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Malawi 10/31/2006
General Life for the People of Malawi
We’ve shared with you the general living conditions while we’ve been in Malawi. Pat calls it indoor camping. Some days we lack water or electricity and for months we went to bed crawling under our mosquito netting and using flashlights to read by. We’ve now added reading lights above our bed so we continue to move toward normalcy. Mosquito management is still a subject I’ll address individually, since it is such a constant part of life. We have become less paranoid since we’ve both had mosquito bites and no bad cases of malaria yet (Malarone medication seems to be working well). What we need to convey now is that we are living as the wealthiest 3-4% of Malawians.
A recent newspaper report establishes that only 4% of the population in Malawi has electricity in their homes. This is a rural farming country so most people live in the thousands of villages (50-200 people each). The estimated population of Malawi is 13 million with 1 million orphans. Historically this area was populated by hunters and scavengers, and then became predominantly farmers and scavengers. “Scavengers” is not a derogatory term; it represents the people, predominantly women, who would go out to find berries, fruits, vegetables, etc. while the men hunted. Over time hunting disappeared and left the males semi-idle while the women continued scavenging, cooking, caring for children, etc. As farming took over in many areas the men and women shared many of the farming duties, while women continued farming, preparing the harvested food, cooking, scavenging, and caring for the children. It remains a strongly male dominated society where you witness during the dry non-farming season many idle men while the women must do the daily chores. The oddities of much of the society is another long story, but there remains multiple wife families and much ignorance and superstition; problems of alcoholism, etc. that all intertwines with the explosion of the spread of HIV-Aids.
A small picture of the normal life style is seen in the housekeepers that take care of the house across the street from us (and our own housekeeper and family). The women rise at 5-6 am each day and start a wood fire to boil water for tea and prepare breakfast. By the time we get up most mornings (between 6 and 8:30 am depending on how late we stay up- our subjects are in bed by 9 pm), these folks have fed their families, washed their clothes by hand and hung them on the clothesline, and sent their children off to school in clean clothes (school starts at 7 am- out at 12:30 for elementary school). The wood that they use is collected up from wandering around the campus (like we use to do when we camped) or from chopping down dead trees. The women across the street (no males appear present although small children and a newborn exists) have been out swinging a huge double bladed axe to cut up a tree trunk. (I don’t think I’d tackle the axe as dangerous and heavy as it is). Of course this is in a beautiful clean and colorful dress and sandals or bare feet.
Another fuel widely used is charcoal, which our housekeeper Isaac has been kind enough to use to boil our water for morning coffee on a couple of mornings when we had no electricity. Charcoal is illegal to sell because of the massive deforestation problem it is causing- however no one is enforcing the law considering you are talking about 12.5 million people that do not yet have electricity. We upset Isaac’s wife’s normal routine of getting up and starting a wood fire to boil tea for their kids by buying for them an electric hot water pot.
The mainstay of the Malawian diet is “sema” which is corn ground up by the women using a large mortar and pestle and then cooked to a semi-dry mush consistency that the eater can ball up with their hands and eat with their hands (even in their finest restaurants). Beef and chicken are the primary meats, although most people can only afford to eat once or twice a month, if at all. While we can afford to eat meat daily, often none of the stores in town have one or the other or both.
Another mainstay is fish due to the proximity of the huge Lake Malawi (similar in size to lake Erie). That is often our 3rd mainstay, but you have to get to market (market stalls- not grocery stores) early in the morning to get them fresh since they are not refrigerated (as by the way is our milk- comes in warm cartons and must be refrigerated upon opening and used within 4 days).
Fishing is done out of wooden dugout canoes most of it takes place late in the day. Pat, while at a workshop at the lake, experienced the fishermen coming in singing at 2 a.m. with their catch. The fish are then sold and transported to reach restaurants and market by early morning. The boats as mentioned are dugout wooden logs of a design that must be a couple of thousand years old.
That brings up the subject of water. Villagers that live near the lake still come down and wash their laundry, bathe and bathe their families, and carry back drinking water as their ancestors have for the past several thousand years. Other streams and rivers this time of year are dry or nearly dry. When rainy season comes, Dec- April they will be used similarly. Now many people rely on wells and the shallower boreholes with pumps for their water. These locations are gathering places as people do laundry, bathe, and collect water to take home. Some people have to walk miles to reach these. Adding more of these is an ongoing effort by many foreign and church support groups; and is Betsy’s largest focus as a Peace Corps volunteer. Unfortunately during the drier season, polluted (often fecal-coliform) ponds are used instead. Much education is still required.
