Subsistence Farming

It may be hard to remember as the ice and snow bear down on you this time of year, but not so long ago it wasn’t uncommon to step into the backyards of someone’s house and see a small vegetable garden growing in the heat of summer. I know my Mom and I enjoy spending time planting, watering and tending to our little gardens, and we certainly enjoy the fruits that come from our labor. Growing fruits and vegetables in Pittsburgh is enjoyable, but what I have come to realize is how blessed I am to be able to garden for fun as opposed to here in Malawi where gardening/farming is life. 

As the rains continue to fall here, the crops continue to grow (thank goodness). A good rainy season is often the key to a good harvest in April. Before the rains come, months of back breaking work go into ensuring a good harvest for the year. Hundreds of hours are spent doing the incredibly hard work of creating mounds by hand to put seeds in. Most of this work is done in the hottest part of the year under the African sun right before the rains begin.

Farming is such an integral part of the Malawian culture. Almost everyone here in Malawi has a garden/farm where they grow crops.  75% of the food that is consumed in the country comes from subsistence farming, which means each family growing their own crops that will feed their families.  The crops that are grown provide the main source of food, and also may provide the only source of income for many families when they are able to sell some of their excess crops at a local market.

Like most things in Malawi, farming has its challenges. The first challenge that it faces (besides being dependent upon a good rainy season) is simply lack of land. 20% of Malawi is covered by the lake. Of the remaining area, only 1/3 of the land is suitable for farming. The rest of the land is covered by mountains, forests, or other rough pastures that are not conducive to good farming.  With Malawi’s fast growing population, the lack of farming area is a serious problem.

As a result of the lack of land many issues arise.  One of the main problems that lack of suitable farming land creates is deforestation. In order to create more farm land, many forests and trees are cut down, resulting in huge deforestation problems across the country. Without wood from these forests, building structures, making fires to cook on, and all other activities that require lumber and wood are not affordable or attainable.  Deforestation also causes problems such as soil erosion.  Another problem that arises because of the lack of land is that families have to go much farther away from their homes in order to find land suitable for growing crops. Individuals may travel miles on foot in order to reach land that they can farm. It is not uncommon to see crops growing on steep hillsides and other marginal lands as a result of these issues. 

If a family does overcome the first obstacle of finding someplace to farm, there are still other hardships they will face. Because the same crops are planted year after year, the soil becomes less fertile. Less fertile soil means the crops will not be as plentiful.  As a result of these issues and others, the government began to subsidize different seed varieties and fertilizers for crops to ensure good harvests in 2005. These measures were put in place after several years of droughts and poor harvests that caused massive food shortages throughout the country. 

Obstacles such as lack of rain/drought, lack of farm-able land area and decreased soil nutrients are what farmers here in Malawi face every season. Fortunately, steps are being taken to improve the farming environment. All of my students here at St. Andrews take agriculture all four years they are here in order to teach the next generation proper ways to build a farm, ways to rotate crops in order to keep soil fertile, and ways to maintain an environment that is supportive of farming (such as avoiding deforestation). 

As hard as it is to see the many struggles that farmers in Malawi face, I am encouraged and amazed by their resilience and hard work. They work incredibly hard to ensure their family has a way to survive. So as the ice and snow continue to fall this week, I encourage you to remember your summertime garden, and as you do please lift all those facing the many obstacles of farming here in Malawi up in your thoughts and prayers.

Merry Stengelmas

By the time you are reading this, my family and visitors from Pittsburgh (my mom and sister and the Stengel family) are safely home and hopefully adjusted back to Pittsburgh’s time zone. I think it is probably safe to say they are missing the warmth of Africa. Having them here for Christmas was the best present I could have ever imagined. It was so much fun being able to share my life here with them. We packed about as much into their 2 week trip as possible, and I wanted to share some of the highlights and pictures with all of you. So here it is: the Merry Stengelmas blog entry. 

Picking them up from the airport was certainly a highlight; I will be the first to admit I cried as soon as my arms were around my mom and sister. I miss my family so much so finally being able to be close to them was so great.

 

We headed from the airport to Liwonde National Park where we would spend the next 4 days going on safari, looking for animals and experiencing God’s creation. It did not disappoint. Seeing animals is not always a guarantee, but we were fortunate enough to see just about all the park and river had to offer. We saw two huge bull elephants, tons of hippos, lots of different kinds of antelope and deer, a heard of zebras, countless monkeys, and even a few crocodiles. We also spent our time at Liwonde playing games, doing a little shopping, driving through the mud, and catching up on all that has happened in the past four months.

From Liwonde we headed north to Lake Malawi. Joining us at the lake was the Ncozana family, who are very good family friends of ours. It was such a blessing to share our time at the lake with them and have all of our families united as one in such a beautiful place. We spent the days swimming in the lake, snorkeling, admiring all the beautiful fish, and jumping off rocks into the clear water. It was so relaxing and such a nice get-away for all.

From the lake we made the 5 hour drive back to Mulanje. While we had visitors, I traded in the little car I normally drive for a mini bus. Eight azungus (white people) in a mini bus with all of our luggage was quite a sight to see. Luckily we had no problems on the drive and made it safely back to Mulanje. We spent Christmas Eve morning attending a wonderful church service at St. Andrews CCAP, then relaxed and enjoyed watching Christmas movies at the local hotel the Stengel family was staying at which had much appreciated air conditioning. We then returned to our home for Christmas Eve dinner all together. 

