Three of my neighbor’s children, Enita, Amosi and Richardi (ages 12, 10 & 6, approximately), came over to my house the other day to give me a school book to study Chichewa. They’d determined that my Chichewa wasn’t good enough for a Form 4 book (fourth grade), so they brought me a Form 1 book (first grade). They were right. I eagerly looked through the book that labeled pictures of everyday household items and animals, and had sentences like, “Galu amadya nyama,” or, “The dog eats meat.” We sat on my front porch as I admired the book and thanked them for bringing it, but after a few minutes, it became apparent they had no intention of leaving. What was I supposed to do with these three children just sitting on my porch? I asked them a few questions, like “what grade will you be starting in school in September,” and “did you play soccer today?” But soon, my Chichewa was exhausted and the kids just sat there chatting with each other and folding a piece of paper into various shapes. Finally, I decided that I had work to do, and I’d go ahead and do it whether they were there or not, so I went to the kitchen and got a big bowl full of peas that needed to be shelled and sat down next to them to shell the peas. To my delight, they immediately grabbed handfuls of peas and started helping me like it was their duty. I played some Malawian music on my iPod and speakers, and we all sat there working together and moving to the beat. After a while, the Malawian album finished, and I put on a Will Smith album, knowing that would have a good beat. The kids loved it, and little Richardi even got up and danced for us as we laughed and the kids joked. Once the peas were finished, the kids said they were going and left to start chores at their house. It was so much fun spending time with them, and it was nice to feel that they were accepting me as part of their community – someone they could just hang out with.
In the last few weeks, I’ve started meeting with individual villages to learn about what problems these small communities face and how they think I may be able to help them. There are 24 villages in the area I’m serving, so it’s a bit tedious to visit each one individually, but I think it’s important to get to know the villages better, and for them to know me and feel comfortable with me. I keep hearing the same needs over and over – start-up money for businesses or IGAs (Income Generating Activities), fertilizer for better crop production, and livestock to provide money and nutrition. I’m going to try to address all of these in my time here. For the businesses, I first want to do some trainings in basic business skills. I have an idea of doing a community lecture series, covering a different business topic each week. Anyone could come to the lectures, and at the end of the series, anyone who has attended most or all of the lectures, and who submits an appropriate business plan, would get a small grant or loan for start-up money. Of course, I’ll have to get funding for those grants, but they would be small amounts, so I think it’s possible. For the fertilizer, I don’t want to encourage synthetic fertilizers because they’re very expensive here, and simply providing them wouldn’t be sustainable. I think I’ll address that need by providing training in using compost and manure, and by teaching farmers to incorporate crop waste back into the soil. Right now, many farmers simply burn leftover corn stalks or bean vines after the crop is harvested. Perhaps they don’t realize that they’re burning up nutrients the soil could use. If they could turn that crop waste back under the soil, I think they’d dramatically improve their crop yields, without expensive synthetic fertilizers. But, that would require additional labor, and it’s hard to get people to change the way they’ve been doing things all their lives, so even though it seems like common sense to us, getting people to adopt this technique may take some work. For livestock, we’re going to address that need with the big projects I mentioned in my previous post, and maybe we’ll try some other smaller side projects in livestock as well. The local HIV/AIDS support group has decided it wants to do a dairy goat project, which makes me very happy. My not-so-secret personal desire is to get someone to do a dairy cow project, but so far that’s not on the agenda.
There are a few other needs that have been expressed, including extending a water tap to a couple villages so they won’t have to draw drinking water from the river, a new wheelchair for a disabled boy, and glasses for an older man who is very nearsighted. All of these are small projects and do-able – I just have to figure out the best way to address these needs. A lot of my job is simply finding resources that are available, and bringing them to the rural community.
