what a difference a few days makes
0 Comments Published by Ben on Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 3:47 PM.
What a difference a day makes.
I'm back in Lilongwe for the night, somewhat unexpectedly. Today was the day of The Big Meeting which went quite well. There were all sorts of people there--people from almost every ministry of government, all the major UN and national aid programs. Going into the government compound was really kind of odd—it’s on Capital Hill (and no, not Capitol, which I don’t quite get…), which is literally a walled off area with armed guards (sounds much worse than it actually is) where each of the ministries have their main building. It's very nice, quiet, there’s covered parking, etc. We were at the ministry of poverty in the big conference room. Ths ministry's building is tucked way in the back of the compound (no big surprise) and had sort of falling down curtains (also not a surprise, although a little ironic).
I forget how deferential things are here—the chair of the meeting called it to order and passed it over to C; he then selected the order in which people could ask questions, and when they did, they all said, "Thank You Mr. Chairman," before going on. I’ve watched enough C-SPAN to know that’s not totally rare in government, but again, my irreverence makes me find it all pretty funny. He even had a higher chair than the others. And I am sure he well should, it is just funny to notice how infused that sort of thing is into everything, from big to small.
But nothing about this project isn't political—we were printing out the presentations at the funder's office and she said that she shouldn’t be seen stapling them. I thought that it was something about division of labor within their office or something, but no, it was because it needed to be clear that this was an entirely independent evaluation. She shouldn't be seen touching them. I collated and stapled all of the copies no problem, and again, just sort of chuckled at the extent to which things are the way they are.
I knew that we were coming in for the presentation, but I figured that we'd go back tonight. Halfway in, C tells me that she's staying the night. Oh. I put it together later that the meeting was going to be long enough that we wouldn’t be able to drive back in the light, but all of it was news to me. So I could get a room in Lilongwe or go back if the other guy from the project showed up. I called the guy I know in Lilongwe (through Bill) and am actually crashing here tonight instead. He told me to save the money on the room, and I happily obliged. Plus he and some of his friends were getting together tonight at their club, so I went along with him and his wife there. But man, after 5 days, being in a house with other Americans is really nice. I'm not so much homesick (although starbucks may suggest otherwise) as I am just not really used to being the foreigner. I should say, it's similarly weird to be in a house with an iron gate, two all-night guards and a panic button next to my bed, but that's another story. That's the expat story.
And having meat to eat (we pasta and meat sauce for dinner). Speaking of, we were having our second day of training yesterday (including my stats presentation), and about half way through we hear this loud noise from the other room (our room adjoined the kitchen). It goes again. C stops and says, "Is that chicken about to be slaughtered?" and everyone nods and says, "yes." She says okay and we move on. I wake up most mornings to the rooster, shortly followed by the cow mooing. I know I'm eating eggs that were laid by the chickens at the inn, which is fine. But people are ridding with dead goats on the back of their bikes. Then we were talking about eating mice in our food expenditure questionnaire. I guess its coming full circle from the CDC/NYC trip…
So back to Mchinji in the morning, a day in the office, and then out to the field for a while (like every day for the next two weeks). I may wander around town and take pictures tomorrow, so be on the lookout for them.
I'm back in Lilongwe for the night, somewhat unexpectedly. Today was the day of The Big Meeting which went quite well. There were all sorts of people there--people from almost every ministry of government, all the major UN and national aid programs. Going into the government compound was really kind of odd—it’s on Capital Hill (and no, not Capitol, which I don’t quite get…), which is literally a walled off area with armed guards (sounds much worse than it actually is) where each of the ministries have their main building. It's very nice, quiet, there’s covered parking, etc. We were at the ministry of poverty in the big conference room. Ths ministry's building is tucked way in the back of the compound (no big surprise) and had sort of falling down curtains (also not a surprise, although a little ironic).
I forget how deferential things are here—the chair of the meeting called it to order and passed it over to C; he then selected the order in which people could ask questions, and when they did, they all said, "Thank You Mr. Chairman," before going on. I’ve watched enough C-SPAN to know that’s not totally rare in government, but again, my irreverence makes me find it all pretty funny. He even had a higher chair than the others. And I am sure he well should, it is just funny to notice how infused that sort of thing is into everything, from big to small.
But nothing about this project isn't political—we were printing out the presentations at the funder's office and she said that she shouldn’t be seen stapling them. I thought that it was something about division of labor within their office or something, but no, it was because it needed to be clear that this was an entirely independent evaluation. She shouldn't be seen touching them. I collated and stapled all of the copies no problem, and again, just sort of chuckled at the extent to which things are the way they are.
I knew that we were coming in for the presentation, but I figured that we'd go back tonight. Halfway in, C tells me that she's staying the night. Oh. I put it together later that the meeting was going to be long enough that we wouldn’t be able to drive back in the light, but all of it was news to me. So I could get a room in Lilongwe or go back if the other guy from the project showed up. I called the guy I know in Lilongwe (through Bill) and am actually crashing here tonight instead. He told me to save the money on the room, and I happily obliged. Plus he and some of his friends were getting together tonight at their club, so I went along with him and his wife there. But man, after 5 days, being in a house with other Americans is really nice. I'm not so much homesick (although starbucks may suggest otherwise) as I am just not really used to being the foreigner. I should say, it's similarly weird to be in a house with an iron gate, two all-night guards and a panic button next to my bed, but that's another story. That's the expat story.
And having meat to eat (we pasta and meat sauce for dinner). Speaking of, we were having our second day of training yesterday (including my stats presentation), and about half way through we hear this loud noise from the other room (our room adjoined the kitchen). It goes again. C stops and says, "Is that chicken about to be slaughtered?" and everyone nods and says, "yes." She says okay and we move on. I wake up most mornings to the rooster, shortly followed by the cow mooing. I know I'm eating eggs that were laid by the chickens at the inn, which is fine. But people are ridding with dead goats on the back of their bikes. Then we were talking about eating mice in our food expenditure questionnaire. I guess its coming full circle from the CDC/NYC trip…
So back to Mchinji in the morning, a day in the office, and then out to the field for a while (like every day for the next two weeks). I may wander around town and take pictures tomorrow, so be on the lookout for them.
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