[June 15, 2010]

I have never been the best at picking up new languages. Even after one week and multiple introductions, I still become flustered when Sister Annie, Sister Justa (the hospital chaplain), or one of the nurses asks me in Chichewa, “Muli bwanji? (How are you?).” I respond with a timid “Dili brino, calle inu? (I’m fine, and you?)” and wait for their similar answer of “Ndiri bwino.” The language barrier presents a challenge and I’m sure that my Chichewan-struggles are providing the native Malawians here with a source of entertainment. But I gladly play along, happy to see that I have brought some laughter to their busy day.

It has already been one week since we arrived in Namitete! Time seems to fly by. This afternoon, Jasper, Liz, Yiwen, and I met with Matron Kamera (our mentor and head nurse of St. Gabriel’s) to once again introduce ourselves and our technologies. Loaded with our goodies in hand, we briefly took her through each technology as she directed us to the appropriate wards to implement them and acquire feedback.

In the middle of it all, I suddenly felt worried that we were bombarding her with all of our exciting projects. Sure, it seemed like a reasonable list throughout our packing and planning process, but perhaps the combination of me and Jasper’s projects and technologies with those of Liz and Yiwen’s may have been overwhelming. I’m sure we were all thinking the same thing: the Matron is extremely busy, so this might be our only chance to sit down with her to discuss everything! However, looking back on it now, the four of us probably should have set some technologies aside, like the demos and donations, or grouped our technologies into a more manageable batch.

Nevertheless, this meeting gave us the green light to bring our technologies into the wards. More importantly, it gave Jasper and me some new developments in our Microenterprise Program.

Since the first assignment in BIOE260, our project has gone through a few transformations. What began as a microenterprise education course designed for community health workers selling PUR packets and ended as a seminar program establishing trust groups amongst the workers, our general focus has always been microenterprise, but with varying contexts. Well, our context is shifting again, and the newest revelation assigned by Matron Kamera is now to help teach microenterprise skills to promising HIV/AIDS support groups. As part of their partnership with St. Gabriel’s, these groups are given community starter packs to help families establish businesses. These starter packs may include seeds, fertilizer, tools, or even goats. The problem is that most groups do not understand how to think in the long-term – save, budget, create a business plan. This is where we would come in.

Apparently, there has been one successful community that has really grasped the idea of the starter pack. If we can model their success into an appropriate business plan for other communities, I think we can achieve the goal of implementing microenterprise in the villages around St. Gabriel’s and really help establish a steady source of income for the people in the support groups.

Ah, the importance of being adaptable! Just like we were advised throughout the semester and reminded again at orientation, you never know what will happen in the field. Luckily, we’ve had some experience with being flexible in our project, and I’m sure we’ll be able to modify our microenterprise lesson plans according to their needs. I’m actually really excited by this turn of events, knowing that this is what happens in real life!