The Travelling Teacher: Malawi A-Z: part 3 (N-S)

Hello everyone,

This is part three of my Malawi A-Z: things I’ll remember and think of when remembering my six years in the ‘Warm Heart of Africa’. You can find part 1 here and part 2 here. Please remember that these are personal views and that it is a light-hearted list: you are only allowed to be offended by the quality of the writing!

Maxi and Mini are keen to learn whether they feature in this blog

A bike 'parked' in the tea
estates below Mount Mulanje

N is for…nsima
Alternatives: Nkhata Bay, Ntchisi

Malawi’s staple food. A maize-based starch with all the nutritional value of a metal staple. A cloud of blandness on your plate which is eaten with your hands when dipped in relish.

Beans are a common accompaniment to nsima

Mangoes are almost as prolific when in season - these
were delivered to our compound and we were able to buy 20 for £1!

The reliance on maize in Malawi is perplexing. It is omnipresent. Any patch of grass will be used to grow towering shoots of maize. Running through them always makes me think of Honey I Shrunk The Kids. Then, as swiftly as it has been grown, the plants are scythed down and the landscape is dramatically altered once more.

A patch of land near our compound

Our first experience of nsima was in Nyika in 2016

Little fish - usipa - are also often eaten with nsima

There are many people who are trying to introduce and champion permaculture in order to make food production more sustainable and varied. Changing the mindset about nsima will be one of the biggest challenges.

This is how tall it can grow - over 2 metres high!

Lunch

There are different varieties of nsima in the country. The one I prefer is from the north: khondowole, made from cassava rather than maize. A slightly nuttier and richer taste. There are plenty of other food options in Lilongwe, far more than there were when we first arrived, so nsima doesn't need to be a regular part of an expat's diet.

Our nextdoor neighbour is amazing with a barbecue

A tawa from Havemore, a proper feast

Waiting for steaks at 21 Grill, a fancy restaurant in Blantyre

O is for…Olympians

Alternatives: outdoors

Two elements to this. One is the actual Olympics. A friend who is the PE teacher at school is also the track coach for Malawi’s athletics team. He managed to get one of his proteges qualified for Tokyo. One of his main takeaways from being in the Olympic Village? The fact that you could get just about any food at any time. We’re still waiting for Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce to be as good as her word and come to Malawi in the near future.

Coach Pach in front of the Olympic rings

Back to his day job, trying to rouse
mortals such as myself after exercise

The other element is being an Olympian…in a loose sense of the word. One of the fun sporting events in the year is the Lilongwe Triathlon. Hannah would always participate in the Olympic distance.

60 lengths of the school pool was how the Olympic distance started

I always find this pic hilarious. Caitlin, in red, actually won
the event...yet Hannah has inadvertently put
herself front and centre in the photo.

I ended up doing the Olympic distance event this year. Whilst being one of the main organisers. Oh, and on about 24 hours notice.

The cycling section is the longest
distance I've ever done on a bike!

The categories were quite specific - Will and I were
the two Olympic entrants for our category. Guaranteed silver!

It’s an event with potential which will hopefully grow after its three-year hiatus. It would be great for it to have more local participation, though a lack of available pools and decent bikes is a problem.

Finishing the sprint distance in 2017

This was during a 5 minute break between finishing and
then having to help sort out the raffle at the event

Olympians...assemble!

P is for…power (or lack of it)

Alternatives: police

When we first arrived at our house in August 2016, we had no power. It was a sign of things to come, particularly in the first and final year of our time in Malawi.

A common sight in the first few months: a candle
burning dangerously closely to our mosquito net!

Electricity works on a top-up system here. For some reason,
we had to use this old-style meter for five of the six years.
This meant there was one place in the whole city where we could buy power.

Malawi generates almost all of its power from hydroelectric dams. Simply put, they don’t produce enough power. As Malawi’s population grows and becomes more urbanised, resources will become ever more stretched.

Power problems are often reported digitally...any irony?

This? Oh, this is the main supermarket in the city. Without power.

Some would call this romantic.
Others would call it annoying...

