The Garden: The Prep...

I'm finally going to blog about my garden in Zomba, Malawi. It's been my (Josh's) main pastime over the last months, so I'll blog about it in a few parts.

So, having no job, no prospects of work and alot of time on my hands, I thought, "Hey, let's start a garden!" Almost every inch of Malawian soil is used for maize, cassava or veggies and so our empty lot felt like wasted arable land. So after gathering a variety of garden tools from the local market with help of Medson, my fruit seller friend, I was ready to set out and start hoeing!

Empty grass field which was to be a garden

The farming tools here are very primitive, a steel blade on a wooden stick. But it works for Malawians, and almost everyone owns one. Even large farm estates, use cheap labourers with these hoes. Even along the street or in town, you find these labourers with their hoe over their shoulder looking for work. Nope...I didn't need any help! I was going to do this myself, I have lots of time and I could use the workout. Little by little, bit by bit, hoe swing by hoe swing in the Malawian heat...whew 

Little by little, one hoe swing at a time

I started smallish, not really sure how big I wanted to make this garden, hoeing, hoeing, hoeing....taking out one weed at a time out of the coarse, dry, hard earth. What I would give for a rota-tiller (what my dad used in our garden growing up). Man, I now have more respect for the Malawian labourers, this is hard work!

Very glad to stop and pose for the camera!

 Most rural and poor Malawians would work this land in their bare-feet, in fact, it is common to see people walking about their day in bare feet given the expense of shoes. And although I now walk in the garden with bare-feet (shoes get way to muddy), I was glad to be using shoes as I hoed given the spiders, biting ants and venemous snakes that enjoy their home in the tall grasses. Our security guards killed this green mamba (highly poisonous) right next to where I was hoeing. They had killed a black mamba the day before. Thanks security!

A dead green mamba

Well after a couple of hours of hoeing, dirty and sweaty, people began to come and watch me work. A tall white (mzungu) dude hoeing is something people rarely see. By this time I was exhausted but tried to put on a good show, Canadians can work the land too, you know. Either seeing my pathetic attempts to swing the hoe or by wanting to earn some money working, a couple of guys grabbed their hoes and started swinging. I was glad for the help! 

Trying to keep up with the locals as a neighbour watches on...

Day two arrived and I went back out there to start hoeing on my own again. This time the neighbourhood kids came, about five of them with a wheelbarrow and their father's hoes, and helped clear the brush and hoe as well. Our nighttime security guard chipped in with his panga knife (machete knife) to clear debris and vines off the surrounding trees and walls.

Enjoying some Sobo between working

Neighbourhood kid

So, within a few days of starting, with the help of the whole neighbourhood it seemed, my garden started to take shape with plots of soil ready for seeding, a heck of alot bigger (23 or so plots) than I expected, but hey, how much work could it be....

Basic imprint of the garden

So why have a garden anyways????

Vegetables are very inexpensive in Malawi, so why start a garden here (also given I have no prior gardening knowledge besides the chores my parents gave me as a kid to weed and shovel). Well...here are some reasons I can think of:

- No job, lots of time. Why not?

- Everyone here in Malawi uses every bit of land they have to grow maize, pumpkins, cassava and other veggies for their livelihood and for food. Our lot being empty seemed kinda a waste, was being eyed by the neighbours, and frankly, I wanted to experience what typical Malawians experience.

- At first, I partnered with a local seller in the market, thinking it could be an additional source of revenue for him, saying if he helped me with it, we'd split the harvest (I later learned that these "great" ideas had to have come from him...as I will explain in another blog)

- Fresh veggies. Yes!

- Something wholesome about gardening, reminds me of my grandmother's garden, of a slower pace of life, of appreciating where your food comes from.

Stay tuned for the next phase...

My First Chitenje

Yesterday I bought my first Chitenje (shi-ten-jay) from the local market here in Zomba. Chitenje's are pieces of cloth (very colorful) meant to be worn around the waist. I've been meaning to get one for a while as these pieces of cloth have many many uses and it's very respectful to wear these when you are in the villages. I heard a funny saying that, "Legs to men here in Malawi is like cleavage to men in North America"- so better cover up!

Most of the cloth sold here comes from Tanzania but this one is specifically from Malawi.

I was looking up the price for a Chitenje on the internet (wanted to know what we should bargain down to) and came across a blog post on the many uses of the Chitenje and wanted to post it here for you.

