long overdue!

...a lot of you are probably aware of the following sites- but for those who aren't check them out!:

Grace's blog:

www.birthinmalawi.blogspot.com

Andrew Finn's blog:

www.fulbright.mtvu.com

....Andrew Finn just put up a much more in-depth blog about Amayi Mara, which it totally worth reading.
Enjoy!

album teaser

Amayi Mara 

(Mother Mara)

By far the coolest, most bad-ass woman I've met in Malawi. Also- our last interviewee!!! With her, we have all 10 people that we want for the album. We have decided to put her song last on the album to go out with a bang. Just a few things you should know about Mara:

She is gracious, highly intelligent, patient, and speaks better English than I do

She faced unbelievable stigma in her community when people found out she was HIV+

BUT NOW she is a chief of her village (apparently unheard of in Chewa culture)

She runs 2 NGOs and is a spokesperson for the National AIDS Commission

She is a self-proclaimed fighter, activist, and "loud-mouth" 

Her birthday is Monday, the 26th. Send her a birthday blessing. She deserves it.

.....and that aint even the tip of the iceberg. This woman has accomplished so much. Her interview was only 45 minutes long, but it we learned so much about her and her life and what she has been through. Which is A LOT.  Truly inspiring. Thus, it is no surprise that it took Andrew Finn and Peter no time to compose her song. 

Here is Andrew Finn letting her listen to a sneak peek:

She said she really loved it!! She is definitely going to be present at the studio her song is recorded. 

.....and my friends, this is only 1 out of the 10 amazing people who are on this album. GET CRUNK.

malawians yell the darndest things

Andrew Finn, Grace, and I all like to go running. Sometimes, we pass by some people who are truly appreciative of that fact. For instance, the other day Andrew Finn was running and a random man looked at him with great enthusiasm and said,

"Thank you!! You are the best runner!!"

At the house Andrew Finn and I lived in back in January, our night guard (who was approximately 9000 years old but really sweet) would always crack up when he saw me head out the driveway in my running gear and say:

"You are going for jumping!! You are going for jumping!!"

To which I would respond:

"Yes, I am going to jump around the neighborhood!"

His ancient, tree-like face would just melt into the cutest old man smile. Whenever I would come home all sweaty, he would crack up all over again and say:

"I am so sorry madam!!! I am so sorry!!!" 

What a cutie. Anyway, this morning, on my usual run on the golf course that is right by our house I get:

"Nice nice lady!!"

and the other day on a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood arm and arm with Andrew Finn:

"It's fine, it's nice. It's fine."

Both comments were surprisingly not creepy at all- just random people being nice. However, sometimes, Malawian men decide to try their luck at romance in their own unique way. For instance, while on her way to work one day, Grace had some man run up to her and say:

"WOULD YOU PLEASE CONSIDER BEING MY WIFE?!"

My favorite example of this happened to one of Grace's co-workers, Kristin. She was walking home one day and a man came running up to her out of nowhere with his arms outstretched and yelled:

"I LOVE YOU TOO!!!!!!"

Sometimes, men yell some not-so-cute things that are creepy/annoying. Lots of times, Grace and I get:

"Heyyyyy mommy......... heyyyyy sistah...........heyyyyyy fren.........."

To which we have written a little diddy in response called:

"NOT YO MAMA NOT YO SISTER NOT YO FRIEND"

It's my favorite song at the moment. 

These are just some little gems that I felt like sharing. More to come

Lessons from Grace: Part 2

 1) Potatoes are not very social tubers. They have a longer life if they are separate from other foods and away from humidity. So we keep ours in a completely separate room from the kitchen. They just need some personal space, yall.

2) In midwifery terms, a grand mulitgravada is a woman who has had 5 or more kids

3) Tryin to cook up some onions? Why not use honey instead of a lot of oil- caramelized goodness!!

