I've been really busy with the study ending and data entry and suchlike, so I haven't so much had good internet time to update. Okay, mostly I've been lazy about typing up notes to dump online when I have the time.
The lake was fun, and I'm glad I got to see it. I'm going to Zambia's South Luangwa NP next week instead of southern Malawi because no one else ever signed up for the trip. I'm actually excited about it because apparently I will see a million animals, and it's the ultimate in not roughing it much at all. It should rule.
12 more days until I get back!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Camp Malawi
Apart from finding an awesome trip, I felt mostly annoyed this past week. The DHL didn’t arrive until Friday, meaning no mid-week callage with Joe. But it was nice once it did arrive. Wednesday was an insanely long day. We got out of the door a bit late, and then everything just took forever. The community-based org was really far away, and then we made a huge giant circle to two villages that were far apart. In fact, we noted that the second village was actually much closer to the nearer CBOs in that area… which meant we had to go all the way back far out to drop the CBO guy off at the end of the day. Super lame. Also we were doing the diaries + discussion arm for both groups, which is the longest condition. So we didn’t get back until almost 5, meaning I couldn’t check my email or do anything productive in the afternoon.
One hilarious thing that happened though was that on the way to the second village, we passed by all these kids who shouted in greeting, “How much?” The girls just cracked up and went on to repeat the phrase all week. Apparently, this was how the kids thought people said hello in English.
Wednesday may have also been the day I woke up and there was no water. I thought at first the toilet was busted, because the sink was working, but that was just temporary until the lines were emptied. Lame. I guess it adds variety from the usual routine of no power.
A major theme of the week was how to deal with the fact that the driver, who is a nice guy I have no interest in getting into trouble, was roughly doubling the mileage through some sort of driving shenanigans between when he left us one afternoon and picked me up the next morning. I suspect that perhaps he was running a little taxi service on afternoons when we returned early. Anyway, the girls said I should call the company. I had the office manager bug them, since she negotiated the contract with them. I suspect that this is common practice and that the company does not really discourage it, but will not charge for the extra if someone notices. On Friday, I just told the driver that the office wanted me to track miles each day and not by week. Of course, there’s still an issue with me paying for fuel and that being insanely expensive. But to a certain extent, I don’t care to fuss too much because it’s not even my money. Still, I don’t like the dishonesty. I was glad the girls agreed with me, so I didn’t feel like some sort of stingy foreign bitch.
It hasn’t rained in weeks, and the air has gotten a bit ooky. Between the dust, smoke from trash and maize husk fires, and car pollution, things have been a bit hazy.
One thing I noticed weeks ago but I think neglected to mention is that the sun is mostly north during the day and the stars look all wrong. Whoa, southern hemisphere.
I obtained a rod of sugarcane and a bag of groundnuts this past week, which I have been enjoying. I finished the sugarcane today. It was pretty thick, so the skin was hard to get off… I generally peeled it off with a knife because I didn’t want to break my poor teeth. Once you get the outside off, the rest is pretty easy. And tasty. It tastes a bit like watermelon, which is a testament to how much sugar is in watermelon. G, the office driver, told me that when he was in Blantyre with K earlier in the week, he saw a place that makes sugarcane juice so you can just drink it. It kind of takes the fun out of it (fun being doing something to stave off the mindnumbing boredom of living here), but I can see how it provides more immediate gratification. I still have lots of groundnuts. They’re nice and rooty and covered in soil. Not quite what you get at a baseball game.
I also ordered dinner Friday night, as I was really hungry. I got chambo, which is a type of tilapia from the lake, not to be confused with chamba, which also comes from the lake area, but which is pot. It was quite tasty and came with rice, vegetables, and a cole slaw that was actually really tasty.
Saturday was fucking annoying. I thought there might be fun happening, but K didn’t have her phone with her and never called me. Instead I went to the police station. Some cop came by on Friday while I was at work to say I should go over there because they had some guys. I thought perhaps they had recovered some of my stuff. But, no, they just had a bunch of guys they’d arrested for robbery in City Centre and wanted to see if any of them had robbed me. At first they tried to tell me that no one was around who was dealing with the case, so I should come back early Monday morning. I explained that I had no transport that early and I had taken a taxi over extra special for them. They found a CID officer, and so he got like 8 guys and lined them up in this weird outside hallway that reeked of urine. They sat up against the wall and I just stood in front of them and looked at them. There were two that maybe could be the guy, one of whom didn’t seem to want to look at me like the others. But he also appeared to be the youngest and was probably scared shitless about the whole thing. There was no way I was going to be able to positively identify any of them. Without any kind of evidence linking someone to me, I’m not just going to identify someone, because there’s just no way for me to remember accurately enough. The guy who robbed me was really just about as generic a young man as you can get. The CID officer said if they caught anyone else, they’d let me know, but I wanted to tell him not to bother… it’s a waste of time for me to try to identify someone without other evidence. So I left feel grumpy and depressed about the whole thing.
I got on a minibus and went to town. I had run into my jewelry-selling friends during the week, and they’d given me a couple of bracelets as “gifts” with the mutual acknowledgement that I’d probably be buying a few more items before I leave. I was hoping not to run into them because of my sour mood. I got off the bus further down than they usually hang out and planned to check out a street I hadn’t yet investigated. But I hadn’t gotten 50 feet before they came up to me. Ugh. I hoped if I humored them for a while they would eventually take the hint and leave (I kept mentioning things I intended to do that day), but they would not just go away. Eventually I just decided to chat with them and not fuss about it, but then eventually they broke out their wares. They wanted me to take some of it back to the US, and then once I sold it I could wire them the money. I had already suggested that there might be stores or websites that would open a larger market to them, but they didn’t seem to hear me. They also didn’t seem to hear me when I noted that they hemp bracelets and stuff they wanted me to take were not going to be easy for me to move, unlike the nicer beaded stuff they had. Finally, I was like, guys, I’m not a salesperson and I have my own crap to deal with this summer, I don’t have time to try to sell things you give me to take back. After a while they relented and then tried to sell me some things. I let this go on for a while as I felt like I probably did want a few more items, but the whole process of buying things here fucking annoys me. First the seller goes on about what a good price you’re getting because you’re friends and a nice person. Then a price gets quoted that isn’t that amazing at all. And then what? I’m supposed to bargain, apparently. But I was hot, tired, thirsty, uninterested, and there were ants crawling on me, not to mention I wasn’t really carrying a lot of money, so finally I was like, I’m leaving. The whole thing was just so annoying. I’m just so tired of being a means to an end for people I interact with here. It’s almost worse when people pretend they just want to hang out with you when really all they want is for you to do things for them. I don’t mind helping if it’s not incredibly burdensome, but there’s no way I’m going bring back a bunch of stuff to the US that no one I know has wanted since they were 12 and spend a lot of time trying to sell it. If they were willing to send me along with good stuff, I could easily help them; I don’t blame them for wanting to hang onto the better stuff, but come on. It was all just annoying.
So Sunday I just felt really annoyed. I hadn’t managed to do anything productive or fun in town, like get postcards or groceries or just sit in a nice restaurant and be fucking left alone. But I decided to venture back for groceries. I didn’t run into them, I got food and wine, and while I was waiting for the minibus, I ran into the office driver, G! G is really awesome. He’s the first person I met here when he got me from the airport, and he’s just always great. He manages to help me out without making me feel inept or awkward, which few here have been able to accomplish. He suggested we grab a minibus going the other way so I could get my bus at the main depot and be assured a seat; apparently full ones also sometimes bypass the shopping area. He had been at working cleaning out the car because he’s driving someone to Salima tomorrow morning ass early. It put me in a good mood to see someone I liked, and there was a cute little girl on the minibus who grinned at me the whole way home, and I actually managed to get the minibus to stop at my road, so it was a great trip and made me feel loads better.
I’ve been watching a lot of BBC Food. I think I find it way more fascinating since I have no kitchen. It makes me want to cook exciting things this summer. My diet here has just been lousy, and I want to totally detox once I get back. It’s funny, though, because there are shows devoted to desserts and fatty meat plates and these things, but then there’s this one show called “You Are What You Eat” on fatties who need to diet. I watched one with this mother and daughter who were both giant and drank a tank of alcohol a week and ate all kinds of hangover fried crap. The fascist nutritionist woman took samples of their “poos” and had this whole hilarious conversation with them about how she’d looked at their poos and they smelled awful and were the worst poos she’d ever come into contact with. So funny. Brits are great.
