"The Warm Heart of Africa": a travelogue

Irene Eichenberger, Institutional Partnerships at ena, spent two weeks in the "warm heart of Africa". In her travel report, she takes us with her and explains why she was willing to resort to "rat poison" to get there.
Benjamin Joos

Now it's here, the confirmation. I'm going to fly to Malawi! Instead of just hearing about our projects, I will visit small farmers in their fields and conduct interviews with newly trained young people.

I'm looking forward to a lasting experience and an adventure. But I also have respect, for example for the tropical climate with 100 percent humidity. Malawi calls itself "The warm heart of Africa". However, this is not because of the heat, but because of the warm-hearted population. 😊

No turning back

The first vaccinations have been given. There's no turning back now. One protects against "abdominal typhus" - what else there is. The team's recommendations for malaria prophylaxis vary: one colleague calls the tablets "rat poison". I take them anyway and am glad I did later. One evening, I kill ten mosquitoes and fall asleep with the uneasy feeling that there is another one inside the mosquito net.

Together with my colleague from Switzerland, the program manager for Malawi, I land in Lilongwe, Malawi's capital. We stay in a simple lodge that is secured with a wall and barbed wire.

Getting to know the partner organizations

On the first day, we get to know the first of our two partner organizations: "World Relief Malawi". The team will accompany us to the project participants. First, we visit young people who have completed vocational training thanks to our project. Many of them had to drop out of elementary school because their parents didn't have the money. As a result, they had no chance of state-funded training.
Malawi: a group of young women learn to bake.
Newly qualified bakers in front of the brick oven.

Beds by the roadside

As we drive on, I watch the life on the road with fascination. Besides cars, there are also people and herds of cattle on the road. There are also lots of bicycles, on which you can obviously transport a live pig or chickens. All sorts of things are sold on the roadside. Someone is sitting with a sewing machine in front of a simple shelter. Beds are also on sale here, like those made by the carpenters in our project. I am pleased for our trained young people that the hurdles to setting up their own business seem to be low.
Malawi: Beds are offered for sale on the roadside.
Shopping in Malawi: beds are also sold on the roadside.

Next, we visit small farmers in their fields. It is mainly women who welcome us singing and dancing. Because not all of them can read and write, they make a song out of the recipe for baby food or for making fertilizer. But mainly they just seem to enjoy singing and dancing.
Malawi: There is a lot of dancing in the "warm heart of africa".
Small farmers and a village elder sing and dance to welcome us.

Proud corn

The women show us the maize plants, which are tall and dark green thanks to the home-made fertilizer. Little grows here without fertilizer. But now it looks as if their harvest will be at least twice as big as before. If it rains enough in the next few weeks, they won't go hungry this year. I am pleased that I was able to contribute to this success as a fundraiser.
Malawi: The maize grows significantly larger with the home-made fertilizer.
Thanks to new cultivation methods, the maize (right) is much larger than traditionally grown maize (left).

A little bit in love

At the end of the trip, I am a little bit in love with the "warm heart of Africa": with the beautiful landscape, the (in my view) uncomplicated life and, above all, with the cheerful and warm people. Mathilda, the head of World Relief Malawi, explains the mentality of the Malawians as follows: "When we wake up in the morning and live, we thank God and are content."