read this!

http://www.microfinancefocus.com/mffnews/microfinance-will-eliminate-severe-poverty-%E2%80%93-john-hatch

not your average business trip

spent the better part of last week in the northern region making plans for expansion....my boss and i hitched a ride north with our building contractor who conveniently had a job in the northernmost district.

our route north (the blue line) 

Tuesday: drove to Mzuzu. slept all day in the back seat. We stopped on a mountain pass to refuel from the not-exactly-legal diesel drum we have to drive around with (seriously, fuel is that scarce)

while the boys refueled, i made friends with the locals and fed them peanuts....

Wednesday: made it to karonga around 10am and spent the day walking around town to find a building for our newest branch. By thursday morning, i'd visited six building, talked to eight landlords and negotiated terms for one ten-year contract. 

The main market is just down the road from the new branch

karonga is known for their bicycle taxis. the most efficient way to get to the lake

Thursday:  Lakeshore villages were bustling by 7am and the air was amazingly fresh despite the January heat due to a latenight lightning storm. Pink and purple bolts lit up the savannah while we took a desperately needed moonlight swim. Unfortunately, I had locked my camera in the car.. 

 Then some last minute, final negotiations before the long drive back to Mzuzu. We managed, however, to make a few "minor" detours along the way with hopes of discovering some new markets for expansion... First we drove 15k up a mountain to reach Livingstonia, a tiny village with a massive view. 

the second pitstop was another mountain town, Rumphi, which was rife with potential clients

Rumphi is also home to some highly adorable children. Decided I'm going to try to open a satellite office. 

Friday: another day on the road. between the three of us, we bought 225 giant mangos from roadside vendors . all in all, a great trip... this weekend, Liwonde bound 

latest from lilongwe: women wearing trousers are being stripped in the street.

http://www.malawivoice.com/latest-news/breaking-news-vendors-undressing-ladies-in-trousers-and-mini-skirts/



vendors (the general term for men in the street/market) have been ripping the closthes off of  'offsensively dressed' women in the streets of the capital city, protesting that the apprearance of trouser-clad women is disrespectful to men.


strict laws governing malawian people's wardrobe choices were adopted during the dictatorship of Kamuzu Banda, the first president of malawi. women were not allowed to wear pants at all and men's trousers were regulated by width ( ie. nothing tight and no bellbottoms). the state-mandated dress codes were repealed only as recently as 1993. now people can wear whatever they want, but certain clothing choices are still viewed as less-than-acceptable.


 it's considered provocative for a woman to expose thigh in public. but somehow, this perceived indecency of shorts and mini-skirts is hard to swallow, especially in a culture where its perfectly normal for a mother to unbutton her blouse and breast-feed in public.


i haven't personally seen any strippings, but i do know that i get more cat calls when i wear pants, i never wear shorts out of the back yard,  and most women in the street wear a chitenji wrapped over their skirt or pants. even in the office, female colleagues cover-up with chitenjis before they go outside to eat lunch with the men.


malawi, you've got a long way to go

rain, rain GO AWAY

its been raining now for 36 hours. power's been out at home since last night, so lunch today was a less-than-appetizing assortment of half-finished dairy products i had in the fridge. oh and mango juice. obviously

i was hoping to do something fun, slightly bizzarre, and interesting this weekend, but the rain quite literally washed away any plans for hiking, safari, or minibus adventuring. in all honesty, i probably will just stay in my cozy little house, drink bottomless cups of green tea and finish a novel...or five.  recent adventures have taught me that in the rainy season, its best to avoid public transport. what i really mean is... the smell of wet dog is one thing, but wet malawian is an odor in a league of its own

unintentional humor

on the streets of blantyre, bubblegum comes in two varieties. there's strawberry flavored 'Obama Magic'  and the ever-popular tuttifrutti flavored 'Pussy'

ironic, no?

an excursion

been busy the past few days re-familiarizing myself with the local geography... hitched a ride up to senga bay for a little beach camping and r&r on lake malawi

despite the forboding forecast (weather reports predicted a 96% chance of rain for the entire weekend, felix) i began my sunday with kayak out to lizard island (named for teal-blue giant water monitors that are the rainforested isalnd's only inhabitants). a 40 minute paddle against wind and waves found my kayak nestled between 2 rocks and hauled up beyond the frothy tide. dove in and swam a few hundred feet out to a flat-topped rock to perform a morning yoga series for an audience of diving birds and clouded skies. unfortunately, a massive black wall looming over mozambique was moving too quickly to be ignored, and the rock-scrambling i had planned for the rest of the morning was abandoned for furious paddling back to my camp. i wasnt half-way back when the first drops fell...

3 thunderstorms later, there was nothing dry left in my tent, and i sat soggily on the shore watching huge white wading birds navigate the weeping skies, and bone-drenched fishermen haul in a meager morning catch

side note:  just watched the guy at the desk across from me pour sugar into his fanta bottle... and i thought i had a sugar problem

mzungu = whiteperson

power cut in the office. to waste time while i wait for my comupter to return to functionability i take a jaunt down to the corner to buy some airtime( cell phone credit)  and a banana. a flock of green-uniformed school kids whisper 'mzungu' between giggles and line up for high-fives. that will never get old

interesting how that word can evoke so many different responses. for example: one should never pay the mzungu price for anything and always try to haggle down. stinking young men pass me on the road to work, eyeing me like a piece of butchered goat and mutter "mzungu" and being a mzungu means merely walking past the Peoples Trading Center (grocery store)  downtown Blantyre elicits a following of beggars and vendors, who perk up at my glowing whiteness, dodge traffic and passersby- some more tenacious than others- to evoke my pity or show me their wares,  calling 'mzungu'  'mzungu'!!!! 

in these situations i hate being white because it draws such strange, unwanted attention. attention which takes me for suprise since i usually forget that im not african. but its okay if its coming from the kids.

ndinabwerera (i have returned...sounds slightly menacing)   incredible that i actually retained something from my abbeviated lesson yesterday afternoon ( after reviewing 7 noun classes we decided i was too jet-lagged to continue) paul the tutor would be proud

needless to say, i'm back in MW. more details to come..