Camp GLOW 2014

In August I had the honor to participate in one of the most amazing, humbling experiences of my life. For a week and a half there was no place that would have rather been. I was given the privilege to to be a camp counselor to 11 secondary school aged girls at Camp GLOW! (Girls Leading Our World).

Camp GLOW is an international Peace Corps initiative that targets high school aged females and focuses on empowering these young women to be leaders in their family, communities, and in society. The camp looks different in each country, however, they all have the universal theme of empowering girls in cultures where being a girl has the potential to make your opportunities much slimmer than if you were a boy.

Our camp covered topics like self esteem and beauty, gender based violence, HIV/AIDS, malaria, careers, professional development, leadership skills, and how to share this with other girls! This is a lot to cover in a week, but we had a blast doing it! By the end of the week, even the quietest of girls, were laughing, having fun and were completely different than when they had arrived.

The camp targets secondary school girls (high school). In Malawi, secondary school girls can range in age from 14-24. We had girls from all sorts of backgrounds there. Some were from a more privileged background, some were from really rural villages, some spoke excellent English, some spoke little to none, some had children, some were pregnant. By the end of the week it didn't matter where these girls had come from or where they were going to, they had leaned the importance of supporting and empowering each other to be the best versions of themselves.

It was amazing to see these girls understand that one empowered woman does not change make, but we must encourage and empower each other as we climb. Hence the theme “Lift as You Climb”. We covered a lot of topics but the coordinators tried very hard to make sure that the theme of empowerment was through out every topic and included the element of empowering others. (the coordinating team for 2014 did an excellent job!) I cannot explain how powerful it was to see these girls from various cultural backgrounds and circumstances hold each other up.

They showed so much courage and perseverance. Out of my 11 campers over half of them had a story of someone mistreating them at some point in their lives. Sometimes it was family, a teacher, or a community member. As these girls began to learn of opportunities and see examples of other Malawian women who were successful you could see the shift in their attitudes. For them to know that women, just like them, from similar backgrounds could achieve great things was a game changer for them, especially those from the rural villages.

The challenging part for them moving forward is that they have transformed and literally have a GLOW about them, but their communities have not changed. The people and communities of Malawi, did not come to Camp GLOW and realize that all people are important, that all people have the same rights, and that all people deserve to be respected. While these beautiful, strong, courageous, intelligent girls have learned all of these things, they have a hard battle ahead of them.

BUT as we speak, these strong, motivated, empowered young women are starting clubs in their own villages and sharing this message they learned at GLOW. There were 66 girls in attendance and already a handful of them are starting clubs of 10 or more girls.

This is going to be a hard and long battle but the beautiful thing is that no one is alone, and these girls understand the importance of bringing others with them. As they improve and empower themselves they are being conscious of the fact that this is a big task and no one can do it alone.   

Shine Girl SHINE!!!!

In case you have not seen the GLOW 2014 youtube check it out!! 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbIjZ-Kwj9g

Kid's Korner: KITTEN time!

I know it has been quite a while since we posted. Sooo, we would like to make that up to you by posting 3 blogs in 3 days! Starting with our promised, Kid's Korner, where we answer questions we have gotten from children and youth.  Our first post features our adorable kitten!

Question: Do people have pets in Malawi? 

Short answer: Yes.  Not a lot of people have pets but the ones that do have cats and dogs.  Many people have chickens, cows, doves, rabbits, pigs and goats but they are not pets, they are food.   

The cover of his book entitled:
"The Art of Being Adorable"

The complicated answer: Not a lot of people have pets and not a lot of people treat their pets very nicely.  People have pets for different reasons.  Someone might have a dog to guard the house or someone might have a cat to eat mice.  It is not very often that a person has a pet as a friend.  You know how you play with your dog or cat and make sure that they have good food and water?  Cats and dogs are not treated exactly the same way.  Some times, people have trouble making sure everyone in the house has food, so to feed an animal is considered rude, or culturally inappropriate.  Also, because many dogs are raised to be guard dogs and to chase and bark at people many people are scared of dogs and don't like to play with them.  While, in the U.S. we might think of pets as something to love and play with or a good friend, here in Malawi, everything has to have a purpose.  So, if you have a dog or cat it must do something.  

He insists on helping with
EVERYTHING

BUT that did not keep us from getting a little kitten of our own!  His name is The Amazing Gonzo, for the fact that he is really clutzy, silly, and lots of times does not land his tricks! 

