Malawi News 27.10.05

The past month has been a combination of day to day routine and some exciting (and not so exciting) challenges. As usual, the highlight of our time here is meeting Malawians, a number of whom could teach all of us how to find reasons to be thankful despite adverse circumstances. It is rare not to get a smile or a laugh from a Malawian.

The challenge of fluctuating water supply has fallen from the Number 1 slot in our list of challenges. At the time of writing this place has been filled by our gardener/ house boy, Arnold. I have a lot of time for Arnold. He works hard and shows initiative. He is willing to do whatever is asked of him and he is a very good cook. However, his private life is not quite so orderly. Arnold and his partner, Catherine, have now involved themselves in 2 incidents of domestic violence since we have been here, the most recent being Tuesday night. As Arnold was sporting a bleeding bite mark and Catherine was able to locate a large garden slasher with which she claimed Arnold was chasing her, we are quite concerned about this issue, not least because they have a young child who’s not even 2 years old. After a couple of attempts at mediation, things calmed down. Now, despite the fact that Catherine said she believed Arnold wanted to kill her, she no longer wants to leave and they are trying hard to convince us of their plans to live happily ever after.

It may clarify the picture to mention that the source of this argument was their impending wedding in December. Arnold had been to us a number of times, asking to borrow money so he could “do a bit of business” to make money for his wedding. We had told him as many times that we would be happy to help but not until he had a specific plan and could satisfy us that he would be able to pay the money back. Well, the business plans have apparently not advanced and, according to Arnold, Catherine was reviewing her options; specifically whether it would be possible to find herself a more wealthy husband. This is Arnold’s version of the story. Catherine’s version has not been so easy to decipher.

We are now faced with the choice of whether to evict them immediately because there is another family on the property who is affected by this violence or to give them another chance. I’m in favour of laying down some very clear boundaries and giving them another chance, but the big worry is that we will effectively be confining their fighting to behind closed doors. Clearly they won’t want us finding out about any further skirmishes because that will mean eviction. But what damage will be done, especially to their son, Owen, in the meantime?

Sadly domestic violence is rife in Malawi. Whilst officially it is not an accepted part of Malawian culture, women (and lets face it, the victims are usually women and children) who find themselves in violent situations usually don’t have too many alternatives. If they leave there is no guarantee that their family will make housing available because it’s their husband’s job to provide for them. Not always, but often, the husband is the sole income earner so the woman has no means of supporting herself and her family. Despite the fact that the law provides sanctions against such violence, the law is often not enforced here and how many women could afford to access the legal system?

So, we’ll give them another chance and hopefully will find a way of helping them access some education and counseling that will maybe help change things for them.

Dear God, didn’t I come here to have a break from family law?!

The rest of the top 5 challenges include:

2. Need and poverty everywhere around you. This is best represented by the many, many people who greet me when I’m out and about. “Hello Madam. Where are you going, Madam? Can I be your friend, Madam? Will you buy….?” There is literally no escape from people trying to sell us things. It’s my problem, I know, because it’s just one aspect of how life is in Malawi, but I wish there was one place I could go where I could find peace from the constant pressure to buy. Usually when I politely refuse to buy, the seller accepts that and goes on his (it is usually a man) way. However, there are times when the seller persists in the face of repeated, polite refusals. One seller persisted to the point where I found myself telling him, “In my culture it is rude to keep asking when I have told you I don’t want to buy.” But the greatest aspect of the challenge is not the “annoyance factor”, although that is a challenge. No, it’s the distressing fact that so many people in this country have so little and many are not able to eat every day DESPITE the amount of aid that is poured into this country.

