​My last activity as a CorpsAfrica Volunteer was to train the girls in my community in how to make reusable sanitary pads. This was well after I had first learned how to make them after assisting my colleague Sarah with one of her training sessions at her site, and of course during the International Volunteers day function last December. The training went well, all in all, but there was a bit of a problem.

A day before the scheduled day of training, I was told by the schools’ headmistress that another organization was coming to distribute uniforms, pens, notebooks and sanitary pads to a few girls that were benefiting from their project.  As much as I think what they are doing is absolutely amazing and thoughtful, it drained me. The part where they were going to dish out sanitary pads to a selected number of girls is what drained me.  Where is the aspect of sustainability?

To be clear, I already knew of the organization's activities and I have always wanted to ask them if they thought of the sustainability aspect of this particular activity and all these other evaluation related questions that I wish not to delve into. Sadly, I never got the chance.

The reason why I wanted to ask these questions is because these girls only receive the sanitary pads up until their final year of secondary school, and maybe twice a year. My question is, what do they expect the girls to use after they complete their secondary education and are no longer beneficiaries of their project? Wouldn’t it be more effective to join the on-going global activity of teaching these girls how to make reusable sanitary pads? It is great to show them other options like the disposable pads so they know what else is out there, but to simply give them the disposables and not teach them something to fall back on after, something just as comfortable and clean as that is quite unfair and unprogressive.

All I’m saying is, it is better to give these girls the skills to make reusable pads (considering the fact that disposable pads are not really sold in rural areas and they are quite expensive for them) than to give them for some time and just leave them to go back to the unhygienic and uncomfortable ways of managing their monthly periods. 

In this case, fishing rods are far cheaper than the fish itself in these rural communities. The reusable pad making materials are readily available in the rural communities, the girls and women already have sewing skills, they just need to be trained.

As drained as I was, I decided to just do as I had planned because I knew for sure that the skills the girls and women acquired will go beyond the community I served in to the surrounding communities. It will help more than the 27 girls and women that I trained.

Written by Tusayiwe Sikwese, CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Malawi

​I must admit, it was quite a transition from the All-Country-Conference in Morocco (I will not dwell on this as a lot has already been said by my fellow Volunteers) to my site Maluwa here in Malawi. I had left so much work to do, some of which I had delegated to the community members I work closely with.  But well, it hadn't been done yet. And so my energy levels dropped drastically.
 
With so little time left of my service, and so much work to do, I began feeling overwhelmed and somewhat frustrated. This was similar to the feeling I had when I first arrived in my community; overwhelmed because of the need for me to integrate with the community members, gain some sort of trust from them and of course make the place my new home for 12 whole months. But I thought of how I managed to get through the beginning of it all, and surely, I can weather the final two months come what may. 

​So, with so little time and so much to do, I am really hoping that I will be able to get all the projects (or at least most of some of them) that are in the pipeline implemented for the community's development. I would be unsatisfied to end my service without alleviating some things in my community in the smallest way(s) possible. I am also hoping that I have made a difference in my community in ways that I cannot see.
 
As of now, I will keep doing all I can for my community.
 
Thanks.

Written by Tusayiwe Sikwese, CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Malawi

​A few months into my service, I started feeling a bit lonely and I wanted a puppy. So I thought, "hey, I will ask some of the community members to help me find one." One of the community members eventually offered to help and I got very excited. In my head I was going to take care of this puppy so well, probably suffocate it with love and she would be lots of fun, (I really don't know what gave me that impression). I waited for the puppy to come. Days turned into weeks, weeks into another month but she was nowhere to be seen. I kept asking about her but I eventually got tired of asking and just decided to wait.
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In the process of waiting, I started thinking about just how bad I am at feeding dogs and other things that involve taking care of dogs. I realized that the puppy was probably going to starve to death, considering the fact that I was going to keep her locked up so she doesn't run away. But I didn't want that.
 
