Josh and Martina

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/3622.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3622.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;' Mada scooping nsima Well to give you a quick update about the case of Sourire, the immigration official decided to reopen her case. She swore up and down that it had nothing to do with the pressure that had been brought to bear by us and others, claiming rather that she had been apprised of “new information.” But there was no new information—except the information in Sourire’s file which the official had neglected to read before interviewing her. But as my boss explained to me, a large part of being a lawyer is knowing how to remain deferential even after you prove someone wrong. On Saturday I came into the office to do some work online (we only get internet after hours and on weekends!), and then I walked into town with one ... read more

url='/Videos/3450.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3450.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;' Mwezi marking Greg's laptop Thursday I spent another day meeting with Mike all day, since it would probably be our last office day before his departure (Friday is a camp day). In the afternoon we had a birthday party for the outgoing country director, who is moving on to work with refugees on the U.S.-Mexican border. One of the Malawian teachers at the camp, Isaiah, brought music he had composed, and the Malawian women on staff demonstrated some traditional Malawian dancing. Us mzungu women ended up being pressured into trying it out, which was a disaster. As someone pointed out, you need to have African hardware (for lack of a better euphemism) to dance like that! Every Thursday Matt hosts a movie night at our house which usually attracts 25-30 expats (he actually ... read more

By Tuesday I was starting to feel pretty isolated from real life here. I had only been driven around in SUVs, eaten at places most Malawians could never afford, and been in supermarkets with brands like Heinz and Ceres (= all imports). So I decided to venture out to the Old Town in the morning. Our housekeeper, Mary, walked me to the place where I would catch the minibus to work from then on, and told the money collector where I was going (since I really didn’t know myself!). The minibuses are something else—if I ever feel like the group I’m riding with will let me get away with it, I will take a photo. They are the most unbelievably rickety old things, many of them second-hand imports from places like China and the United ... read more