So it has arrived…may last day in Malawi on a JF placement with EWB…
I just submitted my final report to EWB after quite a scramble to complete it - for anyone who is interested, I’d love to discuss it with others. Other than that, I’ll be having my last supper with my host family tonight, saying my final goodbyes, and taking off for Johannesburg tomorrow!
See you soon 
Wayne
Bonjour!
(Many Malawians know this one! And in learning a bit of Chichewa and Chitumbuka this summer, I’m fully inspired to re-learn my French…any willing conversation partners?)
So, what’s up in Wayne’s World? I’m on the verge of The Last Week…the days have been long, but the months a mere four blinks of an eye.
As a sweeping update, here’s a look at me for insight on how I have been living, working, smiling, frowning, and plain ol’ chilin in Malawi.
I think the best place to start is…
My Mouth…
What I’ve been eating…In the past month or so, I’ve been eating to the point where I may vary my belt among 3 sizes in a single day 
I’m very lucky for meals…breakfast has been a pretty steady bread and tea with three teaspoons of sugar, lunch and supper is a rotation of nsima and rice with beans, eggs, chicken, beef, or fish and a side of boiled rape leaves with tomato sauce. And in between meals there’s always a quick snack of oranges, bananas, groundnuts, mandasi (something like a sweet fried dough ball – yummy to the tongue, but likely killer to the heart…still nothing a workout of cooking nsima can’t solve). I took off with Rod for a few days to visit Papa village, and while there, besides being served a lot of rice and chicken (popular for visitors though not typically eaten otherwise), for breakfast I ate chambiku (sour milk) which is taken plain or with rice…”interesting” combo, but a bowl full kept me satisfied despite walking for hours. Overall, I’m feeling I will miss many foods around here!
What I’ve been talking about…the typical conversation these days is centred on the current political impasse in Malawi. Parliamentarians are failing to resolve their differences in debating whether a clause in the Constitution should be instated before or after a now outstanding national budget. The clause states that those who have crossed the floor (~40 MP’s in the ruling party) should have their seats declared vacant, which would require expensive local elections very near to the scheduled 2009 national elections. Some claim and imply this is a means for opposition leaders to weaken the ruling party and seek to impeach the President after he left an opposition party from which he won his Presidency to form his own party instead of serving the opposition as a puppet leader. At stake is a national budget which is now over-due causing Malawi to operate without a budget, threatening all government programs which cannot receive funding approval, and quite potentially endangering the lives of Malawians who rely on these government programs for health, agriculture, education, etc. There has been an impressive onslaught of national outcries for MP’s to pass the national budget, and while some reports state mobs have resorted to physical violence against targeted MP’s, most Malawians pride themselves in being peaceful, and thus the majority have held vigils, marches, picket lines, etc.
What makes me smile…realizing that though Malawi faces challenges, there are light-hearted, proud individuals with a fiery passion to see growth in Malawi. That potential is wholly inspiring. And I can’t help but smile when I’m cramped riding to and from work on the mini-bus…to survive it, it’s like there’s a sentiment of “push against me, and I’ll push against you” so that we can all make it comfortably.
But to jump around a bit,
My nose…
…typically does not sense a direction I want to follow.
My eyes…
…constantly see new things everyday…way too much to explain here. But broadly, I’m seeing a tonne of the inner workings of development NGOs from Board to field level, responses to donor demands, how history/politics/culture influence the effectiveness of development initiatives from inception to implementation and beyond. I’m seeing the life of people within the NGO sector of Lilongwe, their motivations, challenges, and aspirations.
My eyebrows…
…are typically frowning when I’m at a loss to solve or significantly contribute towards solving the issues I’m seeing. And they’re typically found high on my forehead when Malawians speak to me in their vernacular too quickly!
My ears…
…are listening to more gospel music than ever before. But the gospel is typically in a dance, hip-hop, or R&B style, so the beats and rhythms are catchy even if I can’t follow all the lyrics. But since radios or televisions are either off or full blast, even during a conversation, be a little patient with me when I return if I can’t hear you well Although, in the village, the quiet was particularly enjoyable.
