Malawi

As we drove down the surprisingly wonderfully-paved highways of Southern Malawi, spectacular mountains adorning the landscape, I couldn’t help but think of all the similarities between Guatemala and Malawi.  Trucks from the United Nations might drive down the left side of the road here, but they still kick up dust in the paths left behind them.  Bicycles are plentiful here, just like Guatemala, toting thrice the weight previously thought possible, the most accessible mode of transportation for farmers.  Women walk with a similar grace here, that uncanny ability to balance heavy loads atop their heads and wear an insatiable smile while they’re at it.  The markets are busy, the children are running in the street, the truck almost just hit a goat, the communities still shyly giggle and whisper about the incoming gringos (here in Africa, Mzumus) wandering their streets.   Malawians mill their corn and make porridge, we boil and mill our corn to make tortillas.   The farmers might have less land, the average landholding size here is 1 hectare (about 2.2 acres); in Guatemala our farmers a lucky enough to hold out a few more than that – average 8 acres. The women might cook their pigeonpea differently, grounding up peanuts and making a paste, but their children still play tag.  Running up and down the narrow dirt pathway meandering through endless fields of pigeonpea, bare feet scurrying over dead corn stalks and kicking dust into the joy-filled air.   It is these moments when you see an undeniable connection among all of humanity.  Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny.   What affects one directly affects all indirectly.”  And pigeonpea, this humble little bean crop, is doing that.  From the coastal plains of Guatemala to the mountainous terrain of Malawi, pigeonpea is transforming lives and landscapes, and facilitating an international collaboration of NGOs to do it.