Today started off really well. I woke up
around 7, but lay in bed until about 7:45. After getting dressed, I went to sit
on the patio for awhile, just writing, listening to music, and enjoying being
here. Then, today’s breakfast was phenomenal. Yesterday, Paul bought a bunch of
fresh avocadoes, oranges, and bananas, so today we had fresh avocadoes and
oranges with breakfast. As per usual, there were fried potatoes (though yesterday
we had fried plantain instead – that was interesting, but I prefer potatoes),
but they also made boiled eggs and baked beans. We also have peanut butter now,
which is really exciting, though I didn’t have any today.
Eventually, Paul and the others arrived at
The Oasis for class, and we had a very interesting lecture/ discussion about
Population Health, Public Health, and Global Health. I’d never really
considered how those frameworks differ, so it was really cool to hear
everyone’s perspectives. A lot of us come from very different backgrounds, so
we bring different points of view to the table.
Class ran long, so we were expecting to go
to lunch afterwards, followed by a visit to what Paul called an “informal
settlement” just outside the city. However, Paul took us to the informal
settlement first (we never really know where we’re going – there was a
possibility we were going to a restaurant in that direction). For lack of a
better description, the informal settlement was essentially a slum. To our
right, behind a copse of trees, we could see some of the houses in the city,
which have solid metal roofs, and to our left was a row of low-standing huts
with roofs ranging from tarps to thatch. I spent as much time looking around as
I spent looking down at my feet, since the roads were composed of only slippery
mud and were riddled with random holes. After awhile, Paul led us directly into
the slum, where we took refuge (it was drizzling) inside a squat shelter with
low benches. There were a number of residents there. Paul disappeared for a bit
(we’re getting used to that at this point) and reappeared with 2 bottles of
moonshine. The locals got very excited and proceeded to produce shot glasses
and encourage us all to partake. Most of us were exceptionally hungry by that
point, so we passed, but Laura and Pat each took a shot (I think Laura took 2).
After some time passed in this way, Paul asked us if we wanted to see the
process through which the moonshine was produced. I was enthusiastic about that
because I’ve never seen any sort of distillery process. We wandered not far
from the hut, where the distillery was set up. Essentially, they mix maize
husks and sugar with water and boil it. There are a number of angled tubes
leading out of the covered vat, each of which pass through a tub of cold water.
The ethanol heats to a gaseous state in the vat, but then condenses when it’s
cooled in the tubes and drips into the bottles placed at the end of the tube. I
was so impressed by the ways in which people had utilized scientific principles
without (I'm assuming) the scientific knowledge behind them. I found the whole
process extremely interesting and genuinely cool.
My description of the slum has been mostly
surface-level so far. That’s partly because I was significantly affected
emotionally, and I’m really not sure how to write about it. I’ll start with my
favourite part because that’s easiest. There were many children in the
settlement who chanted the usual “Mazungu!” as we passed. I don’t think I’ve
mentioned this yet – Mazungu means white person, and children (and sometimes
adults) will yell it out at as we pass. It’s a bizarre experience, so I usually
respond by smiling and waving at them. How else do you react to that? Anyway,
not all of the children partook. There were a couple of children hanging around
when we were in the hut, and one of the girls was very interested in all of us.
Her eyes were so big. She couldn’t have been more than 2 or 3. It also helped
that her shirt had a picture of a dog and was captioned “Pawsitively adorable.”
Alright. I know I need to write about this.
It’s important. The well-being and quality of life of the people in the slum
was shocking to me. You hear the stat that people live off less than $2US per
day, but seeing it in reality is very different. The most depressing part was
how dependent they were on alcohol. Obviously, we were near the distillery, so
it’s not surprising that we were exposed to the people who frequent it, but it was
still challenging to see. Paul said that each bottle of moonshine, which was
about the size of a standard bottle of alcohol, cost about $1US. It’s amazing
to me that it’s so cheap, since that’s about equivalent to a small jar of
peanut butter here. At one point, a man who was completely plastered wandered past
all of us and fell at my feet, not far from the fire heating the distillery. I
tried to catch him, but I’m just not strong enough to hold up a drunk man in
slippery mud. He slid down my leg, slathering it with the mud that covered his
back (I’m assuming he fell on his back somewhere else before this interaction).