Monday after being in the field I went to the tour company place to pay for my trip. But, right now it appears I’m the only person signed up for it and there needs to be 4 people to go, so they guy suggested I wait. I will be super bummed if this doesn’t happen. I can go to Zambia for four days for the same price around the same dates and then maybe add a trip to the lake. But I really prefer to see more of Malawi while I’m here. But there’s still lots of time, so maybe people will sign up. I hope so. It’s like the one thing I really wanted to do that would make this trip fun.
I got a bunch of sound files from my friends at school, which was nice. The plan was to send something shortly after I got mugged, but it was right at the end of the school year so it took a few weeks. :) But it was nice to hear people’s voices. Only 3 more weeks until I return!
It looks like I’m going to go camping this weekend at the lake, which is good. Gives me something to do and then I’ll definitely get to see the lake if my trip doesn’t work out. I still have to look at some other options.
One hilarious thing that happened though was that on the way to the second village, we passed by all these kids who shouted in greeting, “How much?” The girls just cracked up and went on to repeat the phrase all week. Apparently, this was how the kids thought people said hello in English.
Wednesday may have also been the day I woke up and there was no water. I thought at first the toilet was busted, because the sink was working, but that was just temporary until the lines were emptied. Lame. I guess it adds variety from the usual routine of no power.
A major theme of the week was how to deal with the fact that the driver, who is a nice guy I have no interest in getting into trouble, was roughly doubling the mileage through some sort of driving shenanigans between when he left us one afternoon and picked me up the next morning. I suspect that perhaps he was running a little taxi service on afternoons when we returned early. Anyway, the girls said I should call the company. I had the office manager bug them, since she negotiated the contract with them. I suspect that this is common practice and that the company does not really discourage it, but will not charge for the extra if someone notices. On Friday, I just told the driver that the office wanted me to track miles each day and not by week. Of course, there’s still an issue with me paying for fuel and that being insanely expensive. But to a certain extent, I don’t care to fuss too much because it’s not even my money. Still, I don’t like the dishonesty. I was glad the girls agreed with me, so I didn’t feel like some sort of stingy foreign bitch.
It hasn’t rained in weeks, and the air has gotten a bit ooky. Between the dust, smoke from trash and maize husk fires, and car pollution, things have been a bit hazy.
One thing I noticed weeks ago but I think neglected to mention is that the sun is mostly north during the day and the stars look all wrong. Whoa, southern hemisphere.
I obtained a rod of sugarcane and a bag of groundnuts this past week, which I have been enjoying. I finished the sugarcane today. It was pretty thick, so the skin was hard to get off… I generally peeled it off with a knife because I didn’t want to break my poor teeth. Once you get the outside off, the rest is pretty easy. And tasty. It tastes a bit like watermelon, which is a testament to how much sugar is in watermelon. G, the office driver, told me that when he was in Blantyre with K earlier in the week, he saw a place that makes sugarcane juice so you can just drink it. It kind of takes the fun out of it (fun being doing something to stave off the mindnumbing boredom of living here), but I can see how it provides more immediate gratification. I still have lots of groundnuts. They’re nice and rooty and covered in soil. Not quite what you get at a baseball game.
I also ordered dinner Friday night, as I was really hungry. I got chambo, which is a type of tilapia from the lake, not to be confused with chamba, which also comes from the lake area, but which is pot. It was quite tasty and came with rice, vegetables, and a cole slaw that was actually really tasty.
Saturday was fucking annoying. I thought there might be fun happening, but K didn’t have her phone with her and never called me. Instead I went to the police station. Some cop came by on Friday while I was at work to say I should go over there because they had some guys. I thought perhaps they had recovered some of my stuff. But, no, they just had a bunch of guys they’d arrested for robbery in City Centre and wanted to see if any of them had robbed me. At first they tried to tell me that no one was around who was dealing with the case, so I should come back early Monday morning. I explained that I had no transport that early and I had taken a taxi over extra special for them. They found a CID officer, and so he got like 8 guys and lined them up in this weird outside hallway that reeked of urine. They sat up against the wall and I just stood in front of them and looked at them. There were two that maybe could be the guy, one of whom didn’t seem to want to look at me like the others. But he also appeared to be the youngest and was probably scared shitless about the whole thing. There was no way I was going to be able to positively identify any of them. Without any kind of evidence linking someone to me, I’m not just going to identify someone, because there’s just no way for me to remember accurately enough. The guy who robbed me was really just about as generic a young man as you can get. The CID officer said if they caught anyone else, they’d let me know, but I wanted to tell him not to bother… it’s a waste of time for me to try to identify someone without other evidence. So I left feel grumpy and depressed about the whole thing.
I got on a minibus and went to town. I had run into my jewelry-selling friends during the week, and they’d given me a couple of bracelets as “gifts” with the mutual acknowledgement that I’d probably be buying a few more items before I leave. I was hoping not to run into them because of my sour mood. I got off the bus further down than they usually hang out and planned to check out a street I hadn’t yet investigated. But I hadn’t gotten 50 feet before they came up to me. Ugh. I hoped if I humored them for a while they would eventually take the hint and leave (I kept mentioning things I intended to do that day), but they would not just go away. Eventually I just decided to chat with them and not fuss about it, but then eventually they broke out their wares. They wanted me to take some of it back to the US, and then once I sold it I could wire them the money. I had already suggested that there might be stores or websites that would open a larger market to them, but they didn’t seem to hear me. They also didn’t seem to hear me when I noted that they hemp bracelets and stuff they wanted me to take were not going to be easy for me to move, unlike the nicer beaded stuff they had. Finally, I was like, guys, I’m not a salesperson and I have my own crap to deal with this summer, I don’t have time to try to sell things you give me to take back. After a while they relented and then tried to sell me some things. I let this go on for a while as I felt like I probably did want a few more items, but the whole process of buying things here fucking annoys me. First the seller goes on about what a good price you’re getting because you’re friends and a nice person. Then a price gets quoted that isn’t that amazing at all. And then what? I’m supposed to bargain, apparently. But I was hot, tired, thirsty, uninterested, and there were ants crawling on me, not to mention I wasn’t really carrying a lot of money, so finally I was like, I’m leaving. The whole thing was just so annoying. I’m just so tired of being a means to an end for people I interact with here. It’s almost worse when people pretend they just want to hang out with you when really all they want is for you to do things for them. I don’t mind helping if it’s not incredibly burdensome, but there’s no way I’m going bring back a bunch of stuff to the US that no one I know has wanted since they were 12 and spend a lot of time trying to sell it. If they were willing to send me along with good stuff, I could easily help them; I don’t blame them for wanting to hang onto the better stuff, but come on. It was all just annoying.
So Sunday I just felt really annoyed. I hadn’t managed to do anything productive or fun in town, like get postcards or groceries or just sit in a nice restaurant and be fucking left alone. But I decided to venture back for groceries. I didn’t run into them, I got food and wine, and while I was waiting for the minibus, I ran into the office driver, G! G is really awesome. He’s the first person I met here when he got me from the airport, and he’s just always great. He manages to help me out without making me feel inept or awkward, which few here have been able to accomplish. He suggested we grab a minibus going the other way so I could get my bus at the main depot and be assured a seat; apparently full ones also sometimes bypass the shopping area. He had been at working cleaning out the car because he’s driving someone to Salima tomorrow morning ass early. It put me in a good mood to see someone I liked, and there was a cute little girl on the minibus who grinned at me the whole way home, and I actually managed to get the minibus to stop at my road, so it was a great trip and made me feel loads better.
I’ve been watching a lot of BBC Food. I think I find it way more fascinating since I have no kitchen. It makes me want to cook exciting things this summer. My diet here has just been lousy, and I want to totally detox once I get back. It’s funny, though, because there are shows devoted to desserts and fatty meat plates and these things, but then there’s this one show called “You Are What You Eat” on fatties who need to diet. I watched one with this mother and daughter who were both giant and drank a tank of alcohol a week and ate all kinds of hangover fried crap. The fascist nutritionist woman took samples of their “poos” and had this whole hilarious conversation with them about how she’d looked at their poos and they smelled awful and were the worst poos she’d ever come into contact with. So funny. Brits are great.
Monday after being in the field I went to the tour company place to pay for my trip. But, right now it appears I’m the only person signed up for it and there needs to be 4 people to go, so they guy suggested I wait. I will be super bummed if this doesn’t happen. I can go to Zambia for four days for the same price around the same dates and then maybe add a trip to the lake. But I really prefer to see more of Malawi while I’m here. But there’s still lots of time, so maybe people will sign up. I hope so. It’s like the one thing I really wanted to do that would make this trip fun.
