On The Ground in Malawi: the Experience

A strong potential for the "flames of fire"

From the diary of Helena Telkänranta

On the road again.

With a fresh wind blowing through the open car window, we take in the familiar warm road dust, as we are make our way on the long and bouncy journey back to the capital Lilongwe - and to the airport.

Outside the car windows, open landscapes keep gliding by. This is the reality of deforestation. Along most of the roadside, the largest animals you can see are goats, hens, and the black-and-white, handsome pied crows. On the other hand, most European countries are deforested to a worse extent. We just do not tend to think about them as deforestated, because we have a tendency to fill in the blanks with cities and monocultural fields...

The sturdy vehicle keeps bouncing along the road. With such a well-shaken brain, and with two more hours to go, you may as well let your mind drift into some kind of a trance and relive some of the impressions from the previous week.

Actually I feel no hurry at all to return to the western world. I have a funny feeling: I was sent to this country to write about these big problems and what is getting done about them. And indeed I have seen deforested landscapes with very little original wildlife, and I have met people suffering from severe illnesses. 

Yet, at the same time, I feel as if I had spent a week in a paradise. A paradise of open smiles and warm people. People who seem to care more than you about how you are. And a paradise of biodiversity in the rare spots where it still prevails.

Among European and US travellers, Malawi is sometimes called "Africa for beginners". This warm-hearted nation is known to be especially good at welcoming tourists and other strangers. And despite malnutrition and other poverty problems, beggars are very scarce.

Instead, while returning to your car after having parked it somewhere for a moment, you find a small group of quiet, polite handicraftsmen having displayed their skillfully made items on pieces of cloth spread on the sand beside your car.

It is clear that a huge natural resource of this country is its people. Warm, positive, and industrious in their small-scale farming and handicrafts. 

Actually, it is stunning how many things are possible here. During this brief visit, I can’t help getting the impression that several environmentally sustainable production methods are easier to initiate here than what they would be in Europe or USA.

All it takes is cooperation. It is like lighting a candle. If there is enough substance to burn, whether it it stearin or partners from different countries in an open-minded cooperation, it will keep burning. And the flame can later be used for lighting other candles, too. What could be a more fitting place to carry on with this idea than Malawi, where the very name of the country means “flames of fire”?