Law and Order: Ntaja Edition

Below is the follow up to the village drama of this week, since I'm sure you're all breathless in anticipation of how my escapades concluded.

Friday morning, I headed off to powwow with my head teacher and deputy head, who had both heard the news of the night before. They agreed that the theft was unacceptable, no matter how small, and that we needed to go at once to the catechist to determine how to best handle the situation. (Please note that these complete events occured during school hours, one of the myriacof reasons classes end up not being taught.)

Back at the pastoral center, the catechist and my had teacher engaged in a strange, calm disagreement about what to do. Both wanted the other to take the lead - the HT saying that the house where the theft occurred belongs to the church and the catechist is therefore the landlord, and the catechist saying thay the house was given free of charge to the school so he has no responsibility over it, and he only helped me the night before out of kindness. Additionally, the head teacher wanted to report the matter to the police, while the catechist wanted to speak to the boys and their families, admonishing them privately. Yet both wanted the other to take charge. Eventually, as my frustration ebbed closer to hysteria, I mentioned that I should call the PC and that they were very opinionated about what was being done to fix the security risk. Even though the theft was minor, if the PC was not convinced that the commubity would be able to prevent another, they would remove me and place me at another site. A bit melodramatic perhaps, but with a grain of truth: security issues are one of the few acceptable reasobs for site changes.

Perhaps due to the threat of PC Lilongwe and our very own Mad-Eye Moody (here in the Muggle world he goes by Hector), the arguments subsided and we agreed to meet soon to go to the police and request that the boys be disciplined, not arrested or prosecuted (also the Hector-approved plan). Back at school to retrieve my things, my HT confided that the catechist didn't want to go to the police because he would be seen as a snitch, and his daughter's husband is somehow related to those people. Or he is from that village. Or something. And then my HT, true to form, excused hinself to teach, and sent the deputy with me in his place.

I have to say, talking to the police was much more comforting than the conversation I'd just had. The police chief saw us at once, and went on about how I am a foreigner and a visitor, but they know me, I speak in Chichewa to people, and I should be free to move around unafraid for my possesions. We met back up a few hours later with the addition of the boys, their mothers, and the village headman (local chief). The boys were sternly admonished (in Chichewa), and it came out that they wanted empty bottles and didn't want to get their parents in trouble, so they hid them in the bush. However upon realizing the bottles had stuff in them they were deemed useless. I'm not totally sure what they wanted the bottles for besides to play with, but there you go. The village headman was asked to sensitize the community and urge parents not to let their children climb over my wall into my backyard.

Since Hector wanted to know details on the suspects, I can tell you all now to avoid if at all possible: Charles Gwedeza, age 11, of the Yao tribe, Kapita Village, traditional authority Liwonde, standard 4 student at Kaombe Primary School; and Macdonald Msisya, age 12, Lomwe tribe, Kapita Village, TA Liwonde, standard 3 student at Kaombe Primary. I was also asked for my information but unfortunately didn't know my tribe when asked, so had to substitute my nationality.

And that, as they say, was that. Funny aside: one of the police officers present for the scolding of the boys was a woman, not in uniform, who came up to chat with me before our meeting. I'd never met her before, and didn't realize she was an officer. She asked me, in utter seriousness, the following questions, in order:
Who are you?
Why are you here?
Why are you not having the boys arrested? What if they were older, or broke into your house?
Are you married?
Why not?
Would you marry a Malawian?
You don't like the drunk people who propose to you?
Why don't you marry my brother? He's not a drunkard.
Well, are you a Christian?
What's a Jew?

And then it was time to go inside, and when the officer in charge asked why she hadn't introduced herself to me yet, I explained that we'd been too busy talking about why I wasn't married to her brother yet.

A Village Drama

Imagine this: you come home from school one day, hot and tired, ready to relax. Yet when the time comes to take your daily bafa (bucket bath), you realize something is afoot - the shampoo is gone! And so is the facewash!

Strange, you think to yourself. There is no legitimate reason yoh would have removed either of these items from the bafa, as the bafa is the only place around with a drain. Yet you find yourself looking around the house, hoping that for some reason your caffeine-deprived morning self took the toiletries inside the house.

No such luck. Your neighbor, the catechist, your night guard, and the friendly lady you employ to do chores, are all similarly baffled, except that they all agree "some boys" must have climbed over the wall around your backyard and taken these items.

You shrug it off, the bottles were mostly empty anyways, but the next day your closest neighbors (the catechist's oldest daughter and her family) experience a much greater theft: they lose a bicycle, 7000 kwacha, 2 bags of maize, and shoes. A minor catastrophe. You alert the PC safety and security officer, who reminds you, in the manner of Mad-Eye Moody, to remain vigilant. And always to bolt your doors. Done and done. You hope these theives, whoever they are, have realized that you only store boring soaps outside and will find other palaces to plunder.

Yet the next day, you stupidly  continue leave your toiletries in the bafa. And you return from school, again, to find a new bottle of facewash missing. Ugh. You text Mad-Eye an alert and go off to the trading center to pick up sweet potatoes and greens.

