The small kitchen was crowded with plates of egg casserole and overlapping conversation that blended English and Chewa, the native language of Malawi. Steaming mugs of coffee and hot tea were passed around to men in thick sweaters and women in long patterned dresses with silver buttons and colored scarves wrapped around their necks.

The idea of breakfast at a friend’s home isn’t customary in Malawian culture, but for the six visiting members of Urbana’s sister city Zomba, it’s a part of strengthening their relationship.

“Our visit is two dimensions,” said Dickson B. Vuwa Phiri, chairman of the Zomba community and leader of the trip. “One is the project and on the other hand is the cementing of relationships between the citizens of our city and the other citizens here.”

The project is a new trilateral grant given by Sister City International to develop methods of solid waste removal in an urban environment through the coordination of three cities. Urbana was chosen as one of three cities in the United States to receive the Sino-African Initiative grant of $100,000. For this grant, Urbana continues its partnership with Zomba, using the money to improve Zomba’s sewage system, but it will also add a new sister city, the Haizhu District of Guangzhou, China. Together, the three cities will work to develop better technologies for disposing solid waste.

Throughout the week, community leaders from Zomba in the fields of engineering, administration, education, environmental health and liquid waste management, visited Urbana to explore the city’s organization of modern technology in sewage sanitation and garbage disposal.

Environmental health officer Elizabeth Moreen Chingayipe said the lack of a detailed network of trash collection in Zomba causes many problems.

“We have the start of this system,” she said. “A few days the truck will come to get garbage from the houses. But if it doesn’t come, people just dump (their garbage) in the backyard or in a nearby stream.”

The visitors toured many of Champaign-Urbana’s waste removal and recycling plants. Some facilities included the Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District, ABC Sanitary Hauling and Recycling and the Landscape Recycling Center.

Innocent Malomo, environmental health officer from Zomba, said one aspect of the grant is maintaining sewers and healthy water, which is difficult without modern technology. In Zomba, filtered sewage is poured into streams for disposal, and the stream is later tested for sanitation.

“If the fish survives in this type of environment we have almost created a natural environment and then the water has been treated,” he said.

After visiting the Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District and seeing modern processes for treating waste, as well as hearing a lecture by an environmental chemist at the University, Malomo said he has learned many practices that can be applied to the system back home.

Alderman Dennis Roberts, Ward 5, chairman of the sister city committee, said that because Malawi is a highly agricultural country, grant money will be focused toward construction for a composting center that will turn food waste into fertilizer to keep the soil healthy.

Lula Chen, program officer of the Sino-African Initiative and Urbana native, spent a few days with the group to evaluate the feasibility of such a grant, because it is the first of its kind.

“This will add to my research to determine whether it is a good way to approach projects in the future,” she said. “We know it is a platform to do many projects.”

While the grant focuses on the development of solid waste disposal methods, Roberts said there is a strong emphasis on learning from each other culturally and growing a relationship between citizens.

“Engaging the wider community is one of the goals of Sister City International,” he said. “Peace and understanding is more possible to happen between citizens and community members rather than governments.”

Urbana residents attended a “Malawi mixer” Tuesday night to get to know the people of Zomba. The evening included an African-American soul food dinner and a Cajun band for entertainment.

Because of engagements like these, Phiri said he thinks the sister city program also helps bring greater awareness to a country he feels generally misperceives the overall style of living in Africa.

“The publicity likes to stop at the dark spots,” Phiri said. “They focus on famine, woes and poverty. But that is a mosaic of life there. There are spots we don’t like, wars break out, yes, but normal life still goes on.”

Corinne can be reached at [email protected].