I got a bunch of sound files from my friends at school, which was nice. The plan was to send something shortly after I got mugged, but it was right at the end of the school year so it took a few weeks. :) But it was nice to hear people’s voices. Only 3 more weeks until I return!
It looks like I’m going to go camping this weekend at the lake, which is good. Gives me something to do and then I’ll definitely get to see the lake if my trip doesn’t work out. I still have to look at some other options.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Safari!
Yesterday I started looking online to figure out my vacation plans. The places I looked had safaris that I felt were too expensive. I felt discouraged and began to wonder if maybe I could change my flight and come home earlier for less money. But then! I poked through Bradt Malawi and it mentioned a tour company that does budget tours. I just booked a tour with the exact places I wanted to go for just about the exact dates I wanted to go for the exact price I wanted to pay! So awesome! I'm so psyched! I'll be going to Blantyre, then to the Liwonde National Park, then to Cape Maclear at the lake. I'll be in a tent or whatever, but it's going to be awesome. I'll leave Monday, June 4 and return on Sunday 10, the day before I leave. This has totally put me in a much better mood about being here!
I also got a new phone number, although the DHL has not yet arrived so I have no phone to plunk the new SIM card into. You can reach me at 265-812-1170 until I leave!
I also got a new phone number, although the DHL has not yet arrived so I have no phone to plunk the new SIM card into. You can reach me at 265-812-1170 until I leave!
Monday, May 14, 2007
One month to go!
Friday I went home and then got a cab to Foodworth’s, since all I had in my room to eat was one packet of oatmeal, some white raisins, and a chocolate bar. I completely mis-estimated how much money to bring home with me (most of it is locked in a drawer at work), so when I checked out at the store I was like 1900 MK short (almost $14!). I should have figured that since I had no food I would need a lot of money if I wanted to buy everything I desired, but I just didn’t think about it enough. I removed a few items, but the manager didn’t want me to leave with no wine, so he chipped in his own money and told me to pay him back whenever I was next in. It was kind of embarrassing, but I got my wine.
Which I drank while watching Sex in the City, which K had lent me. I didn’t think I would like it, but I actually found it entertaining, even though SJP’s character is super irritating. From what I can tell, Mr. Big is probably an asshole, but she’s such a freak all the time that he comes off as reasonable for not dealing with her crap in this very calm way. But really he’d probably ignore her no matter what. But she has to stop acting like a freak so we can all know for sure.
I also watched this show on BBC Prime called 3 Non-Blondes in which these three black women go around England doing crazy things and secretly recording the reactions of nearby people. It’s really funny. K recommended it last weekend, and I’m glad she did.
Saturday I volunteered to go to this workshop for the household survey, since I’d been to all the rest of the training and R wasn’t here for this one. The good thing is that we went to the office first so I could get more money. The bad thing was that it was totally boring and I had little to contribute. We did find some kinks still in the survey, however.
Sunday, I went to the Capital Hotel in the morning to try to send my mother an email for Mother’s Days, but it was too early for stuff to be open. I went back later and used the internet, got a haircut, and read my magazine while having a couple MGTs (Malawi Gin and tonics), all for under $14. That may be the only thing I miss about this place – how friggin’ cheap things are. The haircut isn’t bad, but I wish the back were shorter.
Today I just felt really depressed and homesick. The village was pretty lively, but once again people ask me for things, and I just feel overwhelmed and irritated. One young man noted that he wasn’t in school because he didn’t have money for the fees. He’s not going to get much support from people in the village given how many primary school-aged kids I saw wandering around today. The girls were shaking their heads at it – primary school is free, so there’s no excuse for that. He was enthusiastic about my Harvard Magazine, so I gave it to him. Gives him something to read in English for practice. I’m destined not to read them anyway, given my last one was stolen. He also noted that he wanted to get an HIV test, but there was no transport to the hospital to get one. This afternoon, I think the women thought I was the lady who normally brings fertilizer. Sadly, none of them had enough schooling to speak English, so none of them could talk to me. The whole place just makes me want to go home and not have to deal with endless problems.
Also, no one lets me do anything here, which makes me feel weak and useless. I hate this place sometimes. I want to go back to where I can do things for myself. I can also tell that people are always laughing at me and making jokes about me… I’m not entertainment, I’m a person, so fuck off. I don’t laugh at people here. I don’t gawk at them. I treat them like people. Is that too much to ask?
Which I drank while watching Sex in the City, which K had lent me. I didn’t think I would like it, but I actually found it entertaining, even though SJP’s character is super irritating. From what I can tell, Mr. Big is probably an asshole, but she’s such a freak all the time that he comes off as reasonable for not dealing with her crap in this very calm way. But really he’d probably ignore her no matter what. But she has to stop acting like a freak so we can all know for sure.
I also watched this show on BBC Prime called 3 Non-Blondes in which these three black women go around England doing crazy things and secretly recording the reactions of nearby people. It’s really funny. K recommended it last weekend, and I’m glad she did.
Saturday I volunteered to go to this workshop for the household survey, since I’d been to all the rest of the training and R wasn’t here for this one. The good thing is that we went to the office first so I could get more money. The bad thing was that it was totally boring and I had little to contribute. We did find some kinks still in the survey, however.
Sunday, I went to the Capital Hotel in the morning to try to send my mother an email for Mother’s Days, but it was too early for stuff to be open. I went back later and used the internet, got a haircut, and read my magazine while having a couple MGTs (Malawi Gin and tonics), all for under $14. That may be the only thing I miss about this place – how friggin’ cheap things are. The haircut isn’t bad, but I wish the back were shorter.
Today I just felt really depressed and homesick. The village was pretty lively, but once again people ask me for things, and I just feel overwhelmed and irritated. One young man noted that he wasn’t in school because he didn’t have money for the fees. He’s not going to get much support from people in the village given how many primary school-aged kids I saw wandering around today. The girls were shaking their heads at it – primary school is free, so there’s no excuse for that. He was enthusiastic about my Harvard Magazine, so I gave it to him. Gives him something to read in English for practice. I’m destined not to read them anyway, given my last one was stolen. He also noted that he wanted to get an HIV test, but there was no transport to the hospital to get one. This afternoon, I think the women thought I was the lady who normally brings fertilizer. Sadly, none of them had enough schooling to speak English, so none of them could talk to me. The whole place just makes me want to go home and not have to deal with endless problems.
Also, no one lets me do anything here, which makes me feel weak and useless. I hate this place sometimes. I want to go back to where I can do things for myself. I can also tell that people are always laughing at me and making jokes about me… I’m not entertainment, I’m a person, so fuck off. I don’t laugh at people here. I don’t gawk at them. I treat them like people. Is that too much to ask?
Friday, May 11, 2007
Donors wanted
Tuesday the most exciting thing that happened was that I figured out I could connect to the printer in my office using a USB cable, thereby bypassing the network, since I can’t seem to connect that way. It seems to confuse the printer a little bit and takes a while to switch back to accepting jobs from people on the network, but people seem to be able to deal with it so far.
Wednesday was the first official day of data collection. We got out the door in good time, but then things slowed us down. People’s didn’t have a bottle opener (“But you sell bottles!” I told one of the employees), so we had to stop at Likuni market and wander around until we found one. Then the CBO head was late because he’d gone to town to pay for an examination fee and was taking the minibus back. It’s too bad we didn’t know that, since we, like, came from town and could have picked him up there. But S and I talked to a woman from the CBO about how undereducated girls are, because as soon as a family is short on school fees they pull the girls out of school. Lame. It’s yet another big issue that makes me wonder why I’m exerting energies on a radio program; then again, this is an issue that can be partly addressed through a communication campaign, so I guess I shouldn’t rag on my project too much.
The CBO head arrived and then we drove for about a million years down a dirt road all the way to Kamuzu Dam and beyond. I have to say, though, both villages were up above this green valley and the view was gorgeous. I feel like I just relaxed in paradise all day. In the morning, we had men listening to the radio diaries. That was fine, and then it was time for interviews and I went to the truck to get drinks. When I returned, all the men who were not being interviewed were sitting around reading these HIV booklets we’d brought for folks. I thought, oh, how nice they have something to read while they wait, but then I thought, oh crap, HIV booklets! Hello, they haven’t been interviewed yet. I don’t think it matters terribly, but I was peeved about it for a while. I got myself unpeeved before mentioning it to S, and she totally got it right away and said that we should hand them out after. Yeah, no kidding.
