Luso la Manja - The Crafts of Our Hands

Luso la manja. The crafts of our hands. A group of ten women who saw in themselves the ability to progress their community. Some are widows and nearly all support orphaned children in addition to their own families. It is through their hands that they chose to make a difference: to craft, create, and share a vision.

Luso la manja began in 2003 with the vision of one lady, Beatrice Zindondo. She found that caring for a household of nine, her own children, her parents, and three orphaned children, constrained the meager wage her husband provided. As Beatrice says, “it was such a big responsibility to care for these children. Sometimes months would pass without any support. Life was hard for me and my family to survive.” She decided to act. With the help of Katie Reichert, Peace Corps Volunteer at Chifira Community Day Secondary School, she started a sewing group to make bags from zitenge, and found the assistance she needed. Beatrice recruited a bevy of other women, ten in total, who sought a solution to their financial problems.

The women have a remarkable social harmony that has facilitated the business’ success. The women share the three sewing machines, communal style, and together they sew the bags each Tuesday afternoon. It’s an occasion to spend time together, chatting about their day, their extended family, and their interrelated lives. The sense of community and motivation that keeps the group in sync has helped recruit other members as well, and in the years since 2003, the group has grown. Group member Loyce Mtanwangwe says, “I gladly joined the group because I was struggling so much financially. Due to our group’s wish to boost our business I can continue to support my family and others in the community. I hope Malawi and her people will be on the map because of my and the group’s skills.”

Their sewing group became a business. Beginning with the help of Katie Reichert and continuing down the volunteer generations to the current volunteers Melanie Terrell and Russell Conroy. The role of the nearby volunteer has been to find markets for the women to sell their goods. The group has outfitted nearly every Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi with a bag to call their own. Markets go beyond the Peace Corps circle, but bear the mark of volunteer contact. Lodges along the lakeshore sell their wares and a shop located in Kande continues the brand legacy.

Profits are distributed based on who sewed the bags, but a portion of these funds go to support an early childhood development program located near Kande in Nkhotakhota District. Elestina Mwase is proud of the group’s work, “I am happy to be assisting the preschool, which is the foundation for bright futures. Personally, I believe education is a gateway to success. To be successful in life one must value education. I will be happy to have an educated house, a well developed village, and to make Malawi a poverty-free country and best nation to stay in.”

Making a House a Home

In the open air of the night, a cool breeze sets the ideal temperature, stars hang over the lake, and embers smolder casting only a faint glow on the profiles of those encircling a firepit. While the scene seems hushed, the voices indicate otherwise. With raucous laughter, hasty Timbuka, a playful handshake, the members of the circle joke and tease one another. They point to the small dog digging arbitrary holes nearby. The frantic movement of paws evokes chortles all around. The group is at ease with one another, the conversation and laughter are fluid.

For Ben Siegelman, this is his nightly routine. He sits with the Simeza family: a matron head, her daughters, and one granddaughter. Ben is the lone man in the ring, yet he is no outsider.

When Ben moved to Nyungwe in September 2010, he moved to a house far different place. It was just near the trading center, amidst the bustle of a health centre, a daily market, and schools. The diesel-powered milling from the nearby chigayo was hardly ignorable white noise. The house lacked a gate and thus his every movement was privy to all those milling about. And one gent in particular took to narrating his daily routine to anyone who cared to listen. Virtually no aspect of his life was his own.

For Ben creating a home was crucial - the key to community integration. Providence stepped in. Just one week into his stay a colleague suggested a new house. It was a bit of a walk from the health centre, in the heart of the village. Within a month, he was relocated to the Simeza compound, the family and the family atmosphere more than made up for the distance. Sure, there was plenty of work to be done on the house. To live there, a kitchen and bafa had to be constructed, furniture built, and bars installed in the windows, but the Simeza family was eager for Ben to move in. They built the necessary structures with such haste that Ben remarks he’s never seen a project in Malawi completed in so timely a fashion.

Early on, the air about the house was noticeably different to the one previous. It felt like home. Ben credits the ease of his move to his new family. “It was their graceful handling of a bizarre situation that has made the house the sanctuary it is,” Ben notes. For Ben, the Simeza family are more than landlords, here they are his family. They are a group of women who have taken in Ben as their own; their adopted son and man of the house. Ben fills a void for the women - a void left by the death of the matron’s only son a few years ago. Eerily, the son’s name was Ben.

Nearly every day, the family comes over to assist Ben in his garden, helping him plant pumpkin, tomatoes, and the American breeds of tomatillos and peppers. They show him the technique for preparing kondowole, cassava nsima. In his time spent away from site, they watch and feed his dogs. By great fortune did they find one another. To their credit, Ben enjoys his house, his home, and his community. They have eased his community integration and created a home from a mere house.

Peace Corps 50th Anniversary

So this year, 2011, marks the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps. JFK signed the order on March 1, 1961 and six months later the first batch, carrying 51 Americans, traveled to Ghana to begin their service as Peace Corps Volunteers. In the more than 50 years since, more than 200,000 Americans have served in 139 countries.

In Malawi, volunteers first arrived in 1963. The initial group contained only 20 volunteers. Today, over 2,100 volunteers have served in Malawi in all districts from Chitipa to Nsanje. And as we celebrate the 50th anniversary, we want to celebrate the experience - the joys, adventures, successes and legacies. We are tackling this task, in part, with a coffee table book to show through both photos and stories all that Peace Corps experience brings.

I worked on writing a couple of the stories. I'm posting two of them here. The first is about another volunteer from my training group, Ben Siegelman. He lives in a community that is absolutely wonderful; they've made his stay as comfortable as possible. The second story is about a women's group that is famous throughout Peace Corps, Luso la Manja. They sew bags seen on the back of nearly every volunteer in Malawi. They started with the help of a Peace Corps Volunteer and now they are a thriving business. Their products are available throughout Malawi and now available online.

I hope you enjoy the stories and when the book is complete I'll be sending a couple copies home. Happy reading.