38 more days...

It has already been 11 months since I came to Malawi. It is hard to believe that I only have 38 more days left before leaving this beautiful country.

The rainy season has begun and villagers are busy cultivating the land and planting maize seeds. Contrary to the lively greenness of baby maize plants, people in the rural areas are suffering. Many face hunger.

When I went to several villages to meet with the preschool teachers and committees this week, I did not see people cooking. So many people approached me asking for help. I asked them how they survive without enough food. They told me they eat only once a day. They cannot even afford madeya, the remaining pieces of maize after milling, which is given to animals.

The only edible things available for all are mangos and the local insects called Ngonbi. I saw my friends waiting underneath the lamps trying to catch as many flying Ngonbi as they can. They take off the wings and eat them raw or fried with salt.

I feel guilty.


As for my preschool development project, I have few more big tasks left.

Next Thursday is the graduation for half of the teachers who have participated in 2 and a half years of training. It will be a Christmas party where they get to eat meat and rice and enjoy soda.

Before the end of the year, I also have to purchase all the materials needed for starting up small businesses for 8 preschools. This is a small-scale microcredit program whereby the selected preschool committees receive all the materials needed for a small business and little by little from the income, they have to return the money needed to buy them. Such businesses include village style bakery, barbershop, cellphone charging using solar panel, piggeries, tailoring, and goat meat sales. I am very much excited about the outcome.

I also have to finish up a preschool construction, passing down the information to the next volunteers, saying goodbye to everyone….

Time is running out…

I can't believe how fast time goes by... I only wrote one blog entry in whole September and now it's almost end of October... I've been busy lately but let me try to update some news.

From September 15th through 28th, we had a 2-week long preschool teacher certifying program facilitated by Malawian government officials. I was just there for logistics and serving food but this was quite an experience.

In the end, everything went fine. But my teachers thought they'd receive allowances either from gov't or me. NOT TRUE. And they were so upset. The thing is that in Malawi, organizers of any seminar is expected to give money to the participants, which is not normal in my culture. I've already spent SO MUCH money for the feeding and accommodating the participants, buying all the materials needed, and inviting the gov't facilitators. It was amazingly difficult to make them understand that this program was only for their education and certificates from their gov't. Eventually, I don't know when, when the gov't decides to acknowledge preschools and start giving salaries to the teachers, my teachers will be the first ones to receive it. Well, who knows when that will be. But I hope for the best. Anyways, today, the gov't officials came back to deliver some donation items for preschools like plastic cups, plates, cooking pots, books, and some educational materials. The problem is that they aren't enough for all the represented preschools... How am I going to decide who gets what? It will be a lot of work figuring out which school has what by now...

What else did I do?

I coordinated a preschool visit with Billy, a coordinator from an NGO called Feed the Children. They are willing to donate mixed ufa (flour to make porridge for children) every month if and only if the preschools meet their requirements. They've already started providing ufa to 4 of our preschools. Especially the hunger season is coming soon, their help would mean so much. I'm just hoping that they will approve many more schools.

With the help of my ex boss's donation, my colleague and I have been assisting a preschool construction. It's going slowly but surely. The village community had to agree to prepare bricks (mold and burn all the bricks needed) and find volunteer builders. Well, it's not easy for them to be a volunteer when they face poverty and hunger. It took us a long time to find them. Then we agreed with the community that they'd have to feed the builders while they're working. Now, they've finished up to window level. We bought and delivered almost all the materials needed. We chose bright blue/greenish color paints for the walls :) I look forward to our common action painting day and the opening ceremony!! It will be a one and only building with painted walls in the whole village and surrounding villages.

What else? Yes, my team has been working on a new project- micro-credit program for preschools' income generation. The idea is to provide all the materials needed to start an income generation activity in a form of loans. Respective preschool committees need to return little bit every month from the profit until they fully pay back all the money needed to buy the materials originally. Yesterday was the deadline for its application and in the course of next few days, we'll be busy selecting the best of the best whom we can trust. Some had an idea of animal keeping, others thought of buying fish from lake and reselling it in their villages. Bee keeping, cooking oil making, soap making... Ideas are plenty. But we'll have to further discuss what works the best in the village setting and so forth. I hope to see positive tangible results in the near future.

Malaria

I had an easy idea about getting malaria, thinking “may be I should experience once now that I’m in Malawi” But hey, NEVER AGAINA! Fever, vomiting, body ache, dizziness, ear-ringing… My first experience with malaria was nothing but awful. I don’t want to get it ever again.