The other thing that peeved me in the morning was that I’d only put 2 boxes of cookies in the carton instead of 4, so each group had to share one measly box of cookies. Like I don’t already feel enough like an asshole for not having real study incentives.
The afternoon village was women, listening to the program and then having a discussion. It seemed to go well, and the women interacted even though one was more talkative. She was particularly funny, making me sad that I can’t understand any of the jokes here because I only know like 15 words of Chichewa. All in all, the day seemed to go very well. We dropped off the CBO head and went downtown so I could hit the money bureau again. As if getting a ton of money in 500 kwacha stacks isn’t bad enough, they only had 200s. I really could roll around in the stuff. I ran into my pals George and Brian as I headed back to the car and told them about getting mugged. They keep saying I should go up to the lake and they’ll be my guides some weekend, but I just can’t convince myself that’s a good idea, even though a lot of perfectly nice folks do that kind of freelance guiding for tourists.
Back at the office I furiously checked email and printed surveys in my half hour before going home. If we ever get back too late to do that I’m either going to have to stay late and get a taxi home or come in really early the next day. I thought about trying to come in Saturday to work, but I think I volunteered myself to go to the one-day training for the household survey interviewers before they take off for the districts on Sunday, which is work that turns out not to help me at all. I feel like I should go, though, since I was at the rest of the training, and R isn’t around for this one. At some point I desperately need to go grocery shopping because I have no food at all.
Wednesday I had three new food experiences. One I actually didn’t quite experience yet, but I figured out a curiosity I’d had. I’ve seen people on the road doing something that looked like eating big sticks, which I thought seemed odd. Turns out that they are actually peeling the outside off with their teeth, because the inside is this fibrous material that gets waterlogged, and so people suck the water out of it. I figured that this was an easy way to get water on the go, like the water bottle of Malawi. Turns out? It's sugarcane! So now I really have to try some. Everyone thought my excitement about this was really funny, since people grow the stuff for personal use pretty much everywhere. The second thing was ground nuts. A guy came over with what looked like a big pile of weeds with peanuts dangling on the ends as roots. The nuts themselves were more rooty than nutty, and I think they’d be better roasted. The third thing was cooked pumpkin. The secretary took one of the pumpkins home and brought me some that she’d cooked. It was darn good. I just ate it, I didn’t put anything on it. It was a pleasing thing to scarf down as I was scurrying around at the end of the day.
Thursday we were mega fast and were back at the office by 2:30. It was awesome. I had time to print surveys for Friday and check my email a bit and then I told Joe to call me when he came online at 4. I hadn’t talked to him on the phone since I got mugged, so it was great to talk to him in better spirits. He’s sending me another phone he got from a friend, so I will be hooked up again next Tuesday or so.
I left work and there was no lift, so I took the minibus with the secretary. It took forever to get one that wasn’t jammed full, and it was getting dark when I arrived home, to my displeasure. I really had no food, but I had one package of ramen, and a migraine was brewing. I grabbed the water kettle to fill it, and the power went out. Fuck. I ate a candy bar, but it didn’t help, so I just laid around in bed until the lights returned and I could eat. I felt much better.
I’ve been feeling a little irked while being out with the research crew. I don’t expect them to speak English the entire time I’m around since I’m the only one who doesn’t speak Chichewa, but I wish they’d let me in on the conversation a little bit here and there. You know, like every hour or so give me a sentence or two summary of what’s going on. Sometimes based on the little I do understand I suspect that I’m being mocked, but maybe I’m just paranoid. Talking to Joe Thursday he said that he expected that around halfway through my trip as I am, I’d be really into being here, and maybe when I get back I’d miss it here. I don’t really think that’s going to be the case. I’m not really in love with this place. It’s okay for a visit, but I don’t think I’ll be eager to come back.
Today the CBO guy, M, that was our guide brought with him a list of things that the group would like to have to do more in the community, for my reference if I can help find donors. It reads as follows:
PROBLEMS MASUNA FACED AS A CHARITY ORGANIZATION
1) Lack of Child Based Community Care (CBCC): as a result, children/orphan learn(?) on the ground (I guess that means no school? I’m not sure. Anyway, every group that does orphan care lacks enough money to really do it well).
2) Lack of entertainment materials such as football, netball, basketball that can make our youth busy instead of indulging into bad behaviour.
3) We have resources in our community or catchment area such as land/dambo that we can cultivate and doing wintercropping but we are failed due to lack of agricultural inputs ie seeds, fertilizer, treadle pumps.
4) Lack of real income generating activity that can make our charity organization to be sustainable. (I was telling the guy that while some of these needs are easy to fill, I have no idea how you take a society where no one has money to buy things from anyone else and make the economy work… it seems like a lot of money has to be infused and jobs created all at once, and you need a stronger government or private sector for that).
5) We have a big catchment area; as a results, we failed to visit some areas due to inadequate transport, ie bicycles or motorcycles.
6) Difficult to transport our clients (people with HIV, from what I can tell) to the nearest hospitals due to lack of ambulance bicycles.
In addition to this list, M introduced me to an older man in the village whose legs are all screwed up from polio. He would like a bicycle; they have these ones here that work by hand crank for people in his situation. He currently repairs shoes but only gets like 2 MK per pair for that, which is way less than a penny. He wants to open a food shop. I think getting him the bicycle is easy enough, but I don’t know that it will help him make any more money. There are plenty of able-bodied people that can’t find work around. If people are only paying him 2 kwacha to repair their shoes, there is a bigger issue here than him not being able to get around as much as he’d like.
So, being here has made me see that there are lots of little things that people would like to make life easier. But there are major systemic problems that require smart solutions that can help whole communities get on their feet. It’s good to know about these things, even if currently I can only think of ways to address the small stuff. Maybe by putting these issues out there also, someone with more resources or ideas will come upon them.
Wednesday was the first official day of data collection. We got out the door in good time, but then things slowed us down. People’s didn’t have a bottle opener (“But you sell bottles!” I told one of the employees), so we had to stop at Likuni market and wander around until we found one. Then the CBO head was late because he’d gone to town to pay for an examination fee and was taking the minibus back. It’s too bad we didn’t know that, since we, like, came from town and could have picked him up there. But S and I talked to a woman from the CBO about how undereducated girls are, because as soon as a family is short on school fees they pull the girls out of school. Lame. It’s yet another big issue that makes me wonder why I’m exerting energies on a radio program; then again, this is an issue that can be partly addressed through a communication campaign, so I guess I shouldn’t rag on my project too much.
The CBO head arrived and then we drove for about a million years down a dirt road all the way to Kamuzu Dam and beyond. I have to say, though, both villages were up above this green valley and the view was gorgeous. I feel like I just relaxed in paradise all day. In the morning, we had men listening to the radio diaries. That was fine, and then it was time for interviews and I went to the truck to get drinks. When I returned, all the men who were not being interviewed were sitting around reading these HIV booklets we’d brought for folks. I thought, oh, how nice they have something to read while they wait, but then I thought, oh crap, HIV booklets! Hello, they haven’t been interviewed yet. I don’t think it matters terribly, but I was peeved about it for a while. I got myself unpeeved before mentioning it to S, and she totally got it right away and said that we should hand them out after. Yeah, no kidding.
The other thing that peeved me in the morning was that I’d only put 2 boxes of cookies in the carton instead of 4, so each group had to share one measly box of cookies. Like I don’t already feel enough like an asshole for not having real study incentives.
The afternoon village was women, listening to the program and then having a discussion. It seemed to go well, and the women interacted even though one was more talkative. She was particularly funny, making me sad that I can’t understand any of the jokes here because I only know like 15 words of Chichewa. All in all, the day seemed to go very well. We dropped off the CBO head and went downtown so I could hit the money bureau again. As if getting a ton of money in 500 kwacha stacks isn’t bad enough, they only had 200s. I really could roll around in the stuff. I ran into my pals George and Brian as I headed back to the car and told them about getting mugged. They keep saying I should go up to the lake and they’ll be my guides some weekend, but I just can’t convince myself that’s a good idea, even though a lot of perfectly nice folks do that kind of freelance guiding for tourists.
Back at the office I furiously checked email and printed surveys in my half hour before going home. If we ever get back too late to do that I’m either going to have to stay late and get a taxi home or come in really early the next day. I thought about trying to come in Saturday to work, but I think I volunteered myself to go to the one-day training for the household survey interviewers before they take off for the districts on Sunday, which is work that turns out not to help me at all. I feel like I should go, though, since I was at the rest of the training, and R isn’t around for this one. At some point I desperately need to go grocery shopping because I have no food at all.
