Jinger, jam and funerals.
The strawberry jam is finally done although just when I was about to boil it all up we had another power cut. Luckily it did not last too long. I managed to scrounge two jars ... one with a little peanut butter which I gave to Limited and Mbwe and another with instant coffee, which I don’t drink anyway, but which can go into a container when I find one.  For the moment it sits in a mug. We are fast running out of cups, mugs and bowls as they become storage containers. And saucepans for that matter. One is a cake tin and the rest of the jam is in a saucepan. It can be re-boiled and put into jars later. I think I am down to two saucepans available for use.

Limited has asked me if he and Mbwe can go to a funeral between 11 and 12 today. I suspect this is likely to be a common event. Aids is rife in Malawi; the roads leading out of Karonga, to the north, where the mine is, were lined with coffin-making shops when I was there in November. I am sure there are more shops, not less.

We ate out last night. Greg had two guys in town who work for the company so we took them to Blue Ginger, or is that Jinger? I am sure it said Blue Jinger on the menu but then there were a few odd spellings. It is a reminder that while English is spoken here because of British colonisation, it is, for the people, a second language. Limited has better English than Mbwe; no doubt because he is younger. I must remember to speak more slowly and more simply. They are however multi-lingual and one up on me.

Blue Ginger is an Indian restaurant and it is not too far from here. The food is actually pretty good and the naan was divine. We started with gin and tonics made from Malawi Gin which is excellent. At $6 a bottle is it even more excellent. Malawi also produces good coffee, tea, rice and, as I have discovered, honey. Gin, coffee, tea, rice and honey ... the five food groups really!

They don’t have a wine list but instead bring a selection of half a dozen bottles of South African wine on a tray.... all eminently drinkable.

We had vegetable bhaja, light and delicious; the gram flour makes such a crunchy coating; some spring rolls... not Indian I know but delicious and some chicken winglets. The ubiquitous coriander paste was on the table; one of my absolute favourites. There was also something like pickled carrot which was odd but interesting and a screamingly hot orange chilli paste which left my mouth burning after a miniscule, ‘fit it on the top of a match-head’ taste. A lamb saag, rich with spinach; lamb muglai, rich with cream; rice and heaps of hot, buttered, crispy naan.

We dropped the guys back at the local hotel where they were hoping to first get into their rooms and then to be able to get out of them; the door-locks being unpredictable and unco-operative.  However, at least they were well fed should fate decree they remain entombed for a time.

I shouldn’t have worn a white shirt. I told myself that when I got dressed. I seem to have a ‘magnetic attraction’ for ‘food drops.’  I suspect it is because Goddess breasts tend to ‘catch’ such slips while those who are less generously endowed find it ends up in their laps; far more discreet.

It didn’t take long. I knew the turmeric was waiting for its chance. I sluiced off as much as I could with some of my tonic water; enough to look respectable for the rest of the night. When I got home I washed it out and put some salt on it. I have no idea if that helped but this morning when Limited came I explained what I had done... or I think I did. I meant him to take it with the other washing but he immediately rushed off to the laundry and set to work. Normally he would set the table and make tea and toast but today he was on a mission. Not that it mattered; we are perfectly happy to get breakfast for ourselves and only ‘keep up the routine’ because it makes it easier for him.

Note to Self : Remember that when you give a task that it will be done immediately. First be sure you want it done immediately.

LEFT: A Lilongwe street.

It is another gorgeous morning; warm, bright and clear.  The days are getting hotter and the humidity is growing. The birds woke me up again. I have not spotted any of them but I am beginning to note the different calls. I suspect we may have a nest in the bottlebrush tree outside our window. There is some high-pitched tweeting which starts around dawn and joins the medley as background to ‘coo-aaa-coo,’ and something which sounds like a shrill, ‘I see you, I see you, I see you.’  No doubt they do.

And now the crows have come; sleek of feather and coarse of cry. They are large, black and beautiful these birds. It is just after ten. I can hear the guard chatting outside. I think he talks to everyone who walks past and in Africa that can mean a lot of chattering. A wind has sprung up; rustling the ferns outside in the garden and whispering through the bottlebrush. Bougainvillea blossoms are blowing through the door; scattering across the highly polished brick floor.

