Jesse goes to Malawi - see things and wonders about them!

HEY HEY!
So, as promised here is my Malawi post - complete with photos galore. Some of these photos will be familiar to my facebook friends, but here you will find insights (or speculation) into the nature of the photos - hopefully making them more than just purdy pictures.

The first leg of my journey to Malawi was in the back of a Land Rover owned by Handicap. They were heading north and I hitched a ride. Most of Mozambique, it seems, is really really rural. Along the major highway were mud huts and thatched roofs. Occasionally we would travel through a mid-sized town and these would be replaced by the familiar mcel and vodocom motifs. Unfortunately, as we didnt stop in any of these mud hut villages, I dont have any photos of those huts, so you will have to use your imagination.

The capital of Mozambique (Maputo), despite having only about 25% percent of the countries people, generates about 80% of its income. Hence the disparity between them and the remaining 13 million people.

I spent my first night in Chomoio, a lovely town in the high lands, and got up at 3 am the next morning to catch a bus to tete. I dont think the bus originated in Chomoio, as it was already filled with people when I got on. A pretty hilarious thing happened shortly after I got on. Right before we were about to leave, a lady showed up out side with bus with a platform of bananas on her head. I guess the people on the bus hadnt eaten (for days??) because absolute bedlam ensued. There was the chaotic waving of money and calling for bananas, which flowed in through the bus windows like....ohhh...I dunno.....water?

Anyway, this lasted for a good ten minutes while 50 hungry Mozambicans secured their banana fix, and then we were on our way. Here is the inside of the bus. My camera captured it much more clearly than my bleary eyes.

A lifetime later, we ended up in Tete and crossed this cool bridge on the Zambezi river. The Zambezi river is the same one that goes over Victoria Falls in Zambia - the largest falls in the world. It was also traveled on by Dr. Livingstone during his African Adventure.


I then took a minibus to the border where I got ripped off by a money changer for 8$. I was furious. He took my money, thrust some bills into my hands and ran. I was left there with my backpack on counting the money with a look of increasing anger on my face.

From the border, it was a quick (Hah) bus ride to Blantyre. Malawi's financial capital was an interesting mix of busy city and subsistence farming. My hostel was right next to a water pump, or as I affectionately call it, the watering hole.

I have said this before, but the strongest creature in the world is an African woman. Here is a photo of a woman coming back from the watering hole. Note the baby on her back.
The difference between men's and woman's rights in horrendous. Women are the bread and butter of country and seem to do much of the manual labor. I was at a friends house the other day and mentioned I was hungry. He said, "no problem, my sister will make you lunch." At which point he called her from what she was doing and she made me lunch. I asked him if he knew how to cook - HAH!
In Mozambique, another word for Friday is "Dia de Homem". MANS DAY!!! This is when men relax from their hard weeks work and get drunk off their faces while the woman stays home and...takes care of the family. On any given night, in any given bar, 90% of the people there will be men.

Alcoholism. Im just going to go ahead and say it. People drink to much here. At first I thought it was funny. But now I realize that it is a problem. Maybe its to forget how uncomfortable their lives are. There was a group of guys under this tree, hammered. It was 11 am and they were drinking some weird home made beer that looks like grule.

Mozambique and Malawi are both crisscrossed with these unused train tracks that were build by their respective colonizers. My very own suburb has tracks who's causeway is now used as a market. Nate! Imagine the possibilities!

Here is a real life witchdoctor! This is in a field in the middle of the city and a short walk from the Malawi Stock Exchange.
A view from a distance of a humble little market close to where I stayed. Malawi is noticeably poorer than Mozambique - and this was reflected in the marketplaces. Not a lot of options. potato samosas, french fries, pop, cigarettes.
This is an iguana!
These are hilariously overstuffed couches for sale all over Malawi. The Mozambican counterparts are made of vinyl - which is probably worse.
One really great thing about Africa is how easy it is to make friends. I was telling a buddy of mine here (mozambican) about some of the difficulties I am facing; Missing my family, getting sick, language barrier frustrations etc. He then said that if he came to Canada, it probably wouldn't be as hard for him as me coming here. It was then that I realized that it would be way harder...way lonelier. Canadians are friendly, but not really very outgoing. Check the next time a random stranger starts a conversation with you - are they an immigrant? Anyway, I cant walk down the street here with out people wanting to by my friend. When I walk home from work every day...EVERY DAY...some one comes up to me and wants to talk. About half of the time its someone I have met before, and they want to talk again, and the rest of the time its someone new. I was at a cafe the other day having a beer, and some guy my age came up to me and asked me if I wanted another one. I said sure. So he bought me a beer and then left. He didn't have time to share it with me but he still wanted to buy me a drink. Small, random acts of kindness happen to me all the time here. Its wonderful. But this sort of thing wouldn't happen to an immigrant in Canada. Can you imagine, moving to Canada, not being able to speak the language, and building a solid group of friends and a even larger group of people who just look out for you (because you are clearly confused by most of what goes on around you), not to mention securing a spot in a kick ass reggae band all within two months of arriving?
anyway....These next couple of photos are of this guy, Dixon, (and of his family) who came up to me in Blantyre and wanted to chat. He took me to me to his family's restaurant and fed me breakfast. I took some photos of him and his family and found a place in town to get them printed. They were stoked.