Wednesday I had three new food experiences. One I actually didn’t quite experience yet, but I figured out a curiosity I’d had. I’ve seen people on the road doing something that looked like eating big sticks, which I thought seemed odd. Turns out that they are actually peeling the outside off with their teeth, because the inside is this fibrous material that gets waterlogged, and so people suck the water out of it. I figured that this was an easy way to get water on the go, like the water bottle of Malawi. Turns out? It's sugarcane! So now I really have to try some. Everyone thought my excitement about this was really funny, since people grow the stuff for personal use pretty much everywhere. The second thing was ground nuts. A guy came over with what looked like a big pile of weeds with peanuts dangling on the ends as roots. The nuts themselves were more rooty than nutty, and I think they’d be better roasted. The third thing was cooked pumpkin. The secretary took one of the pumpkins home and brought me some that she’d cooked. It was darn good. I just ate it, I didn’t put anything on it. It was a pleasing thing to scarf down as I was scurrying around at the end of the day.
Thursday we were mega fast and were back at the office by 2:30. It was awesome. I had time to print surveys for Friday and check my email a bit and then I told Joe to call me when he came online at 4. I hadn’t talked to him on the phone since I got mugged, so it was great to talk to him in better spirits. He’s sending me another phone he got from a friend, so I will be hooked up again next Tuesday or so.
I left work and there was no lift, so I took the minibus with the secretary. It took forever to get one that wasn’t jammed full, and it was getting dark when I arrived home, to my displeasure. I really had no food, but I had one package of ramen, and a migraine was brewing. I grabbed the water kettle to fill it, and the power went out. Fuck. I ate a candy bar, but it didn’t help, so I just laid around in bed until the lights returned and I could eat. I felt much better.
I’ve been feeling a little irked while being out with the research crew. I don’t expect them to speak English the entire time I’m around since I’m the only one who doesn’t speak Chichewa, but I wish they’d let me in on the conversation a little bit here and there. You know, like every hour or so give me a sentence or two summary of what’s going on. Sometimes based on the little I do understand I suspect that I’m being mocked, but maybe I’m just paranoid. Talking to Joe Thursday he said that he expected that around halfway through my trip as I am, I’d be really into being here, and maybe when I get back I’d miss it here. I don’t really think that’s going to be the case. I’m not really in love with this place. It’s okay for a visit, but I don’t think I’ll be eager to come back.
Today the CBO guy, M, that was our guide brought with him a list of things that the group would like to have to do more in the community, for my reference if I can help find donors. It reads as follows:
PROBLEMS MASUNA FACED AS A CHARITY ORGANIZATION
1) Lack of Child Based Community Care (CBCC): as a result, children/orphan learn(?) on the ground (I guess that means no school? I’m not sure. Anyway, every group that does orphan care lacks enough money to really do it well).
2) Lack of entertainment materials such as football, netball, basketball that can make our youth busy instead of indulging into bad behaviour.
3) We have resources in our community or catchment area such as land/dambo that we can cultivate and doing wintercropping but we are failed due to lack of agricultural inputs ie seeds, fertilizer, treadle pumps.
4) Lack of real income generating activity that can make our charity organization to be sustainable. (I was telling the guy that while some of these needs are easy to fill, I have no idea how you take a society where no one has money to buy things from anyone else and make the economy work… it seems like a lot of money has to be infused and jobs created all at once, and you need a stronger government or private sector for that).
5) We have a big catchment area; as a results, we failed to visit some areas due to inadequate transport, ie bicycles or motorcycles.
6) Difficult to transport our clients (people with HIV, from what I can tell) to the nearest hospitals due to lack of ambulance bicycles.
In addition to this list, M introduced me to an older man in the village whose legs are all screwed up from polio. He would like a bicycle; they have these ones here that work by hand crank for people in his situation. He currently repairs shoes but only gets like 2 MK per pair for that, which is way less than a penny. He wants to open a food shop. I think getting him the bicycle is easy enough, but I don’t know that it will help him make any more money. There are plenty of able-bodied people that can’t find work around. If people are only paying him 2 kwacha to repair their shoes, there is a bigger issue here than him not being able to get around as much as he’d like.
So, being here has made me see that there are lots of little things that people would like to make life easier. But there are major systemic problems that require smart solutions that can help whole communities get on their feet. It’s good to know about these things, even if currently I can only think of ways to address the small stuff. Maybe by putting these issues out there also, someone with more resources or ideas will come upon them.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Adventures
So I didn’t have internet all day Thursday… it really sucked. We were switching ISPs, and I couldn’t get my computer to connect until the very end of the day. Boo. Anyway, I went to bed really early on Wednesday night and slept forever. It was great. So I felt pretty good Thursday. I went to the main branch of the useless police station, where the woman told me to come back at three because the report wasn’t ready or she couldn’t get to it or some bullshit. I had noticed Wednesday at the mini-station that no one really seemed to be doing anything but hanging around. I asked the woman at the main station if the police would bother to look in the area where my bag was probably ditched to see if they could find it, and she was all, no. I guess they don’t do things like patrol the area to keep people from being mugged and/or actually investigate crimes. Then again, I’d probably be better off with a random citizen finding it, because I don’t really trust the police here to actually give me back my stuff if they found it. The constable at the mini-station was just sketchy… he seemed like a would-be criminal who decided being a police officer would give him enough power over others.
At the embassy I gave them my passport photos so they could get my limited passport together for today. I have two photos left which I kind of want to give to Joe, although the smart thing to do would be to hang on to them for when I get a real passport back in the states. My hair looks funny because the guy said I had to have my ears showing, but they’re otherwise rather cute.
We went shopping for office supplies and cookies, which was exciting. Other than that it was mad boring without the internet.
Friday my two new RAs came in, and we all met to talk about the study. Then the three RAs went through the questions with S in charge while I went off to deal with more passport madness. First stop, police station, where this woman basically filled out a really short form and then charged me a few bucks for it. Stupid. Then I went to the embassy, where they made me wait forever. I think all the people in the consular’s office were having a meeting. But eventually I got my freebie limited passport along with a letter telling me what I need to get a real one and some photocopies for me to carry around instead of the passport. Which is what I should have been doing in the first place. On the other hand, if I had to lose something, the passport wasn’t the worst thing by far – it was fairly easy to replace, at least temporarily, and the old one had an ugly photo.
After that we went to Immigration for a visa. But since there are no computer systems in this country, they sent me to the airport where I got the initial visa, because that is where the record is if you fly in. The driver, G, and I were talking about how there’s no way they could possibly know if you’ve overstayed your visa until you’re leaving, at which point why would they care because the whole point of a visa is to limit your stay. At any rate, they re-stamped my passport with the original date, as if we were going back in time to the day I arrived (I even had to fill out the card they give you on the plane), which means I have to go back to Immigration next week when the visa is up to get it extended.
Going to the airport was a little too tempting. :) It made me think about how happy I’ll be when the study is done and I’m headed home.
If my schedule goes to plan, I should be done with my study by June 1 or so, giving me at least a sold week to do some fun things around Malawi. Trouble is, I’m having a hard time wanting to do these things by myself, and after the whole mugging, I’m a little freaked out about doing anything anywhere, frankly. I don’t want to spend loads of money, but I also feel like I should minimize my risks as much as possible, which might mean things like car rental instead of buses to places. I could check out some of these tour operators – this might be the way to go, because they will have packages and maybe even companions. Part of me wants to say fuckit and just go home early, but it seems like a waste to come here and not take advantage of it a bit. I’m pondering a southern route down to Blantyre and then up through Liwonde National Park to Cape Maclear. That way I get other city, national park, lake.
Saturday I went with K to a village called Mabulabo near Mzimba for a 10th anniversary celebration of their HIV/AIDS group there. It took about two hours to get there, thanks to low traffic. The landscape didn’t change a ton, but there were some interesting rocky hills and trees. Once there, K asked someone at the office where we were supposed to go. This person turned out to be the Traditional Authority, who K didn’t recognize because he was new – the old one had died. The TA is like the big super important chief for the whole area, so it was kind of funny that she just was like, hey, we’re lost, help. We were met by a posse of Japanese people! Apparently Japan also has some development and HIV/AIDS projects in the area, so that was cool to meet those guys.
It appeared that although festivities were supposed to start at 9, they were waiting for us to even start getting things prepared. We didn’t arrive until nearly 10. Things didn’t actually get started until like noon, which is just crazy amounts of delay. We had to sit in a classroom the whole time trying to make conversation. Finally the events began. The TA and K (designated the guest of honor, despite the fact that she was hoping just to hang out and have fun) were surrounded by the impi, the traditional zulu warriors. They wore all kinds of crazy hats and animal skins and beads and jingly ankle bells and carried spears and shields. There were also women accompanying in blue dresses and beads. They all sang and the men stomped so the bells all rang. We proceeded to the field and sat under a tent.
