Nkhata Bay

After that meeting in Lilongwe with the US Ambassador on February 15, we picked up Daniel, who had traveled overnight by minibus from Zomba to meet us at the Shoprite store in Lilongwe.  He would travel with us to gain experience in making the Changu, Changu, Moto cookstoves. Our next stop, some 350 km from Lilongwe was Nkhata Bay. There we would visit the base camp of Ripple Africa; a British based NGO, working in the villages along the shores of beautiful Lake Malawi. 

We had been traveling for some time on Lake Road, passing many small fishing villages with clusters of round, thatched roof houses.  Dan, back at base camp had told George to begin looking for a police roadblock once we reached Nkhata.  With no warning, over a hill and around a bend, and suddenly there was the police checkpoint.  A dirt trail led off to the right.  With nowhere else to go, that had to be it. We noticed a weatherworn and faded concrete sign just at that juncture that said, “The Last Church of God.”  At the time I wondered if they were being prophetic or humble.

About 2 km down that trail we took a sharp left at a Ripple Malawi sign, and we were at Ripple’s barrier gate. A Malawian woman working there saw us and ran to pull the rope and lift the pole and let us in.  We met Dan, the man we had been in phone contact with as we traveled.  He brought us to the site manager, a chipper young Brit named Charlie, probably in his mid 20s who welcomed us warmly, introduced us to others on his staff, and invited us to take a tour of the property.   

Although this compound hugs the shoreline of Lake Malawi, it is fully shaded, so even in Malawian summer, the temperature was quite comfortable. There was a large shady gazebo made of fieldstones and beautifully thatched just off the beach with a spillover down to more dining tables and chairs along the beachfront.  We learned that the gazebo doubles as a conference room for times when they host large teams.

From there a path led to a centrally located thatched roof outdoor kitchen with an old fashioned woodburning cookstove.  I have to admit that I was surprised that Ripple uses firewood for cooking, but I soon learned that they burn firewood absolutely guilt-free because they have a tree planting project that complements their work with clean burning cookstoves. Free of charge, Ripple provides each household  in the community with sapling trees -25 senna siamea, 5 guava, and 5 paw paw – from their own nursery.  After three years of tending, each family has their own 10 by 10 meters woodlot and can harvest both fruit and firewood in three years.

Next we were shown the bath house with two showers and three toilets.  There are no power lines to the property, so solar collectors provide light in the kitchen and in the bath house. The bath light is on a motion sensor, so it only comes on when someone enters the broad, open doorway.  The two showers were on the left, two sinks and a mirror just in front of the door, and three bathroom stalls on the right. This is a unisex bathhouse, by the way, so I was never quite comfortable with men and women bathing, using the toilet, and brushing their teeth all in the same room. Call me old fashioned.  Just outside the bathhouse, solar collectors pump well water to a large green plastic tank perched high on metal posts collecting the heat of the sun to provide hot water to the kitchen and bath.

The cabins are broadly distributed in a somewhat semicircular fashion throughout the property, with Charlie’s larger cabin near the center. Each cabin is perched on stilts and has a cute little porch facing the beach, big enough for a small table and two chairs.   There is no lighting, solar or otherwise, in the cabins.   It was almost sunset when we arrived, and Charlie reminded us to locate our head torches ( flashlights mounted on  headbands). We told him that we had neither towels nor torches and asked if there was a store nearby that might have them. We were on a beautiful beach.  We had assumed there would be rows of shops and restaurants to accommodate tourism, but there were none.

Although Lake Malawi has the potential for being a great tourist attraction, that is not the case.  As it has been for thousands of years, the shores of Lake Malawi in Nkhata Bay are dotted with small fishing villages.  There are no beach shops, no high rise condominiums, and no fancy restaurants. By Malawian law, land cannot be purchased by foreigners, but it can be acquired on a long term lease basis or in partnership with a Malawian national.  

While we were discussing with Charlie our shopping prospects, we learned that Daniel had neither flashlight, towel, soap, toothpaste, nor toothbrush. That would make for a miserable weekend, so  with less than an hour of sunlight left, we decided to venture out to the main road to find a shop that might have some of the items we needed. About 3km south along the roadside we found a little shop lit by a solar lamp.  We were amazed that this store had all the items we needed: towels and soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, as well as flashlights and batteries.   We were set for the weekend.

