Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2002

From: abby stamm

Subject: life here

Moni nonse, 3 September 2002

Dad asked me to write an update and very little of interest has happened at my site, so I am not sure what to write. I apologise in advance if anyone finds any of the stories here offensive. This may be more of a journal entry than a letter. Most of my work for the last few months has revolved around HIV and AIDS. First, my leg has recovered completely, but my balance is not yet what it used to be. I still hate public transport in this country. I got a ride from Blantyre with a Minister of Parliament (MP) today. In the 1960's, he was a Dutch development volunteer in Kenya. He told me his ideas on how to improve transport safety in Malawi, starting by enforcing speed limits. I hadn't even realized we have a maximum speed limit. It's 100 km/h if you're interested.

I was in Blantyre for the Southern GAD (Gender and Development) meeting. The focus: working with youth in Malawi, facilitated by our very own Pierce Davis. Pierce, Rob Claussen, and I were the only education volunteers, so we said the most. Nick Dahinden (who looks exactly like Nicholas Boswell) and Jason Welle both work with youth as well. Nearly everyone else was from the new health group that just swore in a month ago and they had a lot of good questions. It went well.

Yesterday (Monday), I was busy all day. At about 8:00 am, I went to PSI (Population Services International) to chat with Sam Connor, the director and an RPCV. He gave me advice on working in Malawi, grad school, and general resume writing. Then he gave me some resources for my school, including over 100 condoms for the teachers' use, and arranged for Youth Alert to come to my school. Youth Alert is a new program that sends a group of trained young adults to secondary schools around the country to meet the students and teach them about planning their futures and avoiding pregnancy and HIV infection. It was first suggested by two PCV's on behalf of Southern GAD, Angie Jeffers and Cindy Pfitzenmeyer I believe, who submitted a proposal to PSI for funding. PSI liked it so much that they completely took over. Youth Alert was supposed to visit my school in July, but their Southern Region vehicle was stolen and replacing it and those responsible for its loss through negligence took time.

Next, I went to see Steve, a former Domasi College librarian turned NGO director, to learn about Nkhawatoto, a program designed to help orphans, widows, and prostitutes in a cluster of villages about halfway between Blantyre and Lunzu on the M-1. It is an interesting program with desperate need of help. The program runs a school for Standards 1 to 4 in a run-down building with no doors or windows. All of the 130 or so students are orphans taught by one of four teachers, all unqualified, but eager to help.

They are fed breakfast, lunch, and an early supper just before returning home because many orphans' needs are given last priority in the extended and often overwhelmed families where they live. It also provides basic provisions for older orphans to attend Standards 5 to 8 at the nearby Namitete Secondary School. It has arranged for 12 secondary school orphans to receive full expense bursaries (scholarships) from First Merchant Bank. Steve is hoping to expand to provide other sources of income for widows and prostitutes and HIV and AIDS counseling for whomever needs it. The group works closely with the village headmen and the local Traditional Authority and Councillor to identify and support the target groups. I joined Steve and his wife for lunch of nsima (ugali), cabbage, and eggs.

Just after 2:00 pm, I arrived at Story Workshop, an organization that focuses primarily on HIV and AIDS and women's empowerment. They create the most popular Chichewa radio drama in Malawi, called Zimachitika, literally "it happens." Zimachitika deals with girls' education, early pregnancy, peer pressure, and, as my counterpart Madam Kunda put it, any other issues of relevance to secondary school students. They are starting a new radio drama now, Tilitonse, which is funded at least in part by Catholic Relief Services. It deals with violence against women and the issue of teachers sleeping with students, which some students of both sexes tell me is not an issue at all (translation: it is acceptable). Phaniso, the man in charge of the HIV and AIDS work, gave me an overview of the program, a tour of the offices and studio, and a copy of the new comic book based on Zimachitika. Like the show, the comic book is in Chichewa. They are trying to decide whether an English version would be worth the expense. I am inclined to say no. They are interested in visiting my school to talk to the teachers for two reasons. First, they are developing educational resources now to be used at schools. Second, they are considering starting a Youth Alert type group that would visit schools.

Today has been much less eventful. After arriving in Lilongwe, I tracked down the international GRE application. (The application itself is the same as the domestic one I think, but the accompanying booklet has all of the international information. It had been mailed to my site, but apparently never reached me.) I will deliver it to the US Embassy tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon, I meet with Annamaria, our CD (Country Director) about extending for another year.

