Living in a Fishy World . . .

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2008-05-01T17:27:00.000-07:00

Its been over a year since I last wrote. ..wow time flies. I haven't stopped thinking about these issues but I have returned to school and that is really taking its toll on my personal time.

I have found a few comments on my last post and want to thank those individuals. You have inspired me to continue on. I am going to get back on the writing horse and soon!

Late Night Thoughts about Poverty in Africa

2007-02-11T01:31:00.000-08:00

Hello friends,

So I have been back in Canada for many months and many of you (the 5 family and 3 friends) that read this site have given up checking for updates. But I will continue to Blog for my own sanity and my own purposes.

The issue of poverty in some/ most countries within Africa is something I hold close to my heart. It’s a complex puzzle and Chirs Tenove did a good job of explaining it closer to the end of his 2006 Walrus magazine article. I completely agreed with his comments about “band-aid” solutions, political corruption and conflict, insufficient infrastructure and false imaging. Does knowing this make me apathetic? No. Cynical perhaps, pensive yes, but definitely not apathetic.

I spent a good chunk of my childhood in Nigeria, and remember the lush gardens and the beauty of the country. But, as I grew up in Canada I began to forget those images, and started to believe that Africa as a whole was going through massive crisis’ and drying out. I went back to Africa in 2005 (the first time since 1988) and was shocked to see the green fields and constant down pours in Kenya (during its rainy season of course). Okay I thought to myself I remember these monsoon type rains….and come to think of it the green aswell. But surely drought is rampant…maybe in other countries ….Ethiopia, Malawi etc., and surely even here in Kenya poverty is crippling.

I spent the first weeks of my trip to Kenya in a small village in Kirengero, north of Nakuru, in a run-down building with about 60 orphaned Kikuyu children and saw the resilience of their spirit. These children were bright eyed, generally happy hopeful children, with many having real aspirations for success in life, and firstly in school. (Granted, perhaps in their society they were in an upper-class for having been placed in the orphanage, here they were almost always guaranteed 1 full nutritious meal, and had the freedom to attend school. ) In thier minds they were not crippled. Why aren't these clothed fed children, shown in our media? Thier life was hard, but not any more hard than thier peers, and they often said they were lucky. Dont get me wrong, these children were aware of the realities of thier situation but they wanted change and spoke of bright futures. But by our standards these children were still severely underprivileged, and surely recounts of thier specific situations would have any forigner sad about the torn pants they were wearing. These are our own imposed value judgements. Again later that year in Malawi I saw similar children, and villagers. Some of those villagers had literally NO money….not even 10 kwacha to spare…(10 kwacha being something less than 10 cents) and yet there they were in their villages smiling, chatting eating mangoes off of trees. Day to day they were not helplessly awaiting our help. As modest as these situations are certainly you cannot deny that there is a contextual truth that is being hidden in our media.

The thing about African people is despite their troubles, and despite their woes they are resilient. This is an image that should be represented. I really think this might help compassion fatigue. As well as starting a new way of thinking about the continent.

Sometimes I wonder if NGO’s should be saying please offer your help in partnership with African communities aiding them to reach their goals, instead of please save them. Maybe this is less 'sexy'. But already innate to that statement is an issue of empowerment. I think the biggest failure of western aid funds (as widely mismanaged as they may have been) is the fact that it lead to the continued disempowerment of the African people. I have think, unfortunately, that the majority of aid regimes are administered in such a way that they are effectually a continuation of imperialism. This isn’t a novel concept, but it is under discussed. I have seen first hand the submissive attitudes of some very capable Malawian leaders to foreigners and their “aid,” so much so that they would go against their own better judgment to accommodate the wishes of said aid organizations. So if an old lady at a bus stop near a stop light is mistaken for someone who wanted to cross the street and is escorted fasly to the other side of the road. What if in this senario, once you walked her across the street, you asked the old lady what she wanted and she only replied that she was fine and politely smiled at you. How would you even know that she was worse off? You wouldn’t, not until you found her there hours later, fatigued and you asked her again if a she was ok...then perhaps she would tell you that she was missing her bus. Now what can you do in this situation?

If Africans continue to see the Muzugu “or foreigner” as their “saviours” then we’ve truly failed, I think, because I believe that they will continue to look beyond their borders for effective solutions instead of driving their own from within. This idea of waiting for change and praying for a solution is frustrating and I think there needs to be more mobilization for peaceful well planned internal change. Internal expertise and will-power is a key part of effective development, and it is, in my opinion, a vital ingredient that drove the success of development projects in places like India, Latin America and China.

The potential for great leaders within African communities exists, without a doubt, so why aren’t we investing in it? Large aid organizations such as Oxfam and World Vision should be moved to devote at least 50% of their monies to long-term aid solutions that empower communities; be it political lobbying, irrigation development, community education, leadership training, etc. It is these projects that are important, which in fact we work towards here in North America with our poverty stricken population, that we fail to fund properly in African communities that are most vulnerable and in need of such things.

This idea of curing and saving has to be dropped. We cant hope for that. When you are helping a friend in need, it is better to be supportive and nurturing than over-bearing. You cant expect to solve thier problems. It is better to equip them with the tools to solve their own problems than to tell them what to do.

