Malawi has a custom that is very weird to me: when you organize a workshop or a meeting you have to pay participants to attend. They call it ‘lunch allowances’. But it has nothing to do with lunch, as you also have to pay these allowances when the meeting is only in the morning or in the afternoon, or when your colleagues simply can go home during the break, just as they would on a normal working day. Even when you arrange a lunch, you still have to pay them lunch allowances. When I told my colleagues that back home in the Netherlands I would get paid to facilitate workshops like these, they didn’t believe me and started laughing. Getting paid to give workshops, no, that is weird.

To some extent I do understand this tradition of allowances to attend workshops and meetings. When I organize a workshop at community level, participants have to give up a working day to attend. That means they can’t go to the market to sell their produce, work on the land or find day-jobs. Of course, in the long run they can earn back the money with the things we teach them. But most of the local people do not have time to wait for the long run. They can’t miss the short-term income of a working day. I don’t mind at all to pay these people 1000 Kwacha (2 Euros) to attend a workshop. In the beginning I was afraid that they would just come for the allowance, pretending to be interested in the subjects. But I was wrong; the majority of the local people have proved themselves to be active and very willing students. Even when we had to cut down the allowances because of lack of budget, they still showed up and were equally enthusiastic. OK, they did complain a bit, but they were there.

I had more (moral) problems giving out allowances to my colleagues. They are officers who get a monthly salary to do their jobs, and still I had to pay them to come to my meetings and workshops. I was teaching them, to improve their skills, extend their knowledge and to help them manage projects, and I had to pay them for it? I still think this system of working is completely insane. In the beginning I was very reluctant to receive or pay any allowances, until one of my colleagues explained to me why they are so important for the Malawian officers. When he told me how much they earned a month I was shocked. The salary of government officers, with a college degree, is notenough to support their families. They need the extra allowances to pay school fees and uniforms for their children, to pay the rent of their house. Mind you, this is the so-called middle-class of Malawi. In my opinion, this system is rather problematic. Working for an NGO, with the same education and degree, you earn at least 3 times more than an officer. Of course ,everyone who has the opportunity will transfer to an NGO. Naturally these are mostly the men (or women) who are best at their jobs. I can’t blame them.

As a result a lot of the officers are poorly motivated and always looking for better opportunities. They try to attend as many workshops and meetings as possible, no matter what the subject is or its importance to them. I quickly discovered that handing out invitations to workshops is a pretty sensitive business that should be handled carefully. They all want to come and will demand an explanation when they are not invited. In the beginning I was flattered that they were all so eager to attend my workshops. It didn’t take long, however, before I discovered the truth. Officers are quite good at getting these allowances without actually participating. They simply walk in at the beginning of your workshop, write their names down on the attendance list and walk away after a few minutes pretending to answer a phone call. When you are closing the workshop, they return and stand in line to receive their allowance.

I can’t even blame them. It is the system that is to blame. Salaries are fixed on national level, and  bureaucracy impedes changing the regulating systems. Raising salaries and do away with the allowances would be a good development for Malawi, since the allowances add to corruption and cause all kinds of problems (not in the least that not one of the attendance lists of my workshops is accurate). It is so much integrated in the Malawian culture, however, that the Malawians can’t think of any different way of working. While I can at least understand the behavior of my colleagues towards the allowances, I discovered to my shock and horror that even well-paid specialists, NGO-employees, managers etc, are doing the same tricks to get allowances as less-earning Malawians do. They cheat with attendance lists, reimbursements and fuel receipts. Whatever it takes to get more money. And everyone thinks it is the most normal thing to do. When I try to convince my colleagues that this is a form of corruption, they deny. It is just the way it is. This is how Malawi works.

During the past year I discussed this issue a lot with the Malawians, both NGO and government employees. I noticed that especially with the NGO’s, the opinion is losing ground that it is ‘just the way it is’. But it is still way too much accepted. There are no penalties whatsoever for cheating with the allowances. A friend of mine experienced this herself. When she caught a colleague swindling and stealing, she decided to report this to her company’s director. His response was that they should pray for the colleague, and to ask God to give him the strength to change his behavior. I highly doubt the effectiveness of this measure.

The only thing I can hope for is that the elections in April 2014 will start new discussions about the current system. At the moment a huge corruption scandal is getting out in Malawi, which includes the current president. The Malawians are sick and tired of high-placed officers and managers stealing money. Let’s hope the elections will nudge them to speak up and slowly change the way Malawi works. 

