Communicating in the Global Village

Recently my Form Four Life Skills students have been studying “Communication and Media in the Global Village,” a subject in their curriculum which would be a lot more interesting to teach if we had internet access. Unfortunately, all of the dinosaur computers donated to the school have ceased functioning in the last few months, so I was left wondering how to tackle this topic. First, I brought in all sorts of books and magazines for them to peruse and consider in terms of readership and significance: Newsweek, Lonely Planet, WorldView (a Peace Corps publication), the New Yorker, Vegetarian Times, the Economist, Glamour. And wouldn’t you know they liked the last one best, especially the silky hair advertisements. A few boys asked to borrow it.

As faithful readers may recall, I am linked with a Coverdell WorldWise Partner teacher in America (who also happens to have been a close friend for 20 years). Basically, the partnership program is designed to promote Peace Corps’ second and third goals of advancing mutual understanding between countries. Anyway, Sammy, who teaches seniors at Annandale High School, and I agreed to have our students exchange questions with each other so they could learn a little bit about the daily lives of their peers on the other side of the world.

My kids, who were stoked about this idea, wrote up their questions last week, I typed them up and emailed them to Sammy, and today shared the responses she sent back. Rather than just read the answers aloud, I drew a big Venn Diagram on the chalkboard and we compared my Malawian students’ answers with those of the U.S.A. seniors. There were, unsurprisingly, quite a few similarities among the teens. Here are some of the answers:

Eugene asked: What type of behaviour do you want your friend to be?

USA: honest, loyal, funny, nice

Malawi: honest, kind, faithful, tolerant, moral

Moses asked: I want to know what kind of music do you like?

USA: Go-go, Lil Wayne, Justin Bieber, Wiz Khalifa, Nicki Minaj

Malawi: Reggae, hip-hop, Lil Wayne, Justin Bieber [Sigh.]

Noel asked: What do you want to do when you finish your studies?

USA: Some people go to “Beach Week” after school ends.

[Okay, that was a tough one to explain to my morally upright and temperate students. I compared it to celebrating at Lake Malawi.]

Noel also asked: What things do you do to keep your body strong and healthy?

USA: Martial arts, running, basketball, American football, swimming.

[Malawian kids LOVE martial arts, or at least what they call kung fu. They practice it on each other behind the school—diving, jumping, and spinning into the soft bed of grass and straw that lines the abandoned pits for burning rubbish.]

Malawi: football (soccer), netball, bathing, swimming, running [I’m not sure I believe that one; I’ve never seen a Malawian walk faster than 3 miles per hour. They failed to mention their bodies stay pretty strong and healthy just going about their daily lives, carrying buckets of water or firewood or sacks of maize on their heads, and working long hours in the fields.]

Kelvin asked: What country do you live in?

USA: All of us live in America, but many of us are from different countries, like Germany, Cambodia, Vietnam, Ireland, France, Pakistan, and Sierra Leone.

[My class gasped. “I want to go to that school!” said Emmanuel.]

Frank asked: What are your hobbies or things you like to do on weekends?

USA: Hang out with friends, watch movies, part-time jobs, play games, going to the mall, parties, homework

Malawi: Chatting with friends, watching movies, homework, dancing, church [They were surprised nobody from America mentioned church.]

Tamala asked: What foods do you like in your everyday life?

USA: Cereal, spaghetti, pizza, kabob, hamburgers, French fries, pho, Chinese food

Malawi: Nsima, chicken and chips, thelele (okra).

[They were a little confused when I explained pizza, some had tried spaghetti, all very interested in pho, and excited to hear that French fries and chips are the same thing.]

Chifundo asked: What is life in America like, to you?

USA: Very good for some people, but hard for people who don’t have jobs. [This answer surprised my students, who described life in Malawi as very hard.]

Blessings asked: Do you want to visit Malawi?

USA: Yes, if someone can pay for it! [Malawian students laughed.]

Blessings also asked: Who is your role model?

USA: Oprah, Taylor Swift, Bruce Le [many cheers from the Malawians!], JFK, Obama [more cheers], James Bond [cheers again], Michael Jordan [some kids had heard of him]

Rabecca asked: What would you like to be in terms of your career?

USA: physical therapist, voice actor, nurse, engineer

Malawi: nurse, lawyer, engineer

Gabriel asked: What are your likes and dislikes?

