I held the last of my workshops this week and things went so well. To be honest I am amazed that I did these 5 workshops on the days I scheduled. There were no mechanical breakdowns, nor fuel shortages (when I heard that a major transport route between Malawi and Tanzania closed for a few days last week I made a run to the filling station to fill the jerry cans with diesel just in case). There was only one funeral (sadly the accountant at work lost both his wife and baby in childbirth) but Spriano said that he wanted to do the workshops still (perhaps he was tired of going to funerals too). Also, I made of point of designing my workshops so that we did not need electricity. From my experience these are the 4 major factors that delay work here (mechanical, fuel, electricity, funerals), so I tried to mitigate them from the start.
I am happy to report that this week there were no bees. Both the extension officers in Ntcheu district (Steve and Joseph) did a great job organizing on their end - although Joseph was an hour late because his bicycle broke.
I ran these pretty much the same as I did last weeks – some hands on practical work combined with translation and lots of universally understood sketches. I did not realize how bad my artistic skills were until I tried to draw a goat with a magic marker. Its OK, at least I got them laughing.
For me the funniest part of the workshops was trying to explain fish sex. The beneficiaries only understand reproduction from a mammalian POV. They get humans, cows, goats but not fish. External fertilization just doesn’t make sense to them. All creatures they know has the male fertilize the female inside and then the baby grows in the female until she gives birth. Tilapia, however are very different. Here’s a quick rundown for the non-ichthyologists reading the blog. The male tilapia builds a nest in the bottom of the pond and brings the female fish to the nest. If she’s impressed she’ll spawn in it and then the male fertilizes her spawn thus creating a fertilized fish egg. The male leaves and the female protect the fish eggs in her mouth for 40 days (she won’t eat during this time). Then the fish leave her and go out on their own. I admit it’s a strange way of getting the job done, but I know how most animals mate so that doesn’t surprise me anymore. I suppose the Animal Channel has taken the mystery out of animal reproduction for most of us. The villagers however, had such a hard time grasping this concept. How can an animal go 40 days without eating!? Surely the female would starve to death!! If she keeps them in her mouth she’d have to eat them!! Could the fish babies survive in her stomach if she swallowed them by mistake? Why doesn’t she just keep the babies inside her instead of laying the eggs outside? If the female lays the eggs why does she need a male fish? How does the male find the females spawn if its outside her body? Etc. etc….
Not to sound condescending but it was like explaining sex to 7 yr olds. I know the beneficiaries have a limited education and I am teaching them some new concepts, but you have to admit its kind of funny to be teaching fish sex to a 50 year old village chief!
After I explained some facts to them, their faces would widen in surprise then burst out laughing. They were great about it though. I was glad that they were asking so many questions – it told me that they were listening and trying to understand. That was very important. They made a good effort to understand this material because they really wanted to know when and how fish spawned so they could take the new fish to grow another crop, or to pass the fish on to another village pond. Many of these community based fish ponds received their first fish fingerlings from CADECOMs Sustainable Agriculture pass-on project, and as a requirement of the project the beneficiaries have to pass on the fish fingerlings to the next group of beneficiaries. It’s a wonderful sustainable system, and with the addition of the training workshops future sustainability will be ensured.
I love that this project provides the beneficiaries with both the resources and knowledge they need to empower themselves. This way they can sustainably grow food and help others to as well.
Currently I am in the process of convincing the NGO that fish farming is a much better way to provide protein for the villages as opposed to goats. Their main pass-on project uses goats. Of course this is a nice idea. Give a goat to one family, then the first-born goes to another needy family and so on. Now here’s the thing – goats do not become sexually mature until they are 3yrs old. They’ll have one kid a year thereafter. Often the family does not want to eat the goat because they are status symbols. The goats seem to make their biggest contribution through the manure they provide. Now tilapia-fish on the other hand take 4 months to become sexually mature, and they spawn 3x a year. Most of these fishponds are community based – so many people benefit from the fish harvest (whereas the goat is owned by 1 family). If you invested your efforts into fish farming you would receive much more protein in return for your effort (a fish pond they are using could easily produce over 100kg fish each harvest no problem). You can have 3 harvests a year, feed more people and pass on the spawn in a matter of months. The fishpond can also produce fertilizer form the sediment on the pond bottom much like goat manure for the crops and veggies. Come on people!! How can you not see this??? Jesus used fish to feed the masses – not goats!! (Sorry the biblical reference comes from my time working with a catholic organization).
OK OK I know, I could go on and on. Sorry if I am rambling but this is what I’ve been doing for almost 3 months now. I am somewhat passionate about this.
Thankfully I am going on a safari with Anna and Christine in Liwonde National Park this weekend so I can talk about animals other than fish soon.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Adventures in fishpond training workshops
The past week has been busy, busy, busy for me. Hence the lack of blog updates. I’ve started my training workshops and there has been a lot of prep for them.
