Finally, Another Blog

Sorry it’s been a little while since we last wrote. The internet place closes at 4:30 pm and is on the opposite side of town as our youth project. Plus, we’ve had many recent days without power – including the first part of today. I’ll try to make up for this, and do a little recap of the last two weeks.

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Two weekends ago, we had a great opportunity to visit the family of Wallace Salanje, one of our youth leaders at the centre. Wallace grew up in Mukuta village, about a 1.5-hour bike ride from Balaka town. The morning of our journey, we woke early to a divided sky – sun before us, foreboding clouds behind us. We met at Margaret’s place to get our bike taxis and started off toward the now shrinking patch of blue sky. Only 30 minutes into our journey the clouds caught up to us. The rains were torrential and within minutes we were soaked through and freezing cold (not a good day to wear a white shirt). Our bike taxis pressed on for another hour, through the mud and the muck until we FINALLY arrived at Wallace Salanje’s village.



We caught the Salanjes off guard, as there was no way to communicate with them as to when we were coming to visit. Even so, they prepared a nice meal of rice for us and made us feel at home. They even gave us their clothes to wear so ours could dry. After visiting for a few hours (and doing a family photo shoot), the rains had subsided enough for us to journey home. It was a long, exhausting, and ever memorable day. Wallace’s parents were so happy to hear that their boy was a good and respectful student. Wallace boards at a secondary school in Balaka town, so they don’t get to see him often. Our visit showed them how thankful we are for his help at the centre, and really boosted their confidence in their hard-working son.





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Last week we spent a lot of time with our youth centre staff. Margaret led a session on personality types. The Eneagram is a popular personality tool here in Balaka (it originated in Italy) and Margaret really enjoyed teaching on how we are all parts of one body. Some people are the hands, others the feet etc. We learned that I’m a number ONE – the perfectionist. Margaret is a number TWO – the helper/servant. Dustin’s a number NINE – the dreamer. We’re still working on Mr. Ngumbi and Isaac.

We had some sessions on various topics related to the youth center. One was HIV, and an effective integration of messages into our activities. We had observed that some of the dramas and songs the youth perform about AIDS focus only on the woman’s role – often a demonized role of woman as prostitute. We talked about the danger of focusing so heavily on this area, and not on men’s responsibility to their wives and families. We discussed why HIV is so prevalent here and used these answers to branch into a talk on holistic approaches to HIV.

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This week we have been meeting with Wallace and Grace, our two strongest youth leaders, to discuss a new segment of our youth program. While the youth centre is going strong, we see so much potential for learning in even smaller groups. In the States we were researching programs like the Boy and Girl Scouts etc, and trying to find equivalents that might be relevant to Africa. We failed to find anything close to what we were looking for. As such, we’re working on our own sort of curriculum. This will be keeping us very busy in the coming weeks.



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On another note, we now have new cell phones (the others were stolen). Our numbers are 08764420 and 08764421. If you want to call us you can find decent calling cards at www.callingcards.com. Just remember when you call to dial 011 + 265 before our number. You will also likely need to remove the first ‘zero’ of our number (just start with eight).

Also, we are moving into a new house by March 1. Our current landlord is raising the rent and we don’t feel like the place is worth the price. We’ll now be staying in Majiga One (that’s the name of the neighborhood), which is closer to the youth centre and the market etc. We think it will be a good move. It’s also a better place to house future volunteers!

Gotta go! Hope life is treating you well.

Progress at The Youth Centre

On Monday, Tuesday, and today we visited with Margaret, Mr. Ngumbi, and Issac to see how things have been going at the youth centre. We are very impressed by the progress they have made. They have been teaching the children all sorts of skills like basketry and pottery. They have placed a strong emphasis on learning and practicing English. And our kids’ drama skills are said to be the best in town.

The staff files monthly reports with the Balaka Social Welfare Office, which oversees all social programs in the area. The Office has been very impressed by the quality of learning and activities taking place at the centre, and have commended The House of Many Stories as being Balaka’s best place for youth. The government has also asked our centre to represent the entire district of Balaka at a national computer-training course in Blantyre (the big city). This government program will train 3 youth from each district on how to use computers and how to teach others to use computers. At the end of the training, the government will donate three free computers to our program. Everyone is very excited by this development!

