Malawi is a beautiful country in many ways, and I was lucky enough to have a nice (but admittedly very difficult) experience on a trip to Malawi’s highest mountain, Mulanje. It stands 3002 metres above sea level at its highest point and consists of many wonderful sights. Ray, Tim and I spent 3 days and 2 nights at Mulanje this month and we had quite a nice time away. The boys had been once before some months ago but didn’t climb to the top, so that was their goal this time around. My goal was to not have an asthma attack whilst attempting to climb some steep paths!
Mulanje is south of where we live and the journey on the minibus is enhanced by the nice scenery of tea estates along the way. You can choose to stay for as long as you like, from some hours for a nice day-trip hike to 3 or 4 days usually if you want to reach the peak. You have a guide that is with you the whole time which is absolutely necessary because there are different paths you can take and of course for safety reasons you should have someone experienced with you for guidance. Our guide’s name was Ramson and he was really good.
There are many huts on the mountain which you stay in overnight on mattresses and sleeping bags on the floor and you can choose the huts you want to stay in and which path you would like to take. You also have to take food with you because there is nothing on the mountain. We had to be careful how much we bought though because not only do you have to carry your backpack of clothes and other belongings, you also need to carry your food. There is an option to hire a porter to carry your things for you, but we didn’t want to do that.
For 3 days we lived on mainly peanut butter and bread, and of course water (which we were able to refill in the rivers along the way - it is safe drinking water that comes from the springs). We also had some bananas, nuts, milk, instant noodles and a couple of other things here and there.
The first day was extremely difficult for me because when we were walking up steep parts, this triggered my asthma and made it hard for me to breathe properly at times. But to balance the good with the bad, we had a wonderful experience swimming in a river with a beautiful waterfall. The water was absolutely freezing but amazing at the same time because we were so incredibly hot and sweaty so it was a great feeling to be in the water. This would have to be one of my best experiences since being in Malawi. I could have stayed in the water all day.
By the end of the first day we had walked around 7 hours and I made a decision that the next day when the boys were going to climb to the peak that I would not join them. It wasn’t the distance or time of walking, it was the elevation/steepness at some points at which we were walking that I did not want to put my body through again as having asthma is not a nice thing when climbing a mountain. Luckily, for the time I have been at the project, walking long distances over rocks and bumpy paths to pre-schools has definitely conditioned my legs and ability to walk for hours over these kinds of surfaces. Unfortunately climbing at elevation was not my forte though.
At the first hut we stayed in, the surroundings were really lovely and there was one other group that also stayed there - A girl from Iceland, a Norwegian guy and a Malawian guy. Out of the three of them the girl, Edda, also found it difficult and did not climb to the top with her friends either. So the two of us stayed at the hut and hung out for a few hours until the boys got back.
We waited a couple of hours before starting to walk down to the next hut which was just under 3 hours away and not as difficult a walk as the first day because even though there were some steep uphill parts, it was more flat with some downhill parts too.
The second hut was a nice house but the area was a bit more isolated and quiet. This night the three of us had the house to ourselves, so we sat up talking for a while, not knowing we were in for a surprise in the night. Before we went to bed we heard noises coming from one of the rooms, which we realised was probably a rat. So we all decided to sleep on mattresses on the floor in the middle of the living room.
I think I had slept for around 2 hours when I woke up and heard the rustling of our plastic bag of food we had left on the table. I got my torch and jumped up because I suspected that a furry friend was probably trying to get to our food. I picked up the bag but didn’t know where to put it because there was not really anywhere to keep it safe. So I just put it up really high on a shelf and got back into my sleeping bag.
Some minutes later I heard the noise again, but instead of getting up I just shined my torch towards the shelf and saw a rat. I got up and it ran away, and by this time Tim had woken up and I told him what happened. We decided to put the food in Ray’s bag because he had a big bag and it’s the only place it would fit and hopefully be safe.
We both then went back to our sleeping bags and I pulled mine over my head and tried to sleep like this because I didn’t want to lay there uncovered with rats running around. Minutes later when we were trying to get to sleep we heard really, really loud scratching noises from the next room and between the walls. It sounded like there was a whole family of them and it was terrible. Then we heard scratches coming from Ray’s bag and it seemed that there were two or three rats trying to get into his bag. Meanwhile, Ray was still asleep.
We realised that the rats were going to continually try and get the food so we gave in and took the bag of food and put it outside. I also had a bag of bread in my backpack so I took that out too because I think they were trying to get in there as well.
