Beauty in Diversity

In my time in Malawi I've seen some interesting things that you probably wouldn't see in Canada. I thought that I'd share some of them...

Street Vendors: I love living in Lilongwe because most of the time when I want something it will come to me. When I first started tutoring one of the kids in the neighbourhood I decided that I wanted a wall chart that showed the ABCs. The next day at lunch I had a quick look for one in the grocery store near my work but I couldn't find one. On my way back from the store I was approached by a man selling ABC wall charts and pens. Random... and fantastic!

Street Vendors Take Two: Household pets are also available as you walk (or drive) the streets and back roads of Lilongwe. Cute puppies, kittens, and bunny rabbits (although I've been told the bunny rabbits are for dinner rather than for pets) sit sadly in the palms of the street vendors. They pretty much beg you to buy them and take them home and give them a good life (the animals that is - not the vendors). Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately because I would have a giant posse of puppies by now) my family already has 4 dogs and isn't looking for anymore.

Weird things on Bicycles: When I first got here, one of the things that immediately struck me were the men riding around with 5 to 10 chickens hanging upside down from their handle bars. Now, it's become almost normal - but I'm still struck by how calm the chickens are about it. Although, someone told me that if you hang a chicken upside down all the blood goes to it's brain and it's pretty much incapable of doing anything so perhaps it's more like incapacitation rather than a state of calm.

Weird things on Bicycles Take Two: Bicycles are an excellent way to transport things when you don't have a car (I love taking bike taxis), but sometimes I think people take things to extremes. When I saw a bath tub attached to the front of a bicycle I thought it was pretty extreme... and a fantastic workout for the rider.

Protected by the Blood of Jesus: The main way to get around here (if you don't have a car - and most people don't) is by minibus. It's actually a pretty fantastic system. It's pretty easy to get everywhere and it's cheap! Minibuses have some pretty fantastic bumper stickers. I always feel better when I'm in a minibus that's 'Protected by the Blood of Jesus'.

Football

One Sunday while I was in Mzuzu I took a walk toward the stadium that is on the outskirts of town. Once I was there I couldn't resist taking a look. I paid my 100 MK without asking what it was that I was going to get to see. Once inside the stadium I found that the afternoon was to be filled with football.

The game that was playing when I got there was between two local teams. The crowd was fairly small. However, it began to grow as the game drew to a close and the main attraction drew nearer. By this time I had made some friends in the crowd and I found out that the big game of the afternoon was between two 'Super League' teams. The favourite to win was the home team called the Eagles (made up entirely of members of the Malawian Police force) and the other team was the Moyales (made up entirely of the Malawian Military). I was already excited before the teams took to the field.

As the game drew nearer the noise got louder and louder. (I don't know if anyone here watched the FIFA Cup in South Africa? It's not something I'd normally do myself but it was big time here. Well the loud horn (vuvuzela) they had in South Africa has found its way to Mzuzu.) Little kids were dancing and spirits were generally high. I bought myself a lollipop and got ready for the game.

The first half was pretty exciting, but there was no scoring. The League leaders (the Eagles) were not performing as the local fans expected, but there was a very large and appreciative complement of soliders on hand that were excited about how well the Moyales were doing. The crowd exhaled a loud 'eeee' every time anyone came close to scoring. Half time came with a short break in play and an intensification in people trying to sell us things (lollipops and candy, newspapers, bread rolls that they call Obamas, and more).

When the second half began it was only a few minutes before the Moyales scored. The soliders went crazy and a few started doing victory laps around the stadium. The Eagles fans that I was sitting with took the goal in stride. The rest of the second half ticked away until we were in the final minutes. At this point I was considering leaving before the end of the game so that I would avoid the crowds and get back into town nice and early. But, before I did there was a penalty called on the Moyales and the Eagles were given a free kick. Hope returned to the loyal Eagles fans. The kick was made... and a goal was scored. Once again the crowd went wild (we were jumping up and down at my end of the field). The soliders weren't quite as happy though and a good number stormed onto the field. I couldn't see from where I was, but apparently fist fighting broke out between the Moyale fans and the Eagles team.

The two teams represent law and order in Mzuzu, so they had to get things under control pretty quickly. We were all interested to see what would happen next. The field cleared and the final seconds of the game resumed. The Moyales took possession of the ball and made a charge down the field... and the Eagles all drifted away from their goal leaving the Moyales to score again and win the game 2-1. Excellent conflict resolution I thought!

