The Market

Ever wonder what Village des Valleurs, and other second hand stores like it, do with all their extra clothes??? They pack it up and ship it to Africa.

While exploring the Lilongwe, Malawi markets, I found stall after stall selling western clothing with the tag from Village des Valleurs (VdV) still on many of the articles. I don't know the whole value chart yet, but it starts with:

• We drop off all our unwanted clothes

• VdV then packs up what doesn't sell and pays for the container and shipping

• In Africa, various countries receive the containers

• Don't know exactly what happens in the exchange...Who receives it? How is it distributed?

• Street sellers buy wrapped bundles by categories (blankets, t-shirts, pants...etc) at ~ 15 000 to 30 000 MK (~150 MK = 1$ CND) without really knowing what's in there

• The sellers set up their stalls and people buy the used clothing with the VdV label still on it, but in Malawian Kwachas

How much of the goods goes to orphanages or schools? Unknown.

The Value chain has its pros and cons:

• Pros: the street sellers have a business, clothes are "cheap", easy to find and you might just spot a sweet UBC hoodie

• Cons: Textile industries are pretty much out of business and the market is flooded with these used clothes, which drives the prices down for all the sellers, meaning it's cheap for the buyers (pro) and all the kids run around with GAP and BARBY printed on their chests

There are obviously more complex pros/cons that I have yet to find and comprehend. And what would happen if the supply were to stop? Or if the supply were to increase?

A similar impact on a country's economy can come from FOOD AID if / when farmers from Canada/United States are SUBSIDIZED to the extent that it becomes cheaper for a Malawian to buy the imported rice or maize than to buy it locally. When the market prices drop, farmers can no longer make a profit; also farmers have trouble finding labourers, because it is not worth working to bring in a harvest if FOOD AID is coming.

**Photo by Duncan McNicholl

Malawi, The Heart of Africa

After 6 days of intense learning in Toronto, about 30 hours of traveling over 6 time zones, 2 more days of intense learning in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, I finally arrived in Ntchisi, my new home town, on Monday may 12. The moment I've been working towards for the last 4 months.

All my senses are doing over time as my body tries to absorb my new surrondings. The smells, the wind, the sun, the stars, the bugs, the architecture, the open fields, the food, the clothes, the people, the language....

The language is the hardest part for me at the moment. There are too many ways of saying "Hello, how are you?" for the different times of the day, that I just get confused. At least my attemps make people laugh, and the kids never tire of correcting my pronunciation. I find it hard to sit in a meeting and have four Malawians speak in English just so I can understand. But the people here are too nice and so accommodating that I'm already feeling at home.

The climate here is fantastic! The day starts with a burning sun (without the humidity of Montreal) and ends with a cool breeze for easy sleeping. It's the dry season, or Malawi's "winter," so it's cold enough at night to wear pants and want a nice blanket to sleep with. Dry season also means fewer mosquitoes!!

The food is quite different, but pretty good. Breakfast is usually either bread with margarine or boiled sweet potato*. For lunch and dinner, it’s always nshinma** with two other dishes: a leafy green relish made from either pumpkin leaves or rape leaves, and a meat dish (goat or fish, so far). I like everything so far, except the fish -- it's just a little too fishy~

The adventure of getting to this town from Lilongwe, drove home the logic of not driving after sunset. The roads are narrow and they wind through the hills; add the people, bikes, ox-pulled wagons, dogs and goats, and you've got difficult driving even in daylight. Bring on the darkness…well you can just imagine.

*Sweet potatoes are kinda yellow and yams are orange.

**Nshima is made from either corn flour or cassava flour. The flour is added to boiling water and stirred and stirred and stirred over the fire into a dough-like consistency. You really get a sense of how strong the women are when you "try" to stir the nshima the way they do, at their impressive intensity... it's very thick which is good -- because it sticks to your stomach.

* Photo by Duncan McNicholl