Blogs from Dzaleka, Central, Malawi, Africa

Shortly after our arrival in Lilongwe, we had dinner with our team. We are both a diverse and surprisingly similar group. We are 9 women and 6 men, ranging in age from mid 20's to mid 70's. Our Habitat connections are varied: Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) staff, affiliate leadership (executive staff and board), affiliate employees and one person new to Habitat. We all share a desire to learn, impact and advocate for housing solutions in Malawi. Our first day was intended to acclimate to and experience the culture in Malawi. We bused 3 hours to the Kungoni cultural center. There we learned about the anthropology (birth, puberty, marriage and death rituals) of the three main tribes. The Ngoni, Yao, and the Chewa. We enjoyed a buffet of local food in an open air restaurant. So ... read more

url='/Videos/4089.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/4089.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Congolese dancingurl='/Videos/4091.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/4091.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'And I have no rhythm... This past week was my last working week this summer which is totally nuts! On Tuesday I gave a 3-hour (!) workshop to the camp's teachers on children's rights. There were about thirty of them, some Malawian and some refugees. I studied children's rights last fall but we focused entirely on U.S. law so I had to spend some time last weekend reviewing the international law! It went really well and it was as educational for me as for them, I think. The teachers really payed attention in the beginning (the boring part) and then when we broke into groups to start looking at real-life situations they all found very creative ways of appl... read more

Well as if the hassle with the immigration lady wasn’t enough I am now getting trouble from the government! I went to seek their cooperation in communicating to refugees who haven’t filed their claims yet that I would be available to help them, and was told that a refugee’s story is a secret between the refugee and the government. I was pretty baffled and told the official that I would think it would be up to the individual person to decide whether or not to share her story with me and ask for my help. So then he brought down the iron fist and said that the government would not allow me to counsel refugees without permission from above (which I am unlikely to get, let alone in sufficient time for me to do something ... read more

url='/Videos/3445.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3445.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Dzaleka kidsurl='/Videos/3449.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3449.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Walking through Dzaleka camp market On Wednesday I was picked up near my house to head out to Dzaleka refugee camp, which is a little over an hour from Lilongwe. The proximity to a major urban center is something that makes Dzaleka unlike most refugee camps, which are usually very isolated. It is also a very established camp, which many of the refugees (most of which fled the Rwandan genocide and conflict in the Dem. Rep. of Congo) have lived in for many years—some over a decade. Mike later asked me whether it looked like what I had imagined a refugee camp to look like—yes and no. We are used to seeing images in the media of new, makeshift camps, for example... read more