Wandering in Zomba Town
June 27, 2009
This morning is the day for walking to downtown Zomba, about 1½ miles from Annie’s. The purpose is to orient students so they can then make the trip in small groups by themselves. So I set off, leading 17 people down the hill and through town to an Indian run fabric store that has good quality fabrics and an overwhelming selection. We must buy before noon because as Muslims, they close for prayers and do not re-open on Saturdays. Everyone is envisioning what they will get made from their fabrics, so selecting color and patterns is important. Some make their decisions easily; others agonize over selecting from so many choices.
But we finish finally almost as the beautiful green mosque situated in the heart of Zomba begins the mid-day call to prayer. We instead go into the market, where vendors stack their produce in stalls. One section is designated for sun dried fish of all sizes. Another section for fruits. Still another houses the live chickens that usually ride home on a bicycle with their feet tied together. Goats are butchered and cut up in another section. Tin buckets for carrying water are made near the displays of them, the clang of the hammer ringing out across the market. Of course, here also one can buy hardware store items, clothing, household goods, etc. Market life is vibrant – colorful, noisy, aromatic. It’s a total sensory experience.
A few people come with me to an Internet café and we struggle with slow connections and faulty keyboards for 45 minutes. We walk toward “home” at Annie’s Lodge, stopping at Tasty Bites along the way for refreshments.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Lucius Banda in Concert
Lucius Banda in Concert
June 26, 2009
Upon our arrival Wednesday at Annie’s Lodge, Annie had asked us if we would like to go to a concert of some Malawian bands on Friday evening. Of course, we would! So 8 o’clock found us waiting for an SUV and a pickup truck to take us to the concert site at Pa’s Bakery, a place that was once a bakery but now a bar and dance hall. A local band is playing. In Malawi, bands do not take breaks. Different singers rotate; musicians switch off, so they can rest but the music never stops.
We begin dancing and soon discover that later on Lucius Banda is the “head-liner.” Our students had heard and read about Lucius Banda from their readings as well as talking with Malawians about who the best singers in Malawi were. All agreed that Lucius Banda was perhaps the best singer in Africa. During the Banda dictatorship, Lucius Banda had to go into exile because of his protest music. He returned sometime after Muluzi was elected. But during those exile years, he kept the spirit of dissonance alive in the hearts of Malawians. Lucius Banda is now an elected member of Parliament as well as a singer who continues performing world-wide.
Around 10 o’clock, he steps on stage and it’s electric. Although I do not speak Chichewa beyond cursory greetings, the music and words spoke to me. I felt shivery and overcome. He filled the stage, his presence touching our hearts. I never in my wildest imagination thought I’d ever get to see Lucius Banda sing, but our group was in the right place at the right time and had a friend (Annie) who could make it possible.
June 26, 2009
Upon our arrival Wednesday at Annie’s Lodge, Annie had asked us if we would like to go to a concert of some Malawian bands on Friday evening. Of course, we would! So 8 o’clock found us waiting for an SUV and a pickup truck to take us to the concert site at Pa’s Bakery, a place that was once a bakery but now a bar and dance hall. A local band is playing. In Malawi, bands do not take breaks. Different singers rotate; musicians switch off, so they can rest but the music never stops.
We begin dancing and soon discover that later on Lucius Banda is the “head-liner.” Our students had heard and read about Lucius Banda from their readings as well as talking with Malawians about who the best singers in Malawi were. All agreed that Lucius Banda was perhaps the best singer in Africa. During the Banda dictatorship, Lucius Banda had to go into exile because of his protest music. He returned sometime after Muluzi was elected. But during those exile years, he kept the spirit of dissonance alive in the hearts of Malawians. Lucius Banda is now an elected member of Parliament as well as a singer who continues performing world-wide.
Around 10 o’clock, he steps on stage and it’s electric. Although I do not speak Chichewa beyond cursory greetings, the music and words spoke to me. I felt shivery and overcome. He filled the stage, his presence touching our hearts. I never in my wildest imagination thought I’d ever get to see Lucius Banda sing, but our group was in the right place at the right time and had a friend (Annie) who could make it possible.
Meeting Our School Partners
Meeting Our School Partners
June 25, 2009
On Thursday we road the bus to our first partner school, Malemia Primary School, a village school in the Domasi area, off the paved road. At the sight of the bus, children swarm across the playground to greet us. Esther Majawa, the head teacher, greets us and we tour the school: visiting each classroom, meeting each teacher, and greeting the pupils as they rise to chant their welcome. Today is market day, so classes have anywhere from one-half or more absent. We see the grass structure they have constructed to house the feeding program that is currently funded by the Chibale Project, a joint effort of Radford University, Virginia Tech, and North Carolina A&T. Many U.S. friends contribute to the Chibale Project, which not only funds the feeding program but also scholarships that assist students who have been selected for secondary school but cannot afford to attend.
