1	Welcome To The Warm Heart of Africa… Malawi
2	Pages from My Malawi Travel Journal Welcome to my travel pages…this will not really be a vacation. We are traveling to Africa to see my brother, to meet his friends & understand his life & home. This is NOT a safari nor do we have elaborate plans to visit “the sites” – yes we are flying thousands of miles & taking the last bus to the end of the last road in rural northern Malawi to see my brother. Africa, is incidental to it all! What a family I come from! My oldest sister is a trombone player in a circus band, my next sister is a belly dancer, & I’m a retired Air Force lady drill sergeant…so
3	Where are We?
4	More About Malawi
5	We Arrive in Malawi!
6	Heading North from Lilongwe
7	Reading on the Bus
8	The Bus Ride Continues The bus-hostess serves us weak instant coffee as we bounce past mud huts & see people wash their clothes in rivers. The road becomes narrow & more pitted. Near the Zambian border we stop several times for inspections by armed militia. They are intimidating, but nothing happens & we are waved on. Lots of smiles. Our bus struggles up steep mountains & past tall, lush conifers. There is an effort to cultivate a forestry industry in northern Malawi. The trees we see are massive. The incline is steep but we manage to pass other buses - buses filled & overflowing with passengers, baggage & animals. We look around at the huge empty bus we are riding in & are puzzled. It’s a matter of economics, says our hostess – this bus is used mostly by Europeans (the term people here use to refer to white people). The hostess says we may see hippos where we’re going!
9	We Meet Byron in Mzuzu After about six hours we pull into the station at Mzuzu. We expect to find a guesthouse in this frontier town & then figure out how to get to Byron’s farm tomorrow. (No phones near the farm!) We are told there will be buses to Rumphi, the district where my brother receives his mail. Our plans with Byron are a bit vague. Since we are not expecting him at the bus station, we are very surprised (& pleased) to find him standing there as our bus pulls in! He was surprised to see us too! We hug & kiss - we all talk at once…finally we climb into the pick-up truck & head further north into the growing dusk. In a couple hours we will reach the farm & bed. We have traveled nonstop for several days & sleep is inviting!
10	We Arrive at Mawingomara Farm! It’s a long, rough road from Mzuzu to Byron’s farm. Mark & Samuel, a student friend of Byron’s, ride in the open bed of the truck. It is dark, but in the glare of the headlights we see beautiful terrain. We are below the Equator here so we see the Southern Cross in the dark night sky. We arrive at Mawingomara Farm. Mawingomara is Tumbuka, the local tribal language, for “these clouds too will pass”. We are a mile high here & the winter air is cool & fresh. When we rise early the next morning, Lake Malawi glistens at the bottom of a steep escarpment bordering the farm. The mountains of Tanzania on the far side of the lake are a breathtaking backdrop for the sunrise. Roosters crow & Samuel lights a fire to heat wash water for us.
11	We Meet Mr. Masoya & Learn Some Social Graces We learn a few key phrases in Tumbuka, the local tribal language. When we shake hands we say “Yewo, muliwuli?” (Hello, how are you?) & the reply is “Nilimakola, manyi imwa?” (Fine, and you?) Mr. M. & Samuel make us practice, but they kindly do not laugh at our attempts. The official language in Malawi is English, but most people speak Chichewa. About 500,000 people here in the north speak Tumbuka. Yao is spoken in the south.
12	This is Rainbow Cottage! Byron’s brick house is still a work in progress. He started building it in December. They put the windows in during rainy season. There’s a living room, dining room combination off the front porch, two bedrooms with a large storage closet (the space to the right of the front porch) & a storage room/kitchen that opens into the backyard. Cooking is actually done outdoors over a fire, but in a few years Byron will build an addition & install a cook stove indoors. First he must make enough bricks for the project! The corrugated roof is great during the rainy season. It makes “music”! There is no central heat though & the “privy” (or “long-drop” as they call them here) is outback! On the roof there’s a solar panel – the only one around here. It doesn’t provide much light, but definitely beats using a lantern for reading in the evening!
13	The Kitchen, Water & Poultry The thatch-roofed kitchen behind Rainbow Cottage is where Marai tends the fire pit to prepare meals & heat water for washing & laundry. Even in the city, meals are often prepared outdoors over a fire or a brazier. Wood racks outdoors are used as counter space for cooking & doing the dishes. The poultry hang around looking for scraps. Byron & the local women worked hard to pipe water down from the mountain top to an area near the cottage. Since women carry the water, they were the ones who did the work to bring water closer to home. The water spills into a small pond where the ducks like to swim. At night the turkeys, chickens & geese roost in coops. They are elevated from the ground & covered so they are safe from wild animals. During the day, chickens & ducks range freely.