Often times our community thinks we are weird for picking him up, playing with him or feeding him.  But we have been sooo happy to have him!  He has graduated from eating crickets to spiders and we believe he will soon be on his way to a BA in Mouse Hunting...we couldn't be more proud.  

In some ways it has allowed us to share some of our culture with the community and sometimes it has made it harder for the community to understand us.  But we love the little bugger and are super glad he is with us!

Snoozin' and toys...
toys and snoozin'

Once a month or so we will answer a new question from a child or youth!  

So send them to us via: e-mail, letters, or whatsapp!! (we promise to do better!!)

Next Time on Kids Korner:

How and where do you poop?

The Staple Food of Malawi

When thinking of African food one rarely thinks of Malawian fare. People think of countries such as Morocco, Ethiopia, or Tunisia, that have a very rich food culture. Malawi is not on that list. The major crop in our area is corn which is thought to have been brought to Africa in the 16 or 1700s by the Portuguese from the Americas. Corn became a major crop, displacing sorghum and millet, in Malawi in the early 1900s and the government has been promoting it since. While having a higher yield than the native cereals it is also much harder on the soil. The government has been subsidizing chemical fertilizer which is further depleting the soil. In order to grow enough food for the year Malawians need to plant more and more fields of corn to cover the cost of fertilizer and and diminishing yields of their fields.

In the village there would be twice the amount of nsima
and half the amount of dende.

The major food here is nsima which is made from ufa, corn flour. There are two types, ufa ngaiwa and ufa woyera. Ngaiwa is made by removing the outer part of the kernel and pounding it into a flour. Woyera, the preferred flour, is made by removing both the outer shell and the germ of the kernel, pounding into a flour, and soaking it to make it as white as possible. By removing the germ, much of the nutrients and vitamins are removed leaving only the starch. If you wanted to know what woyera feels and tastes like, just try some corn starch, they are very similar, if not the same. Despite the lack of nutrition, many Malawians will tell you that they have not eaten unless they have had some nsima that day. 

Dried peri-peri peppers along side a cayenne for scale 

 Nsima is made by brining a pot of water with ufa in it to a boil. More ufa is then stirred into the pot until it reaches a very thick consistency. It is so thick that two hands are needed to stir and a second person is needed to hold the pot over the fire. It is then spooned onto a plate creating patties about the size of a hamburger. It is traditionally served with a small amount of dende, relish, made of vegetables, meat, eggs, or beans. All are cooked in a healthy amount of oil and salt, and always with tomatoes. The only other spice used in Malawi is peri-peri, a very spicy pepper.

Vegetables variety is scare in our village. When we go to Mzuzu we are able to get a larger variety however they are almost always picked young. I have yet to see a bell pepper larger than a tennis ball and the guavas and citrus fruits are picked while they are green. This is most likely done to limit the amount of food lost to pests. We have learned that the leaves of pumpkin, beans, and sweet potatoes are not only eatable, but also nutritious.

Food works its way into all conversations. Malawians are always asking 'What is the staple in the US?' and “Do you cook nsima?”. Mostly they ask Tara because culturally women do all of the cooking. They are always shocked when she informs them that not only does she know how to prepare nsima, so does Matt, and he does a fair amount of the cooking. We do not cook nsima for ourselves due to the difficulty in preparing and the limited nutrition. We choose to cook rice or sweet potatoes as our staple because they are easier to prepare and have better nutrition.

Quick garden update! It is giving us some greens, arugula, chard, and kale, and our beans, sugar snap peas, peppers, tomatoes and tomatillos are all flowering and setting fruit. We are very excited to share some of these unfamiliar foods with Malawians.

Some upcoming posts to look forward to. Tara is currently a counselor at Camp GLOW, Girls Leading Our World, and will be posting about her experience once she has a chance to recover from the very busy schedule. We will also be starting a Kids Corner to specifically address the questions that our young readers have. We will be tackling the subject of pets in Malawi first.

BRRRR It's Cold??

Slight Dramatization 

We're about a month into winter now, the shortest day of the year just passed us, and it's a tid bit...chilly. We're in the mountains and it is gorgeous but man is it brisk! Of course, it's not cold and we are in no way in danger of a frost, however, we wear long sleeves and blankets during the day. We've been measuring the temperature with a meat thermometer left by the previous volunteers and during the day it is mid to upper 60's and at night it has been low 60's upper 50's....and it will only get colder.

