Since I went to Malawi to teach, getting out to see the sights was not a top priority. However, my one Sunday between teaching did make for an interesting day. It began with participating in a worship service from which I learned a lot about Malawian church culture. The day ended with a quick trip to the best known tourist area of Malawi, Lake Malawi. It was definitely a good day.
The church I attended was on the campus where I was teaching. I was told the service started at 9:30 so I wandered over. There were three people there when I arrived, the pastor, the Sunday school teacher, and one of my students. I sat by my student, and he helped me through the first part of the service with some translation.
The service began with Sunday school. The lady teacher was quite animated, and there was discussion around her topic. During this time other people gradually came, filling the chairs. One thing to note here is that the men and women sat on opposite sides of the room. This is not a completely unusual situation. I have seen this segregation in other parts of the world. In Egypt there was even a curtain segregating the two sides back in 1971.
The Sunday school time lasted about a half hour. Then the worship service began, and music was definitely the main element in the service. There was one hymn at the beginning. They don’t have any musical instruments, but in reality they don’t need any. They have a unique singing style. As they begin to sing, someone leads out with a few words, and then they all join in. They didn’t seem to sing the hymn with a lot of enthusiasm, however.
After that the special music started. Initially I thought it was just a few, but apparently they allow as many as want to participate. On this Sunday there was a lot. There was a girls trio, then two boys recited the 23rd Psalm in English. Then a young man did a solo. Eventually the young people did a couple of songs. One of them is below. (Sorry these videos aren’t better. They were taken with my phone.)
Following the youth, the ladies of the church did two songs. It is interesting to note that many of the ladies are wearing the same wrap skirt which is basically a long piece of cloth. I observed this on several occasions around the area. I saw women walking together with the same skirts. It seemed to be a way of indicating they were part of a group or organization. Another thing to note is that the high pitch trill you hear occasionally is apparently a way of signalling approval.
Toward the end of this special music time, the congregation seemed to pull out all the stops. People were dancing and singing all over the sanctuary. The leader eventually brought out the offering baskets, and people went forward to give their offerings while still singing. This music time was quite different from a typical American Sunday service I am used to. They definitely display much more emotion and enthusiasm.
Following the offering the pastor was ready to preach. When he was done, I thought the service would end. It didn’t. At that point announcements were given, and all the guests were introduced which included me as well as all my students. In the end the service was about two and a half hours long. It had been long, but it didn’t really seem that long with so much going on.
After the service I talked to Bern about doing something in the afternoon. Since I had only driven around Lilongwe, I wanted to get more out into the country. I convinced him to take me to Lake Malawi, the one location the country is known for. Lake Malawi is the third largest lake in Africa with an abundance of fish. Bern thought it would take about an hour and a half to drive there. Unfortunately he was wrong. It probably took closer to two hours. After we finally arrived, we only had about an hour before the sun set.
The drive out was nice. Bern’s wife Anna joined us on the trip. There was a lot of green to be seen as well as quite a few red brick communities. There was also the occasional market area. I would have liked to have taken pictures, but I didn’t want to keep asking Bern to stop. My one opportunity came when we had to stop for the cattle crossing the road. I wish I had been able to get pictures of goats. The little herds of goats were quite cute as they were running around by the road.
As we neared the lake we drove through the town of Salima where Bern warned me we would encounter bicycles, and we did. It seems to be the major form of transportation there, much more than in Lilongwe.
Getting to the lake proved to be a bit of a challenge. First Bern went to a resort in the area. They wanted him to pay for parking but wouldn’t give him a receipt. Bern felt that meant the attendant was going to just pocket the money for himself so we left. Then we tried another area Bern was aware of, but they had blocked it off to created a soccer field where a tournament was taking place. We almost got stuck in the sand there.
Finally we went down a road, which one might barely call a road, and ended up next to a backpackers’ hostel where we parked. We were able to get to the beach from there.
I had anticipated mainly a beach for swimming. While in one direction that’s what there was, in the other direction there were boats, fishing boats. The boats were all massed together. There were old boats that seemed carved out of one log as well as colorful, painted wooden boats. Nearby were fishing nets spread out over the beach.
Among the fishing nets were a couple of men who were mending the nets, weaving in extra strands. I asked Bern to check if it was OK if I took a picture of them. One guy said no, but the other guy agreed. It was quite interesting to watch them work. Apparently this is something they do every day as the nets are always getting torn.
They fish at night according to Bern, and we did see one boat that was getting ready to go out into the water. Behind the hostel was a large area where they clean the fish when they return with their catch. Fishing is obviously an important industry here. Lake Malawi does have a large number of species of fish; many found only in this lake. If you are interested in fish, check out some of the species here.
Since the sun was setting, we stayed there only about an hour. We bought something to drink and then headed back to the van. As we were getting ready to leave, a guy walked by with five or six fish on a line he was trying to sell. He caught Bern’s attention who decided he would buy them all. The guy ended up tying the line to Bern’s windshield wipers. I guess he didn’t want to stink up the car. I thought it was pretty funny. Every once in a while the wipers would accidentally start, and the fish would come up on the windshield.
While driving back it was dark so I was not able to see much. We made another stop along the road for Bern to buy some wood for the cooking fire used to fix the meals for the students.
It had been a good day, and I only wish I had had more time to really experience the life of the Malawians in the more rural areas of the country.
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Photo Credit: Photo of me taken by Bern