Azungu is the Chichewa word for the white person or for any non-African. And white faces are few and far between in Malawi, except maybe in the Shop-Rite grocery store! One of the delightful serendipities of the trip is the azungu we have met from Europe, the Philippines, and America at the Area 10 Annie’s Guest House. Individuals and families have come and gone. Many of them are from the European community and work for an NGO or one of the government aid agencies. We also have the joy of chatting with some Malawian professionals who spend a night or two here at Annie’s.
Everyone we have met from other countries can speak English. It is a language they use during their time here in Malawi to communicate with one another and with educated Malawians. English is one of the two official languages of Malawi.
The issues and projects these people work on are things we hear about when we go to the villages. One man is working on irrigation projects. Everything here depends on water and things can grow well here in this climate if there is some form of irrigation. Remember us talking about treadle pumps??? And carrying water in a watering can for a whole field??? Another guy is involved in food security. That means he is working on a joint project between his government (Norway) and Malawi to build silos for maize. The rains have come at the right time in recent years. The harvest has been plentiful but he voiced concern about more erratic rain cycles due to global climate change and El Nino/La Nina coming more frequently. The silos will help assure some store of food on hand in case the rains do not come. It reminded us of a project called the “Ever Normal Granary” in the USA about 50 years ago.
You have heard us talk about the severe problems with availability of clean drinking water. Before we came we heard about WaterGuard, a chemical developed by the Purolator Corporation for use in developing countries. We met a man from New York who is working to get WaterGuard and other health related products into the market place throughout Malawi. He told us of the difficulties in getting products of that kind into the rural villages. Since the United Methodist work is primarily in the villages, we may be able to form some kind of partnership with his organization. We gave him the name and email address of the Mission Area Superintendent.
We often ate breakfast with a Filipino woman who trains nurses in the use of durable medical equipment. She had many helpful observations and insights to go along with the hygiene and nutrition training Sue has done in villages. Most types of medical equipment that we use in a home setting are just not available here except in cities and then only maybe. For example, there was one oxygen concentrator in the whole country and no techs to service it. So I guess folks here don’t have home oxygen as an option.
A delightful young woman on the faculty of a university in Cologne, Germany is an expert on government finance. She is doing 4 months of research on reducing corruption. Her insights and observations about Malawian culture have helped us fill in a lot of blank spots in our understanding. She also regaled us with stories of her trips around the country by public minibus. Thankfully we have had our trusty little Toyota!
When we first arrived at the lodge, we met a German couple who adopted a little Malawian boy as an infant. He is now two years old. They plan to bring him to Malawi every year for a week or two so that he can stay in touch with his roots. It has been fun to watch the energy of a two-year-old.
Last night we sat at a table with a couple from Norway and their nephew who lives in Los Angeles. The man is a nurse instructor in Norway and has organized a mission thru their government to help train Malawian nurses. They left this morning for a safari in the South Luangwa Park in Zambia where we did our safari last year. It was fun to assure them they would have a wonderful experience.
Several of the family units have just been assigned to Malawi and expect to be here for two or three years. They stay at Annie’s while waiting for their house to be ready. Peter and his wife and 6 month old little boy are from the Netherlands and were previously stationed at a refugee camp in Darfur. What a privilege to hear first hand about what is happening there. And we learned from them about the really cool grocery that stocks “western” goods where we found granola bars! Our friend, Steve, was horrified to learn that bread there is 100 MK instead of the usual 75MK. He says that store is just for “azungu.” No black shoppers in there! So while eating or simply sitting on the veranda it is easy to engage in conversation. It is another way of learning about this amazing land and even make some possibly helpful connections as we chat with delightful people.
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