Carolines experiences in Malawi, 20. 1.05

Carolin In the City – 20th Jan 2005
 
I am writing now as much as possible because I don't know how often I can write later. At the moment I am living in a house in Blantyre together with four other DI's from Japan, Germany, Mauritius and Slovakia.  I already feel at home, our house is in a nice area with little street markets, where we can buy popcorn and bananas every evening before we go home. We have also a nice old guard, living behind our house, who teaches us Chichewa.

Today I was with Florence, my project leader together in the rural area.  We went to the police station and the hospital to find out the names of the headmen of the different villages and how much voluntary testing centers and so on already there. The police station was a little bit scary, or not scary but impressing, the head of the police station has so much authority and gains so much respect, first we had to stand before him and declare who we are and why we came, but at the end he was actually really nice and friendly and wanted to help us immediately. The hospital was terrible, there where only two doctors and a huge queue in front of the hospital and inside, mostly mothers with children, we felt really uncomfortable, just to walk past them and go to the doctor to ask him about what we wanted to know.

At the moment it is rainy season, so mostly there are thunderstorms in the night, but also in the afternoon sometimes, but that's nice, then the air is fresh. Tomorrow I finally get my backpack, after phoning every day, it was left behind in London.  Phoning is funny here, the little wooden houses in the city, where just two people can squeeze in and then somebody is sitting there with a telephone on his knees, which looks very surreal, and you have to write down the number, he will dial and then you can phone, after half an hour when finally the connection is there, because the telephone system is not able to cope with all the calls most of the time.  There is so much more, but I have to go now and walk home through the maize fields along the river (although I am in the middle of the city )the path is so nice, it's amazing, there I already saw a few banana trees, and you have to pass over a small old wooden bridge, so you feel like walking in a jungle. 
Greetings
Carolin