Visiting

April 27, 2008

I’m in my usual place today, sitting on the konde and looking out over the valley and lake – the magnificent 40-mile vista.  What is different today though, is that we visited our Cook/Housekeeper Smelton’s house across the valley yesterday.  It was quite an event, and one that we will all remember for a long time to come.

We’ve been talking about it for a month or more now, but were waiting for a day with good weather since it is about an hour’s walk (for Smelton an hour, I figured it would take us at least an hour and a half if not two hours) along some very steep paths that become slick when it rains.  Smelton, in his infinite wisdom, decided we should have transport there instead, so he arranged for a pick up truck to take us, which was nice because that way we could bring a case of soda pop and a several pound bag of potatoes as well.  

Having seen and climbed the smaller of two hills we would have had to climb , the one nearest his house, I was awfully glad he made the decision to arrange transport.  We would have really struggled, which is so humbling when you see people going along these paths carrying 50 pounds of wood, or corn or goods to and from the market, on their heads – and many of them walk a much longer distance than this was.  Dr. Augustin Msisika, the Universities librarian, who is probably about 65 or 70 was going to walk to his home village this weekend to see his 92 year old mother because the roads were too bad to be able to take a vehicle.  He said, quite casually that it would take about 4 hours to walk there, and I have seen where he lives – that would be 4 hours up and down some huge hills/mountains.  For a two-day visit.  Amazing.

So the transport was pretty amazing too.  There is no road through the valley to the other side because the hills are too steep, so you have to go around the valley and across the ridge on the other side.  That road, though dirt and clay, is pretty decent, but when you drop down off the ridge toward the valley, the road deteriorates fast.  Erosion has opened up channels probably 6 to 12 inches wide and up to 2 feet deep, and the truck was actually able to drive on this road.  I‘m still not sure how he did it.  While we were at Smelton’s the driver and some helpers gathered wood and piled it in the truck bed, higher than the cab, and then when we left there were 3 people sitting on top of the wood – and holding our empty soda pop bottle case.

After the truck went as far as it could on that road, we got out and walk down a hill where we came upon a beautiful stream, which we then had to cross on foot.  Fortunately, there were some rocks we could step on and only one was underwater and not slippery.  We walked another quarter mile or so and came upon the home of one of Smelton’s sons whose children were all on in the entrance lined up to see the mzungu visitors.  John and I went over and shook hands and greeted each one as they stared at us.  I suspect they have not seen many mzungus. 

When we came to the house, Smelton’s wife ran over to meet and greet us, but she doesn’t speak much English.  We could see there were quite a few people near the back of the house, but we were brought to the front konde where there were chairs set out for us and cokes were immediately brought for us.  Shortly after, we were called in for lunch, which was nsima (the polenta-like corn dish that is the staple here), rice, greens, beans and chicken.  It was only for Smelton, John and I and later the driver, and I kept wondering and worrying what the rest of the family had eaten.  Smelton built the house himself and it is quite nice, and when he was owed some money a few years ago, rather than money, he asked if the person would buy tin for the roof as their thatched roof was leaking.  So the roof is tin, the floor is brick and the walls are bare brick.  He said he’d like to buy cement to stucco the interior walls sometime.  We are thinking we might be able to give him money when we leave to do that.  This was a very nice house by Malawian standards, although there was no electricity or water.

After lunch we went out back where the family was, and brought the case of soda pop. There was almost enough to go around, and everyone at least got a little bit.  As you can see from the photo, there were about 22 people – including Smelton’s wife, children and grandchildren.  We also brought along some pencils for the kids, which were a hit as many times children must do their lessons with a stick in the dirt, or several children must share a pencil.  John wanted to climb the hill behind the house and take a photo of the house from above, so off we went.  Just climbing that one hill was difficult, and I was so grateful that Smelton had arranged transport for us, but John and I were trying to figure out if we could pay for the transport somehow without offending Smelton as we knew it would be expensive for him. 

While John was up taking photos I walked back down and sat with the family even though they didn’t speak much English.  His wife showed me the mats where they were drying their cassava (another staple food) and the hollowed out log and large 4 foot log mallet they use to grind it (kind of like a giant mortar and pestle).  I asked if I could see how heavy the log mallet was, and then started to pound and grind with it to the delight and laughter of all the women.  I commented on how much work it was and how heavy the mallet was – I’d guess it was around 5 to 7 pounds.  Then I sat on a small stool with the rest of the women (who were sitting on mats on the ground) and the younger children and watched the boys invent a game with the bottle caps from the soda pop bottles we had brought.

After John got back he asked Smelton if he could explain to everyone that he wanted to take an individual picture of everyone and then some group photos that we would get developed anext trip to Lilongwe nd give to Smelton to distribute to everyone.  The attached photos are:  John taking the pictures, which you can see was a delight for everyone as he would show them the photo in the viewfinder right afterwards; and also a picture of the whole family.  Smelton is on the stool towards the right, and his wife is the one with the headwrap on the left.  I wish the Internet connection were better as I would post a bunch of the individual photos he took as they are quite a lovely family.  I told them they were all beautiful women and hansom men, and if you take a look you will see that is true. 