My brain…
…continually ponders and probes many questions…for a mere subset of the questions I’m able to remember and articulate at the moment: Would change happen if there was a vision of alternatives?; Does change happen ‘inside-out’ (behaviour->resources->impact), or ‘outside-in’ (resources->behaviour->impact), or somehow in parallel (behaviour, resources->impact)?; What if the push towards performance-focused NGOs (borrowed from private sector) shifted towards (-or back to) service-based NGOs? Then maybe accountability would not be whether NGO objectives were met, but whether NGOs have indeed served beneficiaries; How might the power of donor demands be leveraged to achieve positive impact?; How might private sector development positively impact Malawians?; and the kicker, How can what I do in Canada positively impact Malawians?
That wild light bulb above my brain…
…is seriously on the verge of explosion through the energy of all the Eureka moments I’ve experienced all summer!
Starting back from the bottom…
My feet…
…are my best friend to make things happen, and my worst friend when I pull off my shoes!
My knees…
…are growing pretty strong from squatting.
My knuckles…
…generally heal a few days after doing laundry
And maybe most importantly,
My heart and soul…
…I started this summer motivated by a passion to learn and contribute towards development, and through the people I’ve met, experiences I’ve absorbed, and opportunities I see exist, that passion has exponentially grown.
I can’t wait to share more in person in few weeks,
Wayne
A big THANKS to those who sent me some mail! It was pretty exciting to read your messages, and I relished even peeling off the tape of the envelope :P I can speak for my host family and friends in Kawale that they also enjoyed the pictures and postcards.
Unfortunately it came to be so late…there was a hold up at the address because they did not know who I was – and I imagine peering into something from Canada was pretty tempting…
But again, much thanks!
I’ve been busy travelling, working, learning over the past three weeks…so I hope to update you all this week…from cell phone woes, to finally observing a strategic planning session facilitated by CADECO, and a five day village stay about a day’s travel north of Lilongwe returning to a family rift centred on juju (aka witchcraft!), to trying to keep abreast of a MAJOR political impasse between a constitutional debate and passing a national budget to the point where many Malawians dread a scenario where donors pull out of Malawi…the days are not nearly long enough!
Stay tuned…but in the meanwhile, enjoy some of the sights of the past week. Malawi has an incredible landscape.
Make a habit of regularly observing the universal process of change: be assiduous in your attention to it and school yourself thoroughly in this branch of study: there is nothing more elevating to the mind.
- Marcus Aurelius
(INTRAC Occasional Papers Series No: 43 - Leaders Changing Inside-Out: What Causes Leaders to Change Behaviour? Cases from Malawian Civil Society by Rick James)
Nthawi apita!
(literally “time he/she goes”, just means time flies!)
Now that I have some more time on the Internet, all I can say is, ‘Wow!’
I cannot believe I’ve been in Malawi for over 9 weeks. Only 6 weeks left, and I’m definitely feeling a time squeeze. I haven’t even explained what I’m working on – which is largely because I needed until now to figure that out! But first, without further delay, here is some input on the answers to those proverbs and riddles.
For the riddle, “It is a house with a door that when you open, it is open, but when you close, it is never closed,” is…Mtedza (groundnut). You open a peanut shell and it is open forever. (I didn’t get the answer initially either, but it turns out they learn these riddles in school.)
“When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.”
This proverb tries to illustrate that when leaders quarrel with each other, it is the staff that suffer.
“Failure is an orphan, while success has many parents.”
This proverb just tries to incite people into teamwork.
I think everyone who responded decrypted the proverbs quite well. There isn’t a single answer however since it they are supposed to incite discussion.
And just to explain, the quote above by Marcus Aurelius caught me by surprise in a publication on leadership development – it is so poignantly instructive and highly relevant to my interests for the last few years, I couldn’t help but share it here. The link to that specific paper is here.
But moving on…
I think the last time I wrote about work I was still immersed in the thick fog of overseas development ambiguity, but I’ve since settled into a relatively more predictable lifestyle and now I have much to discuss from placing myself in the context of two Malawian organizations. As I mentioned before, I’ve been partnered with clients of CADECO, and while I was originally slated to work with three, I’m so glad it was reduced to two.
The first organization I work with is Public Affairs Committee (PAC), which started as an informal association of religious leaders, pressure groups, lawyers, and businessmen in the movement from single-party dictatorship to multi-party democracy during 1992-1994. After the 1994 multi-party elections, PAC became composed solely of religious groups from many Christian and Muslim followings. PAC’s objective is to encourage religious bodies (which seems to be everyone save a minority Animist following) to promote democracy, development, peace, and unity in Malawi. They do this through civic education, advocacy, and mediation. For example, in 2002 and 2003, PAC was involved in countering Open term and Third term Constitutional Amendments. PAC’s civic education programs include voter education and training election monitors, while incorporating gender equality and HIV/AIDS messaging.
