Big Update

OK, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything with any real substance to it. This one might go on for a while. I hope I don’t leave anything out. So sit back, relax and prepare for your latest vicarious African experience!

In This Issue:
Mulanje Massif
Mzungu Connection
Old PCVs
Dead African Wildlife
Halloween
New PCVs
Project Update
Finally


Mulanje Massif
After In-Service Training in August I joined Scott, Dan, Jim and Wiz on an outing to traverse Mt. Mulanje, the highest peak in Malawi. The highest point is Sapitwa peak, which reaches 3,002 meters. We didn’t summit.

This was my first trip to the southern region and to Blantyre, the biggest city in Malawi. No McDonald’s or Pizza Hut, but it is as close to a “western” city as I’ve seen since Johannesburg almost nine months ago. It made me glad to be in the Northern Region and have Mzuzu as a hub. Once we got south of Blantyre, the scenery was beautiful – rolling hills and loads of tea farms, which were incredibly green given the time of year.

We started up the mountain about 10 a.m. the first day, after making a stop at the local market to stock up on supplies. Our hike that day was about six hours – normally a good day of hiking. But this one kicked my butt. It was steep, sunny and the higher up we climbed the less shade we had. And water was inconveniently absent. We learned that one liter per person was barely (in my case, not) enough. You don’t appreciate the wetness of fresh water on your tongue until you lay on the side of a barren mountain, baking in the sun, thinking you will die alone in southern Africa. In other words, when I finally got water, it was good.

Several cabins dot Mt. Mulanje, which is actually like a plateau or mini-mountain range in itself. The first we came to was around 100 years old. Luckily, Scott works with the Mulanje Conservation Trust and was able to procure the means to access cooking materials, mattresses and blankets, so we did have to carry all those items. The huts are managed by locals who live in a separate house next door and keep the firewood and water filled when hikers are coming through. This first hut was very rustic. The most interesting part was the Creepy Room – a large, empty room that had a door to the outside and only locked from the outside. So if you went in, you stayed in. Fortunately, there was plenty of floor space for the five us without having to use the Creepy Room.

The second day we hiked across the plateau. We saw men cutting Mulanje cedar, which is made into boxes and curios, and is a very big business in the Southern Region. Unfortunately, the business is so good that in a few years there may no longer be cedar on the mountain. Most of the hike was rolling hills, up and down. Nothing too brutal. Our cabin this day was much newer – the newest on the mountain, in fact – and was equipped with solar panels, so we had electric light for a while. It took some of the novelty of hiking in Africa out, but was still nice.

The third day was downhill. Way down. And steep again. Thank God for little tufts of grass. We were amazed how well they held our weight. Otherwise the seats of our pants would have been ruined from sliding down on our rear ends. While the entire experience was fun and rewarding, perhaps the highlight was our victory meal. The day we came down, we arrived in Mulanje boma (the seat of Mulanje District). From there we walked 2km to Chitakale, where we ate brick-oven pizza – reportedly the best pizza in-country.

We stayed in Blantyre that night. The next day Jim, Wiz and I embarked on an epic hitchhiking trek from Blantry to Mzuzu, visiting all three Peace Corps houses in one day – a rare feat to say the least. The entire trip lasted 14 hours and included five modes of transport across almost 700 km.

Whether we’ll return is undecided as of now, though I hear Mulanje is amazingly beautiful after the rains. We’ll see.

Mzungu Connection
After nearly nine months in country and seven at site, I’m finally making some connections with other mzungus. (Mzungu - n., foreigner, especially one with white skin). Not far from my house a South African company has begun mining coal. I’ve been getting to know to white Zimbabwean men who are working there. In fact, they’ve invited my sitemate Kyle and me into their house in town a couple times to watch Rugby.

Down the road from the coal miners lives an Australian couple who’ve been in country about six weeks now. They are also working at a mine. I only met them briefly, but I expect I’ll bump into them again.

Then, get this, I met some Americans. From the Midwest. From Illinois, nonetheless. Kyle and I had heard about some British volunteers at a Roman Catholic school in town and decided look into it. Turns out they are Americans. I’ve only had the opportunity to talk extensively with one, who is from the north side of Chicago (Go Cubbies!). At least one is from St. Louis and another is from Belleville. I’m really looking forward to meeting them.

Old PCVs
About a month ago I received a text message from one of the volunteers in our group. She decided to take early termination (ET). Now, even when I’m not particularly close to a PCV, I still like to know who, why, when, etc. But Jamie was in our group, in the northern region and probably the one we would have voted Least Likely To ET. She was (is) one of my closer friends among Malawi PCVs, so it was quite a shock.

But it’s all good. She has a good reason. She decided that she had been traveling and volunteering for nearly seven years now and she was ready to stop moving. Plus she knows she wants to go back to school. There are several reasons for which you couldn’t blame a volunteer for leaving early. But among all the positive reasons, I thought this was a good as any – she new she didn’t want to be here and she new what she wanted to do.

I’ll miss Jamie, and I’m sure others will leave, but I wish them all the best and I hope they are happy with their decisions. I have 18 months to go. We’ll see.

Dead African Wildlife
Jamie came through Mzuzu on her way to Lilongwe about three weeks ago. Several of us came to meet up with her a final time. During the stay, she and I were walking to the post office where she had a package, and then she accompanied me to the Parks and Wildlife Office. When we arrived we noticed a pickup truck with a topper and several people gathered around. As I was trying to decide which building was the office, Jamie jokingly asked, “You want to go stand by the truck?” Moments later a Malawian man said, “Oh, you’ve come to see the lion?” What? Lion? Heck yeah, we’re here to see the lion!

