Ken’s Updates from Malawi: January 20-22

January 19

In one of our rural communities, Kang’oma, the villagers have added tree farming as a way to retain soil moisture, provide food and building materials, and add natural fertilizer to the soil. 12 months ago they planted 300 trees — 32 have died, which isn’t such a high number — and from today, they’re planting another 150 or so. Here’s our key community organizer, the wonderful Lameck Mandevu, planting one of the first seedlings.

Five years ago Kang’oma had never received any outside help, and was as stricken with disease, famine, and poverty as any rural village in Malawi. F2F has helped implement a holistic range of programs using very small grants, and the community has come a wonderfully long way since then.

What you don’t hear or feel is the incredible singing and dancing that is going on … an energy that characterizes the excitement of potential and possibility that now infuses Kang’oma.

 

January 20

Malawi has severe gas shortages — our good man Mike has waited all day in line for gas (in our case, diesel), and in the end has gone home empty. Literally. The lines go on forever, and of course in the lines themselves, there’s a whole culture of bribing, cheating, illegal selling, fake gas, etc.

The alleged cause is lack of foreign currency in Malawi, but I’m very suspicious that the underlying cause is one much more mundanely corrupt. In the newspaper, along with the rash of stripping pants off of women who aren’t wearing dresses (that’s fodder for another post), the news was all about the lack of foreign currency.

One solution, proposed by the government, is to step up production of a single crop for export. In a country where people struggle to find enough to eat, the production and export of monocultured crops amounts to the poisoning of the land and the indifference to the poor.

January 21

Our one university scholarship recipient, Aubrey Namakhwa — THANKS Bridget and friends!!! — participating in the energetic Che-Che-Mula! dance at Chadika. He doesn’t study dancing at university, but we give him a good grade for giving it his best!

Aubrey was one of our first orphan scholars 5 years ago, when his mother came to us and pleaded that we take in one of her sons who was a good child. She died later that day, and Aubrey started Form 1 (9th grade) a month later. Aubrey has overcome some very difficult, dangerous situations to get as far as he has — right now, he is helping our Colby College intern interview the Chadika youth group members.

A side note — his university, the best in Malawi, has been closed for months as the faculty are protesting against the government for censorship. It started with one teacher referring to one official in one scandal. Apologies demanded from each side, no apologies given. Result, no university. Such is life in Malawi…

ABC vs NBC

We divided up the Kang’oma Youth Group into 4 teams — each was assigned to present a drama that argued the case for either one of two proposals. First proposal, to grow Anything But Corn on your field. Second proposal, to grow Nothing But Corn on your field. We were curious to see what arguments they could come up with.

10 minutes later, they presented their dramas — remarkably good! Very dramatic, and very impressive. Some of the reasons for planting just corn were because Malawians like corn, they know how to grow it, they can sell the extra corn. Reasons for planting anything but corn included better nutrition for beans and vegetables, ability to sell other items, and less dependency on fertilizers.

This sets the stage for us to introduce experimental gardens, and organic and sustainable farming. The Kang’oma Youth Group is ready and willing!

That said, two girls were selected as the village chiefs, and were given final decision regarding the dramas. In each case, they always decided on NBC — nothing but corn. For now, corn is still King in Malawi…

 

January 22

At our meeting at Tilerane, all of sudden we heard a big commotion outside the gate — it was police with teargas allegedly pursuing street vendors (mad at the government for pushing them off the street) who were chasing and pulling off the pants of women trying to escape.

Our volunteer, Hillary, was worried since she was in pants, but Mike told her, “Ahh, no worries. They’d never run after to pull a white woman’s pants off.” (A bit comforting, but so many things wrong with the social implications of that statement…)

In any case, it proved wrong as the next day did prove uncomfortable for Hillary. And, in spite of front page coverage, the real truth was that shop vendors weren’t the ones pursuing non-dress-wearing women; it was young men angry with the government who were also taking the opportunity to rob the women. They were trying to make mayhem and news, and for awhile, they succeeded.

The following day, the newspaper reported that there had been a big increase in the sale of woman pants.