3. Politics – it has been a long acknowledged fact that probably the greatest fundamental problem with Africa is its leadership. Sadly, Malawi is not leading the race to role model effective and visionary leadership! The headlines for the past few weeks have almost entirely centred on the efforts of a number of MPs to impeach the President. The basis of the charges are said to be the fact that the President came to power as the head of one political party and then promptly resigned from that party and created his own. Actually it seems that there are quite a number of men hungry for the position of President and in fact, that is their primary motivation for impeachment. I am not saying that the current President is above reproach but there may not be a better alternative right now. Also, it means weeks of Parliamentary bickering over the correct procedures for impeachment, whether the President should be found guilty, if so, who should be the interim leader etc etc. This all involves expense that the country cannot afford, not to mention the fact that nothing else is getting done and other more important issues (eg food shortages) are being overlooked.

4. Utilities - last Thursday night I was ordering take away (there are definite advantages to a high number of Indians living here) and the lights went out due to a power outage. Thankfully they were cooking with gas. If you can picture me sitting in a small restaurant with illumination from street lights and a couple of candles in the shop, waiting for my take away, and returning home to eat it by candle light, this will give you a picture of this particular challenge. I guess we’d have a power outage once per week or so and usually not for very long. It’s when you add it to the fluctuating water supply, the internet connection that drops out repeatedly and the phone line that on average once every 3 to 4 weeks just doesn’t work, it’s a challenge. Last night our phone was disconnected for non-payment of the bill……only we did pay the bill…..a week in advance……and the cheque cleared yesterday. The reason these things challenge us, though, is that we’re used to having uninterrupted supply of these services (well with the exception of my parents). We’ve used to having what we want when we want it. I think it’s actually good for us to have to adapt our lives to times when we don’t have these things.

5. The language – I’m progressing with my ability to speak and understand Chichewa, but they speak so fast! Actually, when I make the effort to speak even a small amount of Chichewa, I’m greeted with delight and enthusiasm. A little bit certainly goes a long way. It’s a great blessing that so many people speak English because otherwise it would be really tough but we do encounter people who don’t speak much English. Communication is then a challenge. Communicating by phone is also a challenge. We’re getting used to the African accent, but over the phone it can be nigh on impossible to understand what the other guy is saying. No doubt they say exactly the same about us.

These challenges can be frustrating, especially the politics, but in fact they help to make our time here all the more interesting and rich. Joy and happiness do not spring out of having all things under control or the way we like them, but out of being centred on the really important things in life.

On a slightly less esoteric note, Martin is in Blantyre to give a talk to members of the Electricity Company of Malawi and members of the World Bank on our project here. He received a phone call yesterday at 4pm to tell him that today was on! This is another example of the exciting challenges we’ve had this month. Providentially, he had prepared a power point presentation earlier that day because he also has to give a talk, this time to members of the Ministry of Finance, on Friday. He’s not sure whether he will cope with 2 days in a row in a suit!

We have a good social group of both expat and Malawian friends. I do my fabric painting classes each Friday morning and out of that group it looks as though a creative writing group will spawn. Once a month I meet with a group of ladies for a purely social dinner. We have done some small-scale entertaining and been entertained. Often work colleagues come to stay on their way through. Last week we had our housekeeper from Karonga down. She has a bookkeeping certificate and she was down so I could train her to do the accounts for Karonga. We belong to a local church which provides another social circle. There are a nice group of people in Lilongwe and although it is quite a small city it is large enough to have a number of different groups of friends. Although it would be entirely possible to socialise exclusively with expats, we enjoy meeting Malawians and have found them to be a very friendly, lively and interesting bunch. As I said at the beginning of this email, it’s rare not to get a smile or a laugh from a Malawian.

Recently we spent a very relaxing and enjoyable weekend at the Lake. We stayed in a private cottage owned by a company who looks after most of our freight. The cottage backed right onto the beach so we were able to sit in the shade and chat or read, swim and snooze. We also went snorkeling with some tropical fish. Having grown up by the coast, it was strange to swim in a natural body of water and not be all salty when you got out but it was still lovely to be able to swim.

