Top 10 ... of Malawi. Pepani!

So let me try and put together a top 10 of Malawi - quirks maybe, characteristics possibly. The top 10 hit-you-in-the-face-you-are-now-in-Malawi facts:

1. Food. Simply there is not much, or it is very expensive. There are hundreds of kilograms of tomatoes for sale, onions, bananas, a local type of spinach, rice, nsima (maize), casava, ... yep, that's pretty much it. Then you can buy white bread, and I sourced out some local good yoghurt. In the bigger cities there is more of a variety of fresh vegetables (debatable whether more expensive). Anything else, expect to pay through your teeth. According to consultants and such people, the lack of food is due to a) poor farming methods and lack of crop variety and b) lack of staggering of crop planting meaning when there is food there is too much food but no planting is done to ensure food during winter/the dry season etc.

2. Nali. The best thing about Malawian food - hot, spicey flavourful Nali sauce. In flavours hot, vey hot, garlic, curry.

3. Power's No. 1. A little sachet of alcohol spirits. Costs between 10 and 15 Malawian Kwacha (about 50-75c) and gets your powerfully drunk at 40% spirits volume.



4. A drunk country. According to independent sources (other travellers I met) it is agreed that a large part of the Malawian population is at some pint in the day 1)smelling of old alcohol or 2) drunk. I know this sounds like I am hating on the country. I am not. Malawi is truly a lovely country. But there is a lot of alcohol consumption.

5. They have Lake Malawi. Well I needn't say anything else really.

6. Two in one. Did you know that the whole of Lake Malawi is not actually IN Malawi. Yes, a portion in the north is in Tanzania and in Tanzania they call that part of the lake Lake Nyasa. But Malawians don't speak of this ;)

7. No dolla. There is a dire shortage of foreign currency in the country (after the president kicked the English Ambassador out of the country and thus England cut off aid money). And therefore there is a dire shortage of fuel in the country. Beware you can get stuck in place because vehicles cannot get fuel. Also the British money was used to pay the salaries of among others, Policemen. Now they are not being paid. Now they have been told to get their salaries from fining vehicles on the road.

8. One, two, three. Yes indeed, when I asked people in Malawi what the Chichewa words for one, two three etc were, I was simple told "one, two, three".

9. Rasta (non) loving. Apparently, and this I heard in Lilongwe, Malawians are not the biggest fans of Rastafarians. Therefore, thus and in conclusion, it appears that most if not all of the Rastafarians in Malawi now reside in and around Nkhata Bay.

10. Peanuts. Malawi probably makes some of the best roasted and salted peanuts (called groundnuts, or G-nuts) that I have ever tasted

Malawi, the warm heart of Africa

(PS which is true. It is the only country where, on being stamped into Malawi, the border official said "Welcome to Malawi, we are a country of warm-hearted people. Enjoy your stay". Therefore, in light of my sometimes harsh seeming quirks of the country, I wish to molify all readers by saying that while the above are my 10 quirks that I noticed in the country, all fits under the unbrella tone of warmth and friendliness as I experienced with the border official. And anyone who has ever crossed a border will know just how surly and sulky border officials can be if they choose so!)

"Do white people drink milk?" "Yes, I think they do."

Or as Alice said to me, Alice who has lived in Nkhata bay for the last 4 years, who speaks Tonga almost fluently and who is married to Kumbu (a local celebrity there),

"Oh cource we do, don't you know this is how we keep our skin so white??"

We had to laugh. We were walking back from the Nkhata Bay hospital. One of the volunteers had strange blister growths on her hands and feet and we took her to the hospital. It really is funny to hear locals talking because they can sometimes say the most random comical things. And not for one moment do I think the sayer of this was truely ignorant of the fact that white people drink milk. It was just comic and funny to make that statement in the moment.

Once, while in a dala dala in Tanzania the bus conductor leaned out and asked one of the ladies walking "mama unene*, nenda Bububu?" Fat mother, are you going to Bububu? KiSwahili is rude and direct in its simpleness. You gotta love language in Africa.

*nene may be the wrong word for fat, but it is something like this. My dictionary is far from me!

Permaculture Design Course at Butterfly Space, Malawi.
Facilitator: Tichafa Makovere
Dates: March 19th- March 30th
Location: Nkhata Bay Malawi
Venue: Butterfly Space
Requirements: A passion to help with food security in the developing world; strength of will and dedication; a previous PDC or experience practicing PC is not necessary though may come as an advantage.