I’m really not proud of this, but I felt pity and disgust. The disgust came
from the fact that my hands stank of his body odour after having grappled at
his armpits and partly from the fact that I don’t particularly enjoy dealing
with drunk people I don’t like know. The pity…I was just very aware that this
was likely the daily reality of this man’s life. After all, this was early
afternoon on a Wednesday. It made me so sad.
Once again, writing about it hasn’t done it
justice. It’s one of those experiences that I’d need to be a much better writer
to describe.
In general, being in the slum was
emotionally draining; I’ve never heard our group as quiet as when we left to
walk back to our bus. That being said, it was a very important experience; we
needed to be there and see that to understand how HIV/AIDS spread and continues
to spread, in particular to understand why it affects certain subsets of the
population more than others.
By the time we made it to lunch, we’d all
perked up enough to make conversation, but today was generally more subdued
than other days. I was pretty quiet at lunch, though food helped some. That’s
about all that happened today.
Something that’s awesome is that today is
the third consecutive day that I’ve laughed so hard I cried. The first time I
laughed so hard I cried was on Monday night, when we were hanging out at The
Oasis. The night before was the night that a lot of beer was consumed, and at
one point when Natalee and I were in our room, we just heard a loud crash
followed by a lot of laughter. Apparently Marlo had tried to kick something,
but had slipped on a blanket and just fell on her butt. I’d heard about it the
next morning, so on Monday night, when Marlo said something about kicking up a
fuss, I asked her if she was going to kick something and fall over (I sensed
early on that she’s the kind of person who’s okay being teased). Everyone
laughed, which forced a re-telling of the story from the previous night. I got
a bit giddy, and just kept laughing. Natalee pointed out that I was technically
laughing so hard I cried at my own joke, which made me laugh harder. Yesterday,
it happened at lunch. The girls I was sitting with and I were having an
academic discussion about porn and feminism. Just as one of the girls said, “I
think porn is…” our server brought our drinks, and she just looked up at him as
she said that and paused. It was so incredibly awkward that we all just
dissolved into laughter. The poor waiter – he probably felt so uncomfortable.
It was a bit immature, but it was so funny in the moment. Come to think of it,
while that was a funny anecdote, I didn’t cry from laughter then; it was later
in the day. Last night at dinner, we were all just sitting around talking, and
Susan started laughing about something. I started laughing at her laugh, and
her and I just laughed with each other for awhile. There was nothing
particularly funny, but you know how sometimes you just start laughing and
don’t want to stop? That was one of those moments, so I laughed so hard I cried
again. Today we were in the bus and we
were talking about my shirt (I’m wearing my camp shirt that says Jen-erous
nifer), and the girls were teasing me about putting lame puns on my clothes, so
I put a lame pout on. Natalee asked me why I was crying because I was slightly
teary from chuckling. That led to a lot more laughter, and I ended up crying in
earnest from laughter.
These little anecdotes are included more
for my own personal reference when I go back and read these posts; these
moments are some of the things I want to remember. I also think I needed to
write about them today since I’ve been feeling a bit low.
I should get access to the internet
tomorrow! After our meeting with the mayor of Mzuzu at 9:30, we’re being set
free in the city. I’m not sure how I’ll transport my laptop around, but I’m
making this happen. I’m going to find an internet café and upload these posts
because this is getting a bit ridiculous.
Looking back on some of these, I’ve
realized how many cool names we have on the trip: Natalee, Marlo, Patara, Aileen,
Akkila, Bissy…hopefully that makes it easier rather than harder for you all to
remember their names.
Tonight those of us at The Oasis are
planning to play Heads Up! at 9. That should be fun, I’m excited. I’ve been
regretting not bringing books because we have a lot more down time than I
expected, and I’m not always up for interaction with the whole group. Hopefully
a game will be an easy and fun way to pass the time.
Added on later in the evening: this should
not have been nearly as funny as it was. Natalee said, “I’m going to create a
document that’s just words!” What she meant was that she was that she was going
to make a document of ideas for things to write about for the class, but it
came out wrong. After I teased her about it, she said, “It’s going to be a word
document!!” I’m pretty sure that we’re all sleep-deprived despite sleeping a
lot because everything has been funnier than it should have been lately. She’s also
become my personal trainer, so today I did push-ups, dips, squats, flutter
kicks, held a super man, side crunches, and fire hydrants. She’s also joking
that by the end of this blog, she’s going to slowly edge me out and be the
star.
That’s all for now, folks!
-Jen
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