African Wind
Chapter11
The Reality of Malawi I
I went back to the Republic of Malawi after 8 month from my last visit, for support activities by African JAG. My 3rd visit to the country. When I stepped off the plane, it was surprisingly cold. Thought it should be warm by now, but my mistake. I wore pants, 2 T-shirts & a long sleeve jacket over them but it was still cold. South Africa where we stopped by for transit was -1℃. Africa isn’t always hot. Don’t ever underestimate, or else you’ll be in a horrible situation.
Now on this trip, we entered Malawi from its 2nd largest city of Blantyre.And welcomed by a troublesome custom officer at the airport. It nothing rare in Africa, the officer tells me to open the bag with 117 clothes & stationery goods inside, they’re for the children which I have promised the orphanage home to bring with me upon my last visit. “Here they come,” I thought. It’s not that there’s anything inside that’s illegal, so I didn’t mind showing them what’s inside, but it’s wrapped with strong plastic tape to avoid the bag to be torn, so to open the bag will be a lot of work. Plus, the real problem would come after that, which is the custom tax that they charge you without any reason, and such tax is most likely to go into the pockets of the officers…you could avoid getting charged such tax if you give them a little bribe, but I never do that. I’ve actually got into a lot of arguments at airports because of that. It’s not something that happens only in Malawi, it’s something that’s been openly done in a lot of African countries, the worst case is when they take your belongings such as passport & baggage, and wouldn’t give it back to you unless you give them a bribe. Whenever I encounter a situation like this, I always ask the name of the officer. I’d tell them that I’m a media person, and that I would call the authorities of their government and embassy. A lot of times, I actually don’t know the numbers or even if I do, it’s extremely difficult for a call to get thru, but in such situation, it’s very important that you act with firm attitude, and to show them that you have no intention to pay them any unnecessary money. At least, I’ve been able to go through a lot of such troubles by being so. It really annoys me the fact that such act of using one’s authority to easily achieve money as they chew chewing gums is becoming a common thing for them. I’m actually a person who hate mentioning names of authorities & systems for my personal benefit, but I really felt after I start visiting this continent that there are at times you have to use such names as a “knowledge” to fight against such people (=people that use their authority/position). As an additional info, when you get off of the plane, it is best that you finish the immigration at once, pick up your check-in baggages & ran for customs. If there’s a lot of people waiting in line, the airport officers tend to give up fast, being afraid of getting caught doing such thing. At any rate, you should watch out for the airport officers (NOT airline officers), airport police, and the police you meet in town after dark. It’s not that all of them ask for bribes, but sadly, it’s not just few of them that do such thing either (especially Nigeria!!)…so, I performed a great argument with the officer this time as usual, and was able to enter the country without paying any bribe as usual. Poof!...
In Blantyre, I got together with F from Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers. F came to Malawi at the age of 26, taking a break from his graduate school studies. His dream is to work in international cooperation field. It’s been a year and 8 months since he came to Malawai. He is to fly back to Japan in November this year, but with a firm prospective for his future, he works very hard & spontaneously in whatever he does. He speaks fluent English, and he is also fluent in local Chewa language. I envied his ability as I saw him speak with the local children in Chewa language. Although I didn’t even study English since junior high, I’m still far away from being fluent in English thus I don’t have any room within myself to study another language right now…At any rate, he taught me a lot this time, and made me think once again how a “support” should be. I think there are a lot of long ways I could cooperate and work with him for the future.
In Blantyre, I also went to the local market and bought 200kg of rice & 10kg of sugar for donation. At first, they told me the rice costs MWK100 (80￠) per kilo, but I negotiated and succeeded in discount down to MWK60 (50￠) per kilo, and bought 200kg in MWK12,000 ($100).
