Fish, part 3

One of the highlights of our trip was our two–hour boat ride on the Shire River. We got a chance to see fisherman first hand. Two or three men or older boys man a small wooden boat. I believe that the boats were similar to what I would call a row boats with one man standing in the stern (back) working the fishing nets. We saw several fishing boats during our two–hour cruise on the river.

We also saw large groups of people at a couple of sites along the river. According to both Luzu and our captain, the people gathered at these sites were wholesalers or distributors. The fishermen sell their catch to these wholesalers or distributors. They in turn, sell the catch to other distributors who then sell the fish to restaurants, grocery stores, or smaller operators who sell at open–air markets. Or they may sell the fish on their own without going through a middleman.

Fish, part 2

On our first full day in Malawi, we went to open a open air market in Malawi. And you guessed, there were lots and lots of fish for sale, sardines and tilapia (or chambo)

mostly. Two things interested us, one was that the fish sellers displayed the fish in very interesting decorative patterns. I’m sorry that I did not take any pictures, so you’ll have to take my word for it. I still have the image of circular patterns of sardines. Real pretty.

More interesting was that the fish on display was not on ice. And there was no refrigeration. We asked our friend at CARD and Luzu about this. Turns out that the sellers and the buyers know just how long fish keeps without ice or refrigeration. Buyers may have coolers and they can purchase ice blocks.

I had chambo, a whole chambo in Zomba. It is quite tasty. By a whole chambo, I mean whole, including the head. I couldn’t deal with the eyes. Someone told me that the eyes are good, but I decided to pass on the eyes.

Fish, part 1

We are big fish eaters, eating fish a couple of times a week. Like many other Americans, I go to the store to by my fish. In some cases, the fish has been prepared in some way, salmon is marinated, crab cakes are made, or fish is breaded. Yes, I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I do not marinate nor do I bread my own fish. We spend a little more for the fish we buy, but it is worth it. One of our few luxuries.

Thanks to federal regulations, I know the country of origin of the fish I buy and whether the fish is what they call “wild” or “farm raised.” It always tickles me to buy “wild” swordfish because I do not think that swordfish is raised on fish farms. But the law is the law. We like farm–raised salmon over wild salmon because farm raised salmon are fatter than their wild relatives.

Sometimes I think about where the fish comes from and the loss to fish populations. I know that I should not eat swordfish, because the swordfish population is severely depleted from over fishing. So, I compromise and only buy swordfish once or twice a month.

And we like to go to fish hatcheries. Don’t ask me why. We just do. Deep sea fishing, well let’s just say I had one bad experience on a fishing boat off of the Jersey shore watching people torture this poor blue fish. I prayed that I would not catch any thing, and I did not. And to this day, I rarely eat blue fish.

So, when I travel, I check out the fish. I know that my Lake in Vermont is stocked with trout. The Rivers near me are stocked with trout. I find out where I can buy good fresh fish, and when the fish deliveries come in.

When I traveled to Malawi, one of the first things that I noticed was fish. Fish was sold by in the open–air market in Lilongwe. Stay tuned for more on fish in Malawi, tomorrow.

Goats

I think that I already written about the large number of goats that we saw during our travels in Malawi. If I recall I wrote about the large numbers of goats that we saw on my second or third day in Malawi.

Fairly early during our two-week stay in Malawi, we realized that Malawians rarely used goats for their milk. Given the great poverty and the attendant hunger and malnourishment that goes along with poverty, some of us wondered why goats were not used for milk. I learned from some of my fellow Malawi travelers that goats are high milk producers. When we asked Malawians that we meet about this, many did not know. Some may have offered that some of the goats we saw were wild, but my notes may well be a little fuzzy on this particular point.

Our friends at CARD offered an answer to the question of why goats were not used for milk. The answer is that most families have cultural resistance to this because in their way of thinking, goats are only for meat. At least one of the agricultural programs in Colleges in Malawi are working on a goat dairy program. But this is on a small scale.

I should add that I don’t recall seeing many dairy cows in Malawi.

Food Security in Malawi

On the morning of our last day in Blantyre (June 25), we had our second meeting of our trip with staff members of the Churches Action for Relief and Development (CARD). CARD is affiliated with the Global Aids Interfaith Alliance (GAIA), working in the southern region of Malawi. The staff was a fount of information on a variety of issues relating to life in Malawi. While we were waiting for others to join us, we had a chance to pick the brains of these CARD staff members. I will write about a couple of the issues that we talked about in the next couple of blog entries.