One additional reason for holding the village meetings is to make sure everyone in the community knows my name and calls me by it. There’s a tendency here for children to see me walking by and start shouting, “Azungu! Azungu!” This is a generic term for a white person, and they shout it because they’re excited to see me, but my counterpart and I think it’s important that the children, and everyone else for that matter, know that I’m not just any azungu – I’m a member of their community, so they should call me by my name. Of course, now when I walk down the road, the children yell, “Say-la! Say-la!” They call me Say-la, because they have a really hard time pronouncing Sara as we would. I feel a bit like a celebrity here – everyone knows who I am and they’re really excited when I come around. It’s fun, but also means that I have to constantly be “on” when I leave the house. There’s no such thing as anonymity here in the villages.
Stay tuned – I’m hoping to have a video post for you next time! Fingers crossed that I can upload video on Malawi’s very slow Internet. Please leave any comments, questions, or suggestions for me, whether about the blog, my work, or anything else.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Pictures!!!
I've finally uploaded pictures! Click the link below. You should be able to see them, even if you're not a Facebook member.
Photo Album on Facebook
Photo Album on Facebook
First Month at Site
My neighbors think I’m crazy. I don’t blame them – I give them plenty of good reasons to think it! Like earlier this week – it’s 5:30am, and I’m slowly walking down the road with a latex glove on one hand, a bucket in another, head sweeping slowly side to side. Every once in I while I bend over, pick something up to put in the bucket, and then keep going. When my neighbor asks me what’s in the bucket, I reply, “Manowa.” Yep. Manure. My garden soil is in desperate need of nutrients, and the cows and goats in the community leave these beautiful little gems of fertilizer right on the road! I figure, why let it go to waste? Of course, people here know about using manure to improve the soil, but they wouldn’t dream of picking it up off the road to use! In the States, you could just go to your local farmer and take all the manure you wanted, but here there are fewer animals, and they’re only confined at night, so there aren’t such large deposits of manure in animals pens. Plus, if I want to get manure from one of my farmer neighbors, I have to walk a long way over a hill to get it. So for now, I’ll do some small-scale gathering, early in the morning, when only a few people are out and about, so it doesn’t become a spectacle!
I’ve been at my site for just over a month now and am really enjoying it. There are some tough days when I feel lonely, but for the most part, it’s been fantastic and very busy. I’ve been spending a lot of time working in the garden. It’s a big garden and was neglected for about two months between the previous volunteer’s departure and my arrival, so the weeds have taken over. As I’ve pulled up the weeds, I’ve discovered wonderful surprises hiding underneath, such as pineapples, peanuts, and beans. My greatest discovery was the strawberries that I knew were there, but couldn’t find at first. Sadly, the berries are about the size of the end of my pinky finger, but they taste wonderful. I’m hoping with a little extra care and water, they’ll grow bigger and more plentiful. I have a ton of sweet potatoes that I’ll harvest in July, and tons of cassava, the traditional staple food plant of Malawi. I’m not too excited about the cassava, but look forward to making lots of sweet potato casseroles when the time comes! I think I’ll enjoy spending a lot of time in my garden in the next two years.
Here's a pic of my house, with part of the garden in the foreground. Sorry for the poor picture quality - I've been neglecting to take pictures, so snapped this quickly before I came to Lilongwe yesterday.
Speaking of food, I’ve been so pleased with what I’ve been able to cook here. I made tacos one night, including making tortillas from scratch. They were amazing! I managed to make a wonderful chocolate cake, practicing for a friend’s birthday party in August. And, I’ve had stir-fries with fresh veggies from the garden and egg and potato scrambles for breakfast. It’s been a lot of fun trying out new creations with whatever food is available in the area. Right now, there are a lot of lemons and avocados, so I’ve been having a lot of guacamole and lemonade! I also learned that you can make an amazing version of chocolate pudding by mixing mashed-up avocado, cocoa powder, and sugar. Try it – you’ll like it! I’ve also found that I actually like nsima now. I eat lunch with my counterpart’s family about once a week, and it’s nice to have nsima on such an infrequent basis. Every day is too much, but once a week, it becomes a comfort food.
