Choppy Novel No. 1

July 9. 2008: I hope your 4th of July was great! Malawi’s Independence day is July 6th. The theme for the year: a nation of achievers. I think that’s a great theme for a country that has the blessing and curse of having so many donors and in some respects as a side effect the un-fortune of dependency.

This morning I went to a Nutrition meeting with more or less everyone who is doing anything to do with Nutrition in Malawi. I was fascinated for the first 2 hours, but the monotone got me over the last 2+ hours. Anyways, there are a lot of reports that I’m trying to get my hands on. Stacia has been really helpful with all that. I’m also a bit confused on how the Government Ministries are set up. There’s a division for Nutrition and a separate one for Food Security. There are roughly 6 sub-committees for each of those. Since food security happens to be a nutrition issue I’ll need to figure out how they are dividing the issues.

I’m more hungry than normal for a couple of days. I eat a lot of rice, pasta, etc with veggies and beans, soya, etc. Usually breakfast is a leftover from dinner. The food is great, but for the times when it’s just not enough I’ve decided chocolate is the way to go and I’ve built a small stash. I went running yesterday for the first time since leaving Boston, rather pathetic. I’m out in a village and it’s taken me a while to feel comfortable with the snakes, the dogs, and everyone watching at me. Stacia told me a quieter route to run and I loved it. I can do that all the time. I went about 6:15 am. People are up and about long before then, but it was nice to sleep in.

It’s the cool season here, not really winter, because it’s around the upper 60’s / low 70’s. The temperature drops a bit at night… perfect for sleeping, it drops more down in the mountains around Mulanje. I sleep in the guest house which is overall great. The other night was rough because of a large sausage beetle. They are absolutely harmless, but this one was huge, flew fast, bumped into everything, except me although it did come close, and made a lot of noise. I’ve decided since then to leave the lights off out there all the time. So I just go out there with my flashlight and go to sleep. I’m not sure why I’m a bit squeamish, but they are really gross. It’s dark here at 6pm and light around 5:30am. The sun goes down really fast.

There was a funeral last Saturday for one of the chief’s wives. Efferal (she helps out here) took me to see the Goliwamkulu (sp???). They are a group who learn the traditional dances of Malawi and dance behind masks at funerals and around the house of the person who died to ward off evil spirits. People apparently aren’t supposed to know who the goliwamkulu are, but they usually do. They learn to dance in the graveyard, which is a bit freaky. You should never go to the graveyard at night, I guess they think you are a witch and the consequences are pretty bad (not that I ever would). The dancing was cool, but in general I’ll keep my distance.

Kids here have amazing rhythm. They dance and sing a lot and play really complex beats on the drums. There are a few girls going to secondary school that stay in a neighboring house and occasionally at night they get together and sing. It’s really cool. The electricity occasionally goes off from ~6-7:30 pm, so if dinner is not ready before then – like last night – than dinner is later, not really a big deal. The official language here is English, but there are a ton of tribal languages depending on the district that people live in. Down here a lot of people speak Chichewa.

It’s the joke of Boston that they don’t label the streets, but here they don’t always name the streets and often there is no address. There’s no address here, just go to Chitedze and ask for amayi Khalidwe (the mother of Khalidwe)… and you’ll find me there unless we’re off around the country somewhere.

The internet has been slower than cold tar. Just keep that in mind. The one e-mail I tried to respond to a few days ago took around ½ an hour to send and even then it didn’t get sent because there was an internet error. I logged off. Twice I was on the verge of posting 2 fascinating posts, but was kicked off the internet and I could not retrieve them. I could not be bothered at the time, but I now have a system, so no worries. Tomorrow we are driving back down to Mulanje to finish off the permaculture training and for me to set up some more interviews and site visits.

A friend shared some great advice, that when in Malawi you let things happen as they happen. People are more laid back about timing and transport is not always reliable, etc. Things tend to get done, but you have to be pretty chill about how.

I went into the lodge at Thuchila estates last week (Mulanje) and they were playing Islands in the Stream. It reminded me of an Adirondacks trip (the first time I ever heard that song) and my only under-40-die-hard-Dolly-fan friend.

Thanks all for the e-mails. I’m a bit overloaded on them, but I’ll get to them bit by bit. Oh- Tara, if my plants aren’t dead, would you mind watering them? Thanks. I should tell you more about what I’m doing here with nutrition and permaculture. For now I’ll just let you check out a website if you’re interested and I’ll give you my run down later. www.neverendingfood.org. I really shouldn’t write 2 novels in one post. Enjoy your summers!