Last days in Malawi

2006-03-13T05:17:00.000-08:00

Well its all soon coming to an end! I cant believe how quickly its passed, but I think I am ready for new things to come. Things seem to be drying up at the work place a little here. I will miss the wonderful people I've met....both friends and co-workers (mostly from the Department of Fisheries). But in my last month I have definitely been able to reflect over the time here and I realize that I have done all that I came to do and would want to do. I have seen the beauty and the darkness of Malawi. I've seen the hunger and sadness as well as some of their celebrations. I've seen some of the most stunning landscapes I'll ever lay eyes on and swam in some of the clearest waters. I have an idea about "what the problem" is with Malawi from a developmental stand point. Mainly, being its cultural hiccups. Witchcraft and jealousy are probably two of the biggest set-backs in this otherwise forward thinking place. I will post more on once I return home and time is readily available. And lastly I realize that my experiences here will shape who I am in the future. I no longer need to be a mediator all the time. Malawians have taught me that even in the best of times pieces can fall and land in unfavourably, but sometimes there is nothing you can do about it. Now I am about to head off to the lake one last time and take a quick balharzia dip :) Then off to England and Greece to visit some long missed loved ones and I will be back on Canadian soil on the 17th of April. More to come....

Lazy friday

2006-02-17T03:23:00.000-08:00

Firstly, let me just blog my story of yesterdays glorious run in the rain. You see yesterday I got home circa 5:30pm so I had enough time to put in a quick jog before the sun set (6:30). Quickly I called up my new running buddy Steffen (a German paediatric doctor) and off we were. It was good to run ...I've been doing it rarely and sporadically since I came, but nothing like I do back home...usually I opt not to run as I realize most Malawian see it as a "odd azugu thing to do." Actually I have yet to see any Malawian women run. Generally speaking Malawian women are too busy rearing their 6+ offspring, cooking, cleaning, working the fields, worrying about the family's nutrition, processing food stuffs and washing clothes to even think of wasting energy on a pesky thing like running. So usually I don't go...unless I am in a group or its early on sat or sunday morning when people are in church. But when I run with Steffen I feel as if he is the canter of attention (big tall white guy) and I am less strange. Anyways, the run was great. It started with me greeting all the qausy familiar faces as we whisked past them, then a group of small kids started taunting us (azungu azungu) and chased us for about a minute before they decided that we werent worth the effort. This I think is because they are boma (city) kids, in the village when I'm spotted in a car often kids will chase the car for nearly a kilometre before they give up. Either way I think it was fun for Steffen, him being new and all. So then it started to rain 15min into our run and luckily we were nearing home so we kicked it into 5th and raced home. But our effort was futile as Malawian rains don’t doddle and within minutes it was pouring, the streets were flooded with spontaneous rivers and I was soaked. Despite the wretched flu Aunty (Mrs. J that I live with), warned about I had a great time and will miss running in monsoon like rains in Africa.

Secondly, on this lazy Friday I've been neglecting my duties, data analysis and the like, and surfing the web. I then stumbled on a network of Blogs blogged by Malawian ex-pat aid workers. It is neat reading about their experiences and whats more it was eye opening for me. I mean I've been experiencing the same /similar thing as they have only I never really realized the impact of those feelings. My problem I think is that I have been compartmentalizing and filing my feelings about things here instead of recognizing and thinking about them. So I will try and be more introspective in my next blogs.

Thirdly I am starting to feel those going home blues. Its hard to believe I only have 3 weeks left! Ahh wont think about it

Feeling the PRESSURE

2006-02-14T06:22:00.001-08:00

So there are many of us "science kids" that in our undergrad sat in seat listening to the horror stories of scientists tampering with data to meet deadlines and please bosses. I remember a day when I was sitting in Nudds' lecture and he mentioned that many DFO researchers feel this pressure. I thought, as well as all my classmates at the time, that this was baloney and there should be no reason to tamper with data or produce statistical reports that don’t show the "real" discovered truth. I mean its about precision not accuracy right?
Well these past weeks, I've been feeling the "pressure." Our rather incompetent dysfunctional team had to present our research to our big Buena (boss) and there were many (in fact a plethora) of questions we failed to answer....not because we didn’t know the answer but bec in the end the answer had more to do with personal vendettas and agendas than it had to do with logical reason. That is to say many things were missed bec someone on the team decided that he/she knew more than the methods stated...or the method advocate (me) came off too natzi-ish, or because the method advocate (me still) went away on 2 weeks vacation to a beautiful island paradise! So in the end everyone was to blame...we all sat heads hung. I mean I really shouldn’t have vacated over x-mas (I'm Hindu, I don’t need to celebrate) but they (the team) and their pettiness really were getting to me. Communication was low, feelings were too often a factor in decision-making and I just didn’t/ couldn't deal with it as no one is confrontational, ergo NO one wanted to talk about the issues.
In the end we've synthesized the data...it looks very bleak to me...but we then cut samples (that had incomplete data sets) and we ran regressions to generate information on a sample size of 50 but really there was grouping there and arguably the sample size should be 10-ish. But after that huge budget was blown its not like we can hold out for next years spawning season and re-run trials. We just have to use what we have!

In the end the data isnt soo bad. Its not pristine by any means though....and the whole thing has taught me the need for multi-ple pre-study planning sessions so that the whole team can get on the same page....come hell or high water....

