Exchanging knowledge and wisdom at the VSL women’s group.

By Aisha Balde

An 8:30am office start on a Wednesday morning may seem like a push for most people in the UK, but here in Malawi this can be easily achieved with a lie-in and a reading session leisurely done beforehand.  Most days I awake happily by 5:50am to the sound of pots clanging, the radio on full blast, and there is a coal stove that’s been burning for over an hour. Life begins early here in Dedza, so setting off from home at 8am after a hearty breakfast of chips, eggs and avocado is made easier by the light that accompanies you from a morning of music, conversation and laughter.

Today, we plan to visit the VSL women’s group in Ntakataka. The volunteers come to the office one by one, all hoping that they are not the last to arrive, for a fate riddled in embarrassment awaits the last person; they must wear the chicken hat for the rest of the day. Accidentally, this ritual has meant that we are almost always on time. This has given me some insight into how embarrassment can really work as motivation (noted for any future project management ventures).

The white van awaits in the corner of the office compound, with just enough seats for each team member. We bundle into the van one by one and no later than the door clangs shut, the driver reverses and speeds straight out of the gates – we drive through Dedza and then begin to navigate a path up and over a mountain. The driver moves from the left lane to the right lane with an intuition and respect for the mountain’s path. A wisdom which has the flavour of many of the interactions I have seen between people in Dedza and the natural world.

We arrive in Ntakataka, after we painted the mountain with the scents of traditional Malawian music, cheesy 80s hits and afro-house beats. We stop by the market and buy some snacks, namely biscuits, crisps, peanuts and bananas before finally arriving at the VSL women’s group. The women are sat on mats woven from the bark of trees they harvested from the forest. They are sat in a crescent shape with legs wrapped in coloured cloth extended before them. They welcome us with smiles and handshakes, beckoning us to sit with them.

The women sit patiently awaiting the knowledge International service volunteers and the CYECE partner organisation have brought them on how to start and sustain businesses. We begin by demonstrating how to make long-lasting charcoal using water, charcoal and sand. We then go on to demonstrate how to make cow-pea balls (delicious!) made of a bean called cow-peas, onion, garlic, paprika, chilli and eggs. The ingredients are all pounded in an Mtondo (which looks like a very big pestle and mortar) and fried until it is the consistency of burgers. After we share the cow-pea burgers, a CYECE team member leads a session on how these delicious burgers can be turned into a profitable business product. He notes the price of each ingredient and facilitates the women in calculating basic profit margins from selling the burgers in the local market.

As the women are sat, taking in the ideas about how they can improve their livelihood through small businesses, I myself felt thirsty. At this moment I remembered a conversation I had with my host mother, Hazel, she said that we are all illiterate in different ways – that I myself may be literate in English but I am illiterate in agriculture, something which 80% of Malawians are literate in.

I see around me how these women and their families have used their knowledge of agriculture to create homes, mats and nutrition. I find myself thirsting for the wisdom that means these women wake with the sun each morning to create their 6ams abundant in laughter, music and community. I thirst for the wisdom of our driver who can navigate the mountain with an intuition which I cannot help but trust. I thirst for the knowledge of these female creators who grow maize, sweet potatoes, guavas, and bananas and from these plants create meals for their families or sell them and use the money to buy their children’s school clothes.

I look at these creators and hope that the knowledge International service volunteers and CYECE have brought will be combined and mixed with their wisdom to create something that we have never dreamed it would or could create.

As I sit with the women of the VSL group, with my legs wrapped in a brown cloth dotted with red and blue, I contemplate the knowledge and wisdom I have already gained and am still to gain from the people I meet here in this district of Dedza, Malawi.