I just got discharged from hospital yesterday afternoon. I was hospitalized for 2.5 days.
It all started on last Thursday when I started to feel pain in my joints and back. I thought it was just muscle sore. The following day, the body ache was pretty much all over the place. Especially my palms and back of my feet were giving me strange feelings and pains. I started to feel fever. It was only 37.1 around 11am. I went to bed to rest. By 1pm, my fever went up to 38.5. By 5pm, it was over 40 and I was half unconscious, at which point I was sent to hospital. As soon as I got to the hospital they took and temperature and blood test for malaria that obviously showed positive. They gave me an injection to relieve the fever and transferred to the emergency room. After that I was moved to ward room where I spent two nights vomiting and vomiting and vomiting.

My malaria level was only 1 out of 5 (5 being deadly) but because I was taking malaria prevention pills so consistently that normal quinine medicine wasn’t strong enough to kill what was inside of my body. So the combination of high fever and strong medication caused me nausea and I had to throw up constantly. Oh, it was a nightmare. And quinine medicine blocks your ear as though you have ear plugs in your ears. I was not hearing properly. On 2nd day, the blood test still showed positive. So I had to stay one more terrific night. On 3rd day at last, the testing showed negative and I was given an option to go home. Doctor recommended me to stay one more day as my fever still persisted but hell no, I wanted to go home and take shower and be with my friends.

Today, I feel much better but still am suffering from fever over 38. Pain killer pills are doing the work but I’m still not well yet. I just hope I won’t get it ever again… ever EVER!!!

Government hospitals

I was impressed when I first heard about government hospitals. Hospitals of "free of charge" sounded very relieving after seeing so many people and children suffering from malaria and various infections in the villages. But of course, they can't provide the same services I get back home where I have to pay a lot of money for health insurance.

In the area I work, there are 2 government hospitals. People go there walking for hours and hours. When they finally get there, they may be lucky enough to get the medicines if it's malaria. Often times they run out of the medications and people simply have to go home with nothing but their weak and sick bodies. If it's an infection, they give you Panado (local pain killer tablets). Do Panado tablets heal infections? Obviously no.

The other day the wife of a field worker in HIV/AIDS project came asking for my help. Her son had a badly broken arm. I could clearly see it was broken. She went to one of the gov't hospitals and got Panado but she knew that it would not do anything. She had no money because the husband was away. I arranged the transport for her and her son and gave her money to go to a clinic to get his arm X-rayed and treated.

Another day, my local supervisor for preschool project fell down from bicycle. As he is turning 70 years old this year, he was having lots of pain in his back. His muscle must have been torn apart or something. He went to the gov't hospital and again, got Panado.

And today, at a preschool I'm supervising, I saw a 5 year-old boy with a swollen hand. He has 12 fingers and 12 toes. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the infection but his right hand was huge. His mother told me that she took him to the gov't hospital before and then of course got Panado... The teacher there told me it's a type of skin disease that requires an injection if I understood her chichewa (local language) correctly... I'm bringing him antibiotics ointment and pills tomorrow.

The reality is that people from the villages can't even afford the transport to go to a bigger gov't hospital in town with many volunteer doctors from overseas. Given that, they can't afford to get treatment at any other private clinics of course. But it's a life-or-death matter. And in fact, so many children and adults die from malaria and diarrhea, completely treatable diseases. There is no way I could help everyone. I know. But can't there be anything I can do to change this situation?

If nothing gets treated, what's the point of having a hospital? I wonder...

Life without electricity and running water

Tomorrow marks the 14th day without electricity and running water.

Why no electricity and running water?

Someone stole the electricity cable which was from Germany and is no where to be found in Malawi. How is that even possible?! Well, the water tank in the area is run by electricity and thus I have no running water.

Luckily there is a water pump. But the thing is that over 200 people live in the same area and we have to share this one and only pump... I can't waste my day waiting in line just to get some water...

When did I bath??
Let's not think about that...

So yes, I finally came to town to check emails today.

Suddenly I wanted to ask if the electricity company is doing something about this problem.
The response from the administrator of the place I work is the following:

"NOTHING"

We're paying for electricity on the basis of consumption and not advance-payment. So, there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. How funny!

Okay, I should just get used to it. This is how majority of Malawians live everyday and I should experience their life style.

It's just amazing to see how dependant I am on electricity. I've talked about this already but it's just amazing. It really changes the productivity of work and above all, the hygiene! No wonder many children I see in villages have infections and what not.

Anyways, I'm proud of mastering charcoal cooking and carrying bucket full of water on my head.
That's something I would never learn if I weren't here.

Let's see how long this will last...

Biggest Accomplishment

"What has been your biggest accomplishment in Malawi?" my fellow volunteer friend posed a question yesterday.

