Student International Service Activity Showcase-April 27th

I am so glad I have found ways to keep up with this blog even though my trip is over. (Is anyone even reading this since I'm not in Malawi anymore?) Malawi has become a part of me and I am always finding Malawi related things to write about! I read bits and pieces of my daily blogs and I just love re-living my trip... day by day!!

Okay, so I received an email inviting international student service organizations to apply to participate in a showcase on April 27th in conjunction with Dr. Paul Farmer's visit to VT and presentation that evening. It sounded like a great opportunity and I figured I would enter the Malawi Chibale Project.

A couple days later I got an email saying we were one of 21 organizations to be selected to participate! We were asked to provide a 200 word description of our organization to be included in a document to be distributed to Dr. Farmer, university officials and journalists.

(Dr. Farmer is an American anthropologist and physician from Harvard University. Dr. Farmer is one of the founders of Partners In Health, which is an international health and social justice organization. He is the feature of a 2003 book called Mountain Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Could Cure the World.)

We were asked to be in Burruss from 1:30pm until 4:30pm and then again at 6:30 as people arrived for Dr. Farmers presentation at 8pm. It was going to be a long day but thankfully I don't have classes on Mondays. Krista, Lauren, Sarah and Amber came to help! This is our booth:

The majority of the organizations were doing projects in Haiti and some of them had some very official posters. There were also booths with homemade presentations just like ours! But we had the best artifacts!!! Patti Talbot brought me the Chibale Project t-shirts to put on display and possibly sell at the booth. We made friends with the booths next to us and enjoyed their company throughout the day.

We were encouraged to come promptly at 1:30pm because Dr. Farmer would be arriving to come by and visit each booth. As we were setting up a photographer from the Roanoke Times asked to take our pictures. Of course we agreed! We began to explain our project to him and he brought over the reporter to talk with us more. We ended up talking for about 10 minutes as they were jotting down notes. They were very nice, but asked questions like "What was it like to go to Malawi?" Thats very hard to answer/explain in a short sentence!

Turns out the reporter and photographer really liked our project because we were selected to be in the article the next morning! Check out Tech students show off their passions

Next Paul Farmer came by our booth. I'm embarrassed that I had never heard of him until I found out he was coming to Virginia Tech. Here's the news release on his visit. He sounds like a really cool guy. He co-founded Partners In Hope!

He was running late so he didn't talk for long. He had been to Zomba but couldn't remember where he stayed. I didn't really continue the conversation with him because I didn't know anything about him and didn't want to sound stupid. (Especially with his entourage standing right there listening to our conversation!)

The provost came by to visit and a man tried to buy my wooden globe... sorry its not for sale!!

I was on a Malawi adrenaline rush!!! I was so excited to talk to the Roanoke Times because they were so interested in our project. The booth looked great and we were getting donations. This was all so wonderful and the evening shift hadn't even begun.

I came back to be at the booth while people were coming to Burruss for Dr. Farmers presentation at 8pm. I was surprised how many community members came to this event. Over half of Burruss was adults and just a handful of students.

I met a man who has been to Malawi 8 times through World Camp! That is the program I'm looking into for next summer. He was impressed I knew all about World Camp.

I met a lady who goes to Blacksburg Presbyterian Church and was at the Moni, Malawi Celebration. She knows Patti Talbot and many of the other people who work with Malawi.

A VT student who is going to Malawi came by the booth to chat. Amber and I tried to give her all the advise we could in 10 minutes.

We met a lady who teaches at Prices Fork Elementary and went to Malawi a couple years ago before it was a study abroad program. She actually made a PBS short documentary that Dr. Kelly showed us before we went on our trip. When she came up to our booth, we recognized her voice from the video! We absolutely loved talking to her! She knew many of the same people from Malawi and went to many of the same places. It was so great to talk to her and now she knows about our project.

Dr. Farmers presentation began. I enjoyed listening to his work and hearing his passion but a lot of what he said was jargon and over my head. Maybe thats because I haven't read his book yet.

The evening ended with people slowly walking out and looking at the booths. Many people are blown away at the sign on our poster " $2 feeds a child for an entire year". Many people got our their pocket books and donated every coin they had. We appreciate it soo much and know it will go such a long way in Malawi. We raised over $40 throughout the day!!

