letters: HELP malawi

muli bwanji!? (how are you!?)

recently, i had a day that threw me off- a classic maryland autumn day. it was cloudy, sprinkled off and on, the air had a chill to it, and the leaves were crunching on the ground. if it wasn't for the continued odd sounds right outside of my tent (hippo, impala, or the rhino on the lose?), i would have sworn i was back for a late october day. it was a nice to have a reminder of home, but when today's day started with the bright african sun, killing the cold instantly, i was smiling ear to ear. 

whew- today was a busy morning! yesterday i was over at the school across the river working with some grade 8 students to write their stories for my video for HELP malawi. it is to be a video about the non profit, but written by the kids themselves!! with a little crafting, weaving, and ironing, their initial ideas and stories were made into shooting plans and the kids were very excited 'to be famous!' (completely my joking way to excite them all). unable to sleep any more before six am, i jumped up, did some exercises to warm up in my tent, and then at seven headed to the lodge for quick breakfast. caught a boat across the river and at the school! i was so nervous that i would forget to shoot something and make editing impossible, that the kids would lose interest after a while of shooting, that one of the stories that we didn't quite get the last kinks out of would collapse, or that it would just take all day and the hungry students would slowly start to hate me and this whole thing. but none of that (hopefully) happened. 

we rolled through story after story, working quickly to get each shot from about 9am to exactly noon. i am glad that one of the girl's stories was the last one (and most of it i just needed her to act, not the group) because she was the best acting one of the group, and was still really engaged in the project. i then had the students write their stories out on paper, and read them into a microphone to have a narration to each story. i was so glad that these stories were from their words, not mine. i narrowed the story topics and then the breath (daniel, i can't film you becoming a rich bank manager) of the stories, but other than that- it was all them. i think HELP Malawi will like the videos and i am excited to start editing them tomorrow.

after i got back here and had lunch, i collapsed in a stress-releasing four hour nap. ugh. amazing day. just watched the sunset over the river, cup of dark (but weak) malawian coffee in hand, and sounds of birds and hippos filling the air. 

i finally had heard enough of this oil spill to finally google (image) search it for the first time. i just thought it was another tanker spill, but oh my god- what a mess. i can't believe it all! i feel so out of touch out here, but at the same time, when being out of touch of the world brings days filled with rural, 14-16 yr old determined malawian children, i am not complaining. only a couple more days here, then im up to monkey bay to give over all the gear i won't be carrying on my adventure to rr&co. then on the illala and up to brad! 

wish me luck on editing the mountain on materials i have been collecting while here, and i miss and love you all dearly!

ti wana ('til we meet again)

kukona (love)

tbk

june 2, liwonde national park, malawi

how i learned to love malawi

attn readers: my blogs are likely to be photoless for the next couple months as i travel only with my ipod. it kills me, but keep an eye out on my flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/simpsontwin/) to see if i am able to post any photos.

oh, and be ready for my long blog about how i love malawi. because i love this place and it breaks my heart that i can't upload photos of it now.

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boh boh!! hi from MALAWI. it's a great friendly country with a giant lake in it (and even though i have been here for two weeks, i have yet to see it). after treating ourselves to a couple nights camping on a golf course in lilongwe (a free reggae concert included), the family and i headed out in the direction to mvuu camp, within liwonde national park. on our way south, we stopped at a place called dedza after tales of some amazing cheesecake hiding in a cafe near a pottery project/store. hearing about amazing cheesecake is like finding out that there was a rodeo in baltimore or a union protest in st mary's county. sadly to say there were no cheesecakes for us as the power had been out for a couple days (god was smiting me for some reason), but after a good cup of dark (weak) malawian coffee and some shopping for natural soaps and things, we continued down the hilly and bike-filled roads towards mvuu. ever since our drive through zambia, we started to see more and more bicycles, and by the time we crossed the border into malawi, it seemed like there were 100 bikes for every car on the road. its amazing. not only because they are everywhere, but because how much the people are able to do with them. i have seen FIVE people on one (standard! ... actually very cheap and basic) bicycle, with a man pedaling and a woman plus backbabby sitting on the stand over the back tire and on the bar from the seat to handle bar. i've also seen what has to be over a hundred pounds of farm products or charcoal on the back stands on these bikes too. and not once have i seen once crash or fall.

anyway, i am staying at mvuu camp much longer than the family to work with a non-profit called 'help malawi' (helpchildren.org), which built a school and a health clinic right outside the national park. it was started by wilderness (the safari co's name) employees and an amazing donor from the states, jillian wolstein. at first i was wary of the project because of it just being another non profit in malawi that is picking up the pieces that the government leaves behind (why do the work and spend the money if silly americans will come and do it for you for free?). much of the international aid in malawi treats malawians as beggars and not much more, which is the furthest thing from the truth. but after i met jillian (and found out she wasn't from new jersey) and toured the school, i felt right at home and amazed by what these people are doing. helping train a teacher and then provide high-quality teacher aides (which is something unheard of here) to make teacher-student ratios in the standard one (1st grade) come down to 1 to 100 is quite the achievement. and if that is what they are working with, to fight for basic classroom and teacher quality, they deserve all the help they can get.

malawi is by far the poorest country i have seen so far. it has been hard to see and then reflect on what am i giving these people that are making my trip so much fun and exciting, but after spending time with help malawi, i think i am comfortable with my stay. but what do you do when you have easily over thirty kids swarm your car when you stop to have lunch? it's the uninformed tourist handing things out like money, sweets, or pencils from their cars that has created a culture of swarming muzungus, white people, and when it happens, it can very easily go from being pleasant to being too much to handle very quickly.

-back on topic- so i am here to work with 'help malawi' to make a video for them. but really, i am going to be working with a group of the children at the school to make the video (thank you anthropology). we will meet the first day and come up with stories of how the non profit helps them, and then the next day, i will come back and video the kids and make the videos! i am really excited for this, but of course a little nervous of what i am going to get...

i know i've said that a lot of this trip can be isolating, and for the first time, i am surrounded by people- even americans! but really, they are the ones i hate talking to the most. there have been two types of americans i have run into... snotty university sutdents (from california) here doing research somewhere locally ('oh, its a bay at the south end of the lake'.... me: where? ...' sigh- oh you wouldn't know it'.....i hold back from smacking him with a hot mug of coffee as he defiantly turns away) and modern day oil barons, that lived in texas but now in niger, and are getting out to see more of this whole 'africa' that people keep talking about.... but truth be told, i have met a handful of great travelers (including some beautiful canadians with one guy looking like lenny kravitz) and i have got along well with a bunch of the staff, like george, a guide, and rose, my cleaning lady who likes showing up right as i try to poop...

'muli bwanji!' 

'hello! .... err... can you come back later?'

-muli bwanji!' (correcting my hello)

'--ndiri bwino' ( fine and you?)

 'i am here to take your laundry' 

'-no, thank you!-no laundry today' 

'--zikomo' (she corrects my thank you to be in chichewa) 

'zikomo- can you come back later?'

'..........'

'............'

'..........'

'.........zikomo! basi ndipita!!' (ok bye bye!)

......... and she slowly shuffles away....

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ok, this has just gone on for too long. 

i hope all is well, and that this whole oil thing in the gulf gets cleaned up real quick.

cheers, 

tbk