In other news, the whole aquaculture launch is bigger than I thought! The Director General of WorldFish is coming down from Penang, Malaysia and the Head of Fisheries Slones is around....as well as Bingu of course. The count down to Bingu is approx 10 days!

Tid-bits of News

2006-02-08T23:11:00.000-08:00

Avian Flu Hits Nigeria,
-Maybe you've read but the bird flu has been spotted in Nigeria. Many here are nervous and scared...Chicken is a HUGE source of meat (protien) here. "We have AIDS, Malaria and Poverty ...I dont think we can handle the Bird Flu" said my co-worker Mr. Kalino

Hammas Govnt wins in Palestine
-I thought it was bad that Harper was voted in, in Canada. But the new Palestinian winning party leader makes Harper and the conservatives look like eels in a tank of crocks! Basically, Isreal and Palastine were nearing peace talks and had a cease fire but now this radical Hammas group, who doesnt recognize Isreal as a state has been voted in. Isreal has been fighting for a long time for thier rights, to little avail.

Leech Guide being made and conservation at hand!
- As some of you know I fancy leeches and think they are quite interesting little creatures. In recent news it looks like a Canadian working at a US museum has been conducting research on them and will soon put together their natural history as well as a linneage chart and species identification manual! Exciting! check out :
SCIENCE February 7, 2006 Scientist at Work Mark Siddall: His Subject: Highly Evolved and Exquisitely Thirsty

Aquaculture makes it BIG in malawi

2006-02-08T22:28:00.000-08:00

So, in Malawi the president Bingu wa Mutharika has declared that there will be a new national aquaculture strategy launch in late Feb. This "strategy" is meant to use aquaculture as a tool to increase food security and incomes of small-holder families in rural areas.

Its a little ironic as aquaculture has been around in Africa (as a potential solution to poverty and mal-nutrition) since 1950's or so. I found documents that were printed in late 70's talking about aquaculture as an integrated approach to increasing nutrition in diets. But I guess it takes 50 or so years for the news to reach and affect policy makers.

So expectdly things are fairly busy around here. Deputy ministers have visited and many "degree holders" as they call the senior staff are off to meetings in Lilongwe, the captial, with the Minister of Fisheries and the head of the Department of Fishereies. In fact the Executive Director, if that is his title, but anyway World Fish International's head is flying in on Tuesday. So that will be exciting and an experience.

As for my catfish, they are doing well. Admittedly the research team has had its problems, mainly because of poor management and communication and one guy who more or less is a loose nut, but in data analysis we are still able to make some conclusions.

Additionally, we are doing an on-station experiment to re-test field results by perfecting data collection techniques (ie. no variation or screw ups).

One of my fellow researchers a women from Zambia is leaving tommorow and I will be sad to see her go as she has been a genuine hard-worker on this project.

But what I learned from her wasnt feild related but that as a women (or even man) working in Africa (or perhaps anywhere) its important to be diplomatic and look good in front of your bosses. I am not one to suck up and try to impress others, and I have found this approach not to work to my favour here. Wheres as in Canada mostly its a different story as genuine people that can intuitively read situations are around. Okay there is my "vent." But yeah maybe my office political side should develop and personal need to remain ethical and fair should not always rule. . .

Canada makes Conservative descisions...

2006-01-24T00:58:00.000-08:00

So is it just me or have things back home turned wonky? I'm gone for a few months and suddenly the country is more Conservative than it is liberal?? And Martin who dethrowned Chretien and burried Shelia Copps out in the liberal side yard....resigns as leader! Its soo ridiculous. Really 30% to 36.2% is not a huge loss and if Martin and his campaign people werent too busy smoking crack creating a slur campaign maybe the liberals would still be in rule...ahh but anyway.
Well here are the results:

CONSERVATIVE SEATS WON / AHEAD :124 PERCENTAGE VOTE :36.2

LIBERALS SEATS WON / AHEAD: 103 PERCENTAGE VOTE: 30.2

BLOC QUEBECOIS SEATS WON / AHEAD: 51 PERCENTAGE VOTE: 10.5

NEW DEMOCRATS SEATS WON / AHEAD: 29 PERCENTAGE VOTE: 17.5

GREEN SEATS WON / AHEAD 0 PERCENTAGE VOTE 4.5

OTHERS SEATS WON / AHEAD: 1 PERCENTAGE VOTE: 0.6

On the up side, though they didnt win a seat there was nearly 5% support for the green party!

Sri Lanka's ethnic Clashes Continue

2006-01-16T23:31:00.000-08:00

Many of you may know that historically there has been a civil war in Sri Lanka. There are two major ethincities in Sri Lanka, Tamil and Singhalese. The Singhalese, when british rule ended took power as they were more open to westernization and adoption of british systems. They held major positions in governement etc. However, there started to be a distinct clash between the two groups soon after independance and the Singhalese majority started to opress the Tamil people. This lead to insurgency by various Tamil liberation groups. One of these groups was the Tamil Tigers, they were the ones that out lasted all others and at present haved formed a de facto governing system in the north of Sri Lanka.

