Elections, Justice, Historical times

I usually don’t write a lot about Malawi politics and government. However right now I can only believe we are living in a time that will be recorded in history and studied for many years to come.

May 21, 2019 the quintennial tripartite election was held. The announcement of the results was delayed because of issues that were brought as complaints. I am told this is normal. To the best of my understaning all the issues were not addressed before the results were announced.

The announcement was that our incumbent president won. Within a few days petitions were filed that the election was unjust, and poorly run. The two runners up candidates filed these petitions. At that point it became a waiting game politically.

A group formed calling themselves the HRDC (Human Rights Defense Council) begin to call for the resignation or firing of the woman who is the head of the Malawi Electoral Commission. She refused to resign claiming she has upheld the law. After that various demonstrations and marches were held. These were planned (I honestly do believe this) by the organizers to be non violent/peaceful demonstrations. However there is a certain mob mentality that occurs with large groups of people. There is also no real knowledge of exactly who participated but they did not stay non violent. There were rocks thrown at police, windows, including the windows of passing occupied vehicles, tires have been burned and it has generally been a little scary though generally times and dates of the marches were publicized.

At one point the HRDC wanted to demonstrate at airports and the border crossings in and out of the country and stop all incoming and outgoing traffic. This was said to be considered treason and they were ordered to not set up these demonstrations. Also when things in the major cities, Lilongwe, Blantyre and Mzuzu got out of hand there was a 14 day stop and desist order which was followed.

So I would say the situation has been a little scary and tense at times but if you were wise you really didn’t have to be too concerned.

The court case was taken up by the constitutional court and the results were finally announced this past Monday. They came out with a 500 page document which was summarized point by point. A very brief summary of the most critical findings is below.

1. Nullification of presidential election

2. Fresh election, to be held within 150 days

3. Parliament to consider 50+1%

4. MPs and Councillors to serve longer than 5yrs so that next Tri-partite elections are done after 5yrs

6. PAC to re-examine competence of current MEC to manage fresh elections

7. MEC to pay petitioners' legal costs

These results have now been appealed to the Supreme court by the president. But for the most part Malawi remains calm and peaceful.

This decision has been hailed by many as a landmark strike for justice and the trampling down of corruption. We wait to see what will happen going forward. At this point it is peaceful and the streets are safe (well except for the normal congested and erratic traffic)

I am deliberately not expressing an opinion on what should happen. I honestly don’t know but I covet everyone’s prayers that the coming transitional time remains peaceful and safe and that in the end a just solution will be found and Malawi can move forward a stronger nation.

Rainy Season

So right now it is the middle or rainy season in Malawi.

I am kind of amazed by rainy season.

Probably May until Late Oct/early Nov. there was no rain. Toward the end of this period birds start returning to us and what is truly amazing to me, trees that have been sitting around burst into bloom. Jacaranda, flame or flamboyant and the rather skeletal looking frangiapani. It looks like there is no rhyme or reason to this change but then it starts raining first a little and then a bit more and of late quite a lot.

In Oct. 2018 when we arrived here little was cultivated and less planted at that time. Very soon field were being cultivated, by hand and then planted and then it seemed like there were little shoots of maize sprouting every where by mid Nov. This year more land was cultivated and prepared sooner though the actual planting didn’t happen til early Nov when we started getting rains. By mid December the maize was anywhere from ankle to knee high. Now the healthy crops are 6-8 feet tall. The whole landscape has changed near my house.  The above pictures were taken in early Nov. Now the maize has been over my head since mid January.

I walk a lot with my big dog and some of the paths that are very well worn are almost obliterated by new growth. One place where they made and hauled bricks in and out a lot while it was dry had developed into what I call a prairie road, two well worn tracks with some vegetation in the middle. The vegetation has creeped in from the sides now and grown up in the middle In places it’s hard to see the path and the grass on the sides and middle is over 6 feet tall. In rainy season everything grows.

We will see the clouds build and then there will be a downpour. In ND where I am from we have thundershowers where it rains huge amounts very fast. Sometimes even 5 or up to 9 inches. It is very localized. Here it rained from this past Sunday afternoon through Tuesday night. It just rained and rained. Sometimes a drizzle, sometimes a downpour, most times just a steady rain. I don’t think it has been so much to cause real flooding yet, though there has been some. Malawi is basically a Rift valley sort of area and water rises along the rivers and lake when we get much rain.

I really am appreciating the diversity of the seasons here now. The high to low temperature variance year round is probably 60 degrees Fahrenheit, with the common variance being more like 40 degrees but there is a distinct change in the seasons just more subtle then in North Dakota where it is -40 degrees by winter and 100 degrees by summer at times.

An acquaintance told me on my first visit to Africa you could put any sort of stick in the ground and it would grow during rainy season in Ghana. I am not in Ghana and I am guessing that there would have to be some degree of life in the stick but I would grow this time of year. I have 2 freshly planted avocadoes in my yard that are probably a dream more then reality that they will grow enough in our time here to harvest avocados but I still wanted them and they are growing very rapidly.

