Kristi becomes Santa

So I recently ventured back to the good
old USA and had what could quite possibly be the best vacation of my life. I couldn't have asked for a better trip, with sunshine and perfect weather in gulf shores and a bit of good old Michigan snow on my way back home. I am so blessed to have seen so many friends and family on my short trip home and share my experiences over on this side of the world with them, along with catching up on everyone else's lives. I will never be able to thank my parents enough for sending me home nor will I ever be able to express how truly grateful I feel.

On one of my last afternoon/nights home my mother hosted a great get together for friends and family and asked everyone to bring something small for my babies here in Malawi. I can't believe all of the great things that were gathered and am truly thankful for all of the support everyone has given me. My luggage was about 120 pounds (only about 20 pounds overweight) and eventually all of these wonderful things made it back to my village. Some wonderful things (art supplies, hair accessories, older toys) are staying in the city for my girls camp in July (hosting 60 Malawian high school girls!) I'm sure they will love it all.

Now as thankful as I am, I am starting to feel a bit guilty. I have these two Barbie dolls in my possession and they are great great toys, but thinking back on my childhood having boxes full of barbies I hardly played with compared to the two barbies I have now to entertain an entire village of little girls is sort of depressing. I know I can't change these things, and that this is life here but it just makes you realize how fortunate we are as Americans to have so much of everything we never even truly learn the meaning of sharing. I expected hitting and screaming and hair pulling as you would see with many young girls learning to share but what I saw was the complete opposite. Here in the village what's mine is yours and yours is mine and I've never understood the concept as completely as I do now. I also receive some great handmade dresses from a mother of a family friend- those have quickly flown out of my possession and onto the bodies of cute little village girls here. I love being able to see the smiles on these girls and families faces when they get something new and from america. It's truly an amazing experience.

On another note- I haven't updated my blog since December so a lot has happened:

I've done two borehole projects, both funded by friends and family, (thanks aunt Cheryl and the 46 bar posse) and am looking at another borehole on Friday . Hopefully all goes well and borehole number three will be complete by the end of the month. Fixing these boreholes is an experience I won't ever forget, it's amazing to me how the entire village can come together and work towards a single goal. And water is such a luxury we take for granted, i even still find myself being wasteful every once and awhile. (im still such an American)

Pad project: my favorite project: my project baby... Well guess what!!?? The old project rep just ended her service and I got the most incredible offer to be the new head person/point of contact for this project here in Malawi. I am trilled to be able to call this project my own and am so happy that the responsibility of keeping this project going has been given to me. I get so much joy from this project and watching the women really grow and become empowered by this simple solution to female menstruation.

Youth friendly: youth friendly is a program set up at the health clinic on Wednesdays after school to specialize in youth health. We have extra staff on board to assist the youth with any questions/ concerns they have and to provide health services that they sometimes struggle getting based on age (mainly sexual and reproductive health issues). It's also a great time for the youth to relax, listen to music, sing songs, do dramas/skits and mostly just to PLAY and be kids! I brought back a variety of sporting equipment (thanks to everyone who supplied those) and we start youth friendly again next Wednesday. Btw the turn out was suppose to be around 20-70 kids and has been around 200-250 a week. It's amazing how many kids keep showing up and hopefully they continue to find this service helpful.

These are the big things that are happening in my life right now.. Of course millions of other things are happening- like having no electricity all day and severely missing America and constants :)

Hopefully this post finds you all well. I'll try to remember to update this more than once every five months :).

2013:Christmas. NYE. And the little village of Kasinje.

So first I want to say I'm so incredibly blessed and feel unworthy of all the love I've been shown this holiday season. I've just received a package with more cards than I ever expected from some great family and friends from home. It felt really special to get so much love and good wishes.

