2006.03.07: March 7, 2006: Headlines: COS - Malawi: Service: Return to our COS - Malawi: Anchorage Daily News: RPCVs Dr. Tom Nighswander and his wife Ruth return to Malawi to work at Malawi Children's Village, a home for orphans whose parents have died from AIDS

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Malawi: Peace Corps Malawi : The Peace Corps in Malawi: 2006.03.07: March 7, 2006: Headlines: COS - Malawi: Service: Return to our COS - Malawi: Anchorage Daily News: RPCVs Dr. Tom Nighswander and his wife Ruth return to Malawi to work at Malawi Children's Village, a home for orphans whose parents have died from AIDS

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-25-123.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.25.123) on Sunday, March 12, 2006 - 12:53 pm: Edit Post

RPCVs Dr. Tom Nighswander and his wife Ruth return to Malawi to work at Malawi Children's Village, a home for orphans whose parents have died from AIDS

RPCVs Dr. Tom Nighswander and his wife Ruth return to Malawi to work at Malawi Children's Village, a home for orphans whose parents have died from AIDS

"Malawians depend on one crop a year, and their lifestyle is pure subsistence. If you don't grow it or catch it, you don't eat. One year's supply of the staple maize was lost. There is no irrigation, even a few miles from the lake. There will be no new maize until mid-March."

RPCVs Dr. Tom Nighswander and his wife Ruth return to Malawi to work at Malawi Children's Village, a home for orphans whose parents have died from AIDS

Starvation returns to long-suffering Malawians

By TOM NIGHSWANDER
Daily News correspondent

Published: March 7, 2006
Last Modified: March 7, 2006 at 02:23 AM

This is the first of four columns by Dr. Tom Nighswander of Anchorage, detailing his recent experience at the Malawi Children's Village, a home for orphans whose parents have died from AIDS. Nighswander and his wife, Ruth, an Anchorage school nurse, were Peace Corps volunteers in Malawi in the '60s.

MANGOCHI, Malawi -- Welcome to Malawi, the Warm Heart of Africa, a beautiful, narrow strip of a country stretching 365 miles on the shores of Lake Malawi. It has the third-highest mountain in Africa, Mount Malange, and two 5,000-foot plateaus. It's one of the friendliest countries you could ever hope to visit.

It also ranks fifth from the bottom in world poverty. It would seem to be a place the world has largely forgotten.

The plane ride from Alaska is long, including a refueling stop in Ghana, to get to one of only two airports in Malawi. But after 24 hours in the air from Anchorage, we entered a different world: from the world of haves to the world of have-nots; from too much food to countrywide famine; from a place where HIV/AIDS is becoming a manageable disease thanks to available treatments to a place where HIV deaths cause chronic workforce shortages in both the Malawi police and army.

Ruth and I have made this trip annually for the past six years. Our destination is our thatched-roof, baked-brick cottage on the southern shores of Lake Malawi. Here we'll volunteer for the Malawi Children's Village, a program to help children whose parents have died from HIV/AIDS.

We've been associated with Malawi since our Peace Corps days; we have friends here from 40 years ago and feel comfortable with the people. But the contrasts are so stark, Malawi might as well be on another planet.

This is the year of the "njala." In a literal translation from Chichewa, the local language, it means "the hungry time." We know it as famine. The official estimate is that 5 million people (out of a population of 12 million) are in desperate need of food. A dozen Malawians were at our doorstep yesterday needing food. These are folks we know. Many have worked for us or have been our village neighbors.

Malawi is in a part of the world that gets unreliable rains, and every five or six years, the December-January rains don't come, or they come and stop or even flood the fields for two months and rot the maize. That happened last year.

Malawians depend on one crop a year, and their lifestyle is pure subsistence. If you don't grow it or catch it, you don't eat. One year's supply of the staple maize was lost. There is no irrigation, even a few miles from the lake. There will be no new maize until mid-March.

Meeka is an unusually tall, gracious man from the village, probably in his 70s. He stopped by yesterday to greet us. He has served as an intermittent night guard for us in years past. He was painfully thin, with tight skin stretched over prominent collarbones. He has grandchildren living with him; his wife is dead. He never asked about food, but Ruth did and gave him food for several days. He spoke in Chichewa of the great njala this year ... of small meals of maize flour each day if he could find it. He wanted to know how the "hungry time" was going in America.

We spent the day buying food -- small packets of rice, beans, maize flour, sugar and tea -- and handing them out to our neighbors as they stopped by. And it was our first day here.

Next week: HIV/AIDS looms much closer at the Malawi Children's Village.

Tom Nighswander and his wife, Ruth, have lived in Anchorage for 34 years. Besides their Peace Corps work in Malawi, they took a sabbatical year there in 1984-85 and continue to visit annually.





When this story was posted in March 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:


Contact PCOLBulletin BoardRegisterSearch PCOLWhat's New?

Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
March 1, 1961: Keeping Kennedy's Promise Date: February 27 2006 No: 800 March 1, 1961: Keeping Kennedy's Promise
On March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy issues Executive Order #10924, establishing the Peace Corps as a new agency: "Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. There will be no salary and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed--doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language. But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps--who works in a foreign land--will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace. "

Top Stories and Breaking News PCOL Magazine Peace Corps Library RPCV Directory Sign Up

The Peace Corps Library Date: February 24 2006 No: 798 The Peace Corps Library
The Peace Corps Library is now available online with over 40,000 index entries in 500 categories. Looking for a Returned Volunteer? Check our RPCV Directory. New: Sign up to receive PCOL Magazine, our free Monthly Magazine by email. Like to keep up with Peace Corps news as it happens? Sign up to recieve a daily summary of Peace Corps stories from around the world.

Top Stories: February 2, 2006 Date: February 4 2006 No: 783 Top Stories: February 2, 2006
Al Kamen writes: Rice to redeploy diplomats 20 Jan
Peace Corps mourns the Loss of Volunteer Tessa Horan 1 Feb
RPCV pursues dreams in America's Heartland 1 Feb
Sargent Shriver documentary to be shown in LA 30 Jan
W. Frank Fountain is new board chairman of Africare 27 Jan
Abbey Brown writes about acid attacks in Bangladesh 26 Jan
Christopher Hill Sees Ray of Hope in N.Korea Standoff 26 Jan
Jeffrey Smit writes on one man diplomatic outposts 25 Jan
Joe Blatchford's ACCION and microfinance 24 Jan
James Rupert writes: A calculated risk in Pakistan 23 Jan
Sam Farr rips conservative immigration bill 21 Jan
Americans campaign for PC to return to Sierra Leone 20 Jan
Kinky Friedman supports Gay Marriage 20 Jan
Margaret Krome writes on Women leaders 18 Jan
James Walsh leads bipartisan US delegation to Ireland 17 Jan
Mark Schneider writes on Elections and Beyond in Haiti 16 Jan
Robert Blackwill on a "serious setback" in US-India relations 13 Jan
Kevin Quigley writes on PC and U.S. Image Abroad 13 Jan
Emily Metzloff rides bicycle 3,100 miles from Honduras 9 Jan
Charles Brennick starts operation InterConnection 9 Jan
Lee Fisher tells story of Pablo Morillo 7 Jan
Nancy Wallace writes: Was PC a CIA front after all? 4 Jan

Paid Vacations in the Third World? Date: February 20 2006 No: 787 Paid Vacations in the Third World?
Retired diplomat Peter Rice has written a letter to the Wall Street Journal stating that Peace Corps "is really just a U.S. government program for paid vacations in the Third World." Director Vasquez has responded that "the small stipend volunteers receive during their two years of service is more than returned in the understanding fostered in communities throughout the world and here at home." What do RPCVs think?

RPCV admits to abuse while in Peace Corps Date: February 3 2006 No: 780 RPCV admits to abuse while in Peace Corps
Timothy Ronald Obert has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a minor in Costa Rica while serving there as a Peace Corps volunteer. "The Peace Corps has a zero tolerance policy for misconduct that violates the law or standards of conduct established by the Peace Corps," said Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez. Could inadequate screening have been partly to blame? Mr. Obert's resume, which he had submitted to the Peace Corps in support of his application to become a Peace Corps Volunteer, showed that he had repeatedly sought and obtained positions working with underprivileged children. Read what RPCVs have to say about this case.

Military Option sparks concerns Date: January 3 2006 No: 773 Military Option sparks concerns
The U.S. military, struggling to fill its voluntary ranks, is allowing recruits to meet part of their reserve military obligations after active duty by serving in the Peace Corps. Read why there is opposition to the program among RPCVs. Director Vasquez says the agency has a long history of accepting qualified applicants who are in inactive military status. John Coyne says "Not only no, but hell no!" and RPCV Chris Matthews leads the debate on "Hardball." Avi Spiegel says Peace Corps is not the place for soldiers while Coleman McCarthy says to Welcome Soldiers to the Peace Corps. Read our poll results. Latest: Congress passed a bill on December 22 including language to remove Peace Corps from the National Call to Service (NCS) military recruitment program

Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger Date: October 22 2005 No: 738 Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger
When the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. Latest: Read the ongoing dialog on the subject.

PC establishes awards for top Volunteers Date: November 9 2005 No: 749 PC establishes awards for top Volunteers
Gaddi H. Vasquez has established the Kennedy Service Awards to honor the hard work and service of two current Peace Corps Volunteers, two returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and two Peace Corps staff members. The award to currently serving volunteers will be based on a demonstration of impact, sustainability, creativity, and catalytic effect. Submit your nominations by December 9.

Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000  strong Date: April 2 2005 No: 543 Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong
170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community.


Read the stories and leave your comments.






Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: Anchorage Daily News

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Malawi; Service; Return to our COS - Malawi

PCOL32032
29


Add a Message


This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.
Username:  
Password:
E-mail: