Muddy in Kuilani Village

Today we biked into Alton's home village, Kuilani. He was so proud to show us where he was from and to introduce us to a couple of his children and the nearby chiefs. It took us like an hour and a half to get to the village when they thought it would only take 45 minutes. Part of the problem was that when we stopped at a gas station all of the "white people" (Tiane and Kim included!) took the opportunity to use their indoor plumming. When we came out, the researchers were all saying tiene, tiene! Let's go! They didn't mean to make such a logn pit stop.... On a side note, tiene sounds a lot like Tiane :).

When we arrived at the village, we approaced our first roadblock, a pit of standing muddy water. Mmmmm. Tutu (Tiane's aunt, ie: Kim, ie: Momma), crossed with no problem, so I followed right behind. My tires got stuck and I fell right into the mud. I laughed hysterically and made my way out of the sticky mess. The volunteers were all very concerned about me. I said let's just keep going, was gonna hop back on my bike and just be muddy till I dried off. But they insisted on cleaning me. One of the villagers ran very quickly and brought a bucket of water. Alton and Maria took off my chitingi and proceeded to bathe me. They were so sweet, even scrubbing my behind (I was still wearing jeans!) and taking my shoes off to wash my feet. It was very embarassing because all the kids from the village crowded around to see this azungu get a bath. The whole process required a second bucket of water. When we got to the center, one of the ladies took my chitingi (then Maria dressed me in her own) and washed it. Magically, an hour later it was clean and dry and ready to go! We can't figure out how they clean things so fast here...

Theh community meetings have been going wonderfully. Yesterdays was expecially exciting since it was the first one. At least 100 people greeted us as we rode in, some older boys took our bikes for us and they sang a song to welcome visiters. Both yesterday and today we toured Early Childhood Development (ECD) program building. We met the chiefs of the nearby villages. The meetings were extremely well organized (thanks to Alton and Jonathan). The volunteers each took a piece of the project to explain (purpose and goals, voluntariness, confidentiality, no benefits for participation), allowed the ECD coordinator to make an introduction, and took questions and answers. Here are some of the questions:
Will you continue the research if there is a funeral?
What if a child is approaching 6 years, will he be researched?
Are there going to be injections?
Will you suck the children’s blood?
Will the results be given to the families involved?
The chiefs said they would bring Gule Wamkule out of the jungle so that we could see them. This was actually a very funny discussion today. The volunteers told the people that we had been briefed on Chewa culture (wearing chtingi’s, learning to say Muli Bwanji, being fearful of Gule Wamkule), but also mentioned in a joking manner that we were really hoping to see the Gule Wamkule (means big dance, youtube it!) The chief today was a little upset that the volunteers didn’t warn him, or he would have set up a dance for us. So, they have arranged for it to happen on Saturday.
I have been very neglectful in expressing how much fun we’ve been having along the way. My friend Maction in DC was very kind to us and arranged for us to meet some of his good friends in and around Lilongwe. His friend Time Fatchi met us here at Korea Garden Lodge for coffee last Thursday. He then took us to a wonderful Reggae concert on Saturday night. A local band, the Black Missionaries, were planning and it was extremely fun! We danced for a few hours and some Malawian girls taught us local dance moves.
Sunday, since we had the day off, we went to Salima. There was a big craft market so I bought some earrings and a couple of baskets. Spent a lazy afternoon at Livingstonia beach. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. You could see the Tanzanian mountains on the other side of the lake and it was so windy that there were actual waves!
Hahaha, the lights just went out….guess I’ll save my battery.