It got me to think...

I thought of all the little projects including income generation activities and building of preschools and many more things that I started; but I don't feel like calling any of them as my biggest accomplishment.

As I was practising my daily ritual of listening to BBC news on radio through my cellphone last night, I realized that I do have something I can proudly call as my biggest accomplishment.

The numbers of death from HIV, malaria, malnutrition and so forth, now means something personal. It does something to my heart, just like when you hear a news about your hometown in another country.

When hearing news about hunger and malnourished children, spread of HIV, illiterate villagers, and fear of malaria, I know exactly what they're talking about. I can vividly visualize my preschools and children there. I can remember the faces of my friends from positive living club (those who are HIV positive) and their life stories of how they got HIV. I can feel the pain and fear of getting malaria or loosing someone important from malaria. I can remember the smell of villages and the color of beautiful sunsets in Malawi...

Though it may sound strange and I can't express myself well enough, I somehow feel proud of that.

May be this whole development work or volunteer experience is all about this, being able to relate the sufferings and events that happen in other side of the world. Or is that too selfish of an idea??

Less than one dollar a day...

The word "Extreme poverty" suddenly became something with a meaning to me.

The World Bank defined "extreme poverty" as "living on US $1 or less per day."
I can't recall how many times I came across this word in economics textbook I've read, in debates I participated, or in documentaries I've watched as a university student.

But the thing is, it meant nothing. It was a word without meaning. It didn't trigger any images or feelings. I simply failed to associate myself with this concept itself.


Yesterday, I had a small argument with a guy who was selling me roasted corns. He charged me MK30 [Malawian Kwacha](or 20 cents) instead of MK20 that he normally charged simply because I was azungu (the rich or non-Africans in Chichewa). My fellow volunteer friend was laughing at me saying how stingy I was for being upset over MK10 (12 cents) . The money wasn't the issue. It was the fact that he charged me more because of who I am-- I wanted him to consider me like anyone else in the village.

Suddenly, I realized how little he earned everyday and felt slightly guilty for accusing him for charging me MK10 more...

As I waited for the bus to come, I asked a lady who was sitting right by me how much she earned that day from the green vegetables she was selling for MK5. "MK135" she said. Less than a dollar. (MK150 = US $1)

Less than one US dollar for her whole-day work at the market.


1 tomato MK15-20.
1 egg MK25.
1 papaya MK50.
1 kg of rice MK150.
1 kg of groundnuts MK150.
100g bar of chocolate MK250.
1 litre of gasMK250.
1 litre of milk MK300.
1 chicken MK550-700.
and 1 bottle of wine MK2000...

No wonder so many children in the villages are malnourished.


It occurred to me that adjustability could sometimes be cruel. While I started recognizing the intangibles from the people I work with-- happiness, peace, and love regardless of the circumstances, I stopped feeling peoples' suffering here. I stopped seeing the poverty here. But there really are, right in front of me.


EXTREME POVERTY... Less than one dollar a day became real.

Kids with big bellies 栄養失調の子供たち

Have you seen a photo of a child with huge belly like this boy? Well, I have.

That was a typical image of African children in poverty often depicted by the media.

Here in Malawian villages, I see such "big bellies" literally everywhere.

It's not that they're starving but they're very very malnourished, which is why they have the big bellies.

I don't have any medical background but I got to know that the big belly is due to a combination of stomach worms and lack of nutrition, particularly that of protein. Kids here eat pretty much ONLY carb from maize flour.

As I visit nursery or pre-schools almost every weekday, the site of malnourished children with huge bellies has become something normal. I managed to have nutritional supplement and porridge flour with lots of protein and vitamin donated but this is only a temporally solution. I help some preschools to have groundnuts and soy seeds planted but then again, this is not a long-term solution to provide sufficient nutrition intake on a daily basis.

My fellow volunteer who used to work in very poor province in Mozambique recently told me about a 7 year girl she knew. This girl was extremely malnourished, literally being about to die when she last saw here. So my friend tried to get an ambulance come. Unfortunately, this girl died in my friend's house, waiting for the ambulance that never showed up.

I often hear people say "That's just how it is" when someone passes away.

Is that really so? I wonder...

