becomming an official wasambizi-local life- update

Hey everyone,

Wow it has been two weeks that I've last been on the internet and I love all the messages I got from you! I am enjoying the weather here and finally are getting a tan :) Not burned, so everything is going well :)
Cards bring a smile on my face and I was happy to receive 3 last week wednesday :) One from the netherlands, esmee, which took 4 weeks, but better late then never! One from Maaike with a report card and one from England!
Your messages beneath my blog also make me smile! I have found out so many interesting things due to Mariska, which I will wright below, but I hope Mariska that I can get your number so you can help me with all the problems which will arrise ahead... I heard you are living in Rhumpi... true?
Sico and Marijke: Jacqueline says hi!
And Jake is indeed in Schotland right now for some time.
I am experiencing some trouble with sending messages to Dutch numbers, but thank you so much for your messages and I will keep trying to send a message back!!!
Further I am enjoying the weather here and last week I was happy to receive 2 phone calls: one from my grandmother and one from tante miriam :) The last one unfortunately I couldn't answer straight away, because I was in the house of one of my colleges of the Eva Demaya Nursery: Milliam. And in a local house you are in bed at 7/7:30 and you can hear everything an other person is saying... so at 8 I couldn't have a conversation unfortunately :( but I hope you will call back!

For my friends: I have found my favorite chips (heinz tomato ketchup, local style!!!) whoohooo
Owh and I want to send everybody cards back, but due to my visa (30.000 kwacha, 160 euros) I have almost no money left :s It will come in September with my parents and I will send more then :)
So I wil try to tell everything in chronological order, but I must start with that right now it is 15:33 and I was supposed to go back to luviri at 15:00, but am not done yet with the internet, in other words: I'm turning into a real malawian, where 15:00 means maybe 16:00 hahahhahahaha

Ok, so the past 2 weeks a lot has happened! First of all I went to the primary school headmaster and found out that the TDC is just starting off and the library is not planned to be build until next year. The plan now is to start the library in the youthclub and whenever their building is finished, it will 'move' into that one! So that is a very good start, I think :)
And because we will be part of the TDC, we are talking about 11 districts using the library, 5000 primary school pupils, atleast 88 teachers and many more parents, high school students etc. etc..... Isn't it amazing how a project can grow in just 2 weeks!!! It makes me happy and enthusiastic, was it not that when we arranged a meeting with the TDC management something went wrong due to Malawi slowness and ... well actually I don't know what it was. But what happened was that the caretaker of the youthclub didn't tell the youth and there was a football game, so nobody showed up at the meeting except for me and one of the TDC members.... The board and the caretaker eventually showed up, but then canceled the meeting due to the football match... I was upset and told them that they need to show me they were serieus... and now I'm also thinking about who I can put in charge when I'm leaving. But I know that the primary head teacher is to be trusted and the chair of the youthclub (just he didn't know due to the caregiver).... so I took a week off to cool down and rethink everything.

This I also did after a conversation with Nelleke, who stayed here for 3 weeks and is a teacher. She gave me the advise to take things slowly, because that is the pase here and I think that was the best advice, because today I found out that we can register to the national library and not only get books once a year (as mariska thought), but every week if they are in stock for 1500 kwacha. Ofcourse this are almost always the same books they tell me, but it is a very good start!!! I am talking about 3 boxes a week... amazing!

Nelleke has been giving a workshop for the nursery teachers in the area (in tumbuka = wasambizi) and I could also join. The workshop was to motivate the teachers and to help them improve their lessons. It was very helpful and I also got an official diploma :D So now I'm a true wasambizi :):):)
After the workshop I started teaching the children the ABC (A= for apple, A= for Ant) from sheets Annemarieke made some years ago. It has the words on one side and the picture on the other. After the english words, we do tumbuka words, so they improve both languages. While doing this, I saw that the girls pick things up way quicker then the boys.... Also when I went to the primary school I've seen this... So how does it come that they do bad in secondary school? I think I saw part of that answer when I spend the last 4 days with locals (milliam and Esther, teachers at the nursery school), because I'm the only volunteer at the centre and our normal housekeeper got sick while being at his village below Mzuzu (he is still sick and we cannot get in touch with him, because he has no reception). And since you all now, I am scared of the dark and many more things so decided to not be alone these days. The new volunteers won't come till the 9th, so I might spend some more days at their houses. Anyways, what I wanted to say is that I saw there that the girls help with everything, as young as they are!!! The water is fetched some 15 minutes away and they carry it on their head at 25 kilo's a time.... I also put it on my head for 2 minutes (10 liters) and it hurts like hell!! Then this has to be done twice a day....
The firewood is fetched way up the hill over very bad roads and Milliam carries a brance (tak) which was 160 cm high and thick!!! And that all the way down a slippery rocky road.... amazing! I have so much respect for these women... even when they are pregnant they just have to continue working....
And then I haven't even mentioned cooking food 3 times a day and working on the fields during the harvest period.
Then there is also no electricity at night, so the girls cannot do their homework at night either...
Only in the house of Esther there is electricity, because her 10 year old son found out how to connect a battery to some threads to a lamp... its amazing... and that without a book.... he will do many good things if he will be given the chance!!!

Besides all of this I enjoyed local life! I've tried to help with everything, but I'm not build yet to be a malawian wife... maybe I never will... I'm still planning to come back, don't worry :p

Can you imagine waking up, walking outside in the sun and seeing fields everywhere and beautiful mountains... it is to good to be true, surreal, but real! You should try it!
And then showering in the open air (with some protection so nobody can see you).... It was an amazing experience and tastes for more!!!

Culturally it is just hard... women cannot speak out here, but I try to stay quiet and speak at the right moments... There's a lot I need to learn, but only things which will improve my character when I get home.
I have learned here that I have spend the last years being to busy with to many things I liked (but they were to many things!) and this intervened with seeing the people who I love and care about... my friends, family and everyone else who is reading this blog... So I will definitely make you more of a priority from now on!

I'm missing the netherlands, but loving it here and there is so much I can still do (I will try to start giving english classes to the primary school)....

love, hugs and kisses

nienke

p.s. Arja, if you come to Malawi call me :) Amazing how you can get back in touch!