A letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

First of all I would like to thank you very much for all the joys that you brought to my life last year.
As you already know, this year I have been super good. I was able to maintain most of the new-year’s resolution. I would give myself a 90% which is closer to A-grade for being nice to my friends and Family. And I would also give myself a passing grad for not procrastinating on my work. I know occasionally I have been pulling those all nighters, but that was so because NCIS has corrupted my concentration on studies. The show is extremely awesome and I’m yet to find another show that is comparable to it. I mean House is great, but is not as good as NCIS now. Gibbs, Ducky, Ziva, Abby and Denozzo… they are all cool in their own way,

Anyhow all I want to point out is that I was able to fulfill about 80% of my goals. Of course I got one failing grade in communicating with family and friends. I don’t have to defend myself now for the poor time management skills… But, I can tell though that I have been improving slowly and next year I’m planning to improve even more on this..

Anyhow, as 2008 is getting to an end, I just wanted to thank you very much for all the happiness and joys you have brought to my life. Thank you very much for loving and caring for me and other children around the world. Thank you very much for all the gifts that you send out every Christmas Eve, and I am hoping that this year you won’t forget me. I am planning to keep most of my goals of being courageous, philanthropic, optimistic and always working hard for better results. You have been by my side throughout this years and I know that you will be by my side forever.

I love you and I can’t wait for you to visit me on Christmas Eve, you can have all the cookies and Milk you want.

May the beloved God give you a strong life

MizzMercy

P.S. don’t forget my wish-list that I have attached to this letter. I know the wishes are a lot, but I heard the Northpole has the best knowledge of making everything possible…..

Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful!!!!

Just some food we had!!


Trying not to get too much


I had a wonderful Thanksgiving week!! how about you?


That was a wonderful meal...

Ten Things I'm Thankful for!!

For a while I have had this myopic view of what Thanksgiving is all about. I just thought it is a mere celebration in the US when people eat lots of turkey and pies. But for the past couple of days I have been contemplating on what Thanksgiving really is all about. Broadly speaking, Thanksgiving is a form of harvesting festival, which in the US occurs on the fourth Thursday of November. The traditional foods include turkey, ham, pies (apple pecan and pumpkin)…But to me, Thanksgiving I personally think is more than all the above description. From an external perspective of a Malawian, I think it is all about being thankful of the blessings that one has had in a year (s).

This life is too short to take everything for granted. As I have been writing before, I feel like I am a blessed girl and I feel so lucky to have the life that I enjoy today. I know I have been writing about children a lot lately, but it’s all because whenever I close my eyes I wonder how miraculously and lucky I am to grow up and have all these experience and just have the life that I have today. And so for this reason, I am planning to jot down ten things that I’m thankful for in this life that God has blessed me with.

