Want a deeper insight into what an ICS placement looks like? Read the amazing blogs written by our past and present volunteers. Enjoy the journey!
You may be aware that here at Progressio Team MASO, we have divided into three groups; HIV & AIDS awareness, Income Generating Activities (IGAs) and Child Rights. As a team, we all spent longer than other projects completing our initial research, as we had to build relationships within the community, being the first cycle and all.
The Rowa Runners are 12 volunteers from two vastly different cultures. In different countries there are different ways that we express ourselves. When two of these cultures mix, it’s common for the two sides to view each other as strange. There are a lot of blogs on this website that explore how non-British cultures are weird, but none on how your culture is weird to us! I got together with some of my fellow Zimbabwean volunteers and we’re going to tell you who’s truly weird! (You).
As some of you may know Tuesday 9 February was Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday. This is a pretty widespread eat-junk-food-day in the UK, especially pancakes strangely enough. Although I am a bit strange, as I make fluffy American style pancakes, rather than the usual thin crepe style pancakes. Nonetheless, pancakes are pancakes. My host family did not know about Pancake Day so Steph and I decided to enlighten them. After all, this is a cultural exchange programme too.
Misconceptions/misinformation about HIV and AIDS treatment and scenarios for the HIV virus and the disease is one of the major setbacks in the fight against the pandemic. Some bicycle taxi operators in Mzuzu are still misinformed. There is fear of the unknown in some bicycle taxi operators, as they say if you feel like you have contracted the HIV virus you can start taking ARVs instantly without going for HIV testing and counselling (HTC). Can a person start taking anti-retroviral drugs before it has been confirmed they are HIV+? That is the question one would ask.
The drive into Nkhata Bay and discoveries hereafter:
My first sights of Africa were exactly as I had seen in the photos, yet that only made the experience more surreal. Winding dirt roads and women shrouded in vibrancy, balancing baskets or buckets on their heads. Children topless and running to wave at us or men walking along the dust path, boxed into suits in the blistering sun. The tarmac had crumbled at the edges, immediately met by the earth. No paths, just road - the cusp between bitten and irregular - an obstacle for the bikes forced to the edges.
I must admit that this is a somewhat self-indulgent blog post. The title alone contains two of my favourite things: history and terrible puns. Yet when we received a talk on Honduran history from José Martinez, an academic from the charity Democracia sin Fronteras (Democracy Without Borders), it gave me the perfect excuse to write a blog on the subject. As a self-confessed history junkie, I find it fascinating to see why things turned out the way they have by looking into the past.
Due to its location and affiliation with the St Matthias High and Primary Schools, St Matthias Anglican Church, Tsonzo, has many a parishioner. The whole high school fills the church early doors, serenading the surrounding houses, including that of V, B and Kat. The catchment area spreads over at least five km on their regular Sunday with at least one lady coming from Govhingo, where one of our sessions is based (a 20 minute combi drive away) on Tuesdays.
“Sundays are my favourite”, my host sister, Hlazeya, replied when I asked her what her favourite day was; and despite only having the pleasure of being in Rumphi for one Sunday so far, I can see why. Although I don’t think it would qualify as the best day of the week for most back in the UK.
Dear people sat in the rain, it's hot here.
We've had a busy week meeting new friends, learning the language, understanding the Malawian culture and sweating! Mums - you'll be pleased to know we are all still in one piece so stop panicking! Dads - none of us are married yet, so no dowry cows coming your way... sorry!
What am I doing? Am I being crazy? Is it too late to back out?
These were the thoughts in my head prior to hopping on the plane to Zimbabwe, clutching my boarding pass and plastering a look of nonchalance onto my face. The prospect of staying with a host family for three months with a fellow Progressio ICS volunteer was extremely daunting. Would I get on with the family? Would I like the food? Would I have time on my own to relax?