It was kind of like Commencement: sitting under a tent, some musical entertainment and other fun intermixed with boring but ceremonial speeches. I noticed that the inside of the tent was decorated with bright blue toilet paper. I guess when you make bright blue toilet paper, you might as well use it for decoration. Ironic, though, that in the bathroom there were only actual pieces of paper instead of teepee. The day was only really fun when the entertaining stuff was happening, because I couldn’t understand any of the speeches. Although the plays were also lost on me, which was sad because it seemed as if they were pretty hilarious. But there was dancing and an acrobat show, so that was cool.
K had to be the one in her speech to note that condoms are useful and part of any good HIV prevention plan, because the frigging district AIDS coordinator basically neglected them in his desire to focus on abstinence only with maybe a dash of be faithful. She said there’s still this whole attitude that there are no real ways to prevent HIV, so you might as well do whatever you want once sex is involved. So annoying.
The drive back took about three hours thanks to a lot of big slow trucks on the road. The M1 is only two lanes, so you have to do a lot of that passing on the other side’s lane. It reminded me of driving around northern NM. With every small town on the road being like driving through Cuba, full of things you don’t really want to stop to visit.
Upon our return I went to K’s house for a Cinco de Mayo barbecue. The power was out when we got there, and B was running around, poor guy. Someone brought tequila, so there were margaritas, which was exciting. The food was good, as always, and there were many fun people there.
I had terrible dreams Saturday night. One involved the characters of Dexter; Doakes totally beat the crap out of Mazuka because he thought he was hitting on some girl he liked, but it was so horribly violent that I was screaming at the television. Yech. I also dreamed that Citizen’s bank charged me $300 for an address change I didn’t notify them about, and they were planning to charge me $300 a week the entire time I would be here. But fortunately in real life they’ve been totally awesome and a woman from there even called me at the office to help me get a new debit card issued and cancel the stolen checks since I couldn’t call them. They definitely win in my book. The rest of my dreams were normal and fine.
News on the TV about things diappearing that makes me feel better about my lost possessions: 1) Kid being abducted in Portugal – losing a camera pales in comparison to having your kid disappear. 2) KA flight disappearing in Cameroon. 3) Town in Kansas getting totally f’d by a tornado. I was wondering why this one was all over the national news on the radio yesterday, but now that I see the TV coverage, I can see why. It’s crazy. The trees don’t even have bark anymore! The whole town is rubble!
Sunday I watched movies because I didn’t have any money and couldn’t go anywhere. I started to watch Romeo + Juliet, but then the power went out halfway through. I watched Gandhi. I planned to watch Logan’s Run, but the power went out again, so I watched Little Miss Sunshine on my laptop instead.
Today we did our pilot test of the study... thank goodness. I'm moving from a pre/post design to a post-test only design, because our grand plans for everyone to fill out little forms full of numbers as we read questions for the post-test totally doesn't work here. Everyone is just confused, and then they confer with all their neighbors about what to do, meaning that none of their responses are private. For the pre-test we were doing one-on-one interviews, but the post-test is the actual important part, so we need to do one-on-one interviews for that and just forget a pretest. Anyway, we did that in the afternoon and it seemed to go well.
At the embassy I gave them my passport photos so they could get my limited passport together for today. I have two photos left which I kind of want to give to Joe, although the smart thing to do would be to hang on to them for when I get a real passport back in the states. My hair looks funny because the guy said I had to have my ears showing, but they’re otherwise rather cute.
We went shopping for office supplies and cookies, which was exciting. Other than that it was mad boring without the internet.
Friday my two new RAs came in, and we all met to talk about the study. Then the three RAs went through the questions with S in charge while I went off to deal with more passport madness. First stop, police station, where this woman basically filled out a really short form and then charged me a few bucks for it. Stupid. Then I went to the embassy, where they made me wait forever. I think all the people in the consular’s office were having a meeting. But eventually I got my freebie limited passport along with a letter telling me what I need to get a real one and some photocopies for me to carry around instead of the passport. Which is what I should have been doing in the first place. On the other hand, if I had to lose something, the passport wasn’t the worst thing by far – it was fairly easy to replace, at least temporarily, and the old one had an ugly photo.
After that we went to Immigration for a visa. But since there are no computer systems in this country, they sent me to the airport where I got the initial visa, because that is where the record is if you fly in. The driver, G, and I were talking about how there’s no way they could possibly know if you’ve overstayed your visa until you’re leaving, at which point why would they care because the whole point of a visa is to limit your stay. At any rate, they re-stamped my passport with the original date, as if we were going back in time to the day I arrived (I even had to fill out the card they give you on the plane), which means I have to go back to Immigration next week when the visa is up to get it extended.
Going to the airport was a little too tempting. :) It made me think about how happy I’ll be when the study is done and I’m headed home.
If my schedule goes to plan, I should be done with my study by June 1 or so, giving me at least a sold week to do some fun things around Malawi. Trouble is, I’m having a hard time wanting to do these things by myself, and after the whole mugging, I’m a little freaked out about doing anything anywhere, frankly. I don’t want to spend loads of money, but I also feel like I should minimize my risks as much as possible, which might mean things like car rental instead of buses to places. I could check out some of these tour operators – this might be the way to go, because they will have packages and maybe even companions. Part of me wants to say fuckit and just go home early, but it seems like a waste to come here and not take advantage of it a bit. I’m pondering a southern route down to Blantyre and then up through Liwonde National Park to Cape Maclear. That way I get other city, national park, lake.
Saturday I went with K to a village called Mabulabo near Mzimba for a 10th anniversary celebration of their HIV/AIDS group there. It took about two hours to get there, thanks to low traffic. The landscape didn’t change a ton, but there were some interesting rocky hills and trees. Once there, K asked someone at the office where we were supposed to go. This person turned out to be the Traditional Authority, who K didn’t recognize because he was new – the old one had died. The TA is like the big super important chief for the whole area, so it was kind of funny that she just was like, hey, we’re lost, help. We were met by a posse of Japanese people! Apparently Japan also has some development and HIV/AIDS projects in the area, so that was cool to meet those guys.
It appeared that although festivities were supposed to start at 9, they were waiting for us to even start getting things prepared. We didn’t arrive until nearly 10. Things didn’t actually get started until like noon, which is just crazy amounts of delay. We had to sit in a classroom the whole time trying to make conversation. Finally the events began. The TA and K (designated the guest of honor, despite the fact that she was hoping just to hang out and have fun) were surrounded by the impi, the traditional zulu warriors. They wore all kinds of crazy hats and animal skins and beads and jingly ankle bells and carried spears and shields. There were also women accompanying in blue dresses and beads. They all sang and the men stomped so the bells all rang. We proceeded to the field and sat under a tent.
It was kind of like Commencement: sitting under a tent, some musical entertainment and other fun intermixed with boring but ceremonial speeches. I noticed that the inside of the tent was decorated with bright blue toilet paper. I guess when you make bright blue toilet paper, you might as well use it for decoration. Ironic, though, that in the bathroom there were only actual pieces of paper instead of teepee. The day was only really fun when the entertaining stuff was happening, because I couldn’t understand any of the speeches. Although the plays were also lost on me, which was sad because it seemed as if they were pretty hilarious. But there was dancing and an acrobat show, so that was cool.
K had to be the one in her speech to note that condoms are useful and part of any good HIV prevention plan, because the frigging district AIDS coordinator basically neglected them in his desire to focus on abstinence only with maybe a dash of be faithful. She said there’s still this whole attitude that there are no real ways to prevent HIV, so you might as well do whatever you want once sex is involved. So annoying.
The drive back took about three hours thanks to a lot of big slow trucks on the road. The M1 is only two lanes, so you have to do a lot of that passing on the other side’s lane. It reminded me of driving around northern NM. With every small town on the road being like driving through Cuba, full of things you don’t really want to stop to visit.
Upon our return I went to K’s house for a Cinco de Mayo barbecue. The power was out when we got there, and B was running around, poor guy. Someone brought tequila, so there were margaritas, which was exciting. The food was good, as always, and there were many fun people there.
