The University of Malawi (UNIMA) has five colleges two in Zomba to the south which is the original site of the university – Chancellor College (humanities and education) and Technical College (engineering and other technical programs). The medical college and a campus of the nursing college is in Blantyre also in the south and fairly close to Zomba. The main nursing campus is in Lilongwe and Bunda college, the agricultural college is about 30 Km outside of Lilongwe.
Late this morning Regina said she had to go to Bunda College to buy beans and asked if I would like to go with her. I said “of course, I’d like to go anywhere you are going”. So we set out. Since her daughter Michelle is going to college in South Africa next month Regina is worried about paying her school fees. She was offered the use of a large field – my guess is about 10-15 acres outside of town in addition to the 5 acre plot she has near the house and the 3 acres around the house. She and another faculty member grew beans last year and made a profit so she decided to do it again only on a larger scale. The person who owns the field has trustworthy workers who can plant for her but she needed to get the beans to owner of the field to take to the site the next morning early.
Last time I was in Malawi the country was very hot, dry, and brown. Now in summer with the rains falling nearly every day it is lush and green. The trees all have leaves the grass is high and the crops are beginning to grow or have already matured. As we drove out towards Bunda we saw very green fields, some forest and lots of people walking purposefully two and fro along the road. (Pictures coming in the next installment). The landscape is mostly flat except for occasional high grey rock mountains that seem to pop up out of nowhere. I am sure they are remnants of some old mountain system in the Rift Valley since we are at the end of the valley. Everywhere crops are growing and everything is lush. As we enter the campus we encounter a large new cafeteria, several hostels (dorms) and several neighborhoods of neat brick houses for the faculty and staff. As we continue down the rutted red clay road we pass fields on both sides but on the north side the fields belong to the village we can see at the foot of Bunda mountain and the ones to the south are part of Bunda farm. After driving around quite a bit and asking directions we finally find Mr. Mchenga (Mr. Sand) who rides with us to the storehouse. To get to the storehouse we pass many more fields, a forested area, and a lovely old bamboo grove. Just past the grove we enter the farm area. There is a herd of 20 or so cattle mostly Brahma, type herded but a lovely older gentleman with a face that has weathered beautifully and is full of character. Thankfully he agreed to a photograph. There were also two tractors in a large shed and a long row of brick animal enclosures. We located the woman with a key to the storeroom and two young men came to with a small scale to weigh them. They looked around for a stick that was sturdy enough to hold the scale and the bag of beans and then the two of them hefted 50 kg (100+ pounds) of kidney beans off the ground. I would guess that neither man weighed more than 120 lbs so they were really strong. We paid for the beans, stowed them in the boot (trunk) and made our way out of the farm. When I asked Regina how much she had to pay the people who planted the beans for her she said “talk about poverty in Malawi. These people live far out of town and they do not want money because they have nowhere to spend it. All they want are maize, sugar, and salt!” We in the US really do have little understanding of the level of poverty in Africa and elsewhere in the world. On our way back we stopped a man on a bicycle laden with maize and bought some ears – they are starchy rather than sweet and much tougher than the corn we usually eat but
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