Luckily, I think, I saw rabbits! They were so cute. I just had to have one of my own. I went back to the house I saw the rabbits at and asked if I could buy one. The owner thought I wanted to buy one for food, I was shocked. It might come as a shock to some, but I didn't know that people eat rabbits until that day. So I told her I just wanted one to keep as a pet. She was shocked too at that. She couldn't believe that people could just keep rabbits for the sake of it. It didn't make sense to her. This is because a few people in my community raise rabbits and use them as a source of income. It is not that common but it is a business that is slowly blooming. 

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​Anyway, she agreed to sell the one rabbit I wanted but I ended up buying two. But before she did, she asked me if I had a place for them to sleep, if I knew how to feed them and take care of them. I honestly hadn't thought of any of that. All I thought of was how cute they were and how it would be fun to hold them and play with them. And of course, the names I was going to give them. None of the other things had crossed my mind. I was under the assumption that rabbits were easy to take care of. When I got my rabbits, I put them in box on the first day and let them out the next day. They ran away on the second day. I panicked, (my fear was that they would be eaten by dogs roaming around the community) and so had my neighbours help me with finding them. We found them and I decided to lock them in a spacious room from that day onwards.  Feeding them wasn't easy. I would forget to give them food most of the times. I had to be reminded by my friends here. After a few months I started letting them out again, so they could feed themselves seeing as they were way better at it than I was. I figured they had now gotten used to their new home and would find their way back. Although I have learnt quite a lot on how to take care of rabbits, what kind of locally available plants they eat and things like that, I think I should have just gone for the puppy instead. Rabbits are just as difficult to take care of as any other animals but it takes a lot more commitment to take care of them, especially in a community like mine where they are exposed to a lot of danger like dogs.
 
As I am writing this, one of my two rabbits is missing. I was hoping that it's just the usual stunt that she has been pulling off lately or maybe that she's about to have her young ones (I haven't seen her in month) but I am beginning to think she's been eaten by dogs. I am still hoping that she will come back though.
 
Here's a quick guide to raising rabbits (based on what I have learnt)
 
*Have a good pen before you get your stock of rabbits
*Make sure the pen is spacious enough for your intended stock(the need space to run around)
*Use wire for external walls but wood for internal walls( demarcation is for when the female rabbit wants to breed and rear its young)
*Put dirt (if the pen is made in a cemented area or a cage) in the pen, it helps with urine absorption and makes it  easy to clean
Your pen is ready for your stock
*Feed them plenty of food (they like to eat) and don't forget to give them plenty of clean water too! (I always forgot)
 
 
Oh, they're still so cute!!
 
 Happy rabbit raising!
 
Tusa

Written by Tusayiwe Sikwese, CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Malawi
​
I can't believe we're already mid-way through our service!!! How time flies when you're having *a great time*.... Or when *you're busy*!

The past 6 months have been amazing, from getting to know my fellow Volunteers, settling into a community where I am a complete stranger to making friends that will forever be and learning from each other. It's been quite a journey.

During MST, we all shared stories about our communities, what was working well and what wasn't, and also shared ideas on how we could change the things that weren't working.  We had this activity called speed consulting,  where we had a chance to offer solutions to the challenges we said we were facing in our communities. The idea was similar to that of speed dating. We had consultees and consultants. Those who were consultants were given ten minutes to offer solutions to the challenges expressed by the consultees.  Everyone had the chance to be both a consultant and a consultee. It was a fun way of helping each other out with the challenges we're experiencing. 
 
There were other activities that were also very useful but they all came down to how to tackle the challenges we're experiencing. 

All in all, MST provided me with knowledge and skills that will ease the final half of my service a little bit, and hopefully make my service a success.
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Written by Tusayiwe Sikwese, CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Malawi

Malawi Secondary School Examinations (MSCE's) are well under way across Malawi. Students graduated at colourful ceremonies, danced their four years of hard work off at discos and received gifts of all sorts from their parents, guardians, relatives and friends. Well, at least that was the case at the secondary school in my community (Chisugulu Community Day Secondary school, simply known as Chisugulu or Deck).
After all the graduation buzz, the exams finally started.

