A.
Living Conditions of Senior Missionaries
1.
Mission Housing
The Church goes to considerable lengths to ensure the
housing for senior missionaries is comfortable, conveniently-located and
safe. Senior missionaries are not
expected to live in the more Spartan units used by younger missionaries, or in
apartments or residences lacking basic utilities, such as power, water and
indoor plumbing, even if many members in the area tolerate, or are forced to
live with, such inconveniences. Since
the vast majority of senior missionaries come from the United States, the
Church recognizes the need to provide housing with amenities roughly equivalent
to those senior missionaries might find if living in apartments in the United
States; otherwise, fewer seniors would likely be willing to volunteer for
missionary service. Depending upon
where one serves, arranging for adequate security may be the primary
consideration in selecting suitable housing.
Some cities in Africa have well-deserved reputations for high crime
rates, even for violent crime, so the housing stock available to senior couples
in those areas may limited and suitable only if equipped with a mixture of state-of-the-art
monitoring systems, on-site guards, high security fences, guard dogs, elaborate
locks, and wrought-iron grilles serving as second doors, all intended to
protect, to the extent feasible, residents from assault, theft, violence and
burglary. Usually, the most secure
housing comes with modern amenities as well, so sometimes, in order to get the
minimum basic level of security, the Church leases apartments nicer than they
might otherwise target. So, whatever
hardships senior missionaries might otherwise be called upon to endure, sub-standard
housing is usually not going to be one of them.
Absent special circumstances, senior missionaries are housed
in apartments or flats, frequently in guarded, and gated, complexes, those
being the lowest cost alternative. But,
on occasion, the Church rents single-family residences, often nicer than
apartments, with washers and dryers, manicured grounds, larger rooms, and nicer
appliances. In Blantyre, housing costs
for missionaries are relatively inexpensive compared with similar costs in
other parts of Africa and the world. These rents are dramatically higher than those our members would pay. Many of our poor members rent their homes (often without
power and water) for 10,000 to 30,000 MWK per month or $14.50 USD to $43.50 USD
per month.
Moreover housing costs do not necessarily correlate with the
housing’s quality or the level of its amenities. Market conditions can vary dramatically, and
landlords frequently rent space initially at bargain prices, with the
anticipation of increasing rent at up to 10% per year. Hidden costs can also include the imposition
of city rates (for garbage pickup and other city services), garden fees, and
on-site guard costs. For a while, perhaps
the nicest residence in Blantyre, originally leased for the Merrills, was a
large single-family home, with three bedrooms, a study, and three bedrooms, on
a large well-manicured parcel, featuring around the clock on-site security
guards, together with a separate private security monitoring security, located
in Nyambadwe, fairly close to the Ndirande Branch. At the time of the initial lease, that
property was one of the Church’s least expensive leased properties. Several months after the Merrills returned to
the United States, the Church moved the two sisters training missionaries in
Blantyre into the Nyambadwe residence.
We moved them out of their apartment at Pacific Palms, not far from the
Merrill’s residence, at the expiration of the original lease, because their
landlord failed to install and maintain a water system sufficient to ensure, in
the early morning and in the early evening hours (when the sisters were in the
apartment), adequate water pressure to the second story apartments.
Slowly we have come to learn that the quality of the
Church’s experience in leasing a residence or apartment is dependent, almost
disproportionately so, upon the reliability and good will of the
landlords. Good landlords can make all
the difference and compensate for slightly higher rates. Something is always in need of repair or
maintenance, the absence of hot water, a leaky faucet, a sticky lock, a winding
trail of cockroaches, exposed when the kitchen light is suddenly switched on at
night, the lack of water pressure or worse yet the loss of water, a broken
hinge on a kitchen cabinet door. Some landlords quickly dispatch repairmen to
address the concerns, others are less cooperative or attentive, slow to return
phone calls, and even slower to send out crews to assess damage and make
repairs. Since taking over the office
duties, we have had dealings with six landlords—three Indian owned, family
operated businesses; two Africans—one an expatriate living in Boston, but whose
affairs are managed by a sister and a property agent in Limbe, the other living
next to the apartment leased to the Church; and, the sixth a commercial property
management company. Our best experience
has been with one the Indian families, and our worst experience with one of the
other Indian families. By and large,
the Church has maintained cordial, and pleasant, relationships with the
landlords; we suspect landlords like having the Church as a tenant, rents are
paid on time, apartments are relinquished in good condition, and negotiations
over rents and other landlord concessions are never too sharp. Most leases are for one-year terms, with one
or several extension options. All
leases have annual rent escalation clauses, usually at close to 10%. Rents are normally denominated in U.S.
dollars, but paid in the local currency, Malawi kwacha, insulating the
landlords from the risk of wild swings in the currency exchange rates between
the U.S. dollar and kwacha. In November
2016, when we first arrived in Blantyre, the exchange rate was roughly 470
kwacha to the dollar; today it is hovering between 670 and 700 kwacha to the
dollar.
2.
