VWB/VSF Student Project: Malawi

A Belated Hello From Malawi!

We have arrived! (almost 2 weeks ago...) and are finally getting around to a blog posting. We've had a very interesting 11 days... Some of the highlights:

1. As our plane took off out of the Congo (we had a stopover) finally bound for Lilongwe, Malawi, the electrical panel above a man a few rows ahead decided to come loose and fall into his lap... Ashley and I exchanged a terrified look and then tried not to think about what this little event meant in terms of the safety of our plane...

2. Intermittent panic attacks in the middle of the night (Ashley is experiencing arrythmia from Malarone, the anti-malarial that she's taking... I've chosen a different set of side effects...)

3. Accidently paying 800 kwatcha each for the mini-bus (essentially a van... In Canada, a mini-bus would fit 8 people; in Malawi, they cram 15-16 people in them... it's a "cozy" fit...) when the real cost is only 100 kwatcha each. Instead of ripping off the ignorant foreigners, the driver gave us our correct change and the only consequence was being laughed at by 16 amused Malawians.

4. Visiting the house where we were meant to stay. It's in the infamous "Area 47" of Lilongwe and it's features include dozens of cockroaches in each room, one room that is entirely bereft of windows (a horror movie setting if I've ever seen one), a notable lack of a front door, and a bed soaked in urine. While these selling points were certainly appealing, we decided to look for something else...

5. Discovering that "Cash 'N' Carry" carries delicious Cadbury chocolate bars and Wine Gums!!!

6. Swimming in beautiful Lake Malawi on the weekend. Though deworming will be required, it was definitely worth it! There was a little swine operation at the lodge where we were staying. Ashley and I were both very impressed with the management- the pigs looked happy and healthy- very encouraging!

7. Killing a baby goat on our drive from Lilongwe to Blantyre. Not exactly the "impact" a future vet wants to have...

8. Stories of muggings and stabbings (apparently it was just a cut, but in our minds, a vicious stabbing) as we arrived in Blantyre, which is the other major city in Malawi that we are visiting this week to learn about SHMPA (Shire Highlands Milk Producers Association). These stories have negatively affected our impression of Blantyre and have made us wary...

9. Our taxi cab running out of gas on our way from the grocery store to our lodge, just after dark (you don't take transport, other than a taxi cab, after dark in Malawi). "My gas is finished" the taxi driver informed us as he navigated his failing car into a dark alley, where various people came to peer into our windows as we waited while he filled up the gas tank with petrol from his trunk. After several minutes of the taxi driver pumping the gas pedal as the car sputtered and refused to start, I suggested we should find another taxi. The driver assured us that the car was working just fine and after several minutes, it DID start and we made it home!

10. Visiting various "kholas" ("animal house" in Chichewa) around Blantyre to learn how the dairy farms operate and to learn about some of the opportunities and challenges the farmers face. "Mzungu" (white person) is something we hear very often as we drive along the "roads" (I have a hard time calling a bike path a road...). We hear "mzungu" very often from the children. It's better than the babies, who just cry when they see the terrifying "mzungu"...

Clearly, we've had quite an adventure so far. Here is some background that is a bit more related to our actual work:

Ashley and I will be working in the Lilongwe (capital city) area. One of us will be working at a training school that is starting up for farmers to teach them the practical skills they need to help them run a "khola"- khola means "animal house" in Chichewa (most Malawians speak Chichewa. Languages in Malawi are named like this: "Chi" + tribe name. Thus, Chichewa is the language of the main tribe, the Chewa, in the central region of Malawi). The other position will be to help train a local Malawian who will be working at CREMPA (Central Region Milk Producers Association) training farmers. We plan to alternate our work weeks so that we both get the opportunity to experience as much as possible while we are here.

We travelled to Blantyre (the biggest city in Malawi) on Sunday to spend a week with Dr. Gordon and his wife Anne. Dr. Gordon is a volunteer vet with SHMPA (Southern Highlands Milk Producers Association) and has been taking us and Dr. Resham Acharya (a vet from Nepal) around to different milk bulking groups and kholas around Blantyre.

Potential farmers (mainly- over 80%- women) are identified by the milk bulking groups as deserving of a SHMPA loan. A SHMPA loan provides farmers with a pregnant cow, the money to have a khola built, a sickle (for cutting green feed for the cow), and a penga knife (to chop the feed). Once the calf is born, if it is a bull calf the farmer raises it and sells it, allowing them to pay off some of their loan. If it is a heifer, once the farmer raises the calf to the age where it can be bred- ideally around 2 years old in Malawi, and then gives SHMPA that heifer. Once the heifer is given to SHMPA, their loan is considered repaid.

The milk bulking groups are where farmers take their milk twice a day (by carrying it on their heads or on their bicycles, if they have them) to be cooled, stored, and sold to processors. The milk bulking groups have minerals, medaya (protein supplement), and concrete for repairing kholas for sale for their farmers (at least the functioning bulking groups do- many of them do not provide these services and the result is that farmers are not doing as well).

This is just a short update about what we've been up to so far. Stay tuned for our next exciting post!

Over and out from Malawi!

Ashley and Barb