"...the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men..."

I've been premature in previous blogs about the rains arriving.  We had a  ferocious storm in November and some heavy rain in December but nothing lasting.  In Mzuzu, which is in the hills and has an abundance of trees, the rain has been sufficient to ensure the greening of the landscape. Other parts of Malawi are getting greener too.  I went to Lilongwe with Liz who flying to Dar es Salaam and it certainly looked a  lot greener on the road from Lilongwe to Kamuzu airport than it had when I arrived at the beginning of October.

The rains have arrived now.   In Mzuzu, it's still quite warm but there has been hardly any break from cloudy skies and, as I write this blog, sheets of rain continue to fall outside my window.  In a break in the rain yesterday, whilst walking into central Mzuzu through the maize fields that stretch out at the bottom of our valley, I started talking to Brian, who with his mother and sisters was working the family maize plot in the valley.  I asked him if the delay in rains had impacted on the harvest and he said 'no', pointing to the green fields stretching in front of us. 

But late rain is having a major impact in the much drier south and in areas of the north nearer the lake shore where there are fewer trees and less rain fall. Jo, the Temwa managing director and co-founder, has recently arrived in Malawi and says she has never experienced such conditions in the twenty odd years she has been living in or coming to Malawi. It's strange for me because what I see is lots of green.  Jo says crops have been ruined as a result of people planting in the expectation of rains that never came. There is increasing hunger (stores of food that people build up for the non-growing season have been used up) and reduced income, with farmers not having produce to sell at market.  

This has significant implications for Temwa's work.  Temwa's focus is on building sustainable communities in Nkhata Bay North by encouraging diversification of crops, working with communities to reduce deforestation, promoting education through bursaries and other means, helping address the scourge of AIDS, and providing micro-finance loans to strengthen local economies. But changed weather conditions, with significantly delayed rains, affects all of this.  Hunger prevents people having the strength to plant the tree seedlings that the communities have been cultivating;  farmers can't generate income to pay off their microfinance loans; and the general lack of income in the communities means that others who have taken out microfinance loans to set up shops and other trading activity have no buyers.  And there are other factors that add to the problems.   There has been an outbreak of cholera in the Nkhata Bay area, with a number of cases in Usisya.  More generally, the economic conditions in the country are getting worse (there were under 700 Malawian kwacha to £1 a year ago; there are now over 1,000 kwacha to £1) and, together with endemic maladministration, this is affecting the ability of the government to take action on any of the many problems the country faces, including helping deal with the food crisis.  So it's not going to be business as usual for Temwa in Nkhata Bay North.  You can read more about Jo's view on what she has found on this visit in her blog at http://temwa.org/an-update-from-jo-hook-on-the-food-crisis-in-malawi/.

I haven't been down to the lake shore recently so I haven't really witnessed what has been going on and I'm not sure it would be obvious in a casual visit by me.  As I have said before, Malawians that I have met are very positive about life and the hardships they face. You will be told about them and the impact they are having but there is an acceptance that this is the way things are and, as far as possible, people just get on with life.  So we have been getting on with the things we do...

... which takes me back to "the best-laid schemes 'o mice an' men".  We had our Burns celebration on 14th January (wrong date for the cognoscenti but we had to fit it in before Liz's flight to Tanzania).  It was meticulously planned.   Johnny at Macondo Camp had contacted a  piper friend in Canada who piped the home-made vegetarian haggis in via skype.  John Fox, who is from Dumbarton and runs the Eva Demaya centre with his wife,   Jacqueline Kouwehhoven (MP for Rumphi West), addressed the haggis and gave a wonderful (abridged) rendering of the tale of Tam O' Shanter.   We had a beautifully spoken recorded version of Burns's ode To a Mouse.  Liz sang a number of favourites from the Burns' playlist - Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes, Ye Jacobites by Name, and My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose - as well as a few other traditional Scottish songs.  We missed out on My Heart is in the Highlands and, I'm not sure, but I think we overlooked Auld Lang Syne. The whisky wasn't flowing but Tom and I fitted in one before the evening was out.  So the  "the best-laid schemes 'o mice an' men" didn't "gang ... agley"...

John Fox addressing the haggis

Liz singing some Burns' hits

...but that can't be said for Liz's planned trip to Tanzania.  We took the coach from Mzuzu to Lilongwe (6am start - we're getting used to it!) a couple of days after the Burns supper with a view to having two nights in Lilongwe before Liz's Monday morning flight to Dar es Salaam.  After we got to Lilongwe, Fastjet, the company that was meant to be flying Liz to Dar, contacted us to say the flight for Monday had been cancelled but it was OK because they would put her on the Friday flight!  As far as Liz was concerned, that was going to "lea'e (her) nought but grief an' pain for promis'd joy!". She managed in the end to get on a Malawian Airlines flight which left on the Sunday morning.