4) In Malawi, episiotomies (defined as: incision sometimes made to enlarge the vaginal opening in the late stages of labor to prevent tearing and facilitate birth) used to be done cutting straight down the perineum, which can lead to many more complications. Now, they are done diagonally which reduces tearing even more, thus reducing the chance of a fistula. Diagonal!

5) When making apple pie, you gotta mix ice water into the crust to make it flaky-  it keeps the butter from melting.

6) Apologizing really works. Try it.

7) The woman’s fundus shrinks to the size of a grapefruit or orange immediately after delivery and should be hard like a rock.

8) Scones are just biscuits with more sugar in them.

9) P.P.H. is a common acronym in the delivery room that stands for post partum hemorrhage. This occurs when the uterus fails to contract after the delivery of the placenta and shut off the tiny blood vessels in the uterus, causing the blood flows freely. These happen a lot here in Malawi for a number of reasons, and grand multigravadas are at higher risk for them over primagravadas, or first time mothers.

10) Communication. Matters. More. Than. Anything. 

Update

 So, its been a bit since I’ve done just a general update. Some of you know that at the end of every month, I think of 1 word that sums up that month and write it down. Well, my word for June was rollercoaster.

    A few posts pack I did a photo update and was so excited to share pictures of “our new house!!!” Well, at the beginning of June, it was totally a dream. The house is in a very nice and safe neighborhood. We had great guards and great dogs AND a kick-ass kitchen to boot. Errybody happy. Well, about halfway through the month, we noticed a little problem aka a big problem- water leaking from the ceiling. Like, waterfall style. “What the hell, dream house?” We thought. Called our landlady to have it fixed. Noticed another little problem (AKA HUGE PROBLEM)- our land lady was crazy. Like, legitimately. Remember Ursula from The Little Mermaid? Well, not only did this lady look uncannily like her, she also has about 20 tentacles extending from her mind and aura that consist solely of pure evil. I consider her the Ethiopian version of Ursula. She blamed us for the water problem, (umm, excuse me Ursula, but if I had the power to make waterfalls I would not be in Malawi right now, just sayin) called us dirty backpackers, and was extremely disrespectful to (AKA extremely racist toward) our Malawian housemate, Jess. Thus, among other reasons, we decided it would be best to move. I was pretty disappointed about it, as I had finally started to feel at home somewhere in Malawi, but, I got over it and knew that within 2 weeks we had to find a new place. No problem, right?

WRONG. It became an absolute nightmare. We all wanted to stick together, so we found a place close by that was really affordable (AKA cheap) but also really unkempt (AKA a dump). I agreed to stay there, but only if the owners agreed to clean it, fix a broken window, and put razor wire along the perimeter of the fence (pretty much what every secure house has in Lilongwe). Everyone else agreed these things should be done. Anyway, we were set to live in this place.

June 28^th rolls around. Jess comes home with the news at 6:00 PM (an hour after our power was turned off for the month, though there were still 2 days left in the month…. so we were just chillin in the dark) that the landlord of the place we were going to move into was also really sketchy and had not done any of the work he promised and had been purposefully ignoring her. So, we scrapped that idea. Ok, 2 days to find a house. A rush, but we can do it, right?

Well. Went to go look at 1 place in the same neighborhood. Same issue with the fence, except this fence was even less secure. I know this may sound crazy to some of you North Carolina folk and I personally HATE the feeling of being all fenced in with sharp razor wire around the perimeter like a prison or something, but it is standard for a house in Lilongwe (a house full of ex-pats, at least).

