My location… ABRIDGED
Country: Malawi
Boma/District State: Chitipa
Area County: Kameme
Village City/Town: Kenya
Above is my new home’s location… in U.S. terms. Basically I am as far North in Malawi as you can get. I live in a little valley wedged between beautiful mountain ranges. My area borders Tanzania and Zambia- and in on bicycle (or if you walk like they do in SF’s Financial District) you could easily visit all three in one day.
After three months training in Kasungu (the flattest area of Malawi) I was DYING to get some hiking time in and explore my new home. Luckily, within one week of Britney and I arriving to Kameme, we already had a hiking date with the village medicine man, Mishik!
I know you’re probably picturing an old man dressed in robes with some type of staff with an unidentifiable skull adorned on top of it- or at least I was- until I met Mishik. Mishik is in his 30’s and worked with the prior environment volunteer contributing to a “Medicinal Plants in Malawi” book. The two of them hiked all of the surrounding mountains identifying, picturing and collecting plants that can be used as traditional natural medicine. As a P.C. volunteer, I will have the opportunity to learn about and make my own natural medicine at ANAMED (Action for Natural Medicine) training in a couple of months. Unlike the U.S. where Western and Eastern medicine often has a hard time collaborating (to put it lightly), lack of resources at health centers and premeditated village beliefs often lead to patients being recommended to see the “Sinanga” (medicine man) BY THE HEALTH CENTER!
The fun thing about hiking with Mishik is his ability to identify most of the plants we pass. I feel like after these next two years working with Britney (environment volunteer) and focusing on being more aware of the resources around me my appreciation for nature will have changed a lot. Hiking in California (aka “The Shire”) was normally an opportunity to escape everyday thoughts and gallop around like mad people. It was less of an appreciation for what was IN the area and more of what was NOT. In my opinion neither is wrong or right, just different ways of enjoying time amongst the trees.
But I digress; the attention to plant life was not the only differences between U.S. and Malawi hiking. I can best describe the difference between the two in the visual representations below.
United States:
Malawi:
(Sorry these are so bad… I had something better but internet wouldn’t load)
That’s right, Malawians don’t believe in switch-backs (or trails for the most part). A hike that Britney and I approximated would take the better half of the day ended up taking one hour.
Fortunately, whatever uncomfortableness we experienced during our 90-degree trek was immediately made up for by the beautiful view of our new home we enjoyed as soon as we got to the top.
For as hurried as the hike up felt, as soon as we reached our destination the three of us found “rocks with a view” and saw for the first time all of Kameme, my new home for the next two years.
Mishik pointed out the different villages of Kameme (spread throughout the valley between the mountains) the range to the right and Songole River that stood as the border of Tanzania and the ranges to the left that were in Zambia.
I am currently writing this entry during a TDI (Total Development Initiative) meeting with multiple people living wih HIV/AIDS group. A lot of great material (for stand-up comedy… maybe). In case you didn’t know, female condoms make HUGE balloons.
Anyways, back to the topic at hand… my beautiful home.
Living in a border town will definitely have its benefits and challenges. First of all- there are about 27 different languages spoken in Chitipa. Although we were trained in the most prominent, Chilambia, the people of Kameme in my area speak Chineha. At any one time people could be using up to four languages for one conversation. This and the fact that people from Tanzania and Zambia will travel into Chitipa (especially for free services at the health center) means that learning the local language will be very hard. Will I know greetings in 10 languages by the time I leave Malawi? YES. Will I be fluent in one pure language? NO.
Another issue is that Chitipa Boma (“The Big City”) is a 2.5 hour bicycle ride from Kameme. The people of Kameme choose to do their shopping in Tanzania at a border town 7km away. Unfortunately, Britney and I can’t take advantage of this town until we pay for visas so for now our shopping/restock options are limited. (I was just informed that fruit in Tanzania is considerably cheaper, so a visa has just become my priority!)
As far as benefits go, living in Kameme will give many opportunities to work with a lot of different groups. Since Kameme was only recently able to be reached easily by the rest of Malawi there are a lot of NGOs and non-profits interested in working in the area. This means the next two years will be full of collaboration projects, so that is very exciting!
I am currently working on a front yard garden (since everyone in Malawi grows their own food) and some other house projects. Blog post with photos of my home (hopefully) will be up soon!
Izzi Goes To Malawi 