Today made me dizzy. It was children’s corner again, a program during which kids from ages 2-18 come to each of KASO’s five centers for developmental activities, socialization and a nutritious meal. Last week, we basically wandered around in awe of the program and the multitude of children in attendance, joining in to learn traditional dances or to play house with ECD as we felt compelled. This week, though, the volunteers had been really anxious for us to prepare some programs for the kids. Despite a full resume of babysitting, daycare, and youth group leadership experience, I found the task utterly overwhelming. Although I admittedly forced my result on the Meyer’s Briggs during my first leadership class as an undergrad (striking what I saw to be the perfect balance between being an introvert and an introvert, not I, not E, but X), I am an introvert (that just means I re-energize by being alone). Just being surrounded by a couple of hundred small children is totally overwhelming; add to the sheer volume of kids a set of language and cultural barriers and I am completely dumbfounded with what to do with them. Since April, I’ve been working on informed consent documents, IRB proposals and questionnaires, hence the task of entertaining dozens and dozens of kids was way out of my comfort zone.
Tiane and Tutu had brought along some glow in the dark string and beads, so we decided an easy project would be bracelet making. The kids loved it, but it was one of the most stressful things I’ve done since getting here, trying to hand out string and beads to that many kids. Then there were seemingly endless lines of late arrivals…kids dropping their bracelets…etc.
We taught two more activities, the human knot for ages 13-18 and duck duck goose for ECD. The human knot activity came after Charles (lead researcher for KASO) led a discussion and game on how HIV and AIDS affects poverty. During the game, the kids all took off a shoe and set it in front of them as a “parent.” Then, they ran around in a circle while “AIDS” killed some of the “parents.” Charles would yell “nsima!” (the staple food) and each kid would have to find their own or another parent (if theirs had died). The game was supposed to demonstrate how quickly the death of a few parents can lead to extreme economic burden on communities.
Anyway, the human knot went fairly well. There were so many teenagers that we had to do 4 separate groups, but at least 2 of them where able to complete the untangling. Duck duck goose was entertaining. I tried to ask Maria how to say goose in Chichewa, but she didn’t know what I was talking about. I had learned the words for chicken and duck, so we played chicken chicken duck instead. Nkhuku, nkhuku, bakha. My favorite part was that when we told the kids that if they got tagged they had to sit in the stew pot they sat in the middle stirring stirring stirring until the next kid took over.
In preparation for next week, any ideas of games or activities for kids ages 2-5, 7-12, or 13-18 that involve no props or resources, include dozens of kids and can be done in a small space would be much appreciated!
We’ve been spending a lot of time at the local markets, buying fresh veggies (ones that we cook for a looooong time), fruits (only ones w/ thick peels!) and rice. Today I also got some kernels for popcorn. Esau (our driver) asked if I had something that started with a W. I told him I had no idea what he was talking about. So, he pulled me back into a little shop and asked for this something that started with a W. The clerk laughed and brought out a large round woven plate. Esau dumped my kernels onto the round plate and tossed them around. Corn husk debris flew. It was a pretty efficient way of cleaning the kernels! Unfortunately when we poured the kernels back into the bag there was a hole, so half of them spilled on the floor.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Friday July 31st
Yesterday we had a great turnout for our last community meeting. Since a number of KASO volunteers live in Fumbe, the community was eagerly anticipating our arrival. Three village chiefs and a village headman (overseeing a number of villages) as well as many men and women were in attendance. As usual, the KASO team did a fantastic job of covering everything we had discussed –purpose of the study, voluntariness, and confidentiality- (Maria translated as the presentations were made in Chichewa). One aspect of the familiarization meetings that has fascinated me is the genuine interest of the volunteers to make sure that the people truly understand the project. Prior to beginning the community meetings, we had long discussions about presentation. One concern I raised was that people might be afraid of the word “research” and that we might want to use softer language- like “program” or “project” to convey what we were doing. However, the volunteers instead wanted the people to learn that research is not something scary, but something helpful to their community. So, they have taken a lot of time to explain not only what our project is, but to define “research,” dispelling myths that all research involves needles or “blood sucking.” It seems to have gone over really well.
My favorite question yesterday was, “what if a woman is very willing for her child to be researched, but has no child between the ages of 2 and 5, will you still allow her to be included in the research?” Charles answered the question by posing a question back, “If a boy wants to be a part of Gule Wamkulu (big dance), but has not yet reached the age of initiation, can he participate?” He continued with an explanation of why we can only look at kids between 2 and 5, but the comparison worked perfectly. Even in our research group discussions, the answers to many questions begin with “in Malawi, we have a saying….” Such as “you may go to the lake to see the lake, but you may find a hippo.”
I’ve learned tons more in the last week and a half than I did the entire time I was here before. Some of it is cultural, like the way that Malawians cup their hands when clapping for a chief. I am also learning from the way things have changed at KASO over the past few years. As an undergraduate I wrote a paper about the influence of the community mindset (found in most non-western societies in which people think of themselves as a part of a whole, as opposed to the individualistic American mindset in which people think of themselves as the whole) on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Having heard such sayings as “HIV is in the nsima” I thought that it would be very difficult, once HIV had invaded a community, for individuals to formulate personal health beliefs that allow for the projection of outcomes that are separate from the health of the community as a whole (ie: that even though some neighbors or family members might be infected, they could prevent HIV).
