Ian's second visit and other bits and bobs

Namiyango in the mud and rain. Spot Rachel in her easy-to-blend-in-to-a-crowd jacket!



making recycled paper with elephant dung at a charity in Blantyre



Malawian public health adverts



the roaring fire!



our hut on Zomba plateau



breakfast on Zomba



reading the papers in the sun outside the hut



looking down into the Shire Valley from the edge of the plateau near Chingwe's Hole



a pretty flower near our hut



the view from our hut



a typical township scene



BAHASI



inside BAHASI



breakfast time at BAHASI



a kid playing cricket, quite an ususal sight - the game of choice is usually football




Too many photos for one blog, so I’ll have to post the extra’s on another blog soon!

Soooooo….what’s been happening since the last blogging? Well, Ian came back, despite our poor hostingness last time. Perhaps he thought practice would improve our performance…How wrong he was! For a bedroom he was allowed to doss down in my office (which is rather spacious for an office after all!), and was greeted back into Malawi with high winds, cold temperatures (single figures I think at times) driving rain and as much mud as he could have asked for!

He made the most of it though, and frequented all of AYISE’s current local projects, including Bangwe AIDS and HIV Self Help Initiative (BAHASI), which is a day care centre for orphans which Rachel found before Sister A arrived. Since SVA arrived they have adopted it (excuse the pun) as one of their projects and provide assistance to the teachers there, and are building a new building for them to help them expand into a full blown orphanage. Another project was the international work camp rachel organised at the Youth Centre which involved re-painting a lot of the rather dilapidated old buildings. I say ‘international’, it had one American and the rest were Malawian, but still – an experience for everyone I think, given the problems of mud and rain!
Ian also visited another of SVA’s areas of help, at Step Kids Awareness (STEKA) where a young Malawian couple (probably younger than Rachel and I) have decided to turn their home into an orphanage for abandoned/street/orphaned kids. They have around 12 beds and 24 kids, so 2 to a bed. They are constantly being asked to take on more kids too. During their visit Rach and Ian were introduced to a couple of new arrivals, one of which – lets call him Joseph – has since been coming to AYISE since asking for bus money to go ‘home’. This is a very problematic area, the kid obviously has some issues as he’s a compulsive liar, which makes helping him a problem as he tells everyone a different story about why he is not happy at STEKA (including accusations of abuse) and where he actually lives/wants to be taken back to. The most recent chapter in the saga is that AYISE think they have tracked his gran down, and offered to drive him there as they did not want him travelling that distance alone, and he refused to be driven, asking instead for the bus money…which makes one question what he really wants, and what he really needs. I have not seen him today, but he was here yesterday. I am not aware of the latest on the situation – it is emotionally really tough on all of the Scots here, as it is so hard to know what to do, and so easy to latch onto weaknesses in the Malawian child protection system / AYISE’s response (which is typically Malawian in it’s pace, and lack of prioritisation of the child’s needs).
On a lighter note we also visited the Carlsberg brewery (first one built outside Denmark), for which I took time off work to join Rach and Ian. Fun times! The Adamsons also tried out both of the museums in Blantyre, and seemed amused, if not overly educated by both. In addition, every respectable eatery in the town was tried, and a good place found for sunset views and the best burgers in Malawi! We also visited a local charity which colllects waste paper from schools and offices and recycles it by hand, adding in either banana skin fibres or elephant dung!

I took a long weekend and we headed to Zomba plateau for 2 nights. When we left Bangwe (public transport all the way) the rain was still coming down and the mud was thick, but that was the last we saw of the rain. We arrived in a cool but dry Zomba and did some shopping and arranged a taxi to take us from the town up to the plateau. We were to rent a hut owned by the people who run the stables at the plateau edge. The taxi took us to the stables where we were warmly greeted by the owners and their huge dog. They then piled us into a landrover and we headed up the rough tracks to the other, higher side of the plateau where the hut was situated. The hut keeper had been instructed to get the fire going as it had been so cold recently, and the hut had not seen much use. When we got there the fire was roaring and the place heating up. It had a living/sleeping room (with 2 single beds which had been made into a double, so unfortunately Ian was relegated to the floor infront of the fire), a kitchen and a bathroom. They had an ingeniously simple method of heating water for the shower and kitchen, which was similar to Ronan and Sam’s hot tub – a fire under an old oil drum, but with no pump, just convection to draw the water from the tank out to the shower or tap. The atmosphere at the hut was great, with old paraffin hurricane lanterns, the roaring fire and the mist all around (but clearing). The next morning we awoke to absolutely clear blue skies. Our wee walk in the morning, after a relax in the sun to warm our bones from the chilly night, took us to Chingwe’s hole. This is a natural deep cave shaft vertically dropping into the hill at the plateau’s edge. Quite interesting to see, but the views were better – out to Liwonde national park and the shire valley on one side, and Mulanje (which SVA were climbing) and lake Chilwa on the other. And immediately around us, a landscape akin to the borders, with open grassland and forestry plantations. The reservoir at the plateau edge completed the European picture! I gather this is used for hydro power, but I’m not 100% sure.