1. I am very thankful for the life that I have today. Without the life I wouldn’t have been sitting down and thinking of how wonderful the world has been so far.
2. I am very thankful for my parents in Malawi. I don’t know how to express my gratitude, but without them I wouldn’t have been born. And I thank them for always loving, caring and raising me to the woman that I have become today. Thank you very much for encouraging me to strive for the best and to understand that life is like mount climbing. The harder go up through the rocky trails the more chance I have of getting to the top. But you have always reminded me to remember to be careful while at the top, since falling from top the one hits the ground harder. Well of course unless one gets stuck in the tree branches, but this is just a delay in the falling process, the wind would shake the tree or rescue team might come in time. But it’s inevitable to still have a few broken bones. Thank you very much for your teaching me to be patient and to be considerate of others.
3. I am very thankful for the unconditional love that Jesus has always have for me. Even though sometimes I am in doubt that he is by my side, or that he let’s me suffer, but when I close my eyes and pray, he always comforts me and assures me that all is happening for a reason. And I don’t necessary have to understand all the reasons immediately for he loves me and he is a great provider of wisdom. He is always the way the truth and the light of my life!!!!!
4. I am very thankful for my brothers and my sister. It’s been a very hard road to be the youngest of 9. And I understand how every one of you cares about me and I am sorry that sometimes I’m intractable. But I listen to all your advices and when I mean listen, I mean listening with understanding. I apologize for always trying to be defensive, for even when you tell a child not to touch a hot-plate when it’s on because it’s hot, secretly s/he wants to experiment and see if what s/he is being told is indeed true. And one day s/he touches the plate and burns his/her hand and then s/he understand that the advices were from the elders’ experience. But, I’m glad that you are all humble and when I get burned you still take care of my wounds… there are just so many things I can thank each one of you individually, but I might have to write a book on that
5. I’m very thankful all my other parents and families around the world. They say that it takes a village to raise a child, but I think I the exception, for it has taken the world to raise me. I don’t know how I would have survived without you kindness and loving heart. Being a thousand miles from home has been very difficult for me, but you have opened you homes and taken me as your own. You have been my walking stick through my hill climbing trips. Sometimes I tremble and feel like I’m falling down, but you always stick to the ground and help me regain the balance. It’s always difficult when I tell my friends and even relatives that I am not that homesick, without telling them of your presences. Living my family of 11 and starting this adventurous journey alone was difficult but you have always been there firm and always encouraging. Thank you very much for the optimism and sharing your families with me.
6. I am very thankful for my friends…You have always been there for me. Comforting me whenever I’m weak. Making me feel home when I am way from home. Loving me so dearing and taking me as you sister. You guys always rock and I’m glad that I am (was) part of your lives. You have and continuously touched my life. Please forgive me whenever I said something wrong to you. Please forgive me for being judgmental or challenging sometimes. I hope you understand that sometimes we see this world with different lenses; hence we can’t agree on many issues. I love you all, and you rock my world!!!
7. I am very thankful for the education I have attained so far. I was that girl who “gathered” other peoples pencils and play house in class, during Standard 1 (1991) and I was that girl who fought with Kanofu for cutting in line at Assembly at Livimbo LEA(1992). I was that girl, who during her first day at Lilongwe Demonstration School, (1997 )in Standard 6, cried when a seventh grader stole her sitting stool, but she was bold enough and went got it back. And I was that girl who got selected to Lilongwe girls secondary school and on the first night on campus, sung “the mabongwe song”(2000). And I was that same girl, who when she first got to Kents Hill High school in 2001, knelt for the teachers (since in Malawi I had to). And I was that girl who called my friends hand-bags when she got to Wake Forest University (2004). And now (2008), I am a Kansas State University graduate student girl who is suffering from seniorities fever from undergraduate!!! But above all being in school for almost 18years has taught me that studying and patience are the keys to success. I have enjoyed all my experiences at different schools. And thanks to all the teachers who have taught me to seek for the truth ….
8. I am very grateful for my vision, auditory system, and physical health in general. Even though I’m myopic and need help with spectacles, I thankful that I have been able to see some of beautiful places both in America, Malawi and other countries. It’s a blessing that I have been mobile and physically healthy!!!
9. I am very thankful for my extended family… For my nieces and nephews-Thank you very much for calling me aunti Mercy. For Aunties and uncles, thank you very much for all the love. I will let you know about my wedding plans soon, when Mr. Right shows on my door step with a bouquet of roses. For cousins, we definitely need time to catch up.
10. I’m thankful for the grace, the joy and the blessing that I have experience throughout my life.

Pies and the Turkey for Thanksgiving 08 babes!!!!!

We made some pies yesterday, getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner!!!!



Just get a taste of what we made!!!



Next in line was stuffing the HUGE Turkey. By the way I just found out that the largest turkey made for thanksgiving dinner was 67pounds (about 25kg)..... ours was around half that!!!! But yea, I helped cutting up for the stuffing!!

My experience of growing up in Malawi and other ranting

Growing up in Malawi, I feel like I had a happy childhood. One thing I enjoyed growing up in Malawi is having the freedom to socialize, play with friends and in general have a sense of belonging. I was born and raised in Lilongwe the capital of Malawi. Even though I spent the first 2-3years of my life in Liwonde, I don’t remember that much from those early years. My family moved back to Lilongwe when I was 3 years and I lived there up to the age of 14years old.

