Malawian Bridal Shower!

Today I went to my first Malawian Bridal shower. It was Evelyn's cousin's named Memory. It was fun and interesting and very different. There is constantly a money dance---this is something I also experienced at my friend's Nigerian wedding. There was a program and basically the bride picks different people to give speeches/advise on all sorts of topics. I was surprised there was even one topic on HIV.  The advisor gets a gift from the bride and again more money dances. This is basically just throwing money at the bride or other important guests as they dance. The money goes to the bride at the end.  The groom and his groomsmen do come in at one point and also listen to advice, but otherwise no men.

Ethiopian Dinner Birthday Party

I felt so honored to have only been in Malawi for a couple of months but had 30 RSVPs to my birthday dinner. All but 2 actually came too! Here are some photos.. Laura also made me an amazing red velvet cake with buttercream frosting!

9/17/14 My 29th Birthday!

Now entering the last year of my 20s...time does fly by! I'm so happy to be spending it with my amazing partner Ben. He got me all these awesome local Malawian gifts and we went to Latitude for dinner for the second time this week (see earlier post). It was just as delicious! Also Margaret remembered it was my birthday and surprise baked me a cake!

UNICEF

Today was my (unofficial) first day of work.  Right when I got here I interviewed with UNICEF for a consulting job (and I mean almost literally right when I got here -- I got the email asking me to come to interview while en route from Dulles to Addis Ababa).  They needed someone to help them create and implement an action plan following their Violence Against Children survey that they completed last year.  The VACS is basically the first comprehensive look at children's experiences with sexual, physical, and emotional violence in Malawi.  The results are generally depressing (the very bottom line, a lot of children are abused).  As one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world (#174 out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index), it is not surprising that Malawi's social welfare systems, including child protection, are in the infancy stage of their development.  The hope is that VACS will be a mobilizer for change and focus the attention of decision-makers on the plight of children.

Anyway, after the interview, I got a job offer but still haven't signed a contract as my paperwork slowly weaves its way through the UNICEF bureaucratic machinery.  Today was the last day of the regional UNICEF conference that just so happened to be held in Lilongwe.  There were representatives from all over East and Southern Africa, including Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, Burundi, Swaziland, and South Sudan to name a few.  It was a nice way for me to get my feet wet and start to get the overall big picture of what child protection is like in Africa (not surprisingly there's a much different set of challenges than we deal with in our work in the U.S.) before I dive into my very specific VACS project.  I will probably/hopefully sign my contract and officially start next week.

Dinner at Latitude

Last night we went to dinner at (one of) the nicest restaurant(s) in Lilongwe, Latitude 13.  A married doctor couple from Philadelphia that is visiting Malawi and Lily befriended were nice enough to invite us out for dinner.  It really was a great meal -- good food, wine, and company.  Below is dessert:

Our Housekeeper

Earlier this week, we hired a housekeeper, Margaret.  So far, she's done an amazing job -- she cleans (up to Lily's impossible standards even!) and cooks.  The first meal she made for us was spaghetti with swiss chard, onions, garlic (oops, I forgot to pick that up), and feta.  It was good:

The hiring of a housekeeper and more specifically the wage we pay her has been an eye-opening, and perspective enhancing, experience.  We pay Margaret 30,000 kwacha a month (roughly $75) to work 3 days a week.  That seems so meagre to me that I feel guilty about it but a few (sad) facts have assuaged my conscience.  First, apparently this type of work is one of the more desirable options for working women.  Moreover, that $75 a month is basically the expat overpay rate -- it's actually about 4 times higher than the government approved rate for housekeepers (about $1.50/day!).

Margaret seems very happy to have the job -- in fact, our original plan was to hire a different woman before Margaret came knocking on her door asking if we needed help, telling us that she had worked for the previous tenant (a South African woman).  A week into her work for us and I can say with certainty that we're very lucky to have her.

Our House

We've officially been in our house for a week now and are starting to feel settled.  It came furnished but we still have ended up needing several marathon shopping trips where we hit seemingly every store in town to pick up this (more silverware, glasses, cleaning supplies) and that (towels, a mop and bucket, plates, etc).  Now we have everything we need and have moved on to trying to make the place feel a bit less impersonal.

Step 1 was a trip to Coffin Road (the reason for the nickname of the road became quickly apparent) where we hired a guy to make a desk for us:

Here's the dining room table (this one came with the house):

The living room:

Our rain shower, which unfortunately has been a bit of a water pressure headache:

And our bedroom:

Guest bedroom and kitchen unpictured.  All in all, while there have been some minor annoyances, a very nice place that is feeling less and less like a hotel room every day.

A week in Malawi

I've now been in Malawi for over a week and I'm beginning to feel settled.  We've moved into our house (blog post coming tomorrow with pictures) -- overall it's very nice but unfortunately I've gotten to know my namesake, Ben the property manager, all too well in the last week as we've had a seemingly endless stream of minor problems -- leaks, no sheets, lack of water pressure, losing power in part of the house because we blew a fuse (ok that one was 100% my fault), etc.

Now we've also obtained somewhat reliable internet -- well, reliable enough for 6+ hour work calls, not reliable enough to stream a game or show.  I know which of those I'd prefer but alas.  So expect more regular updates from here on out.

This weekend we're hosting our first visitor, Rachel, Lily's wonderful friend from med school.  Rachel is here for an obstetric fistula conference, and her fistula work has brought her to Malawi several times before.  When she did an elective here a few years ago she stayed with a Malawian family, and Lily and I have had the pleasure of hanging out with them this weekend.

First there was a trip to the pool for lunch with me, Lily, Rachel, and 3 of the kids:

Then we went off in our Cube to their house for dinner.  Prince, Ida, and Evelyn crammed into the back seat while Rachel had to sit in our trunk:

Before dinner, Prince and Ida taught us how to play a Malawian game called bowa.  Lily went an impressive 2-0 in her first two games while my and Prince's marathon duel was cut off by the start of dinner -- good thing because he had me on the ropes... 

Lydia, the mother (unpictured unfortunately), prepared a delicious homemade feast:

And after dinner, Kingsley (whose band won a musical award in 2013 for best newcomers in all of Malawi) led the entire family in a couple of songs.  Lydia and Raphael (the father) met in their church's choir and have passed on a love of (and aptitude for) music to all of their children.  A truly talented family and some of the kindest and most warm-hearted people you'd ever hope to meet.  We can't wait to see them again!

Day 40-47: And then there were 2

Ben finally arrived on  Thursday, but sadly without Coco. Coco passed away on Monday from her severe kidney disease. We were very distraught all week but felt better once we were able to be reunited.  We finally got to move into our house last night. It felt so good to finally unpack! two months out of a suitcase is way too long! Otherwise, we hung out around town this weekend and Ben got to meet some of my friends and we made new ones too.

Flat tire on the way to the airport! Hate CARS!

Plane lands with Ben :)

Ben getting off the plane

Our first meal and first power outage, food was great and candlelight always works

great meal at restaurant across street from new house--Lark cafe

Bens heaven--Indian restaurant with huge tv showing preimer league