I have these two friends that are writing their MSCE's. They came to visit me after their first exam and we had quite an interesting chat that day. It was all about their career choices after they write their MSCE's.
I wasn't shocked when they told me they both wanted to study nursing because that's what most girls here aspire to study, aside from teaching. So I asked them why they wanted to be nurses and they said "because we want to help people." I then asked them what would happen if that didn't work out for them for whatever reasons and they said they didn't know what they would do because that's all they really wanted.
So I shared with them my career choice story to teach them a lesson or two.  And here it is:

When I was a kid , I always asked that very common question every kid gets asked..."what do you want to be when you grow up?"  I want to be a doctor I would answer. 

The question "why?" would follow and I would say because I want to help people. That dream died down quietly. And then I wanted to study law for the same reason "to help people."  Today, I am not a lawyer nor am I doctor.  Honestly... if were you to ask me if I'm happy with what I am currently doing... I would tell you YES!!
Why? "Because I am helping people" just like I've always wanted.

The one thing I wanted them to learn from this was that not everyone gets to be what they aspire to be. Some get their aspired careers. Some get careers that fulfill the reasons why they wanted a certain career that  they didn't get and some get careers that they wanted but the reasons for wanting it are not there. It might seem like common knowledge to most but these girls and their peers in my community are not informed/educated on this. They have no one to open their eyes on things like these, they believe their community is doomed not to have successful people. 

The girls pointed that it was hard to get out of their community as they have no one to guide them and no one to look up to. They said that no one has ever gone out of their community to make something big out of themselves so they can inspire the younger generations. And so because of this, the community believes that once students sit for their MSCE's, they must get married and forget about going further with their education as it's pointless . This isn't just for the girls, it applies to the boys too.  And this is the most probable reason why they (both girls and boys)  drop out of school in my community. 

It seemed that these girls and other students lost hope in having brighter futures because of the unconscious ignorance of their communities, which results in ridicule of those trying to make out of the community. Some parents have raised concerns about other parents in the community mocking them and discouraging them from sending their children to school. They are unaware that it is these very young people that could help with the development of their community and country as a whole.

This mindset that these young people have might continue to be shared to the generations to come in their community.

How then can the hope of these young people having brighter futures be instilled in them? What are the possible ways of changing the older generations mindsets as well as the mindsets of these young people, for a hopeful community?

They say "the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is now."  You believe in yourselves and you are hopeful about your future endeavors . Help me, to help them believe in themselves and to be hopeful about their future.

Your ideas will go a long way. :-)

Written by Tusayiwe Sikwese, CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Malawi

​In my very first blog I told you all about a Nursery school project that I was helping Village X with. We had just started the construction at the time.  I didn't know much about constructing buildings. I knew what a foundation was, but I didn't know how it was constructed and all that... I didn't know what a point was. I basically knew a few levels. But now I know plenty!

Anyway, aside from learning the actual construction things during the project, I also learned a lot about understanding the social dynamics of different individuals/ communities/ committees and the importance of perceived values. We might know these things but I just want to share with you all how these two concepts helped me get through the final stages of this project and how these concepts are going to to help me with my own projects in the coming months... And maybe help my fellow Volunteers.