Cost: $600
Included:
Two week accommodation at Butterfly Space, Nkhata Bay with breakfast and evening meal.
Two weeks Permaculture Design Course with Tichafa Makovere.
Lunch provided as part of the Permaculture Course
An amazing experience.

Tichafa Makovere will host a two week PDC at Butterfly Space in Nkhata Bay Malawi. In this first collaboration we hope to invite a mixture of International guests and Malawians to learn about the principles o f permaculture in a practical setting for rural third communities. The local community will be involved and areas linked to two local schools and communities incorporated within the practical’s. Other local schools also involved in permaculture will also be included in what we hope will be part of the on-going collaboration between Butterfly, local schools and the community.

The focus will be on appropriate technology, soil and water harvesting, indigenous knowledge systems and Permaculture in schools, since schools are a key focus point for the community, a chance to influence the coming generation to shift away from the mentality of dependence on aid towards self sufficiency and sustainable resource use.
Facilitator:
Tichafa Makovere grew up in a marginalised farming community in Shurugwi, Midlands Region of Zimbabwe. He developed a career in education over 30 years; 20 years as a successful headmaster in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Botswana. In June 1994 he participated in a PDC at the Fambidzanai Permaculture Centre in Zimbabwe sponsored by the SCOPE (Permaculture in Schools and Colleges Outreach) Program. He went on to take first prize for best Permaculture implementing school nationally in 1995. He sat as secretary of the Permaculture Association of Zimbabwe (PAZ) for 2 years from 1994 – 1996 and subsequently as chairperson from 1996 – 1998. He has produced handouts for SCOPE trainings which are still used by the SCOPE program in Zimbabwe today. Tichafa holds a certificate in synergistic agriculture from a course conducted by Emilia Hazelip of the Pyrenees, France in Botswana in 1995. Recently Tichafa did a Green Warrior Permaculture Field Trainer’s Course and co-facilitated with Steve Cran, the course focuses more on communities’ sustainability.

His activities at SCOPE, and more latterly ReSCOPE, as lead facilitator have included: Drawing up 1-week and 2-week programs for SCOPE, facilitating at both 1-week and 2-week workshops; producing training materials and handouts, making follow-up visits to schools after inclusion in the SCOPE Program; participation on the curriculum, training and fundraising committees for the advancement of permaculture in Zimbabwean schools; reviewing and monitoring workshops for expansion of permaculture in schools in 66 districts of Zimbabwe, representing SCOPE at international levels and reviewing books on permaculture before they were published.

In November 2008 Tichafa travelled to Ethiopia and took up the role of Resident PC Facilitator for Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge (SFEL) in Konso, where he has to date facilitated a total of 25 PDCs. He subsequently went on to spear-head the formation of the Permaculture in Konso Schools Project working in partnership with various NGOs such as Save the Children Finland, Mercy Corps, CISS Ethiopia, Ethiopia Permaculture Foundation as well as SFEL itself. In October 2009 Tichafa in partnership with Alex formed Permaculture Training and Consultancy (PERMATEC). In June 2010 Tichafa formed his own independent consultancy, Shumba Integrated Eco Designs (SIED) which is now active around Ethiopia with various GOs and NGOs. Tichafa coordinates Slow Food’s 34 projects in schools across the country as national coordinator.

In 2010 the regional Education ministry Southern Nations Nationalities People Regional States (SNNRPS) of Ethiopia recognised the impact of permaculture in two of the pilot schools and the permaculture teacher was given first prize for the drastic change of school environment. The teacher went on to win a national prize from Ministry of Technology and yet another national prize from the Ministry of Education. On the second pilot school, the teacher was invited to Rome to the Slow Food Conference to share the success of implementing the permaculture project in the school.

Butterfly Space
Butterfly Space is a unique community space aiming to bring together Passionate volunteers and the local community. Community self- sustainability and environment are amongst our central principles and we are involved in numerous projects within the local community including a nursery school, information room, and youth club. Tree planting and work with local schools has led to an increasing interest in permaculture and this is an area we seek to build on. For more information about the work we do please visit our web-site www.butterfly-space.com

Course Curriculum
 Ethics and principles of Permaculture and sustainability
 Ecological processes
 Zones
 Principles of permaculture design
 Water harvesting
 Situational analysis, transect walk and mapping
 Soil improvement techniques
 Integrated Pest Management
 Animal integration
 Nursery practice
 Whole design care and management
 Planning for implementation care and monitoring of sustainable permaculture project
 Goal formation
 Final design presentation



Character of workshop
Participatory, practical, hands on to balance with the theoretical background from the class. Group work will plan real permaculture designs which will remain a permanent feature in the schools and Butterfly

Certification

Participants, who attend, participate and complete the 72 hour PDC will be issued certificates which has the collaboration with the Green Warrior permaculture which is accepted in most permaculture circles.