In the media the Tamil Tigers are often referred to as a terrorist organization. However, it is important to note that thier presence and purpose historically was to stop the acts of inhumanity on Tamil people, and to liberate them as a people and a state. Thier methods have been extreme and war-like, but argualbly that is the reason they still exist and havent been wiped out by the Sri Lankan army.

In recent history there have been efforts to stop the civil war and peace has been estabilished in the north. The Sri Lankan governement had made many statements of bringing equity to the nation and Tamil people. However, the natural disasters and political turnover that caused a pause in the progress and the current government seems to be making few strides to make peace.

Whats more is that there seems to be violence breaking in the north again. There seem to be students being attacked and allegedly killed at gun point by Sri Lankan army officals. These acts may be a warning to the Tigers or just acts to re-start the civil war.
I've been sent a press release detailing the murder of Tamil university students. The murders seem to be acts of malice and have no real connection to the individual or personal issues. (For more information, please contact us at 416-841-1013. )

I am unsure of how credible this information is, but I have no doubt that there is truth in the article. These types of violations to human rights are a common-stay in Sri Lanka and a big reason I was hoping for peace.

The sad thing is that during the recent elections in Sri Lanka there was a chance for a candidate of neutral views and progressive attitude to be elected. His name was Ranil Wickremasinghe and he had promised to make the North and the East (Tamil populated areas) federal states. This would have been best but he lost the election, and the Tamil Tigers are partially to blame as they ordered a boycott on the election disabling thousands of Tamils from voting.

In the end I think both the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) and the Sri Lankan governement are too tied up in the game of politics and are too prideful to see the need or the way to peace. The LTTE, apparently wouldnt allow Tamils to vote as they did not want to see the Sri Lankan governement as a body that rules over Tamils, ergo no need for Tamils to vote. But this was a rather insipid act I think and will definately cause a step-back for the peace process. The Sri Lankan governement now, without the influence of Mr. Wickremasinghe will do little to apease the Tamils.

For more information visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka

Quicky re: World Vision

2006-01-12T02:13:00.000-08:00

So as I was speaking about World Vision, I thought that I would quickly note that here in Malawi World Vision is large and in charge!

Really I have had my doubts about thier organization in the past (and probably will in the future) but overall here in the southern region of Malawi, world vision is doing a good job with the communities they work with. Also there doesnt seem to be any evidence of "mandatory conversion" to catholicism. In fact they work within muslim areas.

Sure there are probably (as some have critizised) too many fund lines allocated to administrative and publicity purposes but with an organization operating on such a grand scale . . .maybe its expectable? (I also saw signs of world vision all over Kenya- nice big white signs- and some in Sri Lanka).

I'll write a better post later about Malawian social service dynamics.

Picturing Africa...

2006-01-12T01:50:00.000-08:00

So when you picture africa what do you see? Perhaps arid dry sands, a leaf-less shrub and a mud-hut? Maybe a kid with an inflated belly standing half naked? Or maybe wildlife of some sort...giraffes?

All I can say is if any of those rang true its because World Vision, National Geographic and all the other media giants that rule our impressionable north-american minds have done a good job!

The real truth is that Africa is like any other place....visually speaking that is. Right now its rainy season so I see fields of green, red roses too...oh ahh sorry (Ray Charles..ahh I am such a media affected kid). Seriously, some vistas look just like scotland as in the grass is really green the trees are lush with leaves and there are white lillys and other wildflowers scattered around. Z-boma is starting to look amazing, all the flowers are springing out and walking around is both aromatically and visually fantastic.

During dry season things are a lot more barren, leafless shrubs, bright red dry clay sands, and cracked mud huts can be seen. But (other than the mud huts) that is pretty much like Nevada I would imagine.

As for the wildlife, here in Malawi if you see them in the park you will be lucky! Most wild animals have ither run away (due to human inhabitation of thier territory) or have been hunted and eaten. There aren't any "big game" to be seen about; its not like I walk to the bank and slap a zebra a high-five. Its quite sad actually. They have to import some of thier park animals from other areas because they have brutally mismanaged thier native populations. Actually, I remember there was more wild life to be seen in Kenya...perhaps they have better laws about hunting and conservation (most probably for the purpose of tourism).

I did read in the paper today that there was a Lion Attack in the north, but that lion had escaped from a park and is old or wounded or something. Usually (said my co-worker) lions would prefer to stay away from humans but if they are incapable of hunting other wild animals they will prey on domestics...goats slow moving humans etc. BUT please dont get too änti-lions. Despite my co-workers theory I maintain that if there were more ungulates (zebra, gazelles etc) around then there would be less "ättacks" on domestics.

Okay thats my thougth of the day.

When the Pickins are Slim...

2006-01-10T06:40:00.000-08:00

CALLING ALL CANADIANS TO VOTE:

Listen you fellow canadians, I know the pickins for this election are quite shabby but I beseach you to please vote Liberal. Okay, so yes they have made some BIG mistakes lately but thier public mistakes are every parties private ones.

Harper is not the Devil some make him out to be, but the truth is he is not being straight forward with his " common-man" campaign. He and the party are DO not hold level or common ideals. They definately have conservative ...ahem, this is implied in thier name....and the last time I checked we canadians were more "liberal."

