Cultural History - Dedza, Mua Mission, and Chongoni Rock Art

A few hours outside Lilongwe is Dedza, a city that located on the Dedza Plateau at the highest elevation of any city in Malawi. 

It is host to three activities of interest; the Dedza pottery workshop, store, and coffee shop; the Kungoni Center of Culture and Art at Mua Mission; and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Chongoni Rock Art.

Dedza pottery offers a variety of beautiful pottery items, including basic mugs, bowls, and plates, as well as other items, such as salt and pepper shakers, Dutch ovens, flower vases, and even ceramic tiles that are made-to-order for the home. (For more information on the pottery and the business, see here.) In addition, the coffee shop is famous (at least in Malawi) for its delicious cheesecake. Some people claim the cheesecake itself is worth the drive from Lilongwe....

For a different cultural experience, visit the Kungoni Center at Mua Mission to learn about Malawi's pre-colonial history. Not only is this one of the few places that still preserves some original old growth trees in a country suffering from extreme deforestation, but the Center has a museum and offers tours to both visitors and locals. Our group shared a museum tour with a group of Malawian teenagers from Lilongwe would had come to learn about their cultural heritage; an opportunity that simply doesn't exist in the young, urban capital.

And for those who enjoy some nature with their cultural history, be sure not to miss a hike in the Chongoni Mountains to view the famous Chongoni Rock Art sites. There are 127 sites in total, but they are spread out throughout the hills, so you can only view a handful in one day. It is best to use a tour operator for this excursion. Some friends tried to find the paintings on their own and ended up wandering around in the hills for hours with no luck because paths don't exist up there. Even our tour guide picked up two local chiefs on our trip to help guide us to the first site because it is so hard to find.

The paintings are divided into 2 groups; white paintings made by pygmy hunter-gatherers that date from as early as the 1st millennium AD and red paintings made by the Chewa people (the main ethnic group in the country) who moved into the area and displaced the original artists beginning in the 15th century. Interestingly, the newcomers didn't erase the original white paintings, instead painting around and over them.

This evident respect for history and culture is sadly juxtaposed by the disrespect local people have shown for the sites that aren't actively protected by the government. In areas where there has not been a concerted effort to educate the locals about the importance of these sites, people have scratched out, written over, or simply removed chunks of the rocks where paintings were, not to mention leaving trash and burning leaves against the walls.

We were really pleased with the tour company we chose: Small Steps Adventure Tours. The tour cost $70USD per person and we were picked up in Lilongwe at 7am for a full day of driving and hiking. Our guide, Franciwell, was a sweetheart and knew the area like the back of his hand, including the locals.


To contact this company, try any of these:
www.smallstepsadventuretours.com
info@smallstepsadventuretours.com
(+265) 999-773-395/ 888-873-783

Cape Maclear

Since the devaluation, prices in Malawi are rarely stable, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to give an overview and price breakdown of my recent trip to Cape Maclear from Zomba. This will either prove helpful to others looking to visit the area or a good laugh for those who come later and can't find anything so cheap....




As it often is with travel in the developing world, it's neither simple nor particularly enjoyable to make the trip between Zomba and Cape Mac if you have to do it via public transportation. If you're lucky and time it right, you can get on a big bus that provides a relatively safe and reliable ride. If you're not, you get the minibus experience. Also keep in mind that this is no straight shot trip. My itinerary was as follows: Zomba to Mangochi boma bus depot (4 hours); transfer to another bus to go from Mangochi to Monkey Bay and wait while it fills up (1 hour + wait time); hop in the bed of a pickup truck with a handful of others for the ride out to Cape Mac (20-30 minutes).

 Private taxis were also available to take you to the Cape for MK6,500 per car (without negotiating it down), split by as many people as you could fit in the vehicle. On the return, we took another pickup ride back to Monkey Bay and found a minibus going directly to Zomba. This one cost us only MK1,500 for some unknown reason, despite being the same distance and not including a transfer. Perhaps the discount was meant to offset the olfactory trauma we endured from the dead fish tied to the front of the minibus that wafted in the window continuously while baking in the African sun for 5 long, smelly hours....

