Malawi summer sessions kicked off last week--piloting new wind energy, HIV misconceptions/ stigmas, and gender roles curriculum-- with a successful 4 day camp at Dzama FPS, one of the more rural schools we've been to and one that has never had an NGO visit before. We also broke ground with our new Community Outreach Workshops-working with chiefs, CBO staff, and a support group for persons living with HIV. Here's what amazing volunteer, Sara Jane, has to say about the day:
"At the end of each camp, we perform an outreach project within the community that we’ve been working in. So today we travelled back to the village where we’d been working. We met at the Dzama school but this time we were working the chiefs and members of the village’s CBO (community based organization). Working with adults would obviously be very different from working with children. We split into groups to present certain aspects of our curriculum to the community. The idea was that we would explain these sections with the hope that they would further spread the information throughout their village. We also wanted it to be an open conversation between us volunteers and the community members so that we could also learn about their culture. This was an intimidating task because talking about unprotected sex and condom use is one thing in front of a bunch of children, but to talk in front of the most respected members of the community was completely different.
On the very long bus ride this morning, we of course came across several children. I’ve noticed throughout the week that these children are allowed to roam free throughout the village. We see all of these children just run across the village to wave at our bus or wander onto the school grounds to hang out outside of our classroom for the day without any parental interaction. Children are hardly seen without supervision in the US. I asked one of our Field Staff, Doreen, about the level of safety within the village and she explained to me that there’s hardly any danger. Parents aren’t concerned with where their children are or what they’re doing during the day because the village as a whole is so communal. Each person in the community looks after all of the children. Doreen explained that the children rarely get lost because they’re so accustomed to the village itself but that if this ever were to occur, any adult could simply ask the child where they lived or who their parents were and would then make sure the kid got home safely.
This sense of community doesn’t exist in the US and its sad that within our society we have to live in so much fear. Of course I’m not trying to delegitimize these fears by any means, because there are real dangers in American cities. It’s just sad that they exist in the first place. We’ve traded this sense of community and maybe humanity overall for our technology and comforts.
In the villages the houses are also extremely close together, which further adds to the sense of community. In the US there’s so much value placed on having a big yard for children to play. But of course having a set amount of fenced in property isn’t a priority for the people. Their children have the entire village to play in, fields and fields of crops or just wildlife. All of the children in the village have the option of playing together, instead of just with their siblings. The sense of community is just phenomenal and it’s something I’m jealous of.
We had three workshops for the teachers and they rotated between groups. Me and two other volunteers taught sections on HIV transmission and prevention. For our first workshop I was very uncomfortable because I was afraid I would come off as condescending or disrespectful. I began all three workshops with an introduction, explaining that our curriculum was for students and we wanted to present it to them so they could share the information. But I reiterated that we were hoping for an open conversation and cultural exchange. Our workshop included the transmission game, in which shaking hands represents having unprotected sex, as well as a condom demonstration. I was surprised at how attentive the adults were.
There were some instances where I was surprised at both how much they knew and what they didn’t know. If there was something that they didn’t know however, they were extremely excited to learn. They laughed at the condom demonstration and at anything that was remotely uncomfortable, just like the students would. It was a very different feeling to be working with adults in these contexts but it was refreshing. Having adults in the community dedicated enough to spend their day with us discussing these issues, was incredibly inspiring. It made our work seem even more important because it’s so much more than just us working. It’s the whole community.
The afternoon was spent in a two way question and answer session between us and the community members. I could’ve stayed in that classroom for hours. I was so interested in everything they had to say, whether it was about what they thought about Americans or their culture or our work in general. The first question was about the dances in America and if we had any traditional dances. Although another volunteer began to answer saying we didn’t have cultural dances, I jumped in to explain that we did have several cultural dances but they have evolved over time. I then proceeded to show them a few that have passed through American dance history, such as the Charleston, swing dance, the twist, the pony, disco, and even ending with the Macarena. They got a kick out of it. They explained to us that most of their dances are traditional and have been carried on for years. They spoke a little bit on the mask dances, which I’ve heard a little bit about before.
We also asked them to explain their system of chiefs and how the various chiefs are chosen. There are apparently three levels of chiefs, one for a specific village, one for a small set of villages, and then the TA, which is the highest level. In this village, the women discuss and pick one man to be the chief (the same process for all levels) and then they tell the men who have chosen. This opened up a whole new way of thinking, as its been expressed that men are the decision makers here. It’s a hard concept to grasp because in the American sense of the word, there isn’t equality here. Men and women are expected to do things separately including eating, sitting, dancing, and several other things. We noticed this in the classroom today and during presentations yesterday, with the women sitting on one side of the field and the men on the other. Women are also expected to do the cooking and child rearing as well.
Today it was brought to my attention however, that while things may be separate here between the genders, they are still equal. The separate but equal clause has such a negative stigma in America because of the Civil Rights movement, but its not viewed that way in Malawi. While the roles and expectations for the two genders are kept completely separate, both are respected in society and treated as equals. It’s important to note that this sort of system would make it easy for one group to gain dominance over the other, but in this society it works. Chickabachi explained later on the bus that there has been a movement for an extension of women’s rights, but this is mostly in the cities. It’s of course occurring in very small stages, much like the movement in the US. Women are apparently moving out of the kitchen and men are learning to make nsima, which is a huge change in this culture.
They also asked us about engagement rituals within the US. In their village, the man asks the woman’s uncle if he can have her hand in marriage. If he is granted permission, they go on to have the engagement ceremony in which they exchange chickens. I explained to them that often a man will ask the permission of the father before proposing to the bride and that he usually presents the woman with a ring. They then asked if it was just a ring that was exchanged or if we also swapped chickens.
As the question and answer session came to a close, these people began to thank us profusely. They said things like “Thank the lord that you have come”. They were so grateful for everything that we had done. They told us they were surprised at how open we were with them, but in a good way. They weren’t expecting to be able to interact freely with us, but our open nature allowed that. Having learned that, they were very eager to have us come back and visit. They even said that some of their friends had heard that Americans were coming to the village and were planning on smelling them because they would apparently smell like us. They felt so privileged to be in the same room with us or to shake our hands. I was baffled. I am no one to feel that way about. I haven’t done anything worthy of such great recognition or praise. I tried to clearly explain that it was us who felt privileged and how thankful we were to have this opportunity.
The day came to a close with us walking to the site where their CBO office would be built. On the walk there, the women sang several songs all about thanking god for letting their “azungu visitors” come. It was beautiful but I couldn’t help but feel unworthy. We took a group picture and then shook everyone’s hand, saying “zikomo” (thank you) thousands of times.
On the car ride back, I was consumed with everything I had been introduced to that day. We left the school a little later today so on the ride back, I experienced my first Malawian sunset. The clouds were beautiful. It’s more vibrant here and the sky is much closer…so close you could touch it if you kept trying."
Written By: Sara Jane Fogarty, Malawi Summer 2010 volunteer
Written On: Friday, 28 May 2010
Photo Courtesy of: Ian Copeland, WC Coordinator