The woman in the last photo is making nsima, the staple in Malawi and made from corn flower. You roll it up into a little ball and dip it in sauce. I always ended up with sauce all over my hands and face, but you should have seen Danny do it! Man, that guy is a fiend for nsima!

It doesn't happen very often anymore, but occasionally, while I am traveling and even when I'm not I spose, I see something so mind blowingly amazing that it almost makes me want to cry. Something that is so beautiful that it almost seems unreal. This is how I felt about this guy. He just rambled out of nowhere caring his guitar and a box that he sat on and doubled as a bass drum. His kick pedal was made out of a make shift spring and mallet. He belted this beautiful African melody (I have yet to encounter someone who cannot sing). It was amazing.....so amazing

Malawi was fun because they speak english there, so I could chat with everyone. This guy came up to me and asked the standard questions...where are you from, what do you do. He is a minister at a chuch (Malawians are devoutly religious).
He then looked at me and said, "I will likely never see you again will I?"
I told him, "no, we will never see one another again."
This was a bit different as people usually try and give you their address or phone number in the hopes that you will remain friends. Anyway, here he is.

This is a shot of Danny and I waiting for our minibus to take off. They leave when they are full - but until then.....
you can buy hard boiled eggs if you like, or maybe bbqd corn on the cob (its somewhere between normal corn on the cob and pop corn....delicious) or check out the entertainment...

Danny and I, like we do when we see one another - sought adventure. We decided to climb the tallest mountain in southern Africa, Mount Mulanje (Kilimanjaro is in east Africa....jeez).

Upon arriving at the town from which we would mount our assault on Mulanje, we were ourselves assaulted by this incredibly enthusiastic dude claiming both that his name was Edmonton and that he was a guide.

Danny and I discussed the wisdom of having a guide versus, ya know, just given' 'er. Thankfully, reasonable heads prevailed and we hired Edmonton. Here is Edmonton and Danny in front of some brightly painted shop.

Ok, so after this we began our way up the mountain. here it is...


Some ways up the mountain, danny and I found a bug. a sweet bug no less. and played with it for round 'bout half an hour. We asked Edmonton if we could eat it, but he said it was not a grass hopper and was poisonous. good call on getting the guide.


Shortly after our bug adventure, we arrived at the hut. They VERY HUT FROM WHICH WE WERE TO MAKE OUR SUMMIT ATTEMPT THE NEXT MORNING! rad. The summit is 3002m high, and apparently on a clear day you can see the indian ocean. Which is amazing. That means you are looking clear across malawi and tanzania. geez. and apparently on a rainy, foggy day the summit attempt is excessively dangerous as it gets real slippery like...
and then...
and then...
and then...
needless to say it was too foggy to attempt the summit, which as it turns out was a good thing.
So we made our way back down the mountain.

A day or two later I made my way back to Mozambique.


This is the main highway in Mozambique taking me back home to Inhambane.
I have been discovering some really neat little treasures in Inhambane lately and am going to embark on a mini photo adventure next week to trap them forever in my camera! and when I do, I will release them through the internet tubes to Canada, so that you too may enjoy them.

All the very best everyone.
Jesse

Hey everyone!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated this thing, but I have been waiting for something very important to happen before I do. However, at the rate things happen here, who really knows when anything is going to happen...so I write now... right now!

Many of you have been asking, ‘Jesse, what is it exactly you are doing there...what’s your job description? Are you working hard?’

I’ll answer these questions by way of a story (having never been one to get right to the point).

I had a hell of a time getting a hold of Handicap International Mozambique while I was in Canada. I had all sorts of questions for them...what’s my job going to be like, do I need to bring anything for it....reference books, work boots???? I really had no idea.

They didn’t respond. Finally, just after midnight the day before I flew out, (at this point I was already in Calgary with no chance to pack or repack); I got an email saying, ‘sorry Jesse, we are swamped here....but we know you exist and we will meet you at the airport.

They met me at the airport and a few days later flew me from Maputo to Inhambane....they met me at that airport too!

At the office I was given a quaint little work station – laptop and internet. However, one key piece of the puzzle that they did not give me....was work. I spent a few days adding suspected mine field data to google earth. This I was told was going to be used for a report they were writing for the National Institute of Demining here in Mozambique. I was later told that due to copy write restrictions, they wouldn’t be using it.

‘They have copy write in Mozambique’, I thought to myself??

‘I wonder if they guy I buy dvds from knows that.’