This wouldn't be so bad if the wind didn't feel like it would blow the roof off and better for me if trousers were more acceptable. We are situated right in a beautiful valley, however, the wind gets caught in the valley and rips through everything. At times it can be quite miserable. For women, it is culturally more acceptable to wear skirts which is kind of a bummer when it's 57 and windy.

Every detail here seems to have some sort of cultural implication. There is no climate control, no window panes, no insulation, and no indoor fireplace...even the kitchen is outside. So, at night it gets cold. Many families have limited resources and this can include having few warm clothes and blankets. What this implies and what most seasonal calendars show is that in about 9 months the birth rate will be much higher than it is now!

Recognizing this trend can help curb the birth rate by introducing heavier family planning education. However, mostly it shows that most of the things/issues/challenges we will encounter here have a deeper root. These challenges and ways of life did not just appear one day. They have come from somewhere else. In reality, our biggest challenge will be discovering the cultural implications that lie beneath the surface. In the long run this will help our impact last much, much longer.  

Care Packages

We have received so many questions concerning what we could use in Malawi, what are we missing from the US and can it be sent to us. We are so touched that you miss us and are thinking about us! This post, in no way, means that we think you should send us something and we are in no way expecting anything on this list! E-mail and snail mail are super appreciated and loved!!

Tips for sending us mail:

Padded envelopes seem to send faster than boxes but boxes have just as high a retrieval rate. The postal system in Africa is not always honest. I would be very wary of sending anything that is expensive and many people find that it helps to wright some sort of religious quote or “religious materials” on the package so that it lessens the chance of being tampered with.

If you are sending multiple letters, numbering them will help us to know if all of them got to us. Sometimes delivery dates vary!! We have gotten some letters in 10 days and others in 20...

Items that would help to improve our health:

As we have mentioned before, finding fresh food here has been difficult so staying healthy is sometimes a challenge.

• Soups with dried vegetables
• Spices—Not Curry...we have a lot of curry. Paprika, pumpkin type spices, cardamom pods, anything not curry :) we LOVE spices!
• Nutritional Yeast!--this can be found in most health food stores. It is delicious, high in B12, and tastes like cheese!
• Herbal Teas
• Women's Mulit Vitamins—These are invaluable! PC does not supply them and what we can find in country is poor quality. And a women's vitamin will have extra iron!
• Emergen-C
• Dried Fruit
• Nuts—We have plenty of peanuts here
• Seeds—Flax, sunflower, chia
• Seeds for Planting—Mostly herbs, or something yummy from your garden :)

Items we miss or are for fun :)

• Powdered Cheese
• Chocolate!-- Reeses, Dark Chocolate, oreos (off brand too, not picky!) Chocolate!!
• Fig Newtons
• Granola Bars—or those yummy energy bars like LarBars or Earnest Bars
• Fruit Leathers—or fruit snacks, these make great bubble wrap replacement ;)
• Packets of Soy Sauce from restaurants and such.
• Nutella
• Anything with good taste!!
• Pelleted Hopps for Beer Brewing

Items for Hygiene:

We can find some of these things here but they are expensive.

• Liquid Castile Soap—Dr. Bronner's or Camp Suds are great brands
• Tooth Brush
• Waxed Floss
• Small, Pretty Smelling Lotions from Hotels :)

For fun and leisure:

• Books—read a good book? Let us know!
• Media—flash drives full of movies, books, pictures, kid's recitals/awards!
• Old Magazines :)

Make the Iwes (children) Our Friends!!:

All of these things will be destroyed, so please nothing expensive or high quality. Also, something expensive might lead to fights among the children.

• Dollar Tree/Penny Toys—nothing big or fancy, party favor type toys. No guns or things that look like weapons.
• Crayons/Coloring Books!!!!
• Craft Supplies—Mostly glue and glue sticks
• Little Individually Wrapped Candies—Hard Candies and such

Again, thank you all so much for the interest and wanting to show us support in this way. Please do not feel obligated to send us anything!!

And we promise if you write us, we will write you!!! :)

Shocked with Culture!