It is time for coffee and some of my banana cake which is excellent but a little gritty. Is it from the raisins I bought in Joburg; the sugar I bought here or should I have washed the bananas before peeling them? I don’t know, but slightly gritty banana cake is as good as it gets for the moment. I think I prefer weevils. The flour is in the fridge for the moment but I am not sure it needs to stay there. In India it was a must or I would have to spend ages sieving my flour to get most of the weevils out before I could use it. Waste not, want not. Weevils are after all merely protein.

I have made my coffee stronger so I can’t taste the UHT which is horrible, or the cardboard in which the milk comes ... the price of having more taste buds than most people. Powee had fresh milk the other day so I shall get some. At least it isn’t tubercular as it was in India and diluted with potentially deadly water thereby needing a thorough boiling. Compared to India, Africa is easy.

LEFT: Map of Malawi










I am reading Twenty Years of Pioneer Missions in Nyasaland; a history of Moravian missions in German East Africa by J. Taylor Hamilton. It is 100 years since the book was written. How much has changed; how much has not changed.

The earliest known kingdom in the region of Lake Nyasa was the Maravi Confederacy, established by Bantu tribes in the 15^th century. They controlled the territory west from the great lake to the Luangwa River; south to the Zambezi River and east to the coast until the 18^th century.

The tribal empire began to break apart when Arab traders made their way inland from the coast. Local chiefs competed with each other for the growing trade in slaves and ivory. The Yao people who lived south and east of Lake Nyasa began to rival the Maravi in terms of power.

It was slavery which turned European attention toward Africa and David Livingstone, the famous explorer, who took up the banner of the anti-slavery crusade after witnessing horrors along the Zambezi River. Livingstone reached Lake Nyasa in 1858.

Within twenty years the Scottish missionaries had established Blantyre, named after Livingstone’s birthplace and now a thriving commercial centre in Malawi. Livingstone’s goal was to see legitimate trade replacing slavery and soon after the missionaries arrived, the African lakes Company, financed in Scotland, was established.

Because of frequent conflict with the slave traders the British appointed a consul to the area in 1883. Seven years later Cecil Rhodes would be making his presence felt and in 1891 when the Rhode’s company is given charters to administer Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), the  British government takes direct responsibility for the administration of present-day Malawi - to be known from 1893 as the British Central African Protectorate, and from 1907 as Nyasaland.
LEFT: Map of Africa showing Malawi and the old flag of the country. The President decided that a 'rising sun' was not appropriate because the 'sun has risen' so the new flag has a full sun. 

Nyasaland became independent in July 1964, taking the name Malawi. The name derives from the native word meaning 'flaming water' or 'tongues of fire' believed to have been used to describe the dazzling reflections of its huge Lake Malawi.

The first president, Kamuzu Banda, is said to have gotten the name from an antique French map which had a place labelled, Lac Maravi, which, one presumes, in English is Malawi.  Then again, Maravi was the name of one of the original Bantu tribes which seems to be a more logical source. And I would be willing to bet that Banda may have been descended from this tribe. Nyasaland was of course a perfectly respectable name but in Africa Presidents, particularly first Presidents with no Opposition, have absolute power - so Malawi it became.

LEFT: The new flag with it's 'sun has risen' symbol.





Malawi is probably better known around the world than many small African countries because of its famous benefactor – Madonna – who has a habit of adopting Malawi orphans but who also supports many orphanages in the country and who is said to be building a school for girls. A sod has been turned I gather but not much else has happened.

We 'ran into her' sort of, when we were last in Lilongwe; well, we ran into her gaggle of security guards when we left a restaurant one night. Helmets, guns, cars and serious security was the order of the night. Apparently there is a very nice resort just outside of town which she takes over when she is in Malawi. As one does! It is open to the rest of us when Madonna is not in residence.

But, Madonna aside, Malawi is actually doing very well and the future for this small country which huddles alongside one of Africa’s greatest lakes, is looking bright.