Contact details
Postal Address: Butterfly Space P O Box 211 Nkhata Bay
Physical Address: Nkhata Bay Malawi
Phone Number: +265 (Ophanuel)
Fax: N/A
Mobile Number: Josie: +265 (0) 999156335
Email: josie.redmonds@gmail.com
Mobile Number: Ian/Enid
Email: enid_van_mierlo@yahoo.com
Mobile: Tichafa +251913544164 +263777626137
Email: bog55chimbwa@hotmail.co.uk

Deposits will have to be finalised by the end of February 2012 to ensure we can carry out the programme so if you don’t want to miss out on this unique opportunity please get in touch as quickly as possible. A minimum of 8 people are needed for the course to run.

Manzi, madzi, maji

I thought that I might do a bit of a linguistic exploration...

...with the word water. In isiXhosa the word for water is amanzi. In chichewa the is word for water is amadzi (commonly said as madzi). In swahili, the word for water is maji.

I am sure you now see similarities. Xhosa is classified (along with several other languages such as Zulu, Sotho, Shona, Chichewa) as a Bantu language. Now for a bit of interesting info. Swahili is not the "original", "traditional" language of the Swahili coast (Northern Mozambique up until Southern Somalia). It is a mixture of the multitude of Bantu languages that used to exist in these areas, with Arabic. This is why I do not like the word traditional. What was traditional 50 years ago may not have been traditional 150 years ago.

In my third year when studying African Languages we discussed the issue of creating standardised languages that all people in a country can learn in. In South African we have 11 official languages but English still retains the highest prestige. The solution that we came up with (yes, us few people who want to change the world!) was that we needn't drop the status of English (it is after all the world wide language of... everything). We just ned to ensue that the other languages are elevated to the same level. So that if Sotho is you home language you do in fact have the option of learning in your mother tongue as well as English.

My lecturer then pointed out Tanzania and the University of Dar es Salam. One the the biggest obstacles in RSA tertiary education institutions is that students who have not gone fantastic English first language schools or indeed have but have received a substandard education is English terminology, struggle to grasp subject specific jargon at University. My lecturer pointed to the fact that if you want to study at the University of Dar, you need to be fluent in both English and Swahili. Which is great, elevating the local language as well as the international language. In South Africa we only have English Universities (with a few offering Afrikaans credits).

But then there is the fact that Swahili has in fact wiped out local dialects and languages. So is Swahili really local?

It is an interesting topic and one that can be argued round and round.

So back to the topic of similarities.

In Xhosa, when the speaker wants to refer to being in something, going to something/somewhere, or is already at the place, you need to add a "-ni" at the end. Therefore, to say "in/at/to the water" you would say e-manzi-ni (the 'e' replaces the 'a' so amanzi becomes emanzini).

This is the same in Sawhili. To say in/at/to the water, you say: "majini".

I am sure the same applies for Chichewa.

Madzi amphunga

- rice
- water
- salt
- sugar

1. in a pot put in the rice that you will be cooking for your meal. Add water, but add more than what you would usually use to cook the rice. We need excess water for Madzi amphunga. Add salt to taste

2. bring rice to boil and cook for about 5-7 minutes (not until the rice is fully cooked - it can be 10 minutes, but rice must still need to cook more)

3. at your chosen time, pour off most of the excess water into a container big enough to hold the water.

4. return rice to heat and finish cooking. We are finished with the rice. Now we turn to the Madzi (the water)

5. the water will be white and starchy. To this add sugar to taste. The water is not meant to be very sweet. The small amount of salt and sugar bring the taste out.

6. i prefer this drink warm to hot but some people drink it cold.

7. honey can be substituted for sugar

(Malawian recipes)

Achimwene, achimwali, ciao for now

Yesterday, the 15th of August I migrated through the Northern most border post of Malawi (name forgotten, actually, name not known)and entered Tanzania.

Malawi has been a intense, growthful and fun almost-2 months. I learnt that I really do know what is good for me, and that I really (we all do) have a strong intuition. I also learnt that you should not have space cake on your 3rd or 4th try of weed ;)

I met some pretty extraordinary people.

