Christmas ya bwino ku Malawi

Hello friends!

Christmas ya bwino ku Malawi….well it’s not too hard to translate: Happy Christmas from Malawi. The “bwino” is from the Portuguese which is spoken in Mozambique, one of Malawi’s neighbours. Chichewa, the national Malawian language, seems to be a bit of a mixture of a number of different local languages. The tiny bit of Spanish I know which is close enough to some words in Portuguese has helped a minute amount but otherwise I’m learning Chichewa the painstaking way: memorise and practise.

This is likely to be my last newsletter before Christmas and, in fact before the end of the year, as next week we have a group of people from Perth in town and will be involved in meetings all week. The week after we have other friends arrive from Perth, more of the tourist kind and then Christmas is upon us. We’re spending Christmas at one of the tea estates in the far south of Malawi. We’ve heard it’s beautiful down there and we’re excited to see it.

Traveling from Malawi to England exposed me to a number of cultural (and other) extremes. From hot & humid to frosty, from a place with limited retail options to retail frenzy, from very early rising to much later rising and from being noticed everywhere I go to being completely ignored. In fact I tried speaking to a couple of people in a Subway takeaway shop near Trafalgar Square. I had been given a sticker for buying a 6” sub and was not going to be able to use it so I tried to give it away. Well, the horrified looks I was given! It was as if I’d suggested joining some kind of suicide cult.

I really enjoyed my 2 weeks in England. It was great to catch up with friends I hadn’t seen in 3 years and great to visit some old haunts. I went to the movies (we don’t have a cinema in Malawi), did a bit of shopping and enjoyed being able to walk down the street without being noticed and stopped. Speaking English constantly and not having to concentrate on unfamiliar vocab was also nice for a couple of weeks.

It was a nice break but it’s also good to be back in Malawi. The weather is even hotter & more humid. Martin said that there were a couple of decent storms while I was away but there’s been no rain since I’ve been back. It really tried hard today but after a few drops it stopped and cleared up again. Around and about ground has been ploughed and is ready for maize planting. I think people are waiting for the first really good rains before planting and also there’s been a hold up with getting fertilizer into the country. According to the newspaper, there are bags of fertilizer at various borders but the country has no foreign exchange to buy it. I’m not sure where the donor money, donated for the purpose of alleviating food shortages, has gone!

A couple of days ago we had the pleasure of meeting our famous neighbour, Mama Kadzamira. Although not married to Dr Kamuzu Banda, the country’s first President, Mama K, as she’s affectionately known, was his official escort. I’m not sure how this came to be but it was clear that she was very suited to the job. She received us with grace and charm and conversed on a wide variety of topics with ease and intelligence. She looks 40-something but she must be in her late 70’s or early 80’s. Most Malawians hold Mama K in awe and we have surmised that she must be as close to royalty as Malawi is likely to get. People speak of her as a woman of the people and there are stories of her visiting hospital queues and speaking to people waiting for treatment. (Yes, in Britain and Australia we queue in the comfort of our own homes, often for far too long, but in Malawi they literally stand in queues for medical treatment. I’ve been to the Lilongwe Central Hospital once and was profoundly depressed by the experience.)

Now for a radical change of subject, last night we went to a cocktail party put on by our mobile phone company. The most notable feature of the evening, apart from the minimal number of white faces, was…..let’s just say that for those women who worry about the size of their derrieres (and I’m not admitting that this is a relevant issue for me) you’d feel very good in Africa! We came away with promises of new and improved service and with a bottle of red and a coffee cup each - not bad at all.

The telephone company that provides our landline service has some interesting quirks. Its most interesting quirk is its propensity to cut off the line for non-payment of the bill….AFTER the cheque that you gave them to pay the bill has cleared! When Martin paid the bill last month he mentioned this and asked if the company would please ensure that we were not cut off again as it hindered our ability to work. The very helpful gentleman suggested to Martin, “Sir, perhaps if you pay the bill before you receive it you might not be cut off.” No cocktail party from them!

Speaking of “African logic”, Martin has been busy trying to organise a conference that our company is holding next week. He emailed the (large prestigious) hotel but decided to visit them when he received no reply. When he asked the booking lady whether she had received his email she replied, “Oh no, sir, I don’t have email.” Martin was perplexed as she had given him an email address. When he queried this she responded, “Yes sir, that’s the address I would use if I had email.”

It’s hard to say what Christmas in Malawi will be like, apart from the fact that it will be hot, like Christmas in Australia, and our Christmas dinner will most certainly feature tropical fruit. There is very little Christmas paraphernalia in shops and no Christmas carols playing. I’ve seen a handful of Christmas trees around. Many people are Christian and there are holidays for Christmas and Boxing Day but as for what people do, I’m not yet sure. The shops and roads are certainly busier but we haven't yet been able to pin down exactly why.

There are obviously other cultures and religions in Malawi as well as Christians but I don’t think the Malawi Christians would stand for dropping all references to Christ and Christmas, as has been suggested in various places in the West. The Muslims here celebrate Ramadan and everyone lets them get on with it and I am assuming the Christians will expect the same privilege.

So I can’t yet give you any examples of Christmas in Malawi. Instead I will go back to England to the example set by Anthony Walker’s mother*. As Christmas approaches she has had the trial of those who killed her son and yet still she has the courage to openly and publicly forgive them. Christmas will be a rough time for that family but they are modeling the message of Christmas in a way that speaks more volubly than words: Christ came to earth as a man to offer people forgiveness for their shortcomings and relationship with God. Having received that we too can offer forgiveness to others and do our best to live in peace with the rest of our communities.

Wherever you are I pray that Christmas is a time of peace for you and your family and a time when the love of Christ is evident in a personal way to you.

As for us, we will reach Christmas 6 hours behind some, 2 hours ahead of others and 11 or more hours ahead of others but we will be thinking of you all.

God bless and more news in 2006
Toni (& Martin) xx

* For those who haven’t heard the story, Anthony Walker was a black 18 year old young man living in the north of England. He and his girlfriend and another friend were out walking one night and were confronted by a group (perhaps only 2) white youths. Anthony’s friends fled but he ended up with an axe embedded in his head and died. It appears that the attack was completely racially motivated as Anthony’s girlfriend was white.