Christmas morning was spent reading the Christmas Story out of the Bible which is our tradition, then exchanging gifts. Unlike in Pittsburgh we spent Christmas afternoon at the local natural pools of Likhubula swimming and relaxing on the rocks. It was a nice break from the heat of the day. At night we gathered all together with some of our Malawian friends here in Mulanje for dinner. It was a wonderful way to spend the holiday. It was personally such a joy for me to cook next to my mom; she taught me so much in the 2 weeks she was here, it was such a blessing.

We spent our last day in Mulanje visiting the two local hospitals here in town. I will talk more about the hospitals in another blog, but for now I will just say, every time I visit a hospital here in Malawi I am reminded to be grateful for all the facilities we have available to us. Our time is Mulanje was so special. I loved having Christmas with my family and friends in my home in Malawi, and being able to show them where I have been living and working. 

From Mulanje we drove about 2 hours to the Zomba Plateau. Zomba Plateau looks out onto the Great Rift Valley and you can see for miles and miles on a clear day. Unfortunately when we arrived it was so foggy we could hardly see 10 yards in front of us. We did not let that stop us from having a blast. We spent the next two days relaxing, playing games, and chatting around the fireplace. We cooked and made s’mores and I personally just enjoyed being surrounded by people I love. Finally on our last morning there the clouds broke and we were able to see the spectacular view. 

We had one last stop before it was time to say goodbye to our visitors. We headed from Zomba south to the Shire Valley, to a game reserve there called Nyala Park. This park is privately owned by a large sugar company and is home to many animals including giraffes. Fortunately it did not take us long before we found a heard of about 10 giraffes! We saw everything the park had to offer, had a picnic at the park, and then headed back to Mulanje for one final dinner and one final night.

As joyous as hugging my mom and sister was when they arrived, it was equally as difficult to hug them goodbye. However, having all of them here for Christmas was the best present I could have ever asked for. I have now been in Malawi for over 4 months, and was really starting to miss home, especially around the holidays. My visitors helped renew my spirit and helped remind me why I am here fulfilling a call instead of home with all of them. Thank you Mom, Heather, Chris, Angie, Fritz and Joey for all the memories and laughs while you were here and that I will hold onto and remember when times get hard. Thank you to all of you who continue to pray for, support and encourage me every step of the way. Near or far, I couldn’t do this without you.  

Enjoy the Merry Stengelmas music video, Bless the Rains!

After School Activities

I am happy to say that both my students and I survived Term 1 of this school year! I am proud of how well my students did and how well they were able to learn from me; what a blessing and a learning experience it was. As we move into Term 2, I thought I would take a minute and tell you what both my students and I do when we are not in the classroom teaching and learning.

After classes let out at 3:30 p.m., students who do not board at the school head home. Some walk, some ride bicycles if they live further away. Some day students travel for over an hour each way to attend school daily. The students who live here at the school have a short break after classes where they usually go back to the hostels and change out of their school uniforms. During the week they have a strict schedule that they follow.

At 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. the boarding students have an hour of study/prep time. During this time Lauren and I often return to the classrooms to tutor the students in whatever subject they are having trouble with. I have found this to be one of the most rewarding times of the day. The students love to learn, and they also love to just sit and talk with us. I will admit that we have occasionally been distracted by me showing them pictures of my family and friends, places I have traveled, and their favorite, snow! It is so encouraging to see the students working so hard at their studies to give themselves the best chance they can, and it is such a gift that I am able to help them in that. They also have dinner and evening devotions each night before they head to bed.

On the weekends the students have some free time. They usually spend this time playing soccer, singing in choirs, doing homework, or sitting with their friends chatting or playing games. Recently we convinced some students to learn a new skill/game. We spent a Saturday morning teaching students how to throw and catch a Frisbee, and then we taught them how to play ultimate Frisbee. I had so much fun playing with them and watching these students that work so hard relax and have fun playing.

When I am not teaching, grading work, or preparing for upcoming classes, I find ways to keep myself busy. Mulanje does not have a movie theater, or a mall, or an arena where the Penguins play, so I have had to find other forms of entertainment. Reading has been my go-to form of entertainment since I have arrived in Malawi. I love to read and will read just about anything, but I find that reading is something that I never seem to make time for when I am in Pittsburgh. I made it a goal to finish one book per week that I live in Malawi. Thankfully before I left I went to the local library and got a new library card and was told to download an app that allows me to rent digital copies of books from my library back home. So far I have been here 19 weeks and have read 30 books, it has been wonderful! I am always taking book suggestions so if you have any for me, please share them!

We do not have a TV or cable here, so watching television is another form of entertainment we do not have. Instead, we have movies and TV shows that we downloaded and brought with us that we project onto our living room wall to create our own home theater/TV room (when we have power). It is amazing how much more free time I have when I don’t spend hours in front of the TV.

The time that I spend out of the classroom here in Malawi has been just as fulfilling as that time that I spend in the classroom. It is such a blessing to be in this beautiful country. Please continue to pray for me and my students as we grow and learn both in the classroom and outside of it.