This is Chitipa!

I realised I haven’t really given you all a good picture of Chitipa, so I’m going to try to describe it in as much detail as I can…

Chitipa is the northernmost district of Malawi and is divided into 5 traditional authorities. I’m based in what is called the Boma, which is the main centre. Most of the houses here are built of bricks and many have electricity and running water as far as I can tell, although it may be that I've only visited relatively well-off people (hospital and government workers). Of course the living conditions are very different in the villages.

We're now in the hot and dry season, which is coming to an end. The wind is very strong at the moment, so you can't walk 10m without getting sand in your eyes and hair. The rains are going to start soon, so the roads will get very muddy! 'Winter' is from around June to August, which would be the best time for visitors if any of you are interested :)

As Chitipa is so far away from Lilongwe, things sold here tend to be quite pricey. Most of the locals go across the border to Tunduma, Tanzania, in order to buy things more cheaply, but I haven’t had the chance to do that yet. There’s also the issue of my having to get an entry visa, which Malawians don’t need of course. There's a 'supermarket' which sells some basics and apparently even cheese sometimes but I'm yet to find any. As you saw from the photos of the local market, there isn’t much variety in terms of fruit and veg - at the moment, there’s plenty of tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage and rape leaf, and mangoes, bananas and apples. I bought a load of seeds from the supermarket in Lilongwe which I’m hoping to plant once I move to my own house, so I can have a bit more variety.

The local diet here is similar to neighbouring African countries - the staple is something called nsima, which is made from maize flour which has been bleached in the sun and cooked into a sort of porridge then left to cool into blocks - it basically has no nutritional value but Malawians love it and think no meal is complete without it.  They eat nsima with beans or meat and  some green leaf.

Having lunch (that's nsima on the plate opposite mine)

I should also explain more about where I work. I’m based at the District Assembly, which is the local government. The DACC (District AIDS Coordinating Committee) consists of Derrick, my boss, who is the District AIDS Coordinator, Sparks, a VSO volunteer from Uganda, who is the Assistant Coordinator, and me. There are also voluntary members who sit on the committee but I haven’t met any of them yet. 

The District Assembly buildings

The DACC office

Me and Sparks hard at work

Chitipa is definitely growing on me. I think it’s a case of accepting that I’m here and not thinking about all the things going on elsewhere. I’m starting to make some local friends, which really makes a huge difference. At work there’s Jane and Leo who are journalists and were posted to Chitipa to cover the local elections, and Lusekelo who works for the office of the President - they’re close to my age and since they’re from cities they can understand what I’m going through a bit. Then there’s Ida, who works on trade issues for the district. I actually tagged along with her on a field visit, when she went to visit one of the women’s cooperative groups she works with. They are part of a Japanese-funded scheme where they produce one product from their village which is then marketed and sold in Lilongwe and other cities. This particular group is based in Misuku, one of the traditional authorities in Chitipa, which is way up in the hills (the ones you can see in the background of many of my photos). It was beautiful up there and so nice to meet the women. They’re producing banana wine, which is really yummy, I bought a bottle of course :)

The women's group

Assessing the site to build a factory

The Misuku hills

I’m also suddenly being invited to loads of things, there’s more going on in Chitipa than I first thought! There was a housewarming party last Saturday which was really fun, except for when I first walked in and saw a dead skinned goat hanging from a tree, dripping in blood! I then had to explain my vegetarianism, and thankfully the goat was whisked out of sight. The next day I went to a sending off party, which is before a couple gets married, and all their friends give them gifts and money to help them finance the wedding. Unfortunately I couldn’t really understand as it was all in Chitumbuka, and it did go on a bit (over 3 hours). There was an MC who was encouraging everyone to give as much money as possible, and in the end I think they collected over 100,000 kwacha (around £400). And this weekend there’s going to be a fashion show, which I’m sure will be interesting! 

The procession

The bride-to-be is on the left

Throwing money on the floor

And the other day I just sat down outside my neighbour’s house with a group of her friends and chatted for a while. They said that everyone who was passing by was surprised to see me and was asking why I was sitting there and what we were talking about. It’s nice to get to know the local people and I’m excited because my next-door neighbour is going to have a baby in about 2 months - unfortunately I’ll have moved by then but I definitely going to visit lots!  And then of course there’s the peace corps volunteers, who come into the Boma about every two weeks. They were here last weekend and I invited them over. I felt a bit guilty and really started to realise how lucky I am when they started raving over the fact that I have a fridge, an indoor toilet and internet connection in the house! I really should go visit them in their villages to see how they live.

But generally people here are very friendly and welcoming, it just takes a smile and an effort to speak Chitumbuka on my part and they’re all very happy to speak to me. Some of them are quite surprised when I say I like it here, as they’re all aware of how remote we are up here. As I’ve been hearing constantly since I’ve been here, ‘this is Chitipa!’ and I’m starting to feel at home :)