Saturday, April 11, 2009

Village and Lake Nyasa/Malawi

Hi everyone! I am back to civilization from village and can use the internet so here it goes.
Lugarawa is a beautiful village surrounded by amazing mountains. As the rainy season comes to a close, the village is all mud all the time. The main road down the village is dirt and when it rains which so far is everyday for a few hours, that path becomes the equivalent to a slip and slide. My house is great! I am living in a brick house with a kindergarten teacher named George, originally from Kilimanjaro. He is a great guy and a pretty good cook, or as good as one can be with rice and mboga (a tomato based (sometimes) sauce with potatoes to meat which we never have or some vegetables).
I have started the programs in my three schools, 2 primary and a secondary school. We share the secondary school with the other volunteers from Mdilidili so there are 4 of us in that school. Some people were happy to see us, others, not so much. It seems a few people including the teachers at one of our primary schools are angry at the way certain topics of the Sexual Reproductive Health curriculum were covered. We have had a few issues with attendance of the Village Executive Officer (VEO) to the meetings we schedule with him. We had 4 scheduled and he did not show up to any! The appointment is a concept that is rarely if ever utilized in my village and much of Tanzania, according to many sources, including the Peace Corp Volunteer in my village who will be a great resource as we begin to face the challenges we encountered in the Situational Analysis (these last2 and a half weeks).
The kids are great and I am excited to begin working with them regularly. We have a lot of work to do with them as many (according to a question box for anonymous questions we used to answer initial questions about SRH) do not know what HIV/AIDS is or sexual reproductive Health. We have a lot of challenges to face. One primary school does not want us to teach about puberty to kids who are 11-14, the kids going through it now. The IRC in my village(Information Resource Center where people have access to books about health) closed since the last volunteers left as the books were stolen. The main goal that my partner and I are working toward is sustainability of the things we are starting or re-starting in Lugarawa. It is an exciting challenge which I am excited to attack when we return . We have to work hard to get the people involved and excited to work toward what Alex and I have planned based on what we have been asked to do by the community and leaders we were able to meet with. Even in two weeks my eyes have been opened to many of the challenges that face the development/NGO world and its workers, but now refreshed from a short break (read about below) and with more perspective from the distance and stories from fellow volunteers, I am ready to get back to work.
I am now in Mbeya. We just returned from Matema Beach on the shores of Lake Malawi/Nyasa. It was amazing and was a great release from the rather difficult first few weeks of village. We swam in warm lake water with waves...it is the second largest lake in Africa on the boarder of Tanzania (where it is called lake nyasa) and Malawi (obviously who call it lake malawi). We are heading back now to Iringa where we have Top-Up Training before we dive into the five months ahead of us!