First of three(?) parent posts.

Here's what my Dad thought of Malawi. Thought that giving you a first impression of Malawi I was never able to crank out, and an other perspective at how things are could be nice. Completely unedited by me, by the way. Mom is apparently writing an entire book on her five days in Malawi, but thats neither here nor there. Here I give the floor to my father...

Hello from the third world (well, a week late):

Billy asked me to record my impressions of the 5 days I spent in Blantyre Malawi. I am having a hard time writing a cohesive story line. There is too much detail to do this justice, plus I need time to sort out all I have seen. I will not be giving a traditional entry but a list of the different thoughts and impression I have formed. This may be a bit scattered.

Keep in mind I have been here for only 5 days and I am in no way any sort of expert. I don’t want to offend or misinform. I am sure I have confused a few facts or formed a few misconceptions about this place. So please treat this as a collection of random thoughts bouncing around in my scattered head.

A LITTLE BACKGROUND: Billy (our 18 year old son) is spending 9 months volunteering for Project Peanut Butter in Blantyre, Malawi, Africa. For those who don’t know, PPB is a research project run out of the Washington University/St. Louis Nutrition Project. I am not a hundred percent clear on all the players and organizational structure, but their overall goal is to develop better ways of treating malnutrition in the third world. So they are examining all aspects of malnutrition from the different contributions and causes to the different ways to treat. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world. Thus it is a perfect place to work on malnutrition problems.

Billy is technically a volunteer. He is one of 3 to 8 students/ researchers/ nurses/ doctors/ med students living and working for PPB in Blantyre. People come and go through out the year. From last September to this May, there were three long term members, Jay, Eleanor and Billy. Heidi, Amanda, Adam, Dr. and Ms. Manari (among others) would come and go through out the year. Billy started off helping out where he can, loading trucks, driving, passing out peanut butter, running errands and generally playing with the kids. In the last 6 months he has taken on more and more responsibility. Now he is part of the stool study team. They track a number of twins, examine kids, taking stool samples and preparing the sample for cryogenic storage. He also wrote (or help write) an ACCESS data base to assist in managing and analyzing the medical data.

ABOUT MALAWI: You have no idea how lucky you are. If you can read this, (have access to the internet) you are a very privileged person. We went to villages that don’t have running water, electricity or sewers. Places filled with grass roofs, goats, chickens, mud brick walls. For the most part everyone seems happy. If this is all they know, heaven can be an extra plastic trash bag.

HOUSING(middle class): Malawi has two somewhat large cities: Lilongwe (the capital) and Blantyre. Billy is staying in a city called Blantyre, population of several hundred thousand. He is staying in a compound with a fence, guards and dogs. The compound is owned by an Indian business man who lives there and rents out some of the extra apartments or houses. The PPB team has three of these houses/apartments. Each has a kitchen, bedrooms and a bath. There is a maid and cook who comes each day. This is not unusual for the middle class. Most live in a walled compound. Theft is a problem, guards are required. But I never felt unsafe or threatened. PPB was robbed this passed fall. The guards were over powered and they got away with some appliances and $1200 in cash. I am guessing, out of the half million of people in Blantyre, a few thousand can afford to live this way.

HOUSING(city folks): For two of the days of our visit, Ann and I helped out at one of the PPB clinics. Ann, Billy and I along with a driver (named Vegas) started out our day by driving to a nurse’s home (Jean) to pick her up. She lived in a less than glorious part of town. Homes were in varied conditions. Some were somewhat nice, some were very rundown. But what struck me, all were very small. I would guess less than 20x 20 ft and within 30 ft of each other. I saw electrical poles, but not all were wired. I saw water pumps here so I am guessing they don’t have running water. All the houses were right on top of each other, I don’t know what they do for sewage. I saw no evidence of public water/sewer. I suspect most in the city live this way.

HOUSING(the bush) In the country most live in a mud brick hut with grass roofs. I was not invited inside, but I am guessing they were about 20 x 20 ft single room homes with grass roofs. All were set within a corn fields. I expect every flat piece of ground is used to grow something. They are all subsistence farmers.

