Praying for a Rain God...

Missing the Rains

So the rainy season has now long started, but there are no rains yet. The Malawian president has now ordered all the religious leaders to pray for rains in their services. Here where 80-90% of the people are farmers the rains are still essential for providing for their family. God seems to be deaf sometimes, when it comes to Africa. Let’s hope he hears them this time.

Control Sheet

Remember when I told you that the headmaster has now implemented a sheet where the teachers have to sign to check if they actually taught the lesson? This is how the sheet looks like:

Yes, the signatures are all mine. In the last week before exams teachers don’t bother teaching anymore, they just say that the students should study on their own.

Lilongwe (2)

So this last week was exam week, and because I didn’t have to supervise exams every day I could go to Lilongwe again for a long weekend. I met my golf caddy, Gift, again, who is not only a great caddy, but also a cool guy. I am now going to stay at his place; he has a house in the outskirts of the city. I told him that I was spending 10 $ for a dorm at a hostel every night, and that I would much rather give this money to him if he had an opportunity to accommodate me. Because staying at the hostel I always find weird. All day you can hardly find a white person, and then walking into the hostel everybody is white (except for the guards and the cooks) – even the guys working at reception and the owner. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a racist at all, but the it seems like lot’s of the good money coming into Malawi from tourism never even touches Malawian hands. The white working and the owner probably go and spend it on the many imported goods, and the money leaves the country again literally without having touched Malawian hands (except for the taxes that the hostel pays). Giving it to Gift seems much better: not only can I get a glimpse of the “real” Lilongwe, even as far as to the privacy of Gift’s house, but also my money will also really reach Malawi, and he will most likely buy more locally, because many of the imported goods are too expensive for him.

Talk about Sex

The other day the teachers were discussing some sexual matters, like how often a guy can have sex in one day. There was a lot of joking around and it was quite funny. I told them that I was surprised, because I thought that Malawi was a really conservative country. I had read that in Malawi a child can’t even ask his mother about her belly when she is pregnant. “When a woman gets pregnant in the village it becomes a taboo, an open secret never to be discussed. […] Talking about a pregnant woman was not only none of your business, but people also believed that it left her open to a kind of bewitching” (Kamkwamba, 94). Parents would never talk about such things with their kids. Instead they would say that mommy is at hospital to buy a child. As we walked out of the teachers lounge the headmaster asked some of the kids where babies come from, they answered that you buy them at the hospital. He asked how much they were now, 1 Kwacha? But they said that of course they knew now, where they really come from. In cities and in some cases where the situation allows it people are very open.

Hair

Peple here use their hair as storage space. The put their comb in their hair (that’s a style accessory too), but also pens and pencils, etc. Once in sport a student once suddenly screamed “aua”. I asked her what was up and she said “I put a toothpick in my hair after using it in class where I couldn^t throw it out. Now when I went through my hair I’d forgotten about it.”

On top of that, people really like to wear caps here. Sometimes I almost feel like I’m home with many people wearing warm caps, with the only difference being that the temperatures are still in the 30ies (Celsius).

Going to Work on a Farm

School has now already done. I thought it would end on the 19th of December and I had already bought my flight back to the Netherlands. So I have a week here, and I thought it would be very cool to go work on a farm. Henry (the director) could organize an animal farm for me; I met the owner today. I will work there, sleep there, and eat there. I am very excited to be able to get an insight into rural farming life, because that’s how the vast majority of Malawians live.

Afterwards I’ll fly to the Netherlands over Christmas and come back at the beginning of January.

I bought a movie and on the way back from Lilongwe two guys wanted to check it out. Then they asked me (in all sincerity) if this actor here was me, haha.

Remember I told you that over 50 % of the energy intake of a Malawian is corn. You even find it in a lot of drinks. As opposed to European products that advertize themselves by being light and low on calories, Malawian products advertize with being very nutritious...

Guess where these Mango slices come from? South Africa. Sad but true story. It doesn't cease to amaze me how such an easy and readily available product can be cheaper to import from South Africa. This is just as one example of the tons of products that are imported. Another great example is coffee. Malawi produces coffee, yet at virtually every place I have been to I got the instant coffee from Nestlé...

Our students drying mangoes. No not to be consumed in Malawi, but to be shipped to Switzerland, to sell there, haha...