Hello from Malawi! We arrived safely at our new home in Zomba on Wednesday afternoon. It’s already Saturday, we’ve sort of settled in and caught up on some much needed rest, so it’s time to finally sit down and share our experience so far. It’s a bit long, so if you’re interested, grab a coffee and have a read; if you want the short version, there is none so you’ll have to skim through it. I promise, this will very likely be the longest report ever…
THE JOURNEYFlying into Blantyre, Malawi, we got to see some of South Africa, Mozambique, and Malawi – the dry, undeveloped landscape, and just before landing, the clusters of small huts, and then landing in what looked to be the middle of nowhere at a very small airport surrounded by a few small scattered huts. Gulp! This is our new home?!! What have we gotten ourselves into? Definitely lots of mixed emotions. We felt relief that we were finally on the ground again, but realized this was only the beginning of a whole new journey.
We were exhausted! 3 flights, 20 hours flying time, 11 hours layover time, plus 3-hour check-in, customs, baggage claims, and driving made for an extremely long journey. Making such a long flight was difficult with three kids but they did very well. All three of them were asleep before we hit the runway in Toronto at midnight and they woke up just in time for breakfast an hour before landing in London. In London we were picked up at the airport and spent the afternoon with a lovely couple from EI-UK. After a quick driveby of some of the sights in London, we had a refreshing lunch. Lara and Talia got to burn off some energy by jumping on the trampoline, watering the flowers, and playing with the dog, while Alex and Ezera had an afternoon nap and Andre enjoyed some afternoon tea with our hosts and talked with his mother on Skype (was she ever surprised!). Hard to believe we were only 1/3 of the way at that point. The 11-hour flight to Johannesburg was long but we flew through the night and we all got some sleep, all except for Alex that is. It was a relief to wake up from a nap and see we only had two hours to go, but disappointing to look at the flight map and see we were flying right past Lilongwe at that point. One more flight back north to get to our final destination. But at least we were in Africa! A short flight over southern Africa and we arrive at a very small airport just outside of Blantyre, Malawi’s “commercial capital.”
CULTURAL LESSON #1We were the only airplane on the airport. There was no city to be seen, only scrubland, scattered huts, and a line of people standing at the airport building to welcome the passengers. Having gathered our carry-on luggage and kids, we were the last to climb out of the plane and make our way across to the terminal to make up the end of the customs line extending out the door. It was a relief to see our boxes on the luggage carts coming from the plane. We made it through customs with a copy of the letter from the government of Malawi that said our TEP (temporary employment permit or work visa) was approved. Customs closed up right behind us; we were the only plane for the day. It looked like all our luggage was there. Now to get it all out of the building somehow and meet up with whoever was meeting us there. It turned out we had lots of willing volunteers. Several guys started gathering our stuff, loading it on carts, and pushing it out to the exit. Only after we finished loading it all onto the truck did I clue in that they all wanted to get paid. And all of a sudden there were a dozen guys who said that they had helped. Having counted on only four guys helping out, Mike, a fellow missionary working here, gave some Kwachas to the main guys to distribute among themselves. I guess that was our fist cultural lesson. Having loaded everything on the truck we figured out that the only thing that was missing was the two booster seats for the car and, other than a few missing handles and a cracked corner, our luggage looked intact – pretty impressive for having made it through four airports on three continents!
EXPERIENCING MALAWIWe made our way up the paved road from Blantyre to Zomba in the mission’s Toyota Landcruiser. We never did see anything that resembled a city. There were lots of people along the narrow road – children sitting at the edge of the pavement, women carrying wood or water on their heads, all sorts of activity alongside the road while cars narrowly skimmed past. There are no road rules, it seems; just drive fast and avoid all obstacles, human, vehicular, or otherwise. We passed through several police roadblocks along the way – a makeshift fence across the road with a police officer hiding under the shade of a tarp on the side. Apparently they’re mostly checking the minibuses have insurance and are roadworthy. I’m not sure why there would be three within 50km along a single paved road that only has dirt paths off to some huts along the way (I’m sure there must be dirt roads that branch off to surrounding villages but I just didn’t see them).