I had terrible dreams Saturday night. One involved the characters of Dexter; Doakes totally beat the crap out of Mazuka because he thought he was hitting on some girl he liked, but it was so horribly violent that I was screaming at the television. Yech. I also dreamed that Citizen’s bank charged me $300 for an address change I didn’t notify them about, and they were planning to charge me $300 a week the entire time I would be here. But fortunately in real life they’ve been totally awesome and a woman from there even called me at the office to help me get a new debit card issued and cancel the stolen checks since I couldn’t call them. They definitely win in my book. The rest of my dreams were normal and fine.
News on the TV about things diappearing that makes me feel better about my lost possessions: 1) Kid being abducted in Portugal – losing a camera pales in comparison to having your kid disappear. 2) KA flight disappearing in Cameroon. 3) Town in Kansas getting totally f’d by a tornado. I was wondering why this one was all over the national news on the radio yesterday, but now that I see the TV coverage, I can see why. It’s crazy. The trees don’t even have bark anymore! The whole town is rubble!
Sunday I watched movies because I didn’t have any money and couldn’t go anywhere. I started to watch Romeo + Juliet, but then the power went out halfway through. I watched Gandhi. I planned to watch Logan’s Run, but the power went out again, so I watched Little Miss Sunshine on my laptop instead.
Today we did our pilot test of the study... thank goodness. I'm moving from a pre/post design to a post-test only design, because our grand plans for everyone to fill out little forms full of numbers as we read questions for the post-test totally doesn't work here. Everyone is just confused, and then they confer with all their neighbors about what to do, meaning that none of their responses are private. For the pre-test we were doing one-on-one interviews, but the post-test is the actual important part, so we need to do one-on-one interviews for that and just forget a pretest. Anyway, we did that in the afternoon and it seemed to go well.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Adventures in bureaucracy
I went to the embassy and filled out some forms. But before I can get a passport, I need photos. Also, the police report of the theft so they can verify it was stolen. Also, I'm supposed to pay: at first it looked like almost $100, but they waived some fee to make it $67, but then when I mentioned that I'm low on cash given the robbery, they said they could do a freebie limited passport and I could get a real one when I return to the states. I'll probably just do the freebie, unless I decide to dip into my currently limited (but sufficient) funds.
So, we went to the police station to get a copy of the report. But what they have isn't considered the official report, just the statement that has to be filed with the main office so an official stamped report can be issued. We drove the constable over to the main branch, and there they told us that tomorrow they'd have it ready. So then we went to get the passport photo, which I took and will return to get when I go back to old town to pick up supplies for at least the meeting tomorrow. I had been planning to buy all the supplies, but now I don't know. I'm so tired, I could just fall asleep.
So, we went to the police station to get a copy of the report. But what they have isn't considered the official report, just the statement that has to be filed with the main office so an official stamped report can be issued. We drove the constable over to the main branch, and there they told us that tomorrow they'd have it ready. So then we went to get the passport photo, which I took and will return to get when I go back to old town to pick up supplies for at least the meeting tomorrow. I had been planning to buy all the supplies, but now I don't know. I'm so tired, I could just fall asleep.
Mugged
So, yesterday for the holiday the plan was to get a haircut, maybe grab some wine at Foodworth’s, maybe have some lunch at Cloud’s, and hit the forex to stock up on cash before heading home. I thought about bringing my laptop along for the trip, since Cloud’s allegedly has a wifi hotspot, but I decided it was too heavy.
Thank goodness.
Right behind the friggin buildings with the hair salon and Foodworth’s, some guy jacked my purse. I was coming off a dirt road onto the street, and he was coming up the street. I was in front of him, and he just grabbed the bag from behind. I had a good grip on it and made a strong showing in tug of war, but he had a knife, so he wins. (As Am joked, if you were packing heat you’d be the winner!). He actually got me in the arm a tiny bit with the blade (the size of a big paper cut), and a have a belly bruise where he grazed me as a threat to get me to back off. Once he took off, I ran after him hollering; he made like he was coming back at me to get me to knock off, but people started coming out and he ran away. He actually dropped the knife at one point as he ran, and I thought maybe he was going to ditch the weapon, but he picked it up as he ran away. Or maybe he thought I’d grab it and come after him (not unlikely, I was pretty determined to do what I could to get my stuff back). A really impressive number of guys from the surrounding buildings took off after the guy in response to my shouts, but apparently he disappeared into the bushes. Damn bushes. The number of people responding certainly made me feel more assured that this was a really crazy broad daylight semi-busy area to mug someone. It’s just too bad no one caught him.
A man directed me to the police station, but I was intercepted by a café owner whose men were working on the wall and had been some of those giving chase. He got me some water and a cappuccino (just the thing for frazzled nerves!), and a woman from the embassy, EP, was there having lunch with her daughter. She called up the embassy and had a colleague come over with some paperwork for the passport (of which I have a photocopy, so new one will be easier to obtain), and then we went to the police station to file a report.
Filing the police report was actually sort of hilarious. The “station” was basically a tiny room with some chairs and a desk. The constable clearly took his role very seriously, and kept tapping his papers on the desk to line them up in a very official way. His papers consisted of blank paper on which he wrote my statement. When he saw the cut on my arm, he declared that I had to go to the hospital so that a medical report could be included. EP insisted that this was not going to happen and that someone at the embassy clinic would look at it Wednesday. So he had one of the other officers write up a sheet for the doctor, which reads, “The above named person has been unlawfully wounded by unknown criminals. Therefore I refer her to your good office for both treatment and examination. Thereafter furnish us with your findings.” Hilarious. I have to wonder what kind of kinky shit they’re allowing for in the “lawfully wounded” section.
After the police station, we headed to the embassy. EP’s daughter got a nosebleed, so we were in an extra hurry. Of course, once we got to the gate the incompetent security guards were in no such hurry to let us in, and wanted my paperwork. EP explained that I’d just been robbed and didn’t have a passport and that her daughter was bleeding and could he please just let us in. Then he said he’d have to ask his supervisor, but the supervisor was off under a tree somewhere and there was no reception officer in the little office, and EP totally flipped out on the guys until they let us in. Once we got in she was all, “Fucking morons!” It was so refreshing to hear someone yell and curse after three weeks in this passive aggressive country. Once inside we called K, who I figured would be at the office and she was, and she came to get me.
At the office I made various phone calls and checked my email and generally tried to take care of some basic details. On the whole, I lost: 1) My wallet with all my credit and ATM cards along with my drivers license and about $100 in kwachas and USD combined. Although the guy will have to dig for the USD, so if I happed to get the wallet back it might still be there. AND also my awesome photos from G that I’ve transferred to new wallets for ages. 2) My passport, which will be easily replaced. 3) My checkbook, which sucks for now because I can’t use the money bureau, but I can exchange US cash that K has locked away at her house plus the office can front me some funds for the research stuff. I also have some kwacha locked up at work from my money runs this week. Joe is going to retrieve the next book from my house and put it in the Friday DHL package from the Baltimore office, so I’ll be back in business soon enough. 4) The cell phone Kirsten was lending me, meaning no calls from Joe or anyone else at home until I find a replacement. 5) My camera, which at least didn’t have any photos on it, but it sucks a lot that it’s gone and I can’t upload any more photos while I’m here… I might be able to find some disposables to at least take some photos. 6) Last, but absolutely the worst, my glasses, since I was wearing my sunglasses and therefore had my glasses in my purse. Joe can send my backup pair from home, and there are apparently some Germans here who can make some more if I need. But, I haven’t even paid for those glasses yet! (Some crazy 6 month interest free card thing).
So, none of this is the end of the world, unlike if my laptop had been stolen. Although he probably wouldn’t have gotten away so fast because that bag is mega heavy. I also have been making sure to keep my hotel key in my pocket should something like this happen. Thank goodness also that I hadn’t decided to visit the money bureau first. And, of course, that nothing really bad happened to me. It just fucking sucks.
After the office, K took me to get some late lunch/early dinner at Mama Mia’s. I had penne with a really hot tomato sauce, which made me feel better. Then we went to her house and she checked the cut on my arm, peroxided and antiseptic creamed it (I got a black cat band-aid… yay kids’ band-aids!), and then gave me some bubble bath and movies to take home.
I felt a lot better after a few hours than right after it happened. If someone had offered me a plane ticket home and a ride to the airport right after it happened, I’d be on my way home right now. I was already feeling homesick, and this was just not what I needed. But, after a few hours I was feeling like I had a handle on replacing the stuff I really need to replace and managing without the rest. I’m leery of the travel to and from work with my laptop bag now, but those times of day are also much busier. Unfortunately, I think I was more vulnerable today because of the holiday making the streets a bit emptier than they normally would be; all the expats I talked to today were pretty surprised about where and when it happened. It’s also just completely unlucky that I’ve lived in a totally dangerous city for nearly three years with no incident (never mind Boston also), and I happen to get robbed here. Sadly, I think I know why expats don’t walk around the city, because white folks are really much more of target.
