18 July 2010
I have been in Malawi since Friday, July 10 and prior to leaving Montreal it had
been a very intense few months of work and planning. The grand-nieces, Victoria
and Lorleyn had been asking to go to the lake again, because they had had so
much fun over Xmas of 2008 when we went to Nkhata Bay together. I decided I
would take a weekend off to gather my strength and my wits before the Bishop’s
University group arrived this coming Wednesday, but having left the booking too
late we couldn’t get in to the cheaper backpacker hotel, so we came to the Red
Zebra.
It is down the road, not far from where the old Fish Eagle Inn used to be. Nellie
and I spent a few days of honeymoon there in April 1971 after our wedding. That
Inn has become part of the Malawi military college and is off limits for civilian
tourists so just down the road facing north across Senga Bay we booked into the
Red Zebra.
When we arrived on Friday night, we were the only guests. The receptionist,
waiter, bar-tender, problem solver is Mike Msuku from Ruarwe and he hosted
us magnificently. It looked like we would have a very quiet weekend and even
Saturday morning started slowly. Overnight some German backpackers had
appeared, but this hotel doesn’t serve that sort of clientele so they drifted to the
neighbouring hotel with its tents and cheap rates.
On the Friday night we walked out the long pier that had been built out into the
lake. It is an unusual construction made of large round cement pipes like we use
under roads in North America. They have been set on end in the lake bottom and
built up with brick work to hold two metal railway ties each. There are over forty
of these pillars about 6 feet apart. Railway tracks extend out the full length and
then cement slabs have been laid across the tracks as the platform. With lighted
posts and a line of chain on either side it is quite a long walk out into the lake
and gives a really beautiful view of the bay. It was a big job to create and for the
moment seems to be very underused for all the investment it required.
On Saturday morning, we met Mrs. Grant, the owner. She is a Malawian whose
late husband had set up the fish exporting business. She invited us to visit the
tropical fish operation that she runs in addition to the hotel. We had arrived in the
evening and driven by what appeared to be several large barns, so we walked
back down the lane to take a look. What an operation she is running from here.
We quickly realised that the Lodge is only part of her enterprise and perhaps only
a small part.
A team of divers travel up and down the full coast of Lake Malawi collecting
a small lake fish unique to the Great African Rift Valley lakes. The cichlid is
highly prized by tropical fish enthusiasts all over the world. They can be brightly
coloured, striped vertically or horizontally and come in a dazzling array of hues.
In the first barn kept cool by a very high roof are rows and rows of large
aquariums with air bubbling through their filters and schools of these little fish
swimming about in all their diversity. They would swarm towards the children’s
fingers as they tapped the glass in anticipation of being fed. Across the lane were
more than a dozen huge cement tanks, about 4 metres square, covered by a
large roof to keep them cool. A little further down the lane was a structure like a
greenhouse covered with a black net mesh to cut the direct rays of the sun and
it had hundreds of cement tanks one metre square. All the tanks big or small had
fish in them. All of them categorised by their species and genus and where they
had been caught.
I had seen a man on the Ilala in February transporting a dozen foam crates each
containing several sealed plastic bags with a couple of cichlids each. He used a
tank of oxygen to bubble in some air to keep them alive and told me they were
to be exported. Now at the Red Zebra, we had stumbled into the heart of the
operation. Shipments leave here on weekly basis for markets around the world.
The Lodge really was only part of Mrs. Grant’s operation. She does get a lot
of visitors in September and October when the lake is calmer and the weather
hotter. They come on cichlid tours and are taken by guides to dive and snorkel
where ever these beautiful little fish are found in their natural habitat. That is how passionate cichlid lovers can be that they take cichlid vacations.
It didn’t take long to discover our common connection to Ivy Gondwe, Nellie’s
cousin sister who is a successful business woman herself. That led to a wide
ranging discussion which eventually came around to family and schools. Louise
and Justin, Mrs Grant’s last 2 children are currently studying in the US. Louise
was impressed by the mention of the name of McGill University. She will finish
her International Baccalaureate programme next year and was keen to hear
more about the place. I shared my card with them and who knows, we may have
a visitor in Montreal next year.
