12 July 2014
It’s been over a month since I have sat down to write. With my counterpart coming back on duty from his yearly mandated leave, and me falling into far more comfortable of a routine, there has been less compelling material for me to write about. Here is what I have been up to lately.
Mid June my counterpart and I did our first community development tool. We had a community meeting to draw a map of Thazima. This is one of the initial tools that Peace Corps encourages us to use early on in our time at site. The purpose is less to give me a map of the Thazima and more to introduce me to the community and to get them talking to each other and thinking about making changes in the area.
We split them into 4 groups: men, women, girls and boys. This gives each group its own voice – that way no group is overshadowed which often happens if done all together. It also highlights the different ways each group functions and shows the different views and uses each group has of the surrounding area.
The meeting was scheduled for 8 am.
I have become completely accustomed to what us volunteers now call ‘Africa time’ – That is to say that patience is more than a virtue and things will happen when they happen. You become used to events starting hours later than planned, transportation having unpleasantly long delays, people not showing up etc. etc. People have to take care of their homes and families first: Food needs to be cooked, water fetched, the field tended, the house cleaned or repaired, and the list goes on. My counterpart and I take this time to discuss our current projects and activities, and to plan future community events.
As per usual, the meeting started at 1030, over 2 hours ‘late’. I was lucky as 56 people showed up, most of them youth, but I had enough men and women to make a go of it. The maps turned out well (though surprisingly simple compared to the ones we had our villages make in training) but I gleaned more than a fair bit of information from the activity about community behavior. Surprisingly the young girls, very reluctant at first, ended up really embracing the project and turned out the best map. I think my counterpart was the one to gain the most from the activity though, He claimed it has taught him new ways of viewing and interacting with the villages in his catchment area.
At this moment I am taking advantage of ‘Africa time’ again while I wait on the start of another set of meetings. The first is to make a seasonal calendar for the community. This is another development tool that helps my counterpart and I to better plan projects so as not to interfere with the community needs, to further educate my counterpart on how to initiate development with a new area, and to continue to build community familiarity with my presence and purpose. I am taking advantage of this time to think about possible projects and how to approach them.
The second meeting is to start the committee for the community tree nursery. I am setting up all projects I do so that the community has ownership of them and learns from available local resources so they will be better able to solve problems and manage projects on their own after I leave in 2016. The goal of this is to make the projects more sustainable and impactful. Let’s hope it works out that way. The community is going to elect a committee to take charge of the nursery. They will choose a representative who I will guide through the process of finding local NGO’s that can teach them about starting and maintaining the nursery. This representative will then bring the NGO to teach the community. We are planning on using Total Land Care as they have an office in nearby Rumphi Boma.
With all of these activities I first teach my counterpart what I know and work until it seems he has a strong understanding and then have him take the reigns and lead the activity when it happens – This is so that he can initiate them on his own in other communities and effectively (I hope) create the same sense of ownership we are trying to instill here. He is a good leader and comfortable in the role of public speaker and facilitator, my work would be exceedingly more difficult without him.
About my counterpart… M.C. Khunga is in his early 40’s. (That really is his name – Musandivute Chizizimu Khunga) He is ~5’8" and extremely lithe - maybe 140 lbs and all of it muscle. His voice is deep, gruff, and raspy with a hint of melody. The first time I met him one of my friends said he sounded like the rapper DMX. Except for an extremely thin goatee that comes and goes he is generally clean shaven. When not in uniform he always wears a baseball cap with the number 32, a black button up collared shirt with thin neon blue and green stripes, color matching flip flops, and dress slacks. Everyone here seems to wear dress pants at all times, even when working in the field. When on duty he wears park issue military fatigues branded with the Malawi National Parks emblem and carries an M16A1. A relic of a firearm that likely saw service in Vietnam, branded with ‘property of the US govt’ below the receiver.
M.C. Khunga is an Education and Extension officer for the national parks system. He has worked for MNP since 1991 and has alternated between Ed. & Ext. and Wildlife management throughout that period. He has lived in Thazima since 2006 and for 3 years prior (1997-2000). I am extremely lucky to be working with him. He knows the communities and the areas around Nyika well. He is motivated and eager to learn and is aware that he needs to teach me every bit as much as I am teaching him.
When I first asked him why he wanted to work with the park system he said it was because he had a love for it. His personality feels a perfect pairing for me. He is typically serious and focused - with his demeanor matching his burly vocal affectation – but with frequent bursts of laughter emanating deep from his belly, belying his small size. He smiles big, and when you look at his eyes you know it is genuine.
I have become convinced that we will accomplish much here in Thazima and the other areas that we will work. I just hope that some of it holds up after I am finished and that at least a few people take the lessons to heart.
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