My addictions

Let me share a bit about my favorite places with you - Art market & vegetable/fruits market.

Any little extra money I can find now goes to art works and vegetables/fruits. They're really addicting actually. You will definitely know why if you come to Malawi as a foreigner.

All the beautiful art works in the pictures are handmade and SUPER cheap if you compare the prices in Japan or other developed countries. And what's more, you can order something original easily. When I have no money, I try not to get closer to this market... Otherwise I won't have the transport money to go back to my house.

Markets are filled with its unique energy and enthusiasm. As soon as people see me, they all rush to sell me things, offer to be a bag carrier, ask billions of questions, and so forth. I love going there and meeting new people. I have specific friends from whom I buy specific items. They of course remember me and give me lots of what they call "prices"(free stuffs) :) Speaking of markets, you can find all kinds of fresh vegetables and fruits besides other things. They are incredibly delicious and again, cheap! No wonder I'm not loosing any weight here...

The Thursday, two weeks ago, was a special day where I had to buy different items for my preschool supervision, soya beans being one of them. But I needed 18kg... I wish someone took a video of me carrying the soya beans in the middle of Lunzu market, where literally EVERYONE was cracking up by seeing this Zungu (foreigner) with a huge sack of soya beans on her head, trying her best to walk straight. Well, I don't hate attention and I love making people laugh so it's all good.

Pig project here it comes!

We finally started building THE pig house. Well, we only managed to dig the foundation and carried all the materials to the site and the day was over. My entire body is hurting now from the physical labor using shovel and hoe, which I've never done

This pig project is an income generation activity (IGA) for the preschools and the baby for Anna my fellow volunteer and I. Along with Patrik another volunteer, we've been really wanted to leave something tangible behind that helps the preschools to run by themselves. After lots of discussions and planning, we decided to dedicate our time and effort to strengthen IGAs at respective preschools besides improving the quality of education. And this pig project is one of our main IGAs we're trying to implement.

Basic idea is to raise and breed the first two female piglets (we've already arranged to borrow a male pig when the girls are ready) and distribute the piglets to hardworking preschools first. They will have to take care of the piglets and return one piglet when the initially distributed piglet gives birth. Then we distribute those 'returned' piglets to more preschools. When I say "hardworking" preschools, they need to meet the criteria/requirements of collecting school fees and maize to buy sugar and feed the children every school day. One representative of each preschool will have to attend a monthly meeting before receiving a piglet to learn about how to take care of pigs, housing, feeding, vaccination, and so on.

We had absolutely no idea about pigs so we went to ask those people who run pig business in villages. They gave us a list of things we need to build a pig house and other things to keep in mind such as feeding and vaccinations.

We got the sample design of the house, tools, cement, fences, and bricks to start building. The first step was to dig the foundation. It took us (we had about 10 people) more than 3 hours to just dig. Then we had to stop the work because me and Anna didn't prepare sand, small rocks, and timbers to mix the cement and construct the foundation. No one told us that we needed them! I guess it was such a common sense... I wish I knew how to build a house.

You can see in the picture where we are now in terms of the construction process. We're so FAR from finishing but we've got to, before the piglets come!!!

I'm so excited about this project with so much hope in the possible great outcome for the sake of preschools' development.

I will definitely keep you updated with the pig house :)

Movie club

Peter my fellow volunteer and I started weekly Movie Club at Teacher Training College where young Malawians are studying to become primary school teachers in the rural areas.

Our intention was to provide different views through movies and documentaries to broaden their perspectives on global issues, various culture, art and so forth. We also wanted to have discussions after watching movies/documentaries to share our thoughts and learn from one another.

We thought this club would be a brilliant idea as we both love all kinds of movies (except for horrors for me!). But just as so many other projects I am working on in Malawi, things don't always turn out the way I expected.

Let me share three things that I found it very interesting and rather surprising.

When we showed "Last King of Scotland," we were expecting the students to say something about dictatorship, change in an individual from good to evil, role of women in society, or something about violence and world peace. All they talked about, interestingly enough, was the protagonist being "azungu" (white) and his good friend being African. "Why did only the white guy survive and the black doctor have to die?" I still remember this question being posed.

I guess "bed scenes" and "nudity" are big taboo in Malawian society from what I observed. Every time the students see someone having sex or taking off his/her clothes in movies, you hear this mouth clicking sounds from all over the place. It sort of made me feel like I was back in high school.

What amazed me the most was when Peter and I tried to show one of my favorite movies, “Spirited Away” a Japanese animation movie by Hayao Miyazaki. For movie lovers, this is such a great movie as it has gotten many awards worldwide. Guess what happened when we started showing this movie? - They started to LEAVE! One of our regular participants raised his hand and said, “Hmm… this is for little children. We adults don’t watch this type of movie. Can you show us something else?”