Anyhow, as I have already noted, I enjoyed growing up in Lilongwe, in the lower-middle class towns. My mother was and still is a primary school teacher while as my father was an officer of one of the big companies and now he is a farmer. Some of my vivid memories of growing up in Lilongwe involves being able to have so many friends playing house, kick-ball, jump-ropes, play weddings …... I never really had a schedule or plans of activities I had to do after school. Usually, I would visit my friends, or friends would come over to my house, and as long as I have done doing the dishes, which was my family job, then I would be free to play for hours. Really I enjoyed playing and socializing with friends and having a care-free mentality.

Within my locale I was lucky that I grew up in a large family so I had few daily chores that I had to handle. Mainly, I could wash the dishes after meals or when I was about 1O years old (Although I started cooking at an even earlier age, 7 years old), I could prepare dinner by cooking our staple Nsima. Since my only one sister was at a boarding school or at college, so during most of the time my bothers and I do most of the house work. Looking back, the chores were not that tiresome, but I always felt like my brothers were slacking off and I was doing most of the job.

I praise the lord that I come from a stable family and country and I am happy to be raised in a family that made me feel that I belong, even though personally I thought that I was been treated harshly. I was always complaining when my brothers didn’t do their part of the job. I whined every day and moment about someone slacking. However, I thank my parents for encouraging me to take part in household chores which has allowed me to learn at a younger age house how to clean the house, how to do dishes and even how to prepare traditional meals. But although it seemed to be a busy life, I always had a chance of socializing with friends….(I miss you all my friends out there).

Anyhow, one of my childhood experiences was at ages 10-13 I became a business girl and I was selling soft drinks, fresh vegetables, cassava, sweet potatoes, mangoes, ice etc depending on what was in season. . . Yes, I was a business lady at a younger age. I felt very motivated to take part in these small businesses operations because I they were mostly my own initiates and I got to keep profits hahahahah. Moreover, my neighborhood was in the heart of industrial area, so most of my friends were involved in these businesses. It was inevitable and my family knowing that I would be in the streets actually encouraged me to start up my own operations. As a result, I was able to make enough money to have pocket money at school, to help with minimal family costs, and to even help out with some bills in my extended family. My experience in small business, actually taught me some management skills and I think was also a good destruction from other activities that girls of my age were involved in….

So bbc.com Have Your Say has a discussion about which country is the most child friendly country, who should protect children, the government, community, families? Well coming from a Chewa ethic group in Malawi there is a saying that “it takes a village to raise a child”. Anyhow, personally I think that protecting and raising children should be a responsibility of everyone, government, community and children. However, division of responsibility might even prove to be efficient than just having a sole protector of children. For instance, when it comes to basic education, health care, these should be responsibility of government in making sure that all these needs for children are met. I feel like the community, or government should not replace the role of parents in child raring. Parents should be the upfront in giving the children moral lessons and other traditional values. Unless the children are being abused then the government should intervene in order to enforce the laws of the land. Hence, the parents should be in the fore-front in providing/protecting their children before the community and government . Family should be taken as the primary source of nurturing and providing for their children. In cases where parents are deceased, I feel like the community should take charge and the government should only be there to make sure that the orphaned children are being provided with good health care, education and other social needs. Thus we cannot have one player to provide a safe environment for the children; we need everyone to have role in order for out countries to be child friendly. We need to government to make sure that the parents and families and communities are doing their job in providing for the children. And from my experience, my I was lucky that my parents were the key players in raising me..and friends and community provided that warm environment for me to grow up.

Sad moment!!!!How can I make a difference to save a child's life

So I have been running around the bushes lately and try to avoid discussing about poverty that is affecting one of the richest continents in the world, Africa. I understand that there are many poor people living in other parts of the world, but the degree that some of our brothers in Africa are suffering is utterly incomparable. Anyhow, today I was just very stricken to see pictures of under-nourished children from Africa , that even though my friends and I were having a wonderful discussion on other topics, the room all over sadden got quiet. This is not the only time that this has happened, but today I just thought that I need to document my experience,how I feel. May be I could have a peace of mind and go to bed.

