From the other side of the globe

 Hello, dear reader. It is me again. Having taken the usual leave of absence, I have taken the liberty to write another article today. Let’s call it a letter.

Before I finally settled on writing this, I was fighting the seemingly irresistible temptation to write about the cyclone. When I thought about what I wanted to write, I realized that I was about to repeat the opinions that others have been repeatedly sharing through different platforms. I also realized that you, dear reader has been bombarded with too much information about the cyclone and thought that you could use a break from the same. That, dear reader, is why I have decided to write about my life here.

At the time I am writing this, I have lived in the UK for a total of a little over 12 months. Call it a year, if you will. Even after all this time here, this land never ceases to amaze me. It is safe to say that every day I go out I learn a new thing about the land of our former colonizer. Or is it protector? I am told Nyasaland was a protectorate and not a colony.

I first came to these shores in October 2021 to study for my master’s degree. As fate had it, I was to study at the University of London and in the city some may argue is the capital of the world. For context, I am from Chiradzulu which is among the tiniest and least developed districts in Malawi. I am a country boy and I was about to be put in one of the biggest and most expensive cities on God’s green earth. I didn’t like the idea but with time I came to appreciate that studying in London had been a good choice. Oh. Did I mention that at the time I had the option of going to another city that is not as big? I probably didn’t but that was the case. Anyway. I ended up in the big city and I somehow survived it. Now that I have travelled a bit and I live in a remote corner of the UK, I think I have a more balanced experience that I can share, thus the letter.

I came here for education and it is only fair that I talk about the systems here. Education is organized in the UK and people take it seriously. Weeks before we started, we knew what exactly we would be doing at what point in the program. By September, we had already been told of the exact dates we were going to have our examinations in June. The program directors had taken the liberty of telling us when we should expect school to get tough or to relax a bit. Before we even started, the school made sure that we were connected by setting up a WhatsApp group and sharing the link to all the students in our program. When it came to the teaching itself, you could see that the environment fostered learning and critical thinking as opposed to rote learning. Assessment was focused on gauging what you have learnt not on making you fail. Did that make school easy? NOPE! All in all, I am glad I experienced the education on this end of the world. I liked the intensity and that probably is the reason I decided to stick around for more.

The other thing I found interesting was the sheer size of London, the city I first lived in. Prior to coming to the UK, I used to think of London along the lines of the monuments; the London Eye, the Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the like. While I had learnt about metropolitan areas, my imagination could not accommodate what I saw in London. For context, it can take 2 hours to move from one area of London to another despite the good transport network. It only takes one hour to travel from Lancaster where I live to Manchester and 2 ours to Glasgow which is in another country. Add the fact that I am a boy from Chiradzulu, I was completely out of my waters. I somehow survived it, and one of the reasons was that this country has good systems. I will talk about that in a second.

There is something about the UK that makes life easy despite the cost of living being sky high. The systems here are just top notch. I opened an account and got an ATM card without getting into a banking hall. Transport in some areas is completely cashless. High street shopping is there to be enjoyed but there are plenty of online options. Most things can be delivered to your doorstep with efficiency once you have paid for them using their advanced banking systems. Somehow, they just decided to go all out on making life easy. I like that. To be fair, life with systems like these is so appealing that most who come around these parts from Africa do not entertain the thought of returning. And it is not just Africa, too. One Russian-Italian friend of mine once told me of how working in economic hubs can be addictive. The more experience you get, the more you earn and the more you want to experience the best services the city has to offer. At the end of the day, you realize that you are 70 and still stuck in the fast life of the big cities. I probably didn’t mention this, but everyone adopts a really fast pace after living in London for about 2 weeks.

Social interaction? The UK has 67 million people but it is one of the loneliest places on earth. Think about it this way. You always have people around you, but these are people who are not wired to be interacting with others. Integrating into social circles is difficult and making friends is not as easy as it is elsewhere. The people you would be interacting with are the ones in your professional circles for most of the time, but even there making meaningful friendships can be a challenge. It is not strange to find people who share houses (most people share houses or apartments because accommodation is expensive) not speaking to each other for days or exchanging contact details. I thought of it as unimaginable, but it is normal for the people in Blighty.

Then there is the currency. I should start this bit with a tip. Whenever you go to a new country, never fall for the temptation of converting prices of things to kwacha when you see price tags of things. I had learnt that the hard way when I travelled elsewhere, but that is a story for another day. Because of the strength of the currency, some things appear to be more expensive when you compare with the prices at home. What you then realize is that those are the normal prices of things, given the value of the currency and the fact that people earn at a scale that allows them to afford things at such prices. Shoes at 100 pounds may sound like an overkill but for someone who takes home 2000 pounds, that is feasible. That being said, some things like accommodation are overpriced.