But first, I'm happy to say that the Nursery School was finally completed the week beginning 15 May 2016 and handed over to the community on 20 May 2016.  Michael Buckler, the CEO of Village X was there to grace the ceremony, which made it extra special! Of course Myson, the Project Coordinator was there too, after missing in action for the entire project but he was supportive through it all. I definitely would have cracked if he had left it all to me. And Sarah(CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Zomba) came all the way from her site, on SHORT notice, which was really really nice of her. Katherine (CorpsAfrica/Malawi's project coordinator) was there too, warmed my heart ♥. Lastly Chief Maluwa(my community's chief) and other surrounding chief's, as well as a few members of the community, were also at the ceremony. Seeing all these people there, all happy and thankful for the project was very satisfying. There were songs and dances that spiced up the ceremony. Even I sang and danced to songs I had never heard before (Lol! check out the super short video and pictures) but it felt so right and it was so much fun!
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As it is with all handover ceremonies, speeches were given. I gave one too but I really didn't want to, my levels of shyness were high and I really didn't have much to say to be honest. Anyway, the one speech that stood out for me was the Chiefs speech. In his speech, he said "nditamuona koyamba mtsikanoyu ndinkangomuona ngati okonda zamanyado, koma ayi ndithu ndi munthu olimbikira ntchito, ndipo atithandiza" (When I first saw this girl, I thought she was all about socializing but no she is hardworking and she will help us). Why did it stand out for me you might be asking? Well, it's not the first time I have heard something along those lines. I am certainly not proud that this is the first impression I give people of myself. And so I had hoped to change that appearance about myself when I first came to my community. That obviously didn't turn out well. The Chief then went on to thank me for working hard, committing myself to work the way I had been working and that I should continue committing myself in that way. At this point, I was happy that the Chief and the community members had finally seen me for what I am capable of doing. It was a proud moment for me.I think they gave me a tiny bit of the benefit of the doubt.

And the truth is, I am far from the very social and slacking person my appearance sells me out to be. :-)
So the ceremony was absolutely amazing, and I would do it over again if I could but the work itself was no walk in the park. There were days/weeks I felt like the people didn't want my help, I felt like they were undermining me (my petite self kind of causes that sometimes) and working with men only for the most part was hard. It was tough. I cracked once, I told Myson I couldn't do it anymore, that I was done. They weren't listening to ME. So I thought. I was frustrated. I withdrew from the work for close to two weeks. Things weren't working out. I thought it best to focus on MY mentoring project and assisting at the secondary school. I talked to Katherine about it, I talked to my family about it. Talking it out helped, a bit and for a bit. The word social dynamics came up along the way. I ignored it. I told myself I didn't have time to understand this concept. I just wanted to get the work done. It was already long overdue. I needed to get on with assessing the communities other needs. "I this and I that". It was all about ME, what I wanted. Life is hard I thought. Tired of withdrawing and talking to people outside my Community about it, I finally decided to understand the social dynamics of the community, Village X committee and the other committees I thought I was having difficulties with. The first step was to talk to them. As I did that I also took time to understand their perceived values.

At this point I realized that it's not that they weren't listening to me, but they had something they valued more at the time I had asked that we do certain tasks. Harvest season!! They love their nsima but I obviously didn't even consider that as a highly perceived value..maybe because the project was long overdue. So, it was time to engage in a positive exchange of values. After reading up and a little bit of consultation, I learnt that social dynamics cause disputes within the community which then affects people's perceived values as people do not want their values getting in the way of their relationships with their community members. For example, I like to communicate both when things are working well and when they aren't. Now, they're some committee members whose perceived value  is the same as mine, however because of the social dynamics regarding power and the like, the committee members failed to fully exchange their perceived value with mine due to fear of disputes. They keep  in mind that  I'm an outsider and I will leave at some point but they will have to face their community members anyway, and so my work slowed down and things came to a stop. In the end I got frustrated because I didn't take time to understand this and I simply withdrew. This kind of withdrawal does not yield anything positive if it goes on for too long or without any positive action being taken. So instead of mopping around, feeling sorry for myself and stressing I decided to talk to one of the members to find out what the problem was. And they explained to me, right there, how the community's and committees social dynamics were greatly affecting their work. This helped me a lot and I wish I had asked from the get go but I'm also glad I didn't because that was a strong learning point, it was enlightening and it strengthened me.. My patience and perseverance levels have gone up a great deal.

