Hunger Season

This is a really difficult time of year in Malawi. It is known as Hunger Season because people are really hurting for food this time of year. The July maize harvest is long gone and any extra cash from selling crops is gone as well. Plus planting just started with the rains in December, so nothing is ready to harvest yet.

I don't know if it is worse this year, or if it is just that my Chichewa is better and I know more people now, but I clearly see the effects of Hunger Season around me.

At home, where I have a giant mango tree nearby and a papaya tree in the yard, I have people coming by almost daily to ask if they can collect green unripe mangos to eat. Mostly children, but my adult neighbors and even some strangers have come by too.  At first I tried to get people to leave a few green ones so that they can ripen (fresh ripe mangos in my yards are one of my favorite things about living here), but I gave up on that. For one thing, in the village there is no tomorrow, so a green mango in the hand is worth two in the tree. People need food today. The other reason is that it did no good anyhow. People just waited till I went to school and hopped my fence and took them. So I'd rather they go to the honest neighbors that ask me.

(This single ripe mango was so high up in the tree. It was torturing

In the market I notice more people asking for money. In fact my neighbor has asked for money to buy food a couple times this month. Just small stuff, like money to buy tomatoes and an egg. At school a teacher told me the students are not staying afterschool to study because they haven't eaten anything all day. Also I have noticed students sleeping in class recently, but who knows, maybe they are just bored.

I know I can't solve the problem, but I try to do little things, like sharing food with the kids that come over to read books and practice English. I always have extra and it feels good to share.

Praying for Rain

"Upon us all, a little rain must fall..." --Led Zeppelin, The Rain Song

After a late start in December, the rains stopped just as suddenly as they began. Since the New Year there has only been one or two real solid rains in my village. The maize is starting to dry out, as you can see in this photo.

It's not just dry either. It has been hot and windy as well, further drying the maize. A common past time here is looking at the dark clouds in the distance, and hoping for a thunderstorm. But other than a few overcast and muggy days, the clouds haven't produced anything significant for us.

The kids and I prepared my garden bed for planting this week, and now I'm just waiting for a little rain before I get the seeds in the ground. I could just water them in by hand, but the linthumbu (red driver ants) are roaming around in large numbers, and with it being so dry, I'm worried about creating a little oasis that might attract them to my yard again. So I'm waiting for one good storm.

It's crazy to think that last year at this time, there were floods in southern Malawi. People died in high flood waters, rivers overflowed, bridges washed out, and many people lost their homes and crops. Now we are in danger of the other extreme. But it's not too late yet.

So here in Malawi, we're all praying for rain.

Mmmm, bugs

I'm in the last seven months of my service now, and I still have a few things on my PC Malawi bucket list to do. One of them was to try nsima made from cassava flour instead of the usual maize flour. Another was to try the flying ants that people eat here. I got to do both last week.

Good old nsima. It was served with a tomato and egg relish as well as cooked cassava leaves. A classic Northern Malawian meal, and pretty tasty.

Afterwards the owner of the restaurant showed is where they were drying the flying ants in the sun.

Here is a closer look. They are about an inch long and have about two inch wings.

Just remove the wings and eat. Here is me about to eat one.

And here is me after. Really, it didn't taste bad. Kinda flaky, crunchy and salty. But the legs got stuck in my teeth and that freaked me out a little bit.

I'm glad I tried them, and I would eat them again. Especially if they were prepared in some dish. Maybe a flying ant burger?

Merry Christmas from Malawi

Khrisimasi Yabwino, Aliyense! (Happy Christmas, Everyone!)

For Christmas this year I went North. Northern Malawi that is, not the North Pole. Which means I was still far below the equator.

I visited my PCV friend Tally at her site in Rumphi. She lives near the lake and has a gorgeous view of the surrounding mountains.

Tally's family make cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning just like my family, so that's how we started our day. Don't they look delicious?

We decorated her basil plant with little mini-ornaments and then ate our cinnamon rolls with powdered sugar icing.

Then we planted maize. This isn't a Malawian Christmas tradition or anything, but she had just gotten her seeds and the weather was good for planting.