There are ways of adapting. We had solar panels to charge phones, a portable power pack to plug into the Wi-Fi router, a regular supply of candles and torches and more. In recent years, schedules have been published so you know when you won’t have power, and therefore know when you can or can’t use an oven and when you’ll need your gas stove. Not having power also makes you more likely to do things which don’t need power, which can provide a welcome break from the screen and technology.

We lived in B, so on this day would know that
we wouldn't have power in the morning.

Distance learning: dangerous for a teacher!

The most important back-up for power loss, however, was the compound generator. We had no control over its use but also didn’t have to pay for it, unlike teachers who lived on their own property. It would usually come on for three hours in the evening if that was when the power would go. Not great for the environment for all that diesel to be burned but arguably better as many people wouldn’t be using any power at that time.

Life before the generator

No power forced me to be outside more
often and enjoy sunsets such as these

Q is for…quizzes

Alternatives:

Quizzes at The Shack, where we would also play volleyball, were a once-a-month event. The standard of competition wasn’t particularly high. That’s the main explanation for the fact that we won almost every quiz we did at The Shack.

They were often themed - we crushed at the '90s night

Winning on our quiz debut in 2016 at Living Room

Before that, quizzes were at a place called Living Room, before they stopped hosting after a couple of years. The funniest part of both events was the fact that we always wanted to get third prize (a bottle of Malawi Gin) rather than the winning prize (often a bottle of Jägermeister, more recently a bottle of cheap sparkling rosé).

A bottle of Jager that no one wanted. As it was Christmas,
we then went around every other table giving them shots of the stuff.

Prizes. Only one was worth having...

We found them a nice way to spend a Thursday evening, even though it often took us well past ‘Malawi Midnight’ on a school night. Whether other teams or the quizmasters appreciated it - with one win being prefaced by ‘It’s the f@$*ing teachers again’ - is another matter!

The Shack hosted other things as
well, such as this Mafia Night

R is for…rooibos

Alternatives: rainy season, rock art

Roobois (ROY-bosh) is a herb which is made into a popular tea in areas a bit further south of Malawi. It’s one example of culture imported from South Africa and its neighbours. It also makes a brilliant iced tea which is perfect after a long morning run (see S).

I actually can't find a single picture of a rooibos iced tea so this will have to do.
We did tea tasting at Satemwa. A kid with us couldn't quite grasp
the rules, meaning we probably sampled more of his saliva than different teas.

Example of good import: decent chocolate! Hannah swears
it's different to British Dairy Milk. I'm...not that bothered...

Many imports from SA are sold at extortionate prices at Game

The country’s proximity to South Africa has made living here quite easy. It has great wine and cheese which is regularly sent north. The standard of products from SA is also a bit higher than those made locally.

In the final year, we started buying independent South African
wines as part of a group - most were a lot better
than the rubbish in the supermarket!

Well, sometimes the standard is higher...this was an
imported fridge, the door to which fell off
during a weekend stay at this cottage.

I tried a rooibos cappuccino once in Cape Town. Never do that to yourself.

Don't do it. Seriously.

S is for…Six am on a Saturday

Alternatives: Shake Shake, school trips, Satemwa, safari

It used to be 6:30…

...until we got outvoted and moved to a 6am start to beat the heat

Running through the maize in rainy season

This is something I’ll miss a lot. Our group would run about 16 km (about 10 miles) through different parts of the city each Saturday morning. We would usually leave from Land and Lake, a cafe in the southern part of the city.

Within a few kilometres you can seem
like you are completely out of the city

Land and Lake: our usual Saturday morning home

One of the many great things about this was that no two runs were the same. Depending on the time of year, the same route could appear markedly different. We also ran along pipes and maize fields, got local transport across bridges which had been destroyed…

Running in the Lilongwe Nature Sanctuary

Due to a spate of robberies, the police removed the
bridge spanning this waterway. This was the replacement...

Malawi is the first place since living in Korea where I’ve made good friends who didn’t also work at my school. The Saturday morning runners were the main reason for that. I’ll keep trying to have my post-run scrambled egg bagel and rooibos iced tea (see R) in the future!