The Wrinkles In My Brain

The ten of us sat together in silence in the back of the Landcruiser.  The story telling and sporadic laughter during our drive home from camp had ceased.  Our ears were intent on listening to the BBC radio broadcaster interviewing Liberian citizens pleading for help from the international community.  From what we understand now, President Gadafi has been sanctioning government air strikes on peaceful Liberian protesters.   Government sanctioned murder?!   

Since I arrived here in Malawi the BBC has been a constant murmur in the background of most conversations at work, in the car and at home, always keeping us up to date on happenings around the world.  It seems the latest news to report from around the world has been about revolutions, government overthrows, mass protests and the sick and dying.  Has the news since my arrival been of more epic proportions or is it just that I am making a conscious choice to listen and be more aware? 

A dear friend of mine just said to me, “the more I learn, the less I realize I know about the world.” Well put.  Her words sum up my sentiments exactly.  I feel I am gaining a unique understanding about far corners of the globe while adopting a new perspective on life, yet despite this knowledge or maybe because of it, I feel so very naïve. 

Every day I learn more and more, so much so that I feel like my brain might just double over with wrinkles yet I still have so much to discover.  This past week the kids in my Standard 7 (7^th grade) support group taught me a thing or two about our cultural differences and similarities and although my jokes may fly straight over their heads and my intention may get lost somewhere in translation, a smile seems to be universal.  One such example that made me giggle in bed last night: 

Me: “Hello, hello!  I’de like for you to introduce yourselves and tell us an animal that best represents you and why.  I’ll start…My name is Lauren and I think a dog best represents me because a dogs is a loyal pet and I believe I am a loyal friend” (This was simple enough right?)

Messy: “My name is Messy. I am a refugee.  A goat because the meat is delicious.”

Perfect!  Goat. Yes.  I was having fun already.  I knew the group was destined to go well after the kids generated their very first ground rule, which was, “Love each other.”  Simple, yet profound.  Again, perfect.  Note to self: 1) Convince the kids that there is so much more to them than being a refugee and although it is a part of who they are it is not what they are.  2) Ask rain gods to hold off on the down pours during our group sessions because it is impossible to hear each other when the rain echoes off of the corrugated tin roofs of the classrooms.

Speaking of classrooms, one classroom lesson from Boston College that will be forever emblazoned on my brain is that of sustainability, sustainability, sustainability.  Well Professor Lombe and Professor Brennan sustainability is when JRS starts an initiative to train eight men and women, refugees, in the basics of counseling.  Armed with the power of their own experience and some central therapy skills they will take on their own clients, run support groups and maintain the psychosocial program in Dzaleka Camp far beyond the existence of JRS.  If I had a dime for every time one of my BC professors said the word “sustainability” in class I would probably be able to fund a new counseling center.  If only… 

I have been here in Malawi just about one month.  It was two short months ago I left Boston, yet the snow and sound of bells ringing on the Heights of the BC campus seem almost foreign.  The pace at school was similar to that of the Cooper in the fast lane of Highway 5.  Life here is slow yet I feel it is still challenging to catch up with all of the new stimuli.  Its as if my life has been accelerated to a crawl.  The circumstances are hard to explain but living it is easy and I am finding so much pleasure in the work I am doing.  Now to find some good friends to satisfy my social thirst, I mean calendar.        

And the moment you have all been waiting for…

Dome’s Favorites:  Coming so close to scoring a goal surrounded by nine little boys playing defense.  Had it not been for the three inch circumference of the ball made out of rolled plastic bags and some rubber bands I might have gotten a real foot on it and sent it through the uprights.  It is hard to pick between that moment on the pitch and another moment outside of the primary school buildings so let the official record show there has been a tie.  I was waiting for a colleague when a young boy, no more than nine or ten years old approached me.  I was expecting the usual greeting I receive from younger students whose English is limited. “Hello, how are you?” or “How are you?” or even the unusual“ How are you?” So I was prepared with my automatic response of "Well, thank you. How are you?"  

What I got:   Boy: “Madam, madam!  I would like to ask you a question.”

Me: “Yes hello, please do.”

Boy: “I would like to know the importance of polysaccharides?”

You never know what you’re going to get around here but laughter is a definite. 

All my love…