Anyhow, it’s 1:00am on Nov. 17th 2008 and I am unable to fall asleep right now, because the images that I saw are still vivid in my mind, and I feel depressed and worthless to be sleeping on my comfy bed…. I’m very emotional and fragile right now, that I can’t stop crying and for the past 3o minutes I have been contemplating on what I can do to help…what happened was that I was chatting with friends and we had Television on at the same time, on Lifetime channel. Anyhow no one really seemed to concentrate on the show that was playing, but as we were chatting, a commercial about helping malnourished children was displayed. The entire living room, it was four of us, all over sadden went quit. It was dead quite for almost 10 seconds or so, that we all stared at the Television and what I saw…. I can’t explain… and I can’t stop sobbing … all I can think of right now is what can I do to save one child’s life… I have tried to pray, but my mind is not forgetting what it had seen today. . . Lord please help me to find a way of helping others!!

I have always been very critical about giving money to foreign charitable organization that claim that they use the money to help out in developing countries. I know this is my weakness, but I’m yet to fathom if this is really an efficient way to making a change in the world. Right now I understand that I have limited options on how I could help, but of me just don’t think that sending $1/day will help a bit. Anyhow, may be when Im rational again I can figure out something, but as I have expressed earlier right now, I’m weak and my eyes are very watery that I can’t make up my mind. So I will try to think about this over and see how I will go about taking my own action and making a difference….

There are so many things that personally I think I take for granted, but I'm learning to be humble and appreciate all the blessings that have been bestowed upon me…and I feel like even though I’m surviving student it’s never too late to take action and help out with some of these world issues…. Anyhow hopefully I something will come out and please don’t hesitate to give me your opinion on what course to take… i.e sponsoring a child, organizing fundraising for the children’s cause etc…..more sobs sobs sobs sobs sobs sobs… I need to sneeze…. More soon

RIP Miriam Zenzi Makeba

Even though your are long gone, your music still lives on and I hope that people across the blob especially young Africans will hear your voice!! You will greatly be missed MAMA AFRICA!! Thank your for the beautiful message and wonderful voice.

Congratulations brother Obama

Obama is the new Elect-President of the United States. Congratulations to him and thanks to everyone who has put so much time and effort with helping his campaign. Thanks all who voted, for they have just illustrated that the some dreams can be realized. I'm so excited to have lived during the time when the US has had a first black president. The broken hierarchy is encouraging to everyone. The old song of always having a white man first, a white woman second and in the middle other-races and then a black man and then a white woman, will not hold no more. Even being an African myself, this election's outcome will hopefully work in my favor. It will encourage me to work-hard and know that by the end of the thing things are possible. Some dreams actually can come true if one has the opportunity to realize them. Congratulations to Obama, Congratulations to the US and congratulations to the entire world….. We are blessed and God is always with US

Greg Mankiw's Blog: Consumer Surplus

I'm I turning into an economics dork or what??? Is there a cure for my recent disease?
Click on the link above and see it your self. This is a wendys Commercial and Dr. Mankiw actually noticed the economics impliction of it and I just thought I should share this one also. I'm loving it.

An Issue of English language as a Median of communication in Malawi

For a while I have minimized the time I spend reading local news from Malawi, not just because I have been extremely busy, but because of the reports that flooding the “blogs”, news-sites, themselves. Every time I open the sites, the headlines were about someone involved in porn, or how politicians are blaspheming one another. I was just sick and tired of browsing through the sites and all the reports were about these two topics.