I spent my first christmas ever away from home at the most beautiful lake in the world. (lake Michigan will always have my heart) however lake Malawi is so crystal clear and breathtaking its hard to describe. Being at the lake not only reminded me of home but also gave me an excuse to forget it was Christmas and spend the day playing (driving a boat, snorkeling, and maybe a few beers) . I spent Christmas with a great group of fellow volunteers and we even celebrated by having two fresh chickens. (no I didn't kill them, but a fellow volunteer did).

New years was also fantastic, celebrating at a party on the lake, it didn't feel any different than being at home. It felt nice to be in a part of the country that reminded me so much of home, I really had the best time and am so happy.

Returning back to Kasinje was a reality check after almost two weeks at the lake because 1) i spent all my money so if I wasn't poor before I am now 2) it flooded because it rained for 6 dash in a row- all day- while I was away 3) the place looks like a whole new village with maize and beans and grass sprouting everywhere. It's amazing how it can go from one extreme to another, a month ago the wells were all drying up and people were worried there wasn't going to be enough water- and now water is everywhere! I filled up a 40 liter bucket of water from the rain in less than an hour! People are busy farming and working hard in their fields when it's not downpouring and hiding in their houses when it is- which makes working rather hard. However two women's groups want to do pad project again and I'm starting youth friendly health services at my hospital! A Place where the youth can come and get information about health and access to health care and also a place to play soccer and volleyball with the azungu (white girl). Yeah my job is pretty awesome. Well, until next time.

Toys for tots, Anamed, and everything in between

This is my long over due mentally scattered blog post:

Lately I've been working with a local cbcc (community based child care) and trying to fund small things from them whenever I can. Peace corps gives us 1000mk a month for things like this (roughly 4 dollars) so I try to buy a book or flash cards here and there. This cbcc has 4 volunteer teachers and about 50 children under four years old that meet every morning in a five foot by five foot room. As you can imagine half the time is spent breaking screaming children apart from one another since they are basically on top of each other at all times. (granted when you think fifty 4 year olds picture about fifty 2 year olds- thats about how big they are). Anyway, the cbcc asked for toys for the children, I asked what kind and they said they didn't care. They currently have two teddy bears - if that's what you would call them, that must have came from the states some time in 1942. I'm setting up a fund to get donations so I can purchase more toys and books for the children. The children play with plastic bags that they make into soccer balls and cars they make out of scrap wires- but I've never actually seen a toy in my village. The toys will be kept at the school, to insure they are safe and also to encourage other children to attend- not that there is room.. But on brighter news we are working together to build them a new classroom!! I know the holidays are quickly approaching and will soon be over but in the spirit of giving consider a five dollar donation it will probably buy two used toys for a child who has never had a toy in his life. (I will post the link to the donation page ASAP- probably after Christmas! Don't worry the children will be ecstatic anytime the toys come!- they actually don't even know they are coming!)


Now lets journey onto A totally different side of my job-- Anamed!!! Action for natural medicine!! Recently I went to a training in Zomba (the most beautiful place ever; see below) and learned all about natural medicines in Africa. Most of the plants we learned about were used here in malawi to treat medical issues years and years ago but since the encouragement of western medicine most of these local remedies have been lost! We are working to bring back simple, sustainable medicines that this country can rely on. Foreign aid helps this country in so many ways including providing drugs to local hospitals. This comes with a lot of downfalls including dependence on foreign aid and lack of resources. The aid isn't ALWAYS available so the clinics run out of drugs frequently. Anamed hopes to change that by growing the medicines, especially the plants that are used in malaria cases. I'm excited to do this training and my plants are growing so big! My counterpart and I are going to train five local HIV support groups how to grow these plants in January. Some of the plants also have immune boosting properties so they are good for people living with HIV.


Pad project is going great!! I recently just helped a friend implement pad project in her community and it as extremely successful. She runs a girls group and they were all super interested and excited to learn about solutions to their periods! I love pad project it honestly brings me so much joy!


