development dilemmas

I get very disturbed sometimes, the disparities in malawi are huge, and I am probably too new here to understand or accepte it..

I had a lady knocking at my door at 6 in the morning a couple of days last week. She wants to work for me, doing the washing and the cleaning. Washing clothes by hand can be a bit tedious, but honestly, it doesn't take more than 2 hours a week. Similar with cleaning the house, so I don't really see the point of hiring someone to work for me. First because I quite don't like people washing my pants and touching my things and second because I have never done it I don't think I will do it now just because is cheap.

A lot of expats or wealthy malawians have staff that clean, cook, etc. Their usual salary is around 30 euros a month. When I tell them that I don't have a housemaid, they say I should, because I cannot do all my washing (well, I've done it all my life) and because I can give a job to someone.
But then every single one says that their housemaids steal food, and I don't wonder why, since its totally impossible that they can live in 30 euros a month, and even more, maintain a family! honestly, the cost of living is cheap in malawi, but is not that cheap...

So, by getting a housemaid, will I generate employment, or poverty? I am just not sure anymore. If some of you wants to give your opinion, please just add a comment below!

time flies!!!

As you can imagine by the low rate of blogging, we are having a lot of fun here. Saray and her friend Nieves arrived on wednesday, and they made all the way from Lilongwe (4 hours of coach, + a couple of taxis) to my house. Very impressive for a couple of beginners in Africa!!

In her first day, Saray just went to ask to the rehabilitation hospital behind my college and they offer her a little (non-profit) job, and Nieves is looking around planing trips and arranging visits to orphanages and things like that.. I must say that Saray and Nieves were friends before coming here, but I don't know if they will continue their friendship after this trip... For some reason they are freaking out each other quite badly.

I heard somewhere that travelling you get to know very well a person, and you may discover his defects and so on.... or may be they are just stressed because of the cultural shock. So, for all of my friends planning to visit me, please do it, but chose well your travel partners :-))

Anyway, last weekend we went to a lodge in Zomba mountain, just 1 hour away from here. I am gonna try to put some pictures to show you the place. The food, the stars at night, the walks, the visit to the village.. it was great. We have booked a visit to mvuu camp (they cannot miss it!, I have writen about that place before..) and we'll go to a festival of music on the lake at the end of september. I don't really know how am I going to manage with my work and all these trips...

Just to finish I should say that everyday I enjoy more my lectures and my students are getting used to me, so its starting to be really fun. In fact I start to enjoy every single bit of my life here, I don't really know why, but I love it.. I cannot describe my feelings, but when I cycle back home after a hard day of work and I may wonder what am I doing here, I see the orange sunset and the palm trees, the jacarandas full of blue flowers, or somebody smiling to me, and all my problems vanish..