Friday, July 23, 2010
The Problem Isn’t Over
14 July 2010
The appeal came early and it was passionate and desperate. An in-law explained
how she had come to her husband’s village because his people had promised
help with her husband. His health had deteriorated so much that he was close to
the end when we finally got the diagnosis and he began to receive the ARVs that
stopped the decline but could not reverse the damage already done. That was in
early 2008.
Now the problem remains that she has to take him every 3 months over 300
kilometers by public transport to the southern region where he began his
treatment and which apparently is the only place where he can get the ARV
cocktail designed for his stage of the disease.
There are no machines for the C4 count in Kasungu so it is a 2 stage affair for
them. First they go for the C4 count in Lilongwe which is a 2 hour trip. Then they
have to return some time later and get the results and go to the southern region
for his medicine. He needs to be accompanied because he cannot travel alone
and the overcrowded minibuses cannot handle his wheelchair.
He is not alone. A sister is an AIDS widow with no visible means of support and
children and grandchildren to care for.
Another brother is healthy now and should be good for awhile because of his
healthy life style and the ARVs, but his daughter had reached stage 4 and now
is nearly blind. She had gone to Nkhoma to get her sight checked, but now she
needs help with lenses and lessons in Braille etc… She looks much healthier
now that she is on the ARV and seems to have reconciled herself to having to
live in the village now that her blindness forces her to depend on her family for
support, but she will be dependent for the rest of her life.
In aid circles, we tend to think of solving a problem and moving on to the next
issue. Over the last 2 years, we have put the AIDS issue on the table at Makupo
and made great strides, but the problem doesn’t stop there. It is still with us and
the consequences are still felt. The international community at the G8 and the
G20 barely spoke of these issues which had been such a priority when the likes
of Stephen Lewis and Bono had pushed them into the forefront even 5 to 7 years
ago.
The people with AIDS aren’t cured and don’t go away simply because some
money was thrown at the ‘problem’. They need much better service. The long
trips to the southern region are hard on both them and their long suffering
spouses. The lack of equipment for the most basic surveillance, the limited
range of medications and the inadequate delivery system still mean that many
people go undetected, unserviced and die. In Canada, HIV positive people have
a range of service that would boggle the mind of a carrier here. A fraction of that
would make a huge difference in the lives of millions of people condemned to the
forgotten backwaters of the poor rural areas of the world.
The appeal came early and it was passionate and desperate. An in-law explained
how she had come to her husband’s village because his people had promised
help with her husband. His health had deteriorated so much that he was close to
the end when we finally got the diagnosis and he began to receive the ARVs that
stopped the decline but could not reverse the damage already done. That was in
early 2008.
Now the problem remains that she has to take him every 3 months over 300
kilometers by public transport to the southern region where he began his
treatment and which apparently is the only place where he can get the ARV
cocktail designed for his stage of the disease.
There are no machines for the C4 count in Kasungu so it is a 2 stage affair for
them. First they go for the C4 count in Lilongwe which is a 2 hour trip. Then they
have to return some time later and get the results and go to the southern region
for his medicine. He needs to be accompanied because he cannot travel alone
and the overcrowded minibuses cannot handle his wheelchair.
He is not alone. A sister is an AIDS widow with no visible means of support and
children and grandchildren to care for.
Another brother is healthy now and should be good for awhile because of his
healthy life style and the ARVs, but his daughter had reached stage 4 and now
is nearly blind. She had gone to Nkhoma to get her sight checked, but now she
needs help with lenses and lessons in Braille etc… She looks much healthier
now that she is on the ARV and seems to have reconciled herself to having to
live in the village now that her blindness forces her to depend on her family for
support, but she will be dependent for the rest of her life.