When we drove into Zomba, Mike told us that Zomba had recently been declared a city – the population at the last census was 100,000. I’m not sure what qualifies it as a city because it feels more like a large village, maybe a town. I remember seeing a bakery, a grocery store, a couple gas stations, a sign for the university, two banks side-by-side, but it definitely did not feel like a city. So this is what we’re going to be calling home for two years. We stopped in at our new house. It’s a small brick house with a tin roof, carport, barred windows and doors, vaulted ceiling in the living room with louvered windows, a covered deck with a raised brick flower bed, two bedrooms, a separate dining room that could be turned into a bedroom, a bathroom, a toilet room, main entry into a small kitchen with a pantry, lots of built-in closets, concrete floors, and painted concrete walls. The house is equipped with basic furniture – couches and chairs, dining table and chairs, beds, stove, fridge, and basic kitchen utensils and cookware. Outside we have a large yard, partly landscaped, half vegetable garden. The property is semi-fenced with bamboo fencing, scrub, and banana trees. We also have papaya, guava, and avocado trees, plus probably a few others. There are lots of different kinds of birds to see – definitely have to find a bird book. Chickens and dogs from the neighbours visit our yard. We haven’t seen any monkeys yet, but there’s a good chance we will have monkeys in our yard with all these trees.
FIGURING OUT HOW LIFE WORKSIt’s hard to believe that it’s Saturday and I have not taken a single photograph yet. Although we’re in Africa and everything is new and interesting, we definitely don’t have the feeling of adventure and vacation. We’re not doing the sightseeing thing, just trying to figure out how life works here and get our family settled in. We travelled here with a short-term mission team from Canada. They’re here for only 10 days so they’re taking in the sights, exploring the local markets, buying souvenirs. It’s there first time here, just like us, but it’s interesting to see the contrast in how we’re spending our days here; I guess it’s the difference between a 2-week visit and a 2-year move. But today we are going to the botanical gardens just down the road, which apparently is a good place to see monkeys. I’m guessing we will probably be taking some pictures today, since we’re sort of feeling settled in and this is our first touristy activity.
Anyway, about adjusting to life here in Malawi. Everything here works a little different and it all takes some figuring out. Take drinking water for example. Ever boil water that has already been filtered, boiled, filtered, and refrigerated just to make a cup of tea? I think we consume the most processed water ever (at least where we have to do our own processing – how we take clean water for granted!). We have indoor plumbing and the water that comes out of the tap looks relatively clean (just a little red dirt, but that’s everywhere) but we have to boil and filter our water before drinking it. So that means (1) boiling water after dinner, (2) letting it cool over night, (3) pouring it into the water filter and letting that trickle through, (4) boiling another pot of water and letting that cool, (5) putting the water from the filter into jugs and refrigerating them. Then, when you want to make some tea, you have to take your boiled/filtered(/refrigerated) water and boil it again. It’s just a little bit more work. We do all that work, and then we put the kids in a red water bath and you catch them drinking the bath water. Oh well, I guess they’ll have to build their immune system. Makes me wonder if it’s all worth it. Then again, I haven’t been sick yet from drinking dirty water, but that will come I’m sure. I’ll let you know what it’s like…
I think our girls were made for this country. They seem to love Malawi. Especially playing in the dirt, going barefoot, going exploring, looking for monkeys, checking if the bananas are ripe yet, etc. Lara thrives on the adventure of it all. It also means they need lots of baths. And more laundry. Ahh, laundry. We have to wash it all by hand, hang it to dry, and then, just because that wouldn’t be enough work, we have to iron everything because of the mango fly – it lays eggs in your clothing and when the larvae hatch they bury under your skin and feast there. Then there’s vegetables. Apparently we have to wash all our veggies in a little bleach because of the dirt and bugs. There’s lots to learn and lots to do. Even things like putting mosquito nets over our beds every night. And keeping our concrete floor swept and clean when you’re always wearing shoes in and out and have girls playing in the dirt whenever they get a chance (why did we bring two large boxes of toys?). I mentioned baths. I prefer a shower, but because the hot water pressure is so low, I’ve only managed to get either hot or cold to the shower head, but I figured out that if I adjust the shower head to a fine spray I can bear the hot water – at least it’s better than a cold shower, but it is just a trickle (I’m sure you want to come visit and stay with us after all this, uh?). Anyway, it’s basically expected that we hire some house help to help out with some of these chores, just because everything takes so much more work and it’s a way of investing into the local economy – our personal welfare system. It’s weird being one of the rich people by Malawian standards when we were just poor folk back home. But then again, it is still relative – we are still poor compared to the other expatriates that live here and work for governments, etc.
