Hiking Mount Mulanje

Yesterday, we started the day with an orientation to some of the projects Water for People is doing in Malawi given by Elias, Efrain and Joseph. There are three regions where work is happening - Blantyre, Chikwawa, and Rhumphi. We will see programs in Chikwawa and Blantyre. Rumphi is about 700 km away. One of the most interesting and unique aspects of WFP is their commitment to partnership with local district assemblies, government, and constructors. In addition, the people working for WFP in the various countries where work is being performed are local and native to those countries. Combined, this makes for a sustainable program that can continue to work long beyond when WFP has completed their work there.

Only about 15% of households in the rural areas have improved sanitation facilities (meaning, they have a pit latrine that gets emptied occasionally).

They have implemented a program here to make sanitation a business. Starting in schools, there is a hygiene and sanitation education program for the children and children are given vouchers to bring home and explain hygiene and sanitation to their parents and encourage them to use the vouchers to obtain a composting latrine. In the meantime, WFP works with local constructors by providing them with seed money to begin constructing latrines (about 20 of them). When the households turn in their vouchers, they get one of these composting latrines. Each latrine has capacity for about 6-months. With each use, you are supposed to add ash and soil to aid in the composting process. After the latrine is full, it gets covered and allowed to compost for about 6 to 9 months. Upon completion of composting, the constructor gets the compost (until the latrine is "paid off") and they are able to sell it to fertilizer manufacturers. Once the household has "paid off" the latrine with the compost, the household is able to use the compost for their own use or farm. Pretty neat, eh?

They are also working with schools on beautification projects and improved sanitation facilities. This is very important for girls because without improved sanitation facilities, many times girls need to drop out of school when they hit puberty because they don't have the facilities at school to deal with their period. These programs help reduce sanitation borne diseases and allows girls to stay in school, hopefully breaking the cycle of poverty.

In addition to the hygiene and sanitation program, there is a water program here. The goal is to provide water kiosks in such a fashion that people do not need to walk more than about 0.5 km to obtain water. The government sets water tariffs for the water and the households pay for each day's worth of water. It is generally the woman's job to go and get the water. When water is not readily accessible, women can spend an entire day walking to a water source (many times one that is polluted) and hauling the water back to the village. Often times, this means that they can not attend school. With water facilities nearby, girls and women don't need to spend nearly as much time gathering the water for a day. When they go pick up the water, they usually carry about 20 L at a time, in buckets on their head (wow!). A typical household uses about 100 L per day. Just to give you an idea of how much water that is - a typical shower that you probably took this morning uses about 80 L of water.

When we go to Chikwawa today, I'll be able to better see some of this in action and I'll post more.

After the orientation, Nelson our bus driver (who is amazing by the way), drove us to Mount Mulanje for some hiking. It was about 1.5 hours from Blantyre and on the way, we drove through several small towns. Along the way we were stopped a couple of times by security guards, who asked Nelson a few questions and looked in the bus and then we were on our way. When we got to Mount Mulanje, there was another security checkpoint, where a little bit of heated conversation between Nelson and one of the guards. Apparently, they wanted us to stop and buy some of their curios (knick-knacks) but Nelson said that we would stop on the way back - which they were not too happy with. In addition, a man named Boniface came to the window where I was sitting and asked if we would pay for him to be a guide. When I told him that we had Nelson, he asked if we would pay him to watch the van. People there were desperate for work.

We went up the mountain in the van and then parked and walked a very steep hike to a waterfall (sound familiar Akua?? :) ). It was a fairly strenuous hike with amazing views. On the way, we bombarded Nelson with questions about life in Malawi, which he was more than happy to answer. When we got to the waterfall, it was beautiful. The forest was lush and there was a high peak just beyond the waterfall making is very picturesque. We saw some hikers there who seemed like they were camping. They had two guides and were off to hike to the top of the mountain. For the moment, they were basking in the sun and wading in the shallower part of the water. After hiking, we went back to Blantyre and had a great dinner at Bombay restaurant.

Today, we are going to Chikwawa to see some of the WFP projects - will write more later!
~k