Poverty in Malawi Post #1

Studying poverty in Malawi is interesting because it is so different and multi-faceted, as poverty is in most circumstances. To start off, Malawi is one of the most impoverished countries in the world, and while maybe what I am experiencing in Mzimba can be applied to the whole country, it is Mzimba that I am drawing my observations and ideas from, so my observations may be unique to this area, or they may not be.

Not only is poverty in Malawi different as a country, as well as in different areas, but it is different from a local perspective as well. For example, I am staying in a guest house, where mostly white people come to stay while they are working in the surrounding hospital, schools, and ministries. Most of the people have brought things to give away or have gifts of service or money to benefit the community close to the guest house. Therefore, many (many, not all) of the children here are well-clothed and have more resources than others. Now, understand that more may be a very small difference to us, the living conditions at the school are still pretty horrible and food is still less than desirable. But the children here I would say are very familiar with white people, and receiving things from white people, they will often come up to me and say:
1. “give me money”
2. “give me candy”
3. “give me a pen”
4. “give me your bottle” (my water bottle they see)
5. “give me your bag” <- this one creeps me out the most because it sounds like they would steal it maybe

In the past, I have been told, kids did not do this in Embangweni and it was much less of a problem. It is clear that kids here have learned or grown to think that white people automatically come with money or have things that they will give away. This is expected I guess, but the problem has gotten really bad, or worse, since even I’ve been here I think, maybe just because it’s our summer season when many groups travel from Europe and the US. But I was, I would say, harassed by a group of primary (elementary) school kids walking to work one day, just repetitively and continuously asking for money and making obnoxious and rude sounds while I was walking, very unpleasant. It’s not very good when they hang around the guest house either, especially after a long day, it’s not very nice to come back to demands from kids you would normally expect to be nice and fun, who then instead of saying hi and waving, say “give me money,” or “give me your bag.” It’s also interesting that it is just the kids here, no adults in Embangweni have asked me for anything, it’s just the kids, and mostly from around the guest house. Groups will come and work in the schools and give things away, or do fundraisers, and then the kids will come around looking for handouts. I am not suggesting that people stop bringing things to give to kids or stop helping, only pointing out that there are some negative consequences that go with the good ones. I’ve seen this problem answered when the groups at the guest house know to discourage kids from hanging around and even the security guards and manager of the guest house sometimes help to maintain the peace.

Another interesting aspect about poverty in the area around the guest house and Embangweni, is that even though there is such a presence of mission groups at the hospital and surrounding schools, the areas that are pretty close, maybe a mile away, are just as needy as those that are miles away. The hospital and schools (primary, secondary, and deaf schools) are in need of a lot of help themselves – no running water for students, bad living environments, only rice and beans for food, lack of medications in the hospital, lack of beds, etc. – so the help is needed there, but sometimes it’s hard to see all the work that is going on near the guest house, when somewhere I visit right down the road is suffering just as much or more. I wish that the clothes that get dropped off to the kids near to the guest house would reach the kids who are 20 miles farther away who are wearing clothes that have holes in them and might as well not be there at all. A nursery school that is literally right next to the primary school does not even have its own building or a chalk board.