After spending a couple of wonderfully relaxing days up at
the plantation, Tanya & I headed out to Chisala to see the primary school
she built as part of the Build Malawi project. The drive from the plantation to
the school was absolutely stunning – the scenery here is so dramatic – vast
rolling mountains covered in trees and jagged rock faces that brightly reflect
the sun. On our way to the school we passed through Mzuzu – the closest town to
the plantation. It is a little town with small, low-built, simple concrete buildings
– I’m told the market here is pretty good – will try to check it out at some
point. The streets are lined with those wonderful purple Jacaranda trees and
although the town is quite poor it does have a charm about it.
Eventually we have to turn off the main road onto the dirt
tracks that lead to Chisala. As we draw closer to the school, the locals begin
to recognize Tanya “Tanya!” shout the children as they smile and wave. It warms
the heart so much to see how much love these children have for her. She has
given them a glimmer of hope, a chance at life. These children are so beautiful
– seeing them smiling up at me really touched something deep within me. I think
I’m going to spend a few days up here at the school – I’d really love to at
least try to contribute something towards the future of these little children.
In order to build the school it has been up to the community
to make the bricks – this project has been about trying to teach the locals to
help themselves, rather than simply relying on aid from the West. However, it
seems the community lack the drive to continue to develop the project further –
the teachers in charge seem to be having a hard time motivating the locals to
make more bricks, thus meaning the school has been slow to continue developing.
Having said that, they have been making efforts to maintain and repair the
school – it has recently been completely redecorated & the teachers seem to
have a desire to see the project continue and grow.
After the visit to the school we continued on to spend the
night at Tanya’s house in the middle of a tea plantation. The drive there was
absolutely splendid – miles and miles of tea fields, set against spectacular
layers of mountains. The colours are so vibrant – the rich greens of the tea
fields set against the reds, oranges and deeper greens of the trees, the grey
and purple hues of the majestic mountains and the deep copper red of the
ground. So many times we’ve turned a corner and my heart has skipped a beat at
the sight of the beautiful landscape around me. It is so humbling to be in the
presence of such natural beauty.
The following day we paid another quick visit to the school
to drop off some Kindles that were donated. Upon returning my desire to come
back and spend a few days here grew even stronger. I’ll definitely be returning
after the weekend. We then drove on to Nkhata Bay to the Butterfly lodge for a
joint birthday party. It was quite a messy bash – the bay is fondly coined The
Bay Of Decay because of the amount of drinking that goes on here…and I’m told
quite this party was pretty tame compared to Butterfly’s usual party standards!
Almost everyone from Lake Of Stars was there, it was wonderful to see them all
again. The following day we set off to have a spot of lunch at Makuzi – a
wonderful lodge on the lake shore. It was extremely picturesque – the lake is
so vast up here it looks like an ocean – and there was hardly anyone around, so
Tanya & I virtually had the whole beach to ourselves. After lazing around
and dozing on the perfect white sandy beach we set off for Kande to spend the
night with 2 of Tanya’s friends who run horse riding stables. We enjoyed a
tremendous steak dinner with them, complete with a salad made up of entirely
home-grown produce – oh to be able to be as self-sufficient as these guys –
practically all the vegetables they eat are grown on their land. That’s the way
to live – forget Tescos! The desire to be able to grow my own produce is
getting stronger with each passing day I spend out here. My brain is ticking
away, thinking about relocation options after London. But closer to the future
for now…tomorrow morning I’m up super early for a horse ride in the forest
& along the lake shore. I can’t wait.
Huge thanks to Isya for the amazing horse ride. My horse was
an absolute beauty called Scoobs – she was so chilled, I had a great time
riding on her. We trotted through the forests, cantered across open plains, ambled
through little settlements – I witnessed some villagers carrying piles of
bricks – yes bricks – on their heads. We even rode through swarms of lake
flies, which was an interesting experience! These flies are harmless (they are
actually featured in an episode of Planet Earth) and once a year, when the
rains come, the larvae float up from the depths of Lake Malawi & hatch.