Someone recently told me  to "be very observant of what people do and how they fit in their system so that you acclimatise yourself to it, while bringing change where it's necessary in an acceptable manner". I couldn't agree more. If I hadn't taken time out to start over by observing and asking questions, the project wouldn't have been completed by now. It's very important  to step back, observe and listen when things aren't going according to plan. It will lessen your frustrations and create an amicable working environment for you and your community. And also make your Volunteering experience exciting. It's certainly turned things around for me. Village X has surely helped me in understanding more about my community and their  committees and I believe this will help me undertake successful projects.
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Time to wind out this long post... We might have handed the Nursery School over to the community but that's just the beginning. I have a lot of work to do together with the Village X committee over the next two weeks. Kids are  bundles of joy,despite the endless and sometimes weird questions that they ask but their inquisitive nature needs to be nurtured and shaped. There is no better stage in shaping a child, than their early childhood. So I am looking forward to seeing them in their large numbers at the Nursery School pretty soon. I know it's going to be tough but I'm always up for a challenge!
Oh, the name of the school is Chimwemwe(Joy) Nursery School, just in case you were wondering .

Written by Tusayiwe Sikwese, CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Malawi

Last month we had In Service Training and I also attended a US college fair. But before leaving for the two events, I had planned to have a meeting with girls that attend Chisugulu Community Day Secondary School. I am very passionate about girls and their future and they are the ones I want to help the most during my service as a CorpsAfrica Volunteer. However, I had been putting it off because of the Village X project. When I came back, my host told me a story which I will share with you in this post. Now, with this story I'm about to share, I know that these things happen in Secondary Schools, College's and University's but I just didn't think that something similar would happen at such a small Community school.

There is a girl in Form 3(let's name her Leah) who had been pestering the Headmistress for a transfer letter. When the Headmistress asked her why she wanted to be transferred to another school, she didn't have a valid reason. Leah was then told that she needed to bring her parents in order for her to get a transfer letter. The parents came and told the Headmistress that they too , didn't understand why their daughter wanted to be transferred. With this, the Headmistress continued to ask Leah what was going on with her. Leah eventually cracked and told her story.

After she had written her Form 2 end of year exams, Leah had been approached by one of her teachers who asked her to be in sexual relationship with him. Leah refused and thought that was the end of it. Little did she know that she would have to endure psychological abuse from that point on. It is this kind of abuse that results in some girls dropping out of school.

I had a chat with her the following day, upon the Headmistress' request. I noticed that she was a quiet girl. She was afraid. I had to convince her that she could confide in me. I suggested that we go for a walk. We talked about other things and she opened up to me. Leah, explained to me that the teacher would make rude remarks about her, give bad examples using her name, among other things, when teaching her class. I asked her what she had done about it before telling the Headmistress, she said nothing because she was afraid that the teacher was going to lose his job and that the other teachers were going to despise her. The other reason, I believe, is because there is only one female teacher (that being the Headmistress) and so she was probably scared to approach her. Instead, Leah thought it best to run away from her problem.

During our chat, I realized that she didn't see her worth. The fact she thought it best not to report him just to save him his job, showed that she feels worthless. Something that is in most girls here in my community.

I was also recently told another story about a very very young girl who was fed lies by one of the leaders within the community into marrying him as his second wife. The girl, a child herself, bore him two children but the leader recently left the girl stating that he has now changed his ways and will no longer practice polygamy. This is a big problem in my community. A lot of women have complained that older men prey on young girls and leave them as soon as they bear them children. Although there is a policy that girls and young women can go back to school after giving birth, almost all the girls and young women that go through this, are too embarrassed to do so and end up marrying other men.

These are just some of the many stories I have heard of early school dropouts, early and forced marriages as well as early pregnancies. At this point, I seriously started thinking of creating a girls club but I didn't know how. I then got inspired by several girl/women empowerment sites after searching online: http://empowermentforgirls.com/2013/07/29/raise-your-self-esteem-with-these-10-empowering-activities but the one that stood out for me was United Nations http://www.unfoundation.org/what-we-do/campaigns-and-initiatives/girl-up/

So I gathered the courage to ask girls in all the forms to meet me at the school on Saturday, two weekends ago, at 3 pm.
About 50 girls came and registered to create a club which they named "My Future Club". It was overwhelming and they were very excited as this was a very new thing to them. Rules were made, games were played and they had some Orange Squash, popcorn and sweets to snack on afterwards. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I had lots and lots of company. :-)

