Let's take this (past week) offline
0 Comments Published by Ben on Monday, July 16, 2007 at 8:15 AM.
Malawi independence day was a week ago Friday (June 6th), and most of my friends here went to Blantyre for the weekend. I stayed in Mchinji and was actually really productive. Some of which was from having a dedicated two hours online at the hospital in the morning to do a literature review I've been trying to do for qualitative studies similar to what I'm proposing. I also ran into the three Peace Corps people in the district who were also interneting at the hospital and had lunch with them, which was a nice surprise. I found a new restaurant in the market that was good, got to get to know them a bit better, and just had a change of pace. After lunch, we all went separate ways; I went to the office and worked for the rest of the afternoon.
On my way home, I stopped back to the hospital to check one more thing online. the hospital was quiet in the morning and even moreso in the late afternoon. A guy came up to me in the hall and said hello. I said it back, thinking this was just the normal exchange of pleasantries. But he sort of stood there a minute longer than usual, so I looked up again and said, "is there something wrong?" He replied that he was the night watchman and he'd been instructed that, "people who are doing whatever it is [I was] doing are not allowed." This was the first I'd heard of it, so I explained that I'd never had a problem before, even talked to the nurse matron that morning while online, etc., nor did I want to get him into trouble, so I said that I'd leave.
I had to do some banking the next day and tried to use the other, much more finicky network that's not through the hospital to no avail. I decided to push my luck at the hospital again, and very quickly had another guard tell me that the network was only for district hospital business and that others were not allowed. I had just finished what I was doing so I just left. No more internet in Mchinji for any azungu.
I had heard something from someone at the hospital who wanted to put a block on it, since they were paying for it that others shouldn't be able to use it. I explained my understanding of the internet and that since you don't pay by amount of use, it costs just the same to have multiple people on as it does to have one. I don't think it translated well, and I can imagine that it looks like a bunch of rich white people coming only when it's convenient to them to use this new, precious thing and that they shouldn't be able to for free. But things here are so much more political, sensitive, and also quiet (as in, people are sort of evasive and aren't nearly as forward with their needs and feelings about things as we are) that I really didn't want to push hard.
I told this all to the Penn people when they got back, and they talked to the managers of the research center where they work (which is affiliated with the hospital--so much so that multiple people have brought the hospital the routers they need for the internet that is being used). One of them cleared it up with the hospital, as they have a clear stake to the hospital internet, and told me that it would be fine to use it again. I'm really lucky to have them [the managers at this center, as well as the Penn crew] to lean on here. Without a Malawi ally, and without an easily described affiliation to an organization (I've started saying that I work for the district social welfare office directly), life can be a lot harder here.
On my way home, I stopped back to the hospital to check one more thing online. the hospital was quiet in the morning and even moreso in the late afternoon. A guy came up to me in the hall and said hello. I said it back, thinking this was just the normal exchange of pleasantries. But he sort of stood there a minute longer than usual, so I looked up again and said, "is there something wrong?" He replied that he was the night watchman and he'd been instructed that, "people who are doing whatever it is [I was] doing are not allowed." This was the first I'd heard of it, so I explained that I'd never had a problem before, even talked to the nurse matron that morning while online, etc., nor did I want to get him into trouble, so I said that I'd leave.
I had to do some banking the next day and tried to use the other, much more finicky network that's not through the hospital to no avail. I decided to push my luck at the hospital again, and very quickly had another guard tell me that the network was only for district hospital business and that others were not allowed. I had just finished what I was doing so I just left. No more internet in Mchinji for any azungu.
I had heard something from someone at the hospital who wanted to put a block on it, since they were paying for it that others shouldn't be able to use it. I explained my understanding of the internet and that since you don't pay by amount of use, it costs just the same to have multiple people on as it does to have one. I don't think it translated well, and I can imagine that it looks like a bunch of rich white people coming only when it's convenient to them to use this new, precious thing and that they shouldn't be able to for free. But things here are so much more political, sensitive, and also quiet (as in, people are sort of evasive and aren't nearly as forward with their needs and feelings about things as we are) that I really didn't want to push hard.
I told this all to the Penn people when they got back, and they talked to the managers of the research center where they work (which is affiliated with the hospital--so much so that multiple people have brought the hospital the routers they need for the internet that is being used). One of them cleared it up with the hospital, as they have a clear stake to the hospital internet, and told me that it would be fine to use it again. I'm really lucky to have them [the managers at this center, as well as the Penn crew] to lean on here. Without a Malawi ally, and without an easily described affiliation to an organization (I've started saying that I work for the district social welfare office directly), life can be a lot harder here.
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