They come out in their millions (thankfully the swarms we encountered were in
their thousands rather than millions) to mate – and then they die. The largest
swarms are to be found over the deeper waters of the lake – when you look at it
from afar it literally looks like a big grey smoke cloud rising up out of the
lake. The locals were all out in force, catching the flies in baskets. It is a
local delicacy to cook up the flies and eat them with nsima (ground up cooked
maize, similar to polenta) and crushed peanuts. I probably swallowed a fair few
as we rode through the swarms – and plenty got stuck to me! Scoobs was not
impressed by them – she couldn’t wait to get away! We rode the horses onto the shores
of the lake, took off their saddles and our shoes and then rode them into the
lake bareback. As I recall the experience a huge smile is breaking across my
face. I absolutely loved it – to be sitting on Scoobs as she splashed through
the lake, playing and cooling herself off after the long ride was utterly
divine. Please do go to Kande Horses for a ride whenever you decide to head to
Malawi!
http://www.kandehorse.com/
I have to say, the image of the villagers carrying their
bricks really stuck in my head. These people are seriously hardcore. When you
see things like that in such close proximity it really hammers home how
pathetic us Westerners can be sometimes. We moan when our closest supermarket
is further than a 10 minute walk away, we get angry when shops shut early because
it’s a Sunday. Some of these people have to walk for miles just to get some
water. For me there’s a massive difference between watching how these people
live through a documentary and actually seeing it in the flesh - in the here
& now. It has definitely taught me a lesson that will make me think twice
now before taking my life for granted.
After the horse ride, Tan & I
headed back to Nkhata Bay, where we would part company for a few days. Ever
since arriving I had wanted to do some diving, so I headed straight for Aqua
Africa for a spot of diving with Rob, the utterly fabulous dude of all that is
diving. My goodness, it was an absolutely awesome experience. The scenery in
the watery depths of the lake is so spectacular. Enormous rocks jut out from the
bed of the lake forming dramatic and jagged ridges – I swear the animator for
Lion King had a swim down in this lake before they drew the landscape for the
film. Table Rock? It’s down in Lake Malawi, I tell ya! We encountered hundreds
of the most beautifully coloured tropical fresh water fish – yellows, blues,
even purple and black stripes (yeay the purple!) – so stunning. We came across
the belly-up fish that literally spends its entire life belly up, swimming on
its back. In the darker alcoves formed by the rocks we found some nocturnal
dolphin fish. They are blind and hunt using electromagnetic waves so they came
right up to us – incredible. Crabs scurried across the rock surfaces (I
couldn’t help but think of the crabs from Nemo and chuckled away to myself as I
remembered them). In the sandier waters there is a breed of fish that fashions
craters in the sand. If a shell accidentally gets washed into the crater, the
fish hurriedly swim into their crater & throw it out – OCD fish, gotta love
them! At one point I turned my head to the left and the bed of the lake dropped
down into a deep, black abyss. Breathtaking. The lake is 700 meters at its
deepest – the deepest we went was 10 meters. I absolutely loved every second of
the dive – and Rob was a wonderful instructor. I’ve definitely developed a
taste for diving…I can see myself doing many more dives in India for sure!
It was a full moon last night
& I was lucky enough to see it rising up over the mountains, big and pink.
I spent the evening sitting on a secluded beach under her silvery light. Of
course I’m in the Southern Hemisphere now – and the man on the moon looks like
a proper sad smiley (I think I actually prefer this dude to the one we have up
north!) The moon was so bright we couldn’t see a single star and all that could
be heard around us was an orchestra of crickets and the odd bat. Wee little
fireflies blinked past us as we sat listening to the waves gently lapping
against the shore.
The following morning I headed back
to Chisala School to do some volunteer work for a couple of days. My transport
options were a taxi – or a bus (and we’re not talking air conditioned National
Express coaches, rather over-packed & slightly run-down minibuses that have
no particular timetable, but go whenever they’re full) and then a 7km walk down
a very hilly dirt track with my not-so-light (thanks to my laptop & my
enormous India Lonely Planet Guide). Before you jump to any conclusions I was
actually seriously considering the bus & walk option…but then in the sweltering
afternoon sun I must admit I chickened out & went with the taxi. I figured
I’m going to have to take the walk / minibus option when I leave the school, so
for now I’d treat myself to a taxi. Once I arrived at the school I had a
meeting with Mr Banda the headmaster to discuss what I can do while I’m here.
On the schedule is teaching an English class to the Level 8 students (age
12-16), training the teachers on how to use computers, helping out at the under
5 clinic tomorrow morning, making bricks and playing netball (probably
extremely badly).
Sitting in on a staff meeting I
slowly came to understand some of the serious difficulties these teachers face.
Because Malawi is such a poor country there is limited funding from the
government – much of the budget for education and health generally comes from
donors. However, bad relations between donor nations due to human rights issues
has caused many of the countries to withdraw aid pending certain changes from
the Malawian government. Malawians and expats alike are concerned that the
president & government is alienating the donor community who fund over half
of the country’s expenditure in education, health, infrastructure &
development. There have been riots expressing this concern for the government’s
general lack of understanding and there have been many issues from the poor
rural farmer to the highest top-ranking government officials, many of whom have
been removed from the political scene due to their beliefs that may conflict
with the president’s. The president was even on the BBC recently stating that
all is well in Malawi, but many people I have spoken to believe that quite
significant change will be required to get Malawi back in its feet.