14	Inside Rainbow Cottage The climate in the mountains is fairly temperate so people don’t spend much time indoors. The neighbors must think it strange when we spend so many hours sitting around the dining room table talking & drinking coffee. There’s no central heat so we use a bucket of charcoal or wood to take the chill off the air. After the sun goes down, it gets pretty cold here in the mountains! Of course there’s no TV here & no computers in this mountain village either so we talk, play dominoes & cribbage & sing every song we know! Too bad we can’t really sing! Washing clothes in a bucket by the stream is a challenge for us because we are used to using a machine. Mark takes on the challenge, but Sinya thinks they aren’t really clean & washes the clothes over again! The red clay clings to our clothes & bodies.
15	In the Living Room Byron had wooden furniture made for the living room. In typical rural homes, furniture is rare. People often have simple short benches to sit on. Local people don’t bother with benches,stools or chairs, but when visitors come it is polite to offer them a stool to sit on. At church & rural schools people sit on a small brick. Books - it is difficult to get books here, & they’re expensive. It’s also hard to maintain them. The humidity during rainy season destroys them. Byron has more books on his shelves than any of the school libraries we visited! Even without schoolbooks, the secondary (high school) students we met are knowledgeable about literature. Sinya & Samuel can quote Shakespeare & are infatuated with “The Diary of Anne Frank”.
16	Daily Ablutions at Rainbow Cottage Roosters wake us from a sound sleep. Then it’s time for a quick trip to the “long drop” - the small whitewashed privy out back. At night we take turns in the roofless bath house. Talk about a beautiful view: the big orange moon & glittering stars above are incredible in this remote paradise. The logistics of bathing with a tin cup and a tub of water make it challenging, but it is invigorating. As I lather up, I can hear the neighbors across the valley playing their drums & singing tribal songs. I can see the full moon above – I am really in Africa! No tub to scrub either!
17	Marai Teaches Us Some Local Customs Marai lives on the other side of the valley. She walks over three times a day to cook meals & clean for my brother. Marai greets us with the formal handshake & calls Mark: Father & me: Mother. This is a sign of respect, not familiarity. Older people, teachers, visitors among others are revered & treated with respect. (According to my travel guide, the average life expectancy in Malawi is only 37 so Mark, Byron & I are “well respected”!)
18	Chitenzas
19	Dancing at Rainbow Cottage Byron hosted an all day party for our arrival,. It’s also Malawi’s Independence Day. It’s the first opportunity to share Rainbow Cottage, with neighbors. I act as hostess & give tours of the house. The solar powered electric lights bring oohs & aahs. Mark supervises a buffet in the dining room. Outdoors guests listen to speeches, play games and dance until sunset. They organize a show, each one providing entertainment for the rest of us. I teach them to play tug-o-war & dizzy bat and pass out candy! They teach me to dance and sing! We all had fun.
20	Hot Sauce! Nsima is served at every meal here & preparing it is a full time job! Village women use a hefty pestle & a mortar to pound maize (corn meal). This backbreaking daily chore takes an hour or more of HARD work every day. Once it’s pounded, it’s cooked into the porridge-like nsima. Often it is eaten by itself, but it may be enhanced with whatever relish is available. – vegetables, a bit of fish or meat or maybe just some hot sauce. February is starvation month & people here are lucky to even have a little nsima each day.
21	Making Bricks & Fish Ponds People in rural areas up north live in square mud houses with grass roofs. Huts are very practical & easy to maintain. Byron lived in “Bush House” when he first moved to the farm. Quarters are cramped, but except during rainy season, most activities are accomplished outdoors anyway. The maize mill, store & Rainbow Cottage are made of bricks. Workers use the red earth to form bricks. The pits that result from making bricks are filled with water & used as nurseries for fish. Byron has several ponds. He employs Francis to make bricks – he is paid by the brick.
22	School at the Farm Byron works hard to provide schools for local families., but it is difficult to keep teachers in remote places like this. Now students walk about an hour each way to attend classes at Uzumara. Desks (& furniture in general) are rare in rural schools so students simply squat on a brick . Course work is written on a painted black board. Books are not available so students memorize the teacher’s notes. The government will help build a larger school when the village has made enough bricks. Under President Banda, primary school wasn’t compulsory – so Malawi had the lowest literacy rate in Africa! The elections of 1994 brought changes – free, universal primary education for all! They have a long way to go to catch up!
23	Rolling the Truck
24	More About the Farm We take a short tour of the property. Many people have moved to this area in the last few years, but it is still vast & empty & breathtaking. More people live in southern Malawi. The mountain behind the house rises 9,000 feet! There are a thousand acres here. Byron & others in the village have made many improvements. They built roads; made water accessible; built a maize mill, a store & a soccer field; built a primary school & they planted all kinds of things.