And then when you come back, your conditioner and soap are also gone.

This time, Mad-Eye gets a call. He advises you to go to the police in the morning. To report the thefts of toiletries. You find yourself hoping that the theives are at least using the products they took,and will be noticeable by their clear skin and clean-smelling hair.

But wait!!! A miracle occurs. As you eat dinner, you receive a phone call from the catechist - his grandchildren, your adorable neighbors, saw children climbing your wall today! So you send your guard off to form a posse with the catechist and his guard, who bring back your missing soaps! It's a miracle! (and apparently unrelated to the actual theft at your neighbor's house)

And so, exhausted by the day's work as well as the waves of emotions, you ready yourself for bed by 9pm, confident that by this time tomorrow, you will have clean hair.

In case you were wondering...

I'm currently singing a little ditty I composed called "Where Has All the Power Gone?" It's sung to the tune of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" and is sure to be a big hit at the trading center closest to you. So today was a fun flashback to 5 months ago when I could only cook one thing at a time, burned everything, and rushed to be done before dark.

Here's hoping this issue gets resolved soon! (the issue is that the electric bill hasn't been paid, so the catechist is switching from post-paid to pre-paid electricity. This strategy probably makes as much sense to you as it does to me. Supposedly we were going to get power back today, but clearly that hasn't happened. So I should probably stop blogging and save the power on my phone, but before I do. . . )

Last week I attended a Student-Friendly Schools workshop with other members of my training group and our head teachers. We talked about gender-based violence and the impact we can have as educators. It went pretty well, although many counterparts sounded like they may have been parroting answers they knew we wanted to hear. We shall see. For instance, at the end of the training while making our individialized action plans for our school, my head teacher asked why I want to form a girls' club. Oy.

After the training I stuck around Lilongwe to do some office work, then headed to my friend's site to visit the lake! It was an area I'd never seen before and totally beautiful. We lounged poolside, ate cheeseburgers, and swam in the clear blue water. Amazing. We also made a few 10 year old friends who wanted to play with our frisbee. I don't feel bad at all for my friend, who also complains about how hot her site is, because when it becomes too much, she can just go take a break at the beach! And what do I have to show for the brutal Machinga hot season?! (Elephants. I have elephats I can visit.)

Anyhow, after a brutal day of travel yesterday (I was called a hule for wearing jeans, and sat in the back of a pickup for over an hour with passengers including a little boy so sick and whimpering he couldn't move on his own), I finally arrived back home. The first day back of teaching again wa surprisingly nice. No matter how much I dread going to school, the best parts of my days are usually in the classroom with my students. Even if they didn't do any of the work I assigned them while I was away.

So that brings you up to speed on the happenings kwa Allison! Fyi - during the writing of this post, the power came back on! And then the catechist called to say it'll be off again tomorrow morning at 5:30. I am still so confused. Such is life in the Peace Corps.

Tiwo!

Pa Phiri - On the Mountain

Sorry for not posting in a while, folks! I guess I got busy with the end of term exams and galavanting around Malawi on break. Fun fact: break was supposed to be 4 weeks long, but during the last week of school, changed it to 2 weeks because there's so little time before the all important JCE and MSCE exams begin for forms 2 and 4. So unfortunately, the resting and relaxation time got cut short, but I still got to have a couple adventures during break, including climbing the formidable Mt Mulanje. (I'll wait while you google that for pictures and details)

Done googling? Done picturing me climbing that? Laughing at the picture in your head yet? Because what you're picturing is exactly what happened.

Mulanje is a completely beautiful massif (I assume that means collection of peaks) surrounded by tea estates, with tons of pineapples growing on it. I was with a group of 7 troupers and 4 porters for a total of 4 days on the mountain, a full day longer than we were told it would take. It was. . . An experience.

I personally am not the mountain-climbing type by nature, preferring to meander while admiring nature from afar, but I was persuaded by my posse of enthusiastic friends that this was an experience not to be missed. And sure, I'm proud of myself for making it to the peak, and I had tons of fun hanging out with a group I don't see a lot of anymore, but it was a hard road to travel. Let's just say that I literally tore the butt off my pants, have giant bruises and scrapes all over my body, and sprained my knee. And I wasn't even the person who tore the soles off my shoes and had to hike in flip flops.

Still, with some blood, sweat, and tears, we all made it - up and down the mountain. (Is there anything more depressing than scaling up a sheet of rock, knowing that in a few hours you'll have to do it again in reverse? To my knowledge, no.) At least I can now say I got some practical usage out of that rock climbing class I took at school! And we had some bomb pizza as soon as we got to the base.

Also, I have firmly decided that I never want to climb a mountain again, and that all future holidays are to be spent at the lake. I just can't handle anything more strenuous.

As for now - going over my tests and doing a little teaching this week before heading off to Lilongwe with my head teacher for a PC workshop on student-friendly schools, with a focus on gender-based violence! Should be an informative and productive next few weeks.

Tiwo!