March 25 - time to go.....

March 25
Oh how sad…. I’ve left the village and my friends!

We had a great dance party - pictures to follow.... some day. A village style party is not different to the numerous meetings I attended which have the following protocol. They all begin with brief introductions from the secretary followed by more in depth introductions made usually by Spencer. During his speeches he includes more detail about each person present and their numerous titles. (One person will hold many titles on many different committees.) This usually takes up a large chunk of time. I interpret this part as the I stoke your back, you stroke mine and I've started to play along. As Spencer's descriptions of me change and get more flattering and fun, I also change my speeches of gratitude and include stories of wonderful meals and good company. So our party started in this usual manner and there were many in attendance so introductions took a while.

The next event was the women dancing. The music is made by clapping and singing. The older women taking the alto parts and the young women take the higher notes. They turn all songs into a wonderful harmony following one leader and everyone knows their parts and where to stand. Each song has a particular dance which is danced by one person standing in the center of the ring. I was often asked to join in the center and had no trouble following the steps which pleased us all. And so we danced. One by one. The men kept trying to end this portion of the party but I took advantage of my confused gender role and said No! We were going to continue! The more they complained I would encourage them to join until finally there were a few embarrassed men in our ring and we loved it! It was good fun! And made for a lot of good gossip!

Afterwards we wandered ever so slowly home and shared the cokes with passers by. A nice warm afternoon.

For our last dinner together we had a chicken donated from the bakery women. Spencer and I had another nip of banana wine and told secrets. He told me the head of the HAP committee was the one to let the water out of the dam cause it was flooding his garden so he ruined the water supply for all the gardens for the year. :-( We discovered it was him behind no one showing up for the meetings. He didn't deliver all the hand written messages so no one knew about our meetings at the dam. He's a very twinkly charismatic guy - easy to like, but not to be trusted. So sad. And Spencer is so honest and tries so hard to get things going. He worked so hard to organise the program and get people to be on time.

It was a warm day inside and out. A really nice cozy ending to our time together. And as we often did at the end of the hot day, we lay together on the mat under the stars and drifted off to sleep. So good.



So I've left the village but am way too involved to ever leave it completely. I have so much more to tell and will now be involved with them at another level. Please don't give up on us yet - on the blog - there are so many more fun things to tell about the life there and I need to write it down, so please keep reading.....

What I said and believed last week about the government starting a food distribution program never happened. I’m now at the regional meetings for DCAs partners and am impressed that they’re interested in my experiences and surprised to hear how hungry the people are. The facilitator who works so hard in the area is exhausted and I think has lost his voice. He’s out of energy. He drives into the areas everyday and is bombarded with complaints of hunger and requests for food. The people have become completely dependent on the NGO to provide them with all answers and food. They call it Dependency Syndrome. I’ve seen it. But what to do????? No one at the meeting seems to have an answer, but I think I might be giving those people an extra voice and the director is really listening to me. He was surprised to hear what I had to say. He didn’t know it was so bad. I wonder if the government knows. It seems the villagers dependency on the ngo has made them forget that it’s the Malawian government who is ultimately responsible for them and they forget to complain through those official channels – which begin with the Village Chiefs. The chiefs seemed less powerful than the local NGO village volunteers.

As for my project….. I do think the HAP standard (Humanitarian Accountability Partnership) has made a positive impact on the beneficiaries. It’s the beginning of making THEM accountable to THEMSELVES! Now there’s a twist. It’s supposed to make the NGO’s accountable to the beneficiaries. But I see the only way forward is to get them to stand on their own feet, run their own programs and stop depending on the NGO for aid and motivation. They need to be empowered to take charge, have ideas and own them, ask for help when needed but to fuel themselves so the NGOs can begin to exit. The addition of the HAP standard to the programs has begun to get more involvement out of the people by handing over much more information and responsibility to the people.
I think I would like to continue to work with HAP in some way. My next course which starts mid April is in sustainable recovery and I will have so much more to offer this time and look forward to many discussions and reading assignments. It has all come to light! Or is it all darker?? Still a bit confused!

but well and happy....and a little sad.....