Saturday, February 25, 2012

Hot Rainy Season and Beekeeping

After a long time waiting, the rains finally came in late December.  But it isn't quite what I expected.  It only rains about every 4 or 5 days, and sometimes its just a quick 5 minute session.  The farmers in my village (down at the lakeshore) don't seem too worried about it though.  Most of them planted cassava (a drought resistant crop, and the staple crop in the region), and the maize from genetically modified seeds designed for quick growth, are both doing just fine.  But up it in the mountainous village of Chikwina (Stacey's site), rain is less common.  As Stacey's neighbor put it "we're crying for the rains to come".

A good friend in my village tells me that many areas in Malawi are experiencing conditions similar to Chikwina's, and predicts that there may be a dought this year.  If this were to happen, it would severely affect the central and southern regions who plant almost exclusively maize crops, and not drought resistant crops like cassava. 

But all throughout Malawi, the rains have energized the villagers into bustling farmers, starting their work in the fields at first light, and continuing until dusk. Since most of the farmers in Tukombo are women (who are in charge of house chores), they use the last bits of sunlight to draw water from the bore hole, pound the cassava root into powder to make nsima, and cook dinner.

Since most villagers in Tukombo are busy in the fields preparing their food for the year, they have little time to listen to me talk about the benifits of planting trees.  But there's one group who still finds time to enjoy the forest reserve.

They are the Tukombo Beekeeping Club, and they are by far my favorite thing about Tukombo.  They are a group of about 10, but only 2 or 3 regularly show up to the weekly meetings.  I joined them last week as they went to harvest from some of their bee hives. 

The trip started when Mr. Nkhata came by my house to pick me up on time (which is actually a couple hours early in African time).  We to each members house in the group, informing them that it was time to start the meeting.  I asked him why they couldn't just meet somewhere at a scheduled time.  He's tried it before, but the other group members think he's trying to get out of his responsibilities as secretary, and think he's being lazy, so as an example of protest, they don't go to the meeting.

But this time around, we gathered 4 men and 2 women, and proceeded to check the hives.  The first 3 hives had been invaded by ants, eating all the honey and causing the bees to flee the hives.  The fourth hive had bees but no honey.  And finally the fifth hive looked promising.

The two women started a small fire to be placed in the "smoker" (a small tin cylindar used to generate smoke) which would be used to pacify the bees.  Meanwhile 2 of the men were putting on their bee suits and explaining to me how the bees were very aggressive at this hive, especially the soldier bees guarding the entrance to the hive (2 small holes designed to allow bees to get in and out).  Sometimes the bees were so aggressive that they'd follow the group several meters, stinging them the whole way.

Everything was set, and the 2 men went in.  One of them constantly generating smoke, and the other taking out the honey combs which grew on easily removed wooden slats on the top of the hive.  After about 15 minutes, they walked back to the group with a large bucket full of honey combs.  The woman closest to the bucket reached in to get a taste, but as quickly as she stuck her hand in the bucket, she pulled it out and quickly jumped up and started running away, yelling something in chitonga.  Then the next woman grabbed the whole bucket and started running for her the house.  Then we all started running after her because she had the honey!

By the time i got to the house, all the bees had left and everything was fine.  We then sat around in a circle, washed each others hands, and each took pieces of the honey comb and ate the honey.  It was the honniest honey I had ever tasted, it was so good!  There were also little pockets of a bitter taste.  Mr Nkhata enlightened me: "yea, those bitter things are the larvas.  They taste good if you fry them up in oil and add salt".  I might believe him if that wasn't how they cook all their meals.  Still, the honey and the experience were quite enjoyable, and I can't wait for the next harvest!