A Taste of the Warm Heart of Africa

By Lina Xu

A view from the hostel

As we drove further, we passed several markets, where fruits like tomatoes, sugar canes and apples, together with clothes, meat could be seen. However, we did not see many buyers around.  When we passed the town, there were several banks and two gas filling stations facing each other. There were also snack booths along the road, a board caught our eyes by its advertisement: the best beer in the world. I guess maybe the locals consider this as the best they have ever tasted and they do not have the desire to learn what is outside of Malawi. To some extent, they are happy with their lives.
Upon approaching Kasungu, the road became bumpy and there was dirt everywhere when we drove by. We were too excited to arrive at our destination, the campus. It was striking in the area since the layout was quite neat. The minute we got out of the Toyota, we were surrounded by a group of people, most of whom were offered a temporary job during our stay. They took turns to greet us by shaking hands and hugs, the warm heart of Africa, I love it. They helped us move our luggage to the hostel.
After that, our peers who had come before showed us all the basic facilities. I was informed by Dr. Stonebanks that there were no electricity and no running water. Thanks to the solar power technology, there was limited electricity generated by the device, so there were bulbs in the hostel, but it was not bright enough. I believe we could get used to it.
Our first supper here was curry chicken. It was delicious, beyond my expectation. The rice tasted far better than what I had in Canada. In addition, there were shower rooms, but no electricity inside. We needed to rely on headlamps. By heating water over fires, the local women helped us with the hot water. I was too eager to take a shower after the long flight. I was told that hot water was ready and I got fully equipped. I heard from our peer that we were given a bucket of warm water for our shower. I assumed that there would be a big wooden bucket of water, like what we see in the sauna. That will be enough for me. To my surprise, a small plastic bucket of water was in my sight, which I believe to be 30 liters at the most. It was not enough for me to wash my hair. How can I take a whole shower with this limited water? What shall I do? The Field Director and my peers told me how to shower with this amount of water. Seeing the women working on others’ hot water, I decided to have a try. I made it at last, without complaints. I was somehow proud of myself in completing this. There was no hairdryer allowed here due to the scarcity of electricity. Feeling exhausted, I had to go to bed with my half wet hair.
I was woken up at midnight by some noises in the corridor, it seemed like several snakes were crawling and fighting from time to time. I was too terrified to open the door to see what was going on outside. I did not know when I fell asleep again. I checked with my peers the next day, no one heard similar noise, maybe I was anxious. But hopefully, it was not true, it was only my” imagination”.
On June 8, our first entire day on the campus, we got up at 6 am and had breakfast afterwards. It reminds me of the military training session when I was a freshman. I did some reading and went around the surroundings. It was good to know the people working here, they were hard working here. In the afternoon, the lab was open. I was surprised to see seven laptops, a printer and a projector. I could not imagine that under such severe conditions, how much effort Dr. Stonebanks and his team spent and how determined they have been.
There was a lot for me to explore further, the people as well as our projects.

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