There are some random things that you note when you live around here. In some parts of the country, church is always packed with people from outside the UK and the only homegrown people you find in church are the old ones unlike in Malawi. There are homeless people sleeping on the streets, a thing I still fail to wrap my head around. Back home, when you are poor you at least have a place to sleep although you may lack food. Out here it is the other way round. In Malawi a 2-bedroom self-contained house is something one doesn’t really have to think too much before getting. Not in the UK. A one-bedroom apartment will cost you an arm and a leg with the potential inclusion of the liver and kidneys depending on which part of the UK you decide to live in.

There is one interesting thing I learnt about life here. In as much as conditions are better, people who live here may not have as much money as most believe. Here is the thing. A person living a normal life in a developed country may be seen as living an extravagant life when they are not. Take gadgets, for example. Using an iPhone is a normal thing here and most have made it a usual thing to have the latest gadget in their pocket. If your Malawian friend has a Samsung Galaxy S21 or iPhone 12, they are barely keeping up by UK standards although it may look like they are up there in life. Even though they may have the latest gadgets or look like they are living their best life, you should resist the temptation of thinking that they have a ton of money. What they have may be enough to live like a king if converted to Malawi kwacha and spent in the country. In the UK? Basic.  It is a whole different world, out here and if your friend is studying here, chances are that they don’t have the money you think they have. I’m just saying. Stop pressuring people into buying you an iPhone.

I should also mention here that I have been to UK pubs, which I have found a bit more interesting. Unlike watering holes in Blantyre, the prospects of starting a conversation with a stranger here are almost zero. No one spends loads of cash buying rounds for people they have just met although on the rare occasion one may get you a pint or a shot. In the few times I have gone out with native friends, everybody takes care of their bill and has their beverages at their own pace. There is nothing like being forces to take a shot of a particular drink and the way people gulp these things is a bit more disciplined. Zopita kumowa ndikumakangopempha kulibe kuno. Perhaps we could learn a thing or two from these guys.

Having lived here, one would ask when I plan on coming home. At one point, some girl asked me when I was coming back to Malawi. My response was a question. “Kuli chani?” Obviously, I was being sarcastic, but to be fair, most people who get to have an experience of this place would hardly want to rush back home. With reliable services like electricity, water and connectivity, the difference between home and this foreign land is always palpable and most people feel like the social deprivation gets compensated for well. Do I want to come back? Of course I do. Am I rushing it? NO! Maybe that is why I chose a four-year programme of study after finishing my master’s studies. Maybe I was just buying myself a bit more time to live in the king’s land.

Travelling and living in this land has exposed me to a lot of valuable knowledge. The cultural shocks I have had have had a profound effect on my growth. If you are to take one thing away from this article, whenever you have the ability, get to travel and experience the world. A trip to another district, country, continent or anything within that matrix will do your brain good. One day you should leave home and go to the United Arab Emirates. Muzawauze anthu kuti asasunge nsima ndipo muzakagone komweko. Invest in travel. This thing of saying that the goal is to pray for Malawi while in a foreign country… perhaps you should consider actualizing it. Explre opportunities of working and studying in another country. I recommend.

Kungoti koma basi.

Have a nice weekend.

A Conversation with the Anti-sleep Crusader

 Been a minute, but finally we are back. I will not waste time with pleasantries. Let's get to it.

A couple of weeks ago, I was on campus to attend some talks by people from the World Health Organization. Now, I know I may not have mentioned this, but I somehow have ended up in this cycle of learning that doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon. Anyway. What was I saying? YES! I was on campus.

Being on campus gave me one rare opportunity to interact with a fellow student who also happens to be a compatriot. As we started our Chichewa conversation, we could not help but read the sleep deprivation on each other's faces. While we were laughing about how normal it had become for us to sleep for 3 to 4 hours a day for one straight week. That was when one of the lecturers and senior academics walked in on us, wondering what our conversation was about. When we shared, he wondered why we thought we looked sleep deprived as he thought we looked normal. Almost in unison, me and Amalawi anzanga gave him the explanation. "Maybe it is because you are used to seeing these faces"

Those who have gone through education past anything close to the Malawi School Certificate of Education will agree with me that school can cause you to have sleepless nights. It is interesting how one can almost conclude that the higher you go, the worse that phenomenon becomes. This is my case and curse as I am pursuing my third qualification after the almighty MSCE with the possibility of one more after this one. Ndidzagona, koma mochedwerapo.