After that we headed to a nearby lodge to hang out. We bought cold drinks and played Bananagrams. Then we played a modified version where we tried to make words in our new languages-- Chichewa (me) and Chitimbuka (Tally). It was way harder than we thought it would be!

For Christmas dinner we made lentil burgers and chips (that's the Malawian term for fries). Full disclosure--Tally is an amazing cook and effortlessly made all these goodies herself. I just chopped veggies, did dishes and made sure there was Christmas music playing.

My Mom had sent me a can of pumpkin a while ago, so I brought it North so we could make pumpkin pie. We didn't have any eggs so we used a modified recipe. It was really good.

This is Wizaso, Tally's dog. Isn't he adorable? He got a special treat for Christmas too-- usipa, which are small dried fish they sell in the village markets.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Malawi vs Moldova: Porridge

Porridge is a delicious, filling way to start the day. Just ask Goldilocks and the three bears. It is also a popular breakfast in both Malawi and Moldova. Which one do you think Goldilocks would choose?

Malawi

In Chichewa we call this "phala". It is made by mixing maize flour with boiling water and adding a little salt. It is typically served with Malawian brown sugar, which Colii pointed out is not brown sugar at all, but just unrefined cane sugar. But it says brown sugar on the bag!

I make this most days except for the peak of hot season (which is just around the corner). I use the whole-grain maize flour known as "ngaiwa". My preferred toppings include sugar, dried fruit, and banana slices. Sometimes I make it with a little pumpkin pie spice. Mmmm!

Moldova

In Romanian, hot cereal is "terci" (pronounced "tairch"). The type below is basically the same as Cream of Wheat, but i don't know what kind of grain it is here. Mama-G makes it for me at least once a week. I think she makes it with milk, butter, and sugar. Sometimes she busts out the homemade preserves that i'll add to it. And there's always honey. But, like i said, she already sweetens it, so i usually don't add more sweetness to it...i already get enough sugar in Moldova.

Next to the terci is my black cafea (coffee). Moldovans don't understand how anyone can drink cafea or ceai (tea) without at least sugar...spoonfuls and spoonfuls of sugar. Mama-G knows i don't put sugar in my cafea or ceai, but most Moldovans will add it automatically before serving it. 

And, apparently i've lead by example cuz Mama-G doesn't put sugar in her ceai anymore! And she makes sure to tell me that she didn't put sugar in it! How cute is that?! She does, however, continue to eat bomboane (candy) and/or biscuiți (cookies) with it...but that's not new...she did that before too, so at least she's stopped adding MORE sugar to her tea! YAY! :oD

Popcorn, Malawi-Style

Popcorn is a big thing here in Malawi, which makes sense because maize is the major crop. In Chichewa it would be "chimanga kazinga", but most people just use the English term instead. You can buy kernels in the local trading post by the kilogram, and there are always vendors selling little K20 bags of popcorn by the side of the road.

I bought kernels while Colii was visiting and I still had a lot left over, so I told Fanny and Ken that we could all make popcorn together.

We started with my charcoal mbaula, but I think the charcoal is bad quality and it wasn't lighting well. Fanny got fed up with it and took matters into her own hands. When it comes to cooking in Malawi, always let the 10-year old take control.

She grabbed a few spare bricks and branches and had the popcorn going in no time.

I don't know where Ken got this weird pose from, but it made me laugh.

Fanny's perfect popcorn. Just add salt and it's good to go.

Malawi vs Moldova - Agriculture

Moldova

Economy - Moldova is founded on it's agriculture. Their 2 biggest exports are agriculture based. Most people in Moldova, particularly in the villages, have large gardens where they grow almost all of their own fruits and vegetables that they eat throughout the year, whether fresh, canned, or pickled. 

Major food crops - Porumb (corn) is used mostly for animal feed and then the corn cobs are used in soba's for cooking fires or heating. Other major food crops are grapes, cabbage, and potatoes.

Minor food crops, vegetables - Tomatoes, onions, garlic, cucumbers, pumpkins, carrots.

