Oversimplified on a Saturday afternoon

Maybe you’d like to know what I spend my time doing here besides obsessing about food and snakes. I’m looking at the economic feasibility of implementing permaculture in Malawi. I see a ton of potential in it. This country is full of small holder farmers who will enter the yearly hunger season in about Dec/ Jan when their storage of maize runs out, though it hasn’t always been that way. Actually, in some areas of the country the hungry season may start earlier this year. It’s sad and I also believe it’s not necessary because there are solutions. There’s more to it than that, but it’s hard for me to present complexity on a mainly one way blog. People here do not plan ahead. Just one example, I waited 2.5 hours at the immigration office this week because they’d run out of receipts and finally sent someone to get them. I try to bring a book with me when I’m out. They don’t plan ahead with food either (Law of the Harvest) and rely on their full year’s supply of food from 1 crop – maize. I don’t know how many of you have tried nsima. It’s ok, but just ok. They eat it at every meal with not much else. It makes their stomach full, which is something. Anyhow, the current fertilizer subsidies and maize policies don’t line up with the government’s recently released nutrition recommendations (6 food groups). As a side note, these guidelines are going to have a few minor changes to include local foods such as termites and mice. Anyways, maize alone can’t address the kwashiorkor or iron deficiency, or vitamin A deficiency and no, we should not just supplement the country forever.

I’ve seen some really impressive permaculture plots here. Those that get it eat really well – no hungry season. There are amazing foods here. As a result gradually it’s catching on in some area. I see the current maize and fertilizer policies as costly, backfiring right now, input heavy, and completely unable to be an effective solution of the problem they are apparently designed to address. Economists are gems, but I think they could use a bit of nutritional input. This is not an immediate solution, there is a lot of work to do, but the time is right for it to take off because people are at high risk with a yearly hunger season reminder and a life expectancy around the age of 38. Anyhow I’m looking at income, expenditures, and fascinating related information.

Aside from all that excitement, I had a brownie last night in town, now that was exciting. The village kids are over again to watch a movie. The favorite is HS Musical 2. I could probably sing most of the songs for you by now. They get really into it and it’s like a dance party in the living room. They also sing along as best they can, which is pretty impressive since they don’t really speak English. I’m not sure what they’ll watch today. They’re still deciding… Lion King 2 won with a slim margin over HS Musical 2. By the way, Tyler congratulations on catching your own rabbit. We had a couple rabbits here few a few days, but probably the dogs got to them. Hopefully you have better luck.