Camp glow (girls leading our worlds) is sometime around July this year and planning starts in January! I'm excited to get started planning this great camp although it will be hard to beat lasts years- Hillary Clinton went! Speaking of she was just on Barbara Walters most influential people of the year and the video clip they showed of her was from Malawi's camp glow 2012!! I'm looking forward to planning a great camp for local Malawian girls, I clearly am all for women's empowerment :)


It's mango season!! Also hunger season but that's a different story. Mangos are so abundant they literally fall off the trees and the goats eat them. You can buy a pile of mangos in my village for about 20 Kwacha- less than a nickel. And Sunday I am teaching a women's group how to make mango jam! I love jam so I'm sure Sunday I will also be teaching the women how to binge eat jam!

I've been feeling guilty about the amount of time I've been spending on the city- its a two hour bus trip from my house and it's nice to get out of the village life every once in awhile but lately it feels like every weekend and that's a habit i am trying to kick. However for Christmas I am spending 10 days at the lake with some other peace corps friends and that I am excited about! It will be my first Christmas ever away from home so in a little sad, a little worried, but I'm sure with enough wine it will be okay :).

Peace. Love. Pads.

12 hours later and I'm still riding a high. I've been struggling lately to find a purpose here and really feel like I'm making an impact and yesterday was the turning point for me.

I've been meeting with women's groups throughout my community and showing them this design for reusable sanitary pads. From the words of my friend Jimmy "gross but necessary". I know this concept seems so foreign to people living in the first world, we've gotten to a point where we don't even think about menstruation, but here in the village it's really a big deal. Pads can be bought at the local market for mk30 for one about one American penny. But when a young girl needs 4-5 a day, and mk30 can buy you a bunch of tomatoes or vegetables for lunch, what do you think they are choosing?

So the local "solution" is to tie a string around one's waist and tuck a chitenge (2meters of fabric) from the front to the back (through the legs). Now girls, ladies, women (boys I'm sure you can use your imagination) imagine walking around, going to class, to work, doing any daily activity on your period with a strip of cloth as your safety net so-to-speak. This "solution" isn't a solution, it's a pathway to disaster. Now add on the fact that you're 14, your culture doesn't talk about periods- not even your mothers, you're in middle school, no self confidence, and you have a period- why would you go to school? To feel ridiculed? Embarrassed? Ashamed? That's what these girls are dealing with EVERY month. Girls aren't empowered, they have no self worth, this is a problem and this is where I hope to find a solution.

So a few days ago I get contacted by a mothers group- their aim is to keep girls in school and they are interested in the pad project!! So yesterday I got to meet with 10 women who's aim is already to empower girls and teach them this simple design. We meet around two and start discussing problems and solutions and eventually we stop chatting and start sewing. The goal of this initial meeting was to show them how simple it is, let them try out the pads and brainstorm ideas of how to get these pads to the school girls. The women are super excited and want to meet again next month to start a Business plan, we are either going to sell them to raise money to make pads for the girls or write a grant to get supplies to make them for the girls at the school. This is the first step, introducing simple ideas and starting conversations. I'm obviously excited.

If you want to contribute to the pad project feel free to send: needles, string, old buttons, fabric scraps greater than or equal to one foot by one foot to:
Kristi Mathis, PCV
C/O Brooke Mancuso
P.O. Box 3
Bwanje health center
Bwanje, Ntcheu, Malawi
Africa

Never spent a better seven months

Seven months. Doesn't even seem possible. I can still remember crying at the airport and the anxiety I had on the plane wondering if this was the right choice. All though Malawi has brought many ups and many downs (sometimes all in the same day) I can honestly say that I'm happy I'm here.