As I mentioned, the first month at site has been busy. Besides getting the house and garden in order, I’ve been having three to four meetings each week with community groups and residents of the different villages in the area. In Malawi, small villages each have a Village Headman, or Chief, and then a number of villages get grouped together under a Group Village Headman. Then, a number of village groups get lumped together under a T.A., or Traditional Authority. In my area, there are four village groups, with four to eight villages in each group. I’ve decided to start my work with four major projects – one with each village group. I held meetings with each group and they decided what type of projects they wanted to try, based on what they thought would be most beneficial to the villages and most likely to succeed. Three of the village groups chose projects to raise pigs, and one group chose a beekeeping project. Stay tuned for details of those big projects as we start working on them. The big challenge will be to find funding, so we’ll be applying for grants from NGOs and other sources. After that, the big challenge will be to make the projects successful! I’ve been advised that many projects fail, but I’m optimistic that these will succeed. I’ll also be doing a number of smaller secondary projects with different groups such as an HIV/AIDS support group, a beekeeping group that funds orphan and elder care, and a women’s enterprise group. Already, the area has a number of projects going, including an impressive irrigation scheme and plans to grow macadamia and coffee trees as cash crops, and I may be able to help with some of these programs as well. There are so many ways I can get involved with the community, and I think they’ll keep me super busy!
I’m still working on overcoming a few challenges. First, I’m hoping to buy a Blackberry or other Internet-enabled phone while I’m visiting Lilongwe this weekend. I’m also hoping to buy, or at least research, a large solar panel and battery that would allow me to charge my computer at site. There’s really no way to charge it without biking 18 kilometers down the hill and back to Ntchisi, the district capital. Fingers crossed that I’ll get the power and Internet situations figured out in the next month or so, so I can communicate with you more often! There’s also a problem with transportation to and from my site. I can bike to Ntchisi, but it takes about an hour to get there, and three to four hours to get back up the hill carrying the goods I buy there. The other option is taking a matola, the big flat-bed trucks that carry goods and people. Unfortunately, this time of year the matolas are incredibly crowded with bales of tobacco and bags of beans, soya, peanuts, and potatoes, all going to market. Plus, they’re crowded with people who have money at harvest time, so they’re going to the market to buy goods. This makes the matolas dangerously overloaded, and not a fun way to get around. I’ve tried to avoid them as much as possible, but the few times I’ve had to take one, like to get to Lilongwe this weekend, I’ve climbed up and hung on for dear life, hoping I don’t fall off or that the matola doesn’t go tumbling over an embankment because it’s too top-heavy. The overloaded matola is the one thing I’ve found in Malawi that I have to say is uncivilized. I really can’t adequately explain my frustration with the danger and discomfort people have to endure just to get to their nearest market.
One other challenge – no mail. I’ve heard that apparently there was an anthrax outbreak in South Africa, so all the mail that came through South Africa to get to me in Malawi had to be sent back to the States because it might be contaminated with anthrax. This makes no sense, I know, but welcome to my world. As a result, I’ve so far received only two packages and eight letters since arriving here more than three months ago. Alas! I’m hopeful that everything you’ve sent will arrive some fine day.
That’s all for now. I hope to update you again in July. Please add any questions or comments you have here. I love reading them, and will be happy to respond as best I can in my next post. Tiwonana (See you later)!
P.S. - Check out http://www.ntchisi.com/to see the website for the tourist lodge that's about one kilometer up the road from my house. It has some good information about the area, and pictures! And, check out my new mailing address in the column to the right.
Also, here's a pic of me with my host family from training. From left to right - Lias, Heatherwick, Me, Jennifer, Jackson.
Monday, April 26, 2010
My First Post from Malawi!