From the market, I went straight to the orphanage home I’ve been visiting since April last year (2006). When I reached the orphanage home, it’s still time of the day that children are normally there, but saw noone there. The doors were closed as well. As I stood there wondering, the children from neighborhood saw me & went to call Mama(the orphanage home’s principal) for me. Mama hugged us with huge smile on her face, and invited us into the orphanage home. When I asked her where the children are, she explained to me that they are currently suffering from financial crisis, and being unable to serve lunch for the children, they now have to send the children back home at noon. A robber also sneaked into the orphanage home, stealing everything valuable, even the light switches, and they couldn’t turn the lights on. In Malawi, when you need electricity at your house, you need to purchase everything necessary from switches to electric wires at your own cost before you ask the electric company for the electricity to be pulled into your house. It costs a lot, so most of the houses in the villages don’t have any electricity. Mama was extremely happy to receive the 200kg of rice we brought for the children. Children from the neighborhood helped us carry the rice sacks into the orphanage home. A sack was too heavy for them though.
The following day, at little past 11am, we went back to the orphanage home and saw 70 or so children welcoming us. The best smiles & welcoming shouts!! I really feel I’m back in Africa whenever I see children’s smiles.
In this orphanage home, 120 children in ages from 1-6 year old are being looked after. Mama of this orphanage home also looks after 2 other orphanage homes, which make the number she looks after to 300 children in total. Due to the fact that she is only able to achieve little support from the government, all 3 orphanage homes are basically run by donations, although in a situation where orphans are increasing in rapid rate, they are constantly in need of everything. All the staffs working there are volunteers. None of them are being paid, so they don’t necessarily come to the orphanage home everyday. They are lacking of their staffs as well. This time, I brought 117 children clothes from Japan. I bought 100 myself at a real bargain price, and additional 17 have been donated by Tokuyama Baby, the company I bought the 100 clothes from. It was truly happy to see such company agreeing to our project concept, and offer us their cooperation. I just hope that the African JAG Project continue to spread like this.
The children made a line, and had the new clothes on top of the worn-out clothes they wore. Children in this orphanage home are very well-disciplined. They could patiently wait for turns. A lot of children in the country-side villages tend to scramble to get things they’ve been given…
Next came the awaited meal. They told us it’s been quite a while since they last served lunch to the children. What really surprised us was the amount of rice fully-mounted on each plate. Probably a male adult would not be able to finish… The rice was topped with tomato sauce and a boiled egg. I looked at F’s face telling him it’s impossible for the children to finish this plate.
But then…once the lunch begun, children’s appetite turned out to be enormous. A real small child ate up the whole plate in a blink of time. Totally flabbergasting!! I wonder how hungry they were. I just couldn’t imagine to which place inside such small body those mountainous amount of rice could have fit… According to Mama, these children love rice. They normally cook rice like porridge, and add sugar to it. So it was a very special day for them. I stood there agape to the children gobbling up all the rice. Mama told us it was Christmas today for these children.
As we departed the orphanage home, children with full stomach, new clothes & a real huge smile waved their hands and saw us off. Children are so very cute…but something undescribable whirled inside my heart.
It is true that children were happy. I think they really were…but a temporary support like this wouldn’t change the essentials of the problem. 200kg of rice will probably be gone right away. The clothes will probably be worn-out soon as well. What am I supposed to do in order for those children to be able to live on their own…I must think and figure it out again. A strong restlessness took over me. …But then again, I maybe able to figure out ways for an adult to be independent, but what can such a small child could do? Those children know how to survive, even though they are so small. They know that they have to share water amongst themselves. Even if he or she didn’t receive what others are receiving, they don’t complain at all. They live much strongly than I am who lived all my life in the world filled with materials, and they are constantly facing front…I mean they don’t have the time to look backward. They need to survive today, in order for them to be able to eat tomorrow. In advanced countries, you think about your old friend wondering, how he or she is doing. In Africa, when I don’t see a children for a while, I wonder if he or she is still alive…such fact just hurts me bad.
※ Reproducing all or any part of the contents of this site is prohibited without author's permission.
