Greetings,
On Saturday, July 21, 2007 I answered the Songwe River’s siren call. I left my home in Katowo village at 0630 full of bananas and hardboiled eggs to meet up with one of the Peace Corps volunteers living Misuku Hills at 0700 and then we headed north. The first step in our journey involved walking around the Mughese Forest Reserve, which is a cloud rainforest reserve here in Misuku. The forest reserves have been here for many years, but cultivation steadily encroached upon the forest during the period of government management. Recently Malawi’s forest service has switched to community-based management of the forest reserves, and has attempted to find ways to ensure that local communities are benefiting from the forest reserves. Since these changes have taken place, the line between the cultivated land and the forest has apparently stayed constant. One really important benefit of the forest reserves is that they protect the water that the people of Misuku rely on. You see running water all year here in Misuku, unlike the rest of Malawi (during the dry season in the most of Malawi you see little or no running water). The forest reserve water is some good water too, I have been drinking it untreated all summer and it is probably some of the best water I have ever had.
After passing the Mughese forest reserve, we arrived at the Chinongo coffee pulpery. Things were very busy at Chinongo as there were many coffee farmers there already working on various projects at the pulpery. After Chinongo coffee pulpery, the next stage of our journey was Chinongo village. We stopped to ask for directions in Chinongo, and of course someone decided to show us part of the way to the Songwe (asking for directions in Misuku usually causes you to end up with a guide). Our guide led us down a mountain slope until the trail stopped splitting and he knew we would be able to easily make it to the floodplain. Finally we made it to the Songwe River’s flood plain at about 1145. There were a few houses in the valley, and we ended up meeting the village chief who led us the short distance left to the Songwe river.
One thing that really hit me when I saw the small village (only about 4 or 5 scattered compounds) in the valley was how difficult providing any services to the people living there must be. They are at least 10 kilometers from the nearest road, and it is quite a distance along the road to the health clinic, which is at Misuku’s main trading center. Even the nearest school is in Chinongo village, which is about 10 kilometers. That 10 kilometer walk involved climbing over a mountain. Despite the isolation and lack of resources you still find the greatest spirit of generosity. We could not stay for lunch, so the village chief insisted on giving us some eggs as we left.
The trip back to Misuku seemed so much more difficult than the trip to the Songwe. I swear that the slopes were steeper going up than they were going down. I managed to make it back to my home in Katowo village, which is a 40 minute walk from the main Misuku trading center, at about 1700.
It was a good journey.
Preston