This is the first chance I’ve had for more than just a few minutes on the Internet since I’ve been in country, so at last – my first blog post from Malawi! I can easily say that in the last two months, I’ve been happier than I can ever remember. Coming to Malawi with the Peace Corps was definitely the right move for me! I’ve been here nearly two months and am just about to finish training. On Wednesday, April 28th, I’ll swear in as an official Peace Corps volunteer, and the next day I’ll head to the site where I’ll be stationed for the next two years.
First, I want to say thank you for your letters, emails, messages and packages. It means so much to me to know that you care.
I apologize in advance for the length of this entry. There’s a lot to tell you! I’ll split it up into sections so you can pick and choose what you want to read.
Training:
Training was a little like being at camp for two months. We started out living in a dormitory at a forestry college in Dedza for the first week. Then, we spent five weeks living with a host family in a village near the forestry college. I was in the village of Chikanda and lived with the wonderful Madalitso family. After leaving there, we each visited a current Peace Corps volunteer for a few days and then visited our permanent sites for a few days. Next, we spent a week at intensive language training, then took our final language test, and Wednesday we swear in as volunteers.
Food:
The food here is pretty bland and repetitive. Malawians eat a dish called “nsima” at nearly every meal. Nsima is made of corn flour and is a little bit like grits, except thicker, and molded into patties about the size of my two palms put together. Malawians have a saying that if you haven’t eaten nsima, you haven’t eaten a meal, and they’ll typically eat two or three of these nsima patties in a meal. The problem with this is that nsima contains very little nutrition and makes up a huge portion of the typical Malawian’s diet. Malawians especially like white nsima, which is highly refined – like white bread in the States. They actually spend a lot of time and energy to process the corn flour into this white, tasteless, but very creamy nsima, but at the same time they remove any nutrition that was originally in the corn. A better option is ngaiwa nsima, which is made with flour from the whole corn kernel. This is healthier, but is viewed as less desirable and something that poor people eat. I much prefer it!
In addition to nsima, a typical Malawian meal includes cooked greens and some sort of protein – often beans, but sometimes eggs or meat if it’s available. Unfortunately, the Malawian dinner plate is often covered with a huge portion of nsima and very tiny portions of greens and protein. Part of my job here will be to help educate my community about nutrition and the benefits of balancing out their plate a bit more. It will be a challenge because not only are people resistant to change, but Malawians are also very poor and in many cases, are not able to afford a broader range of food. They grow their own maize, beans, and greens, but most have very limited access to animal proteins or a wider variety of fruits, vegetables and grains. I will encourage members of my community to diversify the grains and veggies that they plant. I’m also thinking of doing some small-scale livestock projects with rabbits, chickens or goats. There’s definitely a dearth of livestock in my region.
Dairy products are very hard to come by here. You can buy powdered milk or UHT milk (the kind that doesn’t have to be refrigerated and can sit on a shelf for months) at grocery stores in the larger towns, but it’s very expensive. Fresh milk is unheard of in most of Malawi. I would consider doing a dairy project, either with cows or goats, but that would be a major undertaking, so we’ll have to see if I feel up to it, and if the community is interested and willing to put in the time, effort and resources to make it successful and sustainable after I leave.
In my own home, I hope to have a more diversified diet than most Malawians. I’ll probably eat mostly eggs, beans and peanuts for protein, since meat is so hard to get. They have soya pieces here, which are the most delicious meat substitute I’ve ever tried, so those may become a staple. For veggies, I have a garden that will provide a lot of greens and some other fun things like green peppers, onions and carrots. There are also some strawberries and tomatoes planted. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for those, but I don’t know how well they’ll do because the climate at my site is pretty cold and damp. I can also buy bananas pretty much year-round, and will be able to buy some produce from a couple farmers in the village that have it available on a seasonal basis. Whole grains are hard to come by here, so feel free to send brown rice and whole wheat pasta to me! I can get couscous here occasionally, so that’s something. Besides that, I’ll probably eat a lot of white rice and some ngaiwa nsima. I also have a small mud oven, so I plan to try a little baking. I hope to get creative with cooking and make some really delicious meals, despite the lack of ingredients!
