Muli bwanji? Ndili bwino, kaya inu? How are you? Im fine and you?

This is a Malawian greeting formula, a rhetoric which for a European sometimes sounds strange, distant. First time when I had to use this traditional way of greeting, a friend a visitor or a local it seem to be unsuitable, the situation of the country, the poverty, diseases, corruption and many other problems made me ask a very simple question: are this people aware of all the problems of their society? Are WE aware of all this problems? Can we be so relaxed and express so easy how are you? At all three questions we could say OFCOURSE!!! On one hand, third world inhabitants dont have a choice, of course they know, of course they try, its not easy to be able to ignore, to be able to survive! On the other hand, we, the most developed people of the world, we also are aware of this situation, facts about the daily struggle of the underdeveloped countries are everywhere: on TV, radio, internet, we even learn about it in schools, we have charity concerts and symposiums, photo expositions and movies and this list could go on ... Still, after all this influx of information we still find our self confident in our plastic money and our developed society, a comfortable, distant, careless, cold, ignorant, a society of blind witness of the inhumanity of human kind! Now that we have clear out the limits of our relations I can finally respond with all my heart to the traditional greeting, Muli Buanji? Im fine and you?! I should introduce myself: my name is Catalin, Im an east European anthropologist and for the last 6 moths Ive been a volunteer in Dapp Mikolongwe Vocational School in the southern part of the so called The worm heart of Africa, Malawi, a third world developing country, in the heart of the Sub-Saharan region. I had the chance to be here in Malawi after I followed up a volunteering training program in Denmark in DRH Holsted. After a one year program I can say that I have leaned a lot about many various things, I obtained a position in a Humana project in Malawi where Ive been working as a teacher in a school, who provides education to people who have no economical possibilities at all. Learn a simple job like carpentry, welding, sewing, agriculture, electrical installation is the purpose of this school, jobs which will ultimately provide the basic necessities for a family to survive in the Sub-Saharan environment. The school provides not only the training in one of these disciplines but its also teaching students in other aspects of the daily life here in Malawi, like: how to use prophylaxis measures regarding HIV and AIDS, prophylaxis of Malaria, Cholera hepatitis etcbeing a good, motivated, real person in a harsh environment. I have been working in this community and every smile and every thank you made me feel less white. We bring hope in a place in which according to the statistics there is none. Being a teacher in a school its something which I always wanted to do. I did not choose to do this in Europe, where according to the ethical and moral values of the educational system I dont fit, I choose to bring hope, knowledge and help to those who really need it in a society who welcomes me with open mind. You can be a Humana volunteer in a third world developing country of your choice and have the experience of your life. Being a volunteer its a very difficult choice and this is something that not all of us can do. It is difficult to leave our daily comfortable routine for an experience which will challenge even the most strong and confident of all of us. It is the necessity of the things that must be done so that global inequality can be overcome in a single common effort, effort made by all of us as a single HUMAN kind.