Africa 101.8: The Needs of Malawi

When people think of Malawi, they think of dirty children with torn clothing and big eyes. They think of tired adults carrying heavy loads. They think of sick people, dying of malaria and AIDS. They think of the need for food and clothing and medical care. And all of this is very heartbreakingly true.

But while many in Malawi are desperate for relief from all of those things, there is something they need more than all of that put together. They need God.

Malawi is so open to the good news of Jesus Christ, but change comes slowly. As Christ is shared, love is shown and trust is earned, then lives are dramatically transformed. And as more Malawians live their daily lives for Christ regardless of and even in spite of their circumstances, everyone else starts to notice and wants to know how they, too, can have that peace and reassurance in the midst of pain, suffering and death. And so God is able to move and spread throughout a country desperate for Him.

What does it take to see this happen?

Malawi needs Jesus. They need people willing to step out of their comfortable lives, come sit in the dirt on their level, and tell them about the love of Jesus. They need to see Jesus living and active in the hearts of real people who are unselfishly coming to share with them.

Malawi needs people to care. It is so easy to see a picture, watch a television special or read an article and say “Awww, isn’t that a shame. Someone should help them.” But is that really caring? Jesus didn’t see the blind and the sick and give them a sympathetic look as he walked on by. God demands action from His people through giving as well as going.

Malawi needs prayer. It sounds so trite, but who in this world doesn’t need prayer? We all suffer, with much of our suffering brought on ourselves through our selfishness, greed and rebellious choices. Malawi is no different; it is a suffering country that greatly needs prayer.

Malawi needs most the one thing that will never run out, grow old, or decay. Malawi needs God.

Thank you for going along on this journey of learning a bit about Malawi. I hope you enjoyed the information and pray it has opened your heart to other people in need. Give thanks for all that you have, even as you ask God how you might help others less fortunate. Happy Holidays!

Africa 101.7: Esther’s House in Malawi

Esther’s House is an orphanage facility where children without family to care for them can come to receive help. The complex includes girls and boys dormitories, a large classroom, the cafeteria building, worship chapel and an administrative office with private living quarters.

The children in the Residential program live at Esther’s House full time, receiving love and family care, food and clothing, nutrition and hygiene education, school tuition and uniforms, life skills training and English classes, and most importantly exposure to and discipleship in God’s word.

The children in the Non-residential program come to Esther’s House each morning for breakfast before school, and all day on Saturday for a larger meal and various Christian and English education programs. These children also receive school tuition and uniforms and other clothing as needed throughout the year.

Esther’s House also offers a widow program. These elderly ladies, many who house and care for orphans in addition to caring for themselves, come one day each week for a meal and Christian discipleship training to expand their Bible knowledge and strengthen their faith.

Esther’s House was created in a partnership between Americans and Malawians who wanted not only to care for impoverished children and widows but most of all to form a ministry built on sharing the gospel of Christ to the local village, the surrounding areas, and ultimately the entire country.

Africa 101.6: Village Life in Malawi

Life for many of us in America is busy and complex. Most of us have a wealth of choices and opportunities at our feet, but the price of our abundance is often many hours spent working hard to get ahead.

Life in Malawi can be easily classified as simple and basic. Malawians work very hard, but it is not so they can “outdo” their neighbors. They work for the basic necessities of life and survival.


The day begins early in the villages of Malawi. With no electricity or modern conveniences like clocks, the morning starts when the sun comes up. The people rise from the thin straw mats on the dirt floors of their homes to begin the arduous tasks of starting cook fires for their daily meal of nsima, drawing water and carrying it back to their homes to use for cooking or washing clothes and working in the fields to either prepare the land, plant the seed, tend the crops or pick the harvest.

Some stay at their homes to weave mats or remove corn from the cobs or hang tobacco and set it in the sun to dry. During the dry season, many make bricks.

The school teachers head to their classes, the local tailor heads to his sewing machine, and those with wares to sell head to the roadsides or local markets hoping to fetch a price for their goods.

Children run around the village, largely untended and taking care of themselves. They are extremely resourceful and play games with rocks or build toys with scraps of wire and old spools.

Malawians walk to get wherever they need to go. Some of the more fortunate ones own bicycles. The chief is the only one in the village who owns a motorized vehicle.

At the end of the day, the village people come back to their homes. Although some are fortunate enough to have candles, the day is over when the sun goes down or the fire goes out. The people go back inside their largely unadorned homes and lay back down on the ground again until dawn.

Africa 101.5: Food in Malawi

Possibly the most intriguing aspect about Malawi to someone who has never been is what you eat when you are there. Just about any food is available in the major cities or at the resorts for a price, but in the village areas there is a very limited diet for most of the people.

The staple food in Malawi is called nsima (n’see-mah), which is a thick porridge made from their staple food crop, maize. Corn is removed from the cobs, ground twice into a very fine powder, then mixed with water and boiled until extremely dense. The nsima is often molded into patties and always eaten with the hands. It is used to “scoop” up any other food that may also be available as part of the meal.


Other foods sometimes available to village Malawians are rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans, cabbage, tomatoes, onion, bananas, eggs and occasionally meat—mainly chicken and goat. However many of the impoverished Malawians survive on one meal of nsima a day.

Africa 101.4: Animals in Malawi

Everyone always wants to know what kinds of animals are in Malawi. Many assume when you hop off the plane you are gazing at fields of elephants, lions, giraffes and zebras! While it is an engaging thought, the truth is not nearly so spectacular as that. Similar to the United States, there are two different groups of animals in Malawi; I will call them local and exotic.

