December 6th – Half-time
Our stay in Malawi will last for six months. On arrival and after a week away from mobile phones, fast internet and television I was aware that this could actually feel like a lifetime.
Yesterday marked our half way point, three months in. It has not seemed like a lifetime so far and if anything, I feel like we’re running out of time. Half time was signalled by us reaching the visa extension date stamped into our passports, indicating the need for us to leave the country. The Zambian border, just over 80km away from the lodge, would be our destination so, loading the vehicle up with coke bottles and water-proofs, we left with Patrick on a mission.
The dirt road journey was no different to any other road trip, reminding us of the variety in African life. We were met by a bright green boomslang crossing the road, then, just a little further along, by a chameleon who was attempting to camouflage into a small bush, lining the track. We came across tens of roadside traders, selling mushroom, mango and bananas before passing through small villages getting themselves ready for the rains through patching roofs and plastering walls.
Eventually we arrived at a barrier and a sign saying ‘Welcome to Zambia’. The sign was broken and a little scratched out but was, however unimpressively, doing its job. My imagination always tells me that another country will look different but looking over the rusted bar separating the nations; Zambia looked exactly the same as Malawi. Poorly built buildings and dry sandy roads.
As we parked the car and entered the boarder crossing building on the Malawian side, Patrick introduced us to the officer on duty.
“This is the gentleman who helped John.”
I greeted him in Chitumbuka, hoping that a little effort would help our operation run smoothly. Basically, we both wanted a stamp from Zambia and then to turn around and head back to the lodge with three more months available on our visa.
The procedure went unbelievably easily. We didn’t even enter Zambia. The officer on the Malawian side, a tall man with a totally emotionless face, took our payments for Zambian visas and walked off with a gangling lope. Within 5 minutes he was back, giving us a glance at Zambian visa stamps, before issuing us with another 30-day tourist visa for Malawi. We will never know whether our $100 payment for Zambian visas made it into the system or officials pockets, there were no receipts written and none mentioned either.
The media at home made me feel corruption was abundant in Africa. It’s a subject that often comes up in conversation with Malawi residents and visitors to the lodge. From what I gather, Malawi is pretty good compared to many African nations, which is a bit worrying considering what you can see on an average day even here. It’s something that comes almost as a way of life. Whether there’s more or less than in the western world, I don’t know. Perhaps they just need to learn how to hide it.
Our ‘Community Development’ role has been chopping and changing in recent weeks. Being very aware that time is against us we have had to prioritise projects to ensure we get done what we want to and don’t leave anything half finished behind.
Things are moving forward on all fronts but patience really is a key attribute at the moment. Everything is a little slow!
Our main project at the moment is converting a room at the local maternity unit in Luwawa station from a store into a visitors room for guardians of the mothers to be. The most important part of the venture is to make the whole operation accessible for the community. Whilst the funding is available to buy the necessary materials and the lodge will help by supplying the tools, our aim is to make the development community-led. We feel that it’s vital to get people involved in the work, so there is sense of ownership which we hope leads to care for the centre from the locals. This has been a problem.
The ‘real’ rains started this week and it has had a bit of an unfavourable affect on the behaviour of the Malawians. A laid back culture, they are. But when it rains it resembles something similar to England in the snow. Everything shuts down. We had arranged a work party for the visitor’s room and got our things ready, shoved on our water-proofs and headed off along the hazardous paths toward the forestry station. The paths now resemble something like a giant mars bar that has been left in the sun. Some parts allow you to sink inches into the ground, others, still solid, create a chocolaty ice rink for fun and games. It’s unpredictable and each prospective step leaves you with a tough decision of how much pressure to put through your feet. Russian Roulette for hikers.
A few slips and squelches later, we arrived at the maternity unit to be greeted by the nurse. After a quick “hihihowareyouimfinehowareyouimfinethankyouthankyou” she alerted us to the fact that nobody would be coming.
“It’s raining, they will not come.”
“What do you mean? It’s gonna rain for the next three months, we need to get this done!”
She just smiled. We worked alone that day, scraping at layers of smoked black paint that currently lines the walls.
Other, more enjoyable, projects are also getting onto their feet. Through the environmental lessons we have been teaching at the school, construction of a tree nursery has started. The students have also designed posters which are to be posted around the village encouraging care for the environmental assets of the area; trees and the dam. We are also preparing to head to the capital this week to visit irrigation companies regarding our boar-hole project. Once we have that in place at Hunga Village we will then start a nutrition and farming project with the local school children, teaching the important lessons of a balanced diet and therefore balanced farming!
Hopefully it’s enough to keep us busy but not too much to leave us with unfinished business.
To end on a lighter-hearted note… talking to anyone in English that uses it as their second language can at times cause difficulties and confusion. Fortunately, Malawians, on the whole, have an excellent grasp of the language and communication is not usually a problem. There is one main error in their spoken English though which does affect the quality.
R’s and L’s can be interchanged at any point in a word without changing the meaning. For Laura, this means she now responds to ‘Laura’, ‘Raura’, ’Laula’ and most commonly ‘Raula’. I’ve taken to Laula, it has a nice ring. This issue can cause other problems; sometimes we have cully and lice for dinner, the children have head rice, and people are leading newspapers. I never knew they could walk.
The classic though is one of George’s stories. A couple of years ago a member of staff ran up to him out of breath.
“Sir, Sir. It was just on the radio. The president has announced there’s a big election coming up.”
