Into The Warm Heart of Africa: Mission Accomplished!

We did it! With the help of my counterpart, over two dozen Village Headmen, and my community in Bwanje, we successfully distributed 500 mosquito nets before my vacation to Germany (but I’ll talk about that in another blog!). The project in all was frustrating, exciting, hectic, but most importantly humbling and entirely worth all the stress.

Distributing nets was the first project I had knowing a definite beginning and end. I’m not sure if it made planning and organizing harder or easier. On one hand I had to kick myself in gear to get things done, but also had the stress of having a deadline of when I wanted to have it finished. My experience here in Malawi continues to push me in ways I never knew it would. While wanting to get things going fast, I had to prepare lot more for meetings ahead of time than I have in the past. The only kicker is that I was trying to prepare without any real information on how to distribute 500 nets. I did, however, collect a small pamphlet on malaria in the office and worked off of that, doing my best to design a sort of training for those people receiving nets.

One requirement in being giving nets to distribute (many people applied for them, only few people received them), we had to explain our idea for distribution as well as plans for follow up to ensure the nets are being properly used. In listening to other PCVs challenges with various projects, I ultimately decided that I wanted to have a mandatory training and demonstration. The training included information on how malaria is contracted, how to prevent it (by means other than simply using a net, i.e. staying in your house in the evenings as well as getting rid of standing water), and common misconceptions. It may sound silly to have a mosquito net demonstration but you would be surprised at how many people have never owned let alone used one. I determined that if a person didn’t show up to the training they would not receive a net. Often times people will say “Oh, I am taking it for my sick friend” and then end up selling it or pawning it off, ultimately never reaching the person in need.

As happens often in developing countries, corruption is a huge foot crushing down and preventing growth. I was deeply saddened (and upset, to be honest) when I found out that corruption lies even within net distribution at my local clinic. Health Advisors will sometimes hand them out to family and friends instead of to the women who need them most. Other times when the clinic runs out, a woman cannot return to the clinic to receive her net once she has had the child. I’m assuming the clinic simply assumes she is trying to get another one. Why not keep records of all those who have not received one? Fantastic question…. So undoubtedly, a good portion of the 500 nets went to pregnant women, those people with children under five, and orphans. We also included those living with HIV/AIDS as well as people over 50, both whose immune systems are low and susceptible to dying if malaria is caught.

With all of this in mind, I worked with my counterparts Matekenya and Evelyn in arranging a meeting with prominent people in the village to help with organizing distributing jobs to make this work. Therefore, our first meeting included myself, Matekenya, Evelyn, Zulu (former Bwanje PCV counterpart), and Mkungula (works with BERDO, an NGO in Bwanje), and went off without a hitch. I was still skeptical that all things would work out in the time I had alloted but (one of many lessons I’ve learned in PC, being skeptical…) you cannot control how everything goes especially when it involves many people. Sometimes you just need to let go and trust that people will do their jobs, or pick up the pieces when they drop the ball. I explained my idea for the training and distribution while simultaneously taking into consideration how the others felt it would go best. After all, they do know how Malawians work, better than I do!

Just after the first meeting (much to my displeasure) I had a week of training I had to attend in Dedza where we were preparing for the new trainees that would fly into country the following week. It wasn’t the training specifically, more simply the timing of it being right in the middle of all the net planning. A meeting I had scheduled the day before I had to leave got canceled (not to my surprise…), therefore I was unable to attend the meeting later that week that would include over fifteen Village Headmen (VH) and Group Village Headmen (GVH) in discussing our project plans. I asked Matekenya and Evelyn to represent and speak for me at the meeting, being the two people in the village who I trust the most.

I was so pleased when I heard the meeting went well and that each VH was instructed to bring ten names of people in their village in which they thought were in most need of a net. Just a little explanation about how the village works (rather, as much as I can sort out…): GVHs oversee the VHs. To give you an idea, at one particular meeting we had three GVHs and 18 VHs. The VHs will “monitor” some 30-40 people on average, always varying of course. Any issues arising that cannont be sorted out amongst those involved will go to the VH, and the further to the GVH if needed. It’s almost like a little jury system! At any rate, Matekenya thought that having the VH collect names would help cut down on our work and give them a chance to speak for who they think were most in need. Of course this leads to more corruption (i.e. putting down friends and family names), but we accepted in the beginning this would happen. Another hard lesson learned here is that one simply cannot expect 100% success or you will be let down. We acknowledged that we would shoot for 70% success with distribution.

