What I've been doing up north...

What am I doing here?

For the past week, I've been attempting to visit all of the agrodealers (people who sell seed, fertilizer, or chemicals to farmers) that have been trained over the seven years of this project. It's a big undertaking because over the past seven years more than 1,300 agrodealers have been trained. These agrodealers come in all shapes and sizes. Some of these agrodealers have businesses that are extremely successful, and some are still struggling to get their businesses going. Some agrodealers have received grants from CNFA to purchase equipment, or to renovate their shops. And, some have received assistance in order to stock their shops. We're trying to meet with all of the agrodealers to find out how their businesses are doing and what kind of assistance they feel they need (in terms of training and access to CNFA support).




It's been a really interesting process for me (and I'm only in week one of the three week project). I've interviewed over 20 agrodealers this week. Some of them have big shops in Mzuzu and they are open year round. Some agrodealers have very small shops and they are not open at this time of year (the main growing season will start in November when the rains come). Some of the agrodealers have received grants to purchase different pieces of equipment for processing maize and rice. We visited one maize mill in the hills surrounding Mzuzu this week (it's shown in the pictures). The maize mill processes maize into flour that is then made into nsima, which is the staple food in Malawi. People come to the maize mill and pay a small fee to have their maize ground into the flour. Without the mill, the women will spend hours pounding the maize into flour.



The mill that we visited is run by an agrodealer who is also a teacher. She has put her shop in one of the rural areas surrounding Mzuzu (this is encouraged by CNFA). Her mill has a very small shop attached. The shop sells small quantities of seed and fertilizer. Both the mill and the shop are manned by the woman shown in the photos. She keeps very basic records showing when the mill has been used and the number of electricity credits that were used. She was very happy to pose for a photo. Kids are always keen to pose when they see a camera. Perhaps you can't tell from the photos, but it's quite cold here in Mzuzu and even more so up in the hills.

I'd love to answer any questions you have... so fire away!

Indulging my wanderlust

Mzuzu!

It's beautiful here in the north of Malawi. Mzuzu is the smallest of Malawi's 'cities' (there are only three). I'm told it's designation as a city was a bit of a political bribe. But, even though it is pretty small it definitely has its good qualities. I have to admit that it doesn't have the bustling vibe that Lilongwe has, but the city has a very neat and tidy feel, and the people are even more friendly and easy going than they are in Lilongwe. The market and the stores are also stocked with lots of good stuff that has come over the border from Tanzania. Lots of people speak English here too, which is a good thing for me because the second most popular language in the north is Tambuka not Chichewa (admittedly, my Chichewa isn't that good either).

Mzuzu is surrounded by forest, which is rare in Malawi because there are so many people in so little space, and wood (often made into charcoal) is the main means of heating and cooking. The forest around Mzuzu is being managed, so depletion here is a little less of a concern than elsewhere. There is also a good timber business here... sort of reminds me of home. Mzuzu is also a little higher in elevation than Lilongwe, so it's a little cold (I need a few blankets at night).

Right now, I'm staying in a little motel just outside of town. My evening journey home is my favourite part of the day. I leave the office and walk five minutes to the market. I work my way through the market picking up my dinner as I go. As I enter the market I buy an apple (a bit of a luxury here - there are local oranges, tangerines, avocados, tomatoes, bananas, and more - but the apples are brought in from South Africa). As I wind my way through the market I'll pick up some combination of popcorn, freshly roasted peanuts, bread, bananas, sweet bread with some kind of sweet topping, local banana bread made with maize flower, and/or a lollipop. I'm not sure if it's a balanced meal, but it is quite delicious and it works well with my current lack of kitchen facilities.

After, I'm finished picking up my dinner I wander across the road to the spot where the minibuses and the taxis stop. The minibuses run long distances, so I share a taxi for the 5 or 6 minute drive out of town. I get dropped off outside of the Mzuzu University (a visit to the university is in my future plans), which is the last spot that the taxis stop. Then, I walk for another 5 minutes or so to the motel. The walk is up one hill and then into a valley. As I walk, the setting sun slides away under the hills in front of me. It's a wonderful way to end the day.