My first one was on Monday in Chamangwana. It got off to a bad start but it was not our fault, honestly. The extension worker, Ephraim, for that area is a lazy cocky idiot. He was appointed by a priest and is as secure in his job as a tenured professor. I’ve tried to keep an open mind about him, but now I’m convinced my gut feeling was true. To begin he promised us he’d have the beneficiaries there by 7:30am. Well when we got there at 8:30am none of the villagers were there. That’s ok, being late here is normal. So I went to check out the workspace. Although I asked for the church hall, he had taken it upon himself to change the location. OK sure, as long as I have a safe place to work I really don’t care. However, when I went inside I kept hearing this buzzing. When I went to find the source of the buzzing I realized that there was a HUGE beehive in the corner of the room.
Like thousands of bees, buzzing around the place! I was astonished. This was not a safe place to work. Women would be coming here with babies on their backs. How could I give them my full attention when every minute I’d be looking over my shoulder?? I understand that conditions may not be ideal here, no electricity, lack of table, chairs, etc. But this was unacceptable. So I went to look for another place. About a 15 min walk down the road was the church where I had originally asked and received permission to hold the workshops – the safe, clean, empty church. So I packed everything up and moved down there. After that the workshop proceeded as normal and all went well, the beneficiaries were a pleasure to work with. They were attentive and so thankful to receive the training. But as we were wrapping up the day, the cocky extension worker came up to me and said, ‘The next time you do one of these things, try not to be late.’ Oh man – I was fuming on the inside but kept my composure. The whole reason we were late was because of his ridiculous choice in location which forced me to move everything. I know, I know, there will always be these kinds of people you have to work with, but it doesn’t make it any easier or right.
The workshops the following days were fabulous. The extension workers (Triphonia and Gabriel) for the communities I had targeted were great. So organized, efficient, easy to work with and appreciative. The day went as smoothly as possible, which just reconfirms my impression of Ephraim.
These workshops were not like the conventional ones I am used to, especially since most of them in the past were targeted to academia and govt. The key here was to be creative. How do I reach out to a group of villagers who only spoke Chichewa and many of who were illiterate? I needed a translator, my co-worker Spriano helped with that (he has been soooo helpful. I would be lost without him). I also decided to stay away from big words, powerpoint slides and overhead projectors (there was no electricity anyway). Instead I used a flipchart and markers to make drawing of the concepts I wanted to get across. I drew ponds, fish, arrows for water flow, sun and moon for time of day, bags of manure, etc.
I wanted to use as little lecture style presentation as possible. I tried to be more practical so I brought props like pipes and mesh. I also made sure to include practical work. I took everybody outside to show how to test for soil conditions (e.g. digging holes in the soil to test permeability since the ponds here are earthen). They laughed so hard at me when I took the hoe and started digging. It was great. I think they appreciated the fact that I didn’t act to good to dig a hole or get my hands dirty. I’m doing all this in a chitenje-skirt too. 
While the training was going well and everyone seemed attentive I wanted to make sure the ideas were really being understood. Many times where there is a language barrier or knowledge gap too wide people just nod, smile or say I know. So I used pop-quizes throughout the day to test their understanding. For the most part they were getting it and I was so happy for that. It was a big fear of mine that I would get up there, babble on and not really teach them anything they would retain. I hope that the knowledge is retained for more than one day though. The NGO and its extension workers have planned to visit the villages regularly to ensure the knowledge is being applied as best it can under the circumstances (resources are always limited). I am in the process of creating a very basic yet informative training manual to help them with this task.
At the end of the workshops (as with every training session or meeting here) there are always speeches from the representative of each group in attendance. When I did mine I started off with a question: I asked them if they expected me to come back after I did my needs assessment. The village headwoman answered that they didn’t expect to see me again. They were so happy that I had returned to keep my promise. I remember the first time I went to their village to assess the state of their pond projects, one of the women came running up to us and yelled ‘What are you doing you thieves?!’ Now as I was eating Nsima with them during lunch that same woman was dancing around and singing (in Chichewa) ‘I am so proud of Najere!’ (Najere was the name they gave me when I first visited them after Spriano said I needed a Malawian name). I was so touched. These folk are too often let down by empty promises.
I wish I could stay longer to see them through more of their fish farm development projects. At least the training sessions will help. They lacked such basic information like which fish to grow, when to feed them, what to feed them, how they reproduced… During one on the sessions a man asked ‘Why do they need a male fish if the female fish lays the eggs?’ I know most people wouldn’t know this info but since you can Google search anything these days this info is not really out of the reach of most people – except those living in poverty, without an education, electricity or certainly no internet access. A huge problem with poverty alleviation is access. Access to info, training, markets, education, healthcare – things we take for granted. These are the topics that many of my friends, colleagues and myself are working towards.
I have 2 more workshops this coming week. I hope they go as well as the last two. I’ll blog about it soon. Promise.
My first one was on Monday in Chamangwana. It got off to a bad start but it was not our fault, honestly. The extension worker, Ephraim, for that area is a lazy cocky idiot. He was appointed by a priest and is as secure in his job as a tenured professor. I’ve tried to keep an open mind about him, but now I’m convinced my gut feeling was true. To begin he promised us he’d have the beneficiaries there by 7:30am. Well when we got there at 8:30am none of the villagers were there. That’s ok, being late here is normal. So I went to check out the workspace. Although I asked for the church hall, he had taken it upon himself to change the location. OK sure, as long as I have a safe place to work I really don’t care. However, when I went inside I kept hearing this buzzing. When I went to find the source of the buzzing I realized that there was a HUGE beehive in the corner of the room.
