AUTHOR: Nancy TITLE: Four days in Malawi DATE: 3/13/2009 02:53:00 AM ----- BODY:
If you look on a map you will see that Blantyre, Malawi is just to the west of Nampula, Mozambique, but I had to fly south to Johannesburg to get here.

Mike Hill met me at the airport and drove me to his home on the Zomba Plateau. Mike started working in Malawi in 1965 while in the Peace Corps and returned five years ago to start Orphan Support Africa, an organization supported by the Gates Foundation.

It’s beautiful, green and cool here on the plateau, although I’m still wearing flip-flops and t-shirts. As I drive around the country the reality of life in Malawi hits me. It is the eighth poorest country in the world, an agricultural economy formerly subject to years of famine. When the AIDS epidemic first hit, the government realized that there were more AIDS orphans than individuals could care for. At times, grandparents were caring for fifteen orphans.

The government established Community Based Organizations (or CBOs) by gathering together the village chiefs and enlisting the entire village’s support for the stigmatized children. Some of the CBOs have been successful, and others have not. OSA sends local people to interview the CBOs to see if they have organized and cared for the orphans. If the group has been able to organize, then OSA holds out a carrot in the form of Gates Foundation money for something the villages need, usually a maize mill.

The CBO is given financial and management training and is required to write a proposal before monies are disbursed. This is a challenge as about 80% of the people in the villages are illiterate. There are schools, but one only needs an 8th grade education and no other training to become a teacher, and class sizes can range from 50-120 students. Although English is the “official language” one rarely hears it spoken in the villages.

For the past two days I have been with Feston and Dan, two of OSAs employees, visiting different CBOs. They were on their third visit to these two CBOs and were explaining how financial training would work. Although it was ID, the celebration of Mohammed’s birth, and we passed many revelers on the road, the meetings were still well attended. The village chiefs assembled, said a Moslem or Christian prayer, and then the OSA men explained that training would take a day or two and each chief would have to send a number of their most well educated people to a central area to learn about financial reporting.

Dan listed the numbers on the blackboard and Feston fielded questions. The first group amused me as they decided to add two policemen to keep the peace. The second group listed attendees, including government officials, religious leaders and politicians, and then decided to skip inviting the politicians because they would campaign.

The biggest decision and the one that took the most time was the decision of how to feed those who attended. A headman said, “How can we expect to feed people when some of the attendees don’t have enough to eat at home?” and Feston reminded him that they seemed to be able to feed those who attended the local festivals, and then they decided that it really would be possible to bring pumpkins and maize meal so everyone could eat. Somehow the idea of a potluck took about an hour to sort out.

After the meetings I wandered into the village headman’s home (female) and she showed me how she cooked and how she pounded the maize into flour with a huge mortar and pestle. Cooking was done on an open fire with either wood or charcoal, and later as we traveled around the country we noticed women carrying enormous loads of wood on their heads and many men carrying two HEAVY sacks of charcoal (probably over 100 pounds each) on their bicycles.

Malawi is beautiful, green, and forested, but Mike told me that when he was here in 1965 the mountain where he hikes was densely forested and now it is nearly bare. There is a stove project in Malawi, but I was unable to connect with the director to see what is provided and to learn the cost.

On the bright side, I stayed overnight at a small resort on the edge of Lake Malawi. It was beautiful and I stayed in a thatch-roofed rondeval and ate fresh fish and chips, but the sad news is that I was the only visitor they’d had since January. Times are tough here, as the South Africans who used to come by car are no longer coming due to the problems in Zimbabwe.

So, Mike and I are going to a fancy hotel for supper and then I’m off to Uganda in the morning. A Rotarian priest, Aloysius, who is interested in starting a stove factory in Entebbe will be picking me up and I’ll speak to a group on Saturday. On Sunday I’ll go with Rosette, another Rotarian, up to Gulu where I’ll be visiting an internally displaced person (IDP) camp. I’ll visit Ken Goyer’s project (Aid Africa) and be with Larry Winiarski, the developer of the rocket-elbow stove and the one who designed the Ecocina for StoveTeam International.

When I return, the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air Conference will be showing our video, and I will be speaking about working with Rotary Major Matching Grants. There will be stove designers, environmentalists, program directors, and students attending, so it will be fun to connect with “stovers” from around the world at the EPA and Winrock sponsored Partnership for Clean Indoor Air!

Although Uganda has good internet connections, I’m not sure what I’ll have in Gulu, so don’t worry, as I’ll be in good hands and back in touch by the end of next week.

Nancy

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