USA: We like girls/boys, Facebook, cell phones, music, Taylor Swift, TV, motorcycles, having a driver’s license. We dislike: bullies, Myspace, liars, homework, cold weather

Malawi: We like girls/boys, football, dancing, movies, chatting, the lake. We dislike: liars [They said more, but I didn’t get a chance to get them down]

Antra asked: What do you do when you wake up early in the morning?

USA: Most teenagers wake up at 6 am on school days, but on weekends we wake up from 11 am to 2 pm. [Malawians wake up, it seems, around 3 in the morning, on their own accord, so this was very confusing for them. It also confuses my students when I suggest that knocking on my door or calling me at 5 in the morning is unacceptable. I began enforcing this policy when I began distributing condoms from Peace Corps, and the students are still baffled at my queer desire to sleep until 6 (or even 7!) on the weekend.]

Andrew asked: Do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend?

USA: 2 out of 14 students have a boyfriend/girlfriend.

[Malawian secondary students aren’t technically allowed to be in relationships so none of them wanted to volunteer that information, but it is safe to say, based on the condom requests mentioned above, that a fair number of them are.]

So, it was a productive and entertaining exchange within the global village. And we are looking forward to some questions from the American students next week.

Yes, the rumors are true.

The Malawian powers that be are considering making farting in public illegal.

Thanks to a number of interested readers for sending queries regarding this important piece of legislation.

On a related note, my Life Skills students told me last week during a game of DealBreaker that they would never get involved with a person with b.o. Considering the olfactory offenses that permeate crowded public areas around here, they may have reason for concern.

2011 Greetings and a Reading List

Happy new year all!
I arrived back in Salima safe and sound, and found everything green and growing after my holiday adventures across the way. It's good to be back.

Exciting permaculture news: planting is in full swing at the primary and secondary schools. I stopped by Msalura L.E.A. the other day and found the students busy working on their plots in front of the headmistress's office and around the school.

Last week, the Education 09 group got together in Dedza for our Mid-Service Training, and everyone was delighted to benefit from the contents of a package of candy and trashy magazines and other goodies from Angie. (Elisabeth, below, catches up on Taylor Swift. I'm not actually sure who that is.) Thanks, Ang!

At MST we learned that, because of last year's change in the Malawian school calendar, our early Close of Service date in September has been approved by the powers that be. So, unless I extend here or in another country, you will see your LooBird back stateside just a little bit sooner than expected.

Also, I had a chance to visit my homestay family, the Bvumbwes, who were stoked about the pictures and photo calendar I printed for them in America. I cannot emphasize how much Malawians love calendars. And photos of themselves. We chatted about the past year, laughed a lot, and played with the new baby, Peace. And then they loaded up my bags with ripe plums from their orchard and red grapes--very tart, the first I've seen in-country.

On our way back from Dedza to Lilongwe, traffic stopped when the presidential fleet (including a Winnebago?!) passed by heading south. Everybody unloaded the cars to wave at Bingu.

Storm clouds were brewing.

Since the whole group (minus Esther, sadly home for a while on medical) was together just one last time, everybody spent a night together hanging out in Lilongwe, and even splurged and went out to a real restaurant.
Don't we clean up nice? (Below: Meg, Elisabeth, and Jerrod, my Katsekaminga buddies.)

Tomorrow... back to Salima and the belated start of Term 2. In addition to Form 4 Life Skills and computer classes for teachers, I'm taking on Form 3 Literature this term, starting with a book of African short stories, "Looking for a Rain God."

***

And, speaking of books...

I don't get out much. (After dark anyway.) Which means I've had plenty of fruitful reading time in Malawi, especially during the two-hour window from 6:00 dinner to lights out around 8:00. Here's a breakdown of the books I've read so far, beginning with the most recent, with an asterisk next to the ones I've really enjoyed and would recommend to anybody.

Currently: Kitchen Confidential (Anthony Bourdain) *
A Man Without A Country (Vonnegut) *
Anna Kerenina (Tolstoy) *
East, West (Rushdie)
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (Murakami) *
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Angelou)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Kundera) *
The Year of Magical Thinking (Didion) *
The Executioner's Song (Mailer)
Disgrace (Coetzee)
28 Barbary Lane (Maupin)
Interpreter of Maladies (Lahiri) *
The Awakening (Chopin)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde) *
The Botany of Desire (Pollan) *
Winesburg, Ohio (Anderson) *
Ullyses (Joyce)
A Lesson Before Dying (Gaines)
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
The Screwtape Letters (Lewis)
She's Come Undone (Lamb)
Angle of Repose (Stegner) *
The Secret Sharer (Conrad)
Heart of Darkness (Conrad)
Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
Mere Christianity (Lewis)
There's No Toilet Paper on the Road Less Traveled (compilation)
The Fountainhead (Rand)
Mountains Beyond Mountains (Kidder)
The Optimist's Daughter (Welty) *
The House of the Spirits (Allende) *
Bel Canto (Patchett)*
The Friday Night Knitting Club (Jacobs, as bad as it sounds)
The Red Tent (Diamant)*
The Art of Racing in the Rain (Stein)
Say You're One of Them (Akpan)
Atlas Shrugged (Rand)
Smouldering Charcoal (Zeleza)
A Personal Matter (Kenzaburo Oe)
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Kamkwamba)
I Capture the Castle (Smith)
The Alchemist (Coelho)
Another Roadside Attraction (Robbins)
Three Cups of Tea (Mortensen and Relin)