Local animals:
These animals are the ones that you find in the village areas where people live. Everywhere you look you can find free-roaming chickens, goats, pigs and cows (including on the roads!) I also saw several dogs and a few cats, and of course various birds, insects and snakes.

Most animals are not tethered in any fashion, although I once saw a goat being pulled along by a rope tied to its front leg. (I thought the poor little goat looked pitiful limping around on three legs, but when I asked why they didn't use a rope around the goat's neck, I was met with complete comfusions as to why we would choke the goat so that he could not eat properly!)

Exotic animals:

These animals are the ones that you will find when you go to the game parks. Although the animals roam free within these areas, it is easiest to think of these places like zoos. The animals you find here are animals that most of the local people will never see in their lifetime simply because the game parks are not close to the village areas and there is a substantial fee to enter them.
















There are many different game parks in Malawi. I went to Liwonde National Park and was fortunate to see a number of fascinating animals in their natural habitat: elephants, hippos, crocodiles, warthogs, baboons/monkeys, many kinds of antelope/deer-type animals and various eagles and birds.














In other game parks in Malawi, it is also possible to see animals such as lions, leopards, rhinos and zebras.

Africa 101.3: Landscape and Weather in Malawi

So what is Malawi like? Malawi is a gorgeous mix of many different landscapes:

distant mountains and expansive prairie;

large trees and scrub bushes;

lush greenery and barren grasslands.

In the villages I was surrounded by dirt roads and fields of corn and tobacco.

During the safari I marveled at the array of vegetation, trees and breathtaking scenic views.

On the shores of Lake Malawi, I almost believed that I was on standing on the edge of the ocean. Of course like most places, exactly what you see depends on where in the country you are and what season of the year it is.

Weather in Malawi varies with the seasons, which are opposite of our seasons in the United States. Spring is generally mid-August through October, and summer is November through March. Rains come seasonally as well, corresponding with the summer season. Temperatures reach up into the upper 80’s and lower 90’s but it feels much hotter than that due to the high humidity. April and May are autumn months, and June and July are winter. There is very little rainfall during the cooler time of the year and temperatures can dip down into the 40’s at night.

Africa 101.2: Malawi Statistics

Geography
Malawi is a small landlocked country on the Southeastern side of Africa. According to the CIA's World Factbook, Malawi is one of the least developed countries in the world. It is about the same geographic size as the state of Pennsylvania, but much of the country is swallowed up by Lake Malawi. Only 20% of the land is arable (capable of growing crops), however only a little over 1% of that land is used for the permanent growth of crops such as tobacco, tea, maize and sugarcane.

Population
The state of Arkansas has a population of about 3 million people. Malawi is only about 1/5 the size of Arkansas, yet has a population of about 15 million people. Roughly 45% of the total population of Malawi is children, and nearly 16% of those children are orphans. That brings the total number of orphans in the country of Malawi to somewhere over 1 million children.

Poverty
Up to 65% of Malawi’s population lives below the poverty line of less than $1.00 per day, according to government statistics. As much as 90% live on less than $2.00 per day.

Mortality Rate
There are 13 deaths for every 1000 people each year in Malawi. The life expectancy at birth is 50 years, compared to 78 in the United States. For infants, there are 83 deaths out of every 1000 live births, and 1 in 10 children die before their fifth birthday.

HIV /AIDS
AIDS is the leading cause of death in Malawi. Of the 8.5 million adult population, almost 12% of them have AIDS, or 1 out of every 8 adults. As of 2007, there were 68,000 AIDS deaths per year. Putting that number into even greater perspective, that means 186 adults die of AIDS every day in Malawi.

Since 1991, Malawi has ranked among the bottom 20 countries worldwide on the Human Development Index. Chronic poverty, poor harvests and a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS conspires to eliminate a bright future for the over 1 million orphaned and vulnerable children in Malawi. As the number of orphaned and vulnerable children increase in Malawi, it is proving increasingly difficult for surviving parents, their extended families and relatives who are already under economic hardships, to provide, protect and care for the expanding numbers.

Africa 101.1: Where is Malawi?

I have heard some say it is in the country of Africa. I laugh now, but I must admit I had to dredge up geography from grade school and junior high to recall that Africa is actually a continent. And a really big one at that! In fact, the United States, China, India, Europe and Japan could all fit into the continent of Africa. Africa is not somewhere you want to get lost in!

There are around 50 countries located within Africa (depending on who you ask and how you count), and Malawi is one of the smaller ones located in the southeastern part of the continent. Malawi itself is divided into 28 districts within three regions: Northern, Central and Southern. I traveled to the district of Ntcheu (N’chay-you), technically in the Central region (yet southern part) of Malawi, equal distant from the central capital city of Lilongwe (Li-long-way) and the major southern city of Blantyre (Blan-tire). Within each district are many villages under the jurisdiction of local chiefs, or Traditional Authorities (TA’s for short). Madzanje (Ma-dza-njee) is the village in Ntcheu where Esther’s House Orphanage is located, and the TA is Chief Kwataine(Kwa-tah-hay-nee).

Africa 101: Introduction

Beyond my personal story, everyone I talk to always wants to know more about Africa. Exactly where did I go? What was it like? What are some of the interesting statistics?

In the set of blog posts to come, I hope to address many of those questions with my crash-course Africa 101. I will start with a history lesson, ease into some statistics, and then get to the really good stuff as I talk about the land, the animals, the food, the local lifestyle, and Esther’s House Orphanage.

Join me in this adventure of exploration into Malawi, Africa!

Disclaimer: My information is as accurate as the typical mother-of-four's memory is able to recall...any mistakes are clearly the responsiblity of inaccurate Google information and certainly not in any way a reflection of this writer's sporadic brain function!