Amenities:
It’s amazing how quickly one can get used to bathing out of a bucket and using a pit latrine. Before I came here, I thought those would be some of the hardest adjustments, but I find that they’re really not a problem. Bucket baths are actually quite pleasant, as long as the water is warm. Of course, I might change my mind about that when it gets cold here in a few months. There’s a water tap about 50 meters away from my house, so it’s very convenient, and the water is pretty clean. Also, my pit latrine is pretty clean, except for the flies that come out of the hole when you remove the lid. Plus, toilet tissue is available from grocery stores in large towns, and is fairly inexpensive, so I don’t have to use leaves as I anticipated I might.
It was a bit of a shock the first time it got dark and I realized I couldn’t just flip a switch to turn on the lights. I had to scramble to find my flashlight and light a candle. But, it was another quick adjustment, and now I know exactly where my flashlight is, and I’m ready with it when dusk arrives. The greater challenge will be keeping my laptop powered. I have a solar device (thanks CNN Money Unit friends!) to charge smaller electronics like my camera and iPod, but sadly it doesn’t charge my laptop. I’ll be able to charge it at least once a month when I travel into the capital of Lilongwe. Other than that, I’m going to investigate whether anyone in my village has a generator or car battery that I can use to recharge, and I may look into buying a car battery of my own.
Along with no electricity comes the problem of how to cook food. There’s plenty of firewood available in the forest preserve near my house, but at this time of year the wood is very wet, so it’s hard to start a fire for cooking and heating bathwater. I’m going to look into buying a paraffin stove. Paraffin is expensive, but it would be nice to have a back-up for the days when I have a lot of trouble starting a wood fire. It’s going to take a little experimentation to learn to cook well over a fire, so I might have a few poorly cooked meals before I get the hang of it!
The one other amenity that I’ll miss here is Internet. It’s not available anywhere near me as far as I can tell. That means I’ll be able to get online only once a month in Lilongwe. However, I’m looking into some options such as buying a wireless card or an Internet-enabled cell phone. Of course, I don’t have cell phone service at my house and have to walk up a nearby hill for coverage, but that’s a minor detail. Fingers crossed that I can find an alternative and update you on a somewhat regular basis!
One more note – if you’d like my cell phone number, send me a personal message. I’d love to receive calls, but we have to arrange in advance so I can walk up the hill to get reception when I’m expecting a call!
Work:
As an environment volunteer, I have a lot of flexibility to work on the types of projects I want, and to set my schedule as I wish. The main objective is to do projects that the community wants, that will help improve quality of life, that will help villagers reduce dependence on the forest preserve, and that will be sustainable to continue after I leave. Here are some of the types of projects I’m considering working on with my community:
- beekeeping (to sell honey and beeswax candles)
- mushroom farming
- fish farming
- soap making
- jam making
- cheese making
- peanut oil pressing
- permagardening (for year-round produce)
- tree nurseries and planting (both for food production & re-forestation)
- irrigation projects
- making crafts to sell (pottery, knitting/crocheting, wood carvings, baskets)
- micro-credit & other banking/finance/community savings plans
- business training
- livestock projects
- building mud stoves (for fuel efficiency & better indoor air quality)
- teaching & encouraging composting
- teaching & guest lecturing at the local high school
- running environment camp
- health education (nutrition, HIV/AIDS, rehydration therapy for diarrhea, etc.)
- assisting with health clinics for under-5 children
- wildlife/environment club at local school
- start 4-H/FFA-type club at local school
Let me know if you have any ideas for me!