A side-note: travel by minibus (also known as matatus or dalla-dallas in other parts of East Africa) is a test of endurance, patience, and cross-cultural comprehension for any distance. You are crammed into decrepit vehicles four to a row that is meant to comfortably seat 3 and alongside any number of screaming children, small livestock, foodstuffs, and random men asking for your phone number...repeatedly. Multiply that by the approximately 5 hours it takes you to get to Monkey Bay and you have yourself a personal test of will. (Luckily, the lake is THAT beautiful and enjoyable, so it's worth it in the end.)

Once at the lake, we stayed at Mufasa's for MK2,500 per night, which got us double occupancy rooms with bed nets and access to  dorm-style toilet and shower areas. It is also literally ON the beach with a gorgeous view. I only ate breakfast there and it was tolerable, although I've certainly had worse in this country.






I assume that the trip for people living in Lilongwe and its surrounds is much less arduous. Regardless, Lake Malawi is not a sight or experience to be missed, no matter what the trials involved in getting there. In the long run, what's a little dehydration, fish odor, and, 5-7 hours of cramped travel when you get to swim it all off in a gorgeous lake infested with shistosomiasis? I mean, there's a pill (or 3) for that.... :)

Beautiful Zomba

Just a few shots of my beautiful adopted home.

Roughing It, But Not Really

When moving to the developing world from The West, it is assumed that your life will be very different from how you are used to living: diseases are more common and more dangerous; infrastructure is less developed; sense of time and urgency is, ahem, 'more relaxed' (read: really, really slow); feelings of isolation are common, etc.

What do all the above have in common? They are negative impressions. What many people fail to consider when contemplating the differences between "Here" and "There" are all the good, fun, and just plain random ways that your life changes when you leave your country and your culture and move to someone else's.

One of the first and most important lessons I had to learn in Malawi was how to deal with the drastic change from being a poor person in a rich country to being perceived as a 'rich' person in a poor country. In other words, I am white, therefore I am wealthy. I'm not going to deny that I am a heck of a lot more well off than many Malawians; it's more that I perceived myself very differently at first than locals do here and it was quite a shock to realize how different my lifestyle was going to be for the next year, both from what I am used to and from how I could see most people live here.


Probably the best example of how life changed for me on a daily basis is the services of a maid and a cook that I inherited upon moving in to my organization's swanky guest house. The maid comes every week day and the cook supposedly comes MWF, although, in reality, he shows up randomly. Contrast this to my former life in Boston, crammed into a tenement with 3 others and struggling to find both time to cook and room in the refrigerator for said food (a big deal, mind you.) I spent weeks feeling guilty about any mess I made in this new house, even though the out-going fellow pointed out that the maid work for expats is considered a coveted job here. I have no reason to not feel guilty about the cook; that's a privilege even most of my co-fellows don't have. :) 


Another change was the instant celebrity status I achieve simply by walking around with white skin. This is especially true regarding children, who absolutely LOVE waving to azungu (white people) and screaming, "HI!!!!!!!!!!!" as you pass them, no matter how far away you are from them or if you are in a fast-moving vehicle. It was rather disconcerting at first to have so much attention paid to me simply for looking how I look and I now have a greater compassion for the pervasive feeling of 'otherness' that minorities in my own country must feel at times. These same kids (and their much-less-cute teenage counterparts) will also sometimes demand, "Give me money!" in addition to the waving, but it is mostly said in jest and accompanied by giggles because they know they are being naughty.

The last example I will give now of a pleasant difference between Zomba and Boston is the change in eating habits I have been forced to adopt. While pre-packaged, processed foods reign supreme in America, it's all about fresh fruit and vegetables here. Granted, I live in a smaller city, so people in Blantyre and Lilongwe probably don't experience this quite as much. In Zomba, you can shop at the local market for fresh produce brought directly from the farm....or you can eat Ramen noodles. There are no frozen vegetables or microwave meals here. (In fact, it's an extreme luxury to even possess a microwave.) There are some chips and cookies you can buy if you are really hard up, but they are pretty gross and super expensive compared to the fresh food. I don't trust the meat in the stores, so I my roommate and I decided to be vegetarians when it comes to cooking our own meals.

All-in-all, while there are many things I dearly miss about America, I can't complain about my life here. Whatever struggles I do experience only serve to remind me how precious the lifestyle we lead back home is and that nothing should ever be taken for granted in this world. All I have to do is walk down my road to see vividly all that I have to be thankful for.