ROADS: On Monday, We woke at 4:30. Ate breakfast and were on the road by 5AM. We picked up the nurse (Jean) at her home. She lived down a dirt road so bad that a billy goat would have problems. After picking her up we drove about 1 hour down some pave highway. Turned off onto a dirt road and drove another hour. 4 wheel drive is a must in this country. There is no way to get to the villages unless you have 4 wheel drive. Billy slept most of the way. How, I don’t know.

Some of the major roads in the city are paved, some of the highways between the cities are paved. But the vast majority of all roads are dirt. Most of the dirt roads I saw haven’t been grated in years. Even the paved roads are laced with pot holes. No exaggeration, they make Pennsylvania roads look good.

ABOUT HIS ROOM MATES: Jay, Eleanor and Amanda, They are very nice people. While most med students are working hard to get their degree and start earning the big bucks, these three are willing to take time off, delay the education, to make this sacrifice. These are special people. Also they seemed to have taken a liking to Billy and helped him grow through this. Also he really looks up to Jay and Eleanor. I can see why. I look up to them too.

ABOUT THEIR DAY: Each day the team wakes sometime between 4:30 and 5. Eat Breakfast, leave about 5:00 to 5:30. Pick up a nurse and drive 2 hours to some remote village and set up a make shift clinic. Women and their babies walk for miles to get to the clinic. Once the mothers assembled they start by singing traditional Chichewa songs. The words are changed to convey some public health message or improved parenting skills. Then the kids are weighted, measured, poked and tested. They are given the Chiponde based on their weight and sent on there way. This lasts until 1 to 3 pm. They pack up, drive 2 hours back to Blantyre. Then clean out the trucks, repack for tomorrow, eat dinner, enter the day’s data, collapse in bed. Repeat the next day at a different village.

LABOR COSTS: For all you that have a garage, you most likely have a garage door opener. You know when you drive up to the house and need to open the garage door without getting out of the car? You press the button on the clicker hanging off the car’s visor, Yes? Well those in Malawi that have homes, they hire people to open and close the gate to the yard. For the compound where Billy is staying, the landlord hired a family to live in a small building by the gate to open and close the when cars come and go. I believe they also clean and maybe work within the house. The landlord also has guards walking around the compound at night along with gardeners and others working about the place. When I say guards, I am not talking of someone in uniform with a gun. I am talking about some guy in very dirty street clothes with a whistle. From what I am told he is not a rich man, no fancy cars, and the house could use a good coat of paint. It just that unskilled labor is so cheap.

TRANSPORTATION: In Malawi there is no public transportation (or at least none I saw). To get around they mostly walk. It is scary how far they walk, rain or shine. During rush hour, the streets are crowded with people. Even in the rural areas.

The other mode of public transportation is the privately owned mini-bus taxi. Take thousands of very broken down mini vans, place behind the wheels all the deranged mad men and nut cases you can find, fill them with twice the number of passengers design by the manufacturer; now you have a commuter bus transportation system. These mini buses start beeping their horns starting about 5 AM looking for customers. Sounds like Morse code being practiced. Each day they drive from villages to the city and back again. Malawi must not have any form of insane asylums. If you are nuts, crazy or a general menace to society, they make you a taxi driver.

BEGGING AND CLASS STRUCTURE: I saw this for my own eyes. There are three types of people in Malawi: Black Africans( the mass poor), Indians(business class), and Whites(rich). Just because you are white you have money. At the market, there are two sets of prices; white people prices and everyone prices. Every time a white person walks by the beggars come out of the wood work. Boy they know how to look pitiful. Should you give to the beggars? Every fiber of your body wants to empty your pockets to help these people. However, this quick fix and just encourages more begging. People will keep there kids out of school because they can make money begging. I don’t know what the right answer is. Watch “Slum dog Millionaire” some time.

The first time Billy and I were walking through Blantyre I was taken back by how pushy the beggars and vendors are. I was also surprise on how Billy responded to these people. He seemed rude on the verge of being mean. I was taken back. I didn’t think I raised my child to act this way. When Ann and I confronted him about this, he explained his actions this way… He and his two room mates had many discussions on this topic. To encourage kids to stay in school, be fair to all people and to discourage people from relying on begging; it was decided that they will not give outright to beggars. Only give them money if they provide some needed service and agree to the service (before hand). You pay them the going Malawi rate. This “Ed Koch” response is a hard standard to meet. Before you go out, you need to put on a “game face” to face the crowds. Do not look around, be clear on what you want and don’t want. Not rude, but forceful. And don’t give in to constant pestering. You want to encourage economic growth not dependency. Again, I don’t know what the right answer is.