We have also started talking to the parents and guardians of the youth attending the centre, and have gained a lot of positive feedback. One woman had encouraged her grandchild to come to our program to enhance his English language skills. He had been failing this subject at school. After weeks of coming and interacting with the staff, he is now the #1 English pupil.

We are spending the rest of this week (and some of next) evaluating how the last 6 months have gone. We’re working with the staff, the children, the parents, and local educators. The heat here in Balaka is heavy, making the walk from one side of town to another a challenge. But we’re adjusting as best we can, and are making the most of our days here. Will write more soon.

Termites and Roaches and Rats, Oh My

“Oh, rats.”
“Your room looks like a rat’s nest.”
“I smell a rat.”

These sayings now have new meaning for us. Upon arriving in Balaka, we spent a day and a half cleaning up after a 6-month vermin party. Thankfully, Margaret had forewarned us that our home had other inhabitants while we’ve been in the States. “So, you say there are MANY rats, Margaret. Just how many does MANY mean? More than twenty or thirty?” “Oh, yes. At least that many.”

The rats moved into our boxes, our clothes, our furniture, and even (please don’t be mad, mother) our old classical guitar. They chewed their way through the soft-shell case and made a cozy, smelly little nest in the body of the guitar. I’ll never forget the sight of our watchman swinging the guitar around trying to shake one last resident out.

They ate our clothes, our cushions, our books (fortunately, they don’t have great taste), our spices, and even our plastic cutting board. They also gnawed through sealed containers – like our powdered milk and our sunscreen.

We have since washed our clothes and the floors (rat smell still lingers), but the little buggers haven’t taken the hint. They’re still crawling around the rafters at night, squeaking their rodent songs and looking for a tomato or two to sink their pointy little teeth into. If they’re not out soon, we may have to buy some rat poison (sorry animal lovers, but you’d probably do it to). J

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On another note, our bus to Balaka broke down after only traveling three kilometers. In four hours, we hadn’t even gone 2 miles. The Shire bus is known for its breakdowns. We’ve had decent luck in the past, and usually opt for this type of transport when we have a lot of luggage (as there’s more room for bags etc). Our bus broke down in the most inconvenient place. All buses and minibuses passing by this point are already full of passengers and are on their way out of town. We tried flagging down passing motorists, calling a taxi company etc, but in the end Dustin had to take a minibus back into town (the opposite direction), and bring back another minibus with empty seats for me, Margaret, and our luggage (we had to pay for their space too). As there’s no such thing as a refund in Malawi, we lost out on having to pay for two buses. But I felt incredibly sorry for the other passengers who don’t have the luxury of having an extra $5 or $10. They had to sit and wait for the bus company to send out another bus, which (if it came) would take upwards of 8 hours, and may not have come until morning.

We're in Malawi

It’s morning in Malawi. We arrived in Lilongwe at 1 am, after an 11 hour bus ride from Lusaka. I think Zambia may be one of the most beautiful, least touched places on earth. Roughly 13 million people populate both Zambia and Malawi. Malawi’s 13 million are densely packed into an area the size of the state of Pennsylvania, while Zambia has at least three times that land mass. Nearly 90% of Malawians live in rural areas, while many more Zambians stay in the cities. All of this said, Malawi is almost completely deforested, while most of Zambia remains untouched forest.

It rained throughout our journey, and rainbows abounded. The “luxury coach” leaved a bit to be desired. Some beetle/roach-like insects decided to make the bus their home (no wonder, the way our neighbor kept throwing chicken scraps at our feet), which made us somewhat uncomfortable. Our ride in Lilongwe was unable to meet us, so we had to wedge 10 pieces of luggage (as well as ourselves) into a tiny taxi before going to Margaret’s relatives’ house to sleep.

We are well rested now, and will be leaving tomorrow morning for Balaka – about a 4-5 hour journey by Shire bus (this is the slow one, but it will accommodate our many bags). We look forward to checking on the progress of our sponsored students as well as the youth centre. From here on out, our internet access gets a little sketchy. We’ll try to write as often as we can.