Down come the rains... for the next four months

My back yard in July...

... and December.

We planted about 200 trees around the school grounds at the end of the term. Above, a row of jatropha, and also papaya, guava, acacia, and more.

The primary school was under water for a few days.
Eunice and Shameem often come by in the evenings to hang out on my porch, draw, and tell stories.

We added a map of Malawi to the geography classroom in September.

Two items for your reading pleasure

Currently in bloom.

Bats escape the heat of the tin roof. Notice the one with vampire fangs.

But first, a weather update: November is the height of hot season in Salima. It is like living in a dog’s mouth.

My water consumption has quadrupled and still I barely ever have to pee. Every inch of my body is constantly slimy. Mangoes are in season, and I am up to six a day. I have taken up weekend residence at the lake with Sally. It is HOT.

***

Once again, I am typing exams for the end of term. Last week, one of the teachers submitted the following story as a Reading Comprehension passage:

Once upon a time there lived a woman named Mbereka-Miti (“mother of heads”), who was married to a man called Tate-Miti (“father of heads”). When Mbereka-Miti became pregnant for the first time she gave birth to a living head. Annoyed at this, she killed it and threw it into the bush. But the same thing happened over and over again, six times in all. On the seventh occasion she decided not to kill the head but to keep it, as she would probably never have a normal child.

Now the head possessed all the normal faculties: two eyes, two ears, a nose, and a mouth. It could see, hear, smell, eat and talk. The one thing it could not do, however, was walk, for it had no legs. When it came of age, Mbereka-Miti put it in a basket and, together, with her husband, set out on a journey to look for a girl who would be willing to become a wife.

They went from village to village and saw lots of girls, but no one of them wanted to marry the head. Here they were received with insults, there people chased them away or cruelly beat them. But they doggedly went on and in the end found a girl who said she would marry the head. Her name was Matola-tola, that is “she who picks up anything.”

The girl went along with them, together with her younger brother, and they and the head were given a house of their own. The boy and the head shared a room while the girl had one to herself.

It sounds incredible, but during the night the head would change into a European, who moved through the house suddenly ablaze with electric lights and furnished in the most lavish manner, the way Europeans like it. Now the little boy, waking up one night, happened to see this, and the next morning secretly told his sister. She would not believe him and told him he had been dreaming. But the boy said he would tie a string to his ear so that when it happened again he could wake her up by pulling it.

Night came and when the events repeated themselves the boy managed to wake up his sister, who was able to see everything for herself. The head was still in its basket, but as long as the European moved about, it looked lifeless like a wooden mask.

The girl and her brother now made a plan. They decided that, on the next occasion, the boy would get hold of the white man while the girl smashed the head to pieces. Night came and everything went according to plan. The white man could no longer change back into a head and everything in the house stayed as it had been during the night. There were lovely chairs and tables, a couch, a refrigerator, a TV set. The girl changed into a white woman, her brother into a white boy, and even Mbereka-Miti and her husband became white people.

At day break, the whole village flocked to the house, everybody exclaiming in surprise. The girls who had refused to marry the head and who had even mocked it were now green with envy. Some tried to undo their mistake by using witchcraft against the family, but failed, as whites cannot be bewitched.

(Adapted from: “An Anthology of Malawian Literature for Junior Secondary.”)

***

Lastly, a gem from a Peace Corps magazine’s “Achievements of Our Community” section a few months ago.

For the past nine years *** S*** has intentionally lived his life without using money. He has spiritual reasons for avoiding any form of currency, but he also does it as a statement against a system he believes is corrupt. S*** lives in a cave, which holds the few things he owns. He finds everything else he needs, including food and clothing, in trash receptacles in Moab, Utah.