Like thousands of bees, buzzing around the place! I was astonished. This was not a safe place to work. Women would be coming here with babies on their backs. How could I give them my full attention when every minute I’d be looking over my shoulder?? I understand that conditions may not be ideal here, no electricity, lack of table, chairs, etc. But this was unacceptable. So I went to look for another place. About a 15 min walk down the road was the church where I had originally asked and received permission to hold the workshops – the safe, clean, empty church. So I packed everything up and moved down there. After that the workshop proceeded as normal and all went well, the beneficiaries were a pleasure to work with. They were attentive and so thankful to receive the training. But as we were wrapping up the day, the cocky extension worker came up to me and said, ‘The next time you do one of these things, try not to be late.’ Oh man – I was fuming on the inside but kept my composure. The whole reason we were late was because of his ridiculous choice in location which forced me to move everything. I know, I know, there will always be these kinds of people you have to work with, but it doesn’t make it any easier or right.The workshops the following days were fabulous. The extension workers (Triphonia and Gabriel) for the communities I had targeted were great. So organized, efficient, easy to work with and appreciative. The day went as smoothly as possible, which just reconfirms my impression of Ephraim.
These workshops were not like the conventional ones I am used to, especially since most of them in the past were targeted to academia and govt. The key here was to be creative. How do I reach out to a group of villagers who only spoke Chichewa and many of who were illiterate? I needed a translator, my co-worker Spriano helped with that (he has been soooo helpful. I would be lost without him). I also decided to stay away from big words, powerpoint slides and overhead projectors (there was no electricity anyway). Instead I used a flipchart and markers to make drawing of the concepts I wanted to get across. I drew ponds, fish, arrows for water flow, sun and moon for time of day, bags of manure, etc.
I wanted to use as little lecture style presentation as possible. I tried to be more practical so I brought props like pipes and mesh. I also made sure to include practical work. I took everybody outside to show how to test for soil conditions (e.g. digging holes in the soil to test permeability since the ponds here are earthen). They laughed so hard at me when I took the hoe and started digging. It was great. I think they appreciated the fact that I didn’t act to good to dig a hole or get my hands dirty. I’m doing all this in a chitenje-skirt too. While the training was going well and everyone seemed attentive I wanted to make sure the ideas were really being understood. Many times where there is a language barrier or knowledge gap too wide people just nod, smile or say I know. So I used pop-quizes throughout the day to test their understanding. For the most part they were getting it and I was so happy for that. It was a big fear of mine that I would get up there, babble on and not really teach them anything they would retain. I hope that the knowledge is retained for more than one day though. The NGO and its extension workers have planned to visit the villages regularly to ensure the knowledge is being applied as best it can under the circumstances (resources are always limited). I am in the process of creating a very basic yet informative training manual to help them with this task.
At the end of the workshops (as with every training session or meeting here) there are always speeches from the representative of each group in attendance. When I did mine I started off with a question: I asked them if they expected me to come back after I did my needs assessment. The village headwoman answered that they didn’t expect to see me again. They were so happy that I had returned to keep my promise. I remember the first time I went to their village to assess the state of their pond projects, one of the women came running up to us and yelled ‘What are you doing you thieves?!’ Now as I was eating Nsima with them during lunch that same woman was dancing around and singing (in Chichewa) ‘I am so proud of Najere!’ (Najere was the name they gave me when I first visited them after Spriano said I needed a Malawian name). I was so touched. These folk are too often let down by empty promises.
I wish I could stay longer to see them through more of their fish farm development projects. At least the training sessions will help. They lacked such basic information like which fish to grow, when to feed them, what to feed them, how they reproduced… During one on the sessions a man asked ‘Why do they need a male fish if the female fish lays the eggs?’ I know most people wouldn’t know this info but since you can Google search anything these days this info is not really out of the reach of most people – except those living in poverty, without an education, electricity or certainly no internet access. A huge problem with poverty alleviation is access. Access to info, training, markets, education, healthcare – things we take for granted. These are the topics that many of my friends, colleagues and myself are working towards.
I have 2 more workshops this coming week. I hope they go as well as the last two. I’ll blog about it soon. Promise.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Beating my own path...to fish pond development work
Most of you know that my dream job (besides being a hostess for Pilot Guides) was/is to work for the WorldFish Centre to develop integrated aquaculture projects for developing countries. I was bummed when I didn't secure the internship with them this year but I had to move ahead regardless. Then I got to thinking...why did I want to work with WFC? To help poverty stricken people develop fish ponds to improve their livelihoods and have food security. Well I am doing that right now. I guess I just got caught up in their mission statement and it seemed like for the longest time WFC was the only NGO that was doing this work. But I've learned that its not the only way to do this development work. When I took this internship in Malawi I was supposed to be doing livelihood recovery project impact assessments but when my supervisor took one look at my cv they reassigned me right away to their fish pond projects (which is why I'm in Dedza and not Lilongwe, my original posting). So in the end, I got to do the work that I really wanted to do. I just went out there and beat my own path. So I'm pretty proud of myself for taking the plunge into the unknown, into Malawi on my own, and actually doing the internship that I really wanted.