Anyways. Wake up on June 30^th and the first thing sweet Andrew Finn rolls over and says is, “Kaitlin- tomorrow we are homeless.” What a great way to start the day, eh? Panic mode hits. All of our stuff is packed, but where are we going to put it? Get a call from Grace, who is already at work, saying, “IVE FOUND THE PERFECT PLACE!!!!!” One of her co-workers is friends with this doctor from Norway who is out of the country until mid August. The offer we get: house sit for this family in their fully-furnished home which is closer to downtown (good for Grace- she can now walk to work, and good for us- use much less fuel), already has guards, good fence with razor wire, and not pay rent. Woah Woah Woah. Is this for real? Turns out yes. However- there is one pitfall- only Grace, Andrew Finn, and I could stay, meaning our group of 5 would have to split. Jess and Jon both have temporary places but nothing permanent. Also, we couldn’t go and see the place because it was being fumigated and had to wait 2 days.

We luckily found a place to stay Thursday and Friday nights- at the place Jon used to live before he lived with us. So, wake up on Thursday morning, July 1st, and start moving out. We thought we had all day to move so Finn and I were gone for a while and Grace stayed at home because she had come down with a fever that morning (not malaria, don’t worry. We got her tested for that, it was just a random illness). Well well well look who shows up in the morning full of her evil octopus fury- Crazy Ursula LandLady. She straight up yelled at poor Grace, demanding we be out immediately and calling us pigs and saying that letting us live in the house was the worst decision of her life and yadda yadda yadda. What a sweet lady JUST KIDDING WHAT AN AWFUL LADY. Also, it should be noted that that place was almost completely empty at that point and spotless by the afternoon. So, it took quite a while, but we managed to get everything out, including the dogs, who we temporarily dumped at our friend Amanda’s house. That night and the next we put our (borrowed) mattresses on the floor at Jon’s old house, which was not bad at all and so nice of the people who actually lived there to let us do.

Saturday rolls around- moving day!! Grace’s midwife friends come help us transport all of our stuff across town to our brand-new neighborhood. We realize that we can’t bring the dogs and that we are going to have to find a new home for them; which is the BIGGEST BUMMER OF ALL. I can’t really describe how much I love Bella and Jack. I got way attached in 1 month. And I feel like the worst dog-mom ever, but it’s just what we are going to have to do. In the end it is about what is best for them. Also, we can’t bring our guards that we grew to trust so much, because this new house already has guards (that we have to build trust with starting from scratch….) Bummer. We have agreed to pay our old guards their full salary for July, even though they will not be working for us at all, as we search for new people to employ them. They were really excellent. Crazy times.

So, in the new house. It’s great. Spend the first night trying to organize, putting furniture back in place after the fumigation, putting sheets on the bed, etc. Didn’t think anything of putting the pillowcases that were in a bag that the owners left on the pillows. Well, Andrew Finn wakes up at 4:30 AM almost screaming in pain, saying his face is burning. What the hell, you say? Yeah, that’s what I said too. We think that the owners might have sprayed permethrin or something on the pillowcases. It was either the chemicals from the fumigation or chemicals from something else like permethrin, but the entire next day Andrew was in agony, rinsing his face with cold water every 5 minutes. We tried everything- taking Benadryl, taking Advil, aloe vera, using a potato poltice to draw out the chemicals (you put that idea in my head, Mom!), drinking tons of water and then running to sweat it out- nothing worked. By the evening it was slowly starting to get better but it was still absolutely awful. The funniest thing- there were no visible signs. He looked completely normal. Even with his all his freckles.

So yes……. It has been an adventurous time. Good things that have happened- a July 4^th party at the Ambassador’s house where I ate SO MUCH FOOD that I had a stomach ache for the next 5 hours but it was totally worth it. I’m talking burgers, hot dogs, beans, chips, fake-ass American cheese in the plastic wrap (God yes) and BROWNIES BROWNIES BROWNIES. It was great. In addition, the Carrboro presence and general feeling of American patriotism is stronger than ever with the arrival of Tony Peele. Tony got a grant to study economics and avocados in Tanzania but has taken some time to come see us. Which we are all so so happy about!!

 Also- the album is coming along quite well. I hardly ever write about the album! The whole reason I am here! Anyway, band rehearsals have started and every musician is top-notch. As of now 7 out of the 10 songs have been composed, lyrics in the works for all of them. We start recording August 2!