Things that happen in Malawi

I have been in this small densely populated country for nearly 16 months now. That sometimes makes me think I should not be surprised by things that happen here anymore. However this is just not the case.
Before Christmas I was waiting in the outer office of the Chief Permit Officer's quarters at immigration. Generally you wait a lot to see anyone or accomplish things here so I was messing around on my phone. I heard a door open and looked up and by the window behind the secretaries desk stands a lady eating corn on the cob. So where did this come from? It's December and is not maize season and this is an official office. Shortly three immigration officials from the front counter come in and head to the window and buy more corn on the cob.
There is a sign upstairs that says you cannot vend in the building but I guess that doesn't apply to through the window. I asked one of the officials who I have met before how they came to have maize in Dec. He kindly offered me his cob and said this was irrigated maize. Who knew?
Now this surprised me but I was further surprised when a little while later I was back sitting in the same office and a different person was selling boabab flavored popsicles out of a cooler. I was not offered one but was told they were very good and refreshing.
Now I thought about this as compared to the US and decided it really wasn't so very different from sending someone in the office to pick up Starbucks for everyone. It did still surprise me though.

Above is a picture of my dogs: Lukas and Mowgli. If you follow me on facebook or anywhere else you have seen them before. Most Malawians have dogs, or are around dogs but I am assuming because so many are trained guard dogs they do not trust dogs. Mowgli is about 7 months here and still acts very puppy like and has no viciousness in his heart at all. Lukas I believe would protect me if I were in a threatening situation so I take him with me if I walk far. I meet very few Malawians who are not intimidated by him.
I have grown men give me a 10 foot space as they pass or complement me on my fine dog and then say they find him frightening and ask if it is safe to pass. I generally say OsaOpa (do not fear) Galu ali pa chingwe (the dog he is on his lead). If it's young men with decent English I tell them he will not bother them as long as they don't bother me.
So as you can imagine much to my amazement I encountered a woman carrying a toddler in a Chitnji the other day and she stopped to talk to Lukas and tell her toddler this is a dog, can you say doggy. I can only guess that she has had some experience with German Shepherds and this leant her more confidence as he was on lead and honestly is quite well behaved.

You never know and can't make assumptions.
I am as I have probably said several times hoping to keep up with this blog more with snapshots of my daily life and thing that happen from day to day.

Highs and Lows

The church we attend here is currently doing a series preaching through Joshua and that is the title of the series. This week they will be crossing the Jordan river into the promised land. Definitely a high!

I borrowed this title to talk about the highs and lows of life in Malawi.

Highs for me as anyone who follows me on Facebook should now definitely include our dogs. My very silly, naughty but nice puppy gives

me great joy and my big strong black shepherd makes me feel safe. They are a blessing.

Every day I see birds in greater variety then would ever be the case in the states. I also see wonderful blooming plants. The tree by my bedroom window is nearly constantly in bloom with vivid hot pink blooms. It’s jacaranda season and they purple blossoming trees are blooming their hearts out. Frangipani which can be a variety of colors are coming into bloom, and soon the flame trees will be bright orange red. My soul is fed by these beautiful things.

I have continued to be fascinated by the local wild life. If you ask my family they will tell you mom always wants to visit zoos. Here with in an hour or so drive I can see zoo animals in their natural habitat and I continue to revel in that opportunity.

This week we had another high as we managed to decipher the new e portal and submit documents to bring new missionaries into Malawi. That was preceeded by a big low but still we are thankful.

One more thing that I see as a high and may amuse some is that I have become more accustomed and tolerant of the many odd things that show up in and around my house. Yesterday that was a blue centipede. Sometimes it’s an amazing large fast moving spider or an over grown roach. Slowly God has given me the grace to deal with these things.

Lows are really greatly missing my family. This is more pronounced as I realize I have missed a year of their lives now. There have been big events that I would love to have been a part of, especially of late. I am convinced we are where God has called us to be for many reasons but it does not always stop the second guessing.

We are going on a week of little or no internet in our home. This is hard. I do my keeping in touch with the world at home all through the internet. It is frustrating when it doesn’t work. Thankfully it has been relatively stable at the office. 

All the lovely flowers and birds and blooming things also mean allergens. I am not sure if it is the blossoms or the smoke from burning leaves and trash that are bothering me but I have been plagued by sinus headaches. It is also a distressing thing that much garbage is just thrown out and litters the whole world here. Our pastor referred to the blue plastic bags which are abundant as being the national bird. I often am focusing my camera on a bit of colored plastic off a ways thinking it might be a bird. 

The house where we live here is my only “home” and it has problems. I am so thankful for many good things in our house but we also have a badly damaged ceiling and mold issues that have been a struggle to get rectified. Our rent is paid every month, but our landlords motivation to deal with problems is not active every month. We believe this is going to be resolved in the next week or so. We also believe the leaking roof which caused the problem has been effectively repaired.

Another particular low for me is fellowship or more appropriately lack thereof. I work in an office with all men. I go to EBCoM to work in the library at select time and see all men. I have nothing against all these men but I do need female companionship in my life. Somedays there is none. In this area I am thankful because Andrea Richter will be back in country today and I will see her most days going forward. I have also become much more comfortable with relationships and fellowship at our church and the life group I have joined. Many of these people are Malawian nationals but their English is better than that of my neighbors so meaningful communication is much easier for me with my limited Chichewa (it’s growing but I don’t think I have a natural gift at all) and the neighbor ladies limited English.

My ministry role was seriously hampered when the system for processing documents at immigration changed. It was very hard to realize that what I had struggled to learn was largely invalidated. I am also feeling like I am still struggling with my alphabet soup (NPL, IPS, MO’s, PRF’s etc.) I make progress but it is slow as it’s all through manuals and long distance communication.

So there is a large mix of things but through the past months and closing on a year, God has shown himself faithful in many ways. I watched a Louis Giglio video that showed up in my facebook feed. I have started reading John Piper’s “Don’t Waste Your Life”. I have reflected on the good gifts. GOD is Good!