This event was very helpful with raising awareness about our organization. I am so glad the first real event was a great success! This is just the beginning of many more Chibale Project booths! I had such a wonderful day meeting so many people who share the same passion as I do.

Be Hope 2 Her

I'm copying the Be Hope to Her blurb from Facebook to explain the program:

BH2O+ is an experiential event that Nuru is bringing to educational campuses across the United States on April 23, 2009. The name BH2O+ is an acronym that stands for “Be Hope to Her.”

The purpose of BH2O+ is three-fold:
To bring awareness to the need for clean drinking water in Africa
To educate individuals on the plight of women in Africa created by the lack of accessible clean drinking water
To raise funds that will be donated to organizations that have the infrastructure and technology to provide clean drinking water to African communities, specifically through drilling wells

Less than half of the 700 million people living in Africa have safe drinking water. Drinking water contaminated with human and animal waste is a reality for most Africans and it’s killing them – 2.2 million people die each year from water-borne diseases, primarily children in developing countries.

In Africa, the burden of water collection falls on women and girls, and their daily lives revolve around it. They often have to walk long distances to reach the water sources and when sources dry up during drought seasons, they often have to wait in line for water for several hours. The long routes to the water sources present safety concerns for the girls making them vulnerable to sexual assault or even rape.The daily time commitment to fetch water keeps African girls out of school and women from income-generating work; further perpetuating the cycle of extreme poverty.

BH2O+ is designed to be a day of solidarity as students become advocates for those living without access to clean water in the developing world. During the event, ladies on campus will step into the daily experience of women in Africa by walking to a water source and carrying a bucket of water on their heads back to the rally point; simultaneously, guys will sweep the campus, inviting every student to embrace awareness and attend the rally following the solidarity walk.

www.bhope2her.org

Lauren told me about this program coming to VT on April 23rd. I donated but was unable to participate because I had class. I went to the drillfield after my class and caught the end of the walk!

The idea was to walk in the shoes of African women by carrying water on their heads. These girls walked across the drillfield with a bucket full of water on their head.

Way to go Lauren!

The walk ended at the chapel. This man did a short inspirational speech. The event made the 5:30pm news! Anything and everything Africa related catches my eye. I would have never been interested in this program before I went to Malawi.

Moni, Malawi!

Dr. Kelly has worked on many grants and many of them have provided scholarships for Malawians to come get an education at Virginia Tech. Over the years, many of the Malawians belonged to Blacksburg Presbyterian Church (BPC) while they were students at Virginia Tech. This started BPC sponsoring many projects in Malawi including hospitals, sponsorships and educational trips. Patti Talbot is a member of BPC and is involved in the Malawi committee. Once a year, the church has a big celebration called "Moni, Malawi" which means "Hello, Malawi." All the upcoming and past study abroad students, the international students from Malawi who attend VT and the church supporters are invited to attend this Malawi Celebration on April 19th.

The '08 group was so excited to have another reunion! Another great reason to dress up in our chitenji's! It was a potluck luncheon right after church. Here is the program:

I was excited to catch up with the advisors and students from the trip. The biggest news of the day is Dr. Jones is engaged!! We are all so excited for her! Jenny is in the process of graduating grad school and buying her first house! After spending a month with these people they really became like family. So it was great to see everyone again!

I talked to Dr. Kelly about Madonna's adoption controversy, and she brought up some interesting points. She said it's unreasonable to require people to live in Malawi for 18 months before they can adopt. She also said Madonna made two mistakes. 1. she wants to adopt a girl and girls are not valuable in Malawi, so they have no problem refusing her adoption. 2. Dr. Kelly pointed out that Madonna was inappropriately dressed during her visit to Malawi. She didn't wear clothes that showed she was taking this seriously. Dr. Kelly believes Madonna just has to donate more funds/programs to Malawi and that its only a matter of time before they will allow the adoption.

I also showed Dr. Kelly Macdonald's letter. She said she has never heard of night school in Malawi. Dr. Kelly emailed her credible friends in Malawi to research Macdonald's program and is going to let me know what he finds out.