We’ve done laundry once so far; it was very nice that our day guard/gardener was very eager to show us how to do it and do our laundry for us. I guess that brings up guards. We have someone watching our house for us around the clock, 24/7. We have a night guard to keep away any intruders with unfriendly motives. He works from 6pm-6am. Then we also have a day guard. There’s a lot of figuring how this system works too. Technically he is not a day guard but a gardener. So far he’s been sweeping our driveway and our lawn – they seem to do that non-stop, always sweeping, just sweeping away the leaves that fall off our mango and avocado trees. The dirt, our lawn, the carport, the driveway, our whole property, it’s all swept clean all the team. As we figure things out, hopefully we’ll be able to get them to help us with putting in a garden or doing laundry, etc. We also had to figure out, do we feed these guys? We have a little brick house for our guards on the property – they have their own “kitchen” and toilet room. Sometimes they make their own food. But the other day or gardener didn’t have food, said he wouldn’t have anything till Monday when he would get paid. We started giving our guys some food – especially a thermos of hot tea for our night guard because it gets pretty cool at night. Plus it might help them stay awake on the job. Food wise they seem to prefer plain bread, nothing on it. The diet here is pretty simple; just nsima (corn flour and water paste) or rice are the staple, vegetables and especially meat are extra.
Alex has done the shopping tour of town and visited the local market with Sarah, the other missionary lady who lives just down the road – they have three boys roughly the age of our kids and they’ve been here for a year so they’re showing us a few things. I haven’t been to the market yet but Alex was quite intimidated by all the vendors trying to sell stuff; they’re really in your face, they seem quite desperate to sell, and there are lots of beggars. Shopping will definitely take some getting used to. Local foods are quite cheap but anything that’s imported (mostly from South Africa) is quite expensive, so we have to figure out what our budget affords. Corn flour is definitely going to have to become part of staple. There are lots of vegetables available, but apples and oranges are imported and quite expensive. Anyway, we have lots to figure out, you probably get the picture.
CHURCHI still have not managed to take my laptop to the office to send this thing off so it’s getting longer. Anyone still reading? We did see some monkeys yesterday, some baboon families. The botanical gardens are beautiful, a lot work went into them. I guess that’s one of the lasting benefits of Zomba once being the capital of Malawi. We drove along what Mike and Sarah’s kids have dubbed “monkey road” and there were monkeys all over. We’ll definitely be exploring the botanical gardens again, especially since it’s only a ten minute walk from our house.
Today we went to Zomba Baptist Church. The English service starts at 8.30. We arrived at 8.30 and were the only vehicle there. The service started fairly close to 9. The Chinese Canadian team traveled here for a 2-week mission trip led the worship service so it was quite Canadian. We stayed for the Chichewa service afterward though, which was definitely a lot more interesting, even though the only words I understood were Yesu and Cristu. There was lots of singing and clapping and dancing and moving and praying and the preaching was very animated – quite entertaining because I didn’t understand a thing of it (other than the preacher reading from Mark 10.16 and then picking up a child from the crowd and referring back to the child several times) but it was also very inspiring to experience the passion and joy of the people because of the life they have in Christ. I will definitely be joining Chichewa worship services again. I’ll just have to learn Chichewa. I sat down with my night guard Saturday night and he was teaching me some words and phrases. Alex are trying to acquaint ourselves with the language but we can’t wait to actually get some real Chichewa lessons. Everything in its time I suppose. Tomorrow we go to register Lara for school and I continue some orientation with EI, more on that later. I think this should be long enough of a first report. Did I tell you we drove up to Zomba Plateau as well today?