Okay, I dont agree with everything that the Liberal party does, and for a while I thought of NDP as an alternative (but then Jack Layton sort of proved to be too naive a candidate to trust as a PM) and I thought Martin would surely screw things up! But I do have to say (despite all the fighting I did to keep him out of power in the liberal party) he isnt doing a half bad job and has taken public opinion seriously in all accounts.

Taking public opinion seriously is a huge plus. I really dont see this from Harper. In fact I know he will just be another self apointed leader with little regard for the common opinion as long as the corperate opinion is heard.

Think Carefully folks...and VOTE!

Christmas in the Sun

2006-01-10T02:01:00.000-08:00

So it is christmas and we have dicided to go to Tanzania. Really its a rash descision as we have plenty of opportunity for fun right here in Malawi and chances to SCUBA dive off the shores of Mozambique, but what the heck...Ellen is excited!

First we have a going away party for christmas. Dinner parties are the norm in Zoma boma (boma= bigger than village not exactly a town). With limited venues to "go out" to, (officially there are 3 that exist that I know of..but they are pricey) eating at a friends house is as exciting as it gets. Well now with most of us younger z-bomaites we generally do this ...well really we just cook and eat together to avoid not eating at all, or eating crappily. But the twist to this party was that we would make it a pot-luck (there fore more food...and glorious desserts) and have wine (such a commodity!). The party was great, we didnt have as much food as we thought but had enough for everybody to have something, and there was enough wine for me to have two glasses, so I was happy! The picture below shows some of us that turned the party into a kitchen party! Humm...most of these people seem to be Canadian! Wow us Canucks really stick together.

The next day we wake up fairly early and head to Lilongwe. Then we take off on a 30 hour (turned 36 hour) bus ride from Lilongwe to Dar es Salaam. This ride nearly killed my patience as we kept stopping for bus repair! In fact we (Ellen and I) spent Christmas eve on the side of a road, in the dark, waiting for the bus to start back up. (Due to many breakdowns, we were off schedule and had to wait until the light came out to proceed through a "bush" area where hijackers were known to hang out). We waited from 11pm untill 4am, and listened to the banter of business type Malawians and Tanzanias as they sipped thier Konyagi (locally produced alocholic substance sorta like gin) and toasted in Christmas.

Then when we finally arrived in Zanzibar, which I think is by far one of the nicestest vacation destinations ever, it was Christmas day! Seeing the white sands and blue water cheered me up! In fact although intially I thought it was a hideous idea to spend Christmas on the beach, I have to say it was quite nice. We had our offical christmas dinner at an itialian restaurant watching the sun set and contemplating life. It was great actually.

The next few days were spent wandering around stone town (major town area of Zanz) and found it to be quite a unique blend of arabic and european cultures. There was very little "africa feel" to this town...unless you count the art and the Masaai sales men walking around. Stonetown has a maze of streets with white stone buildings with beautiful wooden or brass doors. It reminded me somewhat of a aribic version of antigua (from Guatemala). Just a random oasis of a town. The best part of stone town was the Forazani (spelling?) or outdoor food market where you could get sea food freshly roasted for you at night. This was a place I really enjoyed. It wasnt quite as good as Jem al Fina in Merrakesh, Morrocco but it was nice just the same.

Lastly we found the best place in Zanz to DIVE, and we took an all day boat trip out to an island where we did an off baot dive into some of the nicest coral atolls I have seen thus far. We saw 3 giant sea turtles and an octapus!

Retrospectively, in Zanzibar we had a tonne of good Karma and are able to make it to all the sites and beaches that we wanted to see using rather nice vehicles....one belonged to the MP of stone town who offered us his car for the day because we were kind to him....and we were able to make a plethora of fun friends.

It was a nice vacation and Ellen was finally able to gain back the weight she lost to Malaria!

Last Year's News

2006-01-10T01:21:00.000-08:00

So I have to quickly apologize to all those of you who regularly check this site. I have been out of contact, but only because I have been so busy.

Firstly I think I should tell you that I have moved out of my sweet little house on the mountain and moved closer to the market into a nice little red-brick house. The move was based on the fact that a) the rend rate I thought I was to pay was a lot less than the actual amount and b) I met a nice couple of Indian decent that needed a house sitter. So yeah now I live in a house that is walking distance from everything and I have access to the Joshua’s car (bless them). House sitting is a good gig I tell you. Well the down side is that Ramses had to be given away, Mr. Joshua is allergic. But Ramses didn’t go far he is at Isa (my Japanese friends house) and I visit him nearly every lunch hour.

Other than that my life has been about work! I wake up at 5am nearly ever morning and head out to the field at about 7am. The day there after usually looks like setting up cloth mating cages, finding fish in farmer ponds, weighing them, stripping them of their eggs to ensure maturity of fish, and placing them gently into their cloth motel like mating cages hoping they will be in the “mood” for love. :) The good news is that we have had success….the bad news is that methodology has wavered from original proposed plan and it has not been documented…..AHH! (scientists nightmare). These glitches are surely because I took Christmas vacation. For all the other workers there was no real Christmas break….other than the mandatory weekends. In the picture to the left I have a female catfish....shes "ready ready" as her eggs revealed.