So, having been here 4 months I’m definitely settling in. It’s a very interesting time to be here and despite (even because of?) the challenges I’m glad to be here at this particular time. It feels to me like there are enough people who are not satisfied with the way things are here to get together and pray and act for change. Although we may not see that change during our time here, it’s good to think that we are capable of making a difference.

The Story of Faggie

Faggie is in her early 20’s and works as a public telephone operator. In Malawi, public telephones are attended and the operator dials the number and works out how much to charge you. Faggie completed high school and has greater aspirations but jobs are hard to come by. She will stay at this job until something better comes along and the MK2,000 per month she earns helps her family make ends meet. Having said that, at the moment the maize price is inflated due to the national shortage and the family cannot afford to eat every meal. It’s possible that some days they do not eat at all.

Faggie lives with her brother, sister-in-law and their 3 children in a tiny house with no electricity. The floor is made from compacted mud, as are the bricks.

I met Faggie when I was out for a walk one day. She called out to me and asked me to be her friend. I was reluctant because I thought she wanted to be my friend so I could provide financial support. No doubt this was part of her motivation and, although I find that confronting, you have to admire her initiative. Not able to think of a reason for saying “no”, we exchanged contact details.

Faggie phones me from time to time or I wander down to where she works for a chat. Her grades do not reflect her intelligence because she struggled to pass her high school exams, but actually she is a sharp girl who wants life to be better than what it is. She would like to study nursing but needs to pass a pre-requisite unit first so she works 6 days a week and studies. Hopefully she’ll pass but then there are university fees that she will not be able to afford.

I have been to her home, at her invitation, and her sister-in-law was keen to welcome me and cook me a meal. I had limited time so I had to apologise profusely and promise to come back sometime soon. In the short time I was there, most of the neighbourhood came by to welcome me and pay their respects.

Despite the fact that the house is tiny and there is no bathroom as such, and despite the fact that it takes her a good 45 minutes to walk at a brisk pace to work, Faggie always manages to look (and smell) neat, clean and fresh (the latter being quite unusual in Malawi).

Faggie has asked me if our company can employ her. Whilst this may be possible in the future, it is not possible now and the earliest possibility is not likely to be before 2007. She has also asked us to pay her university fees but we have other commitments that make this impossible.

Besides, perhaps the greatest tragedy in this story is that Faggie represents so many who are in a similar position or worse.

The Story of Agness

Agness is the lady who opens the gate for us when we drive into or out of our housing estate. She works with a man named Rafael Lucius (one on each gate) and they always greet us with smart attire and a warm smile.

Agness is about 25 years old. She was married but her husband decided that he preferred another woman, leaving Agness to care for their young son alone. Agness now lives with her parents several kilometers from our estate and walks to and from work. She starts at around 8am and leaves between 4 and 5pm, 7 days a week. For that, she earns the princely sum of MK2,000 per month (the equivalent of A$21/US$16/£45). Agness’ mother also works but her father can’t because he’s unwell. (To give you a comparison that might be more meaningful, we pay our housekeeper MK8,000 per month and she struggles to make ends meet on that amount, admittedly with 4 children to support on her own.)

A few weeks ago Agness sent me a letter asking to borrow MK2,000 so she could buy maize and fix one of the doors in her house. We assumed that “borrow” meant “give” as it frequently does here. However, yesterday I received another letter from Agness, containing MK1,000 of the amount she had borrowed and apologising profusely for not being able to pay the whole lot back at once.

I took the money back to her and told her it was a gift from God (He’d given it to us in the first place) and that she could keep it. Just seeing her genuine gratitude and delight meant far more to me than the pitiful amount we’d given. And in a land where so many people expect us to give to them just because, Agness’ story is especially moving.

Racism

Racism has always been an issue that disturbed me, not least the fact that my own heart often leans towards segregation and superiority. Happily, much has been done to fight this ugliness and the world has moved on considerably from the popularly held views of the 19th century and before. Yet, I suspect that as long as the human race lingers, racism will be alive and well somewhere.

