Give me my bottle!

White win by bottle - sign found at Nkhotakota Pottery & Lodge.

This sign is found at Nkhotakota Pottery & Lodge, a relatively upscale lodge and restaurant located on the beachside of Lake Malawi, in Nkhotakota district. The picture was taken on a Sunday when we went to the lake to experience a bit of luxury - eating restaurant food and relaxing in the sun.

The sign joins the ranks of funny misspellings, such as "window flames and door flames for sale", and at first I thought the sign was very festive. Thinking twice, it struck me that the text described the situation quite well. We were a bunch of «azungus» (white people) sitting on the restaurant overlooking the white, sandy beach. All of us with an ice cold bottle of Carlsberg green in our hands, provided by restaurant workers with monthly salaries lower than the restaurant bill.

The text on the sign also got me thinking about how it is to drive through any given village here. What happens is that all the kids in the village see that a car of azungus is present. They then come running towards the car to have a look at the weird, white persons. Some yell "Boooo?!?" (Means "everything all right?" or something like that), but the vast majority shout "Give me my money!" or "Give me my bottle!"

I don't know if this is just me drawing false conclusions, but it appears to me that this is because they are used to that when white people come to town, presents are handed out. It is quite innocent that the kids ask for bottles, and it is exotic, exciting and quite fun at times to have the eager kids running after the car, laughing and yelling and craving our attention. But, when I start to think about the situation, I find it a bit uncomfortable.

Many have criticized developing aid for leading to donor dependency, creating passive recipients who rely too much on the aid, hence preventing them from helping themselves. The echo of "Give me my bottle!" that reverberates through every village where an «azungumobile» is spotted illustrates the criticism very well. The eager kids demanding their empty bottles become less fun when I start thinking like this.

A question that automatically arises is the inevitable "do they need us here, and do they want us here?" Most of the Malawians we meet seem happy to see us. They smile and act very welcoming. Of course, some stare at us like we come from the moon or another solar system. They look very sceptical, but I am not sure if they are really sceptical or if they are just so surprised to see us white people that they forget that it is rude to stare (intensely). We have received a couple of aggressive "Mzungus! Why are you here??!" shouted at us from a very angry guy raising his fist at us from the back of a truck, but mostly, people are very kind.

In my view, the answer to the question above is yes, given that we have an approach that is needed. To continue to hand out empty bottles is not the way to do developing aid. However, assistance in launching projects, businesses and other local initiatives is needed. I hope and believe that this is a better way of doing developing aid work than what has been so far.

To use my project as an example: When I come to the villages where we plan to install offgrid electricity, one of the first things I say is that this is not going to be for free. When people hear this, they look a little bewildered. They are probably wondering "well, then why should we embrace this?" When I explain the benefits, for instance that, reading light will be better so they are better able to do homework and study at night, that the indoor climate will be improved, and that electric power will replace kerosene, meaning that the costs will probably not increase etc., most of them seem positive.

And finally, when I explain that the idea is that this will be operated by the Malawians for the Malawians, it seems that they are looking at it as an opportunity to work and to contribute to something positive, not just another empty bottle thrown at them.

The project I am working on contains a lot of good aspects. I think it is needed. However, this is only a small part of what is needed in Malawi. It is hard to say what is needed for Malawi to grow out of poverty and the underdeveloped situation the country is currently experiencing. Good and strong leadership, solid international trade agreements that actually benefit Malawi instead of western countries, better cooperation with neighbouring countries, restructuring the agricultural industry, extracting the oil that might be found in Lake Malawi, increasing tourism; these are all thoughts that come to mind. 

Looking beyond my tiny project, I believe that what my fellow western expats and I are doing here at least leads to a few jobs, and that the small change we create after all opens the door for other changes. Walking through the door will be up to Malawi as a country and Malawians as a people. It's going to take time, and they are going to make mistakes along the way. It is important that they do not stop trying even though they make mistakes. At the preparatory course held by FK Norway in January, one of the facilitators quoted the famous Samuel Beckett:

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. "

I think the quote is suitable for the situation in Malawi and probably also many other developing countries. The methods we are using now are different from how developing aid has previously been run. We may still be failing, but at least I hope we are failing better. We have tried to throw empty bottles at developing countries for too many years. Now is the time to help making sure the empty bottles are filled.