The main way this can happen is
through creating more of a manufacturing / exporting base which will create
more foreign exchange for the country. Over the last 4 years, the standard of
living and quality of life has generally increased and there are now many more
middle & upper class Malawians than there were before. This is reflected in
more cars & more imported foods (becoming more of a consumer society), thus
requiring greater imports. However, Malawi does not have the income from an
exporting infrastructure to support this demand. There are regular fuel
shortages because the government cannot afford to purchase it. Because of the
shortage of foreign exchange, businesses are unable buy the goods from abroad
needed to sell in Malawi, therefore general business is suffering. Escom (the mainline
electricity) has just introduced a shed-loading between 6-10 hours a day in the
main cities for power sharing, but with the fuel shortage generators are
difficult and more expensive to run, therefore making business not viable.
Looking to the positive, the government
is in talks with the International Monetary Fund to come to an understanding on
further funding, but this does prove that Malawi still needs aid money to see
it through at least for the time being. With donor money withdrawn, education
and health in particular have taken a knock. As a result, payment of teacher’s
wages have not always been timely, and the standard of education requires much
attention. Much-needed medication is not reaching the clinics and hospitals and
funds and resources are not being given to the schools.
Some students at the school are
struggling to keep up in class & it seems the proposed solution is to drop
them back a year until they catch up – but how is this going to help these
students? The teachers at Chisala seem at a loss as to finding plausible
solutions and I must admit I found it quite disheartening to witness teachers
unable to come up with any feasible ideas. Eventually the suggestion of
creating an extra class a week for those students who are struggling was
proposed and most of the teachers seemed to think it was a good idea, although
some were reluctant to put in the extra hours. From one perspective it is
difficult not to get upset over their seeming lack of care - the future of
these children’s lives depends on these teachers in so many ways. However, when
one considers what these teachers have to work with it is a miracle that they
are able to function at all. For sure the teachers could all benefit from
better teacher training, but this is just one item on a huge list of problems
that need to be addressed.
This afternoon I taught an English
class of 12-16 year olds. My task was to teach them to write a business letter.
Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong. It was such a challenge - a far cry from my
familiar teaching grounds of the University Of Westminster. To be honest with
you I had no idea it was going to be this difficult – the students were hard to
control, they lacked focus and I doubt if half of them actually understood what
I was saying to them. It brought me down to earth with a thud and left me
totally humbled. I felt hopeless and useless – and so very sad for these
children. Upon marking the work I had set for the children my heart sank even
further. Some of these children really do need special tutoring to bring them
up to speed. This experience has opened my eyes more than I could have ever
imagined.
This evening after dinner an
evening of dancing took place. One of the teachers set up a small stereo in the
library and the teachers and some students gathered around and danced to local
Malawian music. The teachers have a fun and friendly relationship with their
students – they have obviously formed very close bonds. It was great to see
teachers and students dancing together – and some of these children – even the
little ones, can seriously dance! One little girl who couldn’t have been more
than 8 was giving it some serious bootay shakage – go on girl! I felt
completely inept dancing with these children and probably for the first time in
my life I remained fully glued to my seat. It was fun to just sit, observe and
admire yet more amazing local dance moves.
Whilst here I have been staying
with one of the teachers called Luckness. She is a young teacher who is an
absolute delight. She is taking very good care of me and getting to know her
has been a pleasure. She has such a beautiful disposition, so humble and a
little bit shy, but friendly and so gentle. I have also been fed some local
cuisine – I finally got to sample cassava – it is the staple food here and
looks like a cross between a sweet potato and a yam. It has many uses – it can
be eaten raw, in which case it has a similar consistency to a carrot and is
quite sweet. When it is cooked it smells strange – quite sour and musky – there’s
no mistaking the aroma when you pass a house that is cooking it! The taste is
odd, smokey and musky - like nothing I have ever tried. The cassava is also
soaked, dried, then ground up into a flour and cooked with water to form another
type of nsima…which has the same strange smell & taste of the cooked
cassava. I can’t decide whether or not I like it.
Today my day began at 5:30am.
Every day for Luckness and the other teachers and students here at Chisala
School begins at this time. After breakfast, at 7am, it is time for assembly.
The children all gathered outside in their assembly area and the deputy head
lead them in their morning song. Mr Banda then introduced me to the school and
I am greeted so warmly it brings a lump to my throat.
