Politics, Permaculture and Pampering

Another busy day of meetings and learning the politics of the traditional healers associations in Malawi. Several people have told me the same joke that the traditional healers believe in the new multi-party democracy in Malawi just as the government politicians do, so they must have multiple associations. There’s lots of competition and jealousy between them and it doesn’t help that the Ministry of Health has selected a favorite. It is interesting though that the man in the Ministry who is the champion of the traditional healers is a medical doctor who tells me that the traditional healers (other than those of his select organization) just do not understand, even though they have given them lots of training on modern science and medicine. It’s interesting to observe a major cultural gulf between people of the same nationality when I am a foreigner in their land.

My last meeting of the day ended up being 3 hours long, but more because of genuine enjoyment than anything else. I met with a couple of Americans who have been living in Malawi for 10 years, ever since they came out as Peace Corps volunteers. I visited their home which is a rural African community, unfenced and open. Very unusal for a white family in Malawi. They have used permaculture practices to transform the property around their rustic house from bare ground into a verdant paradise that provides them with fruits and vegetables and greens and tubers and plenty of nutritious food. The conversion all took place since they moved into their home a year and half ago and was very impressive. It brought back fond memories of staying with families practicing permaculture in Australia during my backpacking days.

I managed to get back to the hotel only 20 minutes late for my massage appointment. A little pampering is always a good thing, but sometimes a massage can be more pain than pleasure and this was one of those instances. It was also funny to listen to the abrasive tones coming from the masseurs headphones that could be heard above the looped tape of bad relaxation music. I’d say you get what you pay for, but I think it’s actually a case of hit or miss here.