The lazy blogger finally gets to typing... Warning, it's a long one.

I have turned into a lazy blogger with the surroundings and comfort of a home. For this I must apologize, because we have actually been quite busy. Our days start early, generally before 7:15ish. This may be due to the fact that we are going to bed embarrassingly early. It is inadvisable to be out after dark and the sun goes down by 6pm sharp everyday, so these two factors have turned us into early birds. You will not be receiving any specific time frames however because some information is better left unwritten. I must protect our dignity a little.

As I mentioned we have managed to keep fairly busy. We spent a day at Kristof's house learning all about permaculture. I have studied the aspects of permaculture but never seen it first hand. Wow! In Africa it is the norm to sweep the dirt outside the house. This is to keep vegetation down so that snakes and other animals are visible. But it creates VERY compact soil. It is hard to even poke a whole in the dirt with a stick. So to see a house surrounded by trees, vines, and plants of all varieties was amazing. Kristof's yard started out as the compact dirt that I mentioned. Through a little soil maintenance (a.k.a compost and organic matter) and NO sweeping, he was able to turn his land into a garden oasis. They harvest year round with the help of their water catchment system. In a country that is maize dominated with a heavy reliance on fertilizers, because of their monocrop system, it took my breath away to see his land. He has 3 families in his area practicing his permaculture techniques. One lady, a retired school teacher picked up some of her soil to for us to see...it was a dark, rich, brown color, light and fluffy with the appearence of good porosity. Not the red, compact, dry dirt that dominates a majority of the landscape. It was beautiful soil. Now, I know not everyone may appreciate dirt, but the contrast was fascinating. And since I am of the dirt loving persuasion, the day turned into my own personal heaven.

It seemed so obvious from my Western mindset what the rural poor need to do to solve their hunger issues; switch to permaculture. Unfortunately, not so easy. The people of Malawi don't have room to fail. If their crop fails in a year, for any number of reasons, lack of water is the general scapegoat, they starve. It is unfortunately a very real occurrence. So getting the people to take a risk on a new system is almost impossible. But as I said, Kristof was able to convince three families to convert to permaculture and they were beaming with pride over their creations. It was these people, especially the school teacher, who I believe will make the biggest impact on other Malawians. Unfortunately, seeing a white man preach about a system even with a beautiful garden as proof of his success, doesn't have the same effect as seeing a local with a big smile, a handful of beautiful dirt, and a blooming garden. Hopefully, she will be able to influence her neighbors.

So our day on the permaculture farm was an excellent experience. It left us dreaming of our future garden and pond in a future house in an unknown city. But in my mind the garden was awesome, even if all the other details are still very fuzzy!

Tobacco 101:
We also had the opportunity to go to a tobacco auction. As most of you know, I did fall victim to the addiction of nicotine so seeing the tobacco in a natural form before it is rolled up into a small tube with a convenient filter on the end and eventually tagged with some branding symbol, was pretty awesome. The size of the tobacco leaves was incredible. As long as my forearm and about 6 to 8in wide. And that was the dried leaf.

Todd and I have been battling the world's fiercest cold for the last two weeks. So when we entered the huge building, I was almost suffucated by a combination of an unbelievable amount of mucus that continued to persist in my chest and the thick clouds of tobacco dust. They were trying in vain to keep down the dust by spraying water on the ground from what looked like a backpack fertilizer spray container, but it was just not enough water compared to the amount of tobacco.

It still continues to amaze me that we were able to walk right onto the auction floor. No one stopped us to see if we were authorized to be there. Just because we were white they let us walk everywhere we wanted, including out the back door to look at the conveyor belts moving the tobacco from A to B. That whole aspect of the Africa I have experienced so far, where white skin almost equals entitlement and superiority, is unsettling and continues to make me uncomfortable. I don't know how that mindset will change, but as uncomfortable as it makes me, I continue to simultaneously be fascinated by the whole thing.

The building was full of rows and rows of tobacco bags and hundreds of people performing specific tasks. Men running with dollies packed with 100kg (200+ lbs) bag of tobacco, buyers and auctioners walking up and down the rows bidding and arguing, men grading the tobacco, others tying up the bags with string, etc. This list goes on. The rate at which these men worked was unbelievable. Granted they had over 10,000 bags of tobacco to move by closing time, early afternoon, but as Jeannie explained it was more job security. They could easily be replaced by one of the men waiting outside for a job. Again, my Western thinking saw the mass of people working and easily imagined an automated system with far less people and many more machines. But this would put hundreds of people out of jobs. I keep using the word men but I did see about 3 women on the auction floor. No idea what role they played.

Seeing the whole process was a neat experience. I love seeing where things begin. I saw a picture of a tobacco plant, the actual beginning, but this was close enough to consider it the beginning. Now I know what tobacco goes through before it is wrapped up into a little cigarette and packaged in a tidy little box and labeled with a country appropriate health warning.

We went to Dedza on Saturday for a relaxing day trip. Malawi is much more mountainous then I thought. Not like the Rockies, closer to isolated huge rocky hills. We had a nice hike up to the top of one of the mountain. The view was really nice, yet obstructed by the amount of smoke in the air. The people love to burn the land creating a very hazy sky. We also stopped by a pottery shop. I purchased too many beautifully decorated plates for a woman that is technically homeless. But for now, I think they fit perfectly with my imaginary permaculture garden in our futuristic home. Sunday we had a nice brunch with some of Dale and Jeannie's friends. And that night Todd and I cooked up a feast; a mustard chive stuffed beef filet, scalloped potatoes, red bean and rice stuffed tomatoes and some strawberry crepes for dessert. Dale paired some excellent South African wines with the food. In all, we had a great weekend.

Overall, our time in Lilongwe has continued to be excellent. We leave this Thursday for two nights in downtown Lilongwe and then off on Saturday for a 10 day tour of southern Malawi. I am excited to see more of the country. Todd made some of his signature refried beans, so we are having a Mexican fiesta in Africa tonight! Globalization does have its perks sometimes.

Cheers, E