Once we got back into our sleeping bags again, minutes later we heard the rats outside with our food. They were so noisy. Tim and I lay there awake for hours while Ray slept through the whole thing. We both got up a few times because we’d try and get to sleep but then once our torches went off we’d hear the rats running past us. I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night until almost around 4:00am I think.
We had to get up at 5:00 to be ready to leave at 6:00. It took us around 4 hours to walk down the rest of the way and it wasn’t so bad, except that we had to be extra careful not to slip or slide. Once we got to the bottom and back to the small town around the mountain, we treated ourselves to a nice meal at a place well known for its nice pizzas. What a lovely end to a weekend away.
On a different note, after 3 months of living the Malawian life (in some ways), and living amongst the Malawian culture day to day, I’m left thinking about the “outside world”, or the “real world” you could say.
Being here makes me feel a number of things. Appreciative and fortunate come to mind quickly, but aside from that, I feel like something is missing. Lately I have been thinking a lot about my “regular” life and my “real” friends and how much I miss it all. I kind of wish I would snap out of it though because there are less than 3 months left here which is not a long time by any means, and it’s probably the last chance I will have to do something like this in a place like this.
My regular life will be there when I’m finished here, so why am longing for it so much? I need to focus on here and now because I know if I don’t, then once I’ve left Malawi, I know I will feel like I wish I had done more, or different. But I guess it’s all natural when you are far away from your ‘everything,’ from the familiar and from the normality of your life.
Motivation comes and goes. Some weeks are more or less fulfilling than others, and some days are a battle against myself, trying to work out why I am not feeling like I think I should. I think part of it has to do with the fact that some DI’s that I was close to have now left as they have finished their 6 month periods, and in an environment like this, you need support, team spirit and commonness. But it’s hard when this all stops now that these people have moved on.
Tim and Ray have both gone back to their preparation schools in England, and having spent a fair amount of time with them over the last couple of months, now it is not the same. Right before they left, we discussed what it would be like once they were gone, and Ray told me he experienced the same thing when he was close to previous DI’s, but they too moved on after their 6 month period ended. He said that when new DI’s came (mainly speaking about me) and he made good friends again, his motivation and spirit lifted. So here’s hoping this also happens to me.
Anyway, I’m not feeling terrible, or even bad, just a bit flat and searching for meaning of my ways. In general I am ok, and I do want to be here, but I think I am just going through a strange period. I have definitely realised how important it is to have people that are on the same wavelength as you, that you can also work with and share things with. I had this with both Tim and Ray and we all worked really well together.
I recently read a very well written book called “Dead Aid... Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa” by a Zambian lady named Dambisa Moyo, a former consultant for the World Bank and global economist and strategist for Goldman Sachs.
It is a book that criticises foreign aid in Africa and in a very real way. Her main point is that billions of dollars have been put into the African continent over the past 40-50 years, with nothing to show, except the fact that things seem to have gone backwards. She firmly believes that all this foreign aid has done the reverse of its intention and is the reason Africa is still the way it was, if not worse than all those years ago. Aid has made the poor poorer, and growth slower.
Many Asian countries have developed and continue to develop as quickly as many African countries are moving backwards. But why is this? There are many reasons. A major one is the unfortunate amount of corruption that existed and continues to exist among African governments. Many donations from other countries are directly transferred to governments, which results in the money reaching the pockets of a few corrupt higher powers and nothing ever benefiting or reaching the local people most in need.
A simple and yet logical example that stood out to me of another way that foreign aid hurts Africa is that (even though well intentioned), Hollywood movie stars, famous musicians or other donors think they are doing a good thing when they decide to donate hundreds or thousands of mosquito nets from abroad. What these people don’t realise is that there are actually African makers of mosquito nets, and by doing this ‘good deed,’ the Samaritan spirit of this donor has just put the local person out of business.
Moyo’s suggestion is that instead of trying to save the day by sending these donations over, the donor should purchase the nets from the African maker, generating business for the local merchant and providing for those in need at the same time. But this good deed is actually a short term solution because in 5 years time these nets would have to be replaced anyway. No one thought about the long run. What a simple and logical thing that not many people would even realise.
To summarise, several solutions are offered that can help bring Africa out of its economic and political disaster including large-scale direct investment in infrastructure, international bonds and microfinance institutions that have had much success in Asian countries.
