(Kevin) Introducing: Madalitso

 

I spent the weekend in Blantyre, which is the commercial capital of Malawi. It was strange, and made me feel far removed from the Malawi I’ve come to know over the past month. After 2 days in the city, I felt really out of place, and couldn’t wait to go back to the village. After getting off the minibus in Machinga, I felt the familiar feeling that happens when you come home after a trip.

Through my day to day happenings this week, I’ve come to realize that Madaritso is actually Madalitso. I guess I forgot that in Malawi the pronunciations of Ls and Rs is difficult to distinguish. Good to know, lesson learned. Madalitso received word yesterday that his job in Machinga is being terminated from mid-July until September. This is terrible news, and it means that I’m about to lose a co-worker, a friend, and a host. We’ve talked about what I’ll do for living, and it may be the case that I’ll be living in the house alone. This actually means that I’ll be a tenant in Malawi. The thought of this blows my mind..

It seems that things are changing around here, but it’s hard to tell whether or not things are moving forward. I’ve received word from the district and a few of the Water Monitoring Assistants (WMAs) that funding is soon to be released for the WMAs to do their rehabilitation assessment. This is great! I’ve started contacting them, and they seem okay with taking me along for the ride, as try to learn more about what goes into the decision making process from the POV of the WMAs. My planning confusion persists as I learn that some WMAs have tried to complete the survey with their own money for fuel, in hopes that they can get paid for a complete round of assessments. Understandable – I would want to get paid too.

This week, I was able to secure a meeting with the District Water Office for Machinga. He approved of my work plan, and said that I can go forward with the research that I’m proposing to do. In conversation, this sounded great, but based on how slow activities have been moving on this project, I’m a bit nervous about how effectively I will be able to move my plan into action. On a day-to-day basis, there seems to be this looming feeling of nervousness that plans will fall through, or that I won’t get the information I want out of the professional aspect of this placement. That’s where my head’s at right now – hopefully there’s value in the direction that my placement is heading, and I hope that I can identify that value in the next while.

I’ve posted some pictures below. I’m really camera shy when it comes to being the foreigner behind the camera. It always seems awkward to take the camera out for a snapshot. I guess I’ve found it much more valuable to live the moment out of the frame – but don’t worry, I’m getting better at finding a balance between building connections with folks and telling their story in a visual way.

That’s all for now.. oh – and I buzz cut my hair. Freedom!

All the best, and much love.

Kevin

This is me and Genevieve (my coach). She rocks, and is doing fantastic work in the Salima district!

This is my office. Cartoons Corner is something I don’t understand – I think that I need to understand decades of Malawian politics to get the jokes.

One day, a man dropped by Madalistso’s house with a camera (that I presumed to be fake) and snapped a picture of myself and Madalitso. Turns out the camera was real, and we now have this beautiful floral ‘snap’ to prove it.

My bicycle (and lifeline).

A small section of a Gravity Fed Scheme (GFS).

Typical, the end of an Afridev pump handle is installed horizontally. This one is installed vertically, and apparently, the intention is to discourage more than one person from using the pump lever at one time, which can stress the parts and cause them to wear out faster.

A mosquito (udzudzu) fort – as one of the JFs calls it.

Hair = buzzed