Carnets de voyage
Jams and pickles in Malawi
lundi 12 novembre 2012
Two weeks ago, I had forgotten my water back at the hostel so I ran home during lunch hour to retrieve it. While I was there a young man was standing outside of the hospital carrying a straw basket that was nearly half of his size. As he peeled back a layer of banana peels, I saw a variety of foods that I have not eaten for nearly 2 months : strawberries, rhubarb, spinach, zucchini, beetroot…so much to choose from and here, at my front door !!
In my excitement I exclaimed that homemade strawberry rhubarb jam is one of my favourite foods to eat. He stared at me longingly.
"You know how to make jam ?"
"Well sure" I said "its easy. Just some sugar and lime juice and mason jars and you don’t even need a refrigerator. I’ll teach you someday. How much do I owe you ?"
Then again, this evening, this same young man was standing again at my front door. I was excited to see my fresh fruits come by again while he seemed very annoyed. "I came back everyday but you were not here. I want to learn how to make jam. You can write it down for me. I know how to read english."
"Oh, I am so sorry !" I said pretending to look abashed since I work during the day and I had no idea he had been coming. "I didn’t know. But hey, if we don’t see each other, you can always look it up on the…"
I have been in Africa long enough by this point to stop myself in mid-sentence. What was I saying ? The internet here is a luxury to the few who can afford it. A dongle and 5GB of data cost the equivalent of two months salary. Not even the district council officers have internet in their offices. Before we made future arrangements, I stared admirably at this young man. He had not only proven me wrong, he had managed to rekindle my spirits.
In less than two weeks after my initial charge of social apathy, I am confronted with another theory. Could it be that these people, while educated and strong and confident are incapable of helping themselves simply because they do not have the same access to information that we do ? Could it be that they do not make lemonade out of lemons because we do not share this type of knowledge with them ? Do we plant the trees for the raw goods to sell on the international market but fail to give them the ingredients to make a sustainable product ? This seems too oversimplified.
I began thinking of ways to make a book of recipes for canning and pickling. And it was in this state of mind when that initial observation of the substandard products that I had during my first week rose back up. I realized that the only glass I have seen here is bottles of Fanta, Coca-cola and Carlesburg. I have never, not once, seen a mason jar.