Chinese Fried Rice

I made this! Tasted just like take-out!

1 onion, chopped

1 green pepper, diced

1 /2 cup carrot, chopped

1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger (mine came from a shaker)

2 cups cold cooked rice

1 tbs soy sauce

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup cooked peas

1 cup shredded cabbage

2 tbs oil

2 beaten eggs

In a large skillet, saute onion, garlic, vegetables (except peas) and ginger in oil until tender. Add rice and peas, mix well. In a small bowl combine eggs and soy sauce. Make a well in the rice mixture and pour the egg mixture. Allow egg to cook until nearly dry. Then mix rice and veggies with the egg together. Cook until throughly heated.

Potential Projects

So now that my three months are up, people are already asking me what I plan on working on while I’m here. So I will just give you a quick list of potential plans (some have been brought up by my community and hospital, some are just ideas I have), so you can be rest-assured that I am busy.

Teaching Life Skills – I will be teaching Life Skills to Form 1 (freshmen) and Form 3 (juniors) at the secondary school. School begins September 5^th, so I have already started working on lesson plans. I am thinking of tweaking the curriculum – not losing any important stuff, but getting rid of irrelevant activities.

Women to Women – there is a women’s group in my village that was working with the last volunteer and they have approached me about getting together and selling tortilla chips (I will push for guacamole, as soon as avocado season comes back). They are a group of really smart, strong young women and we have met a few times, but I think I may need to give them some more inspirado to start showing up for meetings more frequently.

Luso la Manja – this is a women’s group in a village about 45 minutes from me. This project has been on-going for many years and mostly the Tongas have been helping these women with their sales and development. They make shoulder bags, messenger bags, computer cases, aprons, change purses, dolls, etc. out of chitenges and sell them. They are a fairly successful group and pretty organized, however they do not have a shop. They sell their souvenirs from a spare room in their house. So my fellow Tongas and I are hoping to help build them a shop to attract tourists and sales. I have very limited business background (I used to help my mom sell things at our yard sales during the summer), so this is a big learning process. However, this group of women are exceptionally awesome and I’m willing to help out with whatever is needed.

Hospital Garden – I am already in the works in growing a garden at the hospital with the Nutrition Rehabilitation Unit. The garden will serve as both nutritious food for the hospital to serve to its patients, as well as an educational tool in teaching villagers to incorporate more vegetables in their diet. We have some land ready to plant and we are getting a fence built to keep the goats out. I’m hoping to get some free seeds from an on-going environmental project nearby.

Two Under-5 Clinics – since Dwambazi Rural Hospital treats many patients – some walk as far 20 kilometers to get treatment – I am in the process of writing a grant proposal for the development of two clinics in the outer regions of Dwambazi. Luckily the last volunteer had built one before she left, so I still have the grant and outlined plans from her building.

Pit-Litrines – There is a village nearby that has a high number of diarrhea-related deaths. The plan is to repair poorly built pit litrines and to build new ones for families without. This will reduce the number of cases of diarrhea significantly. A grant proposal is already in the works.

Drama Club – Malawians love acting. They love drama. They love entertainment. My plan is to help promote health and HIV/AIDS awareness through a drama club. One is already formed, but they need a bit more structure. I hope to have them start writing their own scripts and acting in front of school events and at under-5 clinics.

Youth Clubs – Let’s give the kids something constructive to do. This is obviously just an idea – not sure where I am going with this.

Moringa Tree Project – This is a huge goal for me – I still need to do a lot of research and talk to my community, but I am in love with the Moringa tree and I have already started some seedlings. The moringa tree is a miracle tree Moringa is particularly appealing because of its vitality and ability to grow to 12 feet in its first year. Almost every part of the tree can be used in some way: the leaves for nutrition, the roots for medicine, the wood for firewood, the seeds for cooking oil, and live trees for agro-forestry. Moringa has also been used for animal feed, dyeing, fuel and water purification.

So that is that. I’m taking one project at a time, but I have high hopes and I seem to have a lot of support from my community. We’ll see what happens these next two years.

Spanish Rice

I made this!

1 cup uncooked rice

1 chicken bouillon cube

1 green pepper, chopped

2 tomatoes, diced

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups water

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 tsp Nali

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 15-20 moinutes until water is absorbed and rice is tender.