It was really great to have a break up in the peace of the plateau, where you can take a walk without being Asungu’d or hugged to within an inch of your life! Living in Bangwe has great aspects to it, but a quiet break is much appreciated! Lots of coffee was drunk, newspapers read and duty free whisky supped. The stars were pretty good, as the skies were completely clear, although the moon was too strong to get the stars at their best.

Ians’s whole trip here has been great for lifting our spirits about things which we cannot/should not attempt to change, and making us really appreciate the many positive aspects of life here, such as the indomitably friendly baseline attitude of everyone, and the incredibly different culture and landscapes there are. Of course, his fantastically generous payments for food, accommodation and practically everything else may have biased my views! Thanks Ian!

After Ian left on Saturday Rach and I got the bus back to town (it can be done, good to know) and met up with some of our friends from the Hash for a wee walk out on the other side of town. A quiet evening was then had back in Bangwe. On Sunday I was recruited to join Asungu United in a football game against AYISE Allstars in the morning, but unfortunately both of the decent football grounds were occupied. This left me to head back home to drink coffee and read more of the massive supply of newspapers we now have (thanks to all who contributed so generously!), and then head into town in the afternoon to see a popular Malawian reggae band called the Black Missionaries. This was good fun, during the daylight hours at least. The gig ‘started’ at 1.30 but on Malawi time, so I don’t think anyone was on stage until about 3. This gave plenty of time for perusing the stalls. The Rastafarians were well represented at the gig, and rachel spotted a great hat for the chill of New York in January. The stall she bought it from was trading in 3 things; hats, sandles, and spliffs! Although marijuana is strictly illegal in Malawi it seemed a blind eye was turned for this gig at least. The long afternoon in the heat (and possibly the thick atmosphere) took their toll on Rach and she started to feel a bit off as the evening approached; but as far as we were aware the warm up act were still on and the Black Missionaries were yet to perform. So we waited, and waited, as yet more repetitive reggae was churned out (they actually repeated songs, it’s not just that we are too old for reggae and it ‘all sounds the same these days’!). Then an MC came on and announced something about the Black Missionaries, and the first band left the stage…and then came right back on again! We assumed some sort of mis-hap had occurred, as is likely in Malawi, so we waited some more for the headliners to come on…Eventually, after asking several people and getting conflicting responses we found out that the only difference between the support act and the headliners was a subtly different arrangement of people! To our non-reggae ears it had sounded just the same, and with the same people on stage we had assumed it was the supporting band. Finally we could leave! So we saw them…they’re ok. They are probably better if you like reggae enough to listen to it for 5 hours solid.

The weather update (the most exciting bit I’m sure); things are starting to heat up now, far more warm days, far fewer wet ones in the past week. Evenings and nights are getting warmer, and the days more reliable warm and sunny (temperatures probably mid 20s, possibly pushing 27 some days). The sun has some power now. T.I.A. (this is Africa!).

Work-wise, I’ve been ploughing on with a few big funding proposals, making arrangements for the environmental projects we are soon to start when the Swedes get here (they arrive Thursday 26th), and also seeking funds/awards for the work that MuREA (Mulanje Renewable Energy Agency) have been doing so they can expand their geographical remit to cover other threatened forests near Blantyre. Rach has been working her way through evaluations, finances and admin relating to all the work camps she has organised. Hmm…not sure I have anything else to add on work, general feelings are that it’s going ok – starting to work a wee bit more on the things that interest me, but yet to feel like I’m making any difference to Malawi…but that aspiration is far too big and naïve for me now anyway, I realise I cannot change a country in 7 months, but I hope I can help improve things a wee bit.

Much love to all,

A & R