Carolins experiences in Malawi, 3. February 2005

Carolin’s work – 3rd February

Hey everybody!

Malawi is still great.  At the moment I am organizing an information day about HIV/AIDS and Mother to Child Transmission in Chikowa, the hospital I went to last week.  I hope that I can make it on the 12th, but I still have to wait for the answer from the supermarket chain where I asked for food.  Somebody told me that here there is a policy that they have to pay tax on the food they give away and so the supermarkets prefer to throw it away ,but I don't hope so.  Anyway I will visit the manager of the supermarket tomorrow again and see - the last time he was not in the house.  This happens here often, no matter which office you go to, you have to go three times because somebody is ill or not there or just went out.

On Saturday I have a meeting with all the headmen of the villages in Kunthembwe.  I was pretty lucky because I went to Chikuli (the rural area) again to visit the traditional court to get information about the villages.  At the moment we have no idea where the villages are; there is no existing map and every village name appears about five times.  But on the way whilstwalking from the end station of the minibus in Chikuli out in the bush, I met somebody who knew where the main headman was.  On the way I talked with him about HIV, what we are doing now and about the situation of the people in the area.  It was very interesting.  So I met the headman and the one I met translated for me.  I was then invited to attend a meeting of all the headmen in which they would help me to get the information of the villages!

Also I am making partnership, which is not so interesting because i am sitting in the office in Blantyre,  I like it much more to walk around in the rural areas.  Last Monday we had a meeting with Fresh Water Project, an NGO I wrote to in order to find out what they are doing in the area and it was great.  They want to work together with us, they have cars and a big hall where they train staff and they know the area very well. 

Otherwise I also tried Kassawa that is a kind of root I guess, that they are eating all the time in the rural areas, it is very nice, it tastes like nut. 

We DI's want to visit Lake Malawi in our free time, especially to say goodbye to one of the DI’s from Mauritius.  I hope we manage to organise it, it must be great there!

Carolin