The more I ponder this issue, the more it occurs to me that those who genuinely believe in “white supremacy” couldn’t have got it more wrong. Recent genetic research suggests that in order for the genetic mix that we have in the human race today to be possible, the earliest humans must have been black. Also, observable genetics indicates that “black genes” are dominant over white genes. Most “mixed-race” children are a testimony to this fact.

When you consider what black races have suffered at white hands, what they’ve survived, then it would also appear that on average, black people are stronger physically and perhaps mentally than white people.

However, when it comes to the most important issue, the state of a person’s heart, how can colour have any bearing whatsoever? The choice to love others or, on the other hand, to live selfish lives, faces every human being regardless of their genetic makeup. Surely that’s how we should be judged and not by what we look like or aspects of our culture.

In Malawi, many “black Malawians” (for wont of a more appropriate term) seem to accept that more respect is due to white people than to their own people. I can walk down a street and be greeted by several people whereas a black woman would usually be ignored. Most of the black Malawians around me refer to me as “Madam” and are very reluctant to greet me by my first name. It makes me sad and I feel like saying to them, “How am I any different to you? I deserve no more attention or respect than you do. The future of this country lies in your hands. Be proud of your heritage and who you are. Stand up and fight for what is good and right.”

In the meantime, I pray.

Life in Malawi as at 22.09.05

The past month has been eventful in various ways, momentous in fact, when you think that after 18 YEARS of world domination the Aussies went and lost the Ashes. At least they waited till I was out of the UK but there are still plenty of British people in Malawi and they have not been reserved about their jubilation! I think the only other Australian I know in this country at the moment is in fact a German. Our house co-tenant, who’s not here more often than he is, is also Australian but he’s not in the country at the moment. Thanks (or no thanks, depending on how hard you’ve taken the loss) to DSTV we were able to watch a good deal of the cricket and, despite the outcome, it was a wonderful series to watch. The time difference between Malawi and Britain is just 1 hour at the moment so that made it all the easier.

On a more positive note, our Australian German geologist brought out a video camera duty free last time he came out. I’ve been hankering after one for a while and he was happy to organise it all for us. Martin has been referring to me as Quentin Tarantino and feels that no one is safe but secretly he loves the excitement of it all. A couple of weeks ago we were out near our front gate because I wanted to film the entrance to the property. I think almost the entire population of the neighbourhood’s children appeared as if on cue and wanted their pictures taken. So they ended up on film and on the digital. We spent the rest of that week printing pictures because each child wanted their own copy. They’ve since been lined up outside our gate wanting more. Quentin Tarantino and Lord Lichfield! I have posted some of the photos on another website - www.ialmond.com/malawimemos

The biggest challenge I’ve found in the past month has been the informal water restrictions; informal because nobody actually knew they were going to happen and because they are not evenly meted. We should actually be fairly safe because we live next door to one of the former First Ladies of the country but, when asking around, we seem to be without water more often than most of our friends. Perhaps the FFL gets preference, which is why we end up with less. I don’t know but what I do know is that any time after 6am we have no running cold water – sometimes all day and sometimes for a couple of hours. As this situation is “informal” we never know when we’ll have a day without water. Thankfully our co-tenant had the brilliance to sink a bore and this does alleviate many difficulties but it still makes showering a drama. Yesterday, for example, we had no water all day and no power for some of the day. No power means no hot water, even if the tank was full (which it wasn’t). The hot water tank can be filled from the bore but for some reason it wasn’t so when the power came back on the element tried to heat water that wasn’t there and fried itself instead. So no hot water, no cold water. (Even if the hot water is running, you can’t shower because it’s too hot without cold water. Unless the hot water tank is filled from the bore, the cold water doesn’t seem to be running at great enough pressure or often enough to fill the hot water tank.) It’s very unusual still to be without running water at 6pm but we were and, of course, last night was the night we’d been invited out to dinner to meet the US Ambassador and the British High Commissioner, among other people. We were due there at 7:30pm and by 6pm I still had not showered, smelled and had a BAD head of hair. We resorted to phoning a friend!

