Here I am in my office, trying to get work done but I can’t. It’s about 40 degrees and the power has been out all afternoon now, so no fan to help me concentrate. I’m drenched wet from the sweat and humidity. It should be raining, it’s the rainy season after all, yet it’s not. Actually the rare times it rained in Liwonde it was more like a storm, too intense to help the crops, it caused flash floods and my office’s ceiling to leak right over my desk and computer and my colleague's.
The running water is out too and we have been having tons of problems with it over the last weeks. The water in Liwonde is pumped from the Shire river. The Waterboard has three pumps normally but two of them are broken and the one that is running is not 100% functional. They asked the Ministry to buy spare parts and a new pump in July 2011, but no pumps or spare parts have been ordered yet apparently. The main reason for this is the lack of foreign exchange available in the country, possibly combined with the lack of interest/urgency to help the Waterboard before they actually have their three pumps not working. There is only water a few hours a day, sometimes only after 11 pm until 4 am, with a really bad pressure. I had a ride from someone working for the Waterboard a few days ago and he said the current pump can’t withdraw sufficient amount of water for the needs, so until they fix the other ones or get a new pump, Liwonde will keep having water shortages.
This forced me to think about the current use of water on a daily basis: drinking, flushing the toilet (I miss the latrine), showering (even a bucket shower requires a few liters), washing clothes, cooking and washing dishes. I have a few buckets to store water but when the shortage go on for too long and we only get water while I’m sleeping, it makes it really difficult to have enough for my laundry or even the dishes. I need to think about the usage of every drop and how I can recycle it. We have a friend that lives by the river, so maybe I’ll have to go there and get water from it directly but it’s complicated and it’s not really allowed.
Also, the people I work with are not being paid by their employer (the malawian consulting company). They are rarely paid in time, those people don’t make a lot of money and they need every Kwatcha of it to buy food, soap, pay their rent and their bills, send their kids to school, etc. Their employer has always had problems to pay them in time, lack of good management skills I suppose, but recently the problems have reach a different level. The client of the project, the National Water Development (the Ministry) is not paying the project right now for various, unfair reasons that I’ll explain in a later post, so there is no money in the consultant’s account to reimburse the salaries and expenses from the project. But the most amazing (or silly) thing is that those employees are still coming to work every morning and working hard, all day long. Can you imagine for a second not being paid by your employer? Can you even imagine not being paid in time? And those things happen all the time here and people cope with this. This is although very problematic. Malawians are proud and so nice but won’t stand up for unfair treatment and situations. How are things suppose to change when everyone who are upset by it won’t raise their voice to speak up? They get upset but don’t target the right problems for their situation to change, they get impatient but at the wrong people. That is one of the many reasons why this country is both fantastic and frustrating.
So while I’m sweating, in my office, with no power and no electricity, surrounded by people who haven’t got paid for the last two months, in a country with no foreign currency and a clear lack of fuel, where the prices of goods and transportation increase every week because of the instability of the Malawian Kwatcha and fuel availability, I can’t help but think about how shocking it will be to be back in Canada in a few weeks, how shocking it will be to hear people’s concerns and complaints. I’ll have to be able to appreciate the difference and respect it. I am not saying that western countries have no problems, we also have our share of it, we also have people dying and crimes, we complain that our salaries are too low for the prices of living, and it is true, we get burnt out by working so much, we have depression and cancer; but the problems I’m surrounded by at the moment seem on a different dimension, they affect everyone, on every level.
I am happy and excited to go back to the western world, but I’m also sad and afraid by it. I feel like I have an exit, a way out of this unstable and difficult situation Malawi’s in at the moment. I am leaving right when things get tough and might get worse, or for all I know, better. I would like to know what makes a country straighten up from going down hill. I can’t help but wish Malawi will be able to get back on a more stable path, but I won’t be around for that.
I will try to write one or two more posts about my work and life here before I leave. I have so much to say but I’m not sure where to start and how to explain things yet.
Cheers,
Ge