My House:
My house is a large (for Malawi), three-room structure with mud-brick walls and a thatched roof. It’s really nice by local standards, and I’m thrilled with it! I have plenty of room and an extra double bed for visitors, so make your travel plans now! I live on the side of Ntchisi Mountain, right outside the Ntchisi Forest Reserve, and about one kilometer from Ntchisi Forest Lodge, which caters to tourists. My area is called the “Scotland of Malawi,” and is absolutely beautiful with gorgeous green hills leading up to the mountain. The climate is a little cooler than most of Malawi and I’m told it gets pretty cold in July and August – perhaps even down to freezing. That will be an experience since I’ll have no heat in the house, and brought very few winter-type clothes! The two big upsides of this are that it’s not so brutally hot in the summer as other parts of the country, and there are very few mosquitoes to buzz around my head at night as I’m trying to enjoy dinner! The downside of being in a fairly remote village is that transportation to this area is a little sketchy, and in the rainy season, the road leading to the village can be difficult if not impassable.
Surrounding my house is a wonderful garden that the previous volunteer, Bright Tate, planned and implemented. There’s a huge variety of veggies, herbs and flowers. There are also four peach trees, which makes me ecstatic, although they’re young, so I don’t know if they’ll produce any fruit for me in the next two years. I have a large kitchen building that is separate from the main house and is as large as many people’s houses here. There’s also a large bafa for bathing, a large chim (building surrounding the pit latrine), a house for rabbits, and a tall reed privacy fence around the entire complex. On one side of the fence, lives a small family – father, mother and baby. The father there will help me with my garden and any fixes I need around the house. On the other side of the fence is a large family compound of four or five houses, occupied by my landlord and several of his sons and daughters and their families.
Malawi in General:
Malawi is a beautiful country and the people here are incredible. They work hard (especially the women!) and they are some of the most hospitable people I’ve ever met. Poverty is a tremendous problem here, but I believe the people are happier with their lives than most people that I know in the U.S. While they may not have the material possessions we have in the States, they have stronger ties to their families and communities, and they’re not always striving to keep up with the Joneses, but striving to share what they have with their neighbors. Malawians are quick to tell you that they’re poor, but I think they’re richer than they believe. I don’t want to change their communities, except to help them better provide for their families, so they’ll always have nutritious food on their tables and so their children will have opportunities to make what they want of their lives.
That’s all for now. I hope to update this blog at least once a month and will start including some fun stories about my experiences and the people I meet here. Thanks for all your support!
First, I want to say thank you for your letters, emails, messages and packages. It means so much to me to know that you care.
I apologize in advance for the length of this entry. There’s a lot to tell you! I’ll split it up into sections so you can pick and choose what you want to read.
Training:
Training was a little like being at camp for two months. We started out living in a dormitory at a forestry college in Dedza for the first week. Then, we spent five weeks living with a host family in a village near the forestry college. I was in the village of Chikanda and lived with the wonderful Madalitso family. After leaving there, we each visited a current Peace Corps volunteer for a few days and then visited our permanent sites for a few days. Next, we spent a week at intensive language training, then took our final language test, and Wednesday we swear in as volunteers.
Food:
The food here is pretty bland and repetitive. Malawians eat a dish called “nsima” at nearly every meal. Nsima is made of corn flour and is a little bit like grits, except thicker, and molded into patties about the size of my two palms put together. Malawians have a saying that if you haven’t eaten nsima, you haven’t eaten a meal, and they’ll typically eat two or three of these nsima patties in a meal. The problem with this is that nsima contains very little nutrition and makes up a huge portion of the typical Malawian’s diet. Malawians especially like white nsima, which is highly refined – like white bread in the States. They actually spend a lot of time and energy to process the corn flour into this white, tasteless, but very creamy nsima, but at the same time they remove any nutrition that was originally in the corn. A better option is ngaiwa nsima, which is made with flour from the whole corn kernel. This is healthier, but is viewed as less desirable and something that poor people eat. I much prefer it!