Carol, in Lilongwe, who taught me how to cook, and be confident in meeting people.

The Pickering family in Lilongwe, who looked out for me (and the other people on Nature's gift farm) - who took me to the lake with them, who made me feel welcome always in their home, and being all of us South African, we just got each other.

Agu, in Nkhota kota who, on my second night there, when I had a stomach bug and there was a gale force wind blowing off the lake, told me that I was not going to sleep alone in my tent and took me to her house and I slept wonderfully.

Nick, from Joburg, who works at a backpackers in Nkhata Bay. Us South Africans, I have learnt, have each others backs. Remember Paul on the chappa to the border in Mozambique? Who carried my bag and helped me with some tricky Portuguese situations? Then the Pickerings, and then Nick. When I had my bad space cake trip, he totally sh** the guy out who gave me some, and hated on him with me. Ah, home away from home.

Sari, Emily, Amy, Mike, Cat, Dan, Diana, Jerome, Viola, the Irish people (Sarah and Liam) - the volunteer team at Butterfly space. They will always be a very special part of my life. My time in Butterfly was too beautiful and for now it is a secret story to reply in my mind and heart. People will hear my stories eventually. For now I am jealously guarding Butterfly as my own ;)

Kwame, my best Malawian friend. We hit it off, him and I. We like the same music and we like to dance and he is silly and everyone at Butterfly just loves him. He is also a do everything kinda 23 year old. He helps with the special needs children care group, he is a great Tonga- English or Tonga - chiTumbuka or chiTumbuka - English (I am sure you get my drift) translator. He sends news reports to a community radio station in Mzimba. And runs the bar at Butterfly. If we are not married in the next 12 years, Kwame and I are going to get married.

Fanny is one of the chefs at Butterfly. She is loud and cras and Cat thinks that we have a crush on each other. She swears at me in Tonga, I shout at her is isiXhosa. We laugh, carry on our days and repeat this again and again. It was so great to meet someone who is just as loud as me. Many people I have met so far are soft spoken and angelic. I sometimes feel as if I am deafening them. I definitely do not deafen Fanny. She ululates in my ear.

These are the people that JUMP to my mind, but there have been many more.

Malawi, I have decided (but plans change) will be revisited on my way home.

And by the way, I have dreads.

Mwende bwino

Dear Prof Chris de Wet

Dear Prof Chris de Wet

About two weeks ago I went to a Malawian climate change conference, in Senga Bay, near the south of Lake Malawi. I met the consultant (who was facilitating the workshop) while I was in the Lilongwe tourism offices. We got chatting about tourism and intangible heritage and he said I seemed very eager and that I might be interested in coming to the conference and networking. I jumped at the opportunity.

The conference stared in the morning and by lunch break I realised that this was not an action orientated conference. They were here discussing policy. And then all of our honours work came rushing back to me. We were talking about ethics, politics, human rights and everything else about policy creation. It was intense and I was thankful that I had done your module.

However, in my honours year I struggled to understand a lot of what happened in the classes. At the conference I also understood little of what went down that day. It was interesting, but when we went into discussion groups I spent my time like a spectator at a tennis match, as two people debated back and forth (ever so philosophically) about whether people refer to themselves as A or B...

None-the-less, many thanks for introducing me to this concept however vague the grasping of it is!

Much anthropological love
Lauren

Another note on the frog situation...

I met a Lilongwe resident who told me this story:

He was a part of the protests. The people were ready to demonstrate on the 20th of July. But a court interdict suddenly prevented them. They were irritated. The police came on the morning. There were journalists there. Suddenly the police decided to start man-handling the media. The people became restless. The police (stupidly) fired tear gas into the crowd. This, according to Dagrous, was a big mistake. The crowds easily over-powered the police. The crowds were cross with the government, therefore any government building or car was burnt (so there was burning). This apparently happened only in the townships - the government owned shops, PTC, and parked (due to no fuel) cars were torched. Thank goodness there was no petrol or diesl in the cars. Could have been chaotic if explosions were also reported!

Also, now the people were cross with the police. And the police were driving around. And then their cars would run out of petrol, right in front of the crowds and that would frustrate the police because they were easy targets for the crowds and so more violence occurred.

On the second day they police were better prepared.

However, it was some of the police who were showing the crowds which cars to burn and generally enticing them in anti-government riots.