Walking and bicycling are the major modes of transportation. Bicycle taxis have cropped up as well (a ride on the back fender/ seat). Proportionately on a very minor number of cars- mostly just us rich people driving around. For example, a tank of gas costs what we pay our house-keeper for an entire month, and we pay our housekeeper as much or more than most school-teachers, government employees, etc. are paid. There are mini-buses designed to hold 11-14 passengers crammed with 20-25 people and many are in disrepair (like held together with baling wire, shattered windshields, etc.). There are also buses (one per day on major city routes that are in questionable condition (for example the bus available to Betsy between Mzuzu and Karonga has broken down enroute 2 of the last 14 days).
As a result Peace Corps workers such as Betsy have to walk long distances and rely heavily on their bicycles. When traveling long distances, they use minibus, bus, or often hitch-hike. The latter may mean they ride on the back of a truck or if really lucky get to ride with and meet some of the wealthier Malawians or other ex-patriots like us. There are about 5 major highways (which mean paved 2-lane roads) including the M-1 which runs north-south through the length of the country, which we use the most often since goes south from Mzuzu to the capital city, Lilongwe, and north to Betsy’s village north of Karonga and just south of the Tanzanian border. The remaining roads are dirt roads.
One does not drive at night, although we may venture out within town occasionally. A hugs percent of trucks, cars, or mini-buses have one or no headlight; or one or no taillight. For the most part police are not out at night since they operate on foot, not in vehicles. Bicycles mostly have no lights and often no reflectors, yet riding in the road; as are pedestrians walking in he road. In the country-side you’re apt to come up on broken down vehicles in the middle of the road with no lights; there is apt to be cattle, goats, chickens, monkeys, baboons, ox-carts, etc. Challenging enough in the daytime when you’re traveling 50-75 mph; also many pot-holes and other challenges like washed out road parts.
Again, as white people we are a unique sight, so many children yell and wave as we drive by and adults will often stare. South Africa was so different than Malawi (wealthy, many whites, modern, electrified, etc.) and will be a subject for another day.
General Life for the People of Malawi
We’ve shared with you the general living conditions while we’ve been in Malawi. Pat calls it indoor camping. Some days we lack water or electricity and for months we went to bed crawling under our mosquito netting and using flashlights to read by. We’ve now added reading lights above our bed so we continue to move toward normalcy. Mosquito management is still a subject I’ll address individually, since it is such a constant part of life. We have become less paranoid since we’ve both had mosquito bites and no bad cases of malaria yet (Malarone medication seems to be working well). What we need to convey now is that we are living as the wealthiest 3-4% of Malawians.
A recent newspaper report establishes that only 4% of the population in Malawi has electricity in their homes. This is a rural farming country so most people live in the thousands of villages (50-200 people each). The estimated population of Malawi is 13 million with 1 million orphans. Historically this area was populated by hunters and scavengers, and then became predominantly farmers and scavengers. “Scavengers” is not a derogatory term; it represents the people, predominantly women, who would go out to find berries, fruits, vegetables, etc. while the men hunted. Over time hunting disappeared and left the males semi-idle while the women continued scavenging, cooking, caring for children, etc. As farming took over in many areas the men and women shared many of the farming duties, while women continued farming, preparing the harvested food, cooking, scavenging, and caring for the children. It remains a strongly male dominated society where you witness during the dry non-farming season many idle men while the women must do the daily chores. The oddities of much of the society is another long story, but there remains multiple wife families and much ignorance and superstition; problems of alcoholism, etc. that all intertwines with the explosion of the spread of HIV-Aids.
A small picture of the normal life style is seen in the housekeepers that take care of the house across the street from us (and our own housekeeper and family). The women rise at 5-6 am each day and start a wood fire to boil water for tea and prepare breakfast. By the time we get up most mornings (between 6 and 8:30 am depending on how late we stay up- our subjects are in bed by 9 pm), these folks have fed their families, washed their clothes by hand and hung them on the clothesline, and sent their children off to school in clean clothes (school starts at 7 am- out at 12:30 for elementary school). The wood that they use is collected up from wandering around the campus (like we use to do when we camped) or from chopping down dead trees. The women across the street (no males appear present although small children and a newborn exists) have been out swinging a huge double bladed axe to cut up a tree trunk. (I don’t think I’d tackle the axe as dangerous and heavy as it is). Of course this is in a beautiful clean and colorful dress and sandals or bare feet.