Dr. Kelly told us about the group going this summer. 6 VT students, 5 Radford students and 4 NC A & T students. 4 students are boys! We just had one boy last summer, so that will be very different. Dr. Jones and Dr. Talbot (Radford advisors) will not be going this summer. A new advisor from Radford will be going to Malawi for the first time. I am so excited and jealous for the group going this summer... I would love to go back!

I met 3 of the students going to Malawi this summer. Two of them are actually adults teaching in Grayson County. They heard about the program and wanted to take advantage of this opportunity because going to Africa has been on their bucket list of things to do in life. I just kept rambling on and on about it and I gave them my contact to ask me any questions! I highly recommended keeping a blog! haha

After visiting with Dr. Kelly, we got lunch and the program began. The room was decorated with beautiful Malawian fabric and displays. I honestly felt like I was in Malawi again. There were about 100 people there and almost everyone had to stand and be introduced if they had a connection to Malawi. It took forever! But it was great to see how many people in Blacksburg care about Malawi.

The church members presented a slideshow of all the programs they started in Malawi. They have done an incredible about of work! They sponsored so many students and trips to Malawi over the years. Read more about BPC Malawi Partnerships.

Next a Malawian attending Virginia Tech, Daniel, took the stage to teach us about the Malawian culture. He explained the proper way to greet people, how laid back the culture is (afternoon could mean 1pm or 5pm) and explained the meaning of the flag. The black represents the people of Malawi, the red represents fighting for their independence, the green represents the land and the rising sun represents the dawn of freedom and hope for Africa.

At the end of the event we took a Malawi 2008 reunion picture!! Daniel is in the middle. We actually saw him in Malawi last summer. He met us one day to exchange paperwork with Dr. Kelly. When we told him we remembered seeing him in Malawi, he got really excited! I never meet anyone with that kind of excitement in the US, so it really made me miss Malawi.

By the end of the day, my heart was aching to go back to Malawi. Jenny brought a video camera to Malawi and put together a DVD for everyone of all her footage. I watched it as soon as I got home. It reminded me I really need to start making a movie with all of my tapes. That will be my summer project.

Mail from Macdonald!

I got a letter in the mail from Macdonald last week! It was in a sealed envelope. I had heard that was impossible to send mail out or in the country because people will steal it hoping for money. So I was very surprised a letter made it!  Krista got one too!  Here it is: 

Back in the Fall I sent him a postcard from snapfish.com. I made a postcard with the picture of his family on one side, and a short note on the other. I only send one because I didn't know if it would even make it. Now that I know it did, I can continue to send him pictures through the postcards. I also attached a photo of  Krista and I in the snow to an email. I wasn't sure  if the computer he uses would be able to see it, but he says it worked! I'm really excited I have multiple ways to keep in touch with him and send him pictures. 

But the real reason he wrote was to ask for money... of course!  He also asked me for a camera? That is a luxury item, not a necessity!  In Krista's letter, he asked for money and a camera too. He's trying to get two cameras out of us?  But then again, what is the harm in asking. 

Macdonald is very well off in Malawi standards. He has a brick house, all members of his family have clothes and shoes, he has electricity, a sink, TV (doesn't work), radio, furniture, and two incomes since his wife is a teacher also. He has four of his own children, and is also taking care of two family members who have lost their parents. 

I think it is great that he wants to further his career, I think he has so much potential. Out of all the teachers at his school, I noticed he was the most dedicated to his students. I wanted to send money for him with the group going this summer, but since he is so well off, I was hesitant. However, I would love to help him with his education. I'm assuming he is trying to become a teachers educator.... teach teachers how to teach. Helping him achieve that would truly be a gift that keeps on giving in Malawi! 

I emailed Dr. Kelly to ask her insight about his request. I honestly have no idea how much his tuition would cost. Dr. Kelly is going to talk to her friends in Malawi to verify he is in a program and find out the details.  She will get back to us. 

MADONNA UPDATE   BBC Article 

Madonna left Malawi last week without Mercy. Malawi rejected her application to adopt a 2nd child. Malawi's law to adopt  requires you to live in Malawi for 18 months. Since Madonna hasn't done that, they wouldn't allow her to adopt. 

I honestly don't know what to think about this whole situation. I see Madonna's side, but then again, I have to respect the Malawi government for following their own laws.  It sure is a mess. I'll ask Macdonald what he thinks about it and let you know. :)