25	Brooms & Security Systems
26	The Neighbors The people living in this isolated area of the North Viphya Hills of Malawi (near Uzumara) are Bantu people called Tumbuka & Phoka. Many of their ancestors migrated from Congo. English is the official language, but Chichewa is the dominant tribal language in Malawi. Here in the north, people speak Tumbuka. We quickly learned the merits of knowing a few phrases in the local language!
27	More Farm Stuff Mr. M, Samuel, Sinya & others have planted thousands of tiny conifers. They have a nursery & grow the trees from tiny seedlings. In a few years the land will be covered with forest. Forestry helps prevent the terrible floods from destroying the land. Coffee trees planted a few years ago are beginning to show ripe berries. Unfortunately, many coffee trees were destroyed in a major fire last year. Local co-ops actually undermined the market for coffee & transporting it out of the steep valleys over the mountains is difficult. It looks like lumber may be the future for this farm.
28	Mealtime The staple is nsima. It’s s a dry dumpling made of finely ground maize (it makes me think of grits). No cutlery is used, so the nsima is used to shovel food into your mouth. We eat from a communal pot & use our right hands. Some days there may be greens or boiled cassava, tomatoes, & bananas with the meal. Occasionally small portions of meat or fish or gravy may be served. there is very little fat or sugar in the diet & no milk either. Men, women & children dine separately.
29	Cattle & Donkeys at the Farm The donkey & cattle often get into the vegetable garden. A shepherd watches the flock most of the time. The cattle have a large hump on their backs & do not resemble cows we are used to. The grass here doesn’t provide the nutrients necessary to produce good milk & cheese. I brought some cheese with me & when I offered it to Samuel & Sinya, they were not impressed with this strange food. In fact, they covered it with sugar! Byron drove south to buy donkeys for the farm. He transported them in his pickup. The local people had never seen donkeys or horses & thought they were some kind of deer or gazelle!
30	Byron Really is Home… This is Byron’s home now. He came here through the Peace Corps & found a life for himself, among people he loves. Changes in the government permitted him to return & carve out a life here. He taught at a boy’s school for many years & has found a way to improve the land he owns. Many people have moved to this remote area to work together with him. The chiefs & headmen hold him in esteem & treat him like a respected father. Local people here love & revere my brother. He is well known & over the years many of them have been students of his. He is a counselor & an advisor for local people. He is respected for his intellect & his sense of humor & fair play. Byron has been in Malawi since the early ’80s, so this is really his home now! We are the first family members to visit him. It is a pleasure to watch him manage the farm & properties & help local people with their problems & decisions. It is good to see students continue on to school.
31	Wildlife at Mawingomara Farm Deforestation, even in remote northern Malawi has taken it’s toll. Besides significant flooding, there is harm to wildlife. Less than a decade ago a lion was killed on this land. Now the major wildlife consists of bushbuck, baboons & other primates. Snakes are not uncommon – I’m glad I haven’t seen any! We did see a monitor lizard & primates. During spring floods, hippos become a nuisance in the river outside Rumphi, a market town about 40 miles away. There are elephants, giraffes, leopards, & zebras at the preserve further west from the farm.
32	Getting Around Byron’s truck is the only vehicle for miles. When we drive into Rumphi, riders appear out of the bush. The truck bed is always filled with young men hitching a ride. They stand upright & sing as we bounce over the primitive roads. One trip, the truck became an ambulance for a sick boy who needed to get to hospital. It was a long trip for all of us!
33	Transportation In Rumphi you can catch a bus or a minivan, but in the mountains, you just put your bundles on your head & hike. Young men from the village walk the 13-15 mile walk to the post office in Mzokoto for Byron in a couple hours. People walk through the jungle on moonlit nights too. Women also hike everywhere. It amazes me how they carry bags of maize or jugs of water on their heads as they walk on narrow, winding mountain paths!
34	Singing at Mphompha Infirmary
35	Hospitals in Rumphi
36	Lunch with a Tribal Leader
37	Schools in Rumphi
38	More Schools in Rumphi
39	Other Schools in Rumphi District
40	Going to Market It’s about 40 miles over the mountains to Rumphi where we go to market. The streets in front of buildings are lined with impromptu wooden structures built by business people who can’t afford a real building. There are streets and streets of such rude structures doing a healthy business. The “proper” stores seem to be owned by people from India rather than local people. I love the brightly colored chitenzas for sale everywhere. I buy several of them. Marai will show me how to tie them.
41	The Market Place Women & children use their heads to carry things to & from their destination. They look so graceful! The market place is filled with music – portable radios blare, roosters crow, dust flies & the shopping gets done. Samuel enjoys taking pictures with my camera. We see many of his friends at the market & he snaps photos of them. Sinya helps us choose some tapes to bring home. The music is wonderful. Everywhere we go people sing or play music.
