Malomo

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Malomo

It was a strange moment when I realized that with 99.9%!c(MISSING)onfidence, I am living in by far the worst living conditions of anyone American I know; and I’ve made a few auzungu friends in Malawi…

For the final push of the project I’m working on, we have moved out to a small trading center named Malomo, whose only significance is that it lies about half way between two serious trading centers - including Nkhotakota, see earlier blog post.

Describing Malomo is tough, since first of all, there isn’t a large choice of things to describe, but second of all, a boss of mine once described Malawi as going back in time (yes Jess, I know you read this  ). Well if Malawi takes you back 100 years, Malomo must be as close as it comes to going back to the 1850s in Colorado. In many ways, if you were to try to combine the state of the town in ‘Unforgiven’ with Africa you would probably wind up with something the size of Malomo.

It’s a one block trading center, with a very small “market” off to one side. For food selections, you have your choice of: goat ‘steak’, goat liver, goat intestine, fly covered mini fish, boiled flour, fried potatoes (Malawian French fries), and of course Coca Cola. For after dark activities, you have … hope the power doesn’t go out? There’s no water, inconsistent power, and when we need to send an email we pray to the internet gods that somehow our wireless will work (if you are reading this then apparently it did). And don’t even get me started on the squatter toilet - even our Malawian coworkers refuse to use it - plus, does anyone know how to use one of these after dark? You basically just aim by the smell…

Overall, Malomo is quite the experience. And I am very happy to have been able to live out here for a while, but even happier to enjoy even a cold shower when I get back to Ntchisi or Lilongwe (our current bathing water is growing and I think gave me small warts on my right hand).

I do have a couple good stories to share though…

21st Birthday

That’s right. I’m 21. It was the strangest 21st birthday you could imagine though. I spent most of it sitting in a tiny rest house swatting at moths by head-lamp light drinking beer by myself, hanging out with a 31 year old German and a 26 year old coworker, neither of whom drink. I was damn, damn proud however to have been the reason for the 26 year old to drink her first full beer ever. Didn’t look like the enjoyed it too much though.

A friend of mine was kind enough however to bring out a bottle of Jack all the way from Lilongwe, which I have been drinking straight from the bottle without chaser (increasing the feeling of living a real life Unforgiven; I hope I don’t run into Clint Eastwood’s character).

Printing in Malawi

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So one of the continuously surprising parts of the summer is how the underdeveloped infrastructure and social institutions make some of the simplest tasks very difficult to accomplish. Take this little story for example.

As part of our project, we were training enumerators for our survey project, and I was to write an exam to cover the taught material. The day of the exam, I was going to go print the exam, when I realized that we had lost power in the area for the last few hours, and there was no expectation of regaining power anytime soon. Therefore, I improvised. I grabbed a friend, who grabbed the printer, and the two of us set off walking down the middle of the one road in the trading center with a computer and printer, trying to find a bar with a generator to keep their beer cold.

Then, off in the distance, we hear really faint music. So two auzungu (whities) are walking down the dirt path in rural Malawi with T carrying a printer on her head - as is customary in many parts of Africa. We eventually found a local ‘brewery’ - think stone hut that smells like gasoline - that brews a local liquor called kachasu (warm rum mixed with lighter fluid) that would let us steal some power from their generator for a few minutes to print. The drunks in the corner were confused out of their fucking minds…

Next few weeks

Over the next few weeks I plan on finishing up my work on this project - I am currently in charge of the logistical side of the baseline survey - and setting everything up for the bus to start running in about a week and a half. After that however…

I JUST BOOKED MY FLIGHTS TO AND FROM HARARE, ZIMBABWE, FROM WHICH I WILL ALSO TRAVEL TO VICTORIA FALLS. If you can’t tell I am very excited, Harare for whatever reason is a place I’m really looking forward to seeing and experiencing (FP’s Failed States Index currently has it at 2 which is below Sudan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Then again Malawi is below Sierra Leone and Lebanon, so what does this thing know?) Plus, Vic Falls is on ever list of the Natural Wonders of the world, and is supposed to be mindblowing. I have yet to decide if I’m going to bunjee jump there or not. The current plan is to leave in 12 days, but that is always a flexible date depending on my work situation here. I’ll try to write another post or two before that, but as I explained earlier, our living situation is lacking running water, nonetheless internet!

Hope everything is well with everyone back home. Only three weeks left to Portillos, Chipotle, and any kind of cheese in general…

Best,

Jon

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Comments

[David Widaman]

Awesome!
I can't wait to hear all about this over some beers, my friend. Phenomenal! Good luck in Zimbabwe!