Rural Leaders ― a Travel Log Vol. 13

A journey to meet ARI graduates in Zambia & Malawi, 2024

We are sharing with you a series of travel logs written by ARI staff member Steven, who visited Africa in August.
The first graduate they visited in Malawi was Enet (2013 graduate), a “farmer leader” who is putting into practice what she learned at ARI, teaching others, and making positive changes in the lives of her neighbors and the environment of her village.
Let’s get started on our trip to Africa!

【An African journey to visit ARI graduates, Day 14】

Let’s go
This morning, we set out from Lilongwe for Salima at about 10:00 AM. Distances in Malawi are not as vast as in Zambia and the roads tend to have two states of condition – pretty good and pretty bad. Much of today’s road was pretty good but we also hit some pretty bad spots. Kai was feeling better but not great. He decided to skip the hospital in Lilongwe and go to the clinic in Malindi where Mac lives.

Park and wash
Before heading out of the city we stopped at an unofficial money exchange agency, that is, a guy in a parking lot. MacDonald had contacted him by WhatsApp and arranged to meet at a certain place. The bank rate was 1,700 Malawi Kwacha to the dollar, but the street rate was 2,400. Quite a big difference. Parking lots, by the way, can also be car washes. Savvy entrepreneurs, also known as guys with sponges and buckets of water, will wash your car while you are shopping, including cleaning your floor mats. It was here in this parking lot that we also met Veh (2018 ARI graduate). She had just come off her early morning shift at the radio station and wanted to say ‘hello’ while we were passing through, though we would be seeing her again later. While chatting with Veh, I bought some paintings of Malawi village scenery from a guy walking around selling them, because, you know, this parking lot was a happening place and why not buy a couple paintings here!

Finally, we made our departure and were immediately stopped by the police. What was the offence? Turning right out of that parking lot onto the road was illegal, explained the policeman. When Mac pointed out that there is no sign whatsoever indicating “no right turn,” the policeman said, “but it is the law and ignorance is no excuse.” This just raised a huge number of question marks in my head, because, well, think about it. A cop can just say anything is the law and what can you do about that? Mac called it “government fundraising” and knew how to handle it. The fine was 20,000 Kwacha, but somehow the policeman could be “negotiated” down to 10,000 (about $4). This is just small example of what Malawians have to deal with every day.

Boring stuff about roads
I heard from Mac that the roads are built by the Portuguese, which came as a surprise to me since the Chinese are the ones building the roads in every African country I have visited. Forms of taxis include motorbike, bicycle, and as many people as you can fit in the bed of a truck, with a guy yelling out where the truck is headed. Surprisingly this last version of taxi attracts a lot of people, including old folks who might find it a rough ride. I’m guessing the price is good, or maybe there are no alternative.

Improving lives right in the village
Mac took us across the narrow width of this elongated country toward Lake Malawi in just a few hours. It was in the Salima area that we met Enet (2013 ARI graduate). When Enet returned from ARI, she found she no longer had a job. This is not how things are meant to be regarding agreements with ARI, and it was certainly a hardship for Enet, but she has come around and found herself a livelihood in farming.

The first person she wanted us to meet, even before going to her house, was her “First Farmer.” This is a woman named Esther Lubani who is her friend and the first person she shared her ARI learning with. Under Enet’s tutelage, Esther started raising goats, for the milk, the meat, and … the manure. The goats are kept in a homemade pen with a raised floor. Keeping the goats on a high floor is more hygienic and makes it easy to gather the droppings, which fall through the purposefully placed cracks between the boards. You can immediately see when farmers have stopped relying on commercial fertilizers by how much they value animal manure. Esther now has 45 goats (which is a LOT) and uses the manure in her corn field. When she first started this practice, she noticed an immediate improvement. This year she harvested 92 bags of maize on two acres, despite the drought. She proudly showed us the bags of maize stored inside the house. The neighbors have taken notice and come to her to learn how she can get a good harvest when the rains are so poor.

Her success on the farm has meant extra income into the household that has been put to good use. She has purchased a power rototiller “which helps a lot” and has no problem with her children’s school fees, include one now in college. She has also bought a refrigerator, a sofa set, and many other household items you or I might take for granted, but the average villager can’t afford.

Esther is very thankful to Enet for “improving lives right in the village.” “We did not hesitate to try Enet’s methods,” explains Esther, “because she was doing the same thing in her own fields.” This last statement from Esther showed me how much of an impact a “farmer leader” can have in a community. A farmer leader, to me, is a successful farmer who relies on their own farming for their livelihood, but who connects with the whole community, teaching them and sharing techniques. It is a powerful model.

A farmer leader
We headed over to Enet’s house for the wonderful lunch she had prepared. There was also much to see and learn on her farm. Enet’s husband, who is also Steven, came to greet us right away saying, “Enet transformed me!” They started organic farming as soon as she came back from ARI, but the first year the harvest was low, and this caused some disagreements. The second year it increased, and the third year it was even better. Now they are purely organic farmers, and the neighbors have started following suit. “In this community, no one gives you manure,” explained Steven, “but before, we could just take it from everywhere.” They save a lot of money by not buying fertilizer and they have even started selling their manure. Last year they sold 141 bags of animal poop!

Steven is a schoolteacher at the nearby village school, but he “doesn’t depend on it.” This means that it is not his sole source of income, which would be very small if it were. They are making money from the farm. The family raises pigs in a khola (animal shelter) near the house and there are about 20 pigs there now. Before, there were 100 and when he sold 35 of them, he had enough money to buy a car, which unfortunately was in an accident, so they sold it. Now they rely on a donkey cart, also purchased with profit from the pigs. And even the house they had was the result of their farming successes.

