we abandoned them.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Monday
Today is Monday, the day that the chairman said he would have the minutes approved so that he could give me the go ahead (or not...we may have to make changes) to start collecting data. I can't remember the last time I was so anxious about something. A week of hoping that everyday is the day they'll approve my study has built up some terrible anxiety!
Since I'm sitting in a cyber cafe killing time until my driver picks me up and I really have nothing to report on my project, I'll just fill everyone in on what I've been up to. I'm thinking of this weekend as the beginning of Malawi part II - new lodge, new friends (Matt comes today!), and if all goes well today.....actually starting to collect data!
Tiane and Kim left about 36 hrs ago, so technically I've been by myself. I moved into a new lodge yesterday morning and now I'll be staying in a dorm-style room. It's much less roomy and the breakfast is less exciting, but it's a lot cheaper and the bed is comfier :).
Yesterday was dreadfully dull. Nothing in Lilongwe was open so I started reading a terrible romance novel (the English choices at the lodge were Chaos and Cupid or Oliver Twist). I can't believe I didn't bring any books to Malawi, I guess I forgot how much waiting there is to do here... Luckily Richard is bringing me some books to borrow today. I did meet some interesting people at the Lodge yesterday. A group of 10 of us went to dinner last night. A business man, some adventurers and some world changers (I'll post more about our conversations later).
Saturday Tiane, Kim, Mr. Hakamada and Mr. Noda (the Japenese guys we met at Korea Garden Lodge) went to Kuliani village for Children's Corner. Since we didn't have enough bikes for the guys, we hired two bikes. I rode one on the way into the village. It was great! I wish I could travel like that all the time, very comfy seat and the driver was much better than me at biking through rocks and potholes. Also they only charged us like $1.50 to go several kilometers (we gave them more).
We taught the older kids how to do the human knot again. They also taught us some Malawian games. And Malawian versions of games like volley ball (you can use your feet). I can't wait to teach some American kids the hyena goat game that I loved (I got eaten). I also taught them Red Rover b/c it was my favorite in elementary school. They also seemed to really like hang man (why are all my games violent???). We enjoyed sharing KASO with Noda and Hakamada, the volunteers there demonstrate a side of Malawi that many people do not experience. That the organization is totally run by local volunteers sets it apart from the development projects foreigners facilitate.
Once again, nine o'oclock has become ten and I am still waiting for my driver......Maybe I'll get used to Malawian time before I leave. Picking up Matt at noon!
Since I'm sitting in a cyber cafe killing time until my driver picks me up and I really have nothing to report on my project, I'll just fill everyone in on what I've been up to. I'm thinking of this weekend as the beginning of Malawi part II - new lodge, new friends (Matt comes today!), and if all goes well today.....actually starting to collect data!
Tiane and Kim left about 36 hrs ago, so technically I've been by myself. I moved into a new lodge yesterday morning and now I'll be staying in a dorm-style room. It's much less roomy and the breakfast is less exciting, but it's a lot cheaper and the bed is comfier :).
Yesterday was dreadfully dull. Nothing in Lilongwe was open so I started reading a terrible romance novel (the English choices at the lodge were Chaos and Cupid or Oliver Twist). I can't believe I didn't bring any books to Malawi, I guess I forgot how much waiting there is to do here... Luckily Richard is bringing me some books to borrow today. I did meet some interesting people at the Lodge yesterday. A group of 10 of us went to dinner last night. A business man, some adventurers and some world changers (I'll post more about our conversations later).
Saturday Tiane, Kim, Mr. Hakamada and Mr. Noda (the Japenese guys we met at Korea Garden Lodge) went to Kuliani village for Children's Corner. Since we didn't have enough bikes for the guys, we hired two bikes. I rode one on the way into the village. It was great! I wish I could travel like that all the time, very comfy seat and the driver was much better than me at biking through rocks and potholes. Also they only charged us like $1.50 to go several kilometers (we gave them more).
