It struck me a few months ago while watching one of the movie versions of Jane Eyre, I forget which -- there are so many and I've seen most of them -- that living by candlelight is very dark. Now I know from experience.
For a variety of reasons electricity is rather unreliable in Malawi. Here in Namwera, the power goes out at least once a week, sometimes for minutes, sometimes for hours. I've been told that in the big capitol city of Lilongwe, it is worse.
The first time it happened, I was rather delighted. The guest house where the sisters put me has a rather elaborate ebony candle stick and there were two candles on a shelf. Now I had an excuse to use them.
It turns out that you can see quite well with one taper candle, enough to move around a room, but if you want to read, you have to be quite close to it. There is also a nack to walking with a candle if you actually need to see by it. If you hold it at eye level, it is blinding. A little higher than head level and slightly behind seems to give the best visibility, but I keep imagining setting my hair on fire, and you can't go through a doorway like that. It is a work in progress.
I now have two ebony candle sticks as a traveling craftsman came by and was able to part me from 50,000MK (not just for the candle stick). Again, an interesting reflection on Malawi's economy. In one go, he earned what a manual laborer would earn in a month. I know the whole world is like this, but it just seems wrong to me that those who pander non essential luxury items to tourists make exponentially more than those growing the food that we actually need to survive.
The electricity isn't the only thing to go off sporadically. Running water does too, but it doesn't seem connected to when the power goes out. When the running water isn't working, the closest jiga or borehole is up by the school. I have learned my lesson and now try to keep several bottles full so as to not unexpectedly be without any water in easy reach. My new house also has a barrel for water storage for just such events.
Despite the sporadic outages, my life in Malawi has most of the conveniences of home. No dishwasher or washing machine, but in the US I've lived without them before.
Most Malawians, however, do not have the luxury of running water or electricity. Bore holes are common gathering places as is almost every natural water source. There is a little river that flows through Namwera and there is a particular spot where the women do their laundry and a spot adjacent where men wash their cars. The water always has a nasty soapy white look to it and there is garbage floating in it. In other places doing laundry in the river looks picturesque, but not here.
Today in my travels, I crossed over a stunning little river that was a chalky turquoise lined with tall reeds. I commented on its beauy and was told that the women do laundry there, but that it is not good. My hippy mind went to pollution, only to be told that it was not good, because a crocodile lives there and has snapped up several people! They were rescued, but died before they could reach a hospital.
With no running water in most homes, toilets are also very different. Here are a sampling of some, beginning with mine, which is very modern:
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