Last night I got home from a two week training in Dedza and I came home to the best welcome. My neighbors had known I was coming and drew me water and as soon as I opened the door swept all the dust that had accumulated in two weeks from out of my house. They told me all about what I has missed in Kasinje, which didn't turn out to be too much and they were so excited. I really realized how blessed I am to have such a good support system here in my village, throughout Malawi with all the other pcvs and overseas with the best friends and family a girl could ask for

The last two weeks I learned a lot about technical skills and had the opportunity to bring along my Malawian counterpart. Also if you follow me on Facebook you probably noticed I had a good time with my American friends. We learned how to make jams, peanut butter, and healthy foods to implement good nutrition in our villages. We learned how to deal with borehole water spills, by adding community gardens where the water leaks out. We learned how to write grants, how to run businesses and my favorite we learned about pads. Yes pads. Most villagers in Malawi during their periods use a chitenge (a long price of fabric) and tie it around their waist like a giant diaper. This system as you can imagine has room for a lot of error. The chitenge can move or fall, causing leakage, messes and a wide array of smells.Not only does this discourage the girls from going to school while they are on their periods, they also are the sole responsibility of keeping the house running so periods cause great chaos throughout the village. These pads are made from old chitenges and only require a few simple stitches. I'm really excited to teach Malawian women about this simple trick and empower them to be confident while on their periods.

Other great women's empowerment news: I'm now the camper coordinator for camp GLOW (girls leading our world) I will be in charge of choosing the campers, helping run and plan the week and also counseling the girls throughout the week. I'm super excited to be part of this camp and work to make it the best camp ever. Last year Hillary Clinton came so there's big shoes to fill but I have faith in the team that was chosen to run camp glow this year!

This weekend I'm going to Lilondwe national park to count the animals. Yes mom I will finally see an elephant- it's about time. Haha. Until then, hope 'merica is awesome, miss and love you goons who follow me on here.

Hillary schmillary

I feel like this weekend is one worth writing about. But first a quick update:

July felt like a big scissor kick right in the face. I did nothing productive, in fact the month almost seemed counterproductive. I'm told this is just how peace corps is... Some months you're so busy you can breathe and some months you read a 153 thousand books. (or so it seems). Well guess what August- I'm bored and I'm trying to work here so get ready for persistence.

The problem is meetings get canceled everyday for the most random reasons, it's pay day, the chiefs brother died, a five foot snake is on the loose, the borehole was too busy, a dog ate my homework, you know the usual things... Anyway there is an upside to it all...

July has been filled with awesome adventures, not work related. I visited Lake Malawi, found out that a town 60km from my house makes cheese, my garden is starting to thrive and I met Hillary Clinton.

"Madam secretary Hillary Clinton" visited Malawi on her Africa tour sunday. She was the first secretary of state to ever visit Malawi and the people here were and still are super excited. The newspaper I bought Monday was filled (95% of the Articles) with Hillary. The united states government is giving Malawi 46 million dollars for the feed the future program and people here can't be happier.

Peace corps volunteers were invited to a function at the United States Ambassador's house, where Hillary eventually visited. She was only in Malawi for about 4 hours and had many things to do, she met with the Malawian president, my Joyce Banda, the ambassador, talked with feed the future and usaid and went to camp glow (girls leading our world) a program ran by peace corps! Hillary gave a short speech and shook hands with all the guest, including me, and then made her way to the next event. I feel blessed that during her 11 country visit, she chose Malawi, and made time to see and thank the people that are working here!

I guess that's all I have to say about that... Heres some pictures:

Terrorist attacks. Death by chicken.

So my last post was sort of melodramatic. Sort of. Ha. So I've realized I only write when I am full of emotion. Today's emotion(s): a mixture of fierce pissed-off-ness and humor.

So last night I'm I'm the middle of my nightly routine; forcing myself to eat before the electricity goes out (5:30-8pm daily) even though im not hungry, washing my face, stretching, ect when I realize I'm not alone. I have a huge fence that encloses my back yard so I usually leave my back door open to air out my house, plus I'm constantly outside now that I have this garden.

Before I go onto my unwanted visitor, let's talk about my garden/yard.