Refried Beans

I made this! Great with tortillas!

1 cup dried beans, washed, presoaked

1 large onion, chopped

1 tsp salt

2 tsp Mexican spices (cumin, chili powder, coriander)

4 tbs oil

5 large cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp hot sauce

Cook beans until tender (Heck yeah, pressure cooker!), drain, and mash. Saute onions and garlic in oil until tender. Add spices and mix well. Add spice mixtureto mashed beans and mash together. Serve topped with cheese (HA! Cheese...) or in your favorite Mexican dish.

Gotta Greet!

To not greet is to have poor manners.  Do you want to be thought of as the rude villager?  Heck no!  So you have got to greet everyone. Especially agogos (elderly people) or else they will beat you.  No, not really, but word spreads fast in the village, so don’t offend anyone, dummy.

Directly translated:

Timoneni – (This is not directly translatable – basically it’s the first thing you say to someone you never met before)

Mwe uli? – How are you?

Magona uli? – How did you sleep?

Mayuka uli? – How did you wake?

Matandala uli? – How did you spend the day?

Typically there is a script that is followed. Depending on the time of day and one’s relationship with the individual, the previous questions need to be answered and followed up with either:

Yewu – thank you

Dawonga – I am most grateful

The dialogue somehow flows naturally into these demanding questions (again – depending on one’s relationship with the speaker – this could go on for a while) that must be answered before one can continue on his or her way.

Muluta pani? – Where are you going?

Mutuwa pani? – Where are you coming from?

Mutuliya pani? – Where did you come from (before Malawi)?

Muja pani? – Where are you staying?

Mupempha pani? – Where do you pray?

Muwirwa? – Are you married?

Chifukwa uli? – Why not?

Mwe ndi mwana? – Do you have children?

Chifukwa uli? – Why not?

Mwe nde vyaka vilinga? – How old are you?

Muwirwa cha?! – And you’re not married?!! What are you sterile? A nun? Why don’t you have a family by now?

Mugwira ntchito uli? – What is your job?

Tiwonanenge sono sono – We will meet soon…And you will be my wife…

That’s exactly how it goes, with some liberal translation that I can only guess from the person’s expressions.

GAD Camp

Recently I spent a week in Mzuzu at GAD Camp.  You are probably thinking, what in the world is a GAD?  GAD stands for Gender and Development.  It is an organization within Peace Corps that meets monthly to discuss programs involving (guess what?) gender and development that can be used effectively within communities.  If you live in the northern region of Malawi (like I do) then you are a member of GAD. It’s as simple as that.

It’s a good way to consult with other volunteers about projects and programs – especially when you are new and you’re drawing a blank.

This was the first year of GAD Camp.  It was designed for secondary school students in form 3 and form 4 (equivalent to high school juniors and seniors) to learn about their gender and development (What?!  No, not really, but I did actually say that to someone when they asked what GAD Camp was and I couldn’t come up with an answer right away.  Yeah, I was completely wrong and Robert reminded me that juniors and seniors in high school are pretty familiar with their genders thus far…)  These students spent the week job shadowing different professions in the mornings (doctors, nurses, hair stylists, business people, paralegals, mechanics, etc.).  In the afternoons we had guest speakers, field trips, and workshops (veterinarian, librarian, judge, banker, as well as learning how to write a resume or conduct a community assessment) and in the evenings, we played games (Bingu [a spin off of Bingo – we merely substituted the President of Malawi’s name for the infamous dog], Red Rover [violent and oh so fun], Bang Bang [also violent, but a huge hit], etc.)

Some of the campers had never left their villages before.  Traveling to Mzuzu was a huge adventure and they had the opportunity to experience a working day.  At the end of the week, it was so exciting to see how much the kids learned and to hear that they wanted to come back next year.  The joy never left their faces and I think they were inspired to continue doing well in school and to take advantage of more opportunities.

In an environment where few ever leave the village, we can only hope these experiences will help encourage students to look for ways to improve their lives and Malawi.  There’s only so much a Peace Corps Volunteer can do and the youth in this country are the future.

Maybe a cheesy blog post, but I’m genuinely inspired by my week at GAD Camp – those kids made me smile.