In aid circles, we tend to think of solving a problem and moving on to the next
issue. Over the last 2 years, we have put the AIDS issue on the table at Makupo
and made great strides, but the problem doesn’t stop there. It is still with us and
the consequences are still felt. The international community at the G8 and the
G20 barely spoke of these issues which had been such a priority when the likes
of Stephen Lewis and Bono had pushed them into the forefront even 5 to 7 years
ago.
The people with AIDS aren’t cured and don’t go away simply because some
money was thrown at the ‘problem’. They need much better service. The long
trips to the southern region are hard on both them and their long suffering
spouses. The lack of equipment for the most basic surveillance, the limited
range of medications and the inadequate delivery system still mean that many
people go undetected, unserviced and die. In Canada, HIV positive people have
a range of service that would boggle the mind of a carrier here. A fraction of that
would make a huge difference in the lives of millions of people condemned to the
forgotten backwaters of the poor rural areas of the world.
The meeting
11 July 2010
The issues were hard. They were coated with history, painted with disadvantage
and dripping with personality. We were 10 or 12 people, mostly the elders of the
village coming together to figure out how we are going to use the next 9 days to
prepare for the arrival of 13 Canadian visitors.
Nothing had been done to prepare for this group except that there had been 2
previous, successful experiences. Vanier College had already sent 2 groups of
students to stay in the village in the 2 previous years and both the hosts and the
visitors had marvelled at the richness of the experience.
Makupo is a small rural village right beside the main M1 highway that runs
from north to south in Malawi. Like most of rural Malawi, there is a lot of
unemployment, and a constant struggle to make ends meet in a subsistence
economy tacked on to the big business of estate farming. More than ¾ of the
population lives in these rural areas and many are much more remote and
underdeveloped than Makupo which has already begun to shine in the district as
a bit of a model village.
The elders who had come together for the meeting were preparing to host
another educational study stay by students, this time from Bishop’s University.
There was a great deal of excitement on both sides to emulate the previous two
experiences but things were a bit different this time. There was supposed to have
been a guest house built by the time this large group arrived. Previously, the
visitors had stayed in 2 houses that well-to-do émigré relatives had renovated for
the special guests to stay in. Most village people were too shy to have foreigners
stay in their modest houses so these ‘big’ houses were an effective way to
accommodate the needs of both the hosts and the hosted. The new guest house
had not been built for a variety of reasons, so now all sorts of arrangements had
to be made to accommodate the largest group to date.
With the obvious talent in the room and the willingness to work together, and
with the success of the previous 2 visits, the villagers were determined to show
that they were competent to run their own affairs and to repeat success of the 2
previous visits.
Peter was there and contributing; and even better, he became my indispensable
translator. In the past he avoided the planning meetings and this allowed him to
come after and complain that he had been left out or was being discriminated
against. He is so talented in English and the translations so instantaneous,
fluent and accurate that I felt like the late dictator, Kamuzu Banda, who always
addressed “his people” in English with the aid of one of his ministers who
translated into ChiChewa for his people to understand.
This is still an enterprise in its infancy and up until now I have been the motor
driving it. But this meeting was different. I laid everything on the table, the
budget, the problems, the issues and in the interest of accountability and
transparency explained how I couldn’t be the person responsible for the running
of the show and the handling of the money.
They responded magnificently. Duties were defined and the different people
assigned with lots of discussion about sharing the work and the revenue
equitably among the houses and between young and old. Thorny issues
were debated and resolved. Account keeping was arranged and the Makupo
Investments Limited which had been set up to serve the young farmers now
became an enterprise of the village. They were going to benefit collectively and
do it in one of the most cooperative spirits I had seen.
With their hands on the budget and knowing that the more they spent the less
they saved and earned, they got to work. By the next morning builders were
being selected to erect a kitchen, renovate a house and build beds, tables and
chairs. Bricks were bought, sand delivered and the 9 day countdown well under
control.