The bus drops us at Domasi Demonstration School, about a mile from Malemia and located on the grounds of Domasi College of Education. Here is where the North Carolina A&T team will spend the next three weeks. Although a public school, the Demonstration School has an application process. Ausman Ngwali, the head teacher, welcomes us and we move to a “common room” for introductions. Classes are busily working, so we try to keep our visit to a minimum of disturbance.
We set out across the Domasi College campus, cut through the woods, cross a soccer field, cross a bridge for the Domasi River, and emerge at Domasi Government School, where a new head teacher, Hilton Mautonga, eagerly awaits his first visit with our group. Virginia Tech students will work here for three weeks. Mr. Mautonga takes us on a tour beginning with Standard 1. At each room he respectfully waits until noticed, then explains his purpose, and is invited in. We troop into each classroom, again pupils rise and chant their greeting. This time our students take turns returning the greeting and giving permission to be seated. We move through the standards being welcomed by teachers that Virginia Tech has worked with for several years.
The Commons Room at Malawi Institute of Education, which borders Domasi Government School, is a welcome sight for our students – they have cold soft drinks for sale. We adjourn to our classroom at MIE, where we eat our lunch and have a whole group discussion of the three universities where we process our experiences so far, especially the initial school visits.
We end the day by stopping in Zomba to buy water for the next few days – almost everyone buys four 5-liter jugs because we’ll put them on the bus for the drive up the hill to Annie’s Lodge.
June 25, 2009
On Thursday we road the bus to our first partner school, Malemia Primary School, a village school in the Domasi area, off the paved road. At the sight of the bus, children swarm across the playground to greet us. Esther Majawa, the head teacher, greets us and we tour the school: visiting each classroom, meeting each teacher, and greeting the pupils as they rise to chant their welcome. Today is market day, so classes have anywhere from one-half or more absent. We see the grass structure they have constructed to house the feeding program that is currently funded by the Chibale Project, a joint effort of Radford University, Virginia Tech, and North Carolina A&T. Many U.S. friends contribute to the Chibale Project, which not only funds the feeding program but also scholarships that assist students who have been selected for secondary school but cannot afford to attend.
The bus drops us at Domasi Demonstration School, about a mile from Malemia and located on the grounds of Domasi College of Education. Here is where the North Carolina A&T team will spend the next three weeks. Although a public school, the Demonstration School has an application process. Ausman Ngwali, the head teacher, welcomes us and we move to a “common room” for introductions. Classes are busily working, so we try to keep our visit to a minimum of disturbance.
We set out across the Domasi College campus, cut through the woods, cross a soccer field, cross a bridge for the Domasi River, and emerge at Domasi Government School, where a new head teacher, Hilton Mautonga, eagerly awaits his first visit with our group. Virginia Tech students will work here for three weeks. Mr. Mautonga takes us on a tour beginning with Standard 1. At each room he respectfully waits until noticed, then explains his purpose, and is invited in. We troop into each classroom, again pupils rise and chant their greeting. This time our students take turns returning the greeting and giving permission to be seated. We move through the standards being welcomed by teachers that Virginia Tech has worked with for several years.
The Commons Room at Malawi Institute of Education, which borders Domasi Government School, is a welcome sight for our students – they have cold soft drinks for sale. We adjourn to our classroom at MIE, where we eat our lunch and have a whole group discussion of the three universities where we process our experiences so far, especially the initial school visits.
We end the day by stopping in Zomba to buy water for the next few days – almost everyone buys four 5-liter jugs because we’ll put them on the bus for the drive up the hill to Annie’s Lodge.
Driving to Zomba
Driving to Zomba
June 24, 2009
We left Lilongwe at 8:30 for our long drive to Zomba by dark. Stopping at Dedza Pottery for an early lunch and shopping is always a highlight of that trip. But near the pottery shop is another treat – Dedza Art Shop. Here three brothers have turned recycling and art into a family endeavor. The sales shop is several yards from the entrance to the pottery shop. There, one brother sells the products of the others.
Henry Ngamba is the paper maker from which journals, stationery, and cards are made. Recently, he moved part of his production some distance away to access a better supply of water. Henry demonstrated how he makes paper from all kinds of recycled materials – cement bags, various print sources, elephant manure, banana leaves, etc. His brother, Patrick Ngamba is a fine artist, who has several paintings on display in the Art Shop, run by the third brother. All in all, the recycled, paper making process has always been something the students have enjoyed.
