Housewifery, the Gaza Strip & Zim

If you are wondering why I am on a bloggin’ spree, it’s because I’m staying at a house that has wireless Internet. So these are blogs I would have been posting over the last three weeks. You can take your time and read them as such.

I’m in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, for work. I’ve had a great time. We came by car on Wednesday and we are staying at a co-worker's house. He has a nice, big house as he is often housing passer bys. Thursday & Friday Enock & I had partnership meetings with Save the Children US, FAO (Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN), JICA, the Japanese govt. org in Malawi and CIDA, the Canadian govt. org here. Very exciting.

Today, Sunday, Tebogo & Joanes arrived. Tomorrow & Tuesday we will be visiting projects here. Tonight I insisted on helping with dinner. I made peanut sauce with eggplant, carrots and tomatoes. Afterwards, Joanes told me he has tasted my food and I will make a good housewife! Ha. And that my husband will not run away from the house. So, eat that anyone that thinks I’m not “domestic” enough. :)

Joanes is from Cameroon. He does have some traditional ideas about men and women, as many African men do. Tebogo & I keep him in check though. :)

I’m feeling hopeful & encouraged about what is happening in Israel today. They have signed a peace treaty with Hamas & there has been a cease-fire for the past four days. Today they are allowing food & medicine across the border into the Gaza Strip, which has been closed for the past 12 months!

As for Zimbabwe. There are a good number of Zimbabweans here in Malawi. I met one that is for Mugabe, but most want him out. I initially felt disappointed when I heard that Morgan Tsvangirai (pronounced Tang-ger-ray) pulled out of the presidential race today, but I respect his reasons. Too many people were getting killed or injured by Mugabe army members/supporters. Tsvangirai said that he won, but his presidency will just be delayed. (He won the March 29th election but not by an absolute majority). He also said that Mugabe has declared war for June 27th (the day the run off election was to take place) and he will not take part in that war. It’s great to hear someone choosing to not take part in violence.

So the Zimbabweans will continue to suffer with all the problems they have under Mugabe, but at least the violence is abated for now. Tsvangirai is saying that genocide could occur in Zim, and the U.N. should intervene before it does. People tell me they want Bush to come and remove Mugabe. I tell them he never will because Zim doesn’t have anything the U.S. can use. Tebo suggested he do it to prove the people who say that wrong. I told her even if he wanted to do that, there are no troops left. They are all in Iraq & Afghanistan.