PAC is currently building up District (like a Province in Canada) level teams by appraising the capabilities of its current volunteer base. They are also looking to conduct an evaluation of their field activities to know to what extent they have met their objectives. So I am helping the PAC project implementers develop a Monitoring & Evaluation system largely from scratch.
The second organization I work with is Centre for Youth and Children Affairs (CEYCA), a NGO whose objective is to protect and promote the rights of children and young people in Malawi. It was established in 1995, about one year after Malawi transitioned from single-party dictatorship to multi-party democracy, and so CEYCA is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which is embedded in the 1995 Constitution of Malawi. The problems CEYCA attempts to tackle are quite varied, but a constant is employing a Rights-based Approach. Among the issues are child sexual abuse, child trafficking, juvenile justice law, lack of adequate primary education services, secondary school violence, gender equality, and HIV/AIDS. CEYCA’s philosophy is that by tackling such issues, it paves the way for youth to participate in sustainable development of Malawi.
Many programmes in CEYCA are stagnant at the moment, so the only field work I have been part of is tackling secondary school violence with a Democracy Education & Youth Leadership project – and I’ve seen the staff in action only twice. The project brings together existing and emerging Democracy club leaders from various secondary schools for training in and discussion about the principles of democracy, participation, youth leadership, and club management. The idea is then for these leaders to share their knowledge and understanding with the rest of the Democracy club (-or create one), which will then continue into the community.
If nothing else, it’s a lifetime opportunity for the participants as they have a venue to voice issues like headteachers (school principles) abusing female students, corruption among headteachers or fellow students delegated as liaisons to administration, and cases where students vandalize school property in response to those issues or misunderstanding decisions by school authorities. For myself, I jumped at the chance to mingle with the future entrepreneurs, lawyers, journalists, teachers, doctors, and nurses as they put it.
But since participating in the training, I’ve been wrestling with the relevancy and effectiveness of a Rights-based Approach. Youth may know their rights/freedoms, duties and responsibilities under the law, but it begs the question, “So what?”
I think to provide an example for us to sink our teeth into, and one I’m also failing to fully grasp, let’s look at the provision of free primary education by upholding the right to education. In 1994, Malawi adopted a national policy of free primary education, which resulted in a tripling of national enrolment, thus a drop in quality of education, along with all those same issues I mentioned before: hidden fees which exclude some children, poor infrastructure, lack of (qualified) teachers, etc. While these issues, among many others, are devastating, I question the value of education as an end in itself, which a Rights-based Approach promotes.
One major benefit of education, some would argue, is that it can be linked to decreasing HIV/AIDS rates, which unfortunately is too prevalent in Malawi. Literacy and basic knowledge pave the way for more development, and at the individual level, may add to one’s wellbeing.
While I’ve certainly oversimplified the above picture to the point where Mona Lisa is a stick figure, a question on my mind is what happens after primary education? To attend secondary school, one must have enough money to pay for the fees. This has driven Christoph from the village to work in my host family’s house. While he has his “basic needs” of shelter, food, etc., in my eyes he is a servant. So what are the implications of wellbeing in the end? I find it really difficult to know because of my weak Chichewa, yet in spite of that, there are so many barriers to understanding the quality of change that occurred.
Even if one manages to complete secondary school, unemployment in Lilongwe and Malawi in general is very high. So I wonder how realistic it is for the secondary school students to actually become practicing entrepreneurs, lawyers, journalists, teachers, doctors, and nurses. Chipie recently completed his accounting diploma, so I’m curious what that market is like – from what I hear, the best positions are in the NGO sector. Many college graduates with diplomas or degrees, including Ester, are becoming teachers since there is no other work. It’s difficult to have bigger picture empirical evidence of specific job opportunities, but I’m looking for ways to get an idea of the demand for such jobs.
Regardless, I’m told by many people my age that many Malawians just stay at home in Lilongwe, and in the case of youth, they choose to spend time with girlfriends or boyfriends. This is somewhat culturally stigmatized and attributed to spreading HIV/AIDS, which if true just negated the argument that primary school education prevents the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Again I’m working on building a truer picture of the situation but thinking through it has ushered in many more questions. For instance, what if something similar happened in education as to agricultural development NGOs, where they previously solely worked on the production/supply side, but now also with the market/demand side placing emphasis on a full value-chain intervention. Is this a case for strategically targeting private sector development to create demand for education?
I have neither academic nor empirical evidence to build that case farther than posing the question, so I’m definitely curious about your opinions! I haven’t touched on the point that government, which provides free education, will get tax revenue from private sector. In engineering fashion, I’m sure there are advantages and disadvantages to weigh. I’d love any comments, questions, suggestions – they’d all help me probe deeper into the issue.
Until next time!
Wayne
While I was online, I thought I’d mention I just recently returned from Senga Bay which is off beautiful Lake Malawi. It was the Engineers Without Borders JF Retreat where I got to catch up with all the fellow Malawi volunteers and EWB staff. Besides having some teambuilding, experience sharing, and action planning sessions, it was just an awesome time to relax from the rush of work, play some beach volleyball, and enjoy the lake (almost came close to a 7-person human pyramid – so I can say I’ve also drank the lake…quite a bit actually). Here’s a few pictures…hopefully I’ll post more after fellow JF’s share their photos with me (I didn’t whip out the camera too often). By Saturday, I should have more time to explain my work!
Zaboh! (Popular youth greeting here in Lilongwe)
I just had a few extra minutes to be on the Internet here since some meetings were implicitly cancelled, so I wanted to share an amusing experience…
The other week I had a chance to meet Ester, who is the sister to my host father, Leonard.
Ester is studying agribusiness (agriculture, economics/markets) at a college just outside of Lilongwe, but lives in Blantyre, and so only visits the family occasionally. To paint more of the ensuing scene, Lilongwe is on a somewhat scheduled, but still quite arbitrary, rotating blackout scheme as the power distribution system is being upgraded for the first time in over a decade. So when the lights go, I usually find my way to the charcoal cooking stove for warmth since it commonly drops to single digits on the Celsius temperature scale. The night when Ester was around, she decided to introduce me to a board game Malawians like to play. I quickly appreciated that when you want to play a board game, you not only get to play, but you get to build the board as well So Rod finds a piece of cardboard and using a knife cuts out a 30cm x 30cm square (approximately). The board evolves with Rod and Ester drawing diagonal, horizontal, and vertical lines. Cathy runs off and returns with handfuls of used bottle caps. Until at last the pieces come together to form a familiar game of Checkers!!
I was super excited, and my teeth shined through a big arrogant smile.
Going back a step…Another popular game is Bao, which some of you might already be familiar with. It’s a counting type game, but Malawians play it so fast I could hardly keep up when I joined a game, let alone trying to learn the strategies by observation. So when I saw a familiar game of Checkers, I was just like, ‘Alright! This is my time to taste some sweet revenge and win for a change!’
So I assure Rod and Ester I know what I’m doing, still struggling to hide my arrogant smile, and make my first move.
But things just go downhill from there…
First, I realize the game is actually called Draft…which I made the mistake of disregarding presuming Malawians simply call it by a different name – pretty common for other familiar items (is Draft in Canada? I was so blinded by my chance at revenge I didn’t clue in). Second, I was totally dumbfounded when my bottle cap was eaten by Ester moving a non-king bottle cap backwards! I just blankly stared at the board, unsure if Ester was trying to trick me, or if it was a legitimate move…I eventually accepted it although that happened a couple times before I learned my lesson to rebuke in kind. But finally, I lost all hope when Ester moved her king diagonally across the entire board to eat one of my bottle caps. By that time, my side was terribly weak and I opted for a hurried defeat. I picked up the pieces and/or my shattered pride and tried another round, but still no luck.
You think you know the rules of the game until you lose another bottle cap. As they say in Malawi, “That’s life!”
Nyumba ali bwanji!? (How is home?)
A LOT has happened since I last posted! I now live with my new host family as an uncle and brother, and have made many acquaintances and a close friend who lives two doors down my street. I’m also working with two of CADECO’s clients, which are my new partner organizations, Centre for Youth and Children Affairs (CEYCA) and Public Affairs Committee (PAC). It’s been a busy few weeks since starting work – settling into Malawian office life, field visits, meetings, donor proposal writing, and lots of reading about CEYCA and PAC. In fact, I wrote this while on a field visit working with PAC in Kasungu district, about 2 hours north of where I live, but I’m back in Lilongwe now.
