Four corners

I’ve been in Malawi for almost 8 months now and I’ve found myself to be moving a lot through the country. Each of the places that I unpacked my bags to call home for a while had brought me a different view of Malawi, of its people, of its culture. Here is a summary and images. Enjoy!
Karonga
9 March – 14 April 2011
That was my first home when I arrived in Malawi. I stayed there for a month. I had my own small mud brick hut that I shared with a hen and her 11 chicks, scorpions, crickets and frogs. I was sleeping on a woven mat on the floor. There was no furniture in my hut or the family’s. It was a few minutes walking from Lake Malawi. Village house, no electricity, a communal tap, a pit latrine that collapsed due to the rain and a bathroom with only three walls and no roof. The cooking was done over fire in a side room or outside. We would go bathe and wash our clothes in the lake, but no one on this section of the lake really goes as tourist, all the women were bathing with clothes on, so I had to do the same. The family I was living with was great, only women!! The mom, was a 42 yrs old lady who was running an osipa business (small fishes, really bitter, but Malawians love them). She would buy them directly from the fishermen, dry them and sell them at the market. She was not rich, but she was doing ok. She was divorced. Her youngest daughter Pacharo (15 yrs old) and her granddaughter Gertrude (4yrs old) were living there full time. Pacharo and all the other older kids of the family were educated and all went to school. The mom felt it was important and was helping as much as she could. Little Gertrude’s mom, Christabel (25 yrs old), the oldest daughter, was living and studying management and accounting in Mzuzu, 4-5 hours south by minibus. She came and stayed with us for almost three weeks. She is amazing, I really enjoyed her company and friendship. I also became friend with Abell, a 28 yrs old pastor. The three of us had good discussions about religion, politics, economy, relationships. We were running a few kilometers every other morning. The mom was only speaking Tumbuka, no English. I had my first experience of dancing with the ladies on Saturdays and cooking nsima. It was really hot in Karonga at that time, so most women would eat dinner and hang out at night top less. The beauty of living with only women. It was hot and raining a lot. Almost every morning on my way to he field, I’d see another part of the District that had been flooded the previous night. And one night, it was our turn. Our village, my house, the main market and the road were under a meter of water. It was very troubling and very sad to observe. The flood corresponded to the end of my field research there, so I left, and never went back since. It’s too far north.
Salima town
19 April – 14 October  2011
I lived there full time for the first three months and I was there half the time for the last three months. I shared a mud hut with Maggie, a 35 yrs old woman and her 20 yrs old nephew Dew (he left in July to try to get scholarship to go to University, so he went and did the exams). He spoke English, she didnt’t. She was speaking Chechewa, the main language in Malawi. Maggie had no husband and no kids, she always took care of other people and for some reason never had a family of her own. Most women in there 30s with no husband and kids are being judge, but for an inexplicable reason to me (I never felt it was appropriate to asked), she is a well respected “aunty” around the village. For the first month, I share Maggies room, sleeping on my newly bought foam mattress on the floor. Then Lisa, my friend and coworker, moved in with us and we got the storage room and the neighbour gave us a bed frame for our bed. So I got my room, but I share my bed with Lisa, who was doing her field research in Salima. Haha! The house had furniture, real windows, a wood door and a lock. But still no electricity. There was a shallow well in the backyard for non-drinkable water and a borehole a kilometer away for potable water. A nice pit latrine and bathroom were in the backyard. We’d cook outside over charcoal using a small homemade metal mbaola. We’d do the laundry and dishes outside on the porch. Maggie is also a business woman. She buys charcoal and firewood, sells it during the rainy season, she buys bulk soap and sells it in small bags in the neighbouring villages. She is not doing a lot of money, but she can survive ok. She has a small crop land for maize only. She also built a house next to hers and rents it for MWK1000/month (less than 10 dollars). She is doing business with another woman and they have a loan from a local bank.
