Mikä Malawi

So, my first year in Malawi has gone and new one started. It was quite a roller coaster now that I look back to it. We came on February and very fast I got to know the slow malawian time while trying to work on my motorbike driving  license in Lilongwe. Former president Bingu died in early April and soon Joyce Banda took over. Then came devaluation of kwacha which is affecting our lives up to today. In the middle of this hustle of politics and forex we kept on doing our work, oh, when we had fuel of course, never forget the fuel issues. I tried to gather some figures from last year showing us how many farmers we have reached, how many cows there are around and what progress can we see in the dairy industry in the North Malawi. We reached almost 400 farmers last year during our trainings and farm visits but we must bare in mind that these are only the farmers that we met directly. When we start to count how many did they pass on the knowledge to we can easil...

Training farmers about heat detection. I was told here that every 9 cows out of 10 are not giving any signs of heat and are on silent heat.. We all know that´s not possible. So we went through the signs again and reminded the farmers that heat detection is one of the most important works in their farms. No calves, no milk.  Introducing a very simple and easy to use "heat calender" for the same group of farmers that were getting the training about heat detection. That´s my pilot group working with this calender. I am looking forward for the feedback on it´s usage and later will introduce it to more farmers if it seems to work out well. The only problem is that not all farmers are able to read, especially the elderly farmers so this comes out handy only for those who are able to read.  Teaching our community animal health worker to crab a cow for deworming.  With these Malawian cows you need to really strong!! No matter how small jerseys they are. Must sa...

Last week I turned 29, should I freak out? That´s like hitting the thirties.. No, I am actually quite happy about it. Growing older and wiser is not bad at all. I am glad to be in the right place in the right time, knowing what I am doing, knowing why am I doing it and above all, enjoying doing it! So many stupid things I´ve done in my life and repeated way too many mistakes, I am glad to have these brains of a 29 year old me J Love the view but tough roads to ride. And some hundred meters from here a two meter long python crossed the road when I was walking so need to watch where you put your feet also! My motorbike finally came to Mzuzu. Things happen slowly, yes you know it already and because of one thing and another it took quite some time for me to get my bike. But it´s here now and we are out in the field doing the work that we are suppose to be doing.  First things first, we are terribly late with the pass-on program so that was the first thing we started to work ...

The weekend has been just great! I´ve been out a lot to see Mzuzu, getting to know new people and I´ve really enjoyed it. People are friendly and happy, they smile a lot and smile is always good for you. I think we should smile much more at home, we often let little things bother us too much. Nightlife is all about dancing and I must say it´s a very good exercise to do. Today I read the news from Tohmajärvi, Finland where a cowhouse was on fire and 40 cows died. It´s terrible, no one should have to face such tragedy. It also brought my thoughts to a farmer whom I went to see on Friday. She had one cow, her livelihood is pretty much depending on that one cow. The cow was a nice jersey cow, she had well kept “khola” (the “cowhouse”, will get you pictures later). Everything seemed to be in good order. Unfortunately the cow had been sick for a month now and on Friday morning it had died. It had been treated 3 times during the sickness but there is continues shortage on animal drugs. ...

Almost 3 months have passed in Malawi now and I am getting nicely settled in to Mzuzu. The weather is getting colder now that we are getting closer to winter. Well winter in Malawi cannot be compared to winter in Finland, I would still consider this as a Finnish summer. Our house starts to feel more like home every day and I am learning how to cook Filipino food which is so delicious.  The president died some time ago so we are facing big changes now in Malawi. The national mourning started with 10 days but was soon extended to 30 days. The whole episode was quite strange and I am convinced that the whole world knew about the death of the president before the news were finally released to Malawians. The dead president was travelling around the country, he came to Mzuzu also. The money spent on the funeral exceeds over 1,1 million in euros which is just a bit too much in a country where people die of hunger every day. But we have a new woman president now and hopefully things will...

Sorry for being so quiet but I am still alive and kicking. Well, I was in Lilongwe for the past 3 weeks. First attending a peer support meeting with all the VSO volunteers who work under secure livelihoods and after that doing my motorbike training to get the motorbike license. Basicly the training could have been done in a week but just for that fuel again it took us some more time to finish the course. But I am fully licensed to ride a motorbike now and that´s pretty awesome! Easter I spent at Nkhata Bay. It was beautiful, amazing, I really enjoyed it. So today I am finally back at work after being away almost a month. Doesn´t look like much have changed since I last attended a meeting at our work place.. I guess that´s the Malawian time. The same issues we discussed a month ago are still here though progress is there but it´s very slowly. Because of no fuel again (do I even need to mention that anymore..) I will do what I can this week and hopefully head to the field next week. We a...

Things happen slowly in Malawi, very slowly. We are slowly getting more to the field but not nearly as much that we should be going there. Last week we managed to see some cows. Our field team got a new volunteer from Canada offering veterinarian services. That was great! So at this time we are working on a proper database of all the farmers who are members of MDFA. The information is bit and bits there and there so it´s going to take some time but slowly getting there. Me and Abdullae on the field Just using the word slowly a lot now to make you understand the reality we live in. No point to get frustrated about it, just need to live with it. And anyway we are left with lot of other things to do so might as well enjoy the slowness. I can never talk enough about fuel and diesel, there might be some but you need to be really lucky to get it. There are days when even the black market runs out of fuel. The political situation is very unstable and we basicly living under alert all the time...