In addition to nsima, a typical Malawian meal includes cooked greens and some sort of protein – often beans, but sometimes eggs or meat if it’s available. Unfortunately, the Malawian dinner plate is often covered with a huge portion of nsima and very tiny portions of greens and protein. Part of my job here will be to help educate my community about nutrition and the benefits of balancing out their plate a bit more. It will be a challenge because not only are people resistant to change, but Malawians are also very poor and in many cases, are not able to afford a broader range of food. They grow their own maize, beans, and greens, but most have very limited access to animal proteins or a wider variety of fruits, vegetables and grains. I will encourage members of my community to diversify the grains and veggies that they plant. I’m also thinking of doing some small-scale livestock projects with rabbits, chickens or goats. There’s definitely a dearth of livestock in my region.
Dairy products are very hard to come by here. You can buy powdered milk or UHT milk (the kind that doesn’t have to be refrigerated and can sit on a shelf for months) at grocery stores in the larger towns, but it’s very expensive. Fresh milk is unheard of in most of Malawi. I would consider doing a dairy project, either with cows or goats, but that would be a major undertaking, so we’ll have to see if I feel up to it, and if the community is interested and willing to put in the time, effort and resources to make it successful and sustainable after I leave.
In my own home, I hope to have a more diversified diet than most Malawians. I’ll probably eat mostly eggs, beans and peanuts for protein, since meat is so hard to get. They have soya pieces here, which are the most delicious meat substitute I’ve ever tried, so those may become a staple. For veggies, I have a garden that will provide a lot of greens and some other fun things like green peppers, onions and carrots. There are also some strawberries and tomatoes planted. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for those, but I don’t know how well they’ll do because the climate at my site is pretty cold and damp. I can also buy bananas pretty much year-round, and will be able to buy some produce from a couple farmers in the village that have it available on a seasonal basis. Whole grains are hard to come by here, so feel free to send brown rice and whole wheat pasta to me! I can get couscous here occasionally, so that’s something. Besides that, I’ll probably eat a lot of white rice and some ngaiwa nsima. I also have a small mud oven, so I plan to try a little baking. I hope to get creative with cooking and make some really delicious meals, despite the lack of ingredients!
Amenities:
It’s amazing how quickly one can get used to bathing out of a bucket and using a pit latrine. Before I came here, I thought those would be some of the hardest adjustments, but I find that they’re really not a problem. Bucket baths are actually quite pleasant, as long as the water is warm. Of course, I might change my mind about that when it gets cold here in a few months. There’s a water tap about 50 meters away from my house, so it’s very convenient, and the water is pretty clean. Also, my pit latrine is pretty clean, except for the flies that come out of the hole when you remove the lid. Plus, toilet tissue is available from grocery stores in large towns, and is fairly inexpensive, so I don’t have to use leaves as I anticipated I might.
It was a bit of a shock the first time it got dark and I realized I couldn’t just flip a switch to turn on the lights. I had to scramble to find my flashlight and light a candle. But, it was another quick adjustment, and now I know exactly where my flashlight is, and I’m ready with it when dusk arrives. The greater challenge will be keeping my laptop powered. I have a solar device (thanks CNN Money Unit friends!) to charge smaller electronics like my camera and iPod, but sadly it doesn’t charge my laptop. I’ll be able to charge it at least once a month when I travel into the capital of Lilongwe. Other than that, I’m going to investigate whether anyone in my village has a generator or car battery that I can use to recharge, and I may look into buying a car battery of my own.
Along with no electricity comes the problem of how to cook food. There’s plenty of firewood available in the forest preserve near my house, but at this time of year the wood is very wet, so it’s hard to start a fire for cooking and heating bathwater. I’m going to look into buying a paraffin stove. Paraffin is expensive, but it would be nice to have a back-up for the days when I have a lot of trouble starting a wood fire. It’s going to take a little experimentation to learn to cook well over a fire, so I might have a few poorly cooked meals before I get the hang of it!
The one other amenity that I’ll miss here is Internet. It’s not available anywhere near me as far as I can tell. That means I’ll be able to get online only once a month in Lilongwe. However, I’m looking into some options such as buying a wireless card or an Internet-enabled cell phone. Of course, I don’t have cell phone service at my house and have to walk up a nearby hill for coverage, but that’s a minor detail. Fingers crossed that I can find an alternative and update you on a somewhat regular basis!