So what have I do so far? 1) I've completed needs assessments of 6 villages. 2) Nearly finished a proposal hoping to secure future project funding to develop more aquaculture projects. 3) Designed a training manual tailored to the local environment. 4) Going to hold 5 workshops over the next 2 weeks. I have not wasted a single day. Honestly, I feel like I've accomplished alot (not to sound cocky or anything). I can attest this to my amazing IPMP training at Humber College, a really supportive NGO workplace and my own determination.
The next hurdle I must overcome is finding my next job. Sadly, this internship ends in October and this is soooo much more I could do. I'm working on a few leads...Uniterra positions are opening up in early 2009 and they do work in my area, and I am also working on a meeting with Concern International who have ongoing fish farm projects here. The district fisheries officer (who happens to be co-facilitating my workshops) works with them and he said he can arrange it. I'm pitching it as a info gathering meeting for lessons learned to be used in future training and my proposal - I just might also inquire about future work opportunities at this meeting. I have to go and beat some more paths for myself. I also know that my fab IPMP network will forward me any jobs they come across in my sector.
Although I'm not actually working for WFC, I wanted to post a link to a video they have on YouTube. Although my projects are not tailored specifically to HIV/AIDS orphans (mine are community based ponds for poverty stricken households), the people, the songs they're singing, the environment and settings are almost identical to my workplace here in Malawi. It will give you a view into my work here.
This however is a pic of me at work with local fishfarmers in the village of Chamangwana. It was taken during a needs assessment in July. I will be holding a workshop with these villagers on Monday:
And these are the beneficaries of my project in the village of Magunditsa. I'll be holding their training workshop on Wednesday. These are also the people who gave me my Malawian name - Najere.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Usman’s Lesson
Wednesday, 03 September 2008
I’m not a numbers person. I don’t care about accounts and purchase orders and T ledgers and all that other business accounting stuff. I’m here to build capacity for fish farms, not to balance books. Granted I’ve done up budgets. You have to for workshops and proposals. That’s not so bad, list the things you want, get quotes for their costs, pass in the paperwork to the boss and the treasurer and there you go. Done. That’s all the financial management I need.
After outlining a budget for the workshops I plan to hold in LESS THAN 2 WEEKS (OMG!) I was pleased to have found out to have been approved MK150,000 – a little less than I asked for but enough to get the job done. Today I went to the accountant to see how I would actually get the money so I could procure the supplies and arrange logistics (oh that sounds so IPMP!). When the accountant looked at the bank statement to confirm the MK150,000 deposit from my donor agency he said that ‘actually you only have MK147,800 to work with’. Que? What’s that? As it turns out the NGO I work for did not pay their monthly banking service fees of MK2200 and were in the red, as a result the bank took their service fee from my workshop funds (which were transferred via direct deposit between their bank accounts). Needless to say I was not impressed. The accountant was standing in front of me saying that ‘No sorry you have less money for your workshop now.’ I was ripping mad. I mean get your act together. Shouldn’t you have money allocated to pay your bills already? Your debts should not be paid from my funding, which is strictly allocated. Which I am responsible for and must show receipts for the total 150,000 as laid out in the itemized budget. I just can’t say oops I’m not sure where that 2200 went. So instead of getting mad at his incompetence I simply said that, ‘This is not good enough. Are you going to tell the beneficiaries that I have to cancel a workshop because you didn’t have the accounts in order?’
It was at this point that all Usman’s tips and tricks for account juggling came back to me. It was hard to follow most of the material in his financial management class last winter, but I do remember the cook the book section. So the accountant and me looked at the budget and tried to figure out where we could rearrange funding and switch costs to different accounts. In the end we reduced the fuel costs on my budget by the 2200 and I was assured that we could re-allocate that fuel cost from another pre-existing account. Whew! Who knew I’d be cooking the books in Malawi using Usman’s ‘under-the-table’ lessons?
After sorting the budget crisis out, I sat down and thought about the money that was re-allocated. At first when I heard that I would be short 2200 I was mad. Its sounded like a lot of money. However, when I converted the value I realized it was only $15. That’s a whole lotta fuss over a little money. But it’s the principle of the matter right? And to put it in perspective, the beneficiaries of these workshops are people who live on <$1/day, so yeah that $15 is important.
I’m not a numbers person. I don’t care about accounts and purchase orders and T ledgers and all that other business accounting stuff. I’m here to build capacity for fish farms, not to balance books. Granted I’ve done up budgets. You have to for workshops and proposals. That’s not so bad, list the things you want, get quotes for their costs, pass in the paperwork to the boss and the treasurer and there you go. Done. That’s all the financial management I need.