It was nearly dark by the time we returned to camp.  A local woman, part of Ripple’s staff, had prepared dinner: fish pie with vegetables and avocado salad.  Initially I wasn’t sure about the fish pie, but it was delicious. All of us were very hungry so some asked for seconds and some asked for thirds until all of the salad and most of the huge pie were consumed.  The following day, Saturday, we would be working in the villages learning from the Ripple team. After a hot shower, we road weary travelers were exhausted. It was time to get some rest.

Breakfast was self-service, so for us it was a bowl of corn flakes, an apple, and a cup of hot coffee for each (once George figured out how to operate the French press).   About that time, Catherine, one of Ripple’s community organizers arrived in camp. Charlie introduced us to her then laid out her day’s plans to include her work with us.

Catherine asked if we were up to the walk out to the villages, and we asked, “How far?” She said, “Oh, about a km.”  I told her that there is a lake 11k around back in the US where George and I enjoyed walking from time to time for recreation.  That seemed to assure her.  Daniel, George, and I packed bottles of water and a couple of snacks in our backpacks, said goodbye to Charlie, and started our hike, following Catherine down a trail. About a km from the camp in passing she pointed to a small brown brick house with a cluster of trees in a clean swept yard.   That was her home. Although she lives in a modest home, don’t assume she is not resourceful. She owns many fruit trees and from the hundreds of trees in her grove she supplies bananas to major brokers.   

As we continued our walk, she explained how Ripple organizes their work in the villages.  Her first step is to contact each village chief and explain to them the purpose of their work and how it can benefit the families in their community. The chief then gives his approval and appoints someone in the village to follow Catherine’s directive in implementing the program. Then the chief’s appointee  recruits two assistants. Those three individuals in each village are the ones responsible for implementation of the program.  Catherine’s job is to coordinate with all of the appointees and assistants and to collect data for Ripple.  We learned that at this time, Ripple has built 30,000 of their cookstoves in that region! Their goal is for every household to have one and to learn how to maintain it.

 We arrived at the first home before the volunteers arrived, so we sat on benches near the first kitchen, sipped our water, chatted, and waited. We learned that Catherine is also a farmer. She owns land on which she grows maize to sell. She also organized several women who together purchased land to feed widows and orphans in their community.  From her own experience with early marriage and the poverty this perpetuates, she knows the importance of encouraging girls to aim high with their lives.  Her first child was born when she was a young teenager, so she was only able to complete her primary and secondary schooling after she became an adult. It was quite a struggle, but she is proud of her accomplishments. In order to encourage other girls to not fall into the same poverty trap,   she organized a club for adolescent girls to encourage them to stay in school and to delay sexual relations and marriage. We were quite impressed.

In probably 10 minutes Catherine’s community assistants arrived and the work could begin.  The Malawi kitchen is typically in a structure a little distance from the house. This kitchen has a hard-packed dirt floor and the walls are brick about a meter tall with an open doorway. Above the brick wall, posts support  a thatched roof.  Wood posts just outside the kitchen support a sheltered woodpile.   A typical Malawian woman cooking a meal sits by a smoky open fire on her kitchen floor. Having a two burner, clean burning, and fuel efficient cookstove built in her own kitchen will seem like a luxury.

The homeowner had already made the 26 unfired bricks. She had collected a bucket of mud, a bucket of sand, and a bucket of water for mortar mix. They had a hoe for mixing the mortar and a trowel for spreading the mortar, and she had already leveled the ground where the stove would be made.   The family’s meal had been cooked on an open fire on that spot a few minutes before we had arrived, so when George and Daniel began placing the bottom level of bricks, the ground was very hot, but they were able to successfully complete the project.   

We walked back to the camp for an extended lunch break.  Afterward, Catherine informed us that the next village we would visit was quite a distance away, and we should consider driving to the site. The sun was pretty intense on our way back from the first villages, so George and I thought this was a great idea. Over the course of the day, Catherine coached us and improved our method as we worked with homeowners.

We want to thank Ripple Malawi  and Charlie for giving us the opportunity to receive training and valuable hands on experience making the Changu, Changu, Moto cookstoves. We want to thank Catherine in particular for giving us opportunities to practice under her supervision.   Although we had thought of staying longer, at the end of two days, we were confident that we could duplicate their model in the villages around Zomba where we are working. The women in the villages where we work are already excitedly talking about these stoves and look forward to having their own.