As I was leaving the soliders and their fans were packing into the back of army trucks to take some loud victory laps around Mzuzu. Good times!

The north...

During my weeks in the north I visited many, many agrodealers who are working to establish and grow their business under challenging circumstances. The ladies on the left (along with CNFA staffer Aaron) want to open a new store in Jenda. They were part of a women's group made up of nine woman who wanted to start an agrodealing business. Although groups and cooperatives are often touted as solutions in development, sometimes they just don't work. Gloria and Mafunasi have decided to open a shop by themselves and have located the building shown in the picture. Right now they grow tomatoes and onions and sell them in the market. Opening a shop will be a big jump for them. Gloria and Mafunasi have the money to rent the shop, but will be able to afford a very limited amount of stock. They have applied to get help from CNFA. Hopefully, CNFA can help them in a couple of ways. The first way would be to help them renovate the building a little so that it is ready to be opened as a shop. And, the second way is to help them get credit with their suppliers so that they can put stock in the shop.

During my weeks in the north, I also stayed in some really beautiful places. The picture shows a lake formed by a dam. I took the picture just before breakfast. The night was actually really cold (there was frost on the ground when I woke up in the morning). Because the lodge that I stayed at that night was almost full I ended up staying the hostel part of the lodge. The large room of bunk beds felt pretty much like an ice box... but I figure it's good for me. Ice boxes preserve things.. hopefully this applies to people too. The entire area surrounding the lake was beautiful. It was surrounded by forest because it's in the middle of a Forestry Reserve.

During my weeks in the north, I saw a minibus on fire! Really, I have no good reason to include this other than the titillation factor. It provided, me, my coworkers, and a big crowd of people in Mzimba with entertainment for a good twenty minutes or so. We arrived as people were throwing sand into the vehicle trying to put a small fire out (everyone was already out of the vehicle). Within probably a minute of our arrive the fire spread to the whole vehicle and every part of the vehicle that could burn was burning. At this point one of the passengers who had been trying to put out the fire went to the back of the bus and managed to open the door, carefully and quickly reached around a bit and then walked away with his bag. I thought he was a little crazy because we were all standing a good distance from the bus in case something decided to explode. In retrospect though, the bag probably contained a significant portion of his worldly belongings. Eventually, the fire died down but people's interest remained pretty high. We passed by the burnt out remains several times during the day and there were always a few people taking a look.


Finally, during my weeks in the north, there were always children. These ones chanted 'jambuleni' (picture) at me until I got out my camera and took a picture. For some reason children love to do some kind of 'kung fu' pose when we foreigners are taking pictures.

Thanks for reading all!

Back in Lilongwe

I've finally returned to Lilongwe (and regular internet access) from the far north of the country. The three weeks I spent exploring the north were fantastic and I've met with many, many interesting people who are trying to make their agro-dealership business work - often under quite difficult conditions. The picture on the left is of a shop in the most northern district of Malawi (the district that borders with Zambia and Tanzania). The shop is run by a women who sells agricultural inputs and groceries. It was nicely kept inside, but it didn't have too much stock. The women who runs the shop has to get all of her stock from a larger trading area by minibus. I can't think of a nice place to go shopping. Her shop was bordered by small hills on one side and a little drop off to a beautiful valley on the other.

I promise to share more about my visits with agrodealers over the next few days, but first I thought that I'd share my journey back to Lilongwe. The exercise that I was working on wrapped up in Chitipa on Friday. Chitipa is a thriving town on the border with Tanzania. Access to Chitipa is a little difficult because the roads into and out of Chitipa are pretty terrible - there are no paved roads for at least 150 kilometers. This gives the town a kind of outback feel. So, the exercise wrapped up in Chitipa Friday and I needed to be in Blantyre (in the south) to see my host family's son get married on Saturday morning.

We left bright and early on Friday morning from Chitipa, and visited agrodealers throughout the day on our way back to Mzuzu. The dirt roads makes for a lot of fun driving, but not for fast driving. We made it back to Mzuzu around 4:30 in the afternoon. Then began my hunt for an overnight bus that would take me to Blantyre. I managed to find myself a seat on the last bus making the journey. I was pretty happy to get the bus and the seat. Several people opted to stand for the 12 hour overnight trip. I slept most of the way waking up only when we all had to get of the bus at the police road stops. By 5:30 am we were in Blantyre, which is good because I had just enough time to get myself cleaned up and to the church for the 7:30 am ceremony.

Doesn't the beautiful couple look happy.