Camp

I'm in Lilongwe trying to pick up money for the environmental camp I'm about to hold. I really really tried to call it Camp ACRONYM in deference to the acronymization of everything in Peace Corps. But since it's an environmental health camp and only some of the letters can be development jargon (Capacity, Youth) I now just call it Environmental Health Camp. Lame, I know.
There are three elements to it: permaculture, natural medicine and health/nutrition. It's going to be held at Vibitac Bible Institute, a local private secondary school conviniently situated on a beach that is even more gorgeous than mine. The teachers are all going to be my homepeople- Peace Corps Volunteers, plus a local Englishwoman who works for the German development agency here. Tim and Emily are are heading up the Ministry of Fun. Basically, it's going to be the best camp ever.
I was here for the new health group swear-in yesterday too. Fun to meet the new kids, party it up a bit, and see what we must have been like a year and a half ago.
I'm also getting ready for a big trip- bus up to the Tanzanian border, train to Dar es Salaam, then boat out to Zanzibar to meet up with some friends. Then back to Dar and up to Nairobi to meet up with the fam, that I may show them around my little corner of the planet for a while. I already got to play host to Mar and Kath, and it was splendid. It also helped that the generosity they showed me was stunning.
All for now, gimme a shout.

Pachanya pa phiri la Kuwirwi

Zomelani

Almost since I arrived in my village, I have been subtly searching for HIV positive people. The level of ignorance about HIV here is huge, despite the fact that it affects so many more people, directly and indirectly, than almost anywhere else you can think of. The level of shame associated with it is also much bigger than would have thought, even after I leard about it in Pre-Service Training. Still, after asking my close friends and neighbors, there hasn't been a single openly positive person I could identify.
So I started asking around at my local health clinics and I stumbled upon a group of HIV positive people, the Zomelani AIDS Club. It was started by the local chief, who was the first to come out about status. Today there are 12 members.
{One wife who goes to every meeting with her husband. They are both HIV+}
I didn't really get international development, grassroots work or even my role as a Peace Corps volunteer until I found this group. Everything just kinda clicked. Internal debates on the role of money, patronism and sustainability melted away; i'm not having existential issues any more, which is nice. Not a single project before this made me want to just give money to people.
{One man in his thirties. He walks with a cane.}
The first thing I did was find out what Zomelani wants and needs. (A bleakly humorous factoid: need and want are the same words in Tonga. [So are love and like, and pray and beg]) What it came down to was money. Anti-retroviral medications (ARVs) are a lifesaver- really, people who go on this can look like they come back from the dead. And ARVs are free in Malawi, thanks to various governments and NGO initiatives. BUT transportation to them is not. A person cannot pick up more than a month at a time, and no one can pick up your meds for you. Basically it is a HUGE financial drain on a household. People make is happen but only by scrimping, begging and family connections.
{One mother who brings her twelve year old daughter to meetings. They are both HIV+}
SO this is where my particular skill set comes into play: wine!
I learned how to make wine at site- I brewed a killer coconut/mango wine for my New Years Eve party. If there is one fool-proof, fail-safe income generating activity in the village, it's brewing liquor. So it's where I wanted to start.
One batch of wine per month yeilds slightly less than transport money to and from the clinic.
Work has never been so appreciated.
The first batch was banana.

My chief, my counterpart and I

Flisbee

I threw one frisbee out. This is not unusual, I often toss one out after my daily saunter in the lake. But this day there were a lot of kids in the area, so I hatched my brilliant plan. I ran inside and gathered up the rest of my frisbees and held them behind my back while I ran out. My kids were running around, screaming, falling down for no apparent reason. I hooted and then threw out the frisbees, one after another.
The universe coughed, contracted and collapsed in on itself; time froze and all reality was reset.

It fell silent for a second, eyes bulged. Then everyone went crazy.

Waterfalls

I rode my bike to my sitemate Alex's house, about 45 minutes away. He and Paige were waiting for me when I got there, just as it was getting dark. We ate homemade bread (Alex = for reals cook) killed a tarantula and then lay down on the floor and went to bed.
Early next morning (my sitemates have not been able to perfect the art of sleeping in in the village)(or maybe anywhere, I don't really know) up and out and hiking along the banks of the river, up and up into beautiful dry hills, up and up past villages until it was just us and river and forest.
You could hear the waterfall a long ways away. I would rate it as the second best waterfall I've ever seen. We took off our shoes and scampered down it, partially in the water and partially on the rocks, so big and wide that there were big pools halfway down the face of it that we could lounge around in and not be afraid of crocodiles.
So we lounged and lounged and ate beef jerkey and it was a LOVELY day.

Since then I've been in Lilongwe for Thanksgiving. I've consumed:
1. Tacos
2. Pizza
3. Nachos
3. BBQ Pork
4. Orange Rolls
5. Gin and Tonic
6. Calzone
7. Charles Shaw Merlot
8. Spaghetti
9. Thai Garlic Noodles
10. Quiche

My life is decadent beyond my wildest dreams- hope yours is too.

Hey buddy, have you got a dime?

Back from training, back from travel, I missed my village. I was gone for almost 3 weeks all told (the 2 hour SUV ride takes all day [really] on a minibus). I am working with four tree nurseries, one bee keeping club and fourish school clubs right now. Some of them worked while I was gone, some of them didn't. Which was actually a good thing- it lets me know who is interested in the project, and which projects will continue to function after I leave.
Anyways, I just wanted to write about the beekeeping club, becuase I like working with them the best.
I am so proud of this club. They get things done. Working with groups, funding is always a problem. We need money for hives, suits, wire, wax, buckets, smokers... the list goes on and on. Most groups I work with don't even consider funding themselves- and with good reason, for the most part. Money really IS tight here.
Thats what makes this beekeeping club so awesome. At our first meeting we agreed that everyone would bring 20 kwacha per week, every week. (20 kwacha is about 14 cents) I was stoked that they thought this idea up, really stoked that they followed up with it, and really really stoked when they did it in my absence. At my first meeting back, I wanted to hug them.
Now they are over halfway to their goal and chugging along. I don't know how they get the money, and not everyone brings it every time. But now I give them a round of applause after we announce the savings each week. It makes me so happy. I'm so proud of them.

And the beat goes on.