Minor food crops, fruits - Apples, pears, melons.

Minor food crops, nuts - Walnuts.

Major export crops - WINE from grapes (obviously) is Moldova's biggest and most lucrative export crop, followed by sunflower seed products - seeds and oil.

Animal agriculture - Just like most villagers have large gardens, they almost all have at least chickens as well, usually just for the eggs, but sometimes for the meat. It is very common to also have geese, ducks, pigs, cows, and goats. Mama-G has chickens only. I think that's mostly because she is a widow and any more livestock would probably be too much work! 

Growing season - April - September. They say winter here is from November - April, so it definitely gets too cold here in the winter to grow, unless you have a greenhouse, which i have seen a few. So in the winter there is a lot of canned and pickled foods, and hardy foods like potatoes and potatoes.

Fertility - Hmmmmm...back in the day when Moldova was occupied by the Soviet Union, chemical pesticides and fertilizers were used abundantly. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and Moldova's subsequent independence, it is said that Russia actually dumped TONS of these chemicals in the wells causing major problems in their once very fertile soils (Moldova used to be known as the "breadbasket" of the Soviet Union because so many crops were grown here that were exported throughout the Soviet Union). I have also heard that once they stopped using so many chemicals, there was/is no safe place to store them, so there are TONS of those chemicals sitting in abandoned warehouses, leaking into the soil due to rust and erosion. ...BUT, whenever I am presented with fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden (which is like very meal in the summer), I am always told that they are "natural" and "organic" and "fresh from the garden" and they wash them off in the sink...so i'm not really sure about the chemical situation here...if villagers use chemicals on their own crops or not...if so, how much? Dunno.

Farm equipment - I've seen tractors used in commercial farmlands, but in peoples' personal gardens, it's all by hand with very minimal equipment. Moldovan's are a very hard-working people!

Malawi

Economy - Malawi is primarily a rural, agricultural country. Most of the population are subsistence farmers. Even people with professional employment will usually plant maize for their families to eat.

Major food crops - Maize (aka corn) is the staple crop here, and everyone plants hectares of it to feed their families. Other major food crops grown include potatoes (sweet and Irish), cassava and groundnuts (peanuts).

Minor food crops, vegetables - Tomatoes and onions are grown year-round. A variety of seasonal produce is grown including okra, eggplant, squash, cucumbers, carrots, green peppers, hot peppers and a number of greens (rape, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, mustard).

Minor food crops, fruits - Tropical fruits galore! Mangos, papaya, guava, bananas, avocados, passion fruit, oranges, limes and lychees. Pineapples are planted in fields in my district, but most other fruit trees are just randomly scattered about. You don't usually see them planted in an orchard. 

Minor food crops, nuts - Besides groundnuts (which are actually legumes) they grow macadamia nuts in Thyolo.

Major export crops - Tobacco is grown in the Central region and tea in the South. Sugarcane is also grown here. (I tried some really fresh sugarcane last week and it was delicious. Sweet and refreshing.)

Animal agriculture - Most everyone has a few chickens running around. The better off families have goats and/or cows too. There is some hay grown in my area to feed the dairy cows.

Growing season - Year-round because it doesn't freeze here, although without irrigation most people only plant for rainy season.

Fertility - Commercial fertilizer is available at a discount due to government subsidies. People also use manure.

Conservation practices - They use contour farming in my area. Most of the maize residue is tilled in after harvest, though they do burn some residue when preparing fields for planting. Farming is typically organic due to the high cost of chemical inputs. They practice dry land farming. Monoculture is prevalent due to maize being the staple crop.

Farm equipment - Everything is by hand here, from planting to weeding to harvesting. The tools of the trade are a khasu (hoe), a panga knife (machete) and elbow grease.

6 months at site kuno ku Mulanje

I was at a training in Lilongwe when I hit my six-month mark so this
is a little bit late.  It's okay though because I am in Malawi and
everything runs a little slower here, so this only shows I am
integrating well, right?