Elson, the taxi driver who dropped Liz off at the airport, drove me round Lilongwe Capital City on the way back.  What a strange contrast to Lilongwe Old Town which is like any other town centre I've been to in Malawi except bigger, busier, dirtier and less safe.   Capital City was built in the 1970s with South African money to be a new independent capital (replacing the old colonial capital of Zomba). It's got a new Parliament Building, Capitol Hill (where all the government departments are located in identikit  '70s office buildings), a new Bingu Mutharika conference centre and hotel (Bingu was President who died in office in 2012 and brother of the current President, Arthur Peter Mutharika), large modern Reserve and National Bank buildings, a few empty shopping malls, a mausoleum for Hastings Kamuzu Banda (founding President of independent Malawi and an advocate of close relations with South Africa), well kept tarmacked roads...and no people (well it was a Sunday!).

Seat of government

A deserted Capital City

I'm due to fly to Dar es Salaam with Fastjet on Friday.  To Burns, "foresight may be vain" and "the best-laid schemes ... gang  aft agley".   There's an acceptance there that foresight has a role.    Malawian Air fly to Dar on Thursday - maybe I should just cut my losses.... 

New Year on Likoma

Likoma is one of two populated islands on Lake Malawi, some 50 kilometres south east of Nkhata Bay.   It is close to Mozambique - no more than a few kilometres - and lies in Mozambique waters; but it belongs to Malawi.  There are strong ties with Mozambique though with regular travel between the two and Portuguese not uncommon as the European language that locals know.

Sunrise over Mozambique 

The journey to Likoma is an overnight ferry ride from Nkhata Bay, but heading south on this occasion, not north as we had when going to Ruarwe.  The Ilala timetable remains unpredictable. You will recall that on our journey to Ruarwe, we almost missed the boat because it left half-an-hour before its scheduled time.  This time it was in port for hours before its due departure time and we were on board an hour before.  But for some reason it sat in port and left an hour and a half after its scheduled 8.00pm departure time.  We had a further delay of at least half an hour, mid-Lake, when there was a major commotion after some backpackers on the top deck refused to pay the first class fare or move to a lower deck; the captain was in the process of turning the boat back before they  agreed to move.  We remained in first class but the degree of comfort was questionable - it was an overnight journey but the best you could hope for was to find a piece of deck to lie down on and that became difficult when it started raining and everybody had to move into the bar area.  The various delays meant our arrival at Likoma was after dawn which helped when we disembarked; at least we could see where we were going as we climbed out of the boat that ferried us to the shore...although in Liz's case she had the added comfort of a piggy-back onto the shore.

First class sleeping quarters on the Ilala

Our destination at Likoma was Mango Drift, a Mecca in these parts for backpackers (according to the Bradt guide book, although actual numbers don't compare!).   It's on the west side of the island with a view across to Chisumulu (the other populated island on the Lake which lies a couple of kilometres away from Likoma) and beyond that, in the distance, to the Malawi side of the Lake.   It was busy compared to other lodges we had stayed at - barring Mushroom Farm - but that isn't saying much.   There would be three or four people in the bar area at any time, either playing bao (a board game common in East Africa that is not unlike backgammon) or just chilling out on the comfortable seating which, like the bar, is made out of old boats.  Just as at Usisya Lodge, the bar area is built around a tree trunk which adds to the generally exotic feeling. Each night a candlelit table would be set on the beach for dinner and we would have the water lapping up to the Lake shore a few metres away.  On two nights we had live music in the bar - Gaspar Nali from Nkhata Bay who played an extraordinary home-made instrument (half way between a guitar and a double bass with a beer bottle used to play notes) and a local Likoma group who sang a lovely mixture of gospel and African music.  And we saw in New Year beside a fire that had been lit on the beach.

Dinner table being set at Mango Drift

Gaspar Nali playing in the Mango Drift bar

I've written so much about the wonderful landscape of the Rift Valley Escarpment that there is little to add on Likoma which is an outcrop from the Escarpment.  It is more rocky than other places and there are large numbers of supersized baobab trees...but for the rest,  there are the same sandy beaches with rocky promontories, hills climbing steeply above the shore line, areas of dense vegetation, variety of trees, and abundance of bird life.  Village life also appears much the same with villages dotted along the shore, fishing boats everywhere, fish and cassava drying nets, well tended vegetable plots, tethered goats and roaming chicken.

Nya Kaunda measures up in front of a baobab tree

Back on Barra? - a cormorant dries it wings in front of Mango Drift

The main town in Likoma is Chipyela.   This is where the Ilala comes in and shops, bars, community facilities and government offices are located.  But it is hardly a town, more a big village.  There are two particular features which stand out.  One is the small airport with planes flying in on a regular (well, at least daily) basis.  These are most often ferrying in passengers and goods from Lilongwe destined for the up-market Kaya Mawa Lodge (they don't publish prices on-line but the Bradt guide book has them at $335 to $495 per person per night!).  The other is St Peter's Cathedral which was completed in 1906 and which was headquarters of the Anglican Church in Malawi until after the Second World War. It is an immense structure to be found in such a remote place.

