Sweetness

Well the 17 days in Bolero plan didn’t exactly turn out the way I thought it would, but that happens in general, with almost everything here, and is something I’m getting used to. I spent 5 more days with the FAIR team before mixing things up a bit, but an eventful 5 days they turned out to be. Everyday is an adventure here; and taking things in stride is so very important. While waiting for one meeting to start, my coworkers started snacking on some local sugar cane sticks. It’s an interesting process where you bite the outer shell of the cane off with your teeth, and then bite off chunks of the inner fibers, suck the sugar juice out of them, and then spit it the rest out. When they offered me some though, I had to explain we don’t grow it in Canada (in the area I come from anyways) and needed directions to figure the whole thing out. Apart from being a great source of amusement to these men, it was another one of those ripples of culture shock; understanding exactly which field this snack food was coming from, buying it from the farmer that grew it, and eating it right from the raw plant, provided a stark contrast to unwrapping a granola bar I would have bought from a grocery store in Canada…with barely a notion of what the ingredients were, let alone where they came from, or where that wrapper would end up.

I’ve been spoiled once again, as one of these 5 meetings happened to take place right on the doorstop of Vwoza Marsh Game Reserve. Doubly so, as CAPS, a member of our team had previously worked with the staff on negotiating peace with the surrounding villagers (I’ll get to that in a minute), and was super tight with them still. What did this neat little equation add up to? That’s right ladies and gents, after a long day of work, a quick tour of the sights and sounds of one of the hottest spots for wildlife in Malawi. ELEPHANTS!!!! Sorry, guilty pleasure, but it was the one thing I didn’t want to leave this beautiful country without seeing, so I felt super lucky to have satisfied this itch so early in my placement. And yes, they are as majestic in reality as they were built up in my mind, even if we did have to stay over 100 meters away at all times.
Also sited were baboons carrying their young around, warthogs (again my mind jumped to thoughts of timon and pumba from the lion king – I swear the cartoonists must have come to Malawi for inspiration), Kudo (deer-like creatures), and hippos (really just the tops of their heads peeking out of the water) all against the backdrop of the indigenous forests and glittering lake. The best part is my co-workers were just as into it as I was, and the conversation was full of anecdotes from past encounters with various animals either personally or in their home villages.
Some of these were rather sad tales of poaching and loss, however, which brings me back to the work CAPS had done with the park staff. When the government first put a big push on to protect and conserve this native wildlife, it involved extending the surrounding border of the park, forcing some people to relocate their homes. This caused a lot of conflict, and in some cases caused the villagers to feel hostility towards the protected animals. This, combined with the all too alluring compensation offered on the black market, made poaching much more popular. From what I understand, the park staff had under the previous government been rather militant. Under the new legislation their roles were supposed to be changing, but to many their gun was still their right hand man. Tensions between the villagers and the park staff were rising quickly until CAPS, hired to facilitate discussions between the feuding bodies, helped the villagers to realize that the animals belonged to all Malawians and were a source of national pride, and the park staff that maybe times were changing, and a new approach was needed.

I’ll put in a little disclaimer here, that there’s probably a lot more to the story all round, I’m just sharing my basic understanding of the situation, I just thought it was interesting how much communicating change and emphasizing ownership and empowerment can change a situation.

Bouncing around between Mkombezi, Rumphi and various villages in Bolero started to take its toll though, and after stepping back and re-evaluating why I’m here and the value I hope to add in some way to RUFA’s programs, I asked Geoffrey if I could spend the next week with the project coordinator who was running some existing RUFA-specific programming in a neighboring ADC. It will also allow me to actually spend every night at home for a while. I’m growing attached to my host family, and I don’t really like being away from them for too long, they’re my base for normalcy here. More on life in Mkombezi and RUFA’s programs to follow.