I am very happy to say that I have changed my mind. The people we are working with believe that, as a community, they can stop the spread of HIV. There is a sense of empowerment in these communities that I did not see three years ago. One of the most obvious differences is the number of people who are on ARVs. In 2006, I participated primarily in home based care for people who were so sick that they were home-bound. Now, the number of people who are seriously ill has dropped dramatically. So, people are hopeful rather than helpless. Interestingly, I have heard people argue that access to free ARVs will dampen prevention efforts because people will no longer see HIV as a killer. On the contrary, I see access to these drugs as giving communities a degree of much needed control over the epidemic. Where once HIV was a death sentence, the realization that the virus can be, to some extent, tamed, is allowing for more open dialogue and the perception that health outcomes can also be changed. Of course, this is just my small take on an epidemic that is ravaging a huge proportion of the continent…but I find these to be hopeful signs.
My favorite question yesterday was, “what if a woman is very willing for her child to be researched, but has no child between the ages of 2 and 5, will you still allow her to be included in the research?” Charles answered the question by posing a question back, “If a boy wants to be a part of Gule Wamkulu (big dance), but has not yet reached the age of initiation, can he participate?” He continued with an explanation of why we can only look at kids between 2 and 5, but the comparison worked perfectly. Even in our research group discussions, the answers to many questions begin with “in Malawi, we have a saying….” Such as “you may go to the lake to see the lake, but you may find a hippo.”
I’ve learned tons more in the last week and a half than I did the entire time I was here before. Some of it is cultural, like the way that Malawians cup their hands when clapping for a chief. I am also learning from the way things have changed at KASO over the past few years. As an undergraduate I wrote a paper about the influence of the community mindset (found in most non-western societies in which people think of themselves as a part of a whole, as opposed to the individualistic American mindset in which people think of themselves as the whole) on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Having heard such sayings as “HIV is in the nsima” I thought that it would be very difficult, once HIV had invaded a community, for individuals to formulate personal health beliefs that allow for the projection of outcomes that are separate from the health of the community as a whole (ie: that even though some neighbors or family members might be infected, they could prevent HIV).
I am very happy to say that I have changed my mind. The people we are working with believe that, as a community, they can stop the spread of HIV. There is a sense of empowerment in these communities that I did not see three years ago. One of the most obvious differences is the number of people who are on ARVs. In 2006, I participated primarily in home based care for people who were so sick that they were home-bound. Now, the number of people who are seriously ill has dropped dramatically. So, people are hopeful rather than helpless. Interestingly, I have heard people argue that access to free ARVs will dampen prevention efforts because people will no longer see HIV as a killer. On the contrary, I see access to these drugs as giving communities a degree of much needed control over the epidemic. Where once HIV was a death sentence, the realization that the virus can be, to some extent, tamed, is allowing for more open dialogue and the perception that health outcomes can also be changed. Of course, this is just my small take on an epidemic that is ravaging a huge proportion of the continent…but I find these to be hopeful signs.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
I forgot how clumsy I am in Malawi. The main problem is that my bike is still too tall. I told KASO to get me the shortest bike possible, but it seems they are all one size fits all. Even with the seat at the lowest level, I have to find a hill to prop myself up to get on the seat. I've finally given in and taken Charles' lead on one footed run-jump, swing one leg over. It works, but makes for a wobbly start. Getting off is even funnier, if there’s no hill to be found, I basically just tip over and fall until one of my feet hits the ground. Today my wobbling intersected with a van's illegal u-turn and I t-boned it, oops... Luckily we were both going slowly, so no harm done (well, it's possible that I may have dented the van, that could have been why the driver was yelling at me). It was absolutely my fault, I had ample warning to know that the van was turning….but just couldn’t seem to get control of the bike. The volunteers yelled at the van driver for quite some time until he (and all of his many passengers) apologized profusely to me. They are terribly protective of us, making sure we don’t get hit by cars and staking out the markets so they don’t charge us too much because we are white, for example. I honestly feel like a small child….but they don’t seem to be judging, just laughing when appropriate. Back to the clumsy biking, I have also already hit so many rocks that I had a flat tire yesterday. Two 20 cent repairs and a $2 tube later, it was all better.
Today we met an unexpected challenge when we tried to do the familiarization and sensitization at Malembe village. When we arrived at the center, there were very few people. The ECD coordinator explained that one of the village headman (a leader above several chiefs and below the traditional authority in rank) had passed away yesterday. Tragically, a small child had drowned in the river on the same day. So, most of the chiefs and adults of the community were at the funeral. We continued with the program as planned for the people who were in attendance, but will need to return on Sunday to make sure we have reached enough community members. Fortunately, Malembe is one of the closer villages.
Today the Health Sciences Research Council met in Blantyre in order to review our proposal. We should hear the results by Tuesday……
Today we met an unexpected challenge when we tried to do the familiarization and sensitization at Malembe village. When we arrived at the center, there were very few people. The ECD coordinator explained that one of the village headman (a leader above several chiefs and below the traditional authority in rank) had passed away yesterday. Tragically, a small child had drowned in the river on the same day. So, most of the chiefs and adults of the community were at the funeral. We continued with the program as planned for the people who were in attendance, but will need to return on Sunday to make sure we have reached enough community members. Fortunately, Malembe is one of the closer villages.
Today the Health Sciences Research Council met in Blantyre in order to review our proposal. We should hear the results by Tuesday……
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
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.
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.
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