January 2010
Planting Malawi
EMMANUEL
INTERNATIONAL MALAWI
Who’s Keeping the Rain? [solving the mystery of climate change in Malawi]
It has been extremely dry this rainy
season. Last year we experienced tor-
rential downpours where the sky just
seemed to break open to flood the
earth on almost a daily basis. Here in
Malawi, when it rains, it pours.
But not this year. By Malawian stan-
dards, it hasn’t rained for the whole
month of December and half of Janu-
ary. We’ve had a few light showers
but hardly enough to get anything wet,
and definitely not enough to quench the
thirsty maize that was planted in No-
vember. Andre’s brother, Joost, risked
visiting us during the rainy season but
he did not see any rain in the two
PRAYER & PRAISE:
 Although it has been extremely
dry this rainy season, the rains
have finally arrived in our region.
However, many parts of Malawi
are still very dry.
 We enjoyed a quiet Christmas in
Zomba and our holiday time with
Andre’s brother in the new year.
 We have been in Malawi for
almost 1.5 years and our time
here is quickly coming to an end.
We’re already looking at book-
ing our return flights and we’re
still trying to figure out what’s
next for us. Please pray for wis-
dom and clarity as we pursue
God’s future for our family.
Isaiah 61.3
an update from the VanWoerdens in Malawi
weeks of January that he was here. Is this really the start of a famine?
When we drove to Lilongwe to pick
him up from the airport, many farm- “Who’s keeping the rain?” It’s a ques-
ers north of here had not even tion we hear more than once. It seems
planted yet. The landscape was dry. like a casual question, almost like a
The rains had not yet come. Here in joke that’s going around. But on Sun-
Zomba we’ve had enough rain to day, our guard, Nixon, tells us that
plant and to turn the landscape the chief of his village has called an
green. But the maize in most fields emergency meeting. What for? To
curls up its leaves in the heat of the find out who’s keeping the rains, he
day to conserve what little moisture it tells us. When I ask him about [p. 2]
has. No one has planted
any rice because even the clouds but little rain...
wetland areas are dry.
Driving through fields of
shrivelled up maize, our
Malawian colleague, Ed-
gar, tells us he has never
seen a rainy season like
this in all his life. Where
are the rains? Are we
experiencing a drought?
Explaining Disaster [when the bridge comes falling down]
Stories like this of emergency village meetings to determine who’s keeping the
rains reveal the prevalence of witchcraft and traditional beliefs in Malawi.
Another example of this from earlier this month is a story from the village of
Potani, where we are building a footbridge across the river. The masons had
nearly completed the stone abutments when the river undermined the founda-
tion of one of the abutments and caused it to collapse. The villagers had pro-
vided logs for the bridge stringers, in addition to the stones and sand for the
abutments. They had cut some eucalyptus trees from the other side of the vil-
lage and carried the logs one at a time with about 10 strong men to the
bridge site. But then one of the village elders was summoned to appear at the
nearest police station for the theft of a number of eucalyptus trees.
[p. 2]
 P L A N T I N G M AL AWI | J A NUA RY 2 0 1 0

Rain [continued]
the outcome of the meeting on Monday, he tells me that
the suspects did not show up to defend themselves. Appar-
ently, someone in the village had said that if no one came
to help him make bricks, he would keep the rains. Now that
the rains have not come, the village has remembered this
man’s threat and is calling him to confess and release the
rains. I asked my boss, Charles, about this. Apparently it’s
been happening in villages all over. They force suspects to
drink a hot chilli concoction (Malawi is known for its hot peri
peri peppers) until they admit to keeping the rains. Appar-
ently one person confessed to keeping the rain, but, she
added, she was only keeping a little rain; talk to so and so
because they are keeping all the rain. As for the emer-
gency meeting at Nixon’s village, although the suspects
were a no show, apparently the prospect of having their
throats burned by chillies scared them into releasing the
rains because it rained the same day. Should we tell them
that it’s really El Niño that’s keeping the rain?

100+ new photos on vw-mw.blogspot.com

Bridge [continued]
Apparently, someone once owned a piece of land in the village and planted
some trees on it, had not returned to his land for over 10 years, but somehow
heard of the felling of those trees and reported it to the police. After some
explanation, the police agreed that the supposed owner of the land had done
nothing to care for the land or the trees and besides, the trees had not been
cut for personal gain but for community development so the case was dis-
missed. However, even with the police on their side, the chief still believes that
the supposed land owner had
contracted some nju nju
(essentially witchcraft) to
cause the bridge to collapse.
When I showed some disbe-
lief, she exclaimed, “It’s true!”
How else, I suppose, do you
explain the collapse of a
bridge you’ve wanted for so
many years and have worked
so hard to build?

Andre & Alexandra VanWoerden [Lara, Talia, Ezera] Emmanuel International Canada
Private Bag 12 Zomba Malawi PO Box 4050 Stouffville ON L4A 8B6
265.888.169.380 (Andre) or 265.888.169.382 (Alex) 905.640.2111 info@eicanada.org
alexandre.vanwoerden@gmail.com www.eicanada.org
vw-mw.blogspot.com