Compare and contrast how you thought your service would be by this
point, and how it actually is.
I think I imagined that after six months I would feel pretty
comfortable with teaching, daily chores, Chichewa, knowing transport,
all of it.  Still, six months isn't much time, so I wasn't expecting
to know everything.

I am pretty comfortable with my home and with teaching, but I still
come across new things everyday.  For example, I just recently learned
that my village trading post has fresh milk in bags.  And I just went
to my first PTA meeting last month, which was a whole new experience
for me. So I am still learning, but my life has more of a routine to
it than it did when I first got here.


What do you do in your free time...if you have free time?
I like to read, garden, play with my neighbor kids (lately we are
drawing with chalk), try to figure out new ways to cook  tomatoes with
onions and rice, read the news and of course blog!


How has "integrating" into the community been going?
For me, my community is my school, my village trading post, and my
neighbors.  When I am in those places, I feel pretty well integrated.
At school I know all the teachers and I have my students and my
classes and my work in the library, so I feel comfortable there.  In
the market I usually buy from the same 6 or 7 vendors, so we say hi
and chat in Chichewa when I go there. My neighbors are really friendly
and helpful, and I spend a lot of time with my neighbor kids.  So
while I will never be confused for a local, I feel like after six
months I have made a place here for myself.


If you have any type of media, what do you watch, read, listen to, etc?
Mostly I read books.  I usually have a few going at the same time-- a
couple new ones including the one I am currently reading for the book
club, plus rereading some of my favorites, like "The Mists of Avalon".
I listen to music sometimes.  I have been listening to a lot of
Frente! and Cat Power lately. I was also able to download some
podcasts when I was in Lilongwe, so now I can catch up on a few
episodes of This American Life!


Do you have any new hobbies?
Does weeding my garden count?  Because I have to do that everyday. I
have made a couple friendship bracelets with some embroidery floss
that the previous PCV left for me. Plus I just got a new book from the
PC library so I might have a new hobby in time for the next PC
milestone post.


What's at least one thing new that you've learned since being at site?
Let's see... I think the biggest thing I have learned is how to make a
little bit of water last a long time. I am pretty efficient with the
use of water for bathing and washing dishes and other household needs
now.

Other stuff: I have learned a lot about fire from burning my garbage.
I can now hang, repair and properly wash a mosquito net. And I learned
a new way to cut a pineapple.


What time do you usually go to bed?
I get in my net by 6:00pm since it is dark and the mosquitos come out,
but I usually go to sleep around9:00pm.  Hence all the reading.


What do you typically eat everyday? - what do you "still" like and
what are you sick of?
Breakfast - maize porridge with brown sugar, raisins and pumpkin pie
spice (thanks, Becca!)
Snack - energy bar from care packages, but those are almost gone so I
might try eating boiled cassava as a snack now
Lunch - egg on toast, piece of fruit if I have any, or peanut butter on bread
Dinner - rice with soya pieces, tomatoes, onions and whatever veggies
I can find (today it is eggplants)

I still love toast and peanut butter and eggs and maize porridge.  I
am kind of over the rice and veggies dish, but I try to spice it up to
make it palatable.  I make spaghetti once a week which is a nice
treat, and I've made pancakes a couple times, though it isn't really
the same without syrup.


What does your typical "work" day look like?
I usually wake up at 5:30am and start getting ready for the day. I use
the latrine, get my water for the day, start boiling my drinking water
and making breakfast.  I leave my house and walk to school which
starts at 7:30am.  This term all my classes are in the morning.  In
between my classes I am usually marking homework, preparing an
activity for the next day's lesson, or working in the library.  I
usually leave school around noon. I might stop at the market to pick
up a few things and then I head home.  I make lunch and maybe relax a
bit, then start lesson planning for the next day.  Usually the
neighbor kids will come by and I will take a break and hang out with
them for a little while.  Then back to lesson planning.  Around 4:30pm
I start my evening routine of bathing and cooking, so I can have
everything finished in time to be in my net by dusk.


