Back in Malawi - October & November 2019

Blog: 15th November 2019
    I got back to Malawi on 2nd Oct. The Jacaranda trees were in full purple flowering beauty at the airport and the taxi took me straight to Cape Maclear, where my partner lives, missing out on the hustle and bustle of Lilongwe, the capital city. Cape Maclear got its name from one of the early settlers and it is like being in paradise; a view of islands out onto Lake Malawi, it has the only sunset beach in Malawi and the fresh water Cichlids, tropical fish of many colours.

Oscar and family when we first met them in April 2017

    Sadly on the 5th day here I received the sad news of my friend Oscar's death. He was only 39 and leaves behind a family of 5 children living high up on Malosa mountain. Because of the heat and lack of refrigeration the funeral is held the next day and so I left this litlle paradise for the mountains at Zomba and arrived just in time for his burial. My first Malawian funeral. I did not take any photographs but here is Oscar with his family when I first met him in 2017. I agreed when I met them in 2017 to take on the cost of educating his only son, Prince, who was struggling to learn anything at the local mountain primary school. Prince has now graduated with excellent results to a secondary boarding school. I escorted Prince to his new school a week after the funeral to pay the fees and meet the headmaster with whom I would now be communicating about Prince’s education. He is boarding because his family live up near the top of Malosa mountain where the schools are sadly understaffed if the teachers turn up at all.

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The School's welcoming committee, Oscar's brother and Prince

Prince at his new school

    In my mountain home of Makwawa, two Permaculture courses had already happened for the schools and the Scouts in September. The final course (all funded by Makwawa Malawi Charity) was for the villagers, some returning for another years education on using organic methods of pest and disease control as well as natural fertilizer. It was good to see on Facebook that Bill Gates is now promoting the use of human manure for compost. There is certainly more than enough of that to go round!! I took part in some of the course and gave out certificates at the end. Lets hope some of these lucky people use their new found skills.

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Samuel giving the villagers a chance to talk about what the practical lesson will be

Task complete for one lucky villager, Florence, a ready made compost for her. In return we got bananas and custard apples from her garden. Yummy!

The Scout Hall is a great teaching class room.

Sadly farming equals deforestation

Making an A frame to calculate where to build swales in the field

Creating a manure based compost, with ash, leaves, maize husks and water. The sticks underneath give aeration

Some women brought their younger children to class. This little one was very suspicious of me, his first 'mzugu', white person

Samuel and Emmanuel are good teachers, trying to let the ones who have done this permaculture course before teach the new participants

More land is being cleared but no new trees. Could be heading for an environmental disaster very soon wood is cut for cooking, furniture making, etc. Its difficult because trees are traditionally cut for firewood, building, furniture, coffins, etc. Its the replanting that's not happening as well as saving the trees still standing.
    I stay at Makwawa mostly on my own but there are actually lots of people around. Few speak English and I've failed to learn more than a few greetings in Chichewa, the national language. In fact most people speak Yeow in my locality. So it is confusing and can get very lonely. Luckily Samuel Baluti, the Permaculture teacher is like a kindred spirit and we share the same view of the world and my Malawian partner speaks excellent English.
    Then we had an unprecedented heat wave in south eastern Africa. Makwawa is situated on the slopes of Zomba mountain and I was giving thanks for that. At dawn, 5.30am it was already too hot. I have a friend who is a volunteer living in the low lands in southern Malawi and there the afternoon temperatures are hitting 45 degrees; impossible to get anything done. Nothing seemed possible except to pray for rain. The heatwave passed and we had a couple of good rains. I was able to visit Zomba Plateau where it is cool in the forest and ate a number of wild raspberries. The forest is protected thankfully by the Forestry Department and the local guides.

Typical village house with Zomba plateau in the background

   The Makwawa Malawi Charity paid for an irrigation system last year. The irrigation pipes were installed to allow another growing season even throughout dry months. A field was split into plots that different villagers planted but only a few some succeeded in their task. Those that did will have extra maize during the hungry months' before April's harvest. The main problem was the water supply being unable to reach all the plots, as well as ants nests on some of the other plots. Maybe a 40% success rate. We have purchased cement to fix a problem with the inlet pipe due to crabs moving the soil and a hose and sprinkler system to help bring the crops to harvest as its now dry season and still very hot here, around 33-37 degrees.

The Makwawa Malawi Charity paid for an irrigation system last year. This field was split into plots that different villagers planted but with only some succeeding in their task. They will have extra maize during the hungry months' before April's harvest

Setting up the irragation system

Kids are always up for a photo so I used them as cover for taking a picture of the wood being brought down from the mountain

Another huge issue here in Malawi is the rate of deforestation. Just a walk into town and I witness logs for timber and collections of firewood all the time. There is not much else they can do except use wood for most things. I am talking to the local Chiefs about how to introduce reforestation. I would like to stop all wood collections at Makwawa where the Scouts Association of Malawi own 45 acres, to create a forest garden as well as a firewood forest but I need the locals cooperation and funding. Another idea I had is to give each household a neem and a moringa sapling. Neem can be dried and made into a powder that combats malaria and moringa is a superfood that is easily added to the diet. Another idea from one of the chiefs is to create a group of those who farm along Makwawa river, to give them tree saplings and give them incentives to leave trees to grow.

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One Acre Fund teaching how to maximise planting techniques as well as how to use their fertilizers

Logs are rolled down the mountain and taken to saw mills. As far as I know they do not replant trees. There are no large trees left on this side of the mountain except a couple here at Makwawa Scout camp

And then at the end of the week I attended a village meeting with a representative of One Acre Fund who sell fertilizer and other products on credit to enable farmers who cannot afford fertilizer, etc to ensure a good harvest. Most Malawians are peasant farmers and their harvest is their food for the next year. Initially I was outraged at this way of doing things but was reminded that there is not enough manure for everyone to go organic. Most farmer do not have livestock. Sadly the ever present threat of cholera means the idea of human manure is beyond their comprehension. So I hope to build a compost loo at Makwawa so that they can see how it works and the compost that can be made from human waste.
    The Makwawa Malawi Charity sponsors five students from poor families through four years of education at Domasi Mission Secondary School, which neighbours Makwawa Scout Campsite and Guesthouse. Two new students started in September: they are Shalon Belubelu and Clement Abeki. Both are orphans and would otherwise not been able to attend secondary school which is not free in Malawi. It was a pleasure to meet them and catch up with the teachers and our other students; Loveness, Newton and Mary.

Our charity makwawamalawi sponsors 5 students from poor families through 4 years of secondary school. These two started in September 2019

Sometimes it is strange to be here on my own trying to achieve sustainability among the people of my village. Earlier this year a permaculture volunteer came and helped create gardens at the Primary School and at Makwawa and was a pleasure to share this experience with her. I live as frugally as possible but with the luxury of running water, flush toilet and electricity here at Makwawa. I use public transport. Just coming here as a visitor greatly helps the economy of this 5th poorest country in the world. If you would like to know how you could volunteer then please contact me.

Please help if you can...

If you want to donate to my projects and living expenses go to my GoFundMe page called Radical Sustainability in Malawi or  click here

    This is a good description of how most Malawians live. So few possessions and often relying on handouts to survive. I got a lift with an aid worker in the poshest 4x4…!!!
Click here to read it

Vincent and Innocent are the gardeners at Makwawa. We're all ready for rainy season

A walk into town and I see these guys. Animals are not often treated well here. These bulls could do with more food

A visit to Zomba Botanical Gardens and the river is so low we can explore under these tree roots where I found 2 large crabs

Thank for taking the time to read this, please contact us for any questions you have.

Jaine Raine
15th November 2019