Pamodzi Project in Sunny Side
Our first apartment, where we stayed for the five months, from
November 2014 through March 2015, was in a modern, upscale six building
apartment complex in Sunny Side, owned by the Pamodzi Settlement Trust, five
minutes from downtown Blantyre, and five minutes from the Blantyre Chapel. Apartment No. 5 was on the ground level, each
building had two units (one up, one down), our building one removed from the
parking lot, shielding us from the noise and commotion of the local traffic, no
car lights flashing into our windows, no noise from starting engines, or
interruptions from boisterous late night guests. At the time, the Church leased a second
apartment (Apartment No. 3), this one upstairs, with full western exposure, in
the adjacent building, bordering the project’s parking lot, occupied, when we
arrived, by the pair of sister missionaries assigned to the Zingwangwa
branch. The two apartments had
identical floor plans, though flipped in layout. Each apartment featured a spacious living
room/dining room combo, separate kitchen, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms, with
a utility room, with a wash basin, off the outside vestibule, all rooms oversized
by Malawi standards. Surprisingly the
apartments were furnished, most come unfurnished--heavy-looking overstuffed wing
chair, love seat, and sofa; small coffee table; wood dining table with six
matching chairs; two beds frames with box springs and foam mattresses; flanked
by small side tables.
Our apartment was newly leased by the Church and,
anticipating our arrival, the Reynolds, the office couple in Blantyre, had been
conscientious in equipping the kitchen, Sister Reynolds herself a committed
cook, so Carole had at hand most everything she needed for basic cooking and
setting a table for six. The double bed
in the master, and the two single beds in the second bedroom, were outfitted
with mosquito nets, something Elder Reynolds rigged up, and the kitchen had a water
filter system of the type the Church uses in all of its living units in
Malawi. Tap water is suitable for
washing and cleaning, but not for drinking.
All vegetables and fruits, before being consumed, must be cleansed with
“Jik,” a bleach based cleaning product to kill germs. Several
rooms—the master and living space—had built-in air-conditioning units, cutting
the heat, making sleeping comfortable. The
only drawback, from an utilitarian perspective, was the apartment did not have
either a washer or dryer, so during our five month stay we would each week
bundle up our laundry and take it to either the Reynolds or Merrills for
washing. Aesthetically, being a downstairs’
apartment, Apartment No. 5 felt like a dungeon, dark, gloomy, and damp, with a
musty smell, even in the middle of the day, though it had the benefit of being private. Carole never gave rein to her nesting
instinct while we were in the Pamodzi Project, knowing we would relocate to the
One Kufa Road residence, close to the Blantyre Chapel, in mid-March, when the Reynolds
returned to the United States. So
Apartment No. 5, though pleasant enough, never felt homey, just somewhere to
leave our bags, spend the evenings, and cook meals. For several weeks, after moving into
Apartment No. 5, I had hot water for showers, but none for bathes. Since a soaking bath is one of my peculiar
indulgences, I missed the privacy of lingering in a hot bat in the evenings,
allowing me to decompress and feel human again. When finally a repairman appeared, the only problem
was that the labelling on the hot and cold water faucets to the bathtub had been
inadvertently reversed.
The project had guards at the gate both day and night; two
of them were elderly brothers, each in their 70s, the others young men, working
under the umbrella of the elderly brothers.
It doesn’t take long to form attachments, when someone helps you every day,
with good cheer and politeness, rendering basic services--washing the truck,
opening the gates, picking up the garbage bins, helping to carry suitcases and grocery
bags.
It was comforting to have the sister missionaries in
Apartment No. 3. But we did not see
them nearly as often or as much as one might otherwise expect, certainly not
every day. The Pamodzi Project was not
conveniently located for them: they had a five to ten minute walk to the
Blantyre Market, where they could pick up a mini-bus headed to Zingwangwa,
where they needed a second transfer to get into their area. So each day, roughly an hour was consumed
just reaching their area, and another hour when returning, after a day out
proselyting. We would give the sisters
rides to Church on Sunday morning, and to District Meeting on Tuesday morning,
since we were going to those meetings anyway, and sometimes on Saturday morning
for missionary correlation meetings. On
Monday morning, when we went to do our weekly shopping, we would also take them
to Shoprite, where we would usually bump into the Merrills and the other sister
missionaries. But apart from that, they
did not look to us for “cab” service. Though often in the evenings, we would come
across them walking home, and of course would give them a lift.
Their proximity did, however, allow us to get to know the
sisters, better than we might otherwise have, if they had lived further
away. The first sister missionaries we
met were Sisters Komiha and Rasband, later Sisters Dlamini, Griffus and
Browning, and finally Sisters Zoehner, Thueson and Solomone. All have now finished their missions and returned
to their homes in Zimbabwe, South Africa and the United States, apart from
Sisters Zoehner, Thueson and Solomone, who are now serving Zambia. When first briefed by President Erickson, he
cautioned us against “mothering” the missionaries, as he expected them to learn
self-reliance and independence, so Carole and I have always tried to be helpful
and attentive, while not allowing too much familiarity or permitting too much
dependence upon us, for either emotional support or help with chores.
When the lease on Apartment No. 3 expired, we moved the
sister missionaries out of that apartment into Apartment No. 5, opting for
greater privacy, and to be spared the infernal afternoon heat of the westward facing
upstairs Apartment No. 3. Today, elders
are in Apartment No. 5, as the sister missionaries have been moved out of
Zingwangwa, now working with the Blantyre First Branch, and have been relocated
to the Namiwawa Apartment, half way between downtown Blantyre and Chilomini.
