Everyday life in Malawi for me
Everyday life in Malawi for me
Internet is too slow for pictures today so will post later
I haven’t written much about the mundane stuff of trying to live in Lilongwe so I thought I’d give you a sketch of my day. I am always up by 6AM. I am usually awakened by the unlocking of the bars over the door to the garage or the kitchen door, or by the gardeners trying to catch the dogs that run loose all night in the compound as a deterrent to robbers. (Riley the big alpha shepherd probably would scare the heck out of most Malawians, the other dog, a golden retriever mix is so submissive and sweet I think he isn’t much of a guard.) Once up, I make my way to the kitchen and if we have power I turn on the hot water pot and fix my one cup Melita filter with nice Mzuzu coffee grounds. Then back to my room to dress and plug in my MP3 player tuned to BBC so I can listen to Network Africa and World News. Without this lifeline I would not know what is going on the world since the Malawi paper hardly covers local news and I only can watch CNN or Al Jezeera at the house occasionally. Once I am ready for work I wait for whomever is taking me to work – I often ride with Regina since this was our agreement when I moved in but she has now gotten tired of taking me so then the college was picking me up and they come whenever they get around to it but they don’t want to do it either so now I am using a taxi if I have to get to work early and on time and the minibus otherwise. If I use the mini bus I have to go out to the road and wait for a bus with room to pass by. Once I get to minibus central downtown I walk about ¼ mile to the section of the area where the buses for the hospital load. The road is a madhouse of cars, people, carts, and etc. There are no sidewalks and you walk in the mud in rainy season and in dry season in dust- the walk way is rutted and uneven and if a minibus or taxi is in a hurry they have no compunctions about driving on the walk way and you better get out of the way. I think I take my life in my hands everytime I do this. If you walk in the area where there are sidewalks you have to be very careful and watch every step since they are placed over drainage ditches and often have huge holes, broken areas and sometimes things like cut off metal pipes sticking up. Once I get to the area for buses to the hospital I get aboard one and if I am lucky it is nearly full and it leaves right away, if I am unlucky I wait until it is full. The mini takes me only to the roundabout at the bottom of the hill so I walk about ½ mile up hill with my briefcase, water etc. to the college. Once I arrive I go up to my office for which I have only one of the two required keys so I have to go look for someone with the other key. My office mate is usually not in and if she is she disappears quickly. (She seems to do very little work and spends a lot of time dealing with her own stuff). If there is a meeting and I arrive on time I wait until enough people arrive to start the meeting. If there is no meeting or class I try to get online immediately since the internet is much better early in the AM. Once on the internet I wait some more, for it to load, for documents to download, etc. If I have any personal business to take care of I have do it between 9-5 and I must walk to the roundabout catch another mini and go to the business – seemingly nothing can be done by phone. For example when my phone stops getting internet as it often does for mysterious reasons, I have to go to Airtel to get it fixed, if I need bus tickets I go to the depot but sometimes find I cannot buy tickets until the day I am leaving. I sometimes have to go to the Cultural Affairs section of the US Embassy to conduct business and they are in a building in city center that I have difficulty finding. There is one store that has some things I can get nowhere else that is closer to the College than to town so I usually take my lunch hour once a week to walk there. Although most of my colleagues have vehicles I have been offered rides only 4 times in my entire tenure at the college. There is a petrol shortage in the country off and on so that is part of the reason but people don’t offer even if you are going the same way. Most days I work in my office or attend meetings. Meetings tend to be extraordinarily long – 5+ hours and tea with scones and lunch are nearly always served. Lunch is the same every time – Nsima, rice, chicken, chambo (local fish), greens, and some type of dessert- fruit, jello or occasionally custard. Coca Cola, Orange Fanta and water as well as tea are served for beverages. I work with some individual students on their papers and helped students study for my final by answering questions. If I came with Regina she calls and says she is ready to go and I must be ready in 5 minutes or so to leave or find other transport. Last night I left after 5 PM and did not get home until after dark on the minibus. The power was out as it usually is on Monday nights and Regina kept calling me because she was afraid I would not be able to find the house. (I had no problem and the minibus drivers are very familiar with the landmark I use to tell them where to stop). She came out on the road in the dark to make sure I got in OK and I know she is scared to be out in the dark so I appreciated her effort.
Once home if there is power either Regina or I will cook. She usually won’t eat what I cook but she has rather awful eating habits and some nights she doesn’t eat at all. She seems to eat to live rather than live to eat. Once dinner is cooked and consumed I clean up whatever mess I have made and wash dishes then go back to the room and work or read. Sometimes Clint, Regina and I talk a bit but we mostly don’t eat together.
By 9 PM we are locked in and Regina has gone to bed. I usually read or work, make tea have a cookie or two and go to bed.
When I first moved in we had a maid/cook but she quit in early March and since then I have cleaned my suite every Sunday, and paid the gardeners’ wives to wash clothes or washed them myself. See photo. I am not very good at washing by hand and wringing is a challenge especially since I tore my rotator cuff. Almost all Africans wash clothes this way, so they think I am a wimp because I would much rather pay to have it done. Last week everyone was harvesting maize so I had to do all the washing myself – I don’t mind doing the easy stuff but this time I had to do everything. Clint helped me wring thank heavens but it is hard for him too because of his arthritis.
On Saturday I usually catch a mini to downtown Lilongwe and do my shopping which usually involves going to at least 4 stores that are not all in the same area because no one store has everything you need. Last week SPAR a South African company opened a huge new supermarket that stays open until 8 PM everyday INCLUDING Sundays. (Everything else closes at 1300 Sundays or isn’t open at all). This store seems to have most things I might need so I wish it had opened earlier. (PS most Africans also have to go to 3-4 stores to get what they need so it’s not just my American tastes that require broad shopping). Since I have a terrible addiction to Diet soda (which I have been unable to kick) I have to look at several stores to find Coke Light (the Pepsi here is awful) and when I do find it I try to buy a case which means I also have to call the taxi to bring it home. Taxis are not cheap here although I am sure I pay more than Malawians. I usually can get the rest of my shopping home on the mini.
I continue to be a novelty on the mini’s since I have never seen another white person on my mini except Clint and the Dutch students. I am sure whites ride them but not in great numbers. Despite all the hassle of not having a vehicle I am very happy I don’t have one. Besides driving on the other (R) side of the road which is always a challenge, the minibus and taxi drivers are aggressive, there are bicycles all along the sides of the roads and they don’t have bike lanes, there are crowds of pedestrians everywhere and people and animals running into the street. If there is an accident a huge crowd usually converges on the vehicle and begins shouting in Chichewa – the crowds I have seen look threatening to me and I would be scared to death. The embassy recommends that no one drive at night because you can’t see the pedestrians and bikes and many cars have no tail lights and some no headlights.
One thing that I can’t help noticing is the garbage on the roadside especially the blue plastic bags that are scattered everywhere. People routinely throw trash on the ground or out the car windows. It is very difficult to find a trash can in a public area or even in an office. There is no trash pick up in most of the city – the majority of people just dump trash into a pit on their property. When I first arrived I tried recycling my aluminum cans with the metal collector but he stopped taking them and I couldn’t find anywhere else to take them. The worst collection of trash is found on the banks of and in the Lilongwe River since there is a big market along the banks. The river is terribly polluted but I still see people bathing in it right down town where the pollution is the worst. Next to the bathers are the men who are washing used shoes for resale and up on the banks are several outhouses. The conditions remind me of Belen in Iquitos.
The other thing I find remarkable is the number of men I see peeing on the side of the road. I am used to seeing this in Micronesia but there at least people tried to be modest about what they were doing. Here they let it all hang out and seem offended if your eyes look in their direction which is often unavoidable since they are often right in front of you.
Then there are the trucks – the trucks in this country seem to be in terrible mechanical shape spewing huge clouds of black smoke, riding on bald tires and often overloaded. We saw one the other day that was about to tip over because it was poorly loaded and overloaded. I have seen several big trucks with their wheels in the concrete drainage ditches at the side of the road. These ditches are usually 4 ft deep so when a wheel gets stuck the vehicle is usually resting on its axle.
