Witchcraft

Breakfast a La Americaine

Blueberry Pancakes (Very precise, I assure you)
One packet of Instant Blueberry Oatmeal -cooked- (They actually have this, isn't that amazing?!)
One cup of flour
One egg
Bit o sugar (dip in your finger to see if it's sweet, basically)
Tablespoon of baking powder
Enough milk to get it to the right consistency

Top with: Maple Syrup (Thank you Suze!!!)

Cheese Grits
One quarter cup grits (Thank you parents)
One tablespoon Mac and Cheese cheese mix (Thank you gramma!)
Enough milk to boil the grits
Bit of margarine

Mostly taken from care packages, but still delicious :)



Well, this last period at site got off to a rather interesting start when a “witches’ airplane” crashed in my village. Witches’ airplanes are traditionally made from chihengo (winnowing) baskets. When you think about it, this actually makes a bit more sense than the Western ‘broom’ idea since one can actually sit in a chihengo. This particular “airplane” however, was not a chihengo. Instead it was three sticks tied together with black cloth and decorated with painted black lotion bottles. I’m not exactly sure what caused the “crash” as I’m not entirely clear on the physics of what causes major malfunctions in magical airplanes, but there were scorch marks surrounding it on the ground.
From an objective standpoint witchcraft is a fairly fascinating phenomenon. What you really have to understand is that it’s part and parcel with Christianity.  It is a piece of religion, and almost everyone believes in it.
From the non-objective ‘a plane just landed in my village and now we have to have a witch-hunt’ standpoint, it’s not so interesting. More aggravating, annoying, and, when you get right down to it, bordering on scary.
Within two days of the plane’s appearance a child had come forward claiming to have killed her mother while possessed, five other children said they were kidnapped in the middle of the night and taken for rides on the airplane, and one man had been chased out of the village on suspicion of being a witch (yes men can be witches, in fact men are much more frequently witches than women).
Things got serious enough that the local witch doctor was called in to scout out any remaining witches
Not wanting to be plopped into the middle of any witchcraft situation really, I hopped on my bike and spent a weekend at my sitemate's village. By the time I got back to my village the whole witchcraft hubbub had thankfully blown over with pretty little fanfare.

After that bit of excitement, things at site have been going remarkably well. We held “sex day” at my school the next weekend. Of course, the only place it was ever referred to as “Sex Day” was within the peace corps community. Within my community the official title was the “Focusing on our Future Girls Workshop.” In actual fact, the official title is a more apt description of the workshop. It just turns out that once you give something a moniker like “Sex Day” it tends to stick.
The workshop had four classes. There was a career panel; featuring the local tailor, a nurse from Mhuju, and a well-traveled Ph.D. who just happens to live in the neighboring village. There was a family planning workshop, given by the local nurse and featuring all the forms of contraception available at our local clinic (male and female condoms, two types of the pill and depo provera. We are so well-equipped). Alyssa, Julia (my sitemate) and I put on a workshop of plays presenting obstacles to their future that girls might face. We had a lot of fun with it. I got to be a sugar-daddy and pick Julia up. The kids thought that was hilarious.
My favorite class though, was put on a by a woman named Tiwonge, who is head of the Bolero PLWA (People Living With Aids) group. Bolero is the town where the paramount chief of the Tumbukas lives. The PLWA group there does amazing things. They have various income generating projects which they use to finance home based care. Tiwonge also goes around speaking to different groups in Malawi to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. On top of all of this she is incredibly open and willing to talk about her status, despite the huge stigma that still exists throughout Malawi.
This last part was crucial, as HIV is just NOT talked about in my village. Everyone whispers about who has it, but no one is willing to come out openly and say “I’m HIV positive.” Which is crazy when you consider that Malawi’s baseline stats are around ten percent infection rate. So to have someone say to my students “I’m HIV positive. I’m happy, I’m healthy, I’m living a good life” was incredible.
Overall, I was really pleased with how the workshop turned out. About 90% of my students (and students from Nkhomboli, the neighboring school) showed up, even though it was pouring rain. Hopefully they now realize there are women in the community, succesful women, who care about them, their future, and their well-being. On the down side, as is pretty much the norm with girls here, they were for the most part incredibly shy and closed in. Even broken down into small classes with no boys present, trying to get participation out of any but the two or three most outgoing girls is like pulling teeth.
I’m planning on holding a similar boy’s workshop sometime in the future, and I’m curious to see how they act in comparison to the girls. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to observe it myself, as the girls workshop was girls-only, so the boys’ workshop will have to be boys only.
As for other important developments at my site... MY LIBRARY HAS A ROOF. Okay, half a roof. And no floor. And no windows. Or doors. Or plastering. Or shelfs or books or anything that makes it a library really, but hey, roof! Roof is good! Roof is progress. As for the teacher’s house, they tell me it is almost done. The school just finished putting in all the money they owe, so just before I left I handed over the rest of my half to the school management committee. They say the house should be done in a week. They’ve been saying it for a while, but I’ve looked at the house, and it’s only missing windows and doors, so I think there’s a good chance it actually will be done within the next couple of weeks.
The new headmaster seems to be really good. He very clearly wants to develop the school as fast as possible. He comes from an urban school that had electricity and a library/lab and even a partner school in Scotland, so he has a lot of ideas for how the school could be improved.
It was a bit ironic. During the school break I was talking to my headmaster about the status of the school, and trying to explain to him that yes, things are bad, but there’s so much potential. I caught myself just before saying something to the effect of “You could really build this school up.”
People always say similar things to me. It drives me nuts. People will occasionally say to me “Before you go, you must leave us something to remember you by, like a building.” To which I tend to respond with something like “How about I leave a photograph?” Honestly, it’s hard to come to a place and have people constantly demanding things of you.
But talking with the headmaster and having to resist the urge to throw myself at his feet and say, “please give us teachers, buildings, and oh, while you’re at it we could use some electricity” I suddenly felt what it was like to be on the other side. When you are dissatisfied with the state of things around you, and suddenly spot someone who can change it, it’s hard not to seem constantly demanding. At least in my case, I chose to come someplace with no electricity and the potential for hornets moving into my bathroom.
With my headmaster, the move was ordered, and it hasn’t been easy for him or his family. Moving from an urban area to a rural one in Malawi is slightly different from its counterpart move in America. In Malawi it means moving away from electricity, running water, and a larger variety of food. Additionally, village schools aren’t as good as the schools in urban areas, meaning most teachers have to send their kids to government or private schools.
Despite this though, the new headmaster seems to be settling in pretty well. Which isn’t that surprising, really. Even if Lura can seem a bit sparse at first, it’s a pretty fantastic place. People are nice, scenery is gorgeous, ground is fertile and you can buy bananas super cheap!