I had some requests for an example of proverbs used in CADECO’s organizational consultancy work…One recites like this, “When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.” I’m curious to know what you understand from this, so send in your comments!
Another one that you may already be familiar with is, “Failure is an orphan, while success has many parents.”
To continue describing life in Malawi, my placement is actually urban based, so first a glimpse of my home life…
I live in what I think is an upper middle-class household in a Lilongwe suburb of sorts. Analogous to Canada where Ottawa is the capital, but Toronto is the commercial center; in Malawi, Lilongwe is the capital, but Blantyre is the commercial center.
You can see pictures of the house by clicking here http://wayneinmalawi.wordpress.com/pictures-of-the-house/.
In Lilongwe, I live with the family of Leonard and Trinity Mkandawire. Leonard is the manager and accountant in a Malawian book store chain, and aspiring entrepreneur of a general goods & stationary store. Most stores in Lilongwe are owned by east-Asians, Nigerians, or Congolese. I’ve only scratched the surface of why this is and I’ve heard mixed arguments on the difficulty for a single Malawian to have enough capital, or acquire the necessary loans to open their own shop in Lilongwe. Trinity is a Standard 8 teacher of mathematics – “Standard 8” is the equivalent to grade 8 in Canada as being the final grade of primary school. While I knew intellectually some of the challenges in achieving universal free primary education, it was still shocking to hear first-hand from a teacher the same issues of students dropping out due to hidden fees for national examinations or uniforms, and the lack of teachers, and the lack of adequate school facilities in terms of water, shelter, hygienic sanitation for students while learning. (Aside: I was asked about my potential involvement with CIDA through CADECO…so far I am not involved with CIDA nor have I seen them anywhere I have travelled in Malawi, but most of the primary school textbooks have big bold statements of the back cover mentioning they were proudly funded by CIDA - CIDA is the Canadian International Development Agency)
Anyhow, Leonard and Trinity are parents to Talina (Standard 4) and Grittel aka Gritty (Kindergarten). While at first the children were fearful of the new muzungu visitor (I think primarily for respect of hierarchy), Gritty has resumed to be the troublemaker, and with Talina, our favourite pastime together is for her to teach me Chichewa and to learn English from me. We have many laughs when I butcher the pronunciation of words. (For a taste of my difficulty – chombe “chombeh” is tea, chomba “chombah” is marijuana, chombo “chomboh” is Malawi’s most famous and tasty fish…mmowa is morning, mowa is tomorrow…etc.)
I also live with Leonard’s brother, Roderick (23) who is studying accounting, niece Catherine (Standard 7), and Christopher (16), who is the houseboy. Rod being around my age can tell me lots about Malawian culture and since we are both outside the immediate family yet still a family member, I tend to follow his lead when venturing new ground. Cathy and Christoph both speak very little English and so I try to spend as much time with them as possible. They do the vast majority of the housework, which is typical for their status in the household, and so live a very tiresome lifestyle, yet seem to be content.
With Cathy I have started playing a game called “Riddle, Riddle” (though with a Malawian accent it sounds like “leedo, leedo”). It’s another fun way to learn Chichewa, but I must say that I seriously lack the wit to answer the riddles or construct any half decent ones. One example, “It is a house with a door that when you open, it is open, but when you close, it is never closed.” Stay tuned for the answer in my next post, send in comments or e-mail me your guesses!
Christoph loves to listen to music (religion is very important, and so gospel music tends to be everyone’s favourite), or the football match (Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, and of course team Malawi are among the favourites – I’m keenly interested in how so many Malawians know the smallest details of even the bench players). I’m also learning Chichewa with Christoph and teaching him English simultaneously. And since he speaks and understands very little English, we both know the phrases, “I don’t know” and “Sindidziwa” very well. He is also teaching me how to cook nsima!