栄養失調が原因でおなかが膨れ上がった子供の写真を見た事がありますか？

メディアでよく見かける貧困地域に住む子供達の様子
――これが今マラウィの村に住む私が毎日目にしている光景。
彼らは飢え死にしそうなくらい食料が無い訳ではない。でも栄養失調は多くの子供たちが直面する問題。それが原因で、写真に写っているこの男の子みたいに、大きく膨れ上がったおなかの子供たちがあちらこちらに。

医学の知識はないけれど、このビックベリー（大きなお腹）については少し理解が増えた。原因は栄養失調（特にプロテイン）とお腹に住む寄生虫。この辺りの村では、トウモロコシの小麦粉からの炭水化物が主な栄養源。

ビックベリーの子供たちも、始めはショックを受けてたけれど、いつしか普通の景色になってきたように感じる。他のNGOから栄養補給の食料を寄付してもらう事ができたけれど、これは短期的なソル―ションで問題解決ではない。大豆やピーナッツの栽培を援助しているけれど、これも同様、365日毎日必要な栄養が取れる事にはつながらない。

つい最近モザンビークでボランティア活動をしていた親友からショッキングな話を聞いた。彼女も貧困地域で活動していたため、栄養失調の子供たちをどこでも目にする。彼女が出会った7歳の少女は過度の栄養失調のためいつ亡くなってもおかしくない状況だった。いつまでたっても来なかった救急車を待機している最中にこの少女は息を引き取ったとのこと。この親友の家で。

誰かが亡くなるたびに、「しょうがない、これが現実」、というような発言をよく耳にする。

でも本当にそうなんだろかっていつも自分に問いかけている。

Dear Anna

On Saturday, June 28th 2008 around 7:30pm, I lost my dear friend Anna, a fellow volunteer in Malawi.

Cerebral malaria took her life away. She was only 27 years old.

On Wednesday June 25th, her malaria test (from blood) showed negative but malaria was there in fact. Soon after, the parasites went into her brain and killed her.

We went through a tough 6-month training together in St. Vincent, Caribbean.

We laughed and cried together.

We shared the same passion for development and helping others in need.

She was a mid-wife.

She was a knitting specialist.

She was a person of love.

She was like a sun shine.

Always lighting up those around her.

Even if it's cloudy, shining behind the clouds.

Even if it's cold, warming all the life without discrimination.

Even if it's dark, lighting up the whole world first thing in the morning.

Now I hope to hard twice as hard for Anna.

Dear Anna, You will always be on my mind.

Thank you so much.

Mitsue

June

Another busy mouth is about to end.

I find myself too exhausted to sit in front of computer.

No TV to kill time. So I read or sleep.

Anyways, my laziness to update this blog is really becoming a problem.

Once again I tell myself to update it more often...

A lot happened this month.

A colleague of mine (a staff member working at teacher training college in Chilangoma) had a wedding. Oh yes, a short story to share. In Malawi, wedding day consists of two things- traditional ceremony at church or mosque, and the special reception. When I say special, it's very special. Basically, people dance to the music and toss cash into the basket. And THIS along lasts for 3-4 hours. THREE TO FOUR HOURS! Anyways, that was an experience. I could not stay longer than 1.5hour out of boredom and without enough money (lol).

Our piglets now have names -Eperque (the bigger one) and Uni (tiny one). And they're growing pretty fast. We had to find a vet because Uni was suffering from worms and as a result, not gaining weight. Mr. vet came and gave vaccinations. They were crying like no other. Then 2 days after we gave Uni the de-worming medicine, TWO long disgusting worms came out from her (excuse my words and image I give you in your mind) ass hole. No comment. We feed them madea (leftover maize after milling) and lots of vegetables. The house we built for them seems little too big for now. Next Tuesday, I'm organizing the first pig IGA meeting so I will update on that as well.

What else, oh yes, there have been lots of soccer games in Malawi. I went to the stadium for some of the games. Malawi miraculously beat Egypt and you can imagine the whole city going crazy from this victory.

As usual, we had our preschool teacher training day. We taught many things, one of them being poster making and classroom decoration. This time, we had those teachers draw human body to teach children body parts. They seemed to enjoy such activities. I have no talent to draw but I wish I could teach them better.

Four boxes of school supplies from the university I studied at finally arrived. Amazing. I can't thank my ex-boss and those students who were involved in collecting and shipping these materials. Children here will be so grateful.

And yes, one more thing. We bought a sugarcane juice machine with which we would like to start an IGA. The idea is to replace sugar with this juice so that the cost will be chapter for the village people. I demonstrated how this machine works and had them taste the juice. They seemed to have enjoyed it. I will see how it goes with the logistics.

Okay, now this is a lot again. I hope I can enter new blog within this week...

Funerals

One of the challenges I face with in supervising preschools is frequency of funerals. In Malawian villages, whenever there is a funeral, there is no preschool as teachers and committee members need to attend the funeral. And of course, there is no set date for funerals so I just need to rely on luck to pick a date for a particular school without a funeral.