One more note – if you’d like my cell phone number, send me a personal message. I’d love to receive calls, but we have to arrange in advance so I can walk up the hill to get reception when I’m expecting a call!
Work:
As an environment volunteer, I have a lot of flexibility to work on the types of projects I want, and to set my schedule as I wish. The main objective is to do projects that the community wants, that will help improve quality of life, that will help villagers reduce dependence on the forest preserve, and that will be sustainable to continue after I leave. Here are some of the types of projects I’m considering working on with my community:
- beekeeping (to sell honey and beeswax candles)
- mushroom farming
- fish farming
- soap making
- jam making
- cheese making
- peanut oil pressing
- permagardening (for year-round produce)
- tree nurseries and planting (both for food production & re-forestation)
- irrigation projects
- making crafts to sell (pottery, knitting/crocheting, wood carvings, baskets)
- micro-credit & other banking/finance/community savings plans
- business training
- livestock projects
- building mud stoves (for fuel efficiency & better indoor air quality)
- teaching & encouraging composting
- teaching & guest lecturing at the local high school
- running environment camp
- health education (nutrition, HIV/AIDS, rehydration therapy for diarrhea, etc.)
- assisting with health clinics for under-5 children
- wildlife/environment club at local school
- start 4-H/FFA-type club at local school
Let me know if you have any ideas for me!
My House:
My house is a large (for Malawi), three-room structure with mud-brick walls and a thatched roof. It’s really nice by local standards, and I’m thrilled with it! I have plenty of room and an extra double bed for visitors, so make your travel plans now! I live on the side of Ntchisi Mountain, right outside the Ntchisi Forest Reserve, and about one kilometer from Ntchisi Forest Lodge, which caters to tourists. My area is called the “Scotland of Malawi,” and is absolutely beautiful with gorgeous green hills leading up to the mountain. The climate is a little cooler than most of Malawi and I’m told it gets pretty cold in July and August – perhaps even down to freezing. That will be an experience since I’ll have no heat in the house, and brought very few winter-type clothes! The two big upsides of this are that it’s not so brutally hot in the summer as other parts of the country, and there are very few mosquitoes to buzz around my head at night as I’m trying to enjoy dinner! The downside of being in a fairly remote village is that transportation to this area is a little sketchy, and in the rainy season, the road leading to the village can be difficult if not impassable.
Surrounding my house is a wonderful garden that the previous volunteer, Bright Tate, planned and implemented. There’s a huge variety of veggies, herbs and flowers. There are also four peach trees, which makes me ecstatic, although they’re young, so I don’t know if they’ll produce any fruit for me in the next two years. I have a large kitchen building that is separate from the main house and is as large as many people’s houses here. There’s also a large bafa for bathing, a large chim (building surrounding the pit latrine), a house for rabbits, and a tall reed privacy fence around the entire complex. On one side of the fence, lives a small family – father, mother and baby. The father there will help me with my garden and any fixes I need around the house. On the other side of the fence is a large family compound of four or five houses, occupied by my landlord and several of his sons and daughters and their families.
Malawi in General:
Malawi is a beautiful country and the people here are incredible. They work hard (especially the women!) and they are some of the most hospitable people I’ve ever met. Poverty is a tremendous problem here, but I believe the people are happier with their lives than most people that I know in the U.S. While they may not have the material possessions we have in the States, they have stronger ties to their families and communities, and they’re not always striving to keep up with the Joneses, but striving to share what they have with their neighbors. Malawians are quick to tell you that they’re poor, but I think they’re richer than they believe. I don’t want to change their communities, except to help them better provide for their families, so they’ll always have nutritious food on their tables and so their children will have opportunities to make what they want of their lives.
That’s all for now. I hope to update this blog at least once a month and will start including some fun stories about my experiences and the people I meet here. Thanks for all your support!
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