We continued south to Lizulu, a large open market town on the Mozambique border, where students enjoyed shopping on the Mozambique side and then stepping back across the road into Malawi. The vast array of neatly stacked red tomatoes, green peppers and peas in large flat baskets, carrots that bloom like a orange corsage when held tightly by the tops in an eager hand, colorful cloth draped along fences and on the ground, oxen with their empty carts waiting patiently for day’s end and the return home, freshly butchered goat meat on display with head, hooves, and entrails alongside and quickly covered with flies – all these images and more will make indelible memories of Malawian marketplaces.
But in the bus we stop briefly just south of Lizulu at Mankhokwe Village, which is a large traditional village that sits below the road. From the roadside, the village stretches out like a panoramic scene, its houses close together on both ends and a large central, community area in the middle. Almost every building is round with plastered gray walls and thatched roofs.
We resume our drive against time to arrive in Zomba by dark. The terrain has changed from high plains near Lilongwe, to rugged mountains near Dedza, to the mountains that line the portion of The Rift, which is the Zomba Plateau. The sun sets into the mountains before we reach Zomba, where we will begin our life at Annie’s Lodge for the next three weeks.
June 24, 2009
We left Lilongwe at 8:30 for our long drive to Zomba by dark. Stopping at Dedza Pottery for an early lunch and shopping is always a highlight of that trip. But near the pottery shop is another treat – Dedza Art Shop. Here three brothers have turned recycling and art into a family endeavor. The sales shop is several yards from the entrance to the pottery shop. There, one brother sells the products of the others.
Henry Ngamba is the paper maker from which journals, stationery, and cards are made. Recently, he moved part of his production some distance away to access a better supply of water. Henry demonstrated how he makes paper from all kinds of recycled materials – cement bags, various print sources, elephant manure, banana leaves, etc. His brother, Patrick Ngamba is a fine artist, who has several paintings on display in the Art Shop, run by the third brother. All in all, the recycled, paper making process has always been something the students have enjoyed.
We continued south to Lizulu, a large open market town on the Mozambique border, where students enjoyed shopping on the Mozambique side and then stepping back across the road into Malawi. The vast array of neatly stacked red tomatoes, green peppers and peas in large flat baskets, carrots that bloom like a orange corsage when held tightly by the tops in an eager hand, colorful cloth draped along fences and on the ground, oxen with their empty carts waiting patiently for day’s end and the return home, freshly butchered goat meat on display with head, hooves, and entrails alongside and quickly covered with flies – all these images and more will make indelible memories of Malawian marketplaces.
But in the bus we stop briefly just south of Lizulu at Mankhokwe Village, which is a large traditional village that sits below the road. From the roadside, the village stretches out like a panoramic scene, its houses close together on both ends and a large central, community area in the middle. Almost every building is round with plastered gray walls and thatched roofs.
We resume our drive against time to arrive in Zomba by dark. The terrain has changed from high plains near Lilongwe, to rugged mountains near Dedza, to the mountains that line the portion of The Rift, which is the Zomba Plateau. The sun sets into the mountains before we reach Zomba, where we will begin our life at Annie’s Lodge for the next three weeks.
Learning about Perma-culture
Learning about Perma-culture
June 23, 2009
Tuesday we went to Tikondwe Freedom Gardens just north of Lilongwe. There, Daniel Chinkhuntha operates an exemplary example of perma-culture gardening. His late father, Dr. Livingston Chinkhunta, an economist, started with 10 square meters of almost unusable land given to him by a local chief. Because the land was filled with gullies and the rest was swamp, it took six years to actually begin farming. First the land was drained and the reeds dug out. They planted bananas along the river side to hold the banks and block flooding.
Today, it’s 30 hectares of beds, fed by a “natural” system of irrigation that brings water from the river during the dry season. The system also incorporates a way to prevent flooding and preserve water during the rainy season. All this is done with no mechanization. They practice organic gardening, using companion planting to protect crops from insects as well as making repellents from leaves and shrubs that can act to chase insects away.
Perma-culture, which means permanent agriculture, is organic and sustainable as opposed to agriculture dependent on fertilizers and pesticides that need to be repurchased each year, which means a farmer is actually working for someone else. Last year in Malawi, 19 billion kwacha provided a government subsidy for farmers to buy fertilizer that was produced in other countries, thereby depriving Malawi of using those resources in other ways. Last year a bag of fertilizer cost approximately $10, which cuts into any profit a farmer might make. A widespread use of perma-culture, using natural fertilizers and pesticides that come from the land and therefore cost nothing for the farmer, could preserve not only the land but also monetary resources of the country and give a higher profit for the farmer.
