Rachel's update - busy busy!

(sorry no photos - didn't see any lions this week, so left the camera at home, however...)

In summary:
What a week!! Am SO pleased to say that productivity levels went through the roof and I have spent the past week zooming around the country. From 'Malawi Malaise' to clashing with Ban Ki Moon, from an expat birthday party to being in the capital city trying to meet with government officials on the day the Malawian Government dissolved the National Youth Council of Malawi (bear in mind my charity is called Active YOUTH initiative), the past 10 days has had plenty to keep me going and boy, have I enjoyed it! Oh yes, and did anyone hear about a couple of gay malawians?!

In full (and it really is very full, apologies for leaving it so long and therefore having too much to cram in):

The lowlight of this week has been my first bout of 'Malawi Malaise' which has seen me feeling a touch dodgy for a few days...but it didn't stop me!

I finally managed to hold meetings with the necessary colleagues to work out what I had to do and then I could finally really get on with it all! Hurrah! I have therefore spent much of this week
writing and delivering letters to local companies asking for donations (food, materials, drinks) for the workcamps (one of my roles is to organise projects over the next few months called workcamps, which are supposed to have volunteers from around the world and will last from 2 weeks to 4 weeks and be on a range of projects: including building classroom blocks, renovating parts of Lake Malawi National Park and painting educational murals at the Bangwe Youth Centre.);
'ringing' organisations around the country trying to get them to help me recruit volunteers for said camps; and
meeting officials to get their support for volunteering more generally.

I have to deliver letters by car as they take 2 weeks to get to the neighbouring town! I say 'ringing' as phones are pretty unreliable in this country! They rarely manage to reach the number you dial and when you do finally get through you usually have to yell down the phone and then it cuts off before you manage to complete the conversation. I can see why face to face meetings are still favoured here! Although my experiences of such meetings on Friday left a little to be desired...

I went to Lilongwe (the capital city) with my boss and a colleague on Friday to meet officials from the Ministries of Youth, Tourism as well as Wildlife and Parks and UNESCO. What a day it was. Some highlights:

*I had spent the week trying to make appointments to see the Directors of each of the above ministries but had the problems of phoning as outlined above. Therefore had only one appointment booked. In Malawi, this isn't really an issue as it is quite standard to turn up and request to see someone unannounced. We started at the Ministry of Youth (and sat for 45 mins before giving up, getting some mobile numbers to try and moving on to UNESCO). After a productive meeting with the Assistant Secretary to the National Commission of UNESCO, my colleague called one of the numbers that we had been given by the Ministry of Youth. After much negotiation by my colleague, an official agreed to meet us in 40 minutes. Slightly strangely though the official insisted that we meet exactly where we were at that moment, which was....a petrol station in the middle of town?! My colleague suggested maybe the official's office would be better, but he was having none of it. Luckily there was a fast food outlet where we could sit and wait...and wait...an hour went past and when my colleague called, the official apologised for the delay and said he was just finishing his meeting. So, we waited. After another hour, my colleague called again to be told that the official had just been reminded by his boss that he was to be in the delegation to meet Ban Ki Moon that afternoon so couldn't meet us. Best excuse ever for being stood up! I couldn't stop laughing. Who forgets they are meeting Ban Ki Moon?

*Turned out we were in town the day that the Malawian budget was going to be heard in Parliament. It meant that all the Directors of the Ministries were in Parliament hearing it, but we did have some useful meetings. For example, with the Assistant Director of Wildlife and Parks who agreed to lend us the ministry's minibus for transport for one of the camps at Lake Malawi National Park.

*Another implication of Friday's budget is the immediate disolution of the National Youth Council of Malawi - an organisation with which I had a very useful meeting just the day before! The biggest implication of the Council's disolution is that 500+ youth organisations have immediately lost their legal status. In the UK youth org's such as AYISE would be registered as a charity, but here they are registered by the Youth Council. Their loss of legal status could well have implications on their ability to access funding. Luckily, AYISE is one of 6 Youth Organisations that is also licensed under the Trustees Incorporation Act, so should be fine....although our Director will no doubt be tied up this week lobbying the government. This does now illustrate why the official stood me and my colleague up though - he thought we had got wind of the budget before it was announced and were there to lobby him.

Other excitement from the past 10 days, in no particular order:

*The journey to Lilongwe in which I got to hear from my boss about his upbringing - incredible! Some particularly striking bits are that he got his first pair of shoes aged 14 and an order of catholic nuns paid for his private education at a boarding school, but he couldn't afford to go home during the holidays so was there for fours years solid!

*Had our first social engagement when we received a personal invitation (rather than the group activities that we have tracked down online and gone along to thus far): a 30th birthday party of a girl who was at her first hash on the same day as us. Had a lovely evening last night at a VERY swanky house that she is staying in. Had drinks and a fantastic BBQ - prawns, steak, homemade burgers!

*I also went with a colleague on a site visit to where we will be building two classroom blocks at primary schools. Sadly I did not think to take my camera. At one school the classroom block is currently made of what look like grass mats, which are broken, falling over and obviously let rain in. At the other, the block is nonexistent - the children sit outside. Was good to get an insight into the importance of some of the work I will be overseeing. Was also interesting to get an insight into Malawian education: as far as I could gather, in January the government has a nutrition program, in which all primary school kids receive a portion of porridge a day. The schools therefore see an influx of students in January/February, who then drop out to go back to work/home to help in March. And this is primary school!! The lack of classroom facilities is also a huge issue for drop outs - there is little incentive to sit in the rain/scorching sun. Hopefully, the construction projects will help to alleviate this latter issue...but the porridge seeking issue is somewhat trickier and beyond my remit!

*The verdict and then pardon of the gay couple has obviously attracted a lot of attention and yes, really 'annoyed me', to put it politely (not the pardon obviously!)! I have thankfully had some faith renewed by the chats with colleagues and other Malawians that leaves me hope that there are those who understand the awfulness of such oppression and recognise that such laws (which incidentally the Brits are responsible for implementing) must be changed. Sadly, the numbers are just too few at the moment to be heard. One of AYISE's programmes of work is around Human Rights and so indirectly they are trying to get their countrymen to recognise the concept of 'equality'. As you may recall from an earlier email, the concept of 'gender' as different to human physiological characteristics is still foreign to most Malawians... sexuality is yet further away. But I and my Malawian colleagues live in hope.

As Andy said in his cycling blog post "what doesn't kill you..." Infact I think that line sums up a fair bit of my time and emotion at the moment. I am not actually close to death but I definitely feel that a stronger Rach in so many ways will emerge at the end of these 8 months. On that note, I will thank you all again for your emails - please keep them coming.

R

PS from Andy - Other interesting points: one of Rachel's taxis in Lilongwe ran out of petrol, and she has been fully instructed on how to hunt mice (for eating, not sport).