What also makes this all very real is that the author is not an outsider criticising Africa’s ways, she is an African, with real life experience and expertise on the subject matter.
Some of the things she mentions I have seen on a smaller scale whilst living and working here in Malawi. The main thing being that money is not the answer. I have come to realise this in a big way. Everyday there are situations that relate to this dependency on outside help for money. For example, people (children, teenagers, adults-young and old) ask me for money many times a day, everyday, just because of the colour of my skin. And even working with the HIV positive support groups, my time, knowledge and care is not enough for them because I have also been asked for money or to buy them things to help with their group. This is not what I am here for and this huge dependency on foreign aid continues to be a problem. I’m sorry to say that I’m not sure when it will get any better because so many of the people just want money.
I also read another book in the same vain as ‘Dead Aid’ which is called ‘The Trouble with Africa… Why Foreign Aid Isn’t Working’ by Robert Calderisi. He is a Canadian man who has had many years of experience in Africa, living in Tanzania and the Ivory Coast, a 30+ year career in international development, principally at the World Bank in various senior positions, including being the international spokesman on Africa.
He too has similar ideas to Dambiso Moyo and also offers additional ideas including having a requirement where ‘all heads of state, ministers and senior officials to open their bank accounts to public scrutiny’ to tackle financial dishonesty and forms of corruption at the top. He basically says that if countries refuse to have such constraints then they should not receive aid because if they have nothing to hide then this should not be a problem.
Focusing direct aid to 4 or 5 countries that are serious about reducing poverty is another idea, and that number could grow as political systems opened up and corrupt leaders are replaced. "Governments that are indifferent to poverty, cannot guarantee basic education for their citizens, or offer only lip service to fighting HIV/AIDS, should not be helped at all.” He goes on to say that if the 5 countries meet certain desired objectives then the assistance can be repeated in 2 or 3 years time. If they do not then they fall back into the pack. Some countries could “graduate” from this group once they no longer required aid, but the group would remain small and the criteria to enter would be tough.
Calderisi also speaks about supervision of the running of Africa’s schools and HIV/AIDS programs by international personnel, making primary education an absolute priority across all countries, and also to prevent funds running off into the wrong hands and abuse of power at local school levels.
And finally, one more thing I will mention is that the author speaks about merging the World Bank, IMF (International Monetary Fund) and UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). He says that these aid institutions have conflicting objectives that ‘have led to confusion in the advice they give to Africa,’ and that these 3 organizations are ‘as compatible as oil and water.’ The World Bank seeks to invest on the long-term health and stability of economies. IMF has more short-term and rigid approaches. ‘If international coffee prices go up, the Bank will want small farmers to get a larger share of the revenues; the IMF is likely to want governments to use them to reduce the public deficit or debt.’ The UNDP focuses on supporting institutional or ‘capacity-building’ initiatives. He continues to say that ‘all three agencies serve the broad goals of the United Nations in their individual ways. It would be more efficient and clear to consolidate their efforts’ and combine the strengths of all three institutions.
Calderisi does acknowledge that this merger would be quite complicated because IMF is responsible for monitoring economic development not just in Africa but in all countries, including rich ones. The Bank raises funds in the international capital markets with its board dominated by Western countries rather than subjected to the one country-one vote formula, and the UNDP reflects the views of all nations, to ‘be seen as everyone’s friend.’ I especially find this merger idea to be quite an interesting proposal, but I don’t know if this is something that would actually happen.
I have been continuing to work with HIV groups, teaching about the basics of HIV and nutrition. At the moment it is mainly two groups I am involved with. I have also been trying to establish one in a community who doesn’t have one and also meet with another existing group. But it’s been difficult because the people that I need cooperation from to either help me meet with the right people or help me organise to get people together have been quite slack, so it’s a very slow process at the moment. I will see how far I get, but I will put most of my time and energy into the already existing groups that I have already been with to help them as much as I can.
In one particular group, each time I have visited they have been talking about ARV’s (Anti-Retrovirals), which is obviously important, but I am also teaching them that in addition to taking their medicine, there are other things they can do to keep themselves healthy. For example, educating the people on the types of nutritious foods they have around them that they can eat to boost their immune systems and overall health and well being. There are many fruits and vegetables that are right in front of them that they don’t realise are very good for them to eat regularly.