I go to a funeral

I’ve been to two funerals in Malawi, both in the last month or so. This number is pretty low, another difference I can chalk up to living in town instead of the village. In the village, all business stops and everyone goes to a funeral. Here in town, life carries on.

In September a seven-year-old girl at the adjacent primary school crossed the road after school and was hit by the District Commissioner’s car. The next day, I went to the funeral. The men sat separately from the women on the dusty ground around the thatched-roof house of the little girl. Everyone was very quiet. Sometimes women would break out wailing, but mostly we just sat, cross-legged and hushed, baking in the sun, looking at the small coffin. Her little friends stared at it fidgeting in their pink and green school uniforms. Eventually, a sort of service began: a man stood and told what happened, a representative from the District Education Office offered his condolences, a representative from the District Commissioner’s office did the same. No one seemed angry when he spoke. A family member spoke again. Later, I asked what was said and was told: this is God’s will. Dressed in white, the men of the dead child’s family stood before the coffin, maybe they were facing Mecca, and chanted Allahu Akbar. They sang soft sad songs. And then we parted our sea, and the men carried Ayisha through the crowd, away to the graveyard.

I go to another funeral

The school watchman, Mr. Ngoma, passed away suddenly from pneumonia last week. He was, as you might remember, charged briefly with my own security after The Burglary Incident and we had a friendly relationship that mostly consisted of nodding, saying thank you repeatedly, and laughing. I was sad, but more in sympathy for my new watchman, Mr. Ngoma’s brother, Ernest.
Classes were cancelled and the entire staff piled onto the back of a large lorrie, along with a stack of firewood and maize sacks and buckets, for a bumpy ride to Khombedza, the watchman’s village a few miles north up the lakeshore road. We arrived to find men and women wailing outside of the widow’s house and, very briefly, we stepped inside to pay our respect. Groups had come from villages all around and established their day’s territory to cook and eat. The women teachers from my school did the same, setting a series of fires to begin preparing a vat of nsima and various ndiwo (relishes)—the usual suspects: cabbage, tomato, goat, usipa. The men disappeared somewhere (presumably to the funeral service) and reappeared only hours later to eat and head home. As it happened, none of the female teachers left to attend the service; they spent the whole day cooking and laughing at my efforts to help. “I don’t know if you noticed, but everyone was laughing at you when you carried water on your head,” one of the teachers told me the next day, sincerely thinking I might not have noticed two hundred people doubled over in laughter at my expense. Ha. Scorched by a day of sun and full of nsima, we loaded the lorrie and headed back to Salima.

Ups:

My Dad came to visit a few weeks ago, and despite one rough night in a hot, cramped hostel, he seemed to enjoy seeing my Malawi. We swam in the lake, staked out some wild animals, and stationed ourselves directly in front of the shiny oscillating fan he purchased after suffering one night of Salima’s stagnant and sultry air. I certainly enjoyed his company, though it has made the weeks since his departure something like post-Christmas blues. Fortunately, I have the fan for my solace.

Sally’s birthday was this weekend, on Halloween, so we enjoyed cake and good company at Senga Bay. It is good to have her in the neighborhood.

In September, with leftover supplies from the World Map Project, we painted a map of Malawi next to the bigger map, and it came out pretty well if I do say so.

I’m still teaching Life Skills and next week we’re showing the whole school a made-in-Malawi movie about decision-making that I think they’ll really like.

In October, Elisabeth and I visited Jerrod’s school in Ehehleni to lead a two-day literature workshop. His house is five miles down a dusty dirt road, sitting at the end of a path on a plateau looking out over Zambia. Serene. And quiet. I have to admit I had site envy. On the first morning, Elisabeth and I led a long and entertaining sexual health class with the Form 2 and 4 girls, who came up with some pretty creative questions for the Q and A session. The next day I woke up with a runny cold and hacked my way through the workshop; still it was better to be sick in good company. We ate delicious meals, baked lemon bread, and watched stars appear in the big big sky.

And Downs

At work, some of my projects feel like they are stagnating. Waiting on decisions. Going to unproductive meetings. Having an Action Plan meeting to schedule the next Action Plan meeting. Cancelling classes because of National Education Day. At the start of the term, I was excited to learn that my schools wanted to start organizing cluster teacher development activities (but wasn’t I already doing that?); somehow, though, we could afford only one one-day workshop this term since the bulk of the school-contributed funds was spent on Fanta refreshments during the five(!) planning meetings.

I keep waiting for the fog to lift, and if the past is any indication, it will eventually. So this week I am waiting for that Malawi magic.

A few photos: