We’ve been learning a lot about Chewa ancestral spirits and Gule Wamkulu, but come on, this is the 21st century. And although Malawi is considered a developing country, in many ways it’s already developed. After all, I’m sitting in our living room putting a blog article up on a website using a 3G internet connection. And almost everybody I know owns a cellphone. So how relevant can all of this ancestral-spirit stuff really be? Continue reading “African Traditional Religion in the 21st Century”
One of the first and most prominent pieces of artwork that we came to at Mua Mission is a statue of “Protective Spirits of Namalikhate,” made by local artist Thomas Mpira.
Namalikhate is a place of great significance for the Chewa people. This is where the ancestral spirits used to come to the river and wash their clothes, using the naturally formed “washing pots” carved and shaped into the rock over time.” (KuNgoni: When Water Falls Sand Becomes Crystal, Fr. Serge St-Arneault, MAfr, (c) 2007, p. 61) Continue reading “The KuNgoni Cultural Centre Approach to Spirituality”
We (without our kids) spent a couple of days this week at a cultural centre learning about some of the peoples of Malawi. We spent most of our time studying the Chewa, which is the largest ethnic group in Malawi and is dominant in the Central Region where we live. It was a thought-provoking experience. Continue reading “Learning about Chewa Culture”
With apologies to our regulars, this is going to sound more like a travel brochure than a normal blog entry. Less than an hour from the road that connects Nyika to Rumphi is Vwaza Marsh Reserve, and we stopped there for one night at Kazuni Camp. There is almost no information at all available about this camp on the internet–all of the normal travel sites say “closed until further notice,” or something similar. And the phone number in the latest printed tour guides is no longer in operation. So for the benefit of those who are searching in vain for information about Kazuni Camp and the Vwaza Eco Lodge, I’m going to include several boring details like prices and phone numbers. Continue reading “Vwaza National Park”
On the drive out of Nyika, we had one last animal encounter. It started with fresh dung–there were several piles on the road that hadn’t been there when we drove into Nyika.
We are now in the middle of our kids’ school’s 2-week-long Easter break. We haven’t spent much time out of the city since arriving in Malawi, so we decided it was time to break into the US dollars that we brought with us after selling our vehicles back in the States. We spent most of last week in the Northern part of Malawi visiting a couple of National Parks.
We drove four hours from the end of the tarred road into Nyika National Park, stopping only for vomit breaks along the bumpy, muddy, and rutted 60 miles to the Nyika Plateau. The plateau is beautiful, and is so high in altitude that there are no mosquitoes! This was the first time we’ve been able to sleep without mosquito nets since we came to Malawi last year. It was also cold at that altitude, so we very much enjoyed having a fireplace in our chalet. Continue reading “Nyika National Park”
I met with Chief Kabudula and several other village headmen on Thursday, and Chief Kabudula asked me to take his picture, but not on that day. We made an appointment for the next day, because he “hadn’t washed well” on Thursday. Everyone in Kabudula washes his body twice per day, morning and night. Except in seasons when they are working especially hard in the fields. At those times they often shower in the afternoon as well.
This young lady and her sister, my neighbors in the village, did laundry on Saturday morning. They started around 6:30 (probably after cleaning up breakfast dishes), and they didn’t finish until 2 or 3 in the afternoon! Hard work.
Mr. Lungu, the single man whose house I stayed in, gets up every morning at 4:00 to start cleaning the house. Between 4:00 and 7:00 AM, he fetches water from a nearby well; starts a fire; mops the floors; heats water and takes a “bucket bath;” and makes, eats, and cleans up after a simple breakfast. Then at 7:00 he is off to the primary school where he teaches.
I, on the other hand, felt like a lazy bum the whole time I was there. Continue reading “Chores”
Kids went crazy every time I had my camera out. They would run at me yelling “Jambuleni! Jambuleni!” (Take my picture! Take my picture!)
“Karate” was their favorite pose.
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