Home Sweet Home and Outreach (day 30)

Me and my friend Happy, one of the cutest rugrats ever!
Dancing at home stay. I love the intensity of the kids eyes as they watch me.
The teachers we worked with this past week.


Home stay has come and gone. I feel as if my group had a bit of a different experience than most. Although I do not regret doing it, I did not get out of the experience what I hoped for. There were 8 volunteers who got to stay with the chief's parents. This is an honor and it was great to talk to him. The problem was all the azungus in one small area generated a lot of interest. When we arrived we got to see where we were going to sleep and get settled. Our “room” was a families house. Often for volunteer’s home stays people sleep in a different house so the volunteers can have a place to stay. This house was probably 6x8. I cannot imagine it being a house for a family because the three of us barley had room to sleep . After getting settled, we then started to dance with a few of the kids. They taught us some new dances and I had fun interacting with them. But the dancing created a loud commotion and soon there were about 60 villagers, both adults and children watching us. When the dancing ended their chief's father put out 8 chairs and asked us to sit on them. This was the beginning of what felt like a zoo exhibit. For the next hour the villagers stared at us like we were on display. All we need was a sign that said “azungu from America” posted next to us to complete our exhibit. We then went to bed at about 6:30, when the sun went down. I had a very sleepless night and cannot imagine sleeping every night on the hard floor with only a straw mat for comfort. Many of the other volunteers had very different experiences. They got to cook nsima and talk to their families. I am sad I did not get to experience more of the culture with my visit.

On Sat. we did an Outreach program with a Community Based Organization located in a village World Camp had visited during session 1. This village was about 2 hours from Lilongwe. Rachel, the coordinator said that when they visited 8 weeks ago it was the first time most of the children had ever seen white people. It felt extremely remote. The trading post was mostly boarded up as we drove past giving it the desolate feeling of a ghost town. We worked with a group of 40 adults who want to continue AIDS education in their personal villages. We worked with teachers, village chief's and volunteers. Again I was in charge of the condom demonstration. If I thought it was awkward teaching this to other adults last week, this demonstration stepped up the level of discomfort. This time I was working with older men, many who could have been my grandfather. We realized that we did not have to stress the idea of not opening the wrapper with your teeth because most of the participants did not have any. I really like the idea of the outreach programs. This is a new thing that World Camp has begun and a way they are continuing to provide support of communities where they have run camps.

In America we often comment on those parents who plug their children into the TV to keep them entertained and to stop them from crying. Well it is not only an American ideal to have a plan to stop a baby from crying. Here in Malawi the solution to an unhappy baby is as simple as unbuttoning one’s shirt and popping out the breast. The moms here use milk as a sort of pacifier. One cultural difference that we all have struggled with as of late is the fact that we have to wear these calf lengths skirts Although some Malawian women in the city do not do this, those in the village do and it is culturally respectful to do so. We even have an article posted on the information board in our house discussing how miniskirts lead to sexual interests and rape and should be outlawed. It is so foreign not to show my knee because it is too much skin for the men to handle. But what I cannot wrap my head around is how the knee is more sexual than a breast. Here in Malawi we see them everywhere. While we were at home stay one woman was breast feeding two babies at once. Today during out demonstrations every mother we saw had a baby with a breast in its' mouth. It is a very odd cultural difference to get used to. One woman was even shaking our hands with hers hanging out.