Anyhow, yesterday, I decided to go back to nyasatimes and read the recent reports on Malawi. And long behold, I came across a couple interesting articles and columns that I just can’t sit back and not comment on them. Paja mati utsi siufuka popanda moto!! So even though the articles may seem to others to be biased or personal views, but they are written because something has happened. At least according to my philosophy, thus this blog will be a bit longer than usual and I will try to comment on a couple of articles from now on. I will do this in a couple blogs even, because the issues discussed hit home!! Please take time to read them as I post the links with my comments and remember that these are just my opinions now, they may or may not change in the near future. I’m still in the process of understanding this world that I live in.
Anyhow here we go

Article one: MEC cancels MSCE as requirement for aspiring MPs, http://www.nyasatimes.com/national/1754.html

So basically the title summarizes the entire article. What I was surprised is that English language was imposed as a basic requirement for someone to be a member of parliament in Malawi. I still have a myopic view of the Malawi Constitution, which I’m in the process of learning, and I didn’t know that language played a role on who can run for parliamentary position. This minimum requirement which according to the article is still in place except that the electoral commission have dismissed and requirement of having an MSCE, an equivalent of the US high school Diploma. The article reads, “The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has reverted to its former system for assessing aspiring Members of Parliament, abandoning the issue of Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) as an entry requiremen” (Emelyn Nyoni).

Personally I feel like the requirement of having proficiency knowledge of English language is very discriminatory. First all, the English language is not well understood by the majority of population in Malawi. I feel like if we are in a democratic country anyone should be able to run for parliamentary position as long as they are of suffrage age and they can articulate clearly their views and platforms to the people. Even in the parliament, all MPs should be able to articulate themselves in the language they know best and if there will be a need of having translators let us have some. I mean most people, I feel like more than 90% of Malawian population, whether you come from the southern region or the north, they understand Chichewa now. I wonder why we couldn’t just drop the use of English in Parliament and even during the president’s public announcement all together. I mean, English can be a median language, but if it is difficult for the majoring of the citizens to understand what their representatives are saying in parliament, then what role is it playing. Most successful nation use their mother tongues for communication. Look at china, Japan, India etc they all have dilects in their languages but they use one unifying language other than the western Language .

In 2006, I was back home, and I got a chance of watching the parliamentary debates on resource allocation before passing the budget. The first day I was patient enough to sit through one session, but the second day, the same trend that happened during the first day was repeated. What happened was, almost the same few people were speaking and the most common comment that I hear from the majoring or the MP’s was either “object” and “Mr. Speaker sir” added one sentence. I still hadn’t mastered the logistics of the debates, but I got to the point that I was annoyed not with the arguments, but with watching the almost the same MP’s objecting to the point that I got bored and relied on reading the commentaries from newspapers instead. Anyhow, may be my experience with parliamentary meeting session was at the wrong time, I am yet to attend one of their other meetings and see if there are different, and that many MPs participate.

My main point is that I feel like English should not be a burden to some people who have better platforms and sound policy ideas to take part in becoming MPs. I think that only those who will be directly responsible with making negotiations with foreigners i.e NGO representatives and such, should have some proficiency knowledge of English. Otherwise we are all Malawians let’s united and discuss the matters in a language in which the majority of the public understand.

On the note of the use of English as a median language, I personally get annoyed when I go into stores, banks and other “Malawian high-brow” places, and I get everyone try to communicate with me in English when the truth is I started speaking to thAT person in Chichewa. It’s understandable if the person I’m speaking to doesn’t understand or speak Chichewa for them to respond in English. And I play a lot with people’s accents that you can’t hide from me, I can tell whether you speak Chichewa or not from the way you respond to the greeting. Anyhow enough about this, so yea, it has happened a couple of times, last Dec 2007 when I home.

The first time this happened was when I went to the National Bank, yes NB. I was trying to open a bank account, and I stood online as usual and when my turn came, I went to the retailer and I said mulibwanji, with my smiley face. And the retailer responded “Im fine”. I continued handling my business in Chichewa and started asking her how I could open a bank a count. And omg! I was speaking to her in Chichewa and she responded to me in very colloquial, not even formal English. I was annoyed to death that she understood everything that I was saying, but all this time she responded to me in English. Does that mean that NB in LL only carters in English speaking people? How does she manage non-English speaking customers. I was very very aggravated!!.

