Carolin's experiences in Malawi, 12.5. 2005

Carolin - Time Flies – 12th May 2005

Hi Tina!

Yes, the time goes by so fast, I can't believe it, suddenly i am the next in our DI house to leave and I don't want to, I would like to stay 6 month longer!  I love the work here, on one side its for sure disappointing that TCE didn't start and probably also will not start in the area here where it was supposed to be, although the people really would need it.  But on the other side it is great to be free to do whatever i want.

I still like Malawi.  It is so interesting to speak with my Malawian friends, I  learned so much, we discuss a lot and sometimes they have so different opinions and points of view on things you would have never thought.  And although Blantyre is the ugliest, dirtiest, loudest, most chaotic city I have ever been in, it feels like my home and I am always happy to  come back after a trip to the lake or Mulanje.  Naja ,maybe not after Mulanje, I would love to live there at the waterfall in the mountains, with all the baboons and birds in the trees and the clear water...

For sure not everything is perfect, there are also things that annoy you or make you angry sometimes, but I noticed now that you get more and more used to it and some things don't even bother you at all anymore after a while.

We have so much fun with the newspapers all the time, it's so ridiculous what you can read, every day the article on the front page is about that either the former president Muluzi called the president Mutharika something or that Mutharika called Muluzi something and it's not about politics,it's something like "Muluzi said that Mutharika looks like a pig" "Mutharika said that Muluzi ....blabla". All the time...it's amazing. Or for example the Rastas went to the government to bring a petition in which they ask that homosexuality should stay forbidden and that the death day of Bob Marley and another rasta should become public holidays...,a journalist was arrested for a short time because he wrote that there are ghosts on the property where mutharika lives...and much much more I can't even remember the best ones.

I seriously want to improve my chichewa skills now, so I am borrowing children books in chichewa from a friend and try to read them with a dictionary, let's see if it works...

I met the delegation team already, which was very very nice to meet once again people from Holsted!!!  But now they are in their projects out in the rural areas so I don't know when I will meet them again...

Finally I came to appreciate fundraising...and found out that I actually like to write proposals,as long as they work and i get something afterwards...

Although I love it here, I am also looking forward to meet everybody in Holsted once again and my teammates and it's so great that Gillian comes!!!

So, now i have to stop, it's always a fight with the other DI's about the one computer with internet...

Lots of greetings to everybody in Holsted !!!

Love,

Carolin