Daniel talks eloquently about food sovereignty as opposed to food sufficiency. The former is where you have surpluses and choices of products all year round. Food sufficiency means that a farmer may have an adequate yield but before the next harvest will have to buy from scarce supplies. He showed us several ways of holding water that raises the aquifer and provides water for irrigation.
Though none of us are farmers, we all gained new understandings of the processes that Daniel and his friend who works with him, Moses Kamanga, use to develop an Eden-like organization that sustains a large number of people in the area. We also saw the environmental and political issues that surround the whole concept of “permanent,” organic, sustainable farming.
June 23, 2009
Tuesday we went to Tikondwe Freedom Gardens just north of Lilongwe. There, Daniel Chinkhuntha operates an exemplary example of perma-culture gardening. His late father, Dr. Livingston Chinkhunta, an economist, started with 10 square meters of almost unusable land given to him by a local chief. Because the land was filled with gullies and the rest was swamp, it took six years to actually begin farming. First the land was drained and the reeds dug out. They planted bananas along the river side to hold the banks and block flooding.
Today, it’s 30 hectares of beds, fed by a “natural” system of irrigation that brings water from the river during the dry season. The system also incorporates a way to prevent flooding and preserve water during the rainy season. All this is done with no mechanization. They practice organic gardening, using companion planting to protect crops from insects as well as making repellents from leaves and shrubs that can act to chase insects away.
Perma-culture, which means permanent agriculture, is organic and sustainable as opposed to agriculture dependent on fertilizers and pesticides that need to be repurchased each year, which means a farmer is actually working for someone else. Last year in Malawi, 19 billion kwacha provided a government subsidy for farmers to buy fertilizer that was produced in other countries, thereby depriving Malawi of using those resources in other ways. Last year a bag of fertilizer cost approximately $10, which cuts into any profit a farmer might make. A widespread use of perma-culture, using natural fertilizers and pesticides that come from the land and therefore cost nothing for the farmer, could preserve not only the land but also monetary resources of the country and give a higher profit for the farmer.
Daniel talks eloquently about food sovereignty as opposed to food sufficiency. The former is where you have surpluses and choices of products all year round. Food sufficiency means that a farmer may have an adequate yield but before the next harvest will have to buy from scarce supplies. He showed us several ways of holding water that raises the aquifer and provides water for irrigation.
Though none of us are farmers, we all gained new understandings of the processes that Daniel and his friend who works with him, Moses Kamanga, use to develop an Eden-like organization that sustains a large number of people in the area. We also saw the environmental and political issues that surround the whole concept of “permanent,” organic, sustainable farming.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Preparing for 2009 Study Abroad
Since 1998 I have traveled to Malawi at least once a year, sometimes 4 or 5 times per year while carrying out various education projects for Virginia Tech. However, in 2004 I took a group of teachers from Southwest Virginia to Malawi on a Fulbright-Hays Study Program, when one of them suggested that I should set up a Study Abroad experience for my college students. And thus began Malawi Study Abroad in the "Warm Heart of Africa," as Malawi is known. I invited colleagues from two other universities, Radford University and North Carolina A&T University to join me in the endeavor. And so we prepare for our 4th Study Abroad. Students are busy collecting things they will need to teach in three primary schools in the Domasi area, Malemia Primary School, Domasi Government School, and Domasi Demonstration School. With passports in hand, vaccinations over, and malaria medication ready, they ponder what they will need for a month in a developing country. Nights will be very cool (after all it's the coldest part of their year in this sub-Saharan country) but days will be sunny and pleasant. They'll be in schools that require girls and women to wear skirts substantially below the knee; men teachers wear ties; however, our young men can forgo the ties but should have on shirts. After all, teaching is a profession and they want to be sure they don't look like a vendor or field hand.
We leave Dulles International in Washington, DC on June 21 on Ethiopian Airlines; refuel in Rome and on to Addis Ababa, where we'll board another plane for Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. We'll spend two days in the capital but mainly visit Freedom Gardens to the north to learn about sustainable agriculture. Travel to Zomba with a stop over at Dedza Pottery and other points of interest will put us at Annie's Lodge in Zomba by dark. Zomba is our home base and was the colonial capital of Malawi. From Annie's Lodge we will travel each day to Domasi to the schools. During the 20 day stay there, we'll take a short safari to Mvuu Camp in Liwonde National Park, and travel to Mt. Mulanje, where we'll hike on the third highest mountain in Africa for a day. We'll end our adventure with a trip to Lake Malawi, where we'll visit the village of one of my former students, stay at Club Mak for the night, go to Mua Mission, and back to Lilongwe for our trip home. These are the highlights but each day is filled with new experiences -- the colors, sounds, smells of an entirely different environment. Each year I get to not only visit the many friends I've made in Malawi but also experience anew the culture and people through my students' eyes.
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