St Peter's Cathedral, Chipyela

Chipyela main shopping street

We were four nights on Likoma and wanted a bit of variety so we spent our last night at Ulisa Bay Lodge, around 4 kilometres along the shore from Mango Drift.  We were expecting a car to pick us up but instead we heard a chugging boat engine coming round the promontory from the Ulisa Bay direction.  The comfortable and serene boat journey was a pleasant change from either getting exhausted walking in the blistering heat or being carried on the back of a truck along the bumpy Likoma roads.  Ulisa Bay Lodge  is less backpacker and more traditional lakeside chalets.  The rooms are beautifully decorated and the Lodge itself is very close to Ulisa Bay village which means the bar had locals in it, not just backpackers. We also had a wonderful view of the sunset which was hidden  by a promontory at Mango Drift. We loved Mango Drift but it was good to get a different experience.

Arriving at Ulisa Bay Lodge

Gin (Malawian, of course) and tonic in the Ulisa Bay Lodge bar - Chisumulu can be seen in the distance

Sunset seen from the Ulisa Bay Lodge bar

The Ilala did not disappoint on the way back.  It was meant to leave Likoma at 6pm (or that's what the timetable says) and arrive at Nkhata Bay at 1am.  Instead it left at 2pm and arrived at 7pm; definitely good to arrive much earlier in the evening but a problem for anyone who is naive enough to believe what timetables tell them.

Stopping off at Chisumulu on the way back

So now we are back at Mzuzu again.   I am stuck into Temwa work and Liz spent last week at the Crisis Nursery and is starting back at Wongari School today - though only for a week after which she disappears off on her trip to Zanzibar!  Our valley is becoming increasingly green and lush as a result of the rains and the Temwa compound garden is in a productive state - maize cobs, aubergines and we hope shortly to be getting avocados.  Gift, the Finance Administrator, brought in chickens he breeds at home and we had a freshly slaughtered chicken for dinner.  Mpatso (Gift) and Chiwemwe (Happy) had their kittens before Christmas; they kept them hidden in the innards of the sofa and armchair they had chosen as birthing places but  Mpatso disappeared a couple of days ago with two of the kittens and we don't know where they have got to.  We are hoping for their safe return.

How green is our valley?

Oversized aubergine in the Temwa compound garden

James and Nkhoma plucking chickens in the Temwa garden

We visited Wellington's house on Sunday morning.  It was an interesting  experience for us - I think people are probably as used to seeing mzungus (white people) in some of the remote villages as in the Chiputula area of Mzuzu that Wellington lives in so we attracted a fair amount of attention.  We received the usual warm welcome at Wellington's house and were given tea and food - interestingly, in what apparently is a Malawian tradition, when the food had been laid out everybody else went out and we were left to drink the tea and eat the food on our own (well we would have eaten it if we had not had breakfast just before we went there).  We were then joined again by Wellington, his wife, his children and an assortment of neighbours.  Wellington's wife and neighbours wanted to find out more about us (Malawians have a touching interest in backstories) but none spoke English so Wellington had to translate which he was brilliant at (Liz and I think Wellington should move into a new career, translator not watchman).

Taking a bicycle taxi to Wellington's house in the Chiputula area of Mzuzu

Wellington, Nya Kaunda and Grace, Wellington's first born, who wants to become a nurse

Outside Wellington's house - his wife is third left  at the back

I have in previous blogs given some of my impressions of Malawian life and hope to again in a future blog. One issue you can't miss is the impact that superstition has on society  (I have just been reading one of the No.1 Detective Agency stories in which understanding local superstitions plays a key role in solving one of the crimes).  There has been more than one story in the Nation newspaper about mob violence following deaths from lightning strikes where individuals have been accused of casting evil spells - in at least one case, this led to the death of the supposed perpetrator.  A possibly more bizarre story which fortunately did not have such terrible consequences was the one on the front page of last week's Nation on Sunday where rioting started following rumours being spread that a local pastor had turned into a snake.   The article is accompanied by a picture of said Pastor sitting on a sofa looking just like a normal human being - clearly the rumours had no basis in fact!

'Snake' pastor looking very much like a human being

The Burns Supper is going ahead at the Macondo Camp on Thursday and we had a practice on Sunday night after dinner - Liz singing Burns and other Scottish songs and others (not me) practising their Highland fling.    Attempts to get haggis have failed but Johnny, who is managing Macondo whilst the owners are back in Italy (having just had a new born child), has found a vegetarian haggis recipe.  The feedback Johnny has  had from others is that the vegetarian version will be preferable to the usual haggis constituents.  Bagpipe and other Scottish music has been downloaded in preparation. I suspect there will be a bit of whisky as well.

Practising for Burns supper on Thursday