My Village

The experience of a lifetime was had at "Mpherembe at Kabwafu at a place called Kapando in Mbalame Village", the best way to describe where it's at. You will not find it on a map but it's somewhere near Mzimba. A very special place and hard working people can be found here. In this dry area much energy is spent finding and carrying water from a 3man-deep open well where it literally takes 3 men to harvest 1 bucket of water at a time. 

My objective for visiting Mbalame Village was to encourage the villages to plant the large amount of Moringa seed that was given to them by a friend of mine. The confidence levels in growing and caring for the Miracle tree is low since they are mostly experienced in maize, ground nuts and tobacco. 

After meeting with Chief Mbalame Ngoma and his congregation, I was taken on a long walk through the area to access the potential for the project. The climate is ideal but the issue of availability of a sustainable water supply is of high priority. A basic training session was held for most of the people of the village and Jimmy, my translator, did a wonderful job communicating the methods of propagating and growing Moringa.

This is not even half of the village people. Notice the large bag of Moringa seed being held by a very proud Mr Komwenda. 

It was decided that the propagation of seedlings would be done in a single nursery area to make watering easier and once the seedling are ready to be planted out, each family will be allocated with 20 trees to nurture and care for among their individual homes. 

 The nursery currently nurturing pine trees is a bit of a concern for me since this is not ideal for the environment due to it's great need for water and are mono-crop species. Bluegums and pine trees have been introduced by Agroforestry who's main focus is to curb the destruction of natural forests and woodlands. They are very present in the Northern region due to a need for sustainable building materials and coal manufacture throughout the country. Without proper management these trees could quickly become menacing to the indigenous vegetation. Woodlots using the Katope Tree could be an alternative solution for each village in this regard.

The nursery

In the shade of the nursery

Brick making on the edge of the neighbours dam. These bricks will come in handy when the Marion Medical Missionaries arrive in November to install a well for the village. Many thanks to my friend Paul and Mr Khoza from the MMM for organizing the installation.

Chief Mbalame Ngoma in the brown shirt and his main men.

A small portion of children attended the meeting

Porridge presented to me by one of the ladies made with maize, ground nuts, soya flour and sugar. I really enjoyed this porridge....Very delicious. 

A goat hotel. The villages keep their goats in these stilted structures to make harvesting of manure more accessible and the goats being goats enjoy the climbing "rock face" effect of their home. The Malawians don't utilize the goats milk, they say it has a funny smell but they do on the odd occasion eat the meat. 

Who let the goats out? :-)

Solar panels are very present in the villages of Malawi powering
only the radio for the 6 o'clock news and the night light which stays on during the night.

Shaking hands with my host, Tenson Komwenda, his wife (in the blue t-shirt). This is the only time I was able to get close to one of the babies. They scream hysterically if I ever attempt to get too close. Apparently they are only used to being around the close nit family in the early stages so when strangers are near, they are very nervous.

Sunrise view from the latrine area on a little hill overlooking a piece of maize cultivated land.

The typical style of packing and storing maize after harvesting.

This sponge plant grows as a creeper around the top of the bathing booth. One of my favourite bathing experiences so far.

5:30am Saturday morning breakfast before departure with Ronald Komwenda. Umqombothi beer is traditionally a Ngoni culture. The beer is brewed throughout the week to be ready for Saturday. Since we were leaving super early we were privileged enough to join in as a farewell ceremony. Tasty and not too high in alcohol content (3%) makes a great breakfast as far as I'm concerned.

Ngoni refers to the Nguni that entered and settled in Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania after they fled the effects events that unfolded with the rise to power of Shaka in the Natal region.

Excerpt from - Sunduzwayo Madise

Umqombothi brewing pot