Malawians sweep their yards daily so the ground is basically cement consistency and they grow nothing except for during rainy season in which they only grow maize- another story for another day. My market sells tomatoes, onions, and cabbage daily and on Thursday if I'm lucky there is eggplant, or peas. Basically I'm bored with eating tomatoes, I have a lot of seeds, and I want a garden. This has thus far taken a lot of work, and a lot of money.

My yard use to be used for burning bricks, so the ground was not only hard, but full of bricks. I attempted to deal with this solo style and gave up after about seven minutes and pulled out my wallet. I paid someone to till my yard and break the bricks, in the process this man broke three hoes, all of which he expected me to replace- yeah right buddy. After about a month the yard was 'ready'- lets move onto my next problem. Irrigation.

Since bricks were made here I also have a water tank. Or a tank to hold water. Saying Water tank assumes that water magically appears there- it doesn't. I pay two girls to fill it and that's sporadic as they often 'forget'- they would be good friends with my brother. The tank has had its whole slew of issues- ie it's a piece of shit as my supervisor would say 'it's stupid'. (he thinks stupid is the best English word ever) the tank has been re-cemented twice and today I realized the water again has disappeared.

So the garden was at first a stress reliever- now it is a community garden. My yard is big and there's no way I could plant in all of the beds so I mistakenly offered a bed or two to my neighbor (supervisor) and a bed or two to my boss. Now it's like their garden and they're getting all controlling and opinionated and it's no longer a stress reliever- in fact it has become the source of my stress. apparently also offering them a bed meant I supplied them with seeds, so if you love me and my neighbors and boss you can send seeds to me anytime.

So it's been 6 days since I started planting. I have small growth, beans are sprouting, tomatoes are starting to peak out but the biggest 'accomplishment' carrots. Now I love carrots, but not as much as my neighbor. I come outside and see him moving all the mulch around the carrots and building this shade out of sticks and I ask him what the hell he's doing 1)in my yard and 2) with MY carrots. And he says he loves them so much he just wants them to grow- he's WORRIED they aren't growing fast enough. Listen buddy, it's been five days, they are fine. Choka- pitani Get out.

So this now leads me to my unexpected visitor. I'm washing my face in my makeshift sink and I go to dump out the bucket of water and what do I see, two motherfucking chickens. TWO! How did you get in? What are you doing? At first I treat this like any other time I have a chicken break in, I open the fence door try to shoo them out but after about five minutes of chasing them I realize they've had a thanksgiving freaking feast with my new seedlings. Now I'm pissed. I pick up some bricks and I start whipping them at the chickens, one escapes. Good thing. One decides a it wants to retreat to my house- stupid. I beat it with a brick, to be honest I'm sort of scared of chickens, those claws are vicious. The chicken now leaves my house and retreats to the bafa aka the cement building outside my house I bucket bath in. That's it- it's over now chicken. I slam the door and hold it hostage in my makeshift jail.

This is now the funny part- I storm over to my neighbors house and start YELLING about this stupid chicken. First let me tell you about my neighbor, although his English is good, you have to talk really slow and enunciate so he knows what you're saying, two he thinks all Americans have an anger issue and shoot people when they get mad, three, it's not even his chicken and I know that. So my neighbor doesn't have a clue what's happening this crazy white lady is screaming something about a chicken an he'a probably scared I smuggled in a gun from America. Nevertheless his only response 'how are my carrots'?! HOW ARE YOUR CARROTS? When did they become your carrots, and don't worry they are fine, but my beans and radishes? Oh they are gone, death by chicken.

So I finally return the chicken to its proper owner- and threaten that next time I'm eating him for dinner. Which would be quite a feat for me considering id have to kill it and defeather it myself, ect. But I'm serious. This is my yard, my fifty dollar fence, and I will not have chicken intruders without consequence.

Attached are some pictures of my garden/yard/fence. Ps the big plants started growing a few weeks ago because of left over food scraps that morphed into plants.. Enjoy.