First I just have to share a picture of Lake Malawi that I didn't get in last time, it's absolutely beautiful (as you can see) and that's the hills of Mozambique in the distance, more on that country in a moment...
I have joined a football team (soccer to you American folk) and am impressed with the organization and commitment of the team. Practice twice a week mixed with sprinting drills caused various muscles in my legs to reappear after years of hibernation and I was anxiously anticipating our big game against a team traveling all the way from Mozambique on Saturday. As I was just realizing my full potential as a striker my complete lack of grace caught up with me. The short story, I sprained my ankle pretty badly, and was subsequently benched by coach. Bummer. But no worries, I documented the damage:
I was still happy to be a cheerleader and help document the 5-0 loss with my camera. Even with the defeat, we had a really good time and the Mozambicans have happily invited us to their turf for our next butt kicking which we will be sure to take them up on their offer.
And no they did not beat us with 7 players, many of them (the big tough ones of course) were missing from this picture.Prior to my 'sports injury' I was going for a jog in the neighborhood when I turned to find that I had acquired 4 new running buddies. Children find it very entertaining to sprint after me barefoot and I am happy for the company.
Off of sport related activities. Work is business as usual and super busy with mid-year reviews in UNICEF and UNDAF in addition to receiving the results of the external evaluation of the cash transfer scheme. The impact that the scheme is having on peoples lives is just amazing and it is incredible to see research numbers able to back up the results that can be seen so clearly. A handful of the findings: increased school enrollment, better health seeking behavior, increased food security, more diversified diets (including more meats), and better asset acquisition. Mind you these are people who live on less that 27 kwacha (around 22 CENTS) per day and were surviving off of one meal (or less) per day. These outcomes are HUGE!
So the evaluation of the design of the scheme had a lot more recommendations that need to be chewed over and integrated to make the scheme the best that it can be. This area is a bit more controversial and definitely requires ample time for debate, which began at 10am yesterday in a meeting that included UNICEF, the consultant who designed the scheme, government officials who are responsible for running the scheme (at least they will be eventually), and the research team (which just happened to include my advisor and a surprise visit from Jon Simon, the director of CIHD at BU!). The meeting concluded at 6pm and then evolved into dinner and then a fascinating discussion (with wine of course) about the failures and missteps of international development and why we haven't seemed to be able to get it right yet. This night was, by far, my favorite in Malawi. Surrounded by an economist, a social policy chief, a social epidemiologist and Jon Simon I was engaged in a fascinating conversation with some of the most extremely experienced and innovative minds in the business of making peoples lives better. I will spare you the transcript, but wow, just blown away...
And so, those are some (definitely not all) of the highlights of my last week. Also included in there was a live rendition of Roxettes' "joyride" by my nordic friends, some trip planning for Mangochi, discovery of some new favorite spots in Lilongwe (I'm a huge fan of the local hangouts):
and of course lots and lots of learning. Until next time, tsala bwino!