What are you so over, but you still hafta do it for the next 1.5 years?
Well, there are lots of things that I won't be sorry to say farewell
to after I complete my service, but I try not to think about them too
much (because I still have to do then for another 1.5 years). I will say that I don't enjoy having my bathroom outdoors,
especially when it is raining and my yard is basically a muddy
obstacle course on the way to the latrine in the morning. But that is
more a Rainy Season problem, which won't last forever. And of course
the Rainy Season has lots of cool stuff too, like how pretty and green
everything is right now, and the gentle patter of rain showers on the
tin roof, and how fast my garden is growing, and all the cool frogs
and toads I see in my yard. So there are lots of things that I like
about this season too.  That is kind of my way of getting by here.  I
try to think about what is special about being here in Malawi, and
focus on that.

Visit to the Maize Mill

During PST I spent a lot of time de-kerneling corn with my host family. Often I would come home to a porch full of strangers shucking corn (or maize, as they call it here) and a mountain of maize kernels. These kernels went into bags which went into my host family's storeroom. I never saw the next stage of the process, until today.

Today I visited my local maize mill with my friend Flora, and she showed me the next steps in the maize to ufa process.

The maize kernels we're poured into metal buckets and rinsed in water.

Then the kernels were poured into the coarse grinder.

After grinding, the kernels are warm and smell like roasted corn.

The bran has been detached at this point, but is mixed up with the kernels. Using wide flat winnowing baskets, the maize bran is separated out.

The maize bran is collected in a maize sack, and the remainders of the kernels are stored in a bucket. They are still very coarse at this point, so they need more grinding to make ufa (maize flour). That's where we stopped today though. They are going to bring the maize back for the final grind another time.

A-maiz-ing! (I couldn't resist)

Kuno ku Malawi

I've been in Malawi for almost three weeks now. The first week was spent with the other PCT (Peace Corps Trainees) at a training center. Then we relocated to a rural village where we will be spending the remainder of our training.

I am living with a host family in the village. We have no electricity or running water. The house has several rooms, including a living room and a grain storage room. I have my own room, which includes a mosquito net, water filter and a twin-sized mattress, all courtesy of Peace Corps. There are three separate buildings which are all part of the house too. These are the kitchen (with a built in henhouse), the bafa where we bathe and the chimbudzi (pit latrine). Then there is an area for dry corn storage and an elevated pen for the mbudzi (goats).

A typical day starts with kusesa (sweeping) outside. We use branches which have been tied together to make a pretty effective broom. I also sweep my room. My amayi (host mother) is always up first, and has usually already gone to the well and gotten water for us. She usually has the moto (fire) going too, with a pot of water boiling for tea. She heats water for me to bathe each day, so after my chores I take my bucket bath in the bafa. Then I get dressed and have breakfast with her and my achemwali (host sister). My achimwenes (host brothers) have school on weekdays and usually leave before me. Then I head to "class" with the other PCTs. We have class all day, with a break so we can go home and have lunch with our host families. In the evenings I might visit with the other PCTs or spend time with my host family. There is always chimanga (corn) to de-kernel so that is a frequent evening activity for everyone.

Corn is so important in this village. The kernels are ground into flour to make nsima, a staple food. We eat it everyday, usually for lunch and dinner. The corncobs are used to make the cooking fires, or burned for light in the evenings as we work on the corn. Here is a photo goats on a neighbor's maize pile. Goats are everywhere here.

It gets dark at 6:00 so we eat dinner in the light of the lantern. Sometimes we go over my Chichewa lessons together by flashlight and my host family helps me practice. We had fun drawing different animals and labeling them in Chichewa.

Stuff I have done this week: swept, lit the lantern, carried water on my head from the well, washed my clothes by hand, washed dishes with my amayi, helped prepare the nsima and masamba  (vegetables), and stripped countless kernels from their corncobs.

I'm learning a lot, from language and culture to technical training and household tasks. I usually go to bed pretty early, exhausted from the long days. It's challenging, but rewarding too. Sometimes I look around and just wonder at how much my life has changed in just a few weeks. All in all, it's pretty amazing to be here.