Dargous, my informant, tells me that he is a little worried about the 17th of April, the date the demonstrators have given tot he government to sort their issues. The police will be better prepared and the people maybe more angry. In fact, he thinks that now the Malawi has been given a taste of what they can do, these types of demonstrations will continue until Bingu is out of office, in 2014. You see, Malawians (he tells me) are not scared of dictators. The president before Bingu was one. And now people have seen that they can oppose Bingu.

But he also laughs and assures me this will not be like Libya.

He says the president just uses big, difficult and intimidatory language and is unlikely to carry it out. Unlikely, but we admit a small possibility exists.

There is no strong opposition part in Malawi, it is the civil society that has taken on that role. It was the civil society that brought Bingu to power and they have now turned on him with as much power.

It's just unfortunate that the president thinks that he knows everything because he worked for the World Bank. He wont take advice...

Interesting fact: did you know that he went into exile in about 1994, exile in Zim. Him and Bob are good mates because of this. You see, the president before Bingu (unsure of his name - always a he that is a dictator, never a she...) made it mandatory that all carry a party card and the Jehovah's Witnesses refused. And they were hunted for it.

So that's the story from a well informed (worked in government, tourism, teaching, and is now an independent consultant) Lilongwe citizen.

Viva!

Don't throw the frog out with the bath water

The streets of Lilongwe were earily quiet. We drove down the main streets at 6.30 pm and there was no one about. No restaurants were open. We had run out of a lot of our food.

Three days later, I went back to the streets of Lilongwe. And they were as busy, hot, dustly, invasive and normal as they had been before the "riots".

I have put riots in inverted commas becasue they were definitely not as the media portrayed them to be. The looting, many locals believe, were just a few opportunists looking at getting some free things. The burnt out, flame gutted buildings? Well both Game and Shoprite, two of the reported burnt buildings were still clean and filled with good when I went to buy a tent, three days after the demonstations. Either something (renovations) works suprisingly swiftly in Malawi. More likely, no such burning happened.

The fires raging on the side of the road? True, there were probably fires. But outsiders don't understand. One local said, "it's the dry season. We burn our dry sh**". Meaning that dry leaves and other garden material is quite openly burnt on the side of the road. In fact, this morning, almost a week later, I saw fires on the side of the road... of piles of leaves gardeners had just raked up.

That these demonstations are akin to Libya and the Middle East up-risings? Please excuse me, and all the locals and neighbouring country peoples I have spoken to, for laughing out loud. Like the Middle East??? Media people, it really isn't. Malawi doesn't have the money to mobilise it's forces so much. There is no gold, or oil or other valuable resources that greedy outside forces want to get their hands on (and therefore interfere).

The president knows he is in trouble. Malawians aren't happy. Maybe, before these demonstations are likened to the Middle East uprisings, let us wait until the deadline given to the government (sometime in August) to sort their issues. Maybe then it might be worthy of being likened to Libya. But I hightly doubt it.

So the media, don't throw the baby out with the bath water - this isn't the end of normal life in Malawi.


The frog you say? Well, there was a frog in the tub of water in the kitchen at Nature's Gift Permaculture - gave us all a fight at 6am in the morning!

A wheelbarrow for NGP - a fundraising plea

Nature's Gift Permaculture is a centre (on the farm of Nature's Gift, Lilongwe, Malawi) that provides "training and education through demonstration with the goal of achieving community based food and nutrition security" (http://www.naturesgiftpermaculture.org/)

I have been working on the farm for the last 3 and a half weeks. Here is a bit of a background on the place:

The residential areas are converted horse stables made from fired mud bricks and thatch, wich keeps the place well ventlated.



Our water comes from a borewhole that is pumped up using solar power. The centre is based around the principles of permaculture. On their website, the centre states that "Permaculture systems are ecologically harmonious, efficient and productive."

In this way, the food that is grown here is grown with as little effort as needed to receive maximun results. A nutritionist that regularly works here calls this type of food farming "low-imput, high-yeild farming". If you look at the previous post the principles of permaculture are written there.

We have a (fantastic) composting toilet!






No smell, no flies, no sickness, just wonderfully healthy soil all around!

The biggest project that NGP is undertaking now is to grow jatropha (I think that is how you spell it). Jatropha is a fuel replacement. Growing the seeds and processing them accordinly will yeild good (maybe even better but definitely more sustainable) fuel. In malawi now there is a fuel shortage. This is mainly due to the fact that there is no forex in the country (hence the demonstations - a post on this to come). However, realistically, we have few years left of fuel and we need to start making a plan, fast. Ironically, eventhough we have no fuel here to to mismanagament of funds, in a way Malawi is also better off - the country is getting a headstart at preparing themselves for when there really is no more fuel. Out come the bicycle taxis and lift sharing etc etc etc.

