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| Kind of looks like I have a mustache, just a piece of hair! |
Okay, so when I said I would blog weekly, its more likely bi-weekly, maybe even monthly. Since I last blogged however, life has been pretty slow. Im won't pretend like life in Malawi is hugely different from that of home. I wake up, walk to work, spend 8 hours in the office, walk home, have supper and sleep. Pretty similar to that of home or maybe its that I am starting to become accustomed to life in Malawi, the things that once seemed so unique and different from home are very much so commonplace to me now.
However, since I last wrote I did manage to do the most typical African tourist thing ever – went on a safari. This was one activity that I absolutely needed to do, I mean really, who goes to Africa and doesn't do a safari...definitely not me! Bonnie and I went with a company called Kiboko Safari's. They are a great company and really provide a lot of value for your money. We went on a four day trip into Zambia. The safari was a lot of fun, we were able to see loads of animals: elephants, giraffes, lion, lioness, lion cubs, zebras, hippos, hyenas, antelope, puku, crocodile, monkeys, warthogs and loads of others. Despite having taken nearly 1,000 pictures none of them really capture what its like to see this magnificent animals in person. As amazing as it was, the environmentalist in me struggled with how comfortable these animals were with people. They are fully aware of people and just go about their business as if they aren't there. It seems unnatural that we should be able to be only a few feet from a lion. The camp we stayed at was located inside the game management area of the park, so it was frequented by hippos and elephants in the early hours of the morning. But there were lodges within the national park as well, which to me doesn't seem right. Shouldn't the park be left to the animals, its bad enough we drive threw the park but by building lodges it is further deteriorating what should be a pristine place for these animals. I wonder how many animals homes were destroyed so that tourists could stay in the park and be even closer to the animals....Maybe I need not worry and a complete impact assessment was completed prior to these lodges being constructed (however, I have a hard time believing that). The game management area is more of less the transition zone between the national park and the surrounding villages. Within this area I was able to listen to hippos talking to one another as I fell asleep, watch monkey corner other tourists and watch elephants take a mud bath, so why does one need to be any closer? All in all I really enjoyed myself, but it made me realize that I think I have a more vested interest in environmental aspects of development, my heart is in the flora and fauna of the world.
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| Big lion sleeping :) |
But for now I am working with the social aspects of development and at the request of my dearest Sarah (currently volunteering in Botswana) I'm going to talk about my work. As I mentioned before I work at the Farmer's Union of Malawi, which is an umbrella organization for farmer cooperatives and groups across all of Malawi. The organization does work in a lot of areas, agro-forestry, gender, human rights, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, basically anything that farmers could use to further themselves, to increase food security and decrease poverty. So my role in all of this, I have been given the title of gender specialist. I don't claim to be a gender specialist by any means, my education pertaining specifically to gender consists of one – three hour lecture. But I am learning as I go, even if I had had more education specifically on gender Im not sure that it would have proved overly helpful. No matter how much reading or how many essays I wrote every country is different and the best way for me to learn about gender issues in Malawi is to be here.
So far I have had to opportunity to draft two policies for my organization, one on gender in the workplace and the other on HIV/AIDS. I have also helped coordinate and implement training sessions for 2 districts (Salima and Mangochi) on gender, human rights and HIV/AIDS. These sessions were intended to provide the participants with knowledge that they could use in their own organizations to try and work towards gender equality and minimize the spread of and impacts of HIV/AIDS on their groups. My co-worker and I are now planning our presentation for a symposium next week on the importance of considering gender equality and all levels of the value chain in agriculture. As a female from a country where women have already made huge progress to be considered equals I find it extremely frustrating that there is so much inequality here.
We recently conducting a training sessions on gender for employees of the Farmer's Union of Malawi. At these training sessions we completed an activity that really put this into perspective for me. We did a daily calendar, which basically visual maps out a man's day vs. a women's day. It looked something like this:
Men:
5:00 am: land preparation
10:00 am – home, drinking, playing games
1:00pm – lunch
2pm – resting
3pm – working in the garden
5pm – home (family time), resting, socialize with friends
7pm – supper
Women:
4:00am – prepare breakfast for family
5:00am – garden the field
10:00am – collect fire wood & water
11:30am – vegetables and food preparation
1:00pm – cleaning
2:00pm – fetch water
3:00pm – working in the field
4:00pm – food preparation
6:00pm – spend time with children
7:00pm – dinner
8:00pm – bed
**These schedules were created as a group, both men and women contributed, both coming from villages across Malawi. **
It then became apparent that gender inequality also plays a role in the spread of HIV/AIDS. The men have so much free time while the women are exhausted by the end the day, with little no time to even bathe themselves. So it is often the case that the men will go elsewhere for their lovin'. Again, I am struck by how complicated international development is, so many problems have simply compounded on themselves and it is like trying to unknot a necklace, slow and intricate work.
Since being here my interest in gender issues has definitely grown. But as I mentioned before, my heart is truly in the environment. I had the opportunity to attend the National Symposium on Climate Change and Environment here in Lilongwe. I really enjoyed this because it was all Malawians presenting on the environmental issues that Malawi faces. I hadn't realized how much climate change was impacted Malawi until I attended this. I have been told that if I would like I can write a proposal and try to create a project relating to climate change. This is a door I have just started to open, so we will see where it leads to.
Evidently, I apparently also lied about making my blogs shorter, I didn't intend on making this one super long. What can I say, I like to talk (who would have thought). All the best to everyone back at home and to all my friends working in their various countries. Will write again soon, I miss and love my friends and family so much.