I wonder how many uses I will use it for while i'm here...

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How many uses can you put to a rectangular piece of fabric, the most ubiquitous item by far in Malawi:

1. Baby carrier - first and foremost
2. Leg hider
3. Leg warmer
4. Body warmer (worn around torso)
5. Head gear
6. Purse (corner tied in a knot with money in)
7. Cleaning cloth
8. Bed liner (including examination beds in those busy clinics)
9. Pressure bandage/ Tourniquet (all essential casualty first aid)
10. Hanging traction weights (i.e. bricks)
11. Bench liner before sitting
12. Carrying goods (tied at the corners to make a kind of bag)
13. Securing goods (e.g. bowls full of fruit/veg carried on women’s head)
14. Head cushion (for carrying heavy water buckets/stick bundles on their heads)
15. Fashion accessory
16. Political propaganda (Design with Presidents' faces and party logos)
17. Commemoration of important events (NGOs issue many of these ones)
18. Curtains or screens
19. Mats
20. Winnow
21. Water filter
22. Tourist souvenir

(From: http://ashtinafrica.blogspot.com/2010/09/uses-of-chitenje-calico-cloth.html)

Traveling to Malawi

After weeks of preparation and a lot of waiting, our trip to Malawi is finally beginning!!

After a nice but short visit at Damien and Sara's place (Danny's brother) in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (and after picking up last minute essentials such as maple syrup and peanut butter!) on October 25th, Danny and I hopped into our rental car well before dawn and drove to JFK airport. The next bed we would sleep in would be in Zomba, Malawi...the likes of which we could not even fathom at this point.

To reach our final destination we had to drive 2 hours to JFK, drop off the rental car, check in, fly 16 or so hours to Johannesburg, wait a couple of hours, then hop a 2 hour flight to Chileka International Airport in Blantyre (Malawi's commercial hub), hopefully meet a driver who was to be sent by LEAD (Danny's work organization) and then drive 1.5 hours to Zomba, all the time not knowing what was ahead of us in terms of accommodation etc.

Checking in at JFK, the South African Airlines personnel looked at our final destination airport code (BLZ) and had to ask the person next to her whether that was in South Africa or not.....we must be going way off the beaten track if the airline didn't know even know where we were going! So 16 hours on a plane is terrifying for some people, but 16 hours with nothing to do but watch movies, read and be catered to with excellent airline food (tsk) is actually quite gratifying. Before we knew it we were descending into Malawi, with its red earth and scattered huts visible from above.

Hopping off the plane, the hot and dry temperature of 35C hit us like a wave (we were definitely not in Canada anymore leaving that cold rain behind us). After a long wait in customs we got our luggage (which was unloaded by tractor) and our driver was there waiting for us. Hooray! Leaving the airport about 5 men took over our cart to "help" us load our bags into the truck despite our constant "No, thank you's" (We should have tried it in Chichewa..... "Iyayi!") for money of course.

Driving to Zomba was a quiet ride. Firstly, we were exhausted (too much movie watching and no sleeping) and secondly, we were taking in the sights of where we now were. Africa! It was intense to go from the multi-freeway system, bridges and excellent infrastructure of driving to New York (despite my former thoughts that the odd US highway was patchy and poorly maintained) to the disorder of people, animals, bikes, & vehicles and the dismal condition of the main highway. This did not phase our driver as he reached speeds of 130km/h in a rickety truck, on a bumpy two lane road, passing cars into opposing traffic, honking at people (carrying their goods on their heads) to get out of the way, as cars whizzed by who were seemingly too close for comfort. Oh, and the seatbelts weren't working. "This is it," I thought. "Well, we had a good run, it's a shame we couldn't see more of Africa." We obviously arrived safe, but the difference between what is "normal" in Canada and "normal" is apparent. Welcome to Africa!

We've arrived safe and had a very warm welcome from LEAD. Upon arrival we were invited to a lovely meal at one of Danny's co-worker's although my ability to converse was limited having been awake for the last 30 hours! LEAD provided us our own house within walking distance to Danny's work and the main Zomba town centre. They even stocked our cupboards and fridge with food so we wouldn't starve our first days here (chicken, eggs, rice, sugar, flour, water, just, fish, beef, oil, soaps etc).

It will be quite the adjustment here but we're excited to be here...and we are excited to share more of our experiences with you all. We'd love to here your feedback, comments and so forth!