Three Peaks

walking through a township at first light, below Michuru peak


view across to Ndirande from Michuru peak


Rach on top of Michuru


Rach at the first tea stop - breakfast!


walking along a bit of (disused/infrequently used/not used on Sunday) railway to get to the 2nd tea stop


2nd tea stop in the lush grounds of a well-to-do ex-pat house


half way up Ndirande, and approaching the scramble (up the vegetated gully to the right of the main cliff)


"A" near the summit of Ndirande ("A" was on the majete and sapitwa hikes with us too)


coming down steeply off the summit of Ndirande, and into the tropical vegetation


descending a steep step on Ndirande


Approaching Mount Soche


One of the kids who followed us up Soche


The view across Soche township and Limbe - our township is just out of shot on the right


The summit of Mount Soche


Looking back along the summit ridge of Mount Soche


2 of the cheeky kids who followed us to the top


Descending Mount Soche and trying to find the path in the long grass and setting sun


nice flowers on the slopes of Soche


Me, descending Soche after a long day!


Hello all!

First of all, another few funny slogans from around us:
• On a minibus “it’s not me, it’s Allah!”…reassuring
• On another minibus “don’t worry, Jesus is in control”…dead bloke driving, good stuff…!
• A bottle shop near us is called the “Kosovo Bottle Store”, so a free portion of ethnic cleansing with every beer…?

On Sunday Rachel and I joined up with all the other crazy asungu in the area for the annual Three Peaks Walk arranged by the Mountain Club of Malawi. This is a non-competitive 42km (yes, that is basically a marathon) route around Blantyre, taking in the three largest hills. I’m not 100% sure of the starting elevation, but I’d say each hill was between 1500ft and 2000ft of elevation gain, so not much individually but enough when taken as a group. The main challenge was sticking to the schedule which had us completing the route in 13 hours. I think we all started off well, and were ahead at the first tea stop (tea and coffee stops were a life-saver! There was a support crew who drove to strategic points to meet and greet us with sugary and salty snacks, and as much liquid as we could handle!), but between the first and 2nd tea stops the pace really dropped and we were behind for the rest of the day. However there was a great feeling of camaraderie and it was far less of a pointless slog than I had worried it might be. At no stage (perhaps with the exception of our 3.40am wake-up call) did I feel this was a total beast of a hike – probably because of the subdivided nature of the walk into smaller sections interspersed with coffee stops.

We started off from the centre of Blantyre at 5am on the dot, and walked through the streets in darkness as late night revellers staggered home past us with a rather confused look on their faces. We were a group of probably 20 or 25 at the start, so must have looked quite a sight! The first hill (Michuru) was attacked with vigour as the sun rose, and we were rewarded with great views from the top. Rach and I made it to the top with around 10 minutes to have breakfast, so perfect timing. Then everyone hurried off down the hill to the conservation department car park and a cuppa. After that we had a long flatish walk across the plains (which are inhabited by one of the densest and most complex townships I have yet seen!) to the next tea stop in a wonderful house at the foot of the 2nd hill (Ndirande).

Here Rachel decided she would quit while she was still enjoying it, and quite right too as Ndirande was quite a steep, vegetated scramble, with some people (not me)getting attacked by bees, so probably for the best she bailed when she did. Ndirande had fantastic views from the top, across to Zomba Mountain and Mount Mulanje, both of which had a cap of cloud. We could also see right across the whole city and townships that we had come through, and what we still had to cover. The steep decent through dense undergrowth took us to the next tea stop, where Rachel met me again, having hitched a lift with one of the support vehicles.

After that, a further steep decent took us to a series of unofficial fields with beaten paths which we bashed our way through, and into Limbe (the town nearest to Bangwe township). We crossed through Limbe and approached the final hill, Mount Soche. After a final stop for tea and changing plasters and socks (I had 5 blisters by this point, all on my left foot oddly enough!), we headed off through the Soche township to the hill. Along the way we were adopted by a group of kids who accompanied us all the way to the top! The top of Soche is beautiful, a rainforest type of vegetation with a huge monolith at the summit to provide stunning vistas in all directions as the sun dipped in the sky on the 2nd shortest day.

The decent from Soche is tricky to find due to the very long grass (see photo) but we made it down to the townships (past potential muggers in caves and Rastafarians growing marijuana) just before dark. From there it was an hours hobble to the starting point and some well earned beers!

So now, if anyone asks me what my marathon time is I will be able to say 13 hours 30 minutes, and 6 cups of coffee!

I hope all are well, happy solstice, fathers day, and any other occasion you may wish to celebrate!

