4 Months!

Yesterday marked 4 months of us being here in Malawi. Can you believe it? On the one hand I can barely believe it, but on the other I totally can. Our time here so far has been filled with life changing learning experiences, has been tremendously eye opening and also extremely challenging.  I have days where I’m so close to pulling all my hair out and booking the next ticket back to Canada, and then days when I want to stay here and do everything I can to make a positive difference.

So I find 4 months to be a good time of clarity in a new place- the newness and excitement of being in a new place has worn off, you’ve been here long enough to get somewhat adjusted to your surroundings, you have started to really understand how life around you works. So I thought this would be a good time to do a little analyzing (because you all know how much I love to do this!) and share with you what we both love and greatly dislike about being here in Zomba.

Danny and Josh’s Top 5 'Likes' and 'Dislikes'

Top 5 “Likes”

1. Zomba is so green.
This was completely unexpected. When I thought ‘Africa’ , I thought dry and dusty, but here in Zomba it is just the opposite. Its proximity to the Zomba plateau makes it rich and lush with enormous boa trees creating tree canopies like no other. It really is a beautiful town!
    

Botanical Gardens in Zomba

The road leading up to my workplace

2. The Green Mangoes.
I’ve never loved mangoes like I do here. They quickly became an after dinner staple for us and not a day went by that we didn’t eat one, two, or three! Now that the mango season is over and there are none to be found I am so craving them. We got really good at determining when the best time was to eat each one (I like mine just a little under ripe) and there is nothing like that sweet yet slightly sour taste.. .obsessed much? And then of course there was that time when we bought almost 100 of them…

mmmmm...

3. People’s relationship to the land.
Every bit of land is used to plant here. Maize (the main staple crop- a white corn) can be found growing everywhere from people’s yards to right next to the highway. It literally is everywhere. It seems that everyone here is a farmer or someone in their family is, and this has really led people to know where food comes from, they understand food cycles, and put so much work into preparing land, planting and harvesting crops. People do have a special relationship to the land- and I really respect that. This is just so very different from Canada, especially west coast Canada, where if you were to ask some of the younger generations, I bet some people would say that food comes from the grocery store!

land outside our house

4. The Market.
This is more under Josh’s top five than mine, but Josh loves markets. He loves to see the variety of goods and what people are selling.  Here in Zomba, the market is a fairly lively place and it has become somewhere not only for him to go to everyday, but a place where he has become known (he is the ‘black bean’ guy), experience Malawian culture (the sellers love that he has mastered the hello, how are you formalities in Chichewa) and even made friends.  The other day at the market he even sold the radishes that he harvested from our garden!

First harvest! Radishes

I think my number 4 would be the visits to the field and to the smaller villages that I sometimes get to go on for work.  During this visit I was engaged in a focus group with a group of women discussing issues of water, animal control and food security.

Field visit to Mangochi

5. Starting a Garden and the experience this has given Josh.
This garden has become a hobby and learning experience for Josh. He has had a very unique opportunity to work alongside Malawian farmers (he has stated on numerous occasions what a deep respect he has for these workers), and gained an understanding of how vulnerable you are when you have such a dependence on the elements (rain/sun). 90% of the population here in Malawi depends on rain-fed agriculture- so you can imagine how devastated and crippling it can be if there are persistent droughts or floods. Here in southern Malawi we are experiencing periods of drought and this has left thousands of farmers with destroyed crops, leaving them with no choice but to replant, wasting all of their resources, or engage in some other income generating activity. Life is by no means ‘easy’ here.  And I think this has given Josh a deep appreciation for how hard people work here.

This was not what I pictured when
josh said "I want to start a garden"!

Top 5 ‘Dislikes’:

1. Being instantly judged because of our skin color.
I think one of the top things that has bothered us the most here is that we get instantly judged because of our skin color. Because we are white we are seen as rich, basically as a bank. People automatically assume we have money and they constantly ask us for it- usually at least once a day.  And because of this assumption, we are finding that people don’t really get to know you as a person, they might only want to know you because they think you have money- so you have to be really cautious about who to trust.  This has been very different from what we are used to and been hard to deal with on a daily basis … as we have never before experienced such instant categorization or being put into a certain ‘class’ because of our skin color.

2. The stares.
Although I’ve lived, and worked in two asian countries this is something that never gets easier. But here, as opposed to Japan or the Philippines, the stare is not only uncomfortable but it also makes you feel like a target and becomes a bit of a safety issue as well.  Zomba is a smaller town, so there is not as big of an international community as other cities in Malawi.  Everywhere we go, and every move we make we are being watched- and this gets old after awhile. Sometimes you just want to blend in! And because Josh and I don’t have a car, we walk everywhere (the average expat drives)- so I think this causes even more stares, especially when on one occasion Josh walked to the market with our fan in his hand to get it fixed! I’m sure you can only imagine….‘What is this crazy muzungu (white person) doing??” 
So we have found that a simple hello or ‘muli bwanji’ will cause people to stop staring and either look away because they are embarrassed or to say hello back- this has been a better coping method instead of just trying to ignore it, or pretend it doesn’t exist.. because it does! As for safety, we generally try to walk on roads that are well populated and during the day-  as we learned our lesson about walking around at night!

