here's my pad

ahh...the weekend

This has been my first weekend with Lindsay around, and boy did we have a good time!  First on Friday night we went out with some others (mostly Canadians) to a really fancy bar.  It is pretty other-worldly, with a gorgeous patio and a posh interior.  It is within a shopping complex that also has a very nice Indian restaurant and some expensive gift shops.  When I imagined coming to Malawi, I did not image it to be like this.  Many of the especially nice places to eat and stay are owned by Indian families.  I assume many of them came to Malawi while both countries were under British rule.  Now the majority of the businesses are owned by Indians, and many seem to have a very comfortable lifestyle here.

On Saturday I went with Lindsay and our new friend Heather to the famous market in Malawi.  We didn't get past the produce section, partially because we were weighed down by all of our food, and partially because it started to rain.  But, the produce that the farmers sell there is amazing.  It is all great quality and super cheap.  For example, one can purchase a large avocado for about 35 cents and a medium sized pineapple for about a dollar.  I almost feel bad paying so little for all of the toiling that went into the produce.  The market is huge and has a large section of used clothing as well as fabric, apparently.  That will be my adventure next weekend.

Malawi, in a way that is similar to the US, has a great deal of inequality.  There are plenty of restaurants catering to the ex-pats and development workers here, and the majority of Malawians cannot afford to eat at them.  While many ex-pats own cars and living in gated housing, the Malawians walk everywhere and most do not have gated homes.  I was not expecting this discrepancy, although I obviously should have.  

One exciting development is that I've finally started using the informal taxi system that has developed in Malawi.  People just pass around the numbers of Malawians who have cars, some of whom are employed as taxi drivers, and some of whom are not.  You just call them up when you want a cab, negotiate the price, and you are off.  Sometimes this entails waiting for a long time, which was the case last night, but using the taxis affords me many more opportunities for socializing. 

The weather has been generally nice, although particularly rainy this afternoon.  I am worried that it rained so much people might have had their homes flooded.  Apparently last week 50 people lost their houses in floods, and 5 people died.  When it rains here, it sometimes pours, and then you get flash floods.  Most people do not have very sturdy homes, which makes for a dangerous situation. 

My first two weeks in Malawi

Hey there everyone!

As most of you know, I am completing my second year social work internship in Lilongwe, Malawi. I am working with Jesuit Refugee Services here, which serves a smallish refugee camp just outside of the capital city.  Malawi is a beautiful country, and right now it is the rainy season, which means I get a bit wet, but everything is so lush!  I am staying in the JRS office, but I have a nice room towards the back of the house, with a private bathroom.  One of the best things of all is that I have 24 hour access to wireless internet, which is a real luxury here in Malawi.

While I'm here, I will be facilitating trauma support groups with refugees, and I'll also be meeting individually with some refugee clients.  We are also hoping to design a curriculum to train peer counselors in the camp, an important step in making the services sustainable.  We were hoping to actually conduct the training while I was here, along with some other interns, but it looks like that would be biting off more than we can chew.

Lindsay, my friend from BC who is also completing her internship in Malawi, arrived last weekend.  We are lucky to be right down the street from one another, so we have spent plenty of time together.  It is nice to see a friendly face from home so often.  We have been going out to dinner a lot here, since there are some really tasty restaurants at very decent prices.  I was worried about losing weight while I was here, but it might be just the opposite!