Hello Everyone!
I recently got an amazing email from some members of my chapter with specific questions on the topics:
• Latrines/handwashing
• Women’s roles
• Solar power/cell phones/technology
In case anyone else is curious about these topics, I am going to use this avenue to answer the questions. But first of all, I would like to give an update! I have just returned from mid summer retreat! So many amazing memories made! Including sleeping on a bed within 5 inches from lake Malawi. (two hours of sleeping later we were nearly under water because of the tide). Sleeping under the stars, and then watching the sun rise was such an amazing experience! Another cool memory was taking a boat trip out to a rock island, where I jumped from a height of ~20 feet into the lake. Is it cheesy that I thought of Bella Swan the moment just before I jumped? I felt like such an adrenaline junkie. ALSO, the Watsan team won the retreat Olympics, which involved telling the best anecdote (here I told the ‘birth’ story), demonstrating the best Malawian accent, drinking chimbuku the fastest, wearing the best chitenge creation, having the best pictures, and eating Nsima the fastest. I was mentally, physically, and emotionally active the entire four days. I learned a lot about myself, and about those around me. I feel so blessed to have so many talented, passionate, critical thinking, and inspiring people on the team! I will miss them until debrief at the end of August! Also, please note that every morning and afternoon was spent doing serious sessions/meetings/learning moments/etc. I hope you don’t mind that I only included the bucket list memories.
Anyway, back to the questions given to me by Naomi and Meaghan!! (btw, I love you ladies for emailing me!) I am so excited for answering the above questions because those topics are extremely familiar to me!
• Latrines/handwashing. In the typical household in the urban environment, there are pit latrines. Pit latrines are kind of like a man made outhouse. A slab of concrete with a hole just large enough to use. As a girl, it’s pretty difficult to aim. Hand washing is an extremely rare commodity, and where it exists, soap does not. During travel, there are no Timmies to relieve yourself, or rest stations along the highway. Every major bus depot (one per district) has a pit latrine that costs about K40, which is roughly$0.35? I suppose we can take it back to McMaster that their 35 cents paid for something important, other than travel VISAs, accommodations, and other things.
• Women’s roles: This is a very broad question everyone. It depends on many things, but most of all the location. A woman’s role in the village is very different than in the urban setting. And what role are you asking about? In the household, income generation, child bearing, the office setting, etc? The most concise picture that I would like to paint about this massive black hole of a topic is this: women are facing the cultural norm that they are most useful in the home rearing children and performing the servant’s role. Women in the village find their dignity through their servant hood to their family through washing, cleaning, rearing, and quietly submitting. This topic has perplexed me. After spending four weeks living among them and seeing the power dynamics between men and women of the household, I question whether women empowerment truly releases them. Women are dignified through being a servant, in their eyes. If they are loved and cherished for this role, yet have no say in household decisions, what harm is there? I picture myself in their role of pleasant submission, and wonder what they think of all these women coming to tell them they are prisoners. After conducting multiple sessions on women empowerment with collectively 60 women of the village, and living in this context for four weeks, I am no longer approaching the subject with flames and arrows. Like I said, I am still perplexed.
• Cell Phones/Technology/Solar Power: I will have much more information on solar power next week because I will be travelling to a health centre away from the capital city of Chitipa. There they use solar power instead of electricity. As per cell phones, almost everyone in the urban setting has one. Having a cell phone and using it is very different though. Buying units for airtime is fairly expensive. No one that I have met has a cell phone plan. Even the APS with their smart phones don’t have a plan (as far as I know they buy units like the rest of us). It’s all a matter of buying pieces of paper for airtime (I am sending a blank one to Hamilton via Naomi’s house, so some of you can see what these look like). You scratch the back, dial the pin #, then use up that airtime through texting/calling. $1.00 will get you about 14 text messages or 4 minutes of calling. Therefore it is pretty expensive. It’s like Pay as You Go plan
Speaking of cell phones, I have had many people telling me they want to call me. For any of you who has me on skype, I have added my number to that. I am free every evening, so your time that’s between 12:00 and 2:00. So lunch break/call Karina via skype yes?
Looking forward to seeing your faces in September!
KAR
Hi Karina,
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're having an awesome time in Malawi! I'm really enjoying your blog.
On the topic of women's say in household decisions - this issue is really close to my heart, and I won't go into it too much, just to say that there is actually a boat-load of studies which show that when women have more decision-making power within the household, there are a slew of positive effects (not the least of which, in my opinion, is that this is simply what's right and fair).
Here's just one example, from Ethiopia, showing that increased decision-making power for women leads to increased rates of vaccination for children, and therefore to lower infant mortality rates: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2049066/. Google "women household decision making child health" and you'll find a bunch of other studies. And child health is only one of the positive ramifications. It's worth exploring the literature a bit, you might be surprised!
Just my two cents!
Take care, and continue to enjoy every minute of your experience :)
-Caitlin
thanks for you comment Caitlin. I know what you mean that women are key in making health decisions, especially for their household. Besides, they are the ones who know the most about the health of the village at large as well. THey collect the water, they clean the latrine, they take the child to the clinic every month, etc. THEy are the ones who should be making the health decisions. I agree that empowering them to make more decisions on behalf of the household is key. I was trying to explain it from their perspective. They have the knowledge about the village and the household, but they lack a voice in making decisions. I am seeing women empowerment in a different light because most people will come into this situation with anger at the injustice i.e. the flames and arrows comment. I think making interventions on women empowerment requires living in that setting for an extended period of time, [definitely more than 2.5 months]. Imagine if that blog had been written by a male. I can only imagine the frustrated women who would attack him saying "you've never felt the injustice". Being in that role, and witnessing firsthand, I can see both sides of the story. Of course, like I said, I have only spent a few months here, I do not want to speak on behalf of anyone. WIth the knowledge that women improve the livlihood of their household when they have the power to make decisions, I was trying to reveal what I have witnessed as their side of things. Thanks again!
ReplyDelete