just found a new email from May 25!
things are good for me.... i was sick for the past 5 days! I thought i had malaria... but thankfully that day has not come yet! i went to the hospital yesterday which was an experience in itself! so today I am feeling better.... I am leaving muzuzu today to go back to where I live which is dwangwa. I had to come here to go to the bank. so the trip took roughly 5 hrs. And 4 of those hrs were spent in the back of a pick up truck. ppl just stand on the road... and these truck or mini buses will pick you up. so it was quite fun & lots of cultural discovery!!! hahaha!!! by the time we were getting to muzuzu there was 2 100kg bags of maize (the staple food of malawi), 2 50kg bags of maize, 2 50kg bags of charcoal and about 15 of us in the truck! so i was sitting on the side on the truck and sometimes I thought I was going to die... but it definatly added to the overall fun of it!!!! :)
Next week i will get more into my work... I think I will be focusing on ecological sanitation latrines. which are pretty much latrines where there are two holes... you use one and then fill it. when it is filled you cover it and use the second.... by the time the 2nd one is full the first one should be composted and you are harest it and use it as fertilizer. and then re-use the 1st hole while the second one composted. So quickly that is what that is. its good because it reduses people usuing the washroom in the open. its more sanitary. It saves the trees because you dont need to build a new latrine after it is full... you can re-use. The slap to cover the hole is made from cement not trees. And it helps farmers get more income by not having to buy fertilizer... and supplying fertilizer to those who couldnt afforded it the first place anyways! So thats an over view of what im hoping to focus on!
i plan to develop a monitoring and evaluation system for the project so we can determine how well it is actually work. If the goal is to have latrines so ppl can be healthier... my question is are ppl actually healthier. and how is this project playing a part is people being healthier. If there are water points being installed.. and the water is clean are people taking the appropriate steps to ensure the water stays clean between the time they draw the water and the time they use it.
But malawi is beautilful. there is a beautiful lake! beautiful mountains. beautiful people. The people never stop amazing me!!! they are so creative and innovative. They have mastered the art of making something from what we would consider 'nothing'. I took some videos that are very neat! for example i met this boy to made this car out of simply wire, two little tires and a sugar cane stick. and the boy could simply stand and push it and control which direction it went. I cant explain it and do it justice. But people here are amazing! and so loving and hard working!
(fun side note - i saw my first crocodile yesterday... it was in the river where i live. but it was only a baby. so i was kind of dissapointed it was only a baby. but as I was driving the muzuzu the truck had to slow down because there was a crocodile crosing the road. This one was bigger, so i was more excited... When i get excited, I get very excited and the locals who are around laugh at me. in fact they are always laughing at me. but i am always happy that they are laughing!)muzungu is my name here too! it means white person. So if I am driving on a bike taxi or walking I always have people screaming this at me.It hasent come to irritating me yet!!! :p we'll see what happens!
hope all is well! :)
Saturday, June 14, 2008
New news about value village
For those who know me really well know that I love shopping at value village. There are two main reasons. First being that I think its good to re-use clothes. Its better for the environment! You can find good things there that would otherwise just go to the garbage... (or go to africa as I am learning first hand... but I will get to that!) The second main reason why I like value village is because I am a poor candadian student who needs to be a cheap-ass!!!! :)
so...... the new news about value village... im not so happy about them anymore!! almost all the clothes i have bought since I am been in Malawi has come from there. when they and places like sally ann have too much clothes they ship it across on boats to africa and sell it by the pound. so theres all kinds of stuff from value village. interesting how interconnected we are eh?!
There are also stuff coming from other european countries and Australia etc. Plus on top of all of that clothes.. there is all the clothes that is all the clothing aid that is just given freely!
but the reason i dont really like it is because it really does totally undermine any chance of a developing country to start a sustainable textile industry. there are lots of taylors... but they cant do very well cause there is some much clothes already made being shipped in.
I never knew.thought about this before I was at pre-departure training in Toronto. We had a question and answer session with George Roter, Co-headman of EWB! This issue got raised there... To come just ashort few days afterwards and see it for myself was pretty interesting!
