Amos the Wood Carver

Last weekend Josh and I took a trip to Malosa to see our wood carver's workshop. Now i say "our" because Amos has become a bit of a regular appearance around our house. Apparently he used to sell carvings to the people who lived in this house before us, so one day he decided to see if new potential customers had moved in. And yes, we had! It really was inevitable that we were going to buy some type of African wood carvings, so it made it all the better that we actually got to know Amos and his story. Now josh knows more details but I think Amos used to be sponsored by a Canadian family, and because of that sponsorship he was able to become educated. So when Josh told him we were Canadian his eyes just lit up. He now sells his stuff to a lot of Canadian customers and specifically to 10 Thousand Villages (so you might see some of his stuff if you go in there!).

So the first time I met Amos he had come to our house with some examples of his work in tow.. apparently Josh had told him on a previous visit (I was at work that day) that we liked tall giraffes (thanks to your awesome giraffe Jeet!) so he had made us two beautiful tall giraffes. I was worried that he made it out of ceder (which is very endangered here) but luckily he didn't. So we ended up purchasing these giraffes and told Amos that we would love to visit his workshop sometime soon and see other things he does. He asked us to come the following weekend (which was last Saturday).

So on that morning we had to take yet another mini-bus to Malosa (about 40km north of Zomba), except we didn't really know where to catch it. We were told that we could just stand on the highway and flag one down, but when we tried that every one we saw go by us was very full and I didn't particularly want to sit on someone's lap (!)... so we ended up walking back to the bus depot to catch one there. Again, there was this chaos of everyone trying to drag you to their minibus and i saw josh get dragged to one going to Lilongwe, but when we got in we noticed it wasn't that full, which meant it wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. So we got out of this one and in to another one which ended up leaving in the next 10 minutes. So yet again, we are flying down the highway (not as fast as the previous one to Blantyre tho!) and stopping at all the small town markets (this one was not direct apparently) and then all of a sudden he couldn't start the van again.. no gas. No gas?? We were about 20 minutes out.. i was flabbergasted.. why would he start a trip knowing that he had no gas?

Here is a funny short video josh took that just so happened to be right when we ran out of gas! I don't seem too impressed, lol :)

So luckily there was another van up ahead, which he whistled to, so we got out, and then were put in this van.. we only went another 10 km, and then this van stopped too (!) and we were put in yet another van! And apparently this van was in the bus depot at Zomba but we didn't get in this one, so the driver obviously recognized us and said to josh, "Well next time you should go in mine which was direct like I told you" LOL . So now in this 3rd van we finally got to Malosa. Malosa is just a small village, so when Amos was explaining how to get to his workshop he said, just ask for Amos the wood carver! haha.. so there was some small confusion as to where to go when we got out of the minibus, but word spreads fast when there is a Mzungu (white person) in the village, and Amos actually found us. He took us to his house where he had laid out examples of the work he does, and we just chatted and admired it.

Meanwhile we had attracted quite a crowd of kids and had about 8 following us around. The kids here are adorable and always want to talk to us "hi, how are you". So that was pretty cute. He then took us to his 'workshop' where his workers were chipping away at blocks of wood and explaining to us which blocks were going to become what.

These workers are pretty skilled at what they do, and one of them was named "Daniel" so that is always fun to explain. My name is "Dan- yell".. i have found here it's easier if i just tell people my name is Daniella. Then I don't get this confused look of "but you're not a boy?"Ha.

So back at his house again we ended up buying a few more items and then we were headed back to Zomba. It's a different experience when you are with a local because they were like, well you want the direct mini-bus, and that's not it. We asked how they knew, and they said, well we just know! So after about 30 minute wait in a nearby video/clothing/skins store that Amos's nephew owned we were on our way back (in the direct mini-bus, what a difference!).

We were really happy to have went there and met him, although it was a pain to get out there, it was neat to see him and meet some of his workers. Amos is a smart man and a good businessman and it was great to see him teaching and mentoring younger guys. Malawi definitely needs more of his type! So if you see something here that you like, let us know and we can get it for you!