in the field: introducing Laura Duff

Laura on the right

Meet Laura:

Greetings from Lilongwe! My name is Laura Duff, and I am from East Greenwich, Rhode Island. I am a rising senior at Colby College in Waterville, Maine where I double major in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Biology with a concentration in Neuroscience. At Colby, I participate in cross-country and track. I am also a volunteer coordinator for Hardy Girls Healthy Women and am an active member of the Colby Feminist Alliance. I am very interested in the health field, particularly in women’s health. I was drawn to World Camp because of its emphasis on public health in combination with gender empowerment.

Our experience in Liwera was incredible. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by swarms of enthusiastic kids. After morning songs (which they thoroughly enjoyed), we moved to the classrooms in smaller teaching groups. The classrooms were packed with desks in order to accommodate the normally very high teacher to study ratio. We worked with Standard 7 students, which is the equivalent of 7^th grade in the U.S. The age ranges, however, are much looser in Malawi. For various reasons, many students to not pass their end of year exams and do not advance to the next standard. Our Field Staff were an invaluable resource in Liwera. Lusungu, Cathy, and Cyrus made the week wonderful for all of us.  Though the majority of their classes and exams are in English, our students generally understood very little spoken English.

We started off everyday covering HIV, then split the boys and girls into separate empowerment groups. This was the part of the day that I was most excited about. The male interns reported that the boys’ group was very enthusiastic and willing to engage in discussion. However, my group struggled to participate. While Donna, my empowerment partner, and I likely just received a group of quiet girls, I couldn’t help but wonder if the different levels of participation could be related to cultural expectations of gender roles. I will have to wait until we visit more camps to see the participation levels of other girls’ groups!

I was so glad that we had the opportunity to do a homestay in Liwera. Half of us stayed with the head teacher of the school while the other half stayed with a very nice, younger teacher who had just moved in next door. We had the privilidge of eating all of our meals as a group. We ate A LOT of nsima. Nsima is the staple ingredient in Malawian diets and is made by boiling ufa, or corn flour, until it’s a playdough-like consistency. To eat nsima, you pinch and gather it with your fingers, then scoop the relish, such as cabbage, eggs, or tomatoes, and eat it. Watching the sunrise while walking to your 5:45am bucket bath and relieving yourself in a pit latrine are two notable experiences that many of us had for the first time in Liwera.

Layne and I quickly discovered that running (and some other forms of exercise) are pretty uncommon in Malawi. We are privileged in America to have energy to expend on activities unnecessary for survival. People staring at children chasing us became common on our afternoon runs. Football (soccer in the US) is very popular for boys while netball (somewhat of a combination between basketball and handball) is more popular with the girls. We were fortunate enough to play both and watch Liwera take on a nearby school at both football and netball.

While homestay was hard at times, learning about and experiencing the culture was invaluable. Teaching was highly rewarding as well. Knowing that I impacted my students’ lives, even in a small way, was a wonderful ending to the week. I left the village looking forward to more teaching next week as well as a hot shower and a good burger over the weekend!