We taught the older kids how to do the human knot again. They also taught us some Malawian games. And Malawian versions of games like volley ball (you can use your feet). I can't wait to teach some American kids the hyena goat game that I loved (I got eaten). I also taught them Red Rover b/c it was my favorite in elementary school. They also seemed to really like hang man (why are all my games violent???). We enjoyed sharing KASO with Noda and Hakamada, the volunteers there demonstrate a side of Malawi that many people do not experience. That the organization is totally run by local volunteers sets it apart from the development projects foreigners facilitate.
Once again, nine o'oclock has become ten and I am still waiting for my driver......Maybe I'll get used to Malawian time before I leave. Picking up Matt at noon!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Waiting for chicks to hatch
On Sunday we held a pilot study. It was really exciting to finally see the project in action! We conducted the pilot in four households in Kuliani, Alton’s home village. Each KASO volunteer conducted an interview, Tiane and I took the measurements, and everyone used our pilot checklist to evaluate each other’s performances. The interviews went well, especially the participants’ willingness to share information. The interviewers were not quite as familiar with the questionnaire as they could have been, so a few things got mixed up.
For instance, I knew something was wrong when a couple of the questionnaires indicated that the child had consumed every possible kind of food except milk in the past 24 hrs. I thought the people were just trying to impress us and decided that we needed to do a better job on briefing the participants on the importance of providing honest answers (although it’s already part of our introduction).
Yesterday when we held our pilot evaluation meeting, Charles had summarized the major problems and indicated that what actually happened on the diet recall section was that one person had asked what the child had eaten in the past 4 weeks (the timeframe for the food security section) instead of 24 hours.
We discussed all of the sticky spots we’d uncovered during the pilot, everything from how close to sit to the person you are interviewing to not reading the section headings before questions. Yesterday, the interviewers practiced interviewing one another.
We are all ready to get started, just waiting on the National Health Sciences Research Council to give us the go ahead. They met a week ago, but we’re still waiting on them to finish up with the paperwork.
Today Charles and I met with someone at the council. The minutes from the meeting have to be approved by the chairperson before they will tell us the results. Apparently there is a 50% chance that we will have to do some revisions on the proposal before we can get started with data collection. So, we wait. Charles says I must be as patient as a chick waiting to hatch.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Sunday August 2nd
Today was Sunday, so the original plan was to have the day off. Since we had a very low turnout for our community meetings at Malimbe, however, we decided to go back for a second try today. Unfortunately when we arrived only the ECD coordinator was around. Four village chiefs and several women eventually arrived, but in the meantime they told us to wander around the village and take pictures of interesting things. Such interesting things included a couple of child driven ox-drawn carts, a huge potbelly pig, some little girls who wanted to hold our hands and some ladies carrying things on their heads who wanted their pictures taken.
When we came back, enough people had congregated that we could have the meeting. This was the 6th meeting and pretty much ran exactly the same way as the others. The only question asked was “when will the consent forms be given.”
As Charles put it, one of the chiefs finally admitted that the reason there were still very few attendees was that there was another funeral, complete with Gule Wamkulu. One of the running jokes in our group is that I am dying to see some Gule Wamkulu. It’s true, I’m fascinated. So, when they said that our audience was all at this funeral, I jokingly suggested that we take the meeting there instead. No problem, they said, we would just ride by on our way home.
Halfway toward the funeral village, Alton made a couple of phone calls. Before we knew it we had a full chief escort. At the village, the headman for 22 villages greeted us and introduced us to a lot of other chiefs. He also told us that we were welcome to take any photos or videos that we wanted (apparently that was really special!!!). The chiefs were all very thankful for the research project, as was a hopeful candidate for Malawian parliament. They insisted that we wait for the cemetery procession inside a house (where a distressed chicken was squealing under Tiane’s chair). We joined a group of hundreds of people in parading around two graves, one for the mother of the one we were grieving, and one for the one the ceremony was for. Interestingly, they were buried in 2007 and 2006. The ladies were all crying hysterically (as were their babies). So, it was not really a funeral, but a memorial service. Next it was time for lunch. We bought some chips (potato wedges) and fanta. The chiefs wanted to feed us nsima, but decided it was too cold to serve to visitors and brought us more chips and fanta.