Senga Bay
14 July – 14 October 2011
The house in Senga Bay is a beach cottage that an older British couple living in Lilongwe (1.5 hr away) have been renting for the last many years. They were not using it a lot at that period of the year as it was cool. Plus they are working a lot and petrol is hard to find to do the drive. They let me use it, they were friends of friends. I shared the bills with them. I had my own place, a gas oven, a fridge, a flush toilet and a hot shower. Plus it was right on the beach. The running water was provided via a borehole on the property and piped to to the cottage, I never once had a water shortage. Electricity was unfortunately provided by the government, so I was subject to the random and frequent power outage. Beautiful old rustic cottage with rotting windows and infested by ants, but still quite charming. My roommates were two giant monitoring lizard living in the ceiling. I saw a few snakes too, but they would not stay. Otherwise, I was alone there. The house is really old and far from other people with minimal security (a night guard for the entire property). The risks were not high, but I was always scared of guys (from the fishermen village right next to the house) to break in at night, or being bitten by a snake, or getting sick and being alone. Hopefully, nothing happened while I was there, it was in fact pretty quiet and almost boring. Most of my stay there was during the colder season, so it would be too cold to swim in the lake, although, I enjoyed the cool lake during the last month of my stay. I was living there part time only, because, first, it was quite a commute to and from work (25 km in the back of an old, overcrowded pickup) and second, I was lonely, although I found a friend there a few weeks before I left and she would give me rides in the morning, so I stayed in Senga Bay more often then. There were other cottages on the property, all rented by older British couple living in Lilongwe. I saw some of them once or twice during weekends. There were a few men working as staff on the property everyday. Some were cleaning the other cottages, some were maintaining the garden and beach and preparing hot water at night for me to use. It was interesting to have staff around if I needed something, they were always helpful. Although, I never had to pay them or take care of all this crap, the landlord and other tenants were responsible for it since my cottage is the only one that the tenants don’t have staff.
Liwonde
14 October 2011– (projection March 2012)
As I mentioned in my last post (more details and pictures (can’t post more than a few pictures at the time as internet is not good enough, so to see pictures of this new place you’ll have to check the previous post if you haven’t already…haha, sorry), I moved to a small staff compound in Liwonde. I have a small two room place, one main room and one storage room. I share a cold shower (perfect these days as it is really really hot) and flush toilet with a family. We get our electricity through the government and our water through the Water Board, so we get a lot of shortages, especially at this time of the year, and best of all, they are normally combined as they pumps and turbines for water require electricity!! The family lives well compare to the other ones I’ve lived with. They have electricity and running water, they have furniture and a hot plate. Although they generally cook using fire. They built a nice food fire stove, never saw that anywhere before. It’s simple, but they are more organized. They are not rich at all though. I am not sure that all the kids go to school, for now I know the older boy does for sure, but the older girl (19 yrs old who just got a baby) doesn’t. Kids learn English at school and none of those kids know English well if at all. But I think they at least attend primary school, I saw some of them wearing uniforms. The husband takes care of the main house on the property (I live in a staff house!!), he cooks and clean and guard during the day. There is another guard at night. I haven’t seen the owner of the main house yet. They could be foreigner as the news paper that are in my bathroom are in English and I saw American movies in the theater pages and white people in the ads and article, it’s the Daily Times, but it’s from September 2007!! haha
I like this last set up better than all the others. It is not big, but it is mine. I am not alone but I can do my own things at my own pace. I don’t have much to cook with, but I can cook what I like and share if I want to. I enjoy the shower and the toilet, although I need to always make sure I have a few buckets filled with water in my room as you can’t rely on running shower. I enjoy having electricity. I bought a fan and a hot plate. Although the hotplate is South African (Malawi uses British plugs) and I seem to have problems with my power outlet. I saw smoke this morning coming out of the plug as I was making breakfast using the hotplate. I think the voltage is different and it needs more power or something. It seems to melt the socket a bit more every time, even when I use an adaptor with a fuse. I’ll figure it out, but if anyone knows about that, please let me know before I ruin my hotplate and kettle with are SA. I bought a new socket and I’ll change it when there is a power outage. Now that I want it to happen, the electricity is good! Of course.
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Anyways, in all four corners of my life in Malawi, I’ve learnt a lot from the different people who lived with or around me. I’m observing them, taking part of their tasks and daily life, and they are observing me too, sometimes laughing, sometimes wondering and other times learning. It’s amazing to be part of their lives, if only for a few months! It’s nice, it’s challenging but one important similarities, all those people I lived or live with, are all fabulous in their own way, they are strong, creative, smiling, helpful and welcoming. Ahhhh Malawi, you are the warm heart of Africa. You are certainly not recognized for your food, nor your landscape and scenery, but for your people!

Cheers, Ge