After outlining a budget for the workshops I plan to hold in LESS THAN 2 WEEKS (OMG!) I was pleased to have found out to have been approved MK150,000 – a little less than I asked for but enough to get the job done. Today I went to the accountant to see how I would actually get the money so I could procure the supplies and arrange logistics (oh that sounds so IPMP!). When the accountant looked at the bank statement to confirm the MK150,000 deposit from my donor agency he said that ‘actually you only have MK147,800 to work with’. Que? What’s that? As it turns out the NGO I work for did not pay their monthly banking service fees of MK2200 and were in the red, as a result the bank took their service fee from my workshop funds (which were transferred via direct deposit between their bank accounts). Needless to say I was not impressed. The accountant was standing in front of me saying that ‘No sorry you have less money for your workshop now.’ I was ripping mad. I mean get your act together. Shouldn’t you have money allocated to pay your bills already? Your debts should not be paid from my funding, which is strictly allocated. Which I am responsible for and must show receipts for the total 150,000 as laid out in the itemized budget. I just can’t say oops I’m not sure where that 2200 went. So instead of getting mad at his incompetence I simply said that, ‘This is not good enough. Are you going to tell the beneficiaries that I have to cancel a workshop because you didn’t have the accounts in order?’
It was at this point that all Usman’s tips and tricks for account juggling came back to me. It was hard to follow most of the material in his financial management class last winter, but I do remember the cook the book section. So the accountant and me looked at the budget and tried to figure out where we could rearrange funding and switch costs to different accounts. In the end we reduced the fuel costs on my budget by the 2200 and I was assured that we could re-allocate that fuel cost from another pre-existing account. Whew! Who knew I’d be cooking the books in Malawi using Usman’s ‘under-the-table’ lessons?
After sorting the budget crisis out, I sat down and thought about the money that was re-allocated. At first when I heard that I would be short 2200 I was mad. Its sounded like a lot of money. However, when I converted the value I realized it was only $15. That’s a whole lotta fuss over a little money. But it’s the principle of the matter right? And to put it in perspective, the beneficiaries of these workshops are people who live on <$1/day, so yeah that $15 is important.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Driving from Dedza to Mtakataka
Saturday, Aug 30, 2008
The landscape of Malawi is beautiful. Of course the geography is vastly different from the land where I was born and bred (dear Newfoundland how I miss thee), but it has its own beauty and grace to be appreciated.
There are times when I am returning home from the day and as I stop to glance out the window, I find myself drinking it all in, filling myself with awe. Simple things like the sunsetting in the sky. Honestly, every sunset I’ve seen so far has been incredible. I've never seen such colours as these vibrant pinks, reds, oranges, yellows. The heavenly rays of light casting down from the clouds onto the ground; the contrast of the pinks and oranges of the sunset with the browns, blues, greens of the terrafirma paint the landscape into an image that cannot be captured on the tv screen. It is simply put - beautiful.
I find myself happiest when I get out of the office. The days when I travel to the villages or simply drive to another town and can thus take in the landscape, awakens a part of me that was asleep.
My favourite drive is the one from Dedza to Mtakataka. Its only 100km, but the change in scenery is incredibly dramatic. Malawi is in the Great Rift Valley of Africa. There are mountains along the western side, which lead down an escarpment to the valley floor where you have Lake Malawi and the Shiree River. Dedza is in the mountains (the second highest point in Malawi actually) and Mtakataka is on the shores of Lake Malawi at the bottom of the rift valley.
Come along with me for the drive! At the beginning breathe the crisp air of the mountains and pull on a warm sweater to keep out the chill of the air. Now hop into the truck and begin the descent. At first the grade is low, the descent barely noticeable (unless of course you are pedalling a bike back into Dedza!), but then you come out from the plateau and meet the winding road that leads down to the lake. The road is not long, but its steep and winding, a snake that is made of a dozen SSSSS climbing up the mountain from the lake. At the top, the trees are short, stunted, surrounded by boulders, hilltop peaks filling your view. Descending down the mountainside you leave the peaks behind and your vision is replaced with slopes, covered in waterfalls, rockslides, terraced farms where there is vegetation, precariously placed villages clinging to the hillside. The driver motions to a particularly dramatic drop off and says, ‘Don’t Talk’. Looking over to the left, just a few metres away, the road drops off from the mountain to the valley floor, a dangerously beautiful sight of cliff and waterfall in view. This section of the road is called Don’t Talk, Just Pray. The rest of the descent is done in silence, wonder and awe. Clearing your ears, you break from your descent down the mountainside and emerge onto the valley floor. Looking around, its as if a heavenly hand just swept away a pile of rocky debris to clear your path to the lake. The stark contrast from the vertical mountain to the horizontal valley floor, flat as a pancake. You could draw a line where the two meet. The temperature here is warmer and you need to pull off your sweater, letting the warmth of the sun and the thickness of the air surround your body and warm your soul. You can see the lake nearing as you drive through the flatlands, passing the green and orange mango trees and the burning red coloured flame trees. The villages are more spread out here than back on the mountains and children and dogs, less confined by gravity, chase after the trucks and each other. After a few moments the smell of moisture fills your nostrils, that same familiar smell you get when you reach a great body of water. But here it’s also mixed with the smell of markets, chambo and smoke from the cooking fires. It’s the warm moist smoky smell of Lake Malawi late in the afternoon. It was worth the drive.
The landscape of Malawi is beautiful. Of course the geography is vastly different from the land where I was born and bred (dear Newfoundland how I miss thee), but it has its own beauty and grace to be appreciated.
