norms & customs - cultural differences -

Come to think about it, there are many norms and customs that were interesting and different from where I'm coming from. If you are thinking of staying or visiting Malawi, particularly villages, you may want to be aware of few things.

Men holding hands

You only find a man holding hands with another man and not women or man-woman. I don't really know where this practice stems from but you see them everywhere in Malawi. Men holding hands with another men does not have to do with their sexual orientation at all. In fact homosexuality is a big taboo there. At night, only in town, you find some heterosexual couples holding hands but you don't find them so often.

Wedding

The interesting part of the wedding in Malawi is the reception. It's about 3 to 4 hours of dancing where the newly wed couple or their parents stand up front with a bucket and others come there to toss bills into the bucket. Each group like "all the bride's colleagues" for instance gets called out to come up and start giving money. And this and only this continues for 3-4 hours... I guess I was expecting some touching speeches and refreshments. I needed break my big bills into small ones so that I can keep on tossing bills! What shocked me was that they announced how much people paid, aside from this money-giving dancing in an envelope.

Funeral

In villages, they lay two lines of grass on the ground where someone who lives in the house between these two rows of grass passed away. If you are riding a bicycle or motorbike, you simple get off and walk slowly. If you are driving a car, you slow down and turn off the music or radio. If you are wearing a hat, you take it off when you walk pass by. At the funeral, you also give money. Like wedding, whoever paid the most amount and its amount was announced in front of everyone. You find many people at the funeral. They say that if you don't show up and show respect to others' funeral, no one would come to yours. I thought was interesting.

Women's dress code

There was a law in the past that women had to wear long skirts. You could have been jailed if you wore short shirts that time. Malawi was the last country that implemented pants for police women's uniforms. Likewise, in villages, covering my knee and above was the must to be respectful to those around me. I also had to be careful not to reveal my belly and the lower back in order to avoid stimulating men's sexual desire (that's what the local ladies told me). But showing breast has no sexual connotation. Women breastfeed their babies anytime, anywhere.

I only shared four but you will find many more examples of fascinating cultural differences. But it's just a matter of time till all of those become part of your normality. I almost forgot about them...

good bye Malawi

My one year went by so fast. As my flight took off, I couldn't help crying because of an overwhelming sense of appreciation. Right now, I am back in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the eastern Caribbean, reflecting my one year.

I will still continue posting some more blogs about things I didn't have enough time to write about when I was in Malawi. But today, let me thank some special people I met that made my stay so memorable.

First and foremost, my two local supervisors, Shake Steven and Vincent Zuze (photo #6). They have the true spirit of volunteerism, working voluntarily for the sake of preschools in underprivileged community. They work day and night with the international volunteers like myself. They go to preschools everyday with them, guiding the community and translating Chichewa into English for the international volunteers. Shake is 70 years old and Vincent is 59 years old. They still ride bicycle with them for hours and hours on a daily basis. Without them, this preschool project is simply impossible. Thank you Shake and Vincent. I will never forget you.

I would like to thank all the volunteer preschool teachers and the committee members that I worked with. Like Shake and Vincent, they also work for the development voluntarily. Some more active and dedicated than others but they do so much for the sake of their community's development and the better future of their children. I post pictures of those people and the preschool building I assisted in constructing (photo #5). I also post pictures from my goodbye party they prepared for me (photo #1 and 4). From December to February is what they call "hunger season". They simply don't have enough food so they only get to eat once a day if they are lucky. Despite such hard time, they somehow managed to prepare rice, nshima, and even chicken. People in the village only get to eat chicken once a year for Christmas. I was overwhelmed with so much appreciation that day. They also gave me lots of vegetables and chitenji (clothes women use for rap-skirts) as the farewell gift. They are my treasures.

I should not forget about my colleagues (photo #3). We worked and they are still working so hard for a great cause. It's our mission to inform as many people back home as possible about what we saw and did. World peace can start from one's change in awareness. I hope to stay in touch with all of them.

My project leader Hyson Masache (photo #2) also helped me a lot. We organized so many trainings and meetings for the sake of the preschool development project. He was doing all the behind-the-scene work, and I shall thank him for that.

And my Malawian family... I will miss them so much. I just hope to have a reunion sometime soon in the future.

I left Malawi on January 19th and I am already missing my life there so badly...