I can honestly say I could have left Canada with one outfit and dressed for 4 months looking like I had brought everything from Canada!
Just some food for thought! hope it feeds some of someones hunger for knowledge!!
much love everyone!!
so...... the new news about value village... im not so happy about them anymore!! almost all the clothes i have bought since I am been in Malawi has come from there. when they and places like sally ann have too much clothes they ship it across on boats to africa and sell it by the pound. so theres all kinds of stuff from value village. interesting how interconnected we are eh?!
There are also stuff coming from other european countries and Australia etc. Plus on top of all of that clothes.. there is all the clothes that is all the clothing aid that is just given freely!
but the reason i dont really like it is because it really does totally undermine any chance of a developing country to start a sustainable textile industry. there are lots of taylors... but they cant do very well cause there is some much clothes already made being shipped in.
I never knew.thought about this before I was at pre-departure training in Toronto. We had a question and answer session with George Roter, Co-headman of EWB! This issue got raised there... To come just ashort few days afterwards and see it for myself was pretty interesting!
I can honestly say I could have left Canada with one outfit and dressed for 4 months looking like I had brought everything from Canada!
Just some food for thought! hope it feeds some of someones hunger for knowledge!!
much love everyone!!
Copy and pasting
so for right now i am just copying some emails i had written to my family! since i dont get a chance to access internet i know my blog is really hurting! and I am sorry for that!
I will try to be better! but i cant promise much!
so this one was sent the first week i got here... before i even got to Dwangwa. A bit outdated but some of you might like to read it anyways!
so first thing i like is there are geikos climbing on the walls and i find them cute!!! haha! just had to put that in there! :)but i got here yesterday after like 38hrs of travel. i spent a week in toronto doing some pretty intense training and i just had yesterday, today and half of tomorrow of in country training.So air canada sucks a screwed up my flights. So instead flying flying to london, nairobi, kenya & then lilongwe, malawi. I had to go to frankfort first then to london. But first I had to miss my flight in frankfort because air canada didnt even book the flight for me. So im not a fan of air canada!! not that i was a huge huge fan anyways!
so today i went to the market. pretty crazy! im like an underground celebrety it seems. people like to stare and follow the white girl. espicially kids! really strange feeling... but i guess i will get used to it. And everyone is sooo nice! everywants to help you and get you to go on their bus! Well actually there are always some bad apples... and i have a story already. most people are kind, but some not so much like the one that tried to rob my today. I was at the 'bus station' Which consists of a millon ppl and 1000 buses... and everyone trying to get on one to go some where. and the buses arent really buses they are more like 15 passanger buses that they cram as many ppl as possible into. so i was talking to 2 guys ( i was with 2 girls as well) and we were asking how to catch a certain bus... when another guy came over. next thing i know i felt something on my side and this 3rd guy got his hands in my bags trying to steal my wallet which he does get his hands on only to have me run after him & my wallet scream and get it back as he tried to pass it on to someone else!!! lesson learned: my canadain wallet doesnt exsist anymore... now i need a malawi one. Neveer take all of my IDs with me. If I loose money... not a big deal. I loose IDs. big deal!
another interesting thing that came from today.. was how HOT it is in the day... nights are pretty cool. but noon is pretty blistering. and i was drinking sooo much water. When I thought about the fact that i was only twalking around and needing soo much water. For more ppl life is pretty hard and consists of alot ofhard manuel labour. And for the majority of them they dont have access to clean drinking water. Just some food for thought that hurt my heart when i thought about it.
