Team Zeneko!!
Time and punctuality in Malawi is not a respected concept, but my first week overseas has definitely flown by!
Having now arrived in Mzuzu, my home for the next ten weeks, my first taste of Malawian life was in Lilongwe, the capital city. Being the capital it is hard not to compare daily life with that of London, but the two could not be more different. Malawi being a densely populated country, is home to seventeen million people yet it seems that there is no concept of road safely or footpaths. There are a crazy amount of deaths caused by traffic accidents everyday and it’s no surprise! Bikes cycle in the middle of the road swerving around anything that moves, people hang onto and out of the back of pick ups and the local busses consist of cramming as many bodies as physically possible into a mini bus like vehicle. The term space invaders comes to mind as you quickly get used to having strangers practically jumping onto your lap to escape the quickly closing door and there is no hanging back on the hand shaking, high fiving and general touching.
After just after one week I feel truly welcome in this wonderful country, the nickname ‘the warm heart of Africa’ is well deserved. Wandering through the markets everybody wants to say hello. There is no hiding here, I now stand out, so constant staring and prolonged eye contact is a given. The children laugh, to them our little group is hilarious, as well as having their photo taken they get so much joy from simply saying ‘hi’ and hearing a ‘hi’ in response. It’s not only the children though, whenever venturing out many men stop to shake your hand and to simply welcome you to their country, whilst the women hang back looking slightly unsure.
Mzuzu is a wonderfully bizarre city with very obvious variations of wealth. The women carry large baskets on their heads carrying self-grown produce of bananas, carrots and mangos and sell to passers-by. The markets are filled with make shift shops one after another, selling clothes, shoes, material and odd household utensils. Meandering through these narrow lanes I’m never quite sure what I could find around the next corner. The other extreme and on the other side of the city centre is Shoprite, it’s a magical place rather like Lidl but on a much bigger scale and here too you can buy just about anything. This place will probably be my lifesaver over the next three months!
Onto food! A carb free diet is almost impossible here, the local delicacy of Nsima (a flour water mix that doesn’t really taste of anything but is surprisingly nice) makes an appearance every mealtime, along with rice, a meat dish and some sort of veg side. The food although very similar tastes great and it is made with a such a lot of pride and joy. A tip however for any travellers venturing to Malawi, the phrase “Mbwenu, Mbwenu” (enough, enough) comes in handy when you are being helped to a second mountain of rice. It’s odd for Malawians that us Brits have considerably smaller portions of food but then again the concept of snacking doesn’t exist much here.
Our local partner organisation, the Centre for Girls and Interaction (CEGI), has been running since 2010. It was created as a safe space were girls and young women can come and relax as well as receive information and education about their sexual health and well-being that may not otherwise be readily available for them. CEGI’s Mzuzu office is only a few minutes’ walk from my new house and it’s a wonderful place!
Written by ICS volunteer Ellie Craven-Todd