This month with my field research I was also able to go to Thyolo, which is the tea estate region of Malawi and it was beautiful! Almost as nice as Sri Lanka’s area. I also got to climb Mulanje the tallest mountain in Malawi. The thigh-burning climb up was worth the cold air that I found on the mountain. It was just such a treat to be able to have a sweater on, drink hot chocolate and sit by a fire! (December here is the hottest month so usually such luxuries of our Christmas season, normally would be un-thinkable.)
The best thing about working in the field is the little dive restaurants we get to visit near villages. There is this one really small one with only room for two tables and they have gotten use to me coming in. As I am veg (well sort-of...as I do eat fish....maybe I should say I am a piscatarian) they always put an egg on for me! Its probably some of the best Nsima and relish I have ever eaten!

Thats it for now. . .

On to Better Things, Japanese sTyLe.

2005-11-21T23:49:00.000-08:00

So living in Zomba is great but I sometimes feel that living out here with all the socializing is taking me away from the reasons I came to Malawi in the first place. Which was really to learn about the country, learn about aquaculture and to help the people in some way. So instead of spending soo much time worrying about the weekend’s events I thought I would start thinking about the issues.

This weekend I’ve decided to ditch my partying friends and join Isa, the Japanese volunteer, in her school event. Saturday morning I left early in the morning to meet Isa and a bus full of Japanese volunteers. These volunteers were on average positioned for 2 years, doing everything from helping revise school curriculum’s and capacity build to teach tailoring or mechanics to people with disabilities.
The ride in the morning was as interesting as it was entertaining. Along with 10 Japanese volunteers, I met a few important Malawian dignitaries, such as the minister of education and the MP for the region. Point of interest: the minister of education was a female!

Anyways merrily we went along, to a remote village location where a secondary school was preparing for the festivities. The Japanese, headed by Isa and another volunteer named Muki, had organized a morning of science and math competitions that was designed to help the kids think through problems and solve them creatively. Hase-san one of the volunteers, showed the kids how to create a hot-air balloon and it was absolutely fantastic. I have never seen someone put more emotion into demonstration, except maybe Bill Nye the Science guy. The students ate everything up and even the on looking younger kids got into the science behind the demonstrations. I even saw one, perhaps 8 year old kid, draw in the dirt the mechanics behind constructing a hot air balloon.

The afternoon was lead by Isa, and it was full of fun sports. The activities that were geared to show the kids that many things can be done without any equipment. I assisted in the demonstrations and had fun showing them everything from limbo to arm linked tug of war.

In the end the day was a success on many levels. African schools are often plagued by students that wait for direction and lack enthusiasm. In class they are often taught down to. So they are very yes sir, no sir and try not to participate unless they are sure they a) have to and b) that they are right. But this informal education/ fun activity really had them problem solving and some stepped out of thier shell and tried (usually with some wrongish methods) but they tried!

Whats more is that they had fun without balls and courts (a usual malawian kid misconception).
Isa is planning a race at the local Domasi elementary school soon and I will help with that aswell!

Ramses the Great

2005-11-18T06:10:00.000-08:00

So Its been a day since I have moved into my house and somehow I already have a pet! For those of you that know me, I'm usually not a cat person. But this little guy, big ears and all won me over. I was acutally saving him from being eaten by lions, as the girl in the peace core, who presented me the kitten, lived in a national park. AND a national park is no place for kittens she said, could be eaten, mauled or worse. So yeah....I know that there aren't any lions or major predators in Liwonde National park....but I'm a sucker for a sob story and here he is:

Introducing Ramses the great...the newest addition to the Bala family.

Turn Left at the Banana Trees

2005-11-18T06:07:00.000-08:00

So somewhere between Cape Mc Clear and Zomba plateau I was convinced to move to Zomba. It was becoming rather obvious now since all my social activity was in Zomba which left me sleeping around on anyones couch/ bed that would allow me. I even snuck into lodges (paid hotels) and bunked with friends there. Ít was getting rather cumbersome and I thought that living in the town would decrease my environmental impact by allowing me to decrease my need for rides into town. (Ok, maybe this is faulty reasoning as I would still need rides in everyday, in order to get to and from work). But anyways I found a little white house on a hill, and it was only slightly more expensive than the place I was currently staying at AND I would have my own house, living room, dining room, kitchen (with fridge) and 2 bedrooms. How very grown up!

The house is nestled in the mountains, with trees surrounding it and a vegetable garden. There are even mango, lime and guava trees! Its perfect really. My friend Rachel, who was really my doorway to the younger crowd was staying at the house and was moving in a few weeks time. So she offered me the house and I haven’t looked back since.

When it Rains it Pours

2005-11-18T05:57:00.000-08:00

So yes, Malawi is in a drought, as was my social life, but now with one simple phone call my life has changed. I was introduced to a very kind missionary family who invited me to their welcome/ introductions party in Zomba, where people meted, greeted and feeded. It was great reminded me of a slightly scaled down version of a high tea. This gathering was intense as suddenly I felt as if I was in Canada again. There were at least 50 people there and all of them were Muzungos…some were Canadian some were, American and others were German. It was incredible there were little white blonde hair, blue eyed children neatly dressed in white dresses or trousers running about with biscuits in their hands, people milling around the dining room filling their small plates with baked goods and other treats and at the center of it all was a table with soft drinks, real juices and freshly Brewed coffee! I was beside myself the whole day….what was going on? Where did all these people hide? How did I miss such a large population of Muzungos? Well it turned out that all of them lived in Zomba, and some of them even talked about how I should move there aswell.
That event led to another where I stayed over at a nice Canadian women’s almost mansion of a house and had drinks with a slightly younger more single crowd. That event led to me somehow being invited to Cape Mc Clear, a brillant part of Lake Malawi, which inletted into a nice secluded beach side area. Which finally led me to a camping weekend at Zomba plateau, where we climbed and scurried up a mountain and enjoyed gorgeous views of Zomba. So since that day my life has been very busy, over used text messaging, minibus rides here and there, dinner parties, drinks and socializing!