I also met and continue to spend a lot of time with one of Rod’s friends, Chipie. Chipie is studying the same accounting as Rod, but is older and in a higher class. Chipie is actually short for Chipilero “perseverance” which is fitting to his character. He has been given the opportunity to studying accounting, a fairly respected career in Malawi, largely due to support from his uncle who he grew up with to attend school in Blantyre. We are able to communicate well because he speaks fluent English, so we can walk for hours around the surrounding neighbourhoods to share a common curiosity in each other’s culture. I take many of my questions about Malawi to him since he can break it down and explain in detail. Chipie has joined a friend, Tabu, in a small-scale initiative called YAC: Youth Arts & Culture. Tabu explained to me that while many youth have been exposed to HIV/AIDS education, many are no longer in school, cannot find work, and thus pass the time at home or with a boyfriend/girlfriend. YAC intends to provide a means for youth to do something with fellow youth, and secondly, to expose the many talents that would otherwise be suffocated by disapproving parents, or broadly, lack of opportunity. So Chipie and Tabu are currently recording local Kalawe gospel artists, some of which get aired on radio stations in Lilongwe! They also have a football team, and are looking to have a drama club. This was all launched with their own funds and revenue generation, driven by their amazing passion to take control of their own futures. Talking with them is a huge source of motivation, and so every Sunday starting from last week, I have agreed to meet and help where I can.
The family’s favourite pastime in the evenings is to listen to the radio or watch television which is whatever happens to be showing on the only channel TVMalawi. You may have heard that the first lady of Malawi, Ethel Mutharika, passed away about 2 weeks ago, and so the government of Malawi has called for one month of mourning from the day of her death. Since that day, traditional songs by choirs across Malawi have been continuously aired on TVMalawi, only to be interrupted by official messages of condolence from various organizations, as well as the news. At first I thought it was just me who felt one month was over the top, but from the few Malawians that I’ve talked to, I feel I have a case. My family themselves are quite tired of the same songs, and choose to watch some Nigerian movies – which I could talk at length about, but I’ll leave it for another day.
So overall, this seems to be a comfortable lifestyle for my host family, and I can say I am very comfortable myself. But I’ve only seen the surface at best with small glimpses of the challenges they face. I have seen glimpses of the roles everyone plays and how they came about, whether its caretaker of children or the house, provider, future provider, and how some basic factors like age, immediate or extended family, gender play in defining that role. Since I am urban based, I lose the opportunity to see life from the perspective of the vast majority of Malawians, that being rural village life. But I have gained the opportunity to see a life which many villagers are flocking towards. So I look forward to exploring urban livelihoods, and the factors that make them so complex. I would love if any of you help me come up with factors to probe into – it would make for much better learning to share in September.
I look forward to hearing from you, and sorry I have posted this after soo long. Now that I have settled and have slightly more control over my schedule, I will be posting more often. The next post will be on what my work has been so far and some of my field visits. Feel free to make requests about what you would like to hear about!
Until next time,
Wayne
I’m walking a tight rope balancing being proactive and patient at the same time. My status as far as work is concerned is that CADECO will come up from Blantyre to Lilongwe to meet me today, and then we will all visit the three clients I will be working with. If that doesn’t happen, I’m heading to Blantyre to meet CADECO tomorrow. I was really looking forward to moving into my host family’s house this past weekend, but my first meeting was also pushed back to tomorrow…so I hope I can turn this into a win-win outcome by meeting with CADECO or my host family today. Wish me luck!
I’ve been meaning to explain more about my work because the little that I know is really exciting.
As I mentioned previously, I’ll be working with CADECO, a private sector organizational development consulting firm. Organizational development is a means to achieve financial and organizational sustainability by continually improving the effectiveness of current resources. The tradiational approach was very material focused where training was used to improve donor management in NGO’s, proposal writing, revenue generation, etc. Now, organizational development is about an organization’s ability to solve current problems as well as future problems. This is done by helping organizations become more able to learn in its rapidly changing environment. It looks at culture, structure, external relations, strategy and vision among other dimensions. And the ongoing process is internally led.
I realize that is likely a lot of buzz words, but I’m paraphrasing and synthesizing from Rick James’ “Demystifying Organizational Development”, and Chiku Malunga and Charles Banda’s “Understanding Organizational Sustainability Through African Proverbs.” There’s a lot of rich sophistication that I’d love to discuss with anyone who is interested. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send them my way.
Chiku and Charles are actually the co-founders of CADECO and have taken the language of organizational development and made it relevant to African leaders through African proverbs. Indirect communication is popular in Africa (I have yet to fully experience it in a business setting, but I’ve heard many stories), and so I think using proverbs is an interesting approach.