For some logistical news... i will be living in dwangwa, malawi. which is about 200km north of the capital, Liliongwe. i dont have living arragements yet... i will set them upo when i get there. but i will be working with WESM(wildlife and environment society of malawi) I will be potentially working in two sectors. id say mostly based around water and sanitation. Although im probably going to incorporate some monitoring & evaluation cause im very interested in that.. and Im not sure how much of it organizations are really evaulating how well there projects are doing. so if they start they will be able to better see gaps & places to improve!
so the two things i will be working on are hygiene promotion and IGA(income generating activities) This are other things rural farmers, who farm mainly to eat, can do to create more income for themselves & have a better chance of getting ahead or supporting themselves when there is no food.
once i get there & access my organization im going to decide where i want to work & focus my energy! if you are like me.. you might be asking how this fits into a wildlife & environment organization!!malawi is over populated and there is ALOT of stress on the land. so the idea is that if people can be supported, ie. have irrigation systems to make sure their crops will grop, or they can have other ways of making money. they will be less likly to over-fish or hunt animals for food! So in a nut shell that is what I will be doing. I will probably write more on my blog as time goes on about my work experiences & just general day to day experiences!!
I will try to be better! but i cant promise much!
so this one was sent the first week i got here... before i even got to Dwangwa. A bit outdated but some of you might like to read it anyways!
so first thing i like is there are geikos climbing on the walls and i find them cute!!! haha! just had to put that in there! :)but i got here yesterday after like 38hrs of travel. i spent a week in toronto doing some pretty intense training and i just had yesterday, today and half of tomorrow of in country training.So air canada sucks a screwed up my flights. So instead flying flying to london, nairobi, kenya & then lilongwe, malawi. I had to go to frankfort first then to london. But first I had to miss my flight in frankfort because air canada didnt even book the flight for me. So im not a fan of air canada!! not that i was a huge huge fan anyways!
so today i went to the market. pretty crazy! im like an underground celebrety it seems. people like to stare and follow the white girl. espicially kids! really strange feeling... but i guess i will get used to it. And everyone is sooo nice! everywants to help you and get you to go on their bus! Well actually there are always some bad apples... and i have a story already. most people are kind, but some not so much like the one that tried to rob my today. I was at the 'bus station' Which consists of a millon ppl and 1000 buses... and everyone trying to get on one to go some where. and the buses arent really buses they are more like 15 passanger buses that they cram as many ppl as possible into. so i was talking to 2 guys ( i was with 2 girls as well) and we were asking how to catch a certain bus... when another guy came over. next thing i know i felt something on my side and this 3rd guy got his hands in my bags trying to steal my wallet which he does get his hands on only to have me run after him & my wallet scream and get it back as he tried to pass it on to someone else!!! lesson learned: my canadain wallet doesnt exsist anymore... now i need a malawi one. Neveer take all of my IDs with me. If I loose money... not a big deal. I loose IDs. big deal!
another interesting thing that came from today.. was how HOT it is in the day... nights are pretty cool. but noon is pretty blistering. and i was drinking sooo much water. When I thought about the fact that i was only twalking around and needing soo much water. For more ppl life is pretty hard and consists of alot ofhard manuel labour. And for the majority of them they dont have access to clean drinking water. Just some food for thought that hurt my heart when i thought about it.
For some logistical news... i will be living in dwangwa, malawi. which is about 200km north of the capital, Liliongwe. i dont have living arragements yet... i will set them upo when i get there. but i will be working with WESM(wildlife and environment society of malawi) I will be potentially working in two sectors. id say mostly based around water and sanitation. Although im probably going to incorporate some monitoring & evaluation cause im very interested in that.. and Im not sure how much of it organizations are really evaulating how well there projects are doing. so if they start they will be able to better see gaps & places to improve!
so the two things i will be working on are hygiene promotion and IGA(income generating activities) This are other things rural farmers, who farm mainly to eat, can do to create more income for themselves & have a better chance of getting ahead or supporting themselves when there is no food.
once i get there & access my organization im going to decide where i want to work & focus my energy! if you are like me.. you might be asking how this fits into a wildlife & environment organization!!malawi is over populated and there is ALOT of stress on the land. so the idea is that if people can be supported, ie. have irrigation systems to make sure their crops will grop, or they can have other ways of making money. they will be less likly to over-fish or hunt animals for food! So in a nut shell that is what I will be doing. I will probably write more on my blog as time goes on about my work experiences & just general day to day experiences!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)