Malawi is lucky to have a place like NGP. Infact, Eston Mgala, the big go-to man on anything to do with permaculture, and who is also the community outreach coordinator for the centre, says that his goal is to make Malawi a permaculture country. He says Malawi is small enough to not e daunted my the hugeness of the project. He is going to the International Permaculture Conference in Jordan later this year, and when he returns he is going to present, to the Malawian government, permaculture as the model for sustainable development (real sustainable development, says Eston) in the country.

The centre is only a years and a half old. Their funding is not expansive, and things are sometimes a bit tight. Also, the centre is not starting tree propogation and the commercial garden is being revemped in order to grow and sell a larger variety of vegetables and fruits. Becasue there is so much happening, the one and only wheelbarrow that the centre owns if often needed in more than one place. A new wheelbarrow costs 14 000 kwacha, which is about R650. Nothing really, but when everthing is expensive in Malawi and the centre has other more pressing needs for their money, they right now cannot afford to but another wheelbarrow.

And so I am asking all those who can spare R50, R100, even R30, to please get in contact with me and I will give you banking details (my banking details because I want to get all the money together and then suprise the centre with the full amount in one go - obviously acreditted to you all).

I really hope that you can all, in some way, help out with getting the centre a wheelbarrow.



Kelvin (and I) say Zikomo kwambiri - thank you very much!

Sweet potato frutali

Last week thursday i learnt how to make groundnut flour.

You see i have kind of been assigned to work with the food and nutrition team at nature's gift permaculture. so i went for my first lesson and learnt sweet potato frutali. before you all start shouting for the recipe, hold on, delay your gratification, listen to the story and then you will get the recipe.

So it began with the entry request, "Odi!" followed by a, "yes come in". Odi is the Malawian equivalent of hello, knock knock, can i come in.

Inside was Carol and her sister-in-law, Delleah. The fire was already boiling, the sweet potatoes already softening, the courtyard a general smokey tinged.

I asked what i could do, and i was told that i could start making the groundnut flour. I was given a wooden pestle and mortar and about 500g of raw peanuts. Delleah showed me briefly how to go about pounding the nuts in the pestle.

I think the ladies laughed briefly inside, as i slowly started crushing the nuts. After a while Delleah took the pestle from me and shook the not yet smooth flour out. Into a flat bottomed bowl they went and she began shaking and separating the fine powder from the large bits. she put the large bits back into the pestle. and then she repeated this twice or three times again to get only the flour out. This she put into another bowl and i continued pounding.

After a while again, without a word, Delleah took over from me, saying something a little while later that i must be getting tired. this time i did the sifting. "But you can do it", carol exclaimed and patted me on the back.

A while later, again without word, Carol took over from Delleah, also something about getting tired.

And so we shared the process of making lunch. No one got tired, we all made the flour.

we chatted while we worked. I learnt that her son had not actually been born with malaria but had contracted it a few days after he was born because in the hospital they slept without a mosquito net. Her son got something like 17 injections in the first few days of his life.

I also learnt that in all her life in malawi, she had never been to the lake.

i was going to the lake over the weekend.

I learnt that Delleah was working at Escom (yes, also electricity suppliers) and studying Human Resources. And that she was 24 (my age) and had amZING dress sense.

Then we actually started making the frutali.

I tried to do some stirring but the smoke blew into my eyes so fiercely that i had to give it back to carol. she said i was lucky, that is smoke blows onto you, the "elders of her village" would tell the children that it meant they were lucky. she didnt seem to believe it. i got a tingling in my tummy. i hope it is true.

i was sent to make the salad dressing. it was okay, nothing worth mentioning. (however, the salad dressing that i made today - baby, it was a killer!)

carol asked me if i was happy here, and if i was that i should stay here longer than three months, many 6 months, or a year. my gut twisted and renched. i felt so guilty, because i was planning on "resigning" the next day. (which i have - which means i am leaving in a week to travel up north and to stay in nkata bay for a while).

then i was made to learn how to dish up the meal. well, i did the salad. carol dolled out the sweet potato and the soup.

and finally here is the recipe:

Sweet Potato Frutali

- sweet potato (however much you want to make for however many people)
- raw groundnuts (peanuts), about 500g for 12 people (adjust accordingly)
- a good, strong pestle and mortar
- salt and pepper
- water (4 or 5 litres for 12 people, adjust accordingly)
- leeks, as many as you would like

1. start with groundnuts. take a few handfuls and put into pestle. Begin pounding the groundnuts so that they break up. The nuts will not become smooth after one round. Pour the semi-pounded nuts into a container and begin sifting through, picking out the large bits. This is done in a flat dish: shake the contents and the large pieces with jump to the top. Repeat this exercise until what remains is a smooth flour consistency, like maize meal or wholemeal flour. Return large pieces to the pestle and repeat the pounding and the sieving until there are no more large pieces. Do this with all the ground nuts. Set aside an hour at first to make the groundnut flour. The more skilled you become, the quicker it will get.

2. In the mean time cook the sweet potatoes (with a little bit of salt is desired).

3. Once you have your groundnut flour, get the water boiling on the stove or fire and add the flour, stirring continuously to avoid clumping and to make a smooth paste. Cook the flour. It will thicken to the consistency of maize meal porridge (in other words a thick runny consistency, like a soup), the type you eat for breakfast with milk and sugar). Therefore adjust water/flour consistency accordingly) Add salt and pepper to taste.

4. A minute or two before serving slice in leeks.

5. Serve hot groundnut soup over still warm sweet potatoes.



And then the next day i resigned and i went to tell carol. while all the others who i told left my explanation at "this isnt the right place for me now, i have personal things to deal with and that i am not in the right space to do the project", made me sit down and tell her why. and so on friday afternoon i sat at her house again, cried a little at leaving her. and i understood what i had just read in a book. that love is about extending yourself to a person, with the sole intention of helping that person to improve themselves spiritually. it felt okay to tell carol all i had been thinking. and she didnt try and convince me otherwise (except for a bit at the beginning), she just understood.

And that was just by making an effort to learn how to cook sweet potato frutali.



PS - please excuse the typos and small letters, typing on a bit of a broken computer!

A Return to the Kitchen

Let us suppose that in order to be a liberated woman, you need to renounce skirts, children and home life, and instead embrace office jobs, suits and power positions.

Now let us suppose that in order to empower yourself, in whatever position you find yourself in, you take the power to choose what will liberate yourself, how you will liberate yourself and choose to do what makes you happy and not what is perceived as the 'right' position.

Meet Julia*. She is a graduate of a good Malawian boarding school and of an auto-electrical college. However, she has chosen to learn to cook good, balance, nutritious foods; home grown organic foods, and make people aware of what they eat.

About a year and a half ago, Julia and her husband did the Permaculture Design Certificate and have since moved to Nature's Gift Permaculture farm to continue learning about a sustainable way to grow food, cook food, and live. She now over-sees the Food and Nutrition team on the farm.

The farm employs a number of permanent gardeners and Monday to Friday, Julia cooks or oversees the cooking of lunch for the gardeners, the management team and the volunteers and interns that work on the farm.

The emphasis on the meals is that most, if not all, of the food eaten is grown on the farm. The lunches form part of an ongoing demonstration that people can be completely self-sufficient in feeding themselves. The centre wants to show that sustainable grown food can not only ensure food security but also nutrition security.

The permanent permaculture residents on the farm say the same thing, you can have food security but you also need to have nutrition security is you want to have a healthy country. If you only eat maize, you will become malnourished. Therefore, you have to have a country acknowledges its richness is food resources and is therefore will nourished.

According to management and other workers on the farm, Julia takes huge pride in her garden, as much pride it seems as a person might take in their first big pay cheque or their doctorate degree from a prestigious university.

She learnt to cook from her mother. But she also used her taste sense. In this way she learnt to cook food that she felt like, that seemed like a nice taste combination and that were what she liked (at the time anyway).

Julia has one son, Kevin, and he was born with malaria. But with proper medication and most importantly proper nutrition he is now the fattest, brightest, bouncy-est baby I have seen in a long time. He rarely cries, even now when he is teething.

Just goes to show the importance of balanced, healthy food!

Requesting assistance

This is not so much a blog as a request: should anyone know of reliable people with whom I could possibly link up with in Mozambique, then please let me know. I am leaving in the middle of June and getting a lift from Gauteng to Kosi Bay. There I will spend 2/3 days and then cross the border into Mozambique and be dropped at Ponto D'oro/ Ponta do Ouro (not sure which is the right spelling.