We edged our way up to the truck and there, as you can guess, was a lion. A dead lion. Apparently it had killed two people somewhere in Chitipa District. Or it killed a cow and some chickens. Or a combination. Oh, and there’s another one out there somewhere. Maybe. We didn’t really get a straight story. But it was awesome. And it smelled like a dead, rotting lion, if you can imagine that. (This was especially interested because lions are quite rare in Malawi.)

Halloween
After wishing Jamie farewell, several of us traveled to Chitipa boma for the annual Halloween party. Chitipa is one of the most remote districts in country. The 100km trip from Karonga took us five hours. The weather was cool, we wrestled and slaughtered a pig, drank some beer, dressed up and generally had a good time. ‘Nuff said.

Two nights in the boma, then some of us proceeded to Misuku, which has been called the Scotland of Malawi because of its amazing hills and perpetual greenery. When much of the rest of the country turns brown, this patch stays green. In fact, Kyle, Jim and I took a hike one day through a forest reserve that is at least partially primary growth rainforest. I also carried water on my head for the first time - up an uber-steep hill. The next day my next was sore, understandably. A couple days late I noticed a large bump on the back of my neck. (“It’s not a tumor.”) It was a bit uncomfortable but a couple days of antibiotic chased it away and all is well again.

Kyle, Jim and I also decided to walk back from Misuku to Ngerenge (my home area). A decent road connects the two areas, if you don’t mind hills and bends. We fought through the hills and took a few short cuts to avoid the windiness. After walking for about eight hours we saw the first automobile of the day and decided we could ride last 10-15 km. But if anyone asks, we walked the whole way.

New PCVs
My sitemate Kyle, an education volunteer since 2005, as now finished his Peace Corps program and will be leaving the country shortly after Thanksgiving. For a couple weeks, at least, I’ll be the northernmost volunteer in Karonga (as I’ve been). The new education group is now in training, however, and will be sworn-in in mid-December. Kyle will be replaced and a new PCV will be placed at Kaporo Community Day Secondary School. I hope to meet both of them on Thursday at our Thanksgiving celebration.

Project Update
I can now leave Africa saying I actually accomplished something, however small. With the help of the Associate Peace Corps Director (APCD) for Environment Brian Connors – my boss – I secured enough funding to repair a borehole in one village. (A borehole is a hand-pump for water. Pipe is driven into the ground and pumped out. It’s what I use at my site for water.) In the grand scheme of African development work, one borehole is like a grain of sand. But in this particular area water is a bit scarce. Women – because they are the ones who draw water – had been walking 2-3 km to the next nearest borehole. That means they were probably living on 20 liters of water a day (or 40 liters if they make two trips). For many of them that water probably served multiple people.

A recent Newsweek had a series of articles about water. It showed a statistic that Americans, on average, use 573 liters of water a day. People in Mozambique, the article said, use 10 liters a day. I bathe once a day, wash at least a few dishes at least two times a day and use some for drinking. If I stretched my supply I could get by on 20 liters. That doesn’t count washing clothes or watering my garden and other plants. I try to use my dishwater and laundry water on my garden and plants when I can.

The other project I’ve actually made tangible headway with is soap-making with some primary school students. I don’t recall if I’ve mentioned this, so I’ll give a quick recap. Primary school is free, secondary school is expensive. Even at less than 5,000 kwacha a year – less than US$50 – many families can’t afford it. I’m living at a primary school and wanted a project the students could run to raise money for school fees. With the help of a teacher we’ve started making soap. Once we cover our overhead costs, I think this will be at least mildly profitable. And hopefully the students will learn a bit about money management. But at least we’re up and rolling now.

Three other projects are in the planning stages. We’re still ironing out some details with the library, and I hope to submit the grant application after I return to site. Of course I’ll keep you all updated on that one. I’m also working with a local village to build a dam on a small stream, which will require a different grant. This will be in the same village as the borehole repair, an area where water tends to be scarce. Currently this stream dries up shortly after the rains, in June or July. We hope if the dam is built well and we can plant some trees and grasses to stabilize the stream banks, the stream will hold water year-round within two or three years. Third, the coalminers I mentioned earlier are interested in planting trees on the mined land after they finish. I think this is outstanding, and I’m waiting for some cue from the local forestry department before I begin organizing tree nurseries in the area. This could be a good, long-term collaboration between the coal company and the villages in the area.

Finally
I know it sounds like I’m really busy. And at times I am. As more projects come up, keeping all the information organized and meetings straights is a bit of work. But most of my energy goes into actually motivating and prompting groups and individuals to get up and do something. I’m learning that a big part of my job as a Peace Corps Volunteer is to provide that first push to get things going. For example, the teachers and students and the school could have organized the soap-making project on their own. I did very little that they could not have done themselves. But the fact that I was there and got it going is the whole reason is actually happening.

What I’m getting at is this: I am working, but still have a lot of free time. And I have a big pile of good books that I’m reading. I’m keeping a list of all the books I’ve read on my blog http://travelinman1981.blogspot.com. I read quite a bit before I came, but Peace Corps moves you to a different level. And I’ve learned of loads of great books I wasn’t aware of before.

Finally, I’m in Lilongwe now for Thanksgiving. Our week lasts about five days and is highlighted by a big shindig at the U.S. Ambassador’s house on Thursday.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!