Most people would love to flee the hard work and poverty of village life. However,
the village folk are not there because they are lazy and incompetent. They
have many reasons for having chosen not to flee to the city. The decision to
remain in the rural areas nonetheless comes with a price and that is facing the
eternal cycle of subsistence living in an extremely unfavourable environment.
The Makupo people know that they have an opportunity to make some money
not available to many other communities like theirs and they knew what they had
to do to make it work. This meeting was on my 64th birthday and they gave me
the greatest present I could ever want.
The issues were hard. They were coated with history, painted with disadvantage
and dripping with personality. We were 10 or 12 people, mostly the elders of the
village coming together to figure out how we are going to use the next 9 days to
prepare for the arrival of 13 Canadian visitors.
Nothing had been done to prepare for this group except that there had been 2
previous, successful experiences. Vanier College had already sent 2 groups of
students to stay in the village in the 2 previous years and both the hosts and the
visitors had marvelled at the richness of the experience.
Makupo is a small rural village right beside the main M1 highway that runs
from north to south in Malawi. Like most of rural Malawi, there is a lot of
unemployment, and a constant struggle to make ends meet in a subsistence
economy tacked on to the big business of estate farming. More than ¾ of the
population lives in these rural areas and many are much more remote and
underdeveloped than Makupo which has already begun to shine in the district as
a bit of a model village.
The elders who had come together for the meeting were preparing to host
another educational study stay by students, this time from Bishop’s University.
There was a great deal of excitement on both sides to emulate the previous two
experiences but things were a bit different this time. There was supposed to have
been a guest house built by the time this large group arrived. Previously, the
visitors had stayed in 2 houses that well-to-do émigré relatives had renovated for
the special guests to stay in. Most village people were too shy to have foreigners
stay in their modest houses so these ‘big’ houses were an effective way to
accommodate the needs of both the hosts and the hosted. The new guest house
had not been built for a variety of reasons, so now all sorts of arrangements had
to be made to accommodate the largest group to date.
With the obvious talent in the room and the willingness to work together, and
with the success of the previous 2 visits, the villagers were determined to show
that they were competent to run their own affairs and to repeat success of the 2
previous visits.
Peter was there and contributing; and even better, he became my indispensable
translator. In the past he avoided the planning meetings and this allowed him to
come after and complain that he had been left out or was being discriminated
against. He is so talented in English and the translations so instantaneous,
fluent and accurate that I felt like the late dictator, Kamuzu Banda, who always
addressed “his people” in English with the aid of one of his ministers who
translated into ChiChewa for his people to understand.
This is still an enterprise in its infancy and up until now I have been the motor
driving it. But this meeting was different. I laid everything on the table, the
budget, the problems, the issues and in the interest of accountability and
transparency explained how I couldn’t be the person responsible for the running
of the show and the handling of the money.
They responded magnificently. Duties were defined and the different people
assigned with lots of discussion about sharing the work and the revenue
equitably among the houses and between young and old. Thorny issues
were debated and resolved. Account keeping was arranged and the Makupo
Investments Limited which had been set up to serve the young farmers now
became an enterprise of the village. They were going to benefit collectively and
do it in one of the most cooperative spirits I had seen.
With their hands on the budget and knowing that the more they spent the less
they saved and earned, they got to work. By the next morning builders were
being selected to erect a kitchen, renovate a house and build beds, tables and
chairs. Bricks were bought, sand delivered and the 9 day countdown well under
control.
Most people would love to flee the hard work and poverty of village life. However,
the village folk are not there because they are lazy and incompetent. They
have many reasons for having chosen not to flee to the city. The decision to
remain in the rural areas nonetheless comes with a price and that is facing the
eternal cycle of subsistence living in an extremely unfavourable environment.
The Makupo people know that they have an opportunity to make some money
not available to many other communities like theirs and they knew what they had
to do to make it work. This meeting was on my 64th birthday and they gave me
the greatest present I could ever want.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)