There are times when I am returning home from the day and as I stop to glance out the window, I find myself drinking it all in, filling myself with awe. Simple things like the sunsetting in the sky. Honestly, every sunset I’ve seen so far has been incredible. I've never seen such colours as these vibrant pinks, reds, oranges, yellows. The heavenly rays of light casting down from the clouds onto the ground; the contrast of the pinks and oranges of the sunset with the browns, blues, greens of the terrafirma paint the landscape into an image that cannot be captured on the tv screen. It is simply put - beautiful.
I find myself happiest when I get out of the office. The days when I travel to the villages or simply drive to another town and can thus take in the landscape, awakens a part of me that was asleep.
My favourite drive is the one from Dedza to Mtakataka. Its only 100km, but the change in scenery is incredibly dramatic. Malawi is in the Great Rift Valley of Africa. There are mountains along the western side, which lead down an escarpment to the valley floor where you have Lake Malawi and the Shiree River. Dedza is in the mountains (the second highest point in Malawi actually) and Mtakataka is on the shores of Lake Malawi at the bottom of the rift valley.
Come along with me for the drive! At the beginning breathe the crisp air of the mountains and pull on a warm sweater to keep out the chill of the air. Now hop into the truck and begin the descent. At first the grade is low, the descent barely noticeable (unless of course you are pedalling a bike back into Dedza!), but then you come out from the plateau and meet the winding road that leads down to the lake. The road is not long, but its steep and winding, a snake that is made of a dozen SSSSS climbing up the mountain from the lake. At the top, the trees are short, stunted, surrounded by boulders, hilltop peaks filling your view. Descending down the mountainside you leave the peaks behind and your vision is replaced with slopes, covered in waterfalls, rockslides, terraced farms where there is vegetation, precariously placed villages clinging to the hillside. The driver motions to a particularly dramatic drop off and says, ‘Don’t Talk’. Looking over to the left, just a few metres away, the road drops off from the mountain to the valley floor, a dangerously beautiful sight of cliff and waterfall in view. This section of the road is called Don’t Talk, Just Pray. The rest of the descent is done in silence, wonder and awe. Clearing your ears, you break from your descent down the mountainside and emerge onto the valley floor. Looking around, its as if a heavenly hand just swept away a pile of rocky debris to clear your path to the lake. The stark contrast from the vertical mountain to the horizontal valley floor, flat as a pancake. You could draw a line where the two meet. The temperature here is warmer and you need to pull off your sweater, letting the warmth of the sun and the thickness of the air surround your body and warm your soul. You can see the lake nearing as you drive through the flatlands, passing the green and orange mango trees and the burning red coloured flame trees. The villages are more spread out here than back on the mountains and children and dogs, less confined by gravity, chase after the trucks and each other. After a few moments the smell of moisture fills your nostrils, that same familiar smell you get when you reach a great body of water. But here it’s also mixed with the smell of markets, chambo and smoke from the cooking fires. It’s the warm moist smoky smell of Lake Malawi late in the afternoon. It was worth the drive.
Africa at a glance
Friday, Aug 29, 2008
After writing my last entry I feel I need to write a more positive letter. I don’t want to project the image that Africa is a land full of misery and suffering - because it is not. As I have tried to explain to many people (some successfully, others not so much), Africa is not just what you see on the news. We have to keep in mind that the majority of the newscasts and mass media only present negative stories. (Really think back to when a headline expressed good news or at least something not so pessimistic – go ahead read today’s headlines – I’ll wait, my blog will still be here when you finish). There is a whole other side to Africa that the average North American never sees. Its not because we are ignorant, its just that the average person has little control over what they see in the media, and have even lesser access to this information unless you really hunt for it.
I wanted to take some time to dispel some of the common myths people have about Africa. Or at least the comments people made to me before I left the ‘safety’ of Toronto.
1) It’s a jungle out there. Yes and No. There are so many different types of landscapes here. a) Deserts – the Sahara in the north and the Kalahari in the southeast. b) Savannahs (kind of like drier prairies). This is what its like here in Malawi at the moment. Dry, dispersed vegetation, tall grasses. c) Mountains with snow. Remember that it gets colder with elevation (the higher up you go). The Atlas Mountains in the NE, and the Great Rift Mountains in the west – home of Mt. Kilaminjaro - the 2nd highest mountain in the world. d) Jungles. Yes, lots of rain forest, just like you see on TV. Not so much here in Malawi though. e) Great Lakes – like the great lakes in Ontario, there are great lakes in Africa, very near where I am actually, e.g. Lake Malawi, Lake Victoria. The lakes are vast and fresh and full of fish. I might dare to say even better than the Great Lakes of Canada. In Sum, think about it this way – as you drive across Canada or the US how many different landscapes and temperatures will you encounter? Is Alberta the same as Newfoundland? Ontario the same as Nunavut? Africa is as wide and vast as Canada.