Since Tim has now left, I have been working in cooperation with some Field Officers from the TCE (Total Control of the Epidemic) HIV project, Peter and Fumbani, to work on a project promoting the use of soy in people’s diets. Soy beans are very high in protein with nutritional properties that are beneficial to help boost the immune systems of HIV positive people. So we are working on promoting this and giving demonstrations on how to make soy milk with the people in their communities, encouraging them to plant soy beans so they can harvest them and continue to be able to make their own soy products. I will also do the same thing with the other group I am working with.
I have actually been drinking soy milk for the last 15 years or so by choice. I prefer the taste of it and am aware that it is a healthier option to regular full cream milk. So now that I know how to actually make it, it is something that I will take back with me to my regular life, and continue to make it at home sometimes. It is very easy and not so expensive.
Another book I read this month is called “Natural Medicine in the Tropics” which is really interesting. It talks a lot about Africa specifically and how “modern” medicine (pharmaceutical products) in the Northern Hemisphere (mainly Europe and the US) has contributed to less concern or focus on “natural” or “traditional” medicine over the years. It contains information on a plethora of medicinal plants, fruit and vegetables that are beneficial for good nutrition, health and medicinal use. It has been of great assistance to me when teaching people about nutrition in the HIV support groups and I have learnt several new things.
This has been quite a busy reading month! I am also half way through another book called “Dark Star Safari” by an American teacher and travel writer by the name of Paul Theroux. It portrays his overland journey from Cairo to Cape Town, having set foot back on the African continent after living in Malawi and Uganda, 40 years earlier. It’s nicely written and reminds me of some of my travels in Africa 2 years ago.
For the last few of my English classes, instead of the usual grammar, I decided to do something completely different with my students. I thought it was time to freshen things up a bit and try something new to broaden up their world of English, because I get the feeling that all they expect to learn in English are different words and grammatical structures.
Before I left Denmark I printed out and laminated many, many pictures of things from around the world, making sure I had some things from each continent. There are famous landmarks like the Colosseum, Great Wall of China and Pyramids of Giza, famous people like Barack Obama, Che Guevara and Nelson Mandela, famous places like Macchu Picchu and Grand Canyon, mountains like Kiliminjaro, Fuji and Everest, people from different cultures like the Vikings, Native American Indians, the (Australian) Aborigines and the Maoris of New Zealand.
So I have been giving English/Geography-Culture lessons to my students and they seem to really enjoy it and are very interested. I have a world map that I use as a teaching aid. To begin with I spoke about the idea of a continent, and then thought it best to relate something to them so I discussed Malawi being a country and Africa being the continent, which only a few of them knew about already.
The idea of these lessons is that they practice writing descriptions of each subject in English, they also practice reading the descriptions out in English, and I encourage them to ask many questions so they are having conversation practice too, while also learning about the world which ‘opens their eyes’ a little, so to speak. Each week I have tested them on what they learnt the previous week and some students have been able to identify everything I have showed them, including telling me the city, country and continent of each subject. It is very interesting for me to teach about the world and I can see that they are learning many new things which makes it even more of a pleasure for me to teach. I even showed them a photo of Sushi, explained what it consists of and how it is made, and they were so interested and curious because they had never seen anything like it. There is no variety at all in the villages so seeing food from different cultures was quite incredible for them. They even asked if I could bring some for them to eat the following week! I told them if I could get the ingredients I could show them how to make Sushi, but unfortunately you can’t get much of it here.
They have been asking me to teach them more about the world, so once I have gone through all the pictures I brought with me, I will have to try and be creative and prepare some more lessons about the world and other cultures to incorporate with English language.
The rainy season has begun and many times we’ve been kept inside at our home because it’s obviously difficult to go out and work in the heavy rain, especially when we walk everywhere. Also, we are in the bush so it means dirt paths, roads and trees that turn into mud, puddles and lightning attractions if it storms. I have never watched so many movies in a short space of time before as I have here!
Living in the orphanage continues to be very nice. There are always many children around, playing, running, laughing and of course staring at us to see what we are doing. I recently bought a basketball to use on the courts we have here and it’s been a good way to interact with some of the kids because straight away a group of them came and asked if they could play with me. So a few times a week (if it’s not raining) I play netball with the girls or just shoot around. I also have a few games I brought over with me from Denmark, such as Mikado (pick-up sticks) and Dominoes, so I have brought them out a few times to play with the little kids.