New holiday, new pictures. During Christmas and New Year the office was closed for a few weeks. A nice opportunity for me to go and explore the north of Malawi. The planning was to spend most of my time in the north of Malawi watching birds. Especially in the Livingstonia area, since I was there all by myself. No-one I could annoy with my habit of turning around in the middle of a conversation or standing still at a tree for ages just because I heard something.

But turned out I got a little bit disappointed. While I expected a bird-walhalla in the hills of Livingstonia. It was quiet, to quiet. Turned out my timing of coming to Livingstonia was a bit unfortunate. Because of the time of year most birds had left the area. Bummer, didn’t think of that.

But while there was almost no bird to hear or see, I did find a new way to entertain myself. While the birds all had left the area, the butterflies most certainly did not. Everywhere I looked, I saw the most amazing and beautiful butterflies. So I took my camera and tried to shoot them instead of their feathered, well friends I wouldn’t call them I guess.

To be honest, I am not that familiar with the species of the butterflies I captured on camera. That is something to focus on in the future. But the pictures are beautiful! And lucky me, on one of my longer walks I still did find a place with a lot of birds. I have to say I found that place completely on accident. I was going for another destination, but due to my talent to forget to pay attention to where I am going and completely lose my way, I ended up at a lovely stream and fields somewhere in the rural area. Thanks to the locals and my GPS (I always have that with me, I have some self-knowledge) I had one of the most beautiful hikes in Malawi. With some amazing birds like the African Cuckoo and Narina’s Trogon (last one only by hearing).

The other places I have been were Thunduzi beach, close to Livingstonia at the lake and Nkhata bay, a bit further to the south. Especially our lodge in Nkhata bay (the Butterfly lodge) had an amazing bird life. Which did my friends wonder why it took me more than an hour to go to the toilet early in the morning and why I needed my binoculars and camera at a toilet. The answer to that was quite simple. That toilet cabin was one of the best birding huts I have ever seen! An amazing view over the tree tops and the lake and, in case you had to go, the toilet was nearby.

One of the big, huge, enormous frustrations I have in Malawi is the waste and I can’t do anything about it, which frustrates me even more. Now I think of it, there are so many things that frustrate me over here that I am wondering how I lasted for almost a year already. At the same time, the (lack of) waste management in Malawi is one of the things that reminds me of how West-European I am. Or maybe it is just because I know what problems the waste is causing, that I am so revolted by the way Malawians deal with it.

In Malawi there is no waste-system. Everybody just burns it behind their houses, if lucky. Because often the waste is just thrown out the house, garden, car or wherever they are. Bushes, gutters, side of the road, it all looks like a refuse-dump. People in Malawi think it is the most normal thing in the world. When I refuse to throw my waste out of the car or bus they look at me as if I were crazy. In some ways they are right, because the pile of plastic bags with waste (just plastics, I have a compost heap) is piling in my backyard and I know that one day I have to get rid of it. And that day is coming soon because in 2 months I will be leaving and my replacement is going to take over my house. I can hardly offer him a house with a personal refuse-dump in the backyard, now can I? I’ll have to figure out how I am going to do it. Probably by throwing it over the fence and hold a burning match against it. Burn a pile of plastics… I can’t get myself to do it. It is totally against everything I stand for, which is foolish since I don’t have much choice here.

My colleague, the environmental officer, want to introduce some kind of waste management in Nsanje boma. He wants to construct a refuse-dump and decrease the waste on the streets. Pretty ambitious since it is a completely new concept for most Malawians. When I just arrived, I talked a lot about this issue with him and there are so many challenges. Who is going to collect the waste and how? Money for a car is not there and no-one has ever heard of waste bags to put the waste in. Who is going to pay for it? The government doesn’t have the money. After some discussion he decided to try to make a start with trying to get the market and bus station clean. Even this will take years and is a huge challenge and the Malawians react the same as any Dutch would do: “Not in my backyard!”.

Because of our conversations I really thought my colleague was very aware of the waste problem and would try to set a good example himself. Can you imagine how surprised I was when I saw him throwing plastic bags with waste out of the car when we were driving to a meeting?! This happened many months ago, but it still bothers me. I mentioned it to him. Why do you throw your waste out of the car, when you know what problems it’s causing and you want to decrease the waste on the streets yourself? How do you expect the villagers to change, when you set the wrong example yourself!?

He looked at me in surprise. “But” he said: “what else do I do with it? This is how we always do it. Someone will burn it. Maybe…” I could only take a deep breath and sigh. Malawi has a long way to go.