Ntchisi

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NOTE: My internet connection is too slow to upload photos, but I'll make sure to upload a handful when I get to a faster connection.

Ntchisi

This is my first post in a week because I've been getting myself acclimated to my new home - Ntchisi, Malawi. According to the Malawi guide book I bought, "One Malawian described Ntchisi to me as the most remote town in the country … There are a few resthouses, and even a rather well-stocked PTC-supermarket (think more in the size of a gas station food market) and… well, that’s Ntchisi." The travel writer for this book is dead on.

We're staying in a house that used to be used by British VSO workers, and is actually pretty close to the "downtown" area. For a picture, the downtown area could be described as a stretch of stores about as long as South University in Ann Arbor, but only from Espresso Royale to No Thai - and this is the largest trading post for miles. Also, don’t really think of stores, but rather 8 foot shacks, many with tin roofs, which dot the one stretch of paved road for miles in any direction. The house itself if pretty well set up - I even get my own bedroom - and we have running water and electricity, at least in theory. Since this place is so remote, electricity and water consistently turn on and off; to provide some anecdotal evidence last night our power randomly shut off for hours and we haven’t had any water for about 12 hours straight now.

My First Week of Field Work

For my first week out in the field, I’ve basically been traveling around the rural countryside by local transportation to reach isolated trading posts (even more so than Ntchisi) and extremely remote villages.

On one day, I rode for a total of about 3 hours in the back of a matola. Now, a matola is basically a pick-up truck converted into a public transportation method which is extremely helpful for people looking to move large amounts of maize, tobacco, or whatever else. The thing is, the first time I rode one of these there were a total of 21 people in the back of this truck! Just try to picture one white kid - me - in the middle of this terribly cramped matola bed; on the one hand it provides a great story, but on the other it isn’t exactly the most comfortable ride of your life.

Another day, I rode bicycle taxis for about 5 hours; for these imagine a standard rickety one-speed bicycle with a ‘seat’ for passengers to ride on in the back. Since I am so much larger than most people here, I have actually developed a reputation among the bicycle taxi providers as being ‘that heavy mazungu.’ I was so heavy, and dirt roads we were traveling on became so steep at points, that we actually had to get off the bikes and walk up the hill (once the downhill was so steep we had to walk downhill as well). After 5 hours of this in a day, I can promise you that I was quite sore.

I have a few more stories I could share (I met one of those Nyao dancers on the side of the road, wouldn’t have guessed they talk in a high voice like I do when I imitate Jenna wanting to go to the chocolate factory) but I’ll save those for a different time. It looks pretty likely that I’m going to be able to travel and - sorry Mom and Dad - I think I’m going to spend a week in Harare, Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls. In Lilongwe, I made pretty good friends with an MSF worker from southern Malawi who said that those places were musts if I was in town.

No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.

And as one final thing, as I’m probably always going to do with this blog, is to try to keep everything in perspective.

Who was it that made that fantastically ‘liberal’ statement? Adam Smith, the great founder of modern economics; the whole quote being, “What improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconveniency to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.” As our society moves into an increasingly globalized era, we cannot forget that the concept of we does not stop at our borders, and that billions still live in what would be considered impossible levels of poverty in the United States.

Best,

~ Jon

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Comments

[Larissa White]

Sweetness
I love when you are in your travel mode...you are so philosophical...and I love how you are comparing lots of things in your blogs to Ann Arbor. Makes me think you are writing this aalll for me! haha jk. Congrats on having so many cool experiences already. Keep em up! Larissa