I spent a weekend at the Chinese Buddhist orphanage “Amitofo Care Centre” which I visited last month with Tim and Ray, where Tim gave a lesson about HIV to some of the kids. This time I went on my own and gave a Geography lesson to around 40 kids. I used the same pictures as I use for my English class, but simplified the language a bit as they were aged between 11 and 13. I used a world map as a teaching aid and tried to make the lesson a little interactive and involve them as much as possible to keep their interest, as this can sometimes be a challenge when teaching children especially.
I first found out if they knew what a continent was and it turned out they did and told me there were 6 and could name them, so that was a good start. I reminded them of the 7th continent, Antarctica that they did not seem to know about. Then I would show them a picture, ask them questions and if they knew who or what it was, and which city, country and continent, and then once we established this information I would ask them to come to the front and point to the map.
They mostly seemed interested in what I was teaching, but when I asked them questions or to come up to the front, the same 4 or 5 kids would raise their hands or speak up and answer. But if I called upon them individually to get different students to participate, they would get shy, laugh and look away, not wanting to speak in front of everyone. I think that is especially because of their age. It was interesting to compare teaching kids to adults. I found/find it easier to teach adults, at least if you compare these kids to my English class. Naturally, the adults ask questions and are more open and responsive, making my job slightly easier. Still, it was a nice experience and I enjoyed being up there as a teacher.
I stayed here for 2 nights in a room next to some of the younger girls aged between 6 and 10 years. I was introduced to 3 of the volunteers who live at the care centre, Kenny from Malaysia, Arleen from Mainland China and Lucy from Taiwan. They are mostly here to teach Mandarin and help look after the kids. Because it was the weekend, there weren’t any lessons, but I got to hang out with the volunteers and kids, watch them practice kung fu, and just enjoy my time out of the bush!
On one of the evenings, the kids that are part of the kung fu group had a performance at a function for an Indian organization. There were speeches and awards, and then a section of the evening was for cultural performances. There were many Bollywood dances, which were really cheesy and quite boring! I do appreciate the Indian culture, and my mum, having been born and raised in India, grew up watching, and still continues to watch really bad Bollywood films with almost as bad Bollywood music and dancing! So I was used to hearing this type of thing, but it wasn’t much better than what I remember!
Thankfully the kids from the care centre brightened up the night with their traditional African dancing and kung fu performance. Definitely the highlight of the evening and well worth the 3 hour wait through listening to speeches in Hindi which we could obviously not understand, and sitting through many boring performances!
Some other positive things from the weekend were that I re-learned some basic Mandarin, such as greetings and some other words. I used to learn Mandarin about 15 years ago for a couple of years, but gave it up, regretfully so. So I hardly remember anything anymore. I was even more impressed than the first time I visited this orphanage to hear the children speaking Mandarin. They are taught to greet the teachers whenever they see them with (in Mandarin) “Lao shi, zao an/wu an/wan an, Amitofo” I’m not sure if I have the correct spelling, but this translates to “good morning/afternoon or evening teacher, Amitofo. Amitofo is the name of the Buddha. I too got this greeting every time I saw or walked past the children, so by the end of the first day I had no trouble with all the greetings and continued to practice them all weekend.
In January I will go back to Amitofo with another DI, Assum, to do our investigation week there. We plan to organise a number of activities to do with the kids, both educational and fun.
After 4 months I am still feeling good to be here, even when I sometimes wonder what I am here for or have days when it’s more difficult to get motivated than others. Working with the HIV groups gives me a feeling of satisfaction, knowing that I am, in a small way, contributing to the bigger picture and sharing my time and knowledge with the people.
Even though there are two months left, in actual fact there is not so much ‘countable’ time remaining for work. Christmas holidays are coming up in a few weeks, I have a week of investigation straight after New Years, by which time it will almost be half way through January once I’m back at the project, and then it’s only around 3 weeks left of work, whilst handing over to the next DI. Also, being the rainy season, there will be sure to be some days where we won’t even be able to leave the house due to the heaviness of the rain.
I will be spending the Christmas/New Year period with some other DI’s. We will be going up to Lake Malawi again, but this time further north than Mangochi and Monkey Bay where we were for (Lake of Stars festival), to an area called Nkhata Bay. I was there 2 years ago at Kande Beach, but will go somewhere different this time.
We are also planning to spend Christmas at a locally run orphanage, to make a nice dinner for the kids, spend time with them and make sure they have a special time on Christmas. This will be my second Christmas in Malawi.
Four months gone, two months left.