Their main feed is maize bran, which due to the drought has become scarce. People were eating the bran rather than selling it as feed, and so 40 of his pigs died from lack of feed. He plans to buy a polisher and miller so he can make his own feed. He will also grind all the neighbor’s maize for free, if they leave the bran with him. This is quite a good deal as maize grinding is quite an expense for a family farmer. Despite the setbacks he has had with rearing pigs, he feels it is still very profitable, pointing out that they give birth to multiple piglets two or three times a year. He didn’t mention anything about swine fever, so I hope he will not have to deal with that, or that he knows how to reduce the risks.

We love manure!
After lunch, Enet and Steven took us for a tour around the farm and school. We started with the beautiful line of trees they had planted as a pathway up to the house. These trees made the property feel fresh and clean and I wondered why there are so few trees around the homes of the villagers. Enet’s was the only house that had many trees. It made me realize how barren and dusty the villages are and why our graduates encourage and practice tree planting. It’s such a simple way to improve the quality of life. Next, we moved on to compost piles composed of different materials, neatly labeled for our sake. One pile was compost made from plant materials, another was compost mixed from animal manure, corn husk, and ash and kept in pile for 21 days. This is a local composting technique they call Ndoma Phu.

Next to the khola were several bags filled with pig manure. I love it when farmers show me their animal poop with a big smile. It’s like they are sharing a deep secret. The last pile was labeled ecosan. Ecosan stands for ecological sanitation and this compost is made from human manure from their ecosan toilet. Other graduates Malawi work in an organization called Hygiene Village Project, which promotes ecosan toilets, and I wondered if Enet and Steven learned this from them. These toilets are very simple in design and don’t require water. Just dig too deep pits. Use one pit until it is full and then switch to the other pit. After each use you should throw in some soil and ash to reduce the smell and risk of bacteria. When the first pit is full, seal it off, wait six months and, voila, you have safe compost – enough for one acre of farmland. This is the compost they were showing us – with that “secret” smile!

After a look at Enet’s vegetable garden, surrounded by the mandatory fence to keep animals out, we headed toward the school. It is interesting to see how in this part of the world, you fence the vegetables instead of the livestock. On the way, we passed a tree that was growing diagonally. Enet uses this tree to teach children about tree planting. The tree is bent, she says, because you kids climbed it and destroyed it. But trees are living beings that can feel pain, it is up to us to take care of them. At the school, there was a whole forest of Acacia trees, planted and cared for by the schoolchildren. This was one of Steven’s initiatives. Another was a banana farm, planted in soft soil which has been enriched with compost. It is in the process of being fenced in to protect it from marauding goats. Steven has a strong sense of caring for the environment and his actions have a big impact on the students. He is often asked to visit other schools to assist them in planting trees as a start to building greater ecological awareness.

They wanted us to meet neighbor pig farmers who were following in their organic farming footsteps, but alas, time was running out and we still had far to travel. We helped out Enet by carrying some goods (as well as Enet) by our car to a small shop she has in town – another one of her many initiatives!

More Malawi learnings
At one point as we were driving along, some kids stood on the road waiving long branches. It was clear they wanted us to slow down or stop, but for what reason? Mac explained they had filled potholes along a short stretch with dirt and now wanted some donations for their efforts. I’ve seen this in other parts of Africa, and it seems like a clever initiative, but the locals don’t think much of it. They would rather have the government do its job of keeping the roads in good condition.

The town of Mangochi lies at the southern tip of Lake Malawi, from which flows the wide Shire River, spanned by a beautiful bridge built by “the people of Japan.” It has a high Muslim population and indeed I saw many people in Muslim dress. Mac said that education is low in this area because young people go to work menial jobs in South Africa. Since South Africa is viewed as a place of high rates of violent crime, Mangochi residents claim their youth are bringing this bad culture back to Malawi.

Njala Resort
From Mangochi it was another hour on one of those “pretty bad” roads to MacDonald’s home in Malindi. Enroute, we crossed two more bridges, which were definitely not built by the Japanese. I said a prayer of thanks each time we reached the other side!

It was dark when we reached MacDonald’s place, which is RIGHT ON the edge of Lake Malawi. We were greeted by his wife and two of his four children. Noriko, age 13, was born just after Macdonald had returned from ARI and her first words to us were Konnichiwa and Hajimemashite. Nandy, age 2, is the youngest, and was quite unexpected. I believe she runs the household.

Kai’s fever was up, so Mac called the local clinic, which is run by the church, and though it was late in the evening, two staff came to give him a checkup. The place was clean and sanitary and well equipped. They took some of Kai’s blood and ran it through a sophisticated looking machine and the diagnosis was that he didn’t have malaria, or any other big problems. It was just a cold for which he was provided medication on the spot.

Back at Mac’s house a nice supper was waiting for us on the veranda. The lake was still but the air was filled with the shouts of fishermen that went late into the night. Kai felt much better, knowing he would be able to rest all the next day in this place I dubbed “Njala Resort.” Njala Banda is MacDonald’s real name, or at least a part of it.

Written by Steven Cutting (Graduate Outreach Coordinator)
Travelling with Kai Shinoda (Admissions and Recruitment Coordinator)

Click here to read the series of articles

Vol.0 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Prologue】

Vol.1 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 1-2】

Vol.2 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 3】

Vol.3 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 4】

Vol.4 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 5】

Vol.5 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 6】

Vol.6 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 7】

Vol.7 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 8】

Vol.8 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 9】

Vol.9 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 10】

Vol.10 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 11】

Vol.11 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 12】