3. The lack of amenities and transportation options.
Zomba is not a big city, and it lacks any real amenities. This is just frustrating to us. We are coffee shop loving people and not having one place to go here has been a real drag. And for goods, there are certain things that Zomba just doesn’t have, and you have to go to Blantyre (about 1.5 hours away) to get things like hairspray, or canned tuna, or decent ground coffee. Zomba has a small supermarket, but it is not well stocked and things tend to run out quite fast. We have learned that if something is in stock (like sugar) to buy it right then and there because if you wait it could be all gone the next day and the next shipment might not be for a couple weeks. So this leaves you with no other option but to go to Blantyre, but with the lack of transportation options, mini-bus or hire a driver for $$$, and the lack of fuel, this is not necessarily an easy thing to do.

4. The Power Outages.
Having to worry that the power might go out any second and planning your day around these outages is definitely on our top 5 dislikes. The power goes out usually around 6:30-9pm every night, so if dinner isn’t ready you are stuck eating peanut butter and jam sandwiches by candlelight. These power outages also affect my workplace, and things get pushed back or simply can’t get done (i.e print a document) because of them.. talk about a P-A-I-N!

Me eating a bowl of cereal for supper yesterday by candlelight- lol

5. Watching the economy crumble and having to let it be.
The last item on our list of dislikes is just watching the economy get worse and worse here. Inflation is around 10% since mid last year and we have seen this lead to people becoming more desperate, as we experience more people trying to sell us things, more people looking to us for money or to give them a job. In particular these higher prices for goods and services is creating a larger gap between those who can and can’t afford things- as a doubling in price for a stack of tomatoes is a pain to us, but to the very poor, this means they might not be able to eat. The lack of petrol and diesel available in the country has left many feeling extremely frustrated and we even felt this first hand yesterday as we waited 30 minutes in a fuel queue… and that was short.  I know people who have waited for 7 hours just to get petrol.  This fuel crisis has become a common occurrence here in Zomba, and “We don’t have fuel” or “We can’t go because we don't have fuel” are phrases we have come to know very very well.

Cars lined up in a fuel queue.
The filling station is up this road, around the corner,
up another road and around that corner!

Fire trucks don't get priority.
We've also seen ambulances in the fuel lineup.

But all in all so far this has been an unforgettable experience, one that we wouldn’t take back.  I hope these reflections have given you a little taste of life here for us- We still have 2 months to go, as my contract ends at the end of April, so I’ll be interested to see what will happen in these upcoming months!

The Garden Fence

So our garden was all dug up, divided into plots and ready for planting thanks to the hired help and some primitive tools.

Having the mind of an engineer, I, of course, had to create a sketch of the garden and a table of plant characteristics so that I could accurately plan the upcoming planting from the comfort of our living room chair. As you can see below, the little garden I had planned was now a whopping 24 plots (each a "garden" in themselves). 

Garden Layout

This was back in December before going to Mozambique for 3 weeks, so I thought I'd just plant a couple of things. I started with a plot of coriander, one of parsley, two of carrots, and two of cauliflower. After a couple of days, proud of my first planting, I went out to see how things were growing (still dirt at this point) and to my dismay I found rabbit, dog and chicken tracks all over creating holes and messing up the beautifully formed plots. Sheesh! 

I should have known better, chickens are everywhere looking for insects, the neighbour has rabbits and wild dogs are common....time to build a fence!!! 

Chicken wire was super expensive being an imported product, so I decided to go with some local bamboo, the locals estimated I needed 50 pieces, but I "knew better" and said 30 since I didn't want to decimate a bamboo forest or spend more than I needed. Sounds pretty easy right, go down to Home Depot or Revy and load up, right? Not exactly...the only way to get bamboo was to first apply for a permit with the city of Zomba, pay the require fee, gather your tools and work men, find a city official to escort you, hike up the side of Zomba plateau, find the bamboo in the forest and cut them down one by one. Oh, and of course you have to transport it back to the garden...either one by one on foot, or hire a truck and driver, who may or may not have diesel on that day due to the fuel shortages.... ok...here we go

First step, buy a saw and a panga knife, which is essentially a machete knife that almost everyone here owns. Like Danny mentioned in previous posts, knives are common and are everywhere. They look pretty evil and essentially are since every day I read in the paper of a robbery or murder or dispute involving these things. Some may consider my chopping down of bamboo an evil as well. I don't necessarily disagree but I need a fence darnit!

Malawian Panga knife

So after weeks of walking to the city hall trying to meet with city officials, getting the run around, meeting one person who said I had to meet with another person who said I had to meet with another person who said..., finally paying the fees (50 Kwacha a piece), gathering my hired help and the tools, only to have the city official to be at a funeral that day, coming back the following days, only to have the city escort be off on another job, to FINALLY having everything fall into place and we hiked the side of Zomba plateau and found some bamboo and went to work. 

Bamboo!

30 pieces of bamboo each at 10m long finally laid in a pile waiting to be picked up. But of course the truck I hired from our housekeeper hadn't returned from another job, but luckily he called a friend that came with his. This is how things go here, you can't plan too much, you just have to have patience and go with it and it's all about who you know that can bail you out at the last minute.

So, the bamboo fence was made after studying how the surrounding neighbours did theirs. As you can see in the pics below, the fence is a little short....looks like I did indeed need 50 pieces....but I was not going to go through all that again. It'll keep the chickens and rabbits out at least and hopefully deter the wild dogs.

Bamboo fence, Malawian style

thanks to Google for the help with the knot tying techniques

 Notice the dry grass on the garden beds, this is what the locals do after planting to prevent the heavy monsoon rains to wash away the seeds until the seedlings come up. Unfortunately it also leave a nasty mess behind not to mention weed seeds. Well, we'll see how things have grown. This is how it looked the day before we left for Mozambique with the guy, Medson, from the market tending to it while we were gone. How do you think it looked when we returned?

Garden fence 

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...