MODESTY: In the city, fashion is pretty much similar to anywhere here. More men seem to wear suites to work more, even if they live in a slum. In the rural country side, things are very different. Men wear shirt and pants, no surprise. For women, it seems that the thighs are the sexy part of the female and should be covered up. All women wear a “Chitenje”. This is a 6x3 ft cloth that women wear as a skirt, wrap or carry a baby or two. Ann and the two female med students had to wear them while out in the rural villages, otherwise the woman would point, giggle and possibility be offended.

Now, if their baby cried or even fuss a little, the woman would instantly whip out a breast or two and feed the child, anywhere and at anytime, in front of me or anyone. I felt I was in a La Leche League convention.

BALANCE: I can juggle. I spent a summer in college learning how. I still juggle from time to time to relax. Over the years I have learned a few tricks and have seen some impressive juggling by professionals. They can’t hold a candle to the women in Malawi. I saw women balance a huge sacks of potatoes (25 lb at least) on their heads, kid strapped to her back, carrying things in both arms, walking down the road, for miles, turning to look at us as we drive by. I’m talking about balancing something on their heads without touching it! Walking miles! Carrying other stuff! Circuses will never be the same for me.

PARENTING: The mothers in the treat program get an allotment of PPB food/medicine at each visit to the clinic. Sometime the mother or father will sell the food or eat it themselves or share it with other children. How could you do this? What kind a parents are these people?

Then I hear that some of these women (Mothers, Grandmothers, Aunts and sometimes Fathers) would walk up to 10 to 15 km, one way, to get to the clinic. Each week. One mother walked from Mozambique crossing a major river by row boat. WOW

LIFE AND DEATH IN THE THIRD WORLD: Here I am very conflicted. Death is so pervasive; They fight this by having more babies. For the two days I helped giving out Chiponde, I estimate that at least half of the mothers with a sick child were months pregnant. Most were holding the hands of at least one other child. It seems mothers only gets only a few months between pregnancies. They don’t have enough food to eat, so they make more babies. When is the family too Big? I don’t get it.

Then I hear the Pope visited Angola and made statements about condom use. Ugh. Someone needs to rethink this life, death and reproduction stuff.

PICTURES: The rural villagers loved having their picture taken. Ann and I would take their picture and show them the image on the camera’s LCD screen. Adults and kids love seeing themselves.

A FEW PHRASES I CAME ACROSS:

Azungu – White people, Little boys would see us and call out this phrase in surprise and often wave. Like seeing a fire truck going by. I was a novelty.

Zikomo Kwambili - thank you very much, said with a little curtsy.

ADITUDE: These are very friendly people. While driving back to Blantyre, Ann and I asked the driver, Vegas, if he could stop to allow us to take a picture of a Mud brick hut. The nurse (Jean) told the driver to stop, Jean got out and walked into the yard of a two or three hut village. Jean called out and found the owner. After some discussion in a language I was clueless, the family sat with us and chatted for a few minutes while we took pictures. They were very nice.

We are just coming out of the “hungry season”. The peak of the Hungry Season (worst time) is right before the harvest. Everything is green and growing but you can’t eat it yet. Despite all the deprivations they endure, they can still be friendly and happy. How do they do this? I get so grumpy when I am hungry.

TRAVEL: Africa was never on our radar for potential travel places. Billy’s working for PPB was the only reason I went to Malawi. Originally I was not looking forward to this part of our trip. While I was there, I found it different than I expected. There were times I was so glad to be there and other times I wanted to run to any 1 to 2 star hotel, just to take a bath. But in the end I am glad I went.

SAYING GOODBY: Last summer I spent 6 weeks trying to talk Billy out of working in Malawi. I didn’t think this was a good idea and I didn’t think he was ready. Most of all I was afraid that he might fail somehow and it would really discourage him from taking on any future major endeavors. After seeming him work and operate I am no longer worry about his future. I was WRONG and Ann was RIGHT!

I am so proud of what Billy is doing this year and I look forward to his return.

Medium Bill