First day at the office

Clement the program manager for the Southern Africa Nutritional Initiative, or SANI Project, is about my height, slimly built, 36 years old, with a broad face and friendly countenance. He greets me warmly when I arrive at the office, gives me my orientation plan, and shuttles me around to introduce me to the other SANI team members. Once we've done that, he takes me to my first meeting. 

Catherine, the assistant country director, a petite woman of about 40 with short, straightened hair brushed back from her face, provides me with a security briefing. Motor vehicle accidents are the biggest hazard, she tells me, so they have strict requirements for their drivers to stay within restricted speed limits. (Motor vehicle accidents are also the most common cause of traumatic worker deaths in British Columbia.) Pickpockets are prevalent in crowded areas, such as markets. And, as one young volunteer recently discovered, if you leave your laptop in a vehicle, it will get stolen — “As it would in Vancouver,” I laughingly reply.

The CARE Malawi office building

She tells me that it’s safe for me to travel anywhere in the city on my own during the day. After 6:00 p.m., however, if I’m outside my housing compound, then I should be with friends or colleagues and have a car or taxi. And while any business-appropriate clothing is acceptable in the cities, dress is more conservative in the villages, and if I go there, I will want to take a chitenje (the local version of a sarong).

Then I meet with Matthew, CARE’s country director, a lean, white British man, about 5’10” and in his late 40s. He’s warm, friendly, and interested in my background and experience. He was promoted last year to the role of director for the East, Central, and Southern Africa region, but hasn’t yet been able to hire a new country director due to funding shortages, so is performing both roles. Over the next few weeks, I’m impressed to observe that, despite the volume of responsibilities he’s managing, he maintains his warmth and interest in people, even though Cyclone Idai has caused he and his staff have to shift their focus and resources to respond to that emergency.

Basic amenities

Of course, eventually I also have to take care of my biological needs. The two washrooms in the third floor office have solid, brick orange wooden doors with symbols for man or woman painted in white on them. When I enter the women’s washroom, I find there is no hydraulic arm to soften its closure. I am frequently at risk over the next few days of banging it much more loudly than intended. 

Inside, there are two stalls with full wooden doors painted the same brick orange. On the insides of these doors are Deloitte posters for reporting ethics issues. The posters list contraventions in English in one stall, and in Chichewa in the other. 

Paper towel for drying hands is on a wide roll suspended from a simple metal stand beside the sink. When I try to use it, I find that it’s as thin as toilet paper and sticks to my hands. After trying this a couple times during the day, I decide that there are better uses for wet hands. From then on, I begin using them to dampen my swollen ankles, and to cool my sweaty neck and brow.

One-ply paper hand towel

A walk to the store

When we break for lunch, Marine takes me to the Spar grocery store. I want to be frugal while I’m staying at the hotel, so have decided to eat the groceries I brought with me rather than buy meals there or at a restaurant. Today I have dates and almonds for lunch. Back at the lodge, I have a block of smoked tempeh that will be enough for two meals if I supplement it with a vegetable.

Turning out of the office parking lot, Marine takes me for a walk along a dirt path through many trees. Here and there are clearings where people are eating lunch at benches beside outdoor barbecues or small wooden food trailers. I wonder what they serve there.

We come out onto a street with a small National Library building and a DHL Courier office, walk down another short street, and cross a busier road into the parking lot of the Spar grocery store.

When we enter the store, a display of green apples is the first thing I notice. I’m surprised, since apples are the one fruit I did not expect to find here. Both local carrots and carrots imported from South Africa are in the open produce cooler along the wall. I choose a package of the less perfect but fresher looking local ones. 

What strikes me as I wander through the rest of the store is that although all the shelves are full, there is very little variety compared to a North American store. Instead, there are rows and rows of the same types and brands of items — of Chombe tea, ACE instant porridge, and either Estrell or Rab’s Classic peanut butter.

A long day

Workstations at CARE Malawi

During the afternoon, I sit at one of the long desks amongst my new colleagues and begin digesting the baseline report for the SANI project. It outlines the research done in four villages to assess lifestyle, diet, gender relationships, and levels of malnutrition and stunting. It’s a long and detailed report, and also my first glimpse into the districts and communities with which this project is engaged. 

While there had been gradual improvements in the previous ten years, when the baseline data was collected in 2016, 38% of children under five in the villages being studied were stunted. Almost 5% of pregnant women and 4% of children under five were acutely malnourished, and 93% of the children were not receiving a minimum acceptable diet (frequency and variety of foods). Their parents fared little better. At the time of the study, people’s diets predominantly consisted of maize and the leaves of pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and other crops that they were growing. Less than half of them would have eaten any other fruits or vegetables, and at most only 25% would have eaten any higher protein foods such as legumes, meat, eggs, or dairy products.

The office is hot, and although I’m sitting beside an open window and have my feet propped on the ledge, the heat has increased the post-flight swelling in my hands and feet. Our workday ends at 5:00, but Jeremy, who was scheduled to drive us, is out running an errand. We work for another half hour before someone arranges a taxi to take us back to Savanna Courtyard and the hotel. I already feel like it’s been a very long day.

Copyright © 2019 Lynn Thorsell, All rights reserved.

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Malawi album on Google Photos

Please note that the views expressed here are mine alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cuso International.