January 6

January 6, 2011
Every morning we drive from Regina’s house outside of town through the city center to the College. The traffic is always quite heavy with lots of cars, minibuses, and small pick up trucks whose beds are often full of men in dress shirts and pants or work clothes. There are also a tremendous number of bicycles all pedaled by men who must have extraordinary muscles because the backs of the bikes are stacked high with firewood, produce, or packaged goods. Occasionally one also sees a man riding on the back of a bicycle taxi.( a very precarious perch). Along the sides of the road are hordes of children some in bright blue uniforms others in their best clothes walking and running along on the way to school. The little children often stare at our car, some bravely shout out moni (good morning) or other words I don’t understand and then run away. Nearer to the roadside markets and to town we also see women in bright colored clothing with burdens on their heads or women in business dress walking along the road or emerging from the crowded minibuses. It is difficult to see the houses where all of these people live from the road. The bigger houses are often hidden behind places of business and have high walls around them, the poorer villages are all back off the road often past a field or two and may also be surrounded by a wall or by plantings. Each morning we pass corn fields where the corn is about 1-2 ft high and women are cultivating and weeding. As we move past the fields we come to the roadside grave marker mart followed by the coffin makers and then the furniture mart that goes on for several km. The coffins are quite elaborate and there are many to choose from. The furniture is mostly overstuffed chairs, love seats, and sofas covered with leather or velvet, beds with both simple and elaborate headboards, large elaborate wall units and a few dining tables and chairs. I have not however seen any small end or side tables in the market. And indeed there are only two in the house I am staying in. There are no small tables in my suite and I thought I’d like to buy one but it looks like they don’t make them. When we pass the furniture mart section then we begin to come to the city and we pass a very large partially completed Catholic church, the Malawi technical college and the Partners in Health Hospital. We then make a left turn and continue on into the town.
In all the traffic I still find myself getting nervous about being on the opposite side of the road. I am so glad I decided not to drive here because it truly is a nightmare and when you get into town there is no place to park.
I am looking forward to the weekend when I can walk around and become acquainted with my neighborhood. I will be a little nervous because everyone speaks in Chichewa and although I understand some of the words and phrases there is much more I don’t understand. I did learn the polite way to refuse a persistent vendor – you never say “no” but you can say “mawa” (tomorrow) or “nthawi enu” (later).
I met with one (Andrew) of the two men who manage the research courses today and I got part of my assignment. The other gentleman (Mathew) was in Blantyre so we will all three meet on Monday to finalize what I will be doing for them. It sounds like I am going to get the post-graduate (RN-BSN) students to work with on research and help with the undergraduates and graduate courses for the generic studnets. Since things here seem to change from moment to moment and no one seems to plan very far ahead this is probably not the final word. Andrew and I seemed to be in agreement about how to approach the research course so we will see what Mathew thinks. I also met Dr. Kate (I didn’t get her last name) – a Phd Nurse faculty in Blantyre who is in the Peace Corps. She was helping Evelyn Chilemba who was my first contact at the college work on her doctoral dissertation. Evelyn had asked me to help her with the lit review. She is a very bright woman and has designed an ambitious study that still needs some refining which was what Dr. Kate was helping her with. Evelyn is also really interested in innovative teaching methods and is hoping that I can do some workshops for the faculty.
I also met with Kondawani Wella, the librarian who is marvelous and very net savvy. I showed him some simulations that I have used on line and we talked about how the faculty might create some suitable for Malawi. He was happy to have another faculty who appreciates the importance of the library and I was delighted to pick his brain. He is doing some interesting research on “library anxiety” a term I had not heard before but which he explained very cogently.
I finally got my forms and money submitted for my license but they couldn’t process it because the power was out downtown. Norah will pick up the license tomorrow when she goes to deliver the new graduate’s applications to take the nursing registration exam. (Every place has its oddities and Norah had to date stamp every page of the application for every student.)
I am on my second dongle –this one works but needs a password which I do not have. Maybe by tomorrow afternoon I will have something that works – this has been my biggest frustration here not being able to connect with my husband by phone or internet – since there is 10 hours difference by the time I get to work it’s 10PM in the US! And when I leave its 6:30 AM so home access is crucial.
Regina has been the saving grace she is wonderful and makes my life comfortable and easy. I love her girls = 21 and 18 and I think we shall be friends. She was not at work today because she was supervising the planting of beans- she says if she doesn’t supervise the workers will not plant the beans properly and will take the seeds home to cook. Most people in Malawi have a small plot of land to grow food she seems to have more land than most and might be considered wealthy by other Malawians.
Hallelujah I have a dongle that works! I can't down or upload anything but I can read my mail and I can post on facebook. We'll see how it works from home. The wireless here does not work today we had another power outage and I think it messed with the router.