 The issue of lack of sleep can be a serious concern among university students. By the time most of the readers are going through this, there is a sleep seminar going on at my university. The goal of the seminar is to help students have better and healthier sleep habits and patterns. I am not attending the seminar because I am sleep-working somewhere having spent most of last night working too. It is remarkably interesting, therefore, that I have a friend who happens to be an anti-sleep crusader.

The anti-sleep crusader happens to be a fellow academic young man whose face has also been transformed by the chronic deprivation of sleep, I would imagine. There are some things I can tell you for sure, though. He is an engineer currently studying for his master's degree somewhere in the far east. You may be wondering what he did or does to deserve the seemingly mean title that I crafted for him with little to no effort. For the past few weeks, this guy has been posting content about how we, Malawians should not be sleeping as much as we do. Now this content varies. It could be a plain status update, a picture, video clip or Bible verse. The theme is the same, though. Get out of bed and work. And the timing? Usually, he posts these things around 4 or 5 am Malawian time. Timing. Consistency. This is why I called this good man the anti-sleep crusader, because that is what I thought he was at the time.

And now, the conversation. Yesterday the crusader was at it again. This time, he posted a video in which one Reverend Yassin Gama of Mvama CCAP was preaching on how Malawians need to change their oversleeping habits. According to the good reverend, we are supposed to be waking up as early as 2 am to get on with our business to solve our national and personal economic woes. I happened to be awake at the time, and I thought it could be nice to engage my friend and find out why he has been posting such messages lately. I was in for a treat.

"A lot of things can be achieved while others are asleep. Malawians don't think in broad daylight, and they should be awake at night; reflecting on their lives, making plans and working." I should mention here that I have only translated the Chichewa bits that were in the message, but that is as the crusader put it. Shortly afterwards, we took a nosedive into how some of the senior academics we know seem to be working in what one would fairly describe as ungodly hours of the morning. They would work from home from 2 am, be in the office at 5 and be the last to leave. All of us would then marvel at their research output, their promotions, and the research funding they rake in... while we sleep. Mwaiona nkhaniyo?

In contrast, most of us wake up just in time for work. When we show up, we have a few productive hours that we use to work before we turn to our phones for some useless chit-chat and to view WhatsApp status updates. Before we know it, lunch hour cones and we go to have nsima. We all know how sleepy one gets after eating nsima so afternoons are hardly productive. What we agreed on, then, was the fact that there is a limit to what you can do in daylight when everyone else is awake. Just this week a friend of mine texted me at 2 am, wondering why I didn't respond to a message she had sent to me an hour earlier. This is someone with whom I discuss work stuff at 3 am. We are in the same time zone; in case you are thinking that she is in some place where the time difference would make sense.  For some reason, some of us have come to decide that the hours between 11 pm and 4 am are the best for work and we use them for that, having known our weakness for distractions. I digressed. Let's get back to the crusader.

 As I mentioned, the good man mentioned how important is if for a person to spend part of their work time thinking. His response to my message also suggested that such thoughts on serious things like personal and career development need to be reserved for such wee hours of the night. The thought of personal development reminded me of Skeffa's Chiyambi song in which he encourages people in the working class to develop themselves and start investing. I was also quickly reminded of how some friends of mine advocate for investment in skills that can serve as sources of income outside formal employment. If you think about it, it is difficult for one to do such side things on the employer's time. As such, we have ended up having people who are "too busy for their own personal development". On the side, I edit scholarship applications for people. There are moments when I send emails to clients at 1 am only to get a response with all my queries addressed an hour later. These people would typically excel and bag their dream scholarships. In contrast there are those whose work schedules are too packed to review the comments and red ink I put into their CVs. In the end, they do not finish the application processes. I know my example is a simplification of a complex situation, but I hope you are getting what I am on about. This led me to this conclusion, then

 Not all of us will have the luxury of pushing personal shenanigans on the employer's time and we need to find our own time to do things. That, good friends, is why the Bible says we should not love sleep, lest we grow poor.

Following our conversation, I was left reflecting as to whether this engineer is indeed an anti-sleep crusader, and I am leaning towards the negative. He is something more of a pro-thinking and pro-self-development than he is anti-sleep. I would agree with such a person all the time. I encourage thinking. I encourage progress. I encourage self-development and we need to make a deliberate effort to create time for such. It may not be 3 am like some of the people I know but make some time to think about how you will develop yourself outside of your routines. That being said, please make sure that you sleep for at least 6 hours a day. Doctor's advice, eti?

Have a blessed weekend.