The Lujeri Tea Estate sprawls across the foothills near Mount Mulanje. It was established in 1926 and today is Malawi’s second-largest tea estate.
Workers with large baskets on their backs are scattered across the fields, raising their heads to watch the gaggle of youth touring the plantation. A group of children wave, then leap into a reservoir with an impressive splash. Their swimming pool actually holds river water which is diverted, piped downhill, and eventually used to power two water turbines which generate electricity for the estate and provide it with a consistent source of power in a country where electricity is often disrupted. Another turbine facility is located higher up the mountain, generating a combined 900 kilowatts per hour at maximum efficiency. But our guide says they are old and do not generate as much as they used to. They were installed in 1946.
The plant where tea is dried, diced and sorted was built in 1929. Although new machinery has expedited the process, many workers scatter the floors. Our guide tells us the estate as a whole employs about 10,000 people. Most make about 130 kwacha a day—less than one U.S.
dollar. But with 90 kwacha as the official minimum wage and less than 20 per cent of the population formally employed, any job is coveted.
Tea is one of Malawi’s largest exports, but because the country is landlocked, transporting and exporting goods if often easier said than done.
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The journey from the estate to to Likhubula House is filled with song as both English and Chichewa choruses fill the bus. Five of the Canadian youth are veteran councillors at Presbyterian camps, and have a keen interest in bringing home songs and games that they can teach to their future campers.
Likhubula House is the former home of a tea estate owner. It spent part of its life as a hotel, before being sold to the church and gradually morphing into its current incarnation as a youth conference centre and hostel. And it is a model of environmentally sustainable water use.
The central courtyard contains a fish-filled fountain, but the water that flows into the pond is actually overflow from the reservoir near the river. If the fountain stops flowing, it lets that staff know that something is wrong.
Showers are solar-powered. Water is pumped into a pool roughly shaped to look like Africa. From there it flows downhill to feed a pond where fish are raised for Likhubula’s tables. From the pond, again using only gravity, the water is directed to the house’s garden. The water that isn’t needed there is directed along a ditch to be used by some of the local people.
The garden itself is also unique. It uses tall grass to hold the earth firm and limit erosion during the rainy season; as the grass is trimmed it is also used as mulch for the maize, sweet potatoes, and other foods. Most local farmers still plant their maize in furrows as a way of limiting erosion, but it is hoped that they will be inspired by the mulching technique and begin to use it in their own fields.
Near the fish pond sits a chicken coop where broiler chickens are raised and sold. The women who run the project donate much of the proceeds to the orphan care program run by Likhubula House.
The centre is predominantly self-funded. Tourists wanting to climb Mount Mulanje, one of the highest mountains in Africa, often stay there. It offers a handful of private “executive chalets” near the mountain river and its swimming hole, for those who don’t mind the extra cost, as well as dorms and semi-private rooms closer to the main building. Malawian church and youth groups that use the site are often subsidized.
And tomorrow, the centre fills with orphans who attend a weekly “Saturday school.” Perhaps the songs learned on the bus will become useful.
These are only a selection of the photos taken during the trip. To see the rest visit our Flickr page.