          So, that’s what life has been like in Lilongwe recently. Still learning so much from everyone around me, esp. Grace (more lessons from her later). Looking forward to the rest of July. Happy 4^th to everyone- I sure wish I could be watching some fireworks and eating some watermelon. Next year….. J

My Nemesis

Picture this:

8:30 on an overcast Sunday morning. I’m running by myself in the Lilongwe Golf Course, a sprawling collection of vacant, green fields. The air is cool and dry. Inhale, exhale. Whew. Peace. Yeah. Get that run Kaitlin, get it.

Now, other than something coming up to bother me, what is the ONE THING that could ruin this moment??

A G.D. M.F. P.O.S.

 VUVUZELA

(props if you decoded all that)

Somebody, somewhere close to the field, somehow thought it was a good time to waste their breath blowing into one of these pieces of plastic shit. I didn’t stop my run but I did think out loud, “WHAT THE HELL COULD YOU BE VUVUZELA-ING ABOUT ON A SUNDAY MORNING AT 8:30?!?!!? ARE THEY ALLOWED IN CHURCH NOW?!?!”

Anyone.

Who has ever.

Blown one of these things.

Should.

Go.

To.

Hell.

*First of all, do you think anyone wants to be your friend if you blow a vuvuzela? ANSWER = NO.

*Second of all, do you think you are accomplishing anything?

ANSWER = NO.

*Third of all, DO YOU KNOW HOW ANNOYING YOU ARE?!!

ANSWER = If yes- then stop it. If no, then get a clue.

Now, I know, I know, it’s a symbol of South Africa and uniquely South African and all that BS. Whatever. Truth is I think it totally detracts from the games. AND FROM MY LIFE. Hmm, what sound do you associate with football/soccer- the roar of a crowd or THE ROAR OF YELLOW JACKETS. COME ON FIFA. What the hell. I can’t imagine being a player and not hearing the crowd cheer for you. What a powerful sound!! And look what it’s been replaced with!!

They are all over Lilongwe. Everywhere. Sunday morning wasn’t the only time I had heard one at an obscure time. The other day there was not a game on, it was 2 in the afternoon, and I was in a residential neighborhood. And I heard one. What are you doing?!?!!?!?

Though my deep, true hate for the vuvuzela is as real as it could ever be, it does not stop me from going to see the games. It has been incredibly fun to be in Malawi during the World Cup. Everyone has World Cup Fever. Want to start a conversation with pretty much anyone? Talk to them about football! Ghana’s loss was felt deeply here; the whole mood of the city went down. However, people are still watching and I am so excited for the finals!

Just keep your DAMN vuvuzelas away from me. 

Mid Year Report

Today marks the start of the second half of 2010.
Maybe not technically because February only has 28 days, but whatever.
6 months have passed in this year, and there are 6 left.

I have to be honest and say that the first half of 2010 was extremely challenging for me. Some of you know more than others but what it boils down to is this:
I am grateful to have gone through it but am ALSO grateful that it is over!
Most of you probably know how obsessed I am with dates, time, calendars, etc. It's just this thing I have always done. Cant explain it. So, while it may seem really silly to put so much significance on the passage of 6 months, to me it is not. To me, in my calendar brain, it presents the opportunity to have some form of closure on the first half and go full speed ahead in to the second. I am looking forward to the second for a number of reasons:
2 months left in Malawi
4 months in North Carolina where I will get to soak up all the things I missed last autumn and winter, especially Christmas with my family. I am actually already looking forward to that.

So, here is to the first half. It's not a "good riddance!" type of farewell, more like a silent goodbye to a friend you've had trouble with but in the end grew so much stronger because of them.
And here is to the second half- LET'S DO THIS DANCE.

I wish all of you a fantastic second half of the year!

art as of late