42	Eating in Rumphi Street vendors sold us wonderful fried sweet potatoes for a snack one day. You could eat well from street vendors & never enter a restaurant!
43	The Economy & Coffins The coffin industry is a growth field – how chilling! Carpenters can’t eke out a living building furniture in this world. Everything is based on subsistence, on agriculture. We saw technology (making donkey carts & sewing clothing at the German school near Phwezi) but it is the exception. Tobacco is the number 1 export followed by tea, sugar, coffee & peanuts. Malawi is among the poorest in the world: per capita income is only $180 US per year. Because of AIDS, famine, flooding, etc, life expectancy Hovers at only 37 years. Infant mortality rates are 122 deaths per 1,000 live births. The fertility rate is 5 children per woman. According to a January ‘99 article in Africa Today, 10% of Malawians entering the job market today will find jobs! Educated youth walk thousands of miles to South Africa & other places in search of a better life – the brain drain leaves families further & further behind. The gulf between the haves & the have-nots is frightening! It also primes the pump for crime, fraud, prostitution, theft, & all the woes that come with poverty.
44	Sunday Morning Church
45	Religion & Attire 55% of Malawians are Protestant; 20%, Roman Catholic, & 20%, Muslim. The remainder subscribe to indigenous beliefs centered around animism, spells & we saw witchdoctors! The current President is Muslim, quite a change from former President Banda, an elder in the Church of Scotland. People here dress modestly & conservatively. Of course at the beach people wear sportswear, but generally people do not wear shorts in public. Bare-legged travelers are viewed a bit contemptuously.
46	Sinya’s Trip to the City
47	The Internet Café in Mzuzu
48	At Nkahta Bay, Life’s a Beach! We take a trip to beautiful Lake Malawi – it’s a paradise for scuba divers, ichthyologists & people who want a lazy, relaxed vacation! Getting here in the overcrowded minivan is another story…ask me about the woman vomiting out the window (NOT me!), the mountain switchbacks & other delightful tales! The bridge is washed out & the road is in terrible shape. Nkhata Bay is NOT as accessible or populated as other resort sites, but it is beautiful! When I return here some day, I would like to take the steamer to all the ports. It is winter here, or it would be hot, humid & buggy!
49	Dugout Canoes on Lake Malawi We are up at dawn & walking the beach. The shore is crowded with fishermen selling their wares & shoppers. Sinya’s originally from a lake village up north & can’t resist the chance to show us his expertise with a canoe. I’m offered a chance, but I decline! We meet a British author traveling by motorcycle & share breakfast & stories with him. In a country devoid of post cards, souvenir t-shirts, & shot glasses we finally find some tourist “traps” here – we look at wood carvings & batiks & baskets. I bargain for a primitive carved cow’s head.
50	Baboons, Baobabs & Bao Games… Baboons are a scourge to farmers in northern Malawi. They have learned to forage local gardens & are like giant rats, stealing valuable food from the locals. We saw them along the roads outside Rumphi – quite intimidating creatures. There are primates living on the farm too, but they seem to stay at the higher elevations, among the trees. Remember the Little Prince & his Baobab tree? These impressive trees that seem to have their roots in the air, live in Malawi & seem like the perfect symbol for this wonderful country. Folklore weaves many stories about the Baobab tree, but it is fact it lives for millennia. They are stunning trees. Bao is a fast-paced game which people take up at a moment’s notice. It seems to be played everywhere. It’s a great way to break the ice & start a conversation with one of the local people. At the lake Mark & Sinya played often.
51	Hiking Barefoot
52	Orchids & Cichlids
53	Nyika Through the Year…
54	More on Nyika’s Seasons…
55	We Say Goodbye to the Mountains All along the way, people meet us at the edge of their property & escort us to the opposite side. Before we can introduce ourselves they recognize me as Byron’s sister & pass on many good wishes. They give us their addresses & ask us to write. Going down the mountain is easier than the hike to the farm. The streams we see will flood the valley in the fall & the trail will be impassable. Now in July they look so harmless. It is a beautiful walk.
56	Time for Some Tea
57	We “Hitch Hike” to Rumphi
58	One Last Visit in Mzuzu
59	Back in Lilongwe
60	Batiks & Chitenzas It’s
61	We Head to the Airport
62	My Carry-On Luggage! I carry my basket of small purchases & wear one of the chitenzas I bought. Baskets made in Malawi are lovely & practical too. I brought home a small broom, some tiny carved elephants, & a few other carved pieces. We also bought tea, coffee, & hot sauce. The best souvenirs though are the memories of all the wonderful people we met & things we saw. When we left Mawingomara Farm, Mr. Masoya presented Mark with a beautiful handmade axe - what a lovely surprise, but will they let us carry it on the airplane? Mr. M. also gave him a wonderful walking stick.
63	We Board the Plane for Home