That's all of my out-of-site news. At site, I am enjoying Form 3 and indifferent about Form 1. Form 1 is slow, quiet, and unimaginative. In the words of the other teachers, "they are very dull." Last year's Form 1 class was much better. I teach them English and call it Integrated Science. If they refuse to interact with me (ask and answer questions, experiment, solve problems), then I refuse to teach anymore that day because otherwise I get too frustrated. On good days, I go overtime. The class is small. Last term we had about 90 Form 1 students in two streams. This term we have about 40 students in one stream. This is due in part to the onset of the hunger season. Food is more important than education. I will write more about the hunger season some other time.

Form 3 is fun. I teach English and call it Life Skills. My most recent guest speaker was Fr Steven Kamanga from Radio Maria, the Catholic radio station based in Mangochi. The students loved it. In my absence this week, I gave them the assignment to work on writing their own radio dramas dealing with any issues that we have covered so far. They are also creating billboards to educate people in the area about HIV and AIDS, using messages in Chiyao. We hope to paint the best ones on the school walls. In a couple weeks, I plan for two speakers to come from NAPHAM (National Association for People living with HIV and AIDS in Malawi). My students swear that they have never met anyone with HIV, even though two teacher at my school died this year of AIDS. That and some students' conviction that the best way to deal with having HIV was to commit suicide prompted me to contact NAPHAM. The members all have HIV and many are willing to speak in schools about their experiences.

Sadly, at my school two female teachers and zero male teachers have been tested. Even though this year our dispensary started testing for HIV free of charge, the males are still afraid to be tested. It also gives out free condoms, but the teachers say they are afraid to get condoms there. The students are a bit more willing. But if the idea is to teach by example, most of the teachers are not doing too well.

I have also been having fun teasing the teachers, especially the males. I got some female condoms from the National AIDS Council in Lilongwe (I've been making lots of friends) and brought them back to school. Several of the male teachers heard and wanted to see one, but the Headmistress had it and they were too shy to ask her themselves, so they begged me and Madam Ngozo to ask on their behalf. I said no, but Madam Ngozo finally agreed and spent quite a while telling the Head how scared they were before taking the condom. Then everyone wanted me to explain how to use it. All I knew was what little Gerald at the NAC and mom had told me. Their favourite bit of information was that females condoms make noise, so anyone nearby can hear you having sex. (Mom, if you can find illustrated instructions, Evaline at the Peace Corps Medical Office has asked for them as well.)

Around this time, I asked for permission to do condom demonstrations in Life Skills and the Head mentioned possibly doing them in all of the classes. Fine with me, as long as a Malawian is team teaching with me, so s/he can learn how to do it next year. This will probably be Madam Kunda and maybe Mr Mbewe. I was working on my lesson schemes for the term and figuring out what to cover in my classes when another question occurred to me. I went to Mr Gama, the Science Department Chair, for advice. I wanted to talk about masturbation as an alternative to sex in Form 3. He thought I had said menstruation and asked several questions about that before I had to run to class. After class, Mr Gama greeted me in the staff room weilding a dictionary. He wanted me to explain masturbation to him. So I did. Madam Ngozo and Mr Samu listened in as I explained how women masturbate.

Then Mr Binali came in and concluded that whatever I was talking about must be interesting. Instead of summarizing what he had missed, I said it would be better if Mr Samu and Mr Gama explained to show that they had understood me. They did not like that, but finally agreed. Mr Malinga came in as they talked, decided he did not want to know, and promptly ran away. Once they got into it, they started trying to outdo each other. When they were done, and Mr Binali was satisfied that he understood, I asked them how men masturbate. Finally, Mr Binali agreed to explain, pantomiming with a roughly phallic shaped chalkboard compass. When he had stumbled to the end, I asked Madam Ngozo if he had explained well enough. She thought a moment, then said simply, "no," which made Mr Binali very upset. She and I were having a lot of trouble keeping straight faces at this point because the whole thing was so funny. I told Sheila about it later and she asked, "Are you sure these are Malawians you're talking about?" I'm not sure actually. All of this is supposed to be strongly taboo both to do and to talk about.

That's enough for now.

Love to all, Abby

P.S. If you want to write, use my Lilongwe address except for packages. If you send packages now, it is possible they will arrive long after I leave unless I extend.

Abigail Stamm

PO Box 208

Lilongwe, Malawi

SE Africa

I did learn today that it is very likely I will extend in some capacity, if not as PCVL.