Of all the preschools I supervise, there is one school, Mphatso preschool, that I have never been able to see its operation due to funerals. I've already visited 6 times and haven't seen anyone there yet.

Today too, was no exception. I had an appointment with Tiyanjane Preschool committee, its teachers, and the village chief at 2pm. It turned out that there was a funeral and the meeting got postponed to I don't know when.

Funerals are important so basically, there is nothing I can do about this situation.

Development work does take time indeed...

P.S I have no idea how but there is no option to post pictures.

Highlights of the past 3 weeks

So much had happened since I last updated the blog. It's definitely my laziness that resulted in this situation so I try my best from today to write more regularly.
Today, I will just try to write the highlights of the past 3 weeks.

THE PIG HOUSE is finally finished!!! I had to admit that I underestimated the amount of work and materials needed for this. Honestly, it took me a lot more time and money. My original budget proposal tripled in fact... In any case, it is DONE! We had absolutely no idea how to build a house, well, the pig house so we hired 2 local builders for help, Wilson and Adam. Anna and I definitely would not have been able to complete it without them. I learned how to make the foundation, mix cement, pile up bricks with cement straight, make the floor, attach fences, and put a roof with grass and bamboos among other things. The piglets are ready to move into our lovely pig house, I just need to pay for them... But big "yay!" for the first step. Now, we're selecting 15+ preschools with strong dedicated committees who will start up this Pig IGA. I'll organize a monthly pig committee meeting to educate the committee members about proper housing, feeding, vaccination, cleaning, and so forth. I will post the pictures shortly.

Amazing opportunities suddenly arrived for my preschool projects. First of all, I was finally able to meet with Mr. Misomali from Social Welfare Office in Blantyre to seek his advice about educating preschool teachers as I'm not specialized in that field. After a 20 minutes discussion and lots of persuasion, he agreed to co-host an official training by him and his colleagues to certify some of the teachers I work with. It may not make any sense but for me and those teachers, this IS a BIG project. This training will be 12-day long and now I'm working hard to compile all the information about each and every preschool under the supervision of the project. Another good news was with neighboring NGO Stephano's. DAPP (the organization I work for) and Stephano's haven't been in a good term ever since they started long story in short. I just had a chance to visit Mr. Mwikhoma one day and had a long discussion about our past and future collaboration.
In a nut shell, we will start working together for the preschool development project hand in hand and the first project will be to build one preschool together. Funding will come from both of us, 50-50, and I really look forward to working with them :) Lastly, again, long story in short, we "may" be getting support from an NGO Feed the Children to the preschools we supervise. Anyways, so many exciting projects are on the way and I just can't wait to see them happen!!!

Another big thing was my hiking rather mountain climbing and sliding down to Mt. Mulanji. Along with my fellow volunteer friends, we went there and hiked. Peter and I spent one night up in the mountain hut. Others stayed there for 2 or 3 nights. My legs were in so much pain, NO JOKE!! Going up was super hard but going down the steep and rocky hills for 4 hours was much worse after all. I need to post all the pictures from Peter. It was simply stunning!! When I woke up and got out of the hut, there was this huge mountain right in front of me, absolutely amazing view. I also enjoyed the fire place, a bucket shower and freezing mountain water. We're planning to go back there for a longer hike to the highest point sometime in July.

Finally, I want to share about my first "local beer" experience with you. Many people in the village told me about this local beer brewing and I was always curious about it. After I came all the way down to the entrance of Mt. Mulanje park, Peter and I went into the nearby village led by our guild Rhapson to "investigate" how they brew what they call "local beer". I was so amazed by it for its simple procedure. They had a big pot with water, sugar, and maize flour, which they kept for one week. Then they cook it with firewood. Attached to this pot covered by a plastic is a metal tube which is connected to another tank with water. The evaporated alcohol goes into the pipe. This pipe goes under this water to cool down the alcohol and lastly, the alcohol comes out from the other end of the tube. And what was amazing is that this drink tasted just like vodka but maize flavored... Anyways, it was a good learning experience for my future homemade beer brewing. P.S I didn't enjoy the taste of it and I don't think I will drink it ever again...

Okay, this IS a long update so I finish here....

Picture 1: Peter and view from Mulanje Mountain (on the way to the top)

Picture 2: A guy getting caught for stealing a blanket - this is how they do it- then he gets tranported to the police station

Picture 3: Local beer brewing

Andrea

Did I write about Andrea before? I might have. Well, I can write it again because I have an update.

Andrea is an 11 year-old orphan whom I met in Blantyre market. He's been working at this market by offering to carry bags, selling plastic bags, and sometimes selling tangerines. As I visit this market quite often, I soon realized that he was always there. Unlike other kids who were working at the market, he knew much more English and didn't beg me. He was a special boy.

