Due to the fact I’ll only have access to internet every two weeks or so, I’ll be posting multiple blog entries at a time. Hopefully they’re not too long-winded, and you find them interesting! For now I just have one letting you know where i'm living and what its like here, next time I'll have some more information about what I'm working on and more about the people who i've come to know here. Thanks for all your comments, its nice to hear from you all.
Home Life
Home, for the next four months, is Mkombezi, a small village about an hour outside of Mzuzu, the largest city in the Northern region. I’ve been here for 5 days now, and am just starting to get the feel of things.
The family I’m living with is very accommodating and kind. The house we live in is made up of two large main rooms, 4 bedrooms, and two storage rooms for the Tobacco crop which has just been harvested. Geoffrey and Dedrah are the couple who own the property, But there are 5 others ho live here as well. Maduna, the son of one of Dedrah’s sisters, is 26 and married to Chrissy, 22, they share one of the rooms with their 3 month old baby daughter Jessica. In the other room are two brothers Hastings (24) and Julius (20). There is also another boy, Dickson, my age, who was here when I first arrived on the weekend, but who lives in Mzuzu with Dedrah’s mother. I befriended him immediately though, and its nice to have people close to my own age to hang out with
Geoffrey is not only the project coordinator in this district for RUFA, the NGO I’m working with, but a stand in preacher at the church (which happens to be about 25 steps away from our front door), as well as owning a plot of tobacco, and a market stall in a nearby trading centre where he sells clothes and fabric he buys from Tanzania.
Dedrah is a teacher at the primary school across the street, as well as a make shift tailor, the secretary of the church, and the chairperson of the board for RUFA.
They have three children of their own who attend a private secondary school in a nearby town, and therefore don’t live here. Even with their multiple sources of income, they only just make ends meet and can afford the expensive school fees only because the children are sponsored by World Vision Donors. As critical as I may be of World Vision’s advertising tactics, I can’t deny the benefit of education, especially here.
Behind the house is a small animal shelter, a kitchen (a brick room with a fire pit stove and two shelves), a bath room (a brick room, with a drain/hole in the side of the wall) and further down the path is the latrine, (a brick room with a hole in the floor). Chickens, pigs and piglets, a rooster (who crows not only at dawn but throughout the night, making us enemies) two dogs, and two cats roam the property freely, making for some interesting dynamics sometimes.
The village is based down the sides of the main paved road that runs south to Mzuzu and North to the Tanzanian border. There are mountains about 5kms to each side, and the area between is covered with bush, and dotted with trees.
Mkombezi itself is a small village itself, although there are numerous communities in the area quite close by, and is comprised of the primary school, the church, a tiny market and various small holder farms and homes.
The main crops in this area are Tobacco and maize, but there is also cassava, sweet potatoes, beans, groundnuts (peanuts) and in some areas bananas and fruit trees.
There’s no electricity, but because Tobacco sales mean the people do better in this area of the country than maybe in some others, a handful of people have generators hooked up in the sketchiest way to a power bar. My family is one of these, luckily, so I can recharge my cell and camera.
There is no running water, but we have access to safe water source at a pump just down the street. Today I asked Dedrah if she would let me try carrying one of the buckets back on my head, which I actually managed to get back to the house without sloshing all over the place although the going was slow. Man, do you have to have some backbone for that. Already, I’ve seen some incredible things being carried on heads, especially in Lilongwe when we first arrived.. huge stacks of eggs, big sacks of firewood, huge tubs of water… it never ceases to amaze me.
The sun comes up at 6am and is down by 6pm, when the sky transforms into a mirror of the cosmos, with the brightest stars I have ever seen in the completely foreign alignments of the southern hemisphere. We cook and eat by the light of oil lamps, and after I’ve pumped Geoffrey for information about RUFA and their activities for a while, I usually hit the sack about 9:30 pm.
The house is a focal point of the community, and visitors are always coming and going, especially now the new ‘mzungu’ (white person) has come to visit. Its difficult to carry much conversation though until I learn some more of the local language, Tumbuka, but a smile transects all language barriers. If there is anything in particular you have questions or would like to hear more about, please post your comments, in the meantime, I’ll just be sharing stories as I see fit, lol.