Since dry season began the weather is cooler which I like but Malawians are all bundled up in jackets in the early morning and evening. The air is full of dust and smoke because many people burn their cornstalks and bean plants rather than composting. In addition the political situation is deteriorating. ‘
Last month the President sent the British high commissioner home because he criticized the President in a private cable that got leaked. The cable said the President was on his way to becoming a dictator which is something the local papers have been saying for some time. The British who supply 40% of the health budget and about 20% of the entire budget have suspended aid, sent home the Malawian ambassador to London and rescinded the invitations to the Royal Wedding and to Queen’s birthday party. Two campuses of the University of Malawi have been closed since Feb and Mzuzu University (another government run college) has been closed since Dec apparently due to lack of funds. Everyone at work and on the street is concerned and anticipating not getting paid. Foreign Exchange which is necessary to purchase goods outside Malawi is at record lows and is part of the reason for the lack of petrol. Nevertheless 15 faculty from KCN will spend next week at an expensive resort in Mangochi planning the MN curriculum in Education apparently paid for by Columbia University in the US through a grant. Meanwhile who is teaching the students?
More of daily life in Malawi – May 26, 2011
Last night I was awake at 2AM with the worst muscular pain of my life. I felt like I had the superflu and then I decided I must have Dengue but there is no Dengue here. So I took a some Advil and finally went back to sleep. Today I feel better but I may have some weird virus who knows and I am unlikely to find out here.
Two days ago Regina’s cousin and his wife were invaded by a group of 25 or so robbers armed with machetes who broke into the house in the middle of the night despite their having guards, motion sensors and an electric fence. The robbers took apart a section of the brick wall, beat and tied up the guard and took his keys gained access to the house and broke down the doors. This is a young couple and the wife is pregnant. They were not harmed but were very shaken and came to stay with Regina for a couple of days until their doors were repaired. The security company which promises a 7 minute response time showed up in 25 minutes, far too late to do anything. Someone had to go and fetch the police. Regina is now very nervous and soon will be living in that big house all alone. And she has no panic button or security company but there is a neighborhood watch. I worry about her.
Yesterday, thanks to our guests one of whom works for the cell phone company, I discovered the ringer on my BB is not working so this morning I rode with Regina downtown, caught a minibus and went up to Consumer Electronics where all my phone stuff is done. Usually they open at 8:30 so that’s when I arrived only to discover today they aren’t opening until 9:30 and of course they will close at 5 on the dot. This is Africa! (TIA) So I walked back down the hill to the bank where only one of three cash machines was working so there was a long line. While standing in Line I heard someone shouting and another person shouting back. There is a concrete platform on the corner at this intersection in the heart of Lilongwe where preachers of all sorts stand and preach at passerby. I don’t know what he was saying except he repeated tomorrow morning a lot. Down below the platform was a man who was clearly mentally ill wearing a woman’s head scarf and shouting back at the preacher and mimicking his gesticulations. I know I shouldn’t laugh but it was very funny to watch.
I caught a minibus to the roundabout below the college and got to work. I need to go pick up my husband’s passport at the Cultural affairs dept of the American Embassy today because it will take two weeks to process his visa extension of 7 days. The embassy recommended we just pay whatever penalty the Malawi government assesses. I went to the transport officer to ask if I could get a ride to City Center for this purpose because it is quite far and I get lost every time I go there because the place is very confusing and I don’t go very often. The college is supposed to provide transport for official business and this counts (although they take locals everywhere for all sorts of reasons that do not seem official to me). When I asked I got the usual we have only one car (they have at least 8) and “I don’t know if anyone is going” etc. So I just said I need to go so let me know when I can get a ride. I also decided to ask what time they were scheduled to pick us up for the farewell dinner we had been invited to tonight. The college is providing dinner for me, Clint, Regina and the new Dean of Faculty – this would be the first and only time we have been asked to dinner. The transport officer said “it hasn’t been booked”. So who knows? TIA
The internet is too slow for pictures today so will add them when I can TIA