And then from there I am moving my may up the coast to Maputo. Now as much as I have been told I will probably be catching the bus from there to Tete and then I will get another from Tete to the Malawian border and beyond. As this is the first leg of my travels, it would be nice to meet someone who can give me a helping hand, who can speak the language, or even just meet me at the bus stop. You know, friendly face and all.

That's it folks.

Story Gathering in Malawi #1

So after much determination, positivity and some tears, I have an internship in Malawi, gathering some ol' stories, writing some ol' childrens' books and illustrating them ol' books. *pause for ecstatic dancing*

In about a month and a half to two months time I will be working just outside of Lilongwe, Malawi at a place called Nature's Gift Permaculture, a community centre that centres around permaculture (ethical food planting, effortless food planting, all-benefiting and non-invasive food planting) (find the link to NGP in the heading on on the side of this blog under "my favourite links" section). My brief (a snippet from the e-mail that Hope Thornton sent me):

"We think that one of the most effective ways of teaching about permaculture is through song, dance, and stories.  Would you be interested in an internship that focuses on education through story telling- perhaps with the final outcome being a children's book (written in Chichewa and English?). You could work with local communities surrounding our area to help you gather data regarding already existing stories and provide space for living and a base for research."

I am going to be the 'leader' of the project, self-directing, self-motivating etc etc etc. Hope has told me that the centre is only about a year old and so they do not have a lot of extra man power to throw around. But they will have in-put in directing me towards specific themes that they want to focus on. However, with me being the director I can use the themes as spring boards and can also focus on things on the side line that may not directly relate to specific projects. 

What I foresee is that I will be doing anthropological field work, theatre/drama-type workshops, art and story work shops and documenting story tellings (pictures and videos) and anything else deemed appropriate. This is why I love love love field work, because while you have an idea of what you would like to look for, you essentially go into the field not knowing what you will find and how you will go about finding it! And it is with this unknowing stand-point that you often find the most amazing finds. Because you do not have a preconceived idea about what you will find,  it is like starting a new life each time you go into the field. It is like you have a new chance to treat this situation in a better way. You spend your life living your life in a certain way, stuck in a rut, or not necessarily stuck but pretty much doing everything in much the same way. Which is great and is what I would like to have. When I have done everything else that I want to do: 
-like shave my hair
-live in an ashram
-learn all the different dances around the world (while travelling to each of these places)
-hike to base camp of Everest
-live in a light house for more than a week
-live on/work as part of a crew of a tug boat
-dance at the Moulin Rouge and then 
-dance with Madam Zingara's or Vaudeville. 

Then I would like to (maybe) buy a house. Maybe rent... But have a place where I can unpack my books, buy my own bed and my own coffee pot where I will make coffee every morning, check my emails, do whatever work I am doing, clean my house every Saturday morning. And maybe paint the walls a colour that I love. 

If at this stage I am still an Anthropologists and I am still going out into the field, then I will still have a new start each time I start a new project. And even if I have routine I will still have pockets of excitement, heady excitement, when I don't know what I will find, and who I will become. Because in field work, you can't but help being changed by the experience, and sometimes in profound ways. You may learn a lesson, experience a shift in beliefs and values or you may change your life's path completely. And all in participating in Anthropological field work. Qualitative field work, where it doesn't matter that you will only have worked with one community in your work (unlike say Sociology or Economics field work where researchers do quantitative study, where amount matters more than the in depth quality) and that it will have taken a few months. What is important is that you have focused on specific examples, areas or situations and therefore we realise that there are no over arching solutions or answers to the problems or questions in the world. And this is why you can work with the same themes in you life work, but each situ is new and fresh - cliche? A fresh start.

*

In Malawi, I will be starting a-fresh, in more than one way. Keep connected and you will see how. You can subscribe to my blog, and if you are friends/family with anyone else who has expressed desire to keep updated about what I am doing on my adventures, then please tell them to subscribe to my blog. I would love to hear from you all, so comment and get involved with my stories, adventure and research. 

My progress thus far is this: I have money from my 21st that I will use a small portion off, added to my small saving to pay for immunisations and transport costs to get to Malawi. Hopefully there I will be provided with accommodation (this is still  unknown on my side). But I have applied for several fundings so these will (they will they will they will!) kick into effect a few weeks into my travels. If anyone knows of anyone who has an old digital camera (one with removable lenses, not a little point and shoot), an old one that they are no longer going to use and would like to donate it, do let me know. And if you know of anyone else who has any gear that I might need, gear that they are definitely NOT going to use again, do do do let me know. 

Until "Story Gathering in Malawi #2"

Keep excited