thoughts on work and life.

some thoughts on work

We're almost in the second month of delayed funding for CLTS initiatives. This is a real bummer because part of my work as CLTS JF is to attend "trigger" meetings and improve facilitation techniques.  We can't go ahead and plan trigger meetings without funding so that part of my work is on hold.

Instead, I've been meeting with CLTS facilitators and doing some ground level learning. I made a survey and got all of the facilitators to fill it out. I was in tangles figuring out what the best method of information gathering was and what kind of questions I should ask (more than 60 people will fill this out!) but eventually settled on a questionnaire of 7 questions. I wish I could have written it in Chichewa, but I would have had to get each questionnaire translated and everybody's so busy around here, I wanted to remain independent. These are the questions:

What do you know about CLTS?

What are the challenges in CLTS implementation and how can they be overcome?

What are the challenges which prevent follow ups from happening and how can they be overcome?

How have you taken personal initiative to improve CLTS?

What kind of support do you need from your supervisor in order for CLTS to be a success?

What aspect of implementation/management could be put in place to make CLTS a success?

What skills would make you more successful at CLTS implementation?

I want to figure out the general trends so that I can relay this information to the district water officer when I work one on one with him in july/august. I am about to write a short report about the results, print some copies, and distribute them to the participants.

One major thing that's coming out in the survey is that the facilitators want to be visited by their supervisors. Many of these people live in villages very far away from the boma and don't get visited very often and therefore do not feel supported. Today, when visiting my last health centre someone said "We're very happy you haven't forgotten about us". A face to face visit goes a long way in Malawi, where visiting is such a huge part of the culture. I hope I can spend time with these facilitators again when they start performing trigger meetings.

Life

I came to the boma today to use the internet and finish this report. I am indulging in Canadian life this evening. I came to town and found out that the hospital (where I'll be stationed when I move here) had the internet so I parked at a desk and took my time sorting through emails, downloading photos, reading people's blogs, oh baby. I was in heaven. The internet is a playground.

I'm currently sitting comfortably on a bed in a rest house, wearing Canadian clothes, with my computer plugged into the wall and I'm blasting music. It's filling my whole room.

I was thinking about it today and adjusting to Malawi life hasn't been difficult at all. I think my biggest adjustment (bigger than culture) has been living with a family. It's so different from my way of life in Canada. For example, I had to text my host father to tell him my plans tonight and I tell my family where I'll go and what I'm doing every day. It's the little things about living with parents that's such a crazy adjustment.

I set my objectives for the week this morning: start taking more video of life (I've been really uncomfortable with this) and start visiting people at their homes. I'm on a mission. I'll let you know how it goes.

Random Thoughts

-I just finished reading "The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Jugo Diaz. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to everyone (hence why I'm saying it here). You will laugh like crazy.

-I bought a lollipop and a coke yesterday and was in absolute heaven.

-I got a sweet Malawian shirt made for me a long time ago and picked it up today. I'm about to venture into the streets wearing it and will likely be made fun of.

-I joined a church choir and am missing practice right now to be here. Total bummer.

It is now Saturday and I'm heading back to the village. I'm just finishing up some last minute internet things. I finished my report, photocopied 10 copies and will share it with everyone this week.

I'll likely be in the boma again next week to do some research and I'll catchya then. I found out it costs 70 cents to charge my laptop at a power station. Shibby!

Hope you're endin' up on the downtown side.

Love kate