One day, I began talking to him, asking him why he's there and not going to school. It turned out that his parents passed away 2 years ago from malaria and something I didn't understand what. The father who died from malaria, a curable disease, went to hospital but only took African traditional medicines instead of the pills he got from a doctor. So he became an orphan at the age of 9 along with 3 other older siblings. They all stay at their uncle's house but the uncle also have 3 children of his own to look after. Unfortunately, and this is a very typical situation in Malawi, Andrea and his siblings haven't been provided with access to education, ending up working at a market to earn little money.

In Malawi, a child must have uniform to go to primary school, which is 8 years of education. This school uniform is what Andrea didn't have and the reason why he could not go to school.

I took him to a store and had his uniform made as there wasn't ready-made one in the shop, which cost 1,650 kwacha (only $11 USD). Andrea promised me 2 things--to go to school and to take medicines from hospital if he gets sick.

And today, when I passed by the market, someone called my name from distance. It was Andrea. He was smiling like a shining star. "Mitsue, I'm going school everyday! I'm happy. School is important to me," he said. Then he put a bracelet on my right wrist which he made for me.

Meeting with Andrea today brought me so much joy in my life. I can't help smiling when I look at this precious handmade bracelet. I continue sending my prayers for his happiness.

Arts & Craft class

I'm helping Patrik and Anna for their Youth Club activities. They are doing an amazing job in starting up and running this project which involves many children and youth in the village every weekday. Each afternoon between 2 and 4 o'clock, there is specific activity organized such as sports for Mondays, music for Tuesdays, English lesson for Wednesdays, arts and crafts for Thursdays, and movies for Fridays. And just on Thursdays, I assist Anna in organize arts and crafts class and I'm just LOVING it!

I mean, these kids in the villages are full of energy and they appreciate anything we prepare for them (unlike kids in Japan who wouldn't like anything but computer games, cellphones, and other techno-stuffs).

It simply makes me genuinely happy to see these Malawian kids smile and enjoy making something together. I hope this class means something for them.

Pictures are some of the arts and crafts work kids did--cardboard masks and clock, drawing, and wool decoration :)

一緒にボランティア活動をしているアンナ、パトリックと共に、月曜日から金曜日の午後、ユースクラブで様々な活動をしています。このユースクラブは、近隣の村に住む子供･青少年を対象に様々な活動を通して、教育の促進を目的に先月始まりました。月曜日はスポーツ、火曜日はミュージック、水曜日は英語のレッスン、木曜日は工作、金曜日は映画。時間があるとお手伝いに行くのですが、私の担当は木曜日。毎回どんどん楽しくなってきて、参加してる子供よりも自分がもっとエンジョイしてるかもしれません。

工作のクラスに集う子供たちは、エネルギッシュで、私が用意する事全てを精一杯しかも楽しそうにこなしてくれます。ビデオゲームや携帯に没頭している今時の子供たちとは別世界。

ただ笑顔いっぱいで楽しそうに工作をしている子供たちを見るだけで、本当に幸せな気持ちになります。彼らにとって何かしら意味のある思い出になると願う今日この頃です。

写真は、子供たちが作った作品。段ボールでできたお面、時計、絵とミニぽんぽん。

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.

Preschool Teacher Training Day II

A long day is over...

Along with 4 other volunteers, we just finished March Preschool Teacher Training Day.

For total, 45 teachers representing 25 preschools (out of 27 that were invited) participated in it.

This month, we covered the following topic:

• Effects on preschool education (guest speaker: primary school headmaster in the area)
• HIV/AIDS and healthy living
• Hygiene: simple hand wash equipment-making
• Homemade play ground
• Compost and organic farming
• Development of 5 senses
• Song sharing
• Coloring sheet making

Teacher Training Day started thanks to the donation by Finish government. Each month, DIs (Development Instructors = volunteers) organize this event for the preschool teachers who are chosen by their village heads. Almost all of them did NOT complete their primary education. So, you can imagine how challenging it would be for them to teach a variety of subjects and/or activities to the children. We have a lot of work to do to improve their teaching skills.

We do everything from making budgets, sending invitation letters, finding cooks, doing shopping, setting up the training place, preparing and presenting workshops, serving food, dish washing, to cleaning afterwords, except for the actual cooking and translating everything into Chichewa. At the end of the day, we were all exhausted but it gives us a deep sense of fulfillment.

With the budget, we were able to provide a pack of 12 color pencils, a pencil sharpener, 6 bar soaps, and 1 kg of soy beans for each school, in exchange of not buying soda and pens for the participating teachers, which made them little upset. I found it every interesting.

