I arrived in Malawi a week ago (actually 2 weeks by now – see postscript). After a day to settle in and recover from a stomach bug (picked up en-route at Addiss Ababa Airport – never again! – and finally healed by chewing on lots of Papaya seeds), since Monday I have been full-on participating in the Permaculture Design Certificate course here at Kusamala Institute, Lilongwe.

We are a mixed bunch: there are only 7 of us but many countries in the mix: Malawi, England, Zimbabwe, Holland, Israel, England, Gambia, USA … We are learning Permaculture in a Malawian context but the ideas, the principles are valid anywhere. Think global, act local as they say.

For the first days our teacher is Kristoff Nordin; Originally from Wisconsin, he and his wife have been living in Malawi for more than 20 years practicing and teaching Permaculture and healthy nutrition. I had browsed his website Never Ending Food  before the course and was a bit worried he might be a bit too saintly for my liking – some activists come across as sort of preachers/prophets of doom. I am delighted to find him nothing of the sort . I enjoy our sessions very much and in the tea breaks discover we share a love of fishing; he also knows the local birds and smokes a pipe. We hardly notice what a huge amount of material we cover in such a short time in the classroom and during our little walks around the site. He is a very good teacher.

Going deeper with Kristoff

We look at some basic ecology, cycles, resources, economy, soil, water,ethics, design principles…all boiled down to their essences, tied together, integrated, practical,livable. These are not lofty ideas – rather they are tools for a sane humanity. Again and again I wonder how the world can be in such a mess when solutions are everywhere and so simple; how can land be deforested when all you have to do is plant some trees? Sure, governments, corporations, greed etc. blah blah. It’s crazy. Anyway , permaculture is all about solutions, easy ones.

Aubrey and Charles

We move from general ideas to applications as we make maps of the sites we are working on; we watch videos and begin to see the Kusamamala site through designer’s eyes. There are 6 different kinds of compost toilets here for example – which one suits us best?

Compost Toilet Inspection

Kristoff leaves us and Luwayo Biswick, a young Malawian who lives at the site takes over instruction. He is a bit less of a philosopher – having grown up in a poor village he knows how transformative Permaculture can be; he has shared his knowledge and experience with communities all over the country and now with us. We get in to the nuts and bolts, work on our designs and add techniques and design tools to our repertoire. In between we take some breaks from the intense mental work with some short (it is pretty hot) practicals – we make a compost pile and plant a Banana sucker in a pit that collects water runoff.

Luwayo lays down the law on propagating Mulberries

Compost action

One of my favorite spots is a staple field just in front of Luwayo’s house. I had read a lot about inter-cropping Maize and other cereals, a technique whereby staple crops are produced in a mixed culture with nitrogen fixing inter-crops which substitute for fertilizer and  also produce an extra harvest. Degraded soil is restored, there is no need for harmful and expensive chemicals and yields are as good and often better than in conventional methods. Pest and weed problems are greatly reduced and often eliminated altogether in well designed systems. I am delighted to find several such fields here and one has already been seeded and , with a little irrigation, is already sprouting. The birds love it and every morning and evening I hang out there a bit and watch as they patrol the long beds and clear away potential pests.

An elegant solution for sustainable food production

These systems (there are many variations) are gaining in popularity across Africa. They work on small and large scales. Neighbouring Zambia is a leader but almost every country has some projects, some organizations big or small promoting this. This is very good news, this is the way to go, simple and elegant solutions that address multiple issues at once; A total contrast to bringing in new genetically engineered seeds, drowning the soil in weed killers and pesticides and then trying to find solutions to the new problems that inevitably arise (Pesticide resistance, water pollution by fertilizers etc.).

Peter’s Twinspot

The birds love it

The first week is done; I hope the internet will be up and running long enough to post this – it seems there are a lot of power cuts across the country ( we don’t experience them as we are in the same district as the president’s palace) and the providers are having problems keeping things running. Tomorrow is a day off and some of us are planning a day trip out to Kuti Wildlife Reserve (in the Rift valley near lake Malawi) where I spent 2 weeks as a volunteer earlier this year.

Dishwasing at Kusumala – drainage in to a Banana pit

Postscript: Internet connection has been almost non-existent. The course is over now and I am staying in town for a couple of days before we head up to Kasungu. So I have some time to catch up . The rest tomorrow on the next blog post.

Tiwonana Mawa!