Burdens and innovation

We have certain images of what tools are built for.  Innovations can enhance their utility, or entirely transform their use.  Plastic bags are made to carry things.  If a number of plastic bags are tucked together and wrapped around in careful ways they can end up as footballs and be used by children in dusty spaces.  Small branches of certain trees can be cut and slightly split up in one end... and you have a tooth brush!  Beer cans can be split open and hammered into small cars or aeroplanes.

When I travel along roads in Malawi I see a lot of impressive use of tools.  For one, the use of heads, particularly women's heads is impressive.  This is obviously a tool as old as humankind, but not less

impresssive for that reason.  Sometimes the weight of things carried on heads is utterly unbelievable, at other times the balancing act is breathtaking, and many times a combination of the two makes a clumsy Norwegian quite humble.  Collecting wood and water are two main activities that are frequently involving heads.  These women south-east of Dedza are typical examples of the artists, although not displaying the most impressive acts.  What struck me with these women, and most women carrying things on their heads, is with which grace and down to earth posture they do it.  If I try, my entire body would be involved in the attempt, ... while look at the women!  They don't seem to notice that things are carried on their heads.

The greatest danger of traveling along Malawi roads at night is the number of people and animals walking along the roadside. With more than half of the population living in poverty, Malawi car park is somewhat limited.  Take into consideration that fuel prices are about 75% of Norwegian level!  Is it surprising that many people would have to think twice before investing in vehicles?  People therefore walk long distances, carry heavy burdens and establish their trading posts along the road.  Commodities will have to be brought from A to B.  Public transport, mostly minibuses, is an alternative.  There are, however limitations to what can be loaded on to minibuses.  Firewood for example does not fit into a minibus. Therefore other means need to be found, and the bicycle comes as a solution.  The notion "heavy duty vehicle" is well known, but I have not seen "heavy duty bicycles" being advertised in papers.  I have, nevertheless seen them along roads.  Just have a look at the specimen below!

Back in Norway we have a Toyota station wagon, but I doubt I would be able to pile more wood into our car than this man carries on his bicycle!  His engine is probably comfortable on flat road, but I am sure he is challenged when he approaches uphill stretches.  Pushing this weight uphill is quite hard work, and holding back the same load going downhill is similarly challenging.  The two wheels and the frame does however make all the difference!  The bicycle is transformed to a heavy duty tool!

The examples and photos above are only two expressions of adaptation and resilience. Daily I see a lot of adaptation and resilience around me along the roads in Lilongwe and beyond.  Would I survive if I was forced to use the same survival techniques?  I am not sure.  Somewhere along the history my affluent life left some basic life skills by the wayside.  While I certainly hope people who currently have to make extreme adaptations and have to stretch their resilience will have improved lives, I should make efforts to regain some of those forgotten life skills.

In a later reflection I will return to another tool that is transforming peoples' lives in Malawi: the mobile phone.