Mwa Ona,
July 12, 2007
I just got back to Mzuzu from the JF summer retreat at beautiful Senga Bay along the sunny shores of Lake Malawi. All the junior fellows (JFs – the short term volunteers) met with the long-term volunteers as well as the Junior Fellow Support Staff, the Director of Southern African Programs and the Director of Overseas Programs. We had a fun 4 days of training with sometime for relaxation at the beach. The JF summer retreat was excellent for getting back some focus and motivation, and for figuring out how I can move beyond the very technical task I am being asked to do by the Mzuzu Smallholder Coffee Farmers Trust. After the retreat I had a meeting with the Director of Southern African Programs and Danny Howard, one of the long-term volunteers. I then headed to Nkhota kota with Danny Howard to check out his placement site.
Danny is a graduate of the University of Alberta and is working with the Msinda Cassava Factory in Nkhota kota, which is about 15km from Lake Malawi heading north of where we were at Senga Bay. Currently, the University of Alberta and the University of Saskatchewan Engineers Without Borders chapters are jointly supporting Danny’s work. The Msinda Cassava Factory is a farmer owned cassava factory that produces starch from cassava. That starch can then be used in a variety of ways, from making cardboard boxes to MSG. For your information, cassava is the tuber of a hardy shrub that does well is many soils where maize, the staple crop for most Malawians, does very poorly. Sadly I did not get to try kondowole, which is nsima made from cassava, while in Nkhota kota. Nsima, the staple food of most Malawians, is a soft lump of cooked maize flour, when nsima is made from cassava flour it is known as kondowole. However, kondowole is apparently some pretty dense stuff. I was told my Danny if you through a handful of kondowole at someone you would knock them over. Lets all hope I get to try it before I go back to Canada.
My trip back to Mzuzu from Senga Bay has been an adventure so far. Going the approximately 200 km from Nkhtota kota to Mzuzu ended up involving 5 vehicles and 8 hours. I hopped on a minibus (the main form of public transportation, think slightly smaller than a TM rentals van but with 28-30 people crammed in), which said it was going to Mzuzu but not to my suprise ended up stopping in a town called Dwanga. The drivers then gave some of the money I gave them to a yellow pickup truck. I got in and we headed down the road slowly but steadily until it broke down. Luckily there was a semi heading from Blantyre to Chinteche where the yellow pickup broke down, so I managed to get a ride with it to Chinteche. In Chinteche I met with another JF for about 5 minutes before hopping in a white pickup truck that took me to Nkhata bay. After leaving Nkhota kota at 10am I arrived in Nkhata bay, 160km away, at 4:00pm. I transferred into another minibus, which involved waiting for about half and hour until it left. The thing about all public transportation in Malawi is that no vehicle leaves until it is full. The last 47 kilometers of the trip from Nkhata Bay to Mzuzu took about 1.5 hours and I arrived in Mzuzu at around 6pm. It was quite the trip, but it seems pretty normal after being here for two months. My trip to Misuku from Mzuzu should be equally adventurous as I am catching a Minibus to Karonga this morning, which will be easy, but I will then have to try to get a ride with any sort of vehicle that is going to the district capital of Chitipa (known as either Chitipa or the Chitipa Boma) and then to a town called Kapoka. From Kapoka I will then either have to wait for what could be 2 or 3 days for a ride to Misuku for do a 5-hour hike. Should be fun.
Keep on rockin’ in the free world amigos,
Preston