After assembly I head to the
clinic where I spent the morning helping out nurse Eliza and her assistant
Christine at the antenatal and outpatient clinics. These nurses are absolutely
astounding – they care so much for their community. Eliza shows me around the
clinic which is running, but not fully functional. The maternity block cannot
be used as the plumbing is yet to be completed and the ward itself needs
interior building work finalised. Eliza has been pushing for the ward to be
finished, but the government is slow to respond. Until it is completed, women
in labour have to get themselves to Nkhata Bay to deliver their babies - which
is a good half an hour’s drive. Fine if you have transport, but few, if any, of
these women do - so if they want to deliver in a hospital or clinic they have
no choice but to make the journey on foot – in labour. As a result, many mothers choose to deliver at
home, resulting in a high number of deaths, both in the mother and baby. Some
of the expectant mothers I saw today are as young as fifteen. Many in their
early twenties already have two or three babies, and some of them are HIV
positive. Christine explained to me that the HIV virus only gets passed from
mother to baby during delivery. If the mother is HIV positive and delivers in a
hospital or clinic, a drug can be administered to prevent the transferral of
the virus. If delivered at home however, nothing is done to prevent the
transfer and the disease is passed on to her baby. During the outpatient clinic
a mother comes in with her baby. She is HIV positive and had a home birth and now
her baby is very sick – he has HIV. I literally had to hold back the tears as I
saw the little baby in front of me. He will live until 18 if he is lucky. Most
HIV positive children do not make it past the age of 12. The experiences of
this morning have left a very deep impression upon my heart for sure. Despite the
many documentaries I have watched, and the cases I read about, I never really ‘got
it’ until I actually sat in front these people and had a glimpse of what they
go through with my own eyes. Eliza and Christine are doing all they can for
these people – they are administering contraceptives and giving educational
talks in an attempt to try to educate the community, but they need so much
more.
After lunch I was to switch
teacher mode back on – but this time I was to be training a couple of the
teachers in basic computer skills. Teaching the teachers here is much, much
easier than teaching the students - I hope what I have taught them will help
ease the burden and make their jobs a little easier. I was then summoned to
come and see how the students make bricks. This was a really fun experience.
They make the bricks out of the massive termite hills that are dotted around
the site of the school as this particular type of soil results in stronger
bricks. The boys dig up parts of the termite hill with a hoe as the girls
gather water from a nearby stream and carry it in buckets balanced on their
heads up to the termite hill. The water is mixed in with the soil to create a
malleable mud and wooden brick-shaped moulds are then dampened with water and
sprinkled with sand so that the soil does not stick (a bit like buttering and
dusting a cake pan I guess). The mud is then placed into the moulds, levelled
off and then the moulds are carried to the drying site, carefully placed
upside-down on the ground and then lifted off to reveal the brick-cakes. These
are then left to dry and once dried all the bricks are gathered and placed into
a structure that has two large holes in the bottom of it. Wood is placed into
these holes and a fire is started. The fire then heats the surrounding bricks,
thus baking and setting them, transforming them into strong building bricks.
The children love making their bricks – to them it is a chance to play in the
mud. I got stuck in too and in the process made a few new little friends. One
little girl even came up to me and asked “Lizzie, can I be your friend?” I’m
sure you can all guess what my reaction was.
After we had finished making
bricks we headed to the football field where some of the villagers were dancing
and playing drums, whilst the football team played a match. It was great to see
more of the village, meet more of the locals and see them socialising. I caught
the dancing and drumming on video. As soon as I have an internet connection
fast enough I’ll upload it.
And that almost brings my stay at
Chisala School to a close. I will be sad to say goodbye to everyone here just
as I have started forming bonds with them. The 7km walk was an experience – and
the minibus journey to Mzuzu was entertaining to say the least. I’m now back
with Tanya & for the weekend we’re heading to beautiful & isolated
Usisya to spend the weekend relaxing and doing beachy things. These past couple
of days have really taught me a lot. I am so grateful for being given the
opportunity to have this experience.
If any of you would like to
volunteer at the school, or if you are a nurse or doctor who would like to
volunteer at the clinic, they are always looking for people. You will be
provided with accommodation and all utility bills will be taken care of – all
you would need to pay for is your flight out here, plus food. When I return
from India I will be doing some fundraising to try to raise £10,000 for the
school and a further £10,000 for the clinic. Until then, if you feel like you
would like to donate funds – either for the school or for the clinic, please do
so via Tanya’s charity, Xpand. Your money will be guaranteed to go directly to
where it needs to go.
http://www.xpand.org.uk/donations.html