So, I probably won’t be doing much wandering on the weekends anymore, and will probably make use of a taxi or minibus if I’m feeling restless. I think I can learn to appreciate the simple pleasures of lounging around my room with magazines and books and movies.
Once I got home I wrote a few of these notes, which I think was helpful. I took a hot bath with some grapefruit scent in it. It made the bath kind of look like bright pee, but it smelled a lot better and was nice. Then I broke out iTunes and listened to lots of music that made me feel better in ways both cheerful and aggressive, such as that song from the Office Space soundtrack when they’re smashing the printer. I love that song. Anyway, I realized one thing I can do to occupy myself is to make playlists, since I have virtually none, and they’re necessary for road trip iPodding.
K’s husband said that it was important to compartmentalize the experience, not to deny it happened, but to not really let it into my life. He’s really right, in a way. It was just like a bad dream, and though it was scary and freaks me out, it’s not more affecting to my life than most other things. It’s mostly a hassle, but I’m no more or less safe because of it. It feels more personal due to the level of assault involved, but the robber had no interest in hurting me, just taking my stuff and threatening me enough to be successful at it.
It’s really a shame also that there are people like this who damage the reputation of places like this one, where the vast majority of people are dirt poor and yet strongly frown on this sort of behavior and do what they can to stop it when given the chance.
All right, off to wade through a few more emails and head off to the embassy.
Thank goodness.
Right behind the friggin buildings with the hair salon and Foodworth’s, some guy jacked my purse. I was coming off a dirt road onto the street, and he was coming up the street. I was in front of him, and he just grabbed the bag from behind. I had a good grip on it and made a strong showing in tug of war, but he had a knife, so he wins. (As Am joked, if you were packing heat you’d be the winner!). He actually got me in the arm a tiny bit with the blade (the size of a big paper cut), and a have a belly bruise where he grazed me as a threat to get me to back off. Once he took off, I ran after him hollering; he made like he was coming back at me to get me to knock off, but people started coming out and he ran away. He actually dropped the knife at one point as he ran, and I thought maybe he was going to ditch the weapon, but he picked it up as he ran away. Or maybe he thought I’d grab it and come after him (not unlikely, I was pretty determined to do what I could to get my stuff back). A really impressive number of guys from the surrounding buildings took off after the guy in response to my shouts, but apparently he disappeared into the bushes. Damn bushes. The number of people responding certainly made me feel more assured that this was a really crazy broad daylight semi-busy area to mug someone. It’s just too bad no one caught him.
A man directed me to the police station, but I was intercepted by a café owner whose men were working on the wall and had been some of those giving chase. He got me some water and a cappuccino (just the thing for frazzled nerves!), and a woman from the embassy, EP, was there having lunch with her daughter. She called up the embassy and had a colleague come over with some paperwork for the passport (of which I have a photocopy, so new one will be easier to obtain), and then we went to the police station to file a report.
Filing the police report was actually sort of hilarious. The “station” was basically a tiny room with some chairs and a desk. The constable clearly took his role very seriously, and kept tapping his papers on the desk to line them up in a very official way. His papers consisted of blank paper on which he wrote my statement. When he saw the cut on my arm, he declared that I had to go to the hospital so that a medical report could be included. EP insisted that this was not going to happen and that someone at the embassy clinic would look at it Wednesday. So he had one of the other officers write up a sheet for the doctor, which reads, “The above named person has been unlawfully wounded by unknown criminals. Therefore I refer her to your good office for both treatment and examination. Thereafter furnish us with your findings.” Hilarious. I have to wonder what kind of kinky shit they’re allowing for in the “lawfully wounded” section.
After the police station, we headed to the embassy. EP’s daughter got a nosebleed, so we were in an extra hurry. Of course, once we got to the gate the incompetent security guards were in no such hurry to let us in, and wanted my paperwork. EP explained that I’d just been robbed and didn’t have a passport and that her daughter was bleeding and could he please just let us in. Then he said he’d have to ask his supervisor, but the supervisor was off under a tree somewhere and there was no reception officer in the little office, and EP totally flipped out on the guys until they let us in. Once we got in she was all, “Fucking morons!” It was so refreshing to hear someone yell and curse after three weeks in this passive aggressive country. Once inside we called K, who I figured would be at the office and she was, and she came to get me.
At the office I made various phone calls and checked my email and generally tried to take care of some basic details. On the whole, I lost: 1) My wallet with all my credit and ATM cards along with my drivers license and about $100 in kwachas and USD combined. Although the guy will have to dig for the USD, so if I happed to get the wallet back it might still be there. AND also my awesome photos from G that I’ve transferred to new wallets for ages. 2) My passport, which will be easily replaced. 3) My checkbook, which sucks for now because I can’t use the money bureau, but I can exchange US cash that K has locked away at her house plus the office can front me some funds for the research stuff. I also have some kwacha locked up at work from my money runs this week. Joe is going to retrieve the next book from my house and put it in the Friday DHL package from the Baltimore office, so I’ll be back in business soon enough. 4) The cell phone Kirsten was lending me, meaning no calls from Joe or anyone else at home until I find a replacement. 5) My camera, which at least didn’t have any photos on it, but it sucks a lot that it’s gone and I can’t upload any more photos while I’m here… I might be able to find some disposables to at least take some photos. 6) Last, but absolutely the worst, my glasses, since I was wearing my sunglasses and therefore had my glasses in my purse. Joe can send my backup pair from home, and there are apparently some Germans here who can make some more if I need. But, I haven’t even paid for those glasses yet! (Some crazy 6 month interest free card thing).
So, none of this is the end of the world, unlike if my laptop had been stolen. Although he probably wouldn’t have gotten away so fast because that bag is mega heavy. I also have been making sure to keep my hotel key in my pocket should something like this happen. Thank goodness also that I hadn’t decided to visit the money bureau first. And, of course, that nothing really bad happened to me. It just fucking sucks.
After the office, K took me to get some late lunch/early dinner at Mama Mia’s. I had penne with a really hot tomato sauce, which made me feel better. Then we went to her house and she checked the cut on my arm, peroxided and antiseptic creamed it (I got a black cat band-aid… yay kids’ band-aids!), and then gave me some bubble bath and movies to take home.
I felt a lot better after a few hours than right after it happened. If someone had offered me a plane ticket home and a ride to the airport right after it happened, I’d be on my way home right now. I was already feeling homesick, and this was just not what I needed. But, after a few hours I was feeling like I had a handle on replacing the stuff I really need to replace and managing without the rest. I’m leery of the travel to and from work with my laptop bag now, but those times of day are also much busier. Unfortunately, I think I was more vulnerable today because of the holiday making the streets a bit emptier than they normally would be; all the expats I talked to today were pretty surprised about where and when it happened. It’s also just completely unlucky that I’ve lived in a totally dangerous city for nearly three years with no incident (never mind Boston also), and I happen to get robbed here. Sadly, I think I know why expats don’t walk around the city, because white folks are really much more of target.
So, I probably won’t be doing much wandering on the weekends anymore, and will probably make use of a taxi or minibus if I’m feeling restless. I think I can learn to appreciate the simple pleasures of lounging around my room with magazines and books and movies.
Once I got home I wrote a few of these notes, which I think was helpful. I took a hot bath with some grapefruit scent in it. It made the bath kind of look like bright pee, but it smelled a lot better and was nice. Then I broke out iTunes and listened to lots of music that made me feel better in ways both cheerful and aggressive, such as that song from the Office Space soundtrack when they’re smashing the printer. I love that song. Anyway, I realized one thing I can do to occupy myself is to make playlists, since I have virtually none, and they’re necessary for road trip iPodding.
K’s husband said that it was important to compartmentalize the experience, not to deny it happened, but to not really let it into my life. He’s really right, in a way. It was just like a bad dream, and though it was scary and freaks me out, it’s not more affecting to my life than most other things. It’s mostly a hassle, but I’m no more or less safe because of it. It feels more personal due to the level of assault involved, but the robber had no interest in hurting me, just taking my stuff and threatening me enough to be successful at it.
It’s really a shame also that there are people like this who damage the reputation of places like this one, where the vast majority of people are dirt poor and yet strongly frown on this sort of behavior and do what they can to stop it when given the chance.
All right, off to wade through a few more emails and head off to the embassy.
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