2) It’s hot, hot, hot! Yes and No. As with the varied landscape, there is varied climate. To be honest, I believed this myth too. When I packed my bag I threw in my jeans and fleece just in case I did some hiking in the mountains. But I was soooo glad I brought them. At night it really cools down. At the moment I sleep with 2 blankets on my bed and I wear a sweater to work. This is mostly because I am staying in a town at an elevation of 5300ft. People who live near Lake Malawi have it warmer. It’s also important to keep in mind that Malawi is in the Southern Hemisphere and its winter here now. While the daytime high is 15-20ºC and nighttime low 10ºC at the moment, in a couple months the temp will be sweltering, just like you thought it would be. But of course, we only hear limited information on Africa’s climate. Just remember one thing – just because you are closer to the equator doesn’t mean that it is hot hot hot!
3) Everybody is poor. Yes and No. While so many people live in extreme poverty there are also millions of people who live quite comfortably. For instance, the woman I live with has 2 degrees, a jeep, laptop, her own house, complete with furniture, electricity, plumbing and servant. Lilongwe has a city centre full of banks, hotels, shops, businesses all with people dressed in such sharp suits they would blend in easily on Front & Bay streets. The downtown section is alive with bars, restaurants, schools, markets, cafes, beauty parlours, etc. I go out for lunch with girlfriends and then have a mani-pedi on the weekend. In that same salon are Malawian women getting their nails done too. I suppose the big difference is that, while most of the western luxuries are available in Malawi and Africa in general, the majority of the population can not afford them.
4) Everybody is sick. No, not everybody. While it is a sad reality that many illnesses and disease are rampant in Africa not every person is sick. For example, the HIV prevalence rate in Malawi is 14% - that means 14% of the population has HIV, but that also means that 86% of the population does not have HIV. If you got a mark of 86% on a final exam you’d be pretty happy about that right? So let’s keep it in context. There are occasional disease outbreaks but how the media portrays them are another matter altogether. When a newscaster reports a story about an outbreak of… oh I don’t know… lets say… Ebola, its hard for the average person to grasp exactly where that outbreak is on a map of a place they barely recognize, so they associate the disease with the whole continent. Congo/Malawi its all Africa right? No! It’s the same as suggesting that an outbreak of meningitis in Vancouver is going affect New York. It’s all North America right? (Sigh)
5) Africa is at war. A few spots yes and but mostly no. A very short history is needed here to understand. There are ~50 countries in Africa; most of these were occupied by European colonists a century ago. They fought for their independence and won it (just like the US did). Its just that since it happened ~50 times and within the last century that’s why it seems like its been at war for so long. Today I’d guess that >80% of the continent is at peace. When I go outside there are no armies and guerrilla fighters roaming the streets. Only children running and playing, the parents walking to the shops or home from work. There are so many of smiling faces. I hear more laughter here than I do in Toronto. There is significantly less gun violence and gun-related death in Lilongwe than Toronto, although I think the numbers of street gangs may be the same. With all that said there are some wars/armed conflicts ongoing in Africa. The DR Congo, Sudan and Somalia are the 3 that come to mind. Again lets put this in perspective – 3 of out 50 countries in conflict (and lest we forget that Canada and the US are currently engaged in an armed conflict with Afghanistan). What I’m trying to get at here is that history weighs heavily on Africa. But the here and now is different, its just that most of us don’t know that and we can thank our education system and the media for this ignorance. Seriously, Malawi is very peaceful - poor but peaceful.
6) All the politicians are corrupt. This is a tough one. For sure there are some nutter dictator/self-proclaimed presidents-for-life in power here in Africa, but they are few. And the ones historically prominent (e.g. Idi Amin of Uganda) tend to stereotype our minds. While today we see images of presidents like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe in the newscast he is only but one president. There are so many other countries that hold democratic elections and have legitimate government representation, like Malawi. As for corruption, that’s a harder issue to debate. It’s not so transparent. But I do think that it’s not only the countries of Africa that suffer from it but also countries all around the world. Do we believe in the integrity of the Bush Administration? The former Liberal party? Thoughts to ponder that’s all.
I don’t know if this has cleared up some of the misconceptions we’ve been struggling with. I wish I could just take you all along with me to show you what I mean, what I’ve learned. I know words on a screen only go so far. Just try to keep an open-mind about this place, put things is perspective and take what the nightly newscast says with a grain of salt.
After writing my last entry I feel I need to write a more positive letter. I don’t want to project the image that Africa is a land full of misery and suffering - because it is not. As I have tried to explain to many people (some successfully, others not so much), Africa is not just what you see on the news. We have to keep in mind that the majority of the newscasts and mass media only present negative stories. (Really think back to when a headline expressed good news or at least something not so pessimistic – go ahead read today’s headlines – I’ll wait, my blog will still be here when you finish). There is a whole other side to Africa that the average North American never sees. Its not because we are ignorant, its just that the average person has little control over what they see in the media, and have even lesser access to this information unless you really hunt for it.
I wanted to take some time to dispel some of the common myths people have about Africa. Or at least the comments people made to me before I left the ‘safety’ of Toronto.