My notes are a little sparse in places, so please bear with me. We were about 10 or 11 days into our trip at this point. At this juncture, I was mentally exhausted and very homesick so I was not journaling with the vigor and intensity that I was earlier in the trip.

The first item in my notes from that day falls under the broad issue of food security.


The context for writing about food security in Malawi is simple. There is not always enough food, especially when there has been a drought as there was a couple of years ago. Or when droughts are not an issue, excessive rains during the November to May rainy season can lead to excessive runoff and even floods.

Included among the discussion points were:

1. Is there enough food to sustain a family through a drought;
2. Nutritional value of the food;
3. Accessibility of the food, who gets the food, in a particular household; and
4. The right of children.

CARD does the following:

1. Responds to emergencies, i.e. something the people were not expecting such as drought, and floods.
2. Works with villagers on ways that their village can work towards being self-sustaining including: goat production, crop production, and water sanitation.

HIV/AIDS is an added pressure in the case when one income earner is lost due to illness or death.

I was interested to find out that something on the order of 40% of (family) harvest loss of is due to post-harvest infestation in the form of mice and insects. Chemicals are utilized, although I suspect that this come at an added cost that might be out of the reach of many families. A number of natural remedies are used. Ground up leaves from a certain trees or ashes are mixed with the maize to ward off weevils. This seems to work. Ashes are also mixed in with the potato crop to prevent weevil infestation.

One model for rodent control that we discussed could come through communal grain banks. Here individuals come together as a group and construct a brick structure – bricks can be made by hand – with rodent guards. The idea is that the individuals in the group will come up with an agreement on storing and then using grains and other groups. I got the impression that this model is not yet widely used, if at all. But it is an interesting one. And if the bricks can be made by hand and then cured by fire – to stand up through the rainy season, I think that this could be a very cost-effective solution for rodent control.

Resuming blogging

If you have been following my blog, then you know that I have not posted anything in over two weeks. I spent some of this time starting to write some private reflections based on my recent trip to Malawi. But the last of those writings were about ten days ago. I have been in a relatively dry period in regards to any writing. I am not here to go into a prolonged analysis of the whys and the wherefores of this dry period. Rather, I am ready to move on and continue with posts to my blog.

I am not exactly sure what I will be writing about here. It may or may not be about Malawi. I think I am at a turning point in my blogging about Malawi. If I am to post on a more regular basis and, at the same time, take time when I am preparing an entry on Malawi, I might want to intersperse my Malawi entries with reflections on other things.

Power Blackouts and Malaria Medication

By our third or fourth day in Malawi, we experienced our first power blackout. This one lasted about one hour. By the end of our first week, we had experienced three more. All around the dinner hour, at least what was our dinner hour. We tended to eat on the late side, sitting down somewhere around 6:30 to 7PM. Eating out in Malawi, often requires a longer wait for food than I am accustomed to in America. Sometimes we would not finish eating until 9:30 or 10PM at night.

Some places had generators, others did not. At the hotel where we stayed in Zomba, they had no generator. Between the power failure that meant that they could not cook, and needing to take my nightly malaria pill with food, I was not a happy camper. I usually had a package of nuts of a power bar in my bag for such a purpose, but had opted to leave all this in my hotel room. Silly me. The one night I really needed the power bar so I could take my malaria pill, I did not have it. I took the malaria pill about an hour or so after the “designated time”, designated because I was under physician’s orders to leave 12 hours between my malaria pill and my thyroid pill.

Some more time passed, and I started to feel nauseous from taking the malaria pill without food. I mentioned this Don, who is a physician, and he helped procure some bread from the kitchen so I could settle my stomach. It worked, and our food came not long after.

It was not until sometime in our second week that I found out the reasons for the power blackouts. That is, I asked Luzu. We were in Malawi during their dry season. Much of Malawi’s power comes from hydroelectric power. The problem is that during the dry season, there often is not enough hydro power to fulfill the demand for electricity. So, they have scheduled power blackouts that are advertised in the paper. The theory is that, assuming you can get a newspaper, you will know when your neighborhood is going to be blacked out and you can plan accordingly. I forgot to ask Luzu, how the word of the planned blackouts gets around to those who do not have newspapers. Perhaps the radio is used, or failing that there is always word of mouth. In any event, I finally had my answer.