Here we are after our killer hike of Zomba Plateau; Then the trip to Cape Mc Clear where we canoed Malawi style! Most of these people are forigned aid workers, some are researchers.

Doubting Thomas

2005-11-18T05:41:00.000-08:00

My Coworker (Mrs. Kananji) has been telling me that I will meet others…I on the other hand didn’t see how this was possible as the only “Muzungos” (white/ foreigners) I’d seen were in Lilongwe, the capital city, and were more than 4 hours away. We went on like this for nearly a week and then finally she introduced me to some Japanese (JICA) volunteers that are working with Malawi Institute of Education in the area. Their names are Isa and Nita and they have turned out to be my saving grace from boredom. Most nights I run over to Isa’s house and we cook dinner or go to play volley ball with the local children, or do aerobics with the local women. Isa is great! She has been here for over a year and she has really emerged herself into the community. There is a group of kids that come by her house everyday and borrow soccer balls, or watch cirque de sole on Isa’s laptop or borrow some other game she may have for them. And the local women seem really eager to get fit and often ask Isa to run an aerobics class. The best times, in aerobics, is when the kids come in to join and run about doing over exaggerating moves trying to out do eachother, and then they tucker out and start messing about. I don’t think I can ever go back to normal aerobics now.

I really admire Isa’s work here with the community, and find that she is able to be friendly and integrate without losing her personal space or privacy. She really has it figured out. Nita is great as well. He’s been here for only a few months but seems to be doing well. He does video stuff for the education institute and always seems to be playing with some sort of gadget or peering at me confusedly thru his 3 inch stylish glasses. His English is not as good as Isa’s and he just seems a little more apprehensive to try and communicate without knowing the exact translation.But we’re starting to get used to each other and he’s loosening up a little.

There is no Fish too small for a Malawian to eat

2005-11-13T05:43:00.000-08:00

As a conservationist I am compelled to feel a little twist of pain every time I see a small fish being cooked or sold or even caught. Here in Malawi that pain turned into an ache and now has subsided into numbness. I guess its the level of poverty, or maybe its the lack of education. But there is literally " NO FISH TOO SMALL FOR A MALAWIAN TO EAT." The saddest part is that the conservationists here (and I use that term loosely) laugh about this statement. Its something they have just accepted. I was out at the ponds today and some kids came by to collect small "wild" fish that we normally try and get rid of, so that they don’t contaminate our ponds, and eat our pond species’ eggs up. These fish are usually tiny and are no fatter than your thumb.

We were harvesting a pond that had a large amount of green algae in it...so we had to scoop out all of the algae and throw it aside to see if we caught any fish. Immersed in the algae were these little wild fish and the kids just all ran towards our algae piles. Hunched over the green goop the kids preceded to hurriedly scavenge for these little fish. At the end each left with a handful or so. They had big mischievous smiles and I would have thought that some had won the lottery the way they grinned.

Not a normal reaction at all, by Canadian kid standards. Normal 4-5 year olds are too busy chasing their tail to scavenge for their families’ next meal. Maybe if chocolate or better yet the latest DVD game was immersed in that algae would they even have made a slight move towards it.

The Life Aqauatic

2005-10-18T04:18:00.000-07:00

So this isn’t exactly the coast nor am I near the lake, and I am definitely not really doing any diving but working near fish ponds is good enough for now. Did I mention I got a red hat? (no speedo..phew).

I am working our here with the World Fish Center. Its an international Org that develops and disseminates aquaculture technologies to increase food security in “developing nations”. (I hate this term…developing nations means to me that there are nations developed and nations that are striving to reach that point…when everyone knows that those that are “developed” are unsustainable and those that aren’t developed could never really uphold the resource consumption levels that are integral to developed nations. I will use 3rd world instead.).

Anyways, work has been incredibly interesting these past few days. I’ve gone over my project plan with various levels of staff, and gotten “buy-in” or approval from those that mattered, which makes me hope that I am heading in the right direction. Often things change, especially in the third world, I know, and it is just that way. Things go wrong, people have other problems and entire projects can get benched…but I will try my best to keep this on track!

I am working on spreading Catfish spawning practices to local farmers in the area. Farmers here, who do the typical agriculture stuff, are approached by World Fish Center, in conjunction with ither the Ministry of Fisheries or with other NGOs , to convert their agriculture farm to one of Integrated Agriculture-Aquaculture. This means that they rear fish on thier farm (ergo fish farming) and thier inputs into the pond are farm wastes, like maize bran, gaot feces and casava leaves. The manuer and leaves etc compost and add to overall nutrients in the pond from which phyto plankton etc grow which the feed eat....if they don't already feast on leaves or the maize bran.