When we got ready to leave, Smelton gathered the family to say their goodbyes, and they sat on the ground in front of where we were on the porth and first his wife and then the rest of the family thanked us for coming.  We thanked them and tried to go around to shake hands and say thank you to each one of them individually.  The older boys grabbed the case of bottles and headed off, and about half of the rest of the family walked with us part of the way, with 3 boys around 10 years old walking the whole way back across the stream and up the hill.  It is customary to walk visitors half way home.  I thanked the boys for walking with us and shook each hand and then we piled into the vehicle, after about a ¾ of a mile walk, a bit further up the horrible road than when we came. 

John had ridden in the back of the pickup on the way there, with Smelton, but now that the back was full of wood, I didn’t see how John was going to be able to climb on the top of that pile with the other 3 guys and be able to hold on over all the bumps.  So we decided to try to all fit in the cab of this small pickup truck.  It worked fine as long as I kind of braced my foot against the firewall and lifted myself up every time the driver needed to shift into second gear (which was quite often since we were climbing up and down hills.)  I’m not sure how that little truck carried the load it was carrying up some of the hills, and how the brakes held going down some of them, but thanks to our good driver, we made it home.

I don’t imagine there have been many, if any mzungus who have visited Smelton’s house and we felt quite honored to be invited, and really love being able to picture where he lives, which quite a lovely location.  And it was good to see that his house and gardens look good, and quite prosperous by Malawian standards.  He is such a good man, and his family was all so sweet. 

April 30, 2008

Hard to believe it is the end of April and we only have 6 more weeks here in Livingstonia – only 7 in Malawi.

Today we were in another budget meeting, which was a follow up to the one at Lake Malawi a few weeks ago.  This continuation meeting was scheduled twice before and had to be rescheduled both times due to deaths in the families of the attendees.  It was horribly planned and horribly communicated, and ended up starting at 1:30 and finishing at 4 with the agenda from the original meeting still not completed. 

This week, the College of Education decided to “crack down” on non-payment of fees, about 2 weeks before the end of the semester.  Doesn’t make a lot of sense does it, to decide to send people home telling them that they cannot finish the semester until they come up with their fees.  They have already fed and housed them, and paid their instructors for the entire semester (and in some cases students still owe from last semester).  As it turns out, the reason for doing this now is that the college is so broke it didn’t have enough money to pay for food for the students this week.  This is the same group of people who decided to “fire” our Norwegian friends who will need to be replaced with 2 professors and a computer technician, none of which they can afford.  The decision making is just absurdly short sighted and poorly thought out.

We’re hoping the place hangs together long enough to finish this semester and graduate the 30 or so students who are 4^th year.  The Vice-Chancellor and his wife arrive back here in about 2 weeks, and they will have their hands full trying to find a way to turn this place around.  We feel very badly, but have kind of thrown up our hands in despair and put our energies elsewhere within the University and community, as the current leadership is hopeless in our opinion.

On a much lighter note, John and Bruce our Norwegian friend who is leaving hiked to a nearby mountain this past weekend.  By the time John got back he was dying.  They probably walked close to 10 miles, up and down mountains no less.  John got home and sent a text message saying it had been nice knowing him because he was dying.  Bruce sent a reply asking if he could have John’s shoes as long as he wouldn’t need them any more.  While they were gone, way down in the valley 5 miles away, they ran into a whole bunch of people gathering for a meeting that Smelton had mentioned the day before.  It was “old home week” in the valley. 

John met a village chief and headman at the far end of their walk who wanted to show them the small elementary school that they had built for grades 1 – 5 to make it easier for those small children – otherwise those small children would have to walk to the school in Livingstonia 5 miles away and up the mountain.  The government provides funds for the school, but the village must build houses for the teachers that need to be hired and housed.  The teacher’s houses were built but they wanted to be able to stucco the interior walls so they wouldn’t be bare brick and didn’t have enough money for that.  John offered to donate some money to help pay for this and the chief said he’d send someone for it on Monday.

Monday rolled around and we ended up with the chief stopping by with an assistant.  They had also walked the 5 miles or so and when John talked about being 61 years old and having been really tired after his walk, the chief mentioned that he was 69 years old – just mentioned it, didn’t criticize or laugh at John.  We served them a tea break since it was around 10 am which is morning tea time here. 

The Chiefs and headmen are part of the traditional authority structure that runs parallel and in concert with the country’s government.  Chiefs wear suits and a black head wrap, so they look very modern in comparison with what we have seen in the movies.  The Chiefs usually consult with the headmen and elders about decisions involving the community or village.  It would be sort of like a local councilperson, or alderman except they are not elected by ballot in the same way the government officials are.