Chiku explains proverbs have the advantage that they comprises the identity and collective wisdom of Africans. Proverbs are used in African humour, to confront issues, and build relationships unifying different perspectives. It transcends literacy and thus can be appreciated by anyone. The simple statements can explain complex issues with metaphors that render strong mental imagery that could inspire insight beyond discussion. I enjoy metaphors especially if they have a purpose, so this is really exciting (–yes I’m a nerd), and I’m really curious to see how effective it is when applied within Malawian organizations.
So where I fit into this picture…
CADECO is called to do consulting work with Malawian organizations and together they develop specific action plans. I will be working with three of CADECO’s clients to liason CADECO and the clients as we help to implement the action plan to positively impact the three clients. Also, I will be able to feed back information on how CADECO can improve its work in the future.
This makes for 3.5 months of great learning opportunities and potential impact on four organizations. Of course it comes with great challenges — my greatest concern being balancing the depth and bredth of my understanding of four organizational contexts. It will also be difficult to know the impact on the poor (who I ultimately am working for) since organizational development relies on the ripple effect of change. Still, I’m looking forward to it!
Much love from Malawi.
Wayne
It turns out I could not go to Blantyre as told at one point. It makes sense from a point of view of spending time wisely, though I’m disappointed to miss seeing Blantyre as I hear is very different from Lilongwe. Expecting ambiguity and changes in plans will be key in Malawi.
It’s been slightly more difficult to schedule Internet time than I originally anticipated, sorry for such sporadic posts, but I just wanted to jump in with my first day in Malawi.
After a week of fairly intense learning with 12-16 hour days of development thinking and practical activities in Toronto, I hit the road last Sunday with 8 fellow Malawi team members. I spend the next 2 days on or between flights finally landing in Lilongwe airport Tuesday afternoon with surprising ease. Fortunately for me, so did my backpack – not the case for 5 of my friends. Anyhow, minus some sorely missed baggage, the 9 of us are escorted into town by Erin (has lived in Malawi for a while now) and David (EWB Director of Southern Africa Projects). We minibus it to Mabuya camp, a campsite typically used by backpackers and where the adventure tour jeeps are on steroids. With a short rest and some avocado-tomato sandwiches, we start a few Malawi-specific training sessions.
While this was all super cool, I’m going to skip over a bunch of funny short stories to describe the surprise I had late Tuesday. So sore bum, stiff legs and all, I join the group in a relatively luxurious minibus. We head down a foreign yet strangely fitting ochre dirt road lined with gutters (which I suspect is for rainy season flood control…and the occassional opportunistic bladder), women with small babies strapped to their backs balancing impressive loads on their heads, minibuses spewing black smoke while transporting double the number of people as there are seats, and men bicycling on 1950’s cruisers probably returning from work. We leave the minibus and walk the last leg of the trip. I turn the corner and suddenly am overwhelmed with the singing and dancing of a local women’s choir around Erin’s housing compound. Sensory overload! I look around hesitant to join in the singing of our welcome since the lyrics are in Chichewa but ndidiziwa Chichewa pangono pangono (I know Chichewa little by little). Erin yells out to the group, “Dance!!”, and so I follow the choir’s lead. Left elbow jab, right elbow jab, pat thighs twice, stretch to the sky, grab the sky with my right hand, grab the sky with my left hand. The choir sounded amazing after practicing three days a week, but the 9 of us brought up the rear with our terrible out-of-sync dance moves. The women in the choir couldn’t resist laughing at us muzungu’s (white or Western person). But it was all in great fun and the welcome was a much needed energy boost.
As pitch darkness arrived, we head inside for our first Malawian meal with a Malawian family. We ate nsima (“nSEEmah” in Malawi, “nSHEmah” in Zambia) and beans, the quite tasty staple meal in Malawi, as well as a vegetable relish of boiled okra. The okra relish being slimy — though relatively better than the Ghanaian okra I ate in Toronto — still tested my gag reflex, but I survived to try it again another day.
After dinner I adopt a more questioning hat and start a conversation with agogo (grandfather) the male head of the family. I say and mean “started” because I honestly have little idea what was said with the many voices in conversation around me and a dance party in the next room. We somehow start discussing Malawian politics touching on Mutharika (current President), Muluzi (past President), and others. Agogo and his son, Blessings, are both musicians and I look forward to getting to know them a bit better.
We returned to Mabuya camp after a warm welcome and I was glad to hit the sack for a good night’s rest.
I hope everyone in having a spectacular summer back in Canada!
Wayne
