If we use the current rate of 1 USD = 3,500 MWK and a bottle of water currently costs 500 MWK, then a bottle of water would currently cost about $0.14. If we say that a bottle of water in the USA costs $1.50 then we can say that the same bottle of water in Malawi is over 10 times cheaper here than it is in USA! This makes me go from being a poor college kid at BYU to now being very well-off while I am here as my money just increased by 10x! This is why I am able to take so many students out to eat so often which in America would be something that would be financially very difficult to do! Unfortunately, the same is not true for many Malawian people. The reason the prices are so cheap is because their salaries are also so low. For example, the other coaches at the academy I teach tennis receive a monthly salary of 135,000 MWK. That is less than $40 for the entire month! So while it may be cheap for me, it is not at all the case for most. In fact this is why many people even skip breakfast as a simple breakfast costs around 500 MWK ($0.14) per person and can be out of their budget. So even finding a 20 MWK bill on the road for a child is a big day!
As you have learned, Malawians will generally eat the same thing every single day: nsima. Each day, when they have their meal, they will then choose to have a different side to go with the nsima. Usually this is one of beans, vegetables, or a small cheap fish called bonya.
