Interpretation

30th December 2010

The best thing about visiting any of the villages around the South Viphya and Perekezi Forest Reserves is meeting the children. They get such a buzz just from seeing Mr and Mrs Mzungu walking up the path, next to their mud walled, grass roofed homes, that you can’t help but stop, chat or more often just muck around with them. For the youngest ones I guess it’s like me seeing a martian walking down Handsworth Wood Road. They’ve not seen anything like us before and it scares them to death but thankfully they’re getting used to us.

Sometimes I try to put myself in their position. What’s it like to live in a mud-hut, eat nsima everyday and make my own entertainment? I grew up in a multi-cultural community, with a Nintendo, carpets, sofas and toys. Why do they never seem bored? Why don’t they moan about being hungry or bored?

Why? Because they have bagfuls of imagination.

From children at home we all hear ‘I’m bored’, ‘I’m hungry’, ‘I want …’. We make entertainment for them, teach them how to tell stories, cook for them, buy them what they ‘want’. The kids here don’t get bought what they need let alone what they want.

Yet what do I see in Malawi? Kids who can entertain themselves, kids who can cook and adults who have really learnt to tell a story. So what’s different, why is there such a gap between our countries? Education and wealth. Ok, no rocket science there.

Yet if you asked me where I would rather grow up, Malawi or England, I feel that I’d have a tough decision to make. Children here just seem more innocent, they don’t have all the issues that children at home seem to have, they just have a real good time with their mates. Worries are non-existent.

‘Ah but..’ I hear you say. ‘..but your education wouldn’t give you a firm footing for adulthood. For work life.’ So what? Maybe sometimes in the UK we lose sight of what life is all about, a force of our lifestyles and the way our country is set-up. Perhaps Malawi has got it right. The 8th poorest nation on our planet, how can they have got it right? I’m not really sure, but they’re happy here. Happy kids, happy adults, happy people. And after all, isn’t happiness really what we are all seeking?

My life is about what happens outside of work. The enjoyment I get from seeing my friends, my leisure activities and seeing the world. I work to give myself all the things that I am tempted by because I was brought up in a country that offered me things that only money could buy and now I’m used to it. I suppose I now need a car, new clothes and the latest CDs. Do Malawians want what I have? Well you don’t miss what you’ve never had, or heard of for that matter. They work to get by and do their best to enjoy the rest of it.

And for the children. Well they concentrate on having a good time, by using their imagination. I walked into the Luwawa School last week before an Environmental lesson to be met by three children sat on the floor outside a classroom. One of them was the boy from my ‘football’ picture back in September. Junior is his name, son of the village headman and carpenter at the lodge, Godfrey.

Junior and his friends were stretching out a piece of paper and doing something underneath it. Moving in for a closer look they turned and smiled.
“What are you doing?” I asked with a smile on my face. They didn’t reply to my question, just smiled back and said “Mista eminings.” The younger ones have very little English skills but I worked it out anyway. On the paper they had drawn out a football pitch, before very carefully pushing the point of their pen through the pitch hundreds of times, creating tiny holes. The aim of the game was to use the pen underneath the paper, drawing a line into the opponents goal, without allowing the pen to push up through any of the holes. It appeared they had been playing for hours and continued long after I had left. No boredom there.

As I left the school that day I walked across to the football pitch. Kids running around playing together, having a great time. Again I walked closer to see what they were doing. They had made a toy car out of wire and rubber. Others had made bow and arrows (with blunted ends!) which they were firing at the pine trees as a target. The footballers had made their own football by melting plastic bags together and moulding them into a sphere, before wrapping it with strips of rubber sliced from old tyres. None of this was made for them, none of it was bought from a shop. They were making themselves have an amazing time by using their imagination and experimenting. A fantastic example to the rest of us who rely on our TV or latest ‘toys’ to do it for us.

So who’s got it right? I can’t say we have, there’s a lot less depression here in Malawi. But they haven’t got it right either. I cannot pretend that a country with a heavy portion of poverty has no problems. And I can’t help but worry. As things change and progress, with the increased impact of the western world on Malawi and other 3rd world countries as it uses it as a market for their goods and services, the more the knowledge and expectations of these nations will change. The simple life is well done here, it’s less problematic. And while it deserves to move forward, my concern is the added issues that it will bring. I just hope it doesn’t end the happiness.



The Otherside….



Reading Danny’s blog encouraged me to continue with one of my own. When speaking to close friends back home via email they often comment that they are happy to hear from me as Danny is always supplying the blogs and so they find it nice to hear my perspective of Malawian life. Although we are working together pretty much 24/7, sharing the same experiences and observing the same daily scenes being played out, our opinions on what we see and learn can tend to differ immensely.

Danny made me consider the question: where would I rather grow up: UK or Malawi and, although I largely agree with many things he has said, the decision for me would be much simpler. The main reason for this, I believe, is simple: gender.

There is fun, laughter and games everywhere you look as we wander through the different villages in the area but when you look more closely one must question: where are the young girls? Other than during school hours, I rarely see a girl over the age of 8 hanging around with the other village kids, having a good time or enjoying their youth. There are constant exuberant, excited shouts and chatter of young male voices but you have to listen very carefully to hear the whisper of girls as they quietly walk past the fun-filled scenes or return from the well, a heavy pot of water somehow balancing on their head.

This continues as girls here mature. The average age of marriage for a male is 24 whereas for a girl is it 18: not due to the greater maturity of girls this age in comparison to boys but because of fewer girls having the opportunity to progress to further education, university, highly paid jobs. Girls will learn how to cook, clean and care for a family and this will be their life-long role.

I am aware there is always the exception and some girls will continue with education, maybe even get a respectable job and be a ‘professional’ but I am yet to meet such a woman in a powerful position. The vice president of Malawi, although recently fired so that ‘His Excellency Dr Bingu’ can attempt to promote his brother as the next Malawian president, is a woman, Joyce Banda. There is often talk of an ulterior motive behind Bingu choosing a woman as vice president but at least it gives some hope to the female population of Malawi and it gives me a small suggestion that maybe, just maybe things are changing.

These changes may take years and for now I sit and observe as women attempt to fulfil the expectations placed on them and never hear a word of complaint or a female voice speaking up and saying ‘this isn’t fair or right! Why can’t I play outside, further my education, be a doctor/lawyer/president!’ I do however see women crawling on the floor to bow to men; something a girl from my background struggles to understand.

I guess this is part of what a developing country is. It does not just mean it is struggling to catch up with modern technology, decent houses, roads and materialistic possessions but it is also failing to understand the importance of equality and other social ideals. I am not saying that the UK has got it right in terms of equality yet and, in some cases, have gone too far in their attempts to reach this ideal, but the struggles of many of the women of Malawi is visible to me on almost a daily basis.

What worries me is how this will change. With people, male and female, terrified to stand up and speak out, even in a democratic country, it is hard to see where the motivations for improvement will come from.

So Danny asks: where would you rather grow up and my answer has to be the UK where I had the opportunity of good schooling, university, free speech and a happy life. I am sure life in Malawi, although dreadfully depressing for some, is happy for many women. However, with my dreams and ambitions, I am extremely grateful that my youth gave me a good platform for an independent and my country and culture did not hold me back just for being a girl!