After November, there will be no more funding from Finland. I wonder how would these teachers react if we don't provide them with breakfast and lunch...

I need to get my own income generation activities (IGAs) going.

Azungu, give me MY money!

I wonder how many times I hear little kids say "Azungu (white people including Asians), give me MY money!" everyday... Even 2-year-old's can say this phrase and sadly, it's the ONLY English they seem to know.

Malawi has developmental aids from all the major humanitarian organizations--UN, UNICEF, Save the Children, USAID, SIDA, and so many more. Indeed, it's one of the biggest "aided" countries in Africa. And yet, the problem of poverty, hunger, and diseases still remains here. But WHY?


It's been almost 2 months since I started volunteer work in Malawi. Through everyday interactions with village people, educated teachers and international volunteers, I came to few conclusions in response to my own question.

• Children from uneducated parents will become equally uneducated and will raise more uneducated kids.


• Poor people rely so much on foreign aids and they are passively waiting to be saved. In other words, they don't actively work for things that can be given by somewhere else.


• Women in villages are very suppressed and have no decision making power.

Let me explain these points.

- Education is NOT free in Malawi and many children don't finish schooling (80% don't have high school degree). When you face "survival" and "ensuring food for the day," education does not become your priority, certainly for those who haven't enjoyed and experienced the benefits of education. I cannot remember how many people who approached me to help them with their children's school fee by now. I would love to help them as I know how much education means for their future but if I start supporting one, then I will have to do the same for everyone. And I don't have enough money for that. Obviously, no education means no decent job. And no decent job means no money. Why can't the government make the public education free for all?

- I heard another volunteer from my organization say one of the communities she worked with did not want to build a preschool for their children (provided that she managed to get all the materials donated). The reason was simple: "Oxfam (different NGO) came to other village and built a beautiful preschool. Why do we have to work if they can do it for us?" Another preschool I worked with requested if they could get soy flour instead of maize flour because it "tasted" better. To begin with, the NGO I work with is focusing on sustainable development and community involvement. We don't do relief work of just giving out of materials. Malawi don't need relief work any longer. It's sad to say this but good intention to help the poor can be misinterpreted and even makes them become spoiled. In a way, giving out things can dis-empower people in that they don't learn what they can actually do by themselves.

- In villages in Malawi, if a child gets sick, the mother has no authority to decide to take him/her to hospital. She would always have to ask permission from her husband or someone from his family. Another example: 14+% of Malawian population of which 60+% are women, are infected by HIV. And the transmission is almost always through the male partner as polygamy is openly allowed and practiced. I cannot articulate well but I truly believe in empowerment of women to make the society and world better. When the voices of mothers and women are reflected in society, particularly in politics, I am confident that their society will experience a big difference. Malawi is far from that.


Anyways, these are just my personal opinions about social problems in Malawi. What you might call "food for thoughts" for you. Well, I hope you can take sometime to think about it.

4th Day without electricity & running water

Blackout and thus no running water or Internet is an everyday event for my Malawian village life. Fortunately, however, I usually get them back within a day or two.

Since I came to Malawi in February, there have been 3 occasions including this time, where blackout lasted more than 3 days. (max was a whole one week)

Blackout and no running water is not that bad to be honest, except for not being able to charge my cellphone and carrying a heavy bucket full of water on top of my head so many times for cooking, flashing toilet, bucket-showering, and everything else. But it did make me realize how dependent I am on those "luxuries" and how little we actually need to survive.

So, here I am, being desperate and coming all the way to town just to use Internet and charge my phone. (I've been missing important calls from NGOs and donors!!)

You just need to take little more time in doing everything... and it's really not that bad.

And of course, when there is no light or Internet, I go to bed at 8pm. Healthy life it is...

マラウィの村生活では、停電と、それに伴う水道とインターネットの切断は、日常茶飯事。いつも大体その日のうちに修復されて元通りになるからまだありがたい。2月にマラウィに来て以来、今までに3回この停電が3日以上続くことがあった。一番長かったのは丸々一週間。

電気と水道無しの生活は正直思ったより大変じゃない。唯一不便なのは、携帯の電源が切れて外の世界から隔離されるのと、料理や、トイレ、バケツシャワーのために、重いバケツ一杯の水をパンプから運ばなきゃいけないこと。ここで生活していく中で、生きてくために必要なものって本当に少ないんだなって思った。と同時に、携帯や何やらってどうしても要らないけど便利なものにどれだけ頼って生きてきたかって事に気づかされた気がする。

