Life in Malawi is different and a simple situation as a woman doing laundry in a drainage ditch is an example of what Malawians in so many locations face on a daily basis.

A trip to the capital city usually offers a slight break from the more intense routine of rural life in Malawi.  Lilongwe with its many stores is about as close in appearance to some smaller cities found in America.  There's even the chance for some Italian or Chinese meals as well as hamburgers and fries. 

The capital is less than a stone's throw from the usual annoyances that afflict the rest of the country.  Lack of water and electricity are not regular occurance but in Malawi there are always those events where city life mirrors village life.  There are no surprises.  Maybe it’s a woman this week standing in a drainage ditch in front of a big hotel along the nation’s main north/south highway that best protrays a similarity between rural and urban life here. 

The woman was ankle deep in water washing some clothes with a bar of soap using run off water from the ditch.  She was positioned at eye level to the passing cars.  Because this is Malawi, her washing didn’t seem out of place.  She was doing as many other do on a daily basis in more remote river locations throughout the country.

Clothes washing for the most part is relagated to women.  When there's no running water, rivers, small streams and even a city’s drainage ditch become suitable locations for washing clothes.   It’s hard to imagine how any of those places have clean water since many of those same spots are used by domestic  herds of cattle and goats. 

Simple things like a washing machine are dependent on electricity and running water and when 94 percent of the country is without electricity such talk is pointless.  Even beyond the electricity problem, who for the most part could afford the price of a washing machine?

Spend 183,500 kwacha ($425) for a washing machine when most Malawians are living on less than 430 kwacha ($1.) a day makes little sense.  Certainly the goal is not to make Malawi the washing machine capital of the world.  As with everything else in Malawi the strategic objective is to determine where to begin. 

There is a learning process necessary to understand this unique culture that does help with living here comfortably and productively.  It’s less about being here with the usual creature comforts but more about adjusting to life here as ordinary.  Comfort is understanding and accepting that it’s not necessary to change everything that seems different.

Some things can't change because either time or resources are not available.  With all the differences there’s a certain uniqueness here that eases our own apprehension and fears.  Having available electricity and running water are not at the top of the “needs fixing” agenda.  A washing machine for every household is not on any country’s foreign aid list for Malawi.


On the brighter side there is absolutely no doubt that a easy conversation with the wash woman would have been okay.  Because there are no strangers in Malawi every situation is ripe for converstation and connection. 

The real effort is to find the right gateway maximizing the full potential of each person in Malawi to prosper, be economically independent as well as self sufficient.  Perhaps the real solution is to have the foreign aid dependant non-governemtnat organization move away from focusing their own survival and strengthen their attempts to address health and environmental issues. 

Maybe one of the strategies to consider would be to lift a page from the 1964 playbook of the late President Lyndon Johnson’s "War on Poverty".  There were criticisms about some outcomses but his initial efforts focused on targeting those areas that heavily contributed to the poverty conditions for many Americans.  The question to ask is whether this is possible in Malawi.

There has to be political will and leadership to advocate as Johnson did in the 1960s.  Otherwise what remains is the accepted norm of “that’s just the way life is in Malawi” and nothing changes.  I’d like to think the Peace Corps is moving in a more strategic direction aimed not doing the “same old same old”.  They’re getting better at asking “what are we doing and is it effective?”  Igniting change anywhere is such a monumental task. 

There is a ton of good will for Malawi championed by individuals like former presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush as well as Microsoft’s Bill and Malinda Gates.  It’s the kind of leadership demonstrated by Johnson that will seize national attention and begin uniting all efforts into a single force to start and win the Malawi war on poverty. 

This is the war that Malawi can’t afford to lose.