1) It’s a jungle out there. Yes and No. There are so many different types of landscapes here. a) Deserts – the Sahara in the north and the Kalahari in the southeast. b) Savannahs (kind of like drier prairies). This is what its like here in Malawi at the moment. Dry, dispersed vegetation, tall grasses. c) Mountains with snow. Remember that it gets colder with elevation (the higher up you go). The Atlas Mountains in the NE, and the Great Rift Mountains in the west – home of Mt. Kilaminjaro - the 2nd highest mountain in the world. d) Jungles. Yes, lots of rain forest, just like you see on TV. Not so much here in Malawi though. e) Great Lakes – like the great lakes in Ontario, there are great lakes in Africa, very near where I am actually, e.g. Lake Malawi, Lake Victoria. The lakes are vast and fresh and full of fish. I might dare to say even better than the Great Lakes of Canada. In Sum, think about it this way – as you drive across Canada or the US how many different landscapes and temperatures will you encounter? Is Alberta the same as Newfoundland? Ontario the same as Nunavut? Africa is as wide and vast as Canada.
2) It’s hot, hot, hot! Yes and No. As with the varied landscape, there is varied climate. To be honest, I believed this myth too. When I packed my bag I threw in my jeans and fleece just in case I did some hiking in the mountains. But I was soooo glad I brought them. At night it really cools down. At the moment I sleep with 2 blankets on my bed and I wear a sweater to work. This is mostly because I am staying in a town at an elevation of 5300ft. People who live near Lake Malawi have it warmer. It’s also important to keep in mind that Malawi is in the Southern Hemisphere and its winter here now. While the daytime high is 15-20ºC and nighttime low 10ºC at the moment, in a couple months the temp will be sweltering, just like you thought it would be. But of course, we only hear limited information on Africa’s climate. Just remember one thing – just because you are closer to the equator doesn’t mean that it is hot hot hot!
3) Everybody is poor. Yes and No. While so many people live in extreme poverty there are also millions of people who live quite comfortably. For instance, the woman I live with has 2 degrees, a jeep, laptop, her own house, complete with furniture, electricity, plumbing and servant. Lilongwe has a city centre full of banks, hotels, shops, businesses all with people dressed in such sharp suits they would blend in easily on Front & Bay streets. The downtown section is alive with bars, restaurants, schools, markets, cafes, beauty parlours, etc. I go out for lunch with girlfriends and then have a mani-pedi on the weekend. In that same salon are Malawian women getting their nails done too. I suppose the big difference is that, while most of the western luxuries are available in Malawi and Africa in general, the majority of the population can not afford them.
4) Everybody is sick. No, not everybody. While it is a sad reality that many illnesses and disease are rampant in Africa not every person is sick. For example, the HIV prevalence rate in Malawi is 14% - that means 14% of the population has HIV, but that also means that 86% of the population does not have HIV. If you got a mark of 86% on a final exam you’d be pretty happy about that right? So let’s keep it in context. There are occasional disease outbreaks but how the media portrays them are another matter altogether. When a newscaster reports a story about an outbreak of… oh I don’t know… lets say… Ebola, its hard for the average person to grasp exactly where that outbreak is on a map of a place they barely recognize, so they associate the disease with the whole continent. Congo/Malawi its all Africa right? No! It’s the same as suggesting that an outbreak of meningitis in Vancouver is going affect New York. It’s all North America right? (Sigh)
5) Africa is at war. A few spots yes and but mostly no. A very short history is needed here to understand. There are ~50 countries in Africa; most of these were occupied by European colonists a century ago. They fought for their independence and won it (just like the US did). Its just that since it happened ~50 times and within the last century that’s why it seems like its been at war for so long. Today I’d guess that >80% of the continent is at peace. When I go outside there are no armies and guerrilla fighters roaming the streets. Only children running and playing, the parents walking to the shops or home from work. There are so many of smiling faces. I hear more laughter here than I do in Toronto. There is significantly less gun violence and gun-related death in Lilongwe than Toronto, although I think the numbers of street gangs may be the same. With all that said there are some wars/armed conflicts ongoing in Africa. The DR Congo, Sudan and Somalia are the 3 that come to mind. Again lets put this in perspective – 3 of out 50 countries in conflict (and lest we forget that Canada and the US are currently engaged in an armed conflict with Afghanistan). What I’m trying to get at here is that history weighs heavily on Africa. But the here and now is different, its just that most of us don’t know that and we can thank our education system and the media for this ignorance. Seriously, Malawi is very peaceful - poor but peaceful.
6) All the politicians are corrupt. This is a tough one. For sure there are some nutter dictator/self-proclaimed presidents-for-life in power here in Africa, but they are few. And the ones historically prominent (e.g. Idi Amin of Uganda) tend to stereotype our minds. While today we see images of presidents like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe in the newscast he is only but one president. There are so many other countries that hold democratic elections and have legitimate government representation, like Malawi. As for corruption, that’s a harder issue to debate. It’s not so transparent. But I do think that it’s not only the countries of Africa that suffer from it but also countries all around the world. Do we believe in the integrity of the Bush Administration? The former Liberal party? Thoughts to ponder that’s all.
I don’t know if this has cleared up some of the misconceptions we’ve been struggling with. I wish I could just take you all along with me to show you what I mean, what I’ve learned. I know words on a screen only go so far. Just try to keep an open-mind about this place, put things is perspective and take what the nightly newscast says with a grain of salt.
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