っていうのも、たった5日間、メールのチェックと携帯の充電が待ちきれなくて村から苦労して町までやってきてしまった。携帯はNGOや他の大事な連絡をとるのに必要不可欠だったけど、インターネットへの依存には怖いものがある。

電気と水道無しの生活は、単に効率が悪いだけ。何するにも普段より少し時間がかかっちゃうだけ。たいした事じゃないんだ。心に余裕のある人にはなんてことないんだろな。それに電気とインターネットがないと就寝8時。健康にも良し！そんな生活もなかなか楽しいかも。

Donation from Gift of the Givers Foundation

After my 4th visit, I was able to get generous donation from Gift of the Givers Foundation in Blantyre, Malawi. Mr. Sunka, the district manager promised to provide 120 bottles of nutritional supplement products per month for the period of 3 months, in addition to 15 bags of Farmer's Pack (2kg of maize seeds, 2kg of nuts seeds, 5kg x 2 fertilizer for both seeds).

Starting with preschools with a strong and committed committee members, I began distributing the Farmer's Packs. This 2 kg of maize seeds with a good quality fertilizer will provide 6 bags of maize flour, enough to sustain food (maize porridge) for a preschool for one whole year. I had each committee to agree to buy new seeds and fertilizer out of the nuts production profit for the following year.

I can only wish for the committee to take good care of the garden and enough rain to fall.

At the next Teacher Training Day, I will distribute the nutritional supplement to all preschools.

(Photo: Committee chairperson and a teacher at True Faith preschool holding the Farmer's Pack & Shakie, my supervisor/translator)

Soy beans for Positive Living Club

Every Monday and Wednesday afternoon, I go visit Positive Living Club (group of people who are infected by HIV). Some of them are mothers of babies. Others lost their partner, family members, and/or friends from AIDS. Many of them are young, seemingly healthy-looking people. I haven't gotten to know each and every one of them as yet because most of them don't speak English, but I want to become their friend who can be there to support them.

Anyways, I contacted some soy beans companies back home in Japan and was able to get Non-genetically-modified soy beans donated by Sanko-Shokuhin. This company and persons in charge of communicating with me were incredibly supportive and generous. And their precious beans from Japan just arrived yesterday so I went to deliver them to PLC members this afternoon.

It was so nice to see PLC members with bright smiles. We decided to plant the seeds in the beginning of April after rain season. I really hope these seeds will grow strong and contribute to better nutrition as well as their income generation.

Drama Festival

Teacher Training College (TTC) working with local community groups, TTC students and staff, and all the volunteers in the area held the first Drama Festival yesterday. The theme was "HIV/AIDS" (more than 14% of the Malawian population are living with HIV and the accurate % should be higher as so many people haven't been tested). Over 200 people from the community participated in it by presenting skits, comedies, chorus, and dances based on the theme. Many of these participants are HIV+.


Everything was done in local language Chichewa. Although I did not fully understand what was going on, it was just so encouraging and inspiring to see and feel their enthusiasm to face and fight against the epidemic.


I will post the pictures soon!


Just FYI: HIV/AIDS are prevalent in Malawi for many reasons--practice of polygamy, lack of information and education about HIV/AIDS (many dropouts from primary schools due to poverty), practice of prostitution for income, and rejection of contraception by churches.
Malawian government provides free medication for people with HIV but unfortunately, many people live a short life due to malnutrition.

Greetings from Warm Heart of Africa!

Muli bwanji once? (How are you everyone?)

At last, lazy Mitsue is starting to share her volunteer experiences in Malawi with her friends and family after one and 1/2 month...

With limited creativity and English proficiency, I will try my best to share what I see, smell, eat, hear, feel, and DO! Well, I hope my experiences will give you some inspirations and new perspectives into your life.

For those who have no idea why on earth I am in Malawi and what I am doing, let me give you a brief introduction.

As part of a volunteer program run by NGO called Humana People to People, I am doing volunteer work in a poor rural area in Malawi called Chilangoma until February 2009.

The aim of my main project is to improve overall quality of 40 pre-schools in the area. Preschools are not supported by Malawian government, which makes villages or communities become responsible for sustaining their own preschool with no fund. What I do mainly is to do everything I can to help each preschool ensure food for children, get more educational supplies, build/repair school building, introduce and promote income generation activities, and supervise teachers for teaching skills among others.

I also work with people with HIV and young Malawians who will soon become primary school teachers in rural areas.

For now, I am living in a comfortable room with electricity and running water most of the time. We have blackouts and water gets cut off all the time, but the villagers around in the area have neither of them.

Alright, enough for intro. From next time, I will write the details :)

Until then, Tionana!!

Mitsue