My returning to the village a day early opened a surprise that the following day would be our first day of distribution. Woah! Was I ready? No! I’ll be honest to say I did not feel prepared, and had more the idea that I would end up winging things. Of course I was nervous, as this was the first time that many people in the Bwanje area would be seeing and meeting me and however that went it would inevitably aid in forming an opinion of me. Sooooo, there we went….

I was anxious before the meeting began, especially when Zulu came late with no bed for the demonstration. Yes, yes, I have accepted things don’t happen on time here, but my American culture of punctuality is hard to kick! With the bed unknown, we began the meeting on our scheduled time, of course telling everyone else it would be one hour earlier to ensure they would show up on time. Mkungula opened for us, as he enjoys public speaking very much and getting a crowd interested in a topic of discussion. With the meeting being carried on in Chichewa, Matekenya was kind enough to translate as much as he could for me with what Mkungula was talking about, followed by the Health Advisor from the clinic who discussed proper usage of Coartem, the medicine curing malaria.

As I sat back and looked out at over two hundred faces of women, children, orphans, and older folks attending the training, I realized I wasn’t doing much of anything at all. At first I felt unsettled, as if somewhere along the lines I should have stepped up to participate more. However, I thought to myself “This is exactly how it is supposed to go!” because it meant that my community, Matekenya, Zulu, Mkungula, Evelyn, had stepped up and taken charge of the project. I could not have asked for anything more! Peace Corps tells us that we need to have the community “own” the projects, and in that way one can ensure almost sure success. Thus, I realized my lack of participation was actually a positive. Oh, and don’t worry, I did participate...in demonstrating the net usage. Boy, did everyone think it was the funniest thing! An azungu under a net and pretending to sleep got a lot of the people rolling around laughing. At least I provided some some entertainment ;)

The entire meeting went of without a hitch. When the nets were pulled out of the building we were storing them in, I got nervous and told Matekenya that I thought people might be get anxious thus resulting in some imagined mob scene from a Hollywood movie. He assured me things would be fine, that people would be patient and wait. He was right, much to my pleasure! We called up each village by name and distributed to each person on the lists the VHs had given us in the previous days. Honestly, it could not have gone smoother! Of course we had people trying to collect for those who did not attend but made exceptions where we felt it was sincere (i.e. someone who was handicapped or very ill). Those who did not show to the meeting were told there would be another training later in the week that they could attend and then collect their net.

I will be honest to say this was one of the most significant experiences in my service to date. I was able to look in to the eyes of Malawians who really needed help and whose lives would be changed simply by receiving a mosquito net. No, not all will be used appropriately, rather used for fishing nets or covering plants to protect from bugs. But you can’t let that stop you from helping where you can. Simply looking into the faces and seeing these old women who have undoubtedly seen more in their life than I ever will was such a humbling experience. Even in my personal journal I could not describe my feelings during this process, but it truly was life altering.

That day we distributed close to 220 nets. With more to go, we held a training later that week to distribute more than 180, a smaller one distributing about 20, and 30 to my Women’s Sewing Group. With the remaining nets counted, I held a meeting with Matekenya, Evelyn, and Mkungula to discuss the opportunity for them to collect names of people they knew to be at high risk for malaria. They had built trust in me during the project planning and implementation, therefore knowing the names they would choose would indeed be those in need of mosquito nets.

It sounds corny, but it feels really good to have begun and completed a project of this nature. Most of mine at this point are rolling projects, meaning they are continuing and have no definite end. This distribution helped to show me that my community will step up and take responsibility and assist me in getting things done while organizing people in which I can’t (because of connections, not because of laziness :)). I also learned more about myself and my ability to create something (the training) almost from nothing while moving forward to get things done. If PSI will distribute more nets to us, we may have another go! In the meantime, Matekenya and I have discussed organizing a Safe Water demonstration, educating mothers on the best way to make dirty water safe for drinking for their families. The adventure always continues!