It’s not just showering either. Try flushing the toilet with no running water all day! Oh yes, I could spend an entire email on toilet issues in Malawi but I’m sure you’d rather I didn’t go there. There is some good news, though. Most of the time, if we look in all the shops around town, we are able to buy 2 ply toilet paper. Happiness if found in small delights.

On Sunday Martin and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary (another example of time flying!) It was exciting to think back to our wedding day and remember the many special moments in the day and especially the group of friends and family who shared it with us. We took off for the weekend down to a nice hotel in Zomba, a pretty city in the south of Malawi. It was lovely, a quiet, secluded place, set on the side of the hill overlooking the valley below. It went all too quickly, but weekends tend to do that. Anyway, the first year has been full of interesting adventures and we’re looking forward to what the next one will hold.

Other than that, life has been full of a lot of day to day stuff. We’ve had quite a few work colleagues stay here for a day or 2 at a time so we entertain quite a lot and have also been entertained, which is nice. The first dinner party we went to was back in July. One of Martin’s business contacts – he and his wife have been very generous with their hospitality and have invited us to the company’s Lakeside retreat next month.

The dinner party we went to last night was hosted by a delightful Indian couple whom we met when we went into Mrs Patel’s fabric shop to have some sheet sets made. We did this because a careful search of the entire city of Lilongwe drew a blank on sheet sets. It seems that at any given time there will be a random item of some kind that you cannot buy here. At that time it was sheet sets. Right now? Lemons. I think that’s part of what’s interesting about living here because you can’t assume things and you have to be creative when you can’t find something. At that time (it was back in June, I think) we could not find sheet sets so we had them made. Mrs Patel owns the shop and because they looked after us well we went back and had curtains made and various other things. I think that qualified us to be dinner guests. The Patels are Malawian born British citizens of Indian heritage but all their children are in the US. I guess that’s the reason for their connection with the US Embassy and British High Commission. Anyway, it was a very interesting evening.

I hear that news of the food crisis in Malawi has made it to Australia. Yes it is serious and there are reports of children dying from starvation/nutrition related illnesses. Martin and I cannot understand how this is possible with a country full of charities. Also, there is plenty of food in Malawi but there is a serious shortage of maize, the staple food. Sadly, Malawians are accustomed to thinking that if there is no maize they will starve. Last year’s maize crop was a bad one but the country also produces a lot of very good rice and both Irish and sweet potatoes are in plentiful supply, as well as many other kinds of fruit and vegetables. The government has started a “Feed the Nation Fund” but the word is that it’s already being mismanaged. Mismanagement here is one of the biggest problems with the country. So, for those in the practice of praying, the poor of Malawi are very deserving recipients.

As I’ve previously reported we are constantly asked for money or to buy things when we are out and about. The truth is, whether we give or not makes little long term difference to these individuals. What they really need is “hope and a future” ala Jeremiah 29:11. We are of course hopeful that our company’s mining plans will be successful as that project could add significantly to the country’s economy. So far the progress is good and we are finding favour with most if not all of our business associates. However, probably our biggest challenge is obtaining the government approval we will need to proceed. We’ve heard stories of such approval taking up to 8 years whereas ideally we need it by the end of 2006. This is another source of prayer.

To finish on a much lighter note, I have started fabric painting classes and it’s great fun. I’ve been twice and in probably one or two more classes I will finish my first project, which is a cushion cover with a “funky bird” picture on it. In the last class I attended we were like our own little UN contingent, with representatives from Korea, Nicaragua, Burundi, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and of course, Australia. Malawi is very multi-cultural, especially because of the aid community and it’s great being an international community.