And the second time this happened, was when I went to a computer cafe at 7-11 in Lilongwe. I feel very annoyed when people do this to me and I don’t like it. I think as a consumer I have a choice of what language I want to use in handling the business, and isn’t the law of business that you have to please your consumers first. I mean how these people deal with people who have difficulties understanding or even speaking English? Does this mean that the service is geared towards English speakers? I mean in both cases I ended up being very frustrated, I just feel like in Malawi we overplay the game that “ hey, I can speak English”, so don’t use any other language but English. I was very aggravated because, in the other countries people are very proud of their languages. For example in SA, you wouldn’t ask someone for something in English. You wouldn’t dare do that because they would respond to you is Zulu or Tswana, or other languages. Go to Zambia? You are even better off not asking. May be it’s just me that I have bad experiences but, hey I’m yet to see my countryman be proud of our language.

Until later…….cheers

I’m BACK Again!!!!!It's your gal Mizz M-E-R-CY

Yes I know, I have been quiet but that’s because there was nothing really to write about. Anyhow, I thought I should break the silence by letting y’all know what I have been up to. GRADUATE SCHOOL;

My experience with grad-school so far has been good. I have met lots of cool people from all over the world. Anyhow, the few people that I have met have been very very kind and close to me that the homesickness that I felt I might have considering the transition from NC where I made lots of friends, has already disappeared. I just feel normal, and my new place is very natural and not extraordinary like my first impression. The only time I feel out of place is when people are discussing politics, since MORE people here are very conservative and pro-Mccain. I’m fairly liberal so sometimes it’s difficult to fathom other people’s perspective.

Enough on that, grad-school is difficult. At least if you are studying economics. I thought I was prepared enough by taking real analysis and all those kinds of math classes in undergraduate. But seriously, I never really learn to combine all the skills and use them to solve a single economic problem. The problems as manageable and easy to some extent but they require a lot of time to fathom what they are asking and what implications they reveal. But I have been working on my skills that now, Im getting used to the types of questions and methods of analysis. Anyhow, I feel like I have been doing great and I have catch up with almost all of my classes.

But, one thing I have learned about grad-school is that it’s easy to be off track. In undergraduate, at least according my experience, we were constantly having work to do that not having assignments felt very abnormal. Anyhow, grad-school on the other hand is not like that at all. I have noticed that I have few assignments that take a couple of hours to complete each one. And sometimes they are not due until a couple weeks after they have been assigned. So it’s easy for one to put it off for a while and thinking that she has time to finish all the work in a day or two. I have more time to do them, but seriously, my problem with procrastination. It’s a disease to me, I make myself busy and work my way around doing the homework until I know they are due.

Last week for instance I had work due in two of my classes and that because I procrastinated on both, I ended up going to bed having 4 hours of sleep in two days. I promise myself that this will not happen again that I actually finally decided to do all my assignments within a day or two after they are assigned and not wait a couple of hours before they are due and try to write up something. Anyhow if anyone reading this is planning to attend graduate school, at least here in the US you might need to start working now on time management. Hopefully I will personally get better. I have been working on it.

Anyhow, that’s all I can write now, but expect more to come soon. I will leave you with one advice, please if you are a procrastinator I might sound like a hypocrite, but I think it’s better to start working on those time management skills.

Until next time………

School, Randomness, I need topics to write about.

I am enjoying myself with the new semester!! I just haven't found anything potent to write on. Give me ideas of what to write. Otherwise, wait until I find a topic.

I just have been busy with school, in a new state, new level... everything is driving me nuts. Now I need to start thinking of publications!!!!!! wow, don't make me feel scared already, I am just a first year graduate student trying to make it through again. Five more years, I will sing another song. Nowadays, I am living the day and sleeping the night. Patience is the key, that's what my father usually say when I talk to him on the phone.

How I miss Malawi, the freshness and sweetness of the place. I am always random when I am bored and please forgive these ramblings and email me some topics I that could write about.

I miss you man!! you know who you are but call me tonight, it's weekend so no wasting daytime minutes. Actually though this ramblings I have found something to write about. The art of flashing on cellphones. You know you are from Malawi if you have mastered this art, or perhaps the the system now is to send "a please call me."

I love you sis, bro, friend and you'all anyways. XOXOXOXO. I will try to write something coherent next time. Just drop me the ideas. I don't like posting blogs about me i and myself or as boring as this one. IM BORED RIGHT NOW