By the time the big dance started, we had been at the funeral for a few hours. The big dance finally started with a few drummers and ladies dancing. Charles suggested that we go up and put 50 kwacha in the plates in front of the ladies and dance with them for a bit. So, we decided what the heck, so what if we look ridiculous? And we danced….. the crowd roared with laughter. They were cracking up. We made 25 kwacha each from amused onlookers. Later the volunteers told us that the crowd consensus was that Tiane was a much better dancer than me, but that by the end I was getting better. They said the laughter was not because we were terrible, but because the people had never seen azungu dance (I’m pretty sure it was both).
The most exciting part was the bike ride home. I am very happy I lived through it. We left at 4:45, just as the sun was beginning to set and were trying to get back to KASO before dark. So…..we biked as fast as we could through a mass crowd of people leaving the ceremony and over some really treacherous trails. I wish I had a picture, but it was all I could do to maintain control of my bike. I screamed a lot. It felt like driving a car on a video game when you’re trying to avoid all kinds of impossible obstacles, sand traps, people, hills, bumps, rocks, boulders, mud, holes…. but end up hitting most of them. My heart is still racing.
Made it to KASO exactly at dusk and back to the lodge at 6:00, just when the Japanese man next door said he would take us to Don Brioni’s for Italian.
When we came back, enough people had congregated that we could have the meeting. This was the 6th meeting and pretty much ran exactly the same way as the others. The only question asked was “when will the consent forms be given.”
As Charles put it, one of the chiefs finally admitted that the reason there were still very few attendees was that there was another funeral, complete with Gule Wamkulu. One of the running jokes in our group is that I am dying to see some Gule Wamkulu. It’s true, I’m fascinated. So, when they said that our audience was all at this funeral, I jokingly suggested that we take the meeting there instead. No problem, they said, we would just ride by on our way home.
Halfway toward the funeral village, Alton made a couple of phone calls. Before we knew it we had a full chief escort. At the village, the headman for 22 villages greeted us and introduced us to a lot of other chiefs. He also told us that we were welcome to take any photos or videos that we wanted (apparently that was really special!!!). The chiefs were all very thankful for the research project, as was a hopeful candidate for Malawian parliament. They insisted that we wait for the cemetery procession inside a house (where a distressed chicken was squealing under Tiane’s chair). We joined a group of hundreds of people in parading around two graves, one for the mother of the one we were grieving, and one for the one the ceremony was for. Interestingly, they were buried in 2007 and 2006. The ladies were all crying hysterically (as were their babies). So, it was not really a funeral, but a memorial service. Next it was time for lunch. We bought some chips (potato wedges) and fanta. The chiefs wanted to feed us nsima, but decided it was too cold to serve to visitors and brought us more chips and fanta.
By the time the big dance started, we had been at the funeral for a few hours. The big dance finally started with a few drummers and ladies dancing. Charles suggested that we go up and put 50 kwacha in the plates in front of the ladies and dance with them for a bit. So, we decided what the heck, so what if we look ridiculous? And we danced….. the crowd roared with laughter. They were cracking up. We made 25 kwacha each from amused onlookers. Later the volunteers told us that the crowd consensus was that Tiane was a much better dancer than me, but that by the end I was getting better. They said the laughter was not because we were terrible, but because the people had never seen azungu dance (I’m pretty sure it was both).
The most exciting part was the bike ride home. I am very happy I lived through it. We left at 4:45, just as the sun was beginning to set and were trying to get back to KASO before dark. So…..we biked as fast as we could through a mass crowd of people leaving the ceremony and over some really treacherous trails. I wish I had a picture, but it was all I could do to maintain control of my bike. I screamed a lot. It felt like driving a car on a video game when you’re trying to avoid all kinds of impossible obstacles, sand traps, people, hills, bumps, rocks, boulders, mud, holes…. but end up hitting most of them. My heart is still racing.
Made it to KASO exactly at dusk and back to the lodge at 6:00, just when the Japanese man next door said he would take us to Don Brioni’s for Italian.
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