We knew this would happen. As you may have guessed, Africa is different than the US and rural Malawi is way different than we imagined! We felt pretty prepared for our living conditions. We've cooked plenty of meals over fire, bathed outdoors in 30 – 40 degree weather, and to U.S. Standards have lived relatively primitively and rural.

The things we were not so prepared for include lack of access to food, the nightmare that is transportation, and feeling really REALLY out of place. We will definitely expand on these topics in later posts.

The food variety here is grim. The cuisine consists of very few vegetables and a domineering presence of carbohydrates. The worst part is that our transportation to good food is expensive and hard to get a hold of! Our options are either walking an hour up and over a mountain to buy tomatoes, greens, and potatoes at the weekly market, or take a two hour matola (flat bed truck) ride at 3 or 4 AM to go into one of the cities to buy staples like rice, and vegetable variety like eggplant, or onion. The price of this trip is not very cheap either.

Then there is the 'Azungu factor.' We, for obvious reasons, STICK OUT! Everything we do is hilarious to Malawians. Especially when we speak Chitumbuka, that's a side splitter. The children especially get a kick out of us, or are terrified of us. It reminds me of the time I was the Easter Bunny at the mall. I was the best, most awesome stuffed animal in the world, OR the things nightmares are made of. Its a hard line to straddle. While I was helping at the clinic I literally made a child pee his pants from the shear terror of being near me... We stick out … one of these things is not like the other... hopefully these things will come to belong.

For all these things we were unprepared for, we also weren't prepared for the absolute beauty of everything! Even the grasshoppers are beautiful, and when flying are commonly mistaken for butterflies. Our site is nestled into the valley of about five mountains so the view is breathtaking.

As Malawians get to know us they stop asking for money and start inviting us for dinner. Everyone here smiles, and dances. It's awesome. While this does not feel like 'home' yet I think we can make it a nice home. We have already started a garden to combat our food dilemma and we are becoming more accustomed with the transportation. We may never NOT stick out, but I think we will slowly begin to fit in. There are certainly things we miss about thee US but there are things we are learning to LOVE about Malawi.

Passion Flower on our porch.

 

Now We're Real Volunteers!

We wanted to update everyone that as of May 7th we are REAL volunteers, no longer just trainees hoping to make it to swear in. We survived some challenges during training such as: having all of our meals, and snacks, cooked for us, being fed way too much food at all meals, and having our bath water heated for us. Some other notable occurrences during training was having a termite mound chased into our house at one in the morning by fire ants, as well as the ensuing fire ant infestation the next morning, and some mild to medium heat diarrhea on and off over the last two months.

Our daily view on the way to class. 

Clara and William Zimba with their grandson Willy Jr.

This seems like a good time to mention our host family. Clara and William Zimba are super crazy nice and taught us so much about living in Malawi. Along side of making sure we were fed and the fire ants were promptly removed from our house they made sure we could cook on a fire, knew how to take a bucket bath, and how to use a Chimbutzi (outdoor latrine), but most importantly they taught us about Malawian culture. They were incredibly gracious and took us in for 9 weeks without compensation.

We moved to Lunjika in Mzimba district on May 9th and are currently working on turning our house into a home (a common phrase used among us newly minted volunteers). For anyone interested in sending mail (shameless plug, mail is like gold here) our new address is:

Box 20055

Luwinga
Mzuzu
Malawi
Southern Africa

Lunjika is a Seventh Day Adventist Mission that has a Health Center along with primary and secondary boarding schools. It is much different than our training village of Domberllara, which was a small village with only 40 houses that shared a lot of facilities with neighboring villages.

OUR NEW HOUSE!

Our house is beautiful! It is the biggest space that the two of us have lived in together. We also have a large yard that we can't wait to put a garden into. There are four large mango trees and a papaya tree. The papaya tree is fruiting now and the mangos will be ready as early as September. Behind our house is Lunjika Mountain which should provide some wonderful hiking. The closest market is an hour walk away, up a mountain, so that is a great incentive to get our garden going.

A glimpse of our side yard and courtyard.

On our way to being dropped off, we saw a baboon just two kilometers from our house. The only other notable wildlife that we have seen so far is a scorpion and a chameleon. We saw the chameleon one morning on our way to class. We found the scorpion inside of our house on only the third day of being here. Fortunately it was only the size of a fingernail and died easily.

Now that we no longer have every minute of every day scheduled for us we will do better at making these posts happen more often than every two months.