Independence Day in Malawi

Last weekend Malawi celebrated Independence Day and I went to Blantyre with some other volunteers to check out the festivities. As a side note, Blantyre is the biggest city in Malawi. It has a little bit of industrialization, and a city centre! (an exciting feature). The first President of Malawi (Hastings Kamuzu Banda - president from 1963 to 1994) decreed that there be no building taller than one story in Lilongwe (the capital city - and the city where I live). So, Lilongwe has the feel of a very, very large village or town rather than the grandeur of a capital city. All this is changing though - there is a promising amount of building going on in Lilongwe.

Three other volunteers and I headed to Kamuzu Stadium on Independence Day (Monday July 6th) to see the celebrations that had been planned. We arrived a little bit late (I think we got there around 9am) and joined one of the many lines snaking away from the building. Unfortunately, about a half an hour after we got there they closed the doors and we found out that we weren't going to get in. The stadium has a capacity of 60,000 and you can see from the pictures how many people didn't get in.

From outside the stadium, we watched the current president, Dr. Bingu Wa Mutharika arrive. He was standing in the back of a car waving to the crowds. We also saw a marching band, and some soldiers in formation. The military also put on an explosive show that was very loud (you can see some people covering their ears in the pictures). I could feel the shock waves from the explosions hit me... I guess it also helped to keep the crowd in order.

Sadly, we missed the good stuff that happened inside the stadium. We heard that there was some traditional dancing and much oration. To console ourselves we headed to one of Blantyre's ice cream shops (I think they have two!) and we enjoyed our ice cream tremendously.

Hope everyone had a fantastic Canada Day!

Madalitso

Thought that I'd introduce you to Madalitso or Mada as everyone calls her. Mada is the daughter of a couple who have worked for my host family on and off over the past few years. (Mada's wearing my glasses in the picture on the left.)

Madalitso's family lived in our house while it was being built and stayed on for some time after it was completed. Mada and her sisters were part of the family for a while, and Phyness (my host family's matriarch) sent Mada to preschool. Mada really enjoyed preschool and loved to come home and share the alphabet amongst other exciting things.

Mada is seven now, and she and her family live a five minute walk from where I stay. Sometimes in the evenings after work I walk over to her house to visit. They have a small house in area that's shared with several other families. They use candles for lighting and charcoal for cooking. They have a well for water. I'm usually welcomed with hugs when I go and visit.

When Mada's family moved out of Phyness' compound they didn't continue sending Mada to school. Education is fairly inexpensive in Malawi. It's supposed to be free, but books and uniforms are necessary and they are not included in the government's free school program. Also, sometimes the education available at the free schools isn't of the highest quality because these schools have very large classes. I was talking to a primary teacher in training and he said that he expects to teach between 50 and 150 students. Imagine a class of 150 grade 1 students! Bedlam!

I decided that I would help to send Mada to school because my host family said that she was very smart and that it was a shame that she wasn't going to school. Mada has started grade 1, but she's behind her school-mates who are two years younger than her. She visits me most Sundays for the little extra help that I can offer. She's learning to speak English very quickly (all school is taught in English). She started responding to my questions almost immediately after she started school (which is much, much faster than I can claim for my Chichewa skills).

She's still working on learning the alphabet and learning numbers, but there's progress. My only hope for her is that she will be able to choose where she wants to go with her life. I think a bit of inexpensive (for me) education will go a long way towards giving her that kind of choice.

Thanks for reading.

A Wedding... nope not mine!

This weekend I got to attend a Malawian wedding ceremony. I finagled the invitation through other volunteers who are working in Lilongwe. The groom was a co-worker of my friend. However, despite the fact that no one knew who I was I was given 'guest-of-honour' status along with my friends -- which in this case meant that we got good seats.

That's the bride and groom on the left. Neither of them look very happy, but apparently that's part of the ceremony. I haven't managed to find out why that's the case yet. Occasionally, the groom accidentally cracked a smile though so I knew everything was ok.

There wasn't too much romance involved in the ceremony. The bride's family presented the groom's family with a hen, and the groom's family presented the bride's family with a cock. And then there was quite a bit of dancing.


The people on the left are dancing and showering the newly married couple with money. We were told to take lots of small bills to the wedding so that we could take part in the dancing and showering of money. I took lots of 20 Kwacha bills (about 20 cents) and I did some dancing. They even played special music for the 'Canadians' to dance to because they didn't think we could get down to Malawian music.