Another fuel widely used is charcoal, which our housekeeper Isaac has been kind enough to use to boil our water for morning coffee on a couple of mornings when we had no electricity. Charcoal is illegal to sell because of the massive deforestation problem it is causing- however no one is enforcing the law considering you are talking about 12.5 million people that do not yet have electricity. We upset Isaac’s wife’s normal routine of getting up and starting a wood fire to boil tea for their kids by buying for them an electric hot water pot.
The mainstay of the Malawian diet is “sema” which is corn ground up by the women using a large mortar and pestle and then cooked to a semi-dry mush consistency that the eater can ball up with their hands and eat with their hands (even in their finest restaurants). Beef and chicken are the primary meats, although most people can only afford to eat once or twice a month, if at all. While we can afford to eat meat daily, often none of the stores in town have one or the other or both.
Another mainstay is fish due to the proximity of the huge Lake Malawi (similar in size to lake Erie). That is often our 3rd mainstay, but you have to get to market (market stalls- not grocery stores) early in the morning to get them fresh since they are not refrigerated (as by the way is our milk- comes in warm cartons and must be refrigerated upon opening and used within 4 days).
Fishing is done out of wooden dugout canoes most of it takes place late in the day. Pat, while at a workshop at the lake, experienced the fishermen coming in singing at 2 a.m. with their catch. The fish are then sold and transported to reach restaurants and market by early morning. The boats as mentioned are dugout wooden logs of a design that must be a couple of thousand years old.
That brings up the subject of water. Villagers that live near the lake still come down and wash their laundry, bathe and bathe their families, and carry back drinking water as their ancestors have for the past several thousand years. Other streams and rivers this time of year are dry or nearly dry. When rainy season comes, Dec- April they will be used similarly. Now many people rely on wells and the shallower boreholes with pumps for their water. These locations are gathering places as people do laundry, bathe, and collect water to take home. Some people have to walk miles to reach these. Adding more of these is an ongoing effort by many foreign and church support groups; and is Betsy’s largest focus as a Peace Corps volunteer. Unfortunately during the drier season, polluted (often fecal-coliform) ponds are used instead. Much education is still required.
Walking and bicycling are the major modes of transportation. Bicycle taxis have cropped up as well (a ride on the back fender/ seat). Proportionately on a very minor number of cars- mostly just us rich people driving around. For example, a tank of gas costs what we pay our house-keeper for an entire month, and we pay our housekeeper as much or more than most school-teachers, government employees, etc. are paid. There are mini-buses designed to hold 11-14 passengers crammed with 20-25 people and many are in disrepair (like held together with baling wire, shattered windshields, etc.). There are also buses (one per day on major city routes that are in questionable condition (for example the bus available to Betsy between Mzuzu and Karonga has broken down enroute 2 of the last 14 days).
As a result Peace Corps workers such as Betsy have to walk long distances and rely heavily on their bicycles. When traveling long distances, they use minibus, bus, or often hitch-hike. The latter may mean they ride on the back of a truck or if really lucky get to ride with and meet some of the wealthier Malawians or other ex-patriots like us. There are about 5 major highways (which mean paved 2-lane roads) including the M-1 which runs north-south through the length of the country, which we use the most often since goes south from Mzuzu to the capital city, Lilongwe, and north to Betsy’s village north of Karonga and just south of the Tanzanian border. The remaining roads are dirt roads.
One does not drive at night, although we may venture out within town occasionally. A hugs percent of trucks, cars, or mini-buses have one or no headlight; or one or no taillight. For the most part police are not out at night since they operate on foot, not in vehicles. Bicycles mostly have no lights and often no reflectors, yet riding in the road; as are pedestrians walking in he road. In the country-side you’re apt to come up on broken down vehicles in the middle of the road with no lights; there is apt to be cattle, goats, chickens, monkeys, baboons, ox-carts, etc. Challenging enough in the daytime when you’re traveling 50-75 mph; also many pot-holes and other challenges like washed out road parts.
Again, as white people we are a unique sight, so many children yell and wave as we drive by and adults will often stare. South Africa was so different than Malawi (wealthy, many whites, modern, electrified, etc.) and will be a subject for another day.
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