Having lived in Japan and US for most of my life, cartoon movies became a type of “art.” In US, for instance, there are cartoons made for adults like Simpsons and South Park. Before realizing that I was raising my voice, I found myself trying to persuade the students to watch Spirited Away by saying all kinds of things. A question that came out of my mouth, which I later thought was bit too much, was “Don’t you think that’s just like discrimination? You decide not to get to know someone with your assumption about who a person is because of his/her ethnicity, color of skin, or identity?” The students said nothing...

Well, in the end, we showed something else that day because the club wouldn’t serve its purpose without the audience. We started the following week with a presentation about “ways to watch movies” and mentioned briefly about cartoon movies being just another form of visuals/actors and actresses. I still want them to watch Spirited Away though, and I am sure I will but I thought was very intriguing response.

Anyways, I will write more about this club soon!

Showing respects to Malawian culture

I got into an argument with one of my supervisors Shake today. Well, it was Anna and I yelling at Shake over lunch.

In Malawi, if you receive something- can be food that's served, a chair brought for you - you must take it but take it FULLY to show respect and appreciation for those who gave that something for you.

After the committee meeting was over at Kalulu preschool, the village headman served food for all the participants- 2 BIG plate-full of Nshima (the white stuff in the pic; staple food: thick non-liquid maize porridge) of course, in addition to beans and cooked vegetables. I DON'T REALLY LIKE NSHIMA! It's simply starch and it makes your stomach bloated and soon, makes you FAT.

Well, I only took a spoonful of Nshima. So did Anna. Then Shake said;
"You know, I sometimes feel ashamed when YOU don't eat what's served at the preschool I supervise." And this is how we began arguing as usual.

Mitsue: "You don't understand, Shake, I tried, and I ATE it, did you see?"
Anna: "Shake, I already told you that I don't like it. And I don't think that's how I want to show my respect and appreciation for their hospitality."
Shake: "But you ate so little. And that's disrespectful. Besides, you are in Malawi and you should respect our culture."
Blah blah blah...

Our regular passionate debate over eating or NOT eating Nshima will probably continue for my remaining time in Malawi...

mentality - the hardest thing to change

I've never been this upset in Malawi - I wanted to cry today.


Today marks the 2nd day of "Preschool Committee Meeting Week" for me and 2 other volunteers. As almost all 46 preschools under our supervision are NOT funded or supported by any organizations, each committee needs to work hand in hand with its community, teachers, and parents to sustain and improve the conditions of respective preschools. To that end, the committee members play such a vital role. And that's the reason why we wanted to meet with them and organize this meeting.

Today, over 90 committee members representing 11 schools showed up. After prayer (Malawian custom in villages), the program went as following:
1. committee's active involvement, cooperation with village, support system among other committees
2. current situations of each preschool
- number of kids, orphans, school fee collection, maize collection from village, vegetable garden, other income generation activities
3. the "essentials" for sustainability
- proper school fee collection, sufficient maize collection, good vegetable garden, strong committee
4. organic farming techniques
- compost, manure, mulching, biopesticide, companion cropping, other natural fertilizer
5. other income generation activity (IGA) ideas
- lots of stuff
6. budget-making for 2009

The meeting lasted for over 3 hours. We emphasized that "begging" leads them no where; they have lots of options for IGAs; and most importantly, they have necessary skills so all they need is their effort. We also provided 1kg of soya beans for each preschool in addition to bread and soft drink we bought for the participants. We really tried our best with our sincere hope that they'd be empowered and motivated to use all the knowledge we shared with them. I am certain that some will.

Right before closing the meeting, we asked if there was any questions.
One man stood up and said confidently in local language: "Now we got soya beans. But we don't have a water can for our garden."

... After long 3 hours of talking about "SELF" sustainability, THAT was all I get?
"You gave me this. Now give me that." Basically, that's what he meant.


My natural instinct told me to punch him in his face or say something like "Were you listening to me AT ALL?" I was about to cry really. All these ugly thoughts went through my head for a second. "Can't he see this is exactly why his country is poor?" "Does he know that I am doing this whole thing with my own money and time for him and his children?" "How can he be so narrow-minded?" "Should I take MY soya beans back from him?" "Am I wasting my time and money for nothing?"


I heard my supervisor emotionally say something about us volunteers in Chichewa. Something about us, selflessly dedicating our time, money, energy, and life for Malawians and their development. I heard some ladies said "Pepani (Sorry in Chichewa)." I felt ashamed of all the ugly thoughts that came our from my mind.


I swallowed all my anger, sadness, and disappointment and said;
"Development happens from YOUR 'mind' and it starts from YOU right here."



I am very angry at all those who made some Malawians become greedy beggars.
I am very angry at all those who made some Malawians stop trying to solve their problems.
I am very angry at all those who made some Malawians stop believing in their unlimited potential that each human being has, free from the differences in skin color.


I shall never forget this man's words.