All in all it was a pretty good time.... and the kids definitely had fun.

Next up are preparations for a visit by our projectdonors AGRA. This means that I had to postpone my trip north. I'll probably head that way in two weeks time.


Happy Canada Day to everyone back home!!!

Photos and Stories

Report Aftermath...
Our department is relaxing in the happy glow of a report submitted just on time. We're tidying up a few loose ends and doing a little bit of planning for the next few months.

I'm currently planning for a trip up to the north of the country next week. I'll be visiting the office in Mzuzu and spending some time in the field. I'm looking forward to some time in village. Hopefully I can shadow one of our agrodealers and learn a little more about what it's like to do business in Malawi. I might even make a trip to visit another volunteer (and good friend) in Misuku in the very north of Malawi. Andrew's working for a fair trade company called Mzuzu coffee and his placement is very remote. Apparently only Mzuzu coffee vehicles and the ambulance make trips to Misuku. I've got my fingers crossed that I'll make the trip.

Other news...
Well, in the absence of other news I thought that I'd share some pictures. The first two were taken at a big field day a month or so ago. I was a big hit because I had a camera. I took lots of photos - the problem will be if/when I see these people again and they start asking where their photos are.

The first photo is of one of the women who organized the field day. She was very insistent that I take her photo and managed to shoo away other people long enough to get a photo by herself... well mostly by herself.

The second photo is a bunch of boys at the same field day.

The third photo is of Tokafe. She lives at my home. She's belongs to Bob, the guy who cooks and cleans at our house. She isn't actually his daughter but the family looks after as though she is part of the family. When Bob and his wife married and had a child they were given Tokafe to look after. This is very common in Malawi. My co-worker Khumbo just got married and had a baby and she already has three children from her extended family who live with her. As she says, if you're doing well in Malawi then you have to look after members of your family who aren't doing as well as you are.

Tokafe is super cute and very shy. For the first month or so, she would hide every time that she saw me. I couldn't quite figure out how to make friends with her until I bought her a teddy bear (a puppy) at the market. Now we're good friends and she loves to wave at me whenever she sees me.

The picture is of Tokafe taking a bath. She's not too fond of baths at all... but she has a better reason than most. That's cold water in the bucket.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the pictures.

One convention, one report, and two retreats

So, I've been absent for a little while... but I do have a really good excuse - I've been busy!

A convention...
At the end of May we had over a hundred and fifty agrodealers in town for a two day conference. They came from all over Malawi (ok Malawi really isn't that big, but still) and attended all sort of workshops. We had speakers from business, banks, universities, a government secretary, and other big wigs. We had a reception (with some dancing - my first dancing in Malawi - yay!), we had an award ceremony, and we had lots of food. I think everyone had a good time, both agrodealers and CNFA staff. I was one of two people heading up planning of the convention, so by the end of things I was pretty exhausted (but happy).

A retreat...
Right after the end of the convention I headed to Senga Bay for an EWB convention. It was fun and work combined in almost equal proportion. The work was pretty easy though, the people were fabulous (20 of us from all over Malawi and Zambia), the sessions were outside in the sunshine (a good number of them were on the beach), and monkeys came to observe how we were getting along. The food was pretty spectacular. We hosted a bake off that featured pizza, carrot cake, and a mexican dinner with fresh guacamole. Mmmm....

A report...
It's semi-annual reporting time at CNFA. This means that we in the monitoring and evaluation team have been putting all of our energies into a long report that will make its way to our donor AGRA (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa), which receives most of its funding from Mr. Bill Gates. Reporting is a fact of life in development - that doesn't mean that it's fun though. (I'm just about to leave work now and it's just after 8:30pm).

Another retreat...
Last weekend the CNFA staff headed off to Senga Bay (yup, I was there two weekends in a row). We spent the weekend reviewing the activities of the past year and planning for the upcoming year. I think it was a pretty productive couple of days... and I managed to sneak in a few swims and walks along the beach. I was suprised how much I missed being by the water, but hopefully I've managed to stock up on lakeside time for a little bit now.

Hope you enjoy the pictures of the lake.