As for the catfish spawning part. Local farmers usually buy thier stock of fish from the national aquaculture center or the ministry of fisheries, but if they could cause thier fish to spawn then they wouldn't have to "buy" anything. So thats where science and me come in. In Egypt they found a technology using netted cages, hapas, to spawn catfish. Now I am just running an experiement to see if this technology can really fly in Malawi.

As for the scene: picture blue skys, rows of grass encased retangular ponds disappearing into a mountainous horizon. There are a couple of palm trees scattered and a herd of goats that pass through. A red bricked office building lies at the head of all of this and that is where a little office with three windows lies, which is mine. This is my work place.

Welcome to Malawi!!

2005-10-17T01:41:00.000-07:00

Well I’ve been in Malawi now for nearly 2 weeks and things are fine…especially since my lost luggage was found and I forced South African airlines to pay me for my “expenses.” I am in a little area in a valley called Domasi. The closest town is Zomba and it, at its best, looks like a ramshackle version of a street in Kensington Market (Toronto). There are two main streets or bits to it. One street has the fancy banks and gas stations, and one or two shops. The second street holds a myriad of little vendors that have built shacks to sell their second hand clothing, cell phone access, or what have you. Actually the choice is quite good. Behind these vendors are a few more shops that carry sort of a pathetic stock of clothing, but a good stock of groceries and other odds and ends. Scattered throughout this street, which can’t be any longer than 700m, are a bunch of mini-buses yelling their departure locations. In a nutshell the perfect amount of K-os. For those that travelled with me to Kenya it kinda looks like Ngong.

But the best part about Zomba is the fact that it is surrounded by beautiful plateaus. But anyways Zomba is ½ an hour away, and I don’t think I will be moving there this month.

As for Domasi where I live….everything is nice and rural except for the hand full of institutions that have chosen to build up their offices here. I’ve met a lot of people around here and they, as most country folk, greet me vigorously every time I see them and remain eerily friendly. Last week I was going to visit a friend out of the village and people I didn’t know asked me how I was, where I was going and when I will return. These same people mostly knew my name and that I worked in Fisheries.
But I’ve acclimatized and freely give out that kind of info, because either way they will find out from others. For all you Tamil folk…its similar to Jaffna, except the level of poverty here is higher so the houses are mostly mud or clay based. Cement is too expensive a commodity to be purchased by the average. I live in a concrete guest house with couches and a working TV in the common room, and that is way above average for the common villager.

Right outside my concrete room, as I rent a room in a guest house at present, is a field. Perhaps best described as a southern Ontario corn farm scene, with the odd banana and papaya tree thrown in, except that the soil is red and beams through the cornrows and also through the sun scorched brown grass. Things at present are really dry, as it is the dry season.

I wake up every morning to a seriously bright sun that rises at 5am, and oddly enough I tend to fall asleep at 9-10pm at night as there is generally not much to do past dark (6pm). Reading and more reading has become my choix de jour….which is really not me. Especially since I’ve been almost anti-social these past days.

But on the bright side, work seems to be fantastic. I pretty much am sure I am going to like all my co-workers. There is a good dose of work ethic at the centre but there is also the easy-going African attitude mixed in, which is key. Basically everyone tends to work long….but not exactly hard. In the sense that we could have a “big” project coming up and people will stay late, come in on the weekend etc. But they won’t really stop their chats and computer games during the day to attack the project. At first it seemed odd, and I almost got frustrated but then I realized that in general all these people weren’t stressed out and still enjoyed their job.

When I got here to work I was presented with my own office, email address and laptop! Definite “Bling” for this area, but so appreciated by me, as in general resources are limited here. There are few computers with Internet, in fact many of us just cue for the one communal computer in the library and use it to do our work. This is a little ridiculous if you think that this centre is the Southern Africa region international head-quarters. There are at least 4 other countries that the center regularly works with and the director is always away on flights, in meetings or at conferences. Makes me think how well off we are in the west as even the humblest of operations would have infinite materials in their office.

Ann's Pictures from Sri Lanka - Summer 2005

2005-10-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

Check out my pictures from Sri Lanka:
Click here to see the Sri Lanka pictures

Prelouge

2005-10-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Its May of 2005 and I have finally taken the plunge. I stopped talking about what I wish I could do and just decided to do it. You see since I graduated University I had planned on doing many things, teaching English in Japan, applying for a masters program, working in international development or something of the sort. None of my plans included social services and Hamilton, which is where I ended up. Living at home was part of one of my plans, what could be sweeter than mom’s cooking, but I never expected it to last 2 years nor did I think I would become settled. Unfortunately that is how I started feeling, settled. So naturally I started freaking out, internally of course, I was nearly 25 and working in a job that I didn’t exactly choose (it more chose me) and wasn’t sure of where my life was going. So then in one fowl swoop I quit my job, which was difficult, said good-bye to the family, equally as difficult, and packed my bags. The summer that followed, had me globe trotting from Kenya, to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Australia and even Japan. I learned a lot about myself and my heritage on this trip. Met some fantastic people including some family memebers that I had never visually connected with before. The trip was basically the breath of fresh country air that I needed after spending so much time in a cooped up apartment in the city.