Hunger Season

The three seasons of Malawi are: Hot & Wet, Cool & Dry, and Hot & Dry.  Two of these seasons (Hot & Wet and Hot & Dry) combine to create a parallel season, known as, Hunger Season.  When I first heard of Hunger Season I was not sure what to think, it sounded like the prequel or sequel to Hunger Games.  Now it has begun, it is very serious.  Food is sparse, sparse food and water for the better part of 4 months to come.   The traditional meal here is Nsima (C-Ma, a staple food patty made from maize meal that you eat without utensils but with your hands) and a relish or two.  Relish can be a vegetable, meat, or legume.  Now that Hunger Season is upon us the traditional meal is just Nsima. Our market (I use the term loosely because it is just a tree with ladies selling produce) usually sells, on a rotational basis, the following: tomatoes, onions, beans, cabbage, pumpkin leaves, sweet potatoes, bananas, and on a good day avocado.  Last week at the “market” the only produce to be found were tomatoes.  As I asked where the other women selling the other goods were the response was, “ In Kameme we have a relish problem.” Nsima is very filling but has little to no nutritional value, which means vitamin and mineral deficiencies are on the rise.  For the severely malnourished children food supplements are provided by the Health Center and all children under 5 are given Vitamin A shots.  Malnourishment makes common diarrhea a potentially life threatening condition, the solution is a new vaccine called the Rotavirus, which provides immunity against the leading cause of diarrhea, for children, in Malawi.  But these solutions, although necessary, only patch up a complex problem.  On a personal level I am only inconvenienced by Hunger Season because I can bike to the Boma and pay an increased amount for nutritious goods.  But the subsistence farmers have no choice but to wait it out.  Wait for the rains to come and hope that the next harvest is good. Storing food is a problem without canning, dehydration, and refrigeration; food security is food insecurity.   The solutions without macro development of large scale irrigation projects, canning factories, or country-wide electricity are reduced to the increase of kitchen gardens that can be watered year round (so long as the water table stays at a conducive level), food drying practices with proper food storage, and food diversification with nutrition education.  Change needs to be fostered by the people, which is difficult when farming practices here seem to be as age old as religion.

Hearing people bless the food before meals is evidence of the farm-to-table connection.  Asking not only for the hands that prepared the food be blessed but additionally that the land be blessed and replenished.  Grace is a good reminder to be conscientious of the mind, body, and land relationship and this Hunger Season I am very mindful of hunger and the dependency of that relationship.

Grace be with you and also with the hungry.