On Second Thought Maybe I Shouldn’t Drink the Water…

I’m sure it was inevitable, but it certainly didn’t make my first bout of Malawian stomach problems any less painful.  My roommate, Mel, fell ill first and I should’ve known with our virtually identical eating and drinking habits I was bound to be next.  I was, but I’ll get to that in a second.

Two graduates performing a skit at Area 25 Graduation

(From left to right) Maureen, Me, Mel, Godfrey, Site Sponsor shaking hands with graduates

First things first, the demonstrations scheduled for last Wednesday did not happen which was a good thing.  That meant I got to continue driving around (generally putting others in harms way) to see more of our program.  We got to see another graduation in Area 25 where two of the graduates performed a skit around how to react to inappropriate behavior (pictured above).  Following this, the graduates came up to receive their diplomas shaking hands with (in the photo from left to right) Maureen their coach, myself, Mel, Godfrey, and the site sponsor.  Later, we also went to an intervention in Kawale and as the week was winding down my stomach pains began winding up.  A couple things I’ve learned about food poisoning from this experience:

1.     Trying to stay hydrated (for reasons I won’t explain) by drinking the very tap water that probably made you sick is likely to be counter-productive.

2.      Trying to chug ORS mix (or whatever it’s called) will likely only upset your stomach even more, regardless of how much salt and nutrients are in it.

3.      Drinking (yes that kind of drinking) might actually help.

4.      I’m glad my U.S. doctor prescribed antibiotics for this occasion.

Our home in area 6...if you look closely you can almost see the rats in the ceiling

Anyways, after recovering (sort of) at home (pictured above) both Mel and I were able to take the field on Sunday to play with our adopted team, Kuche Kuche (also the name of a local beer).  Then it was on for Jazz at Chameleon’s (total azungu hot spot). 

By Monday, I was pretty much back to full strength (or roughly 60% of the strength of an average man).  After some morning meetings, Godfrey (program coordinator), Mel, and I headed out to Kawale to see the training session for the tournament this Thursday.  The site coordinate Cossam has done a great job getting teams together and getting GRS coaches involved.  There was a lot of energy (and dust).  On the way out, after stalling something like 10 times while going over the hilliest, rockiets, and most uneven dirt terrain I’d yet been tested against we stopped by Godfrey’s house only for me to stall out a couple more times for good measure.  The night brought with it more food and drink in the form of a braai at my manager, Meagan’s, house followed by delicious home made strawberry gelato-it was a good night.

Tionana,

Matt

Lilongwe, Malawi - First Thoughts

Hey everyone!  I'm now fully entrenched in my new home in Lilongwe, area 6, complete with a mosquito net, wavering power supply, dwindling stash of candles, and two roommates (Mel and Cee-Lo the kitten).  I've only been here since Monday and already far too much has happened for me to fully capture.  There have been many firsts like my first time driving a manual British style.  Or my first time trying Sima, the most common Malawi food (good news you get to eat it with your hands).  I've also had a chance to meet a ton of people at different programs that I've gotten to see so far.

The first photo is me playing soccer with a group of kids outside their school (the buildings in the background).  I've never felt so good to be better (barely) than a group of 8-10 year olds.  The next photo is from the actual Testing tournament we had on Thursday in one of the city's neighborhoods.  8 teams of around 12 players each competed while all of them also received HIV pre-test counseling and an opportunity to test on site if they chose to.  Any community members that were also there also had the chance to receive both services.  Today, as seen in the last photo, I also got the opportunity to attend a graduation for one of the GRS Skillz interventions, a 5-week program of 10 one-hour sessions that educate local teens on HIV/AIDS through soccer-based activities.  In Lilongwe we have 26 coaches and at any time there are many of these interventions taking place around the city.

Adjusting to Malawi so far has gone pretty smoothly and the sounds of rats scrambling around in the ceiling and walls has faded into the background, as has the near daily power-outages, and even my absence from facebook (gasp) which is blocked at our office, which is the only place we have internet right now.  Oh and for those of you looking for intrigue we are still on "high-alert" here as August 17th approaches bringing with it another planned demonstration against President Mutharika, stemming from extreme fuel shortages.  Getting petrol (as it's called here) is one of the toughest tasks with most gas stations generally closed and out of supply.  As soon as a station opens up, lines quickly grow to hours long to try and fill tanks and any containers available.  Despite the tough times though, the people here have been incredibly friendly and I look forward to continuing to work with them and learn more.

Tionana (see you later in local Chichewa),
Matt