Visit Every City

August 24th, 2023

Nearly out of the instant coffee we brought from the US, and not quite willing to spend money on the ridiculously expensive instant coffee in the grocery stores (or to settle for the cheaper version mixed with chicory), Nick and I opted for some locally-grown coffee. When it comes to coffee, fresher is always preferred. If we had access to a coffee grinder we might have gone for the whole bean Satemwa brand coffee grown in Thyolo just south of Blantyre. Instead we’ve been enjoying the fruity notes of the dark roast Chipunga coffee grown in the northern region of Mzuzu.

Today I went with one of the young adults from the Blantyre congregation to buy a guitar. Dannil Hussein is a very talented guitar player much like his mother. It’s one of his dreams to earn his living playing music for people. In 2017 Lena and I were able to coordinate the purchase of two guitars for the congregations in Malawi which are still in use. Much like Uchindami’s violin, a private donor (themself a musician) had given enough for Dannil to purchase a well-built guitar that he could use to serve the brethren in Blantyre and also potentially earn a living. Recently Dannil has been actually making some money playing at a few weddings and in a certain coffee shop. He also recently recorded an EP titled Kwathu which you can find on Spotify here. The pieces on the EP are a combination of songs about the gospel and life and culture in Malawi. Dannil also writes and sings his own songs.

Playing at a wedding, a single guitar player like Dannil might make somewhere around $25. A gig at a coffee shop or restaurant would pay about $30. That’s not a huge amount but playing a few times a week consistently, a person could earn a livable wage in Malawi. Although he trained to be a plumber, and he has applied for jobs, he seems to have had more success playing music. One challenge, which the majority of God’s people have always faced in a world where work is more important than religion, is the temptation to make money on the Sabbath. Many restaurants draw larger crowds on the weekends, especially Saturdays. And many weddings happen on Saturdays as well. I pray for our young adults who face these challenges. Hopefully they are encouraged by the examples set by those faithful people who paved the way for the Church of God in places like Malawi, fighting poverty, religious preconceptions, family expectations, and governmental pressures.

Dannil and I went to a few different shops that had guitars to compare their stock and the quality of their products. One shop surprisingly makes handmade guitars using locally sourced wood. They can even make custom instruments as long as the basic structure is still a guitar. Dannil was looking for something that would sound clean and consistent, an acoustic-electric guitar that would withstand the test of time and play for as long as possible. Before I arrived he had already tested a number of guitars and had found the perfect instrument, an Ibanez made in Indonesia. Many of the instruments for sale in Malawi are either cheap knock-offs or starter quality instruments made in China and a few other places. Some of the higher quality instruments are shipped from the UK. While we saw about 25 different guitars, there wasn’t an equivalent to the Ibanez. The seller, hoping we would come back to buy his instrument, found a hard carrying case which he didn’t have at the beginning of the day. It was the best we had found and exactly what Dannil was looking for so the choice was easy.

In the afternoon Nick and I introduced Dannil to an American classic meal/snack: the PB&J. Malawians typically eat bread for breakfast with their tea (the Malawian grown tea is usually consumed with milk and sugar). They produce their own peanut butter and do have peanut butter sandwiches for snacks sometimes. Jelly is exclusively called jam here probably because of the British influence — jelly being the name of a gelatin dessert in the UK. Jam is available in grocery stores here in cans, but is more of a luxury item which most Malawians haven’t tasted. Dannil very much enjoyed the sandwich. Hopefully it’s popularity will quickly spread across the country and the continent.

Nick and I found an Indian restaurant related to a familiar one in Lilongwe. We ordered butter chicken and chicken tikka masala. The food was very flavorful and really hit the spot. I drove to the restaurant and Nick navigated. Driving to the restaurant should have only taken us about 15 minutes, but one of the streets that used to be there wasn’t actually a street anymore so we had to take an alternate route which took us far out of the way along some very questionable streets through the city. Thankfully the route home was straightforward and predictable. An otherwise quiet evening was disrupted by the constant crying of Snow, the Ringo’s mostly secluded cat. She was going from room to room and from chair to chair trying to find something. Eventually Patrick put a blanket down under a table in the storage room. Immediately Snow laid down and got quiet. Predicting that she might be ready to give birth, we took guesses as to how many kittens she would have that night. Nick guessed 0. Patrick and I figured she would probably have 3. Steve won the bet (we bet a cup of coffee) when we found 4 kittens the next morning.

– Lewis VanAusdle