This was an informative task, however, insofar as it really put into focus the fact that, here in Moz, there are still mine fields everywhere....well.....not everywhere....but they very well could be....and if you remember from my last post, that is half the problem right? I have included some for your perusal.

Also, in at desperate attempt at legitimacy around the office here, I`m now spending my weekends doing manual demining.

Aaaaaaannnnd I'm kidding of course....this is from my visit to the mine field last month....

anyway

There are two people in my office that speak English. Aderito, who is my boss, the program director and an excellent dude, and Eric, a Belge, who doesn’t seems to notice me one way or another.

Immediately after my arrival, Aderito left for Maputo, as there was some political mishap that he had to take care of. This took close to a month. This left me with Eric. I have to file these reports to Canada every month, with my progress, what I am accomplishing, what my future tasks will be etc. Last month I asked Eric what I could expect to be doing the next month....as I had to let Canada know. He looked at me as though I had asked him what the meaning of life was. For a good chunk of my first month here, I had absolutely nothing to do. NOTHING. I have since learned that this is quite common with the CIDA internships.

I really struggled with this situation for a while. At first I felt really guilty.

‘What am I doing here?’

‘Is there something I am doing wrong?’

‘I likely make more money than anyone else in this office...and for what?’

I was told in my orientation in Canada that I would, to some extent, be required to find my own niche. However, being dumped in front of a computer in an office full of people that are extremely busy and with whom you cannot speak makes this exceedingly difficult.

It was well over a month into my placement that I learned the reason for my sitting around. The job for which they hired me (or rather put in a request for someone like me) was finished months before I got here. In a dramatic reversal of how things normally happen here (both in Africa and the international development world), the job was complete before they thought it would be.

My time here has not been wasted though. I am learning a lot, though about things I didn’t think I would be learning about.

I am learning about international politics – about international development bureaucracy, greed and competition.

It seems the main concern with all the companies working in the development sector is securing more funding to continue what they are doing. In this way, they are responsible to the people giving them money, not the people whose lives they are trying to improve. The donors seldom know what’s best for the people in the developing world, as they live perched high atop buildings in shiny Canadian, American, British and French cities – and are busy patting one another on the back for a job well done. The development sector seems to be as much about meetings and dinner and drinks in Geneva or Rome or (this year) Amman as it is about enacting any real change....and then following it up to see if it sticks and is sustainable.

From what I can ascertain from the limited perspective of my humble workstation in Inhambane, is that this is a broken system.

There are a few companies working Mozambique demining. Demining is really a noble thing, however, these companies do not get along with one another and the work often gets mired in competition, or politicking or complete and total bullshit. This is why Aderito was in Maputo for a month around when I arrived.

A shocking amount of time is spent by this organization not demining. Not really by any fault of their own, thats just how it goes.

So the thing that I have been waiting for before writing a new post was actually having something to do. And it’s happened! I get to conduct a small training seminar on GIS to the people in the field who collect the data on the suspected mine fields. Though, already I can see that it is going to be more a seminar on geography (ie. Area is not the same as perimeter! That sort of thing). I also get to complete and edit a report that they are turning over to their donors to let the them know whats up. Gotta keep those doners happy eh.

Oh....man.....I know this is getting long, but I want to say one more thing about funding. Handicap’s demining funding is getting cut right after I leave. They will have to shut down the whole operation. They are funded mostly by Canadians. The CAW (Canadian Auto Workers Union) has a social justice fund that they dole out to worthy causes. This is matched dollar for dollar by the Canadian Government. Or rather it was....The Feds pulled the plug on the funding.

It is generally thought around here that the money once slated for demining in Mozambique has been diverted to fund the killing of Afghans and Canadians in Afghanistan.

Wow...so there you have it....even at this length, it is only a part of what I wanted to say, but I know this is getting looooong. I’ll give you a quick view of my life outside of work.

I play the geet’r in a reggae band. It’s pretty fantastic. They lead singer is this skinny little dude, who can WAIL. He sings without a mike and is well heard over a full on electric band. He also dances around like a madman and wears fake dreadlocks for concerts. He is really well known in Inhambane and every Sunday, he puts on this thing which is almost a game show for kids – big spectacle. He invited me to it last week – I got there, went up on stage, rocked a guitar solo, and sat down. It was weird.

We play three times a week and we rock (or whatever ever the equivalent verb is for reggae.) Even got a couple of shows coming up. I’ve been bring up the rock factor there by a bit, and it’s always interesting to mix genres and see what you get. The Mozambique take on the White Stripes is pretty freaking weird.

I met a dude at the Dama Do Bling show who has a radio show every Sunday. He invited me on to talk about music, which was cool. I am going on next week to try and find some landmine survivors so I can meet them and hear their stories – take their photos, and learn about their lives.

I also just got back from a vacation in Malawi where I hung out with Danny Howard. It was intense, but definitely good to see that man. Holy mother does that guy know a lot.

I will post some photos soon from my time there. And I promise that one will be more pictures....less words.

Take care y’all.