As per a request from my good friend Krista, I would like to describe some of my Malawian family members. The individuals with whom I interact most on a daily basis:
Mama Chavula
She’s quite a character. She’s a towering woman, roughly 6’3”, definitely the tallest Malawian I know. She has a slow gait about her, walking upon flat feet. She’s the head matron at the Mhalaunda Health Center, the health center at which I work. And, in the absence of a medical assistant, she does everything from birthing babies to sewing up lacerations. Not only is she the head matron at Mhalaunda, but she’s the community’s matronly authority. She is known throughout all the villages as Mama Chavula. At home, she’s my greatest confidant. When fire fails me I come to her for hot coals. When a new fruit is in season she’s there with a knife to show me how to eat it, say masuku or paw paw. When I sprained my ankle she brought be everything I needed including ice packs to nsima patties. When I decided to starting eating eggs again she walked me to all the places in the village where I could buy them. When I needed my field hoed she summoned a local boy by the name of Monday to hoe it for me. She’s such a blessing; she has the answer to my every question and problem.
Godfrey Makwakwa
Mr. Makwakwa is my counterpart. He is the energy on which the health center runs. He’s always out to some village for a sanitation meeting, over to Manyamula for the Area Development Committee meeting, with World Vision in Mzimba. He’s just moving up and down on a daily basis. He moves about so much and so often that the moment you sit him down to be still for more than a few minutes he’ll fall asleep on you. But don’t let that deter you. When he’s active, he’s more than energetic, a real take charge kind of guy. Basically, he is the health center. On a personal level, his greatest charm is his laugh and his wonderful sense of humor. He’s someone I try to provoke laughter out of on a daily basis. Every time he emits one of his open-mouthed guffaws he slaps your hand. This has become a goal of mine in most any conversation we have, try to get the hand slap. Another of his charms is his refreshingly modern, or maybe more appropriate, a pragmatic take on gender relations. When I was over to his house he cooked for me, a sweet potato casserole sort of thing, quite delicious. He is one of only two men I’ve met in the village that cook either for themselves or for others. Yet, he and his wife cook together frequently. He’s a wonderfully active father also, joking and playing with his kids whenever he’s home. He has an amazing garden as well, a true tropical bounty. He grows the Malawian staples like maize, ground nuts and pumpkins, but he also has lemon, guava trees, and avocado trees. Plus he has a bee hive from which he brings me honey. All in all, Mr. Makwakwa is a light-hearted fellow with a good heart. I’ve never met a more genuine person.
Gabriel Chavula
Gabriel, or Gabe as I call him, is Mama’s brother-in-law. He is the tech savvy person around. He likes to ask many questions about computers, cords, programs, systems, etc. I’m not exactly a tech inept individual, but I’m no expert so most of my answers tend to be a general shrug of the shoulders. Gabe is also the motivation behind my garden. A few weeks into the rainy season he knocked upon my door holding a hoe and a bag of seeds, it was planting time. Together we hoed out the tall soil ridges, characteristic of Malawian dimba, planting maize, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, all the staples here. I’m not reaping the benefit of that day in the dirt, fresh beans and potatoes straight from the garden. Quite the linguist as well, Gabriel on a daily basis urges me to learn more words and to develop my vocabulary. For this reason I’ve made him my Timbuka trainer. He sits with me in my garden, giving me the words for each of the plants, mapuno = tomato, vingoma = maize, etc. We go on a bike ride and he suggests the words for path (nthowa), for riding (kuchova), for remembering a shortcut (kukombuka nthowa yafupi). Gabriel is the go-to person for any manual labor assistance I might need. He helps to cut the grass around my house, weeding my garden, cleaning my bike, planting Moringa trees. Getting caked in dirt and working until the blisters surface, that’s his prerogative, he gets me going and makes me active. He also loves to throw around a Frisbee, that’s our favorite pastime together. He has quite a toss.
Erita Chavula
Gabriel’s wife. She’s 22, freshly married and with her first born son. She is just beautiful. Her hair is always beautifully braided, done so by her sister; I frequently compliment her “Erita wachena!” Her son Eugene, 7 months old, is with her nearly all the time; he may be the most adorable baby ever. I’ve nicknamed him Eugie the Wise because he hardly ever cries, a wonderful trait in babies. Erita finished secondary school in 2008 and her family is from ya Banda village, a short walk from Mhalaunda. She invites me to go visit her home village every few weeks, to greet her mother and father. We go and sit with them, eat nsima together, and on one special occasion they tried to convince me to eat fried flying ants (I declined). Erita is a fabulous baker as well. She has a brick oven in her kitchen in which she bakes sikonos, baked rolls. She rolls out all the dough by hand, forming each roll in her hand, and then builds a fire in the oven to build up the heat. The sikonos come out piping hot and delicious, fresh baked bread on a daily basis. Erita also tends to drop in on me from time to time with Eugie and she bops him on me and goes off to do some chores. By bopping I mean she ties him on me with a chitenje and I go around with the baby on my back, baboon style (see picture attached). All in all, Erita is my closest “gal pal” in the village.
Great Malawian family there and nicely narrated
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