​Here's a list of some issues they said they would like to talk about as the club settles, things that they are affected by in their communities :
~Rape
~Poverty
~Child abuse
~Orphans
~Early Marriages
~Drug and Substance Abuse
~School dropouts
~Teenage pregnancies
~Prostitution
~Forced marriages
~Child Labour
~ Lack of basic needs

Written by Tusayiwe Sikwese, CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Malawi

It's been a month and a bit since I came to my site here in the scorching sun of Maluwa village, Phalombe. Yes scorching sun, the kind that heats up the bare dusty road and burns your feet.  Literally burns your feet. The kind that has my host mother, Miss Kanjo, and I dripping of sweat and drinking gallons of water everyday in an effort to keep cool. But I didn't let that get in the way of knowing my community and it definitely didn't hold the community back from keeping me busy.

Anyway, first things first. On the 2nd of March 2016, (that was a few days after I had settled in my home stay) I went to meet the Chief of Maluwa village.  Very nice man, and full of energy too. He scheduled a day for my first community meeting. When the day of the meeting came, the skies were heavily grey and I was hoping that it would rain. Why? Phalombe is extremely hot! And I would have loved for it to rain so it would cool down for a bit... AND I WAS NERVOUS. I had never done this before, well I had been at community meetings before but I never had to say why I was there and what not. The most I had to do was greet the community and that's it. A walk in the park! But this, this was very different. It was just me. 

Unfortunately or fortunately, (depending on how you see it,) the skies had cleared and were a lovely blue. So I started off for the bwalo (the community's meeting space). I took the long way there because that was the only way I knew ( I got lost by the way). But the good news is I got there, somehow! When I got to the bwalo, there were less than 10 people. Uh-Oh. I was worried. But the chief was there and he had told me that people had gathered earlier on but had left because of the grey skies. He assured me that people would come and that we would start as soon as a few more people arrived. And people came in large numbers, the meeting happened and was a success. I was overwhelmed with happiness and felt welcomed. I learned of the challenges the community was facing and the many committees that exist in the community, most of which scheduled meetings with me for later that week and the following week. Busy, busy, busy.

My favorite part of this day was at the end of the meeting, when we were all walking back to our houses. A woman approached me and we got talking. She told me about the business that her and her fellow women, in a village called Mwanga, were doing. She asked if I could teach them anything I knew about doing small businesses. I was very very very happy. For me, it showed that the community had indeed welcomed me, were ready to work, and that meant I was going to immerse myself without much trouble.

​A week later I went to visit the women's business group in Mwanga (a neighboring village within my site). I was so psyched! I couldn't wait to learn all about their wine business, how they make it and how it fares in their community. I found it really cool how they make their wine using bananas, water, lemons, yeast and sugar, without any using machines.  How cool is that?!! Now I'm looking forward to seeing how they actually make it! Minus the hot road that burnt the bottom of my left foot. I bet you're wondering how that happened. Long story short, the straps of my sandal cut and I had to walk some distance before I found a kabaza (bicycle taxi) to take me back to my hosts house.

I honestly didn't think the ground itself would be that hot until I walked barefoot. So I thought to myself, how do those people that walk barefoot everyday feel? Sad moment.

Okay so that aside, I have been doing a whole load of other things. I've been helping out with a Nursery school building project that has been funded by Village X (CorpsAfrica's partner organization at present). The project should be done by the second week of April. I've also been volunteering at Chisugulu Community Day Secondary School (it's very close by my hosts house-she's the schools' headmistress) with my first task as an invigilator. I've always wanted to do that, so that was exciting.

The community has so much to offer and I have learned so much from them in such a short time. I'm looking forward to learning a lot more from them throughout my service and of course sharing my knowledge with them-when they ask. It's a give and take process!!

I really could go on and on but I must stop here for now. I can't wait to share with you why and how these business oriented women branched away from small typical village businesses (selling vegetables, fritters and the like) to their current business. And to share pictures of the Nursery School when it's complete... And all the things that make each day very different from the other, in Tusa's new world :-).