PS – Congratulations to Magic and Nathan on their engagement! (I hope everyone knows by now!)

Flora and many anthropological observations

HUGE Baobab in Majete wildlife park - i love these trees!


nice pink flowers just outside Majete (apparently this plant only flowers in near drought)


a Mulanje Cedar (i think) on the slopes of the Mulanje Massif


on the Mulanje 'plateau'


on the Mulanje 'plateau'


wee alpine flowers on the slopes of Sapitwa, probably around 7000ft altitude


wee alpine flowers on the slopes of Sapitwa, probably around 7000ft altitude


tea plantation near Mulanje, looking across to a hill in Mozambique


flowers half way up to the Zomba plateau

I thought I should share some of the photos of flora I’ve been diligently taking. I am often accused of taking too many photos of mountains, so I thought I’d diversify to other immobile objects (starting on the easy stuff!). So I hope you enjoy. I don’t know the names of any of them, but perhaps that will whet your appetite to look them up.

In other news, Rachel has been ridiculously busy this week as today is the start of the first work camp. She is currently out at the site (around 1hour, to 90 minutes away) managing the deliveries of various building materials, volunteers and professional builders who will hopefully manage to build 2 new classrooms for a massively over subscribed school in a rural village called Kachere (or Kuchere, I’m not exactly sure).

Rachel has been a beacon of calm in the hysteria and disorganisation that has surrounded her – I’m beginning to wonder if she’s been sneaking off for a quick smoke! She has been really good at accepting that in the short time we are here we cannot suddenly change the prevailing ‘laid back’ (aka lazy) attitude of Malawians, and realising that as long as she has done her best she should not worry if the final outcome is achieved or not. A hard thing for us liberals to accept, but it has to be accepted for sustainable mental health. Once one has accepted that things may happen, or they may not, it is like a weight being lifted from your shoulders (until the next frustration piles the weight back on). I think we were approaching this attitude on our own, but an email from Hamish quoting Laurence of Arabia was a catalyst for a change of approach. This change of approach will hopefully only last until December, otherwise we’ll be unemployable in the UK!

Before I forget, I must note down some of the amazing slogans we see around us (mainly on the minibuses). I wish I had photos of these all, but trying to get a camera out while surrounded by 25 people and chickens in a 15 seater minibus is not really an option! The slogans attributed to minibuses must be looked at in the context of the incredibly dangerous and non-courteous way they drive, otherwise they wouldn’t be funny.
• Lord Knows (on a minibus)
• When god says yes, nobody says no (on a minibus)
• W*nk electronics (name of a shop)
• Aunty / Uncle (insert very British name here) ‘s Grocery/Salon/Investments (common name of shops)

OK, so I can’t remember as many as I’d hoped, but I will try to carry a notepad around with me next time I’m in town, and come back with some more “gems”…

Other African observations I must get down before I forget that they are odd:
• Hawkers will carry live chickens around for sale, but the chickens will be partially plucked (probably to show the good quality of the meat – must be pretty cruel to the animal, but in some respects they lead a much better life than many chickens in the UK as they are all free range and organic!
• Yes, people (mainly women) do carry things around on their heads – quite skilfully. Often you may see young children being schooled in the art, which is quite funny as their parent will always laugh at them when they fail.
• When Malawians receive a gift (from white or local people) they will almost never say “thank you”, however if you exchange greetings with someone in passing on the street the conversation always ends with a “thank you”#
• Yes, most Malawians eat all meals with their hands
• I haven’t mentioned sugar cane yet have I? This is the staple snack for the country, a foot or so of sugar cane which they carry around, chew on, and spit out the husks to the ground
• The amount people can carry on a bicycle (mostly single speed as the derailleurs / hub gears have failed a long time ago) is incredible. Again, I must try to get photos. We regularly pass people with what must be 30 or 50kg bags of maize or rice on the back of their bike. Or with a 5ft tall sack of charcoal. Or a 12ft long piece of corrugated metal for roofing (if they are sensible this will be tied on vertically, but occasionally you come across people who have tied them on horizontally and are a very wide load. A chicken cage or 2 (each would be about 1ft cubed) Or pretty much anything else you can think of! Admittedly you rarely see people actually cycling with these loads, but rather using the bike as a means of not having to carry the weight. But still, the sight is impressive!
• I regularly get called “boss”, especially by people who want something from me. Sometimes I am called “brother” in a more informal setting by the youth. Rachel will often be called “madam” with respect, or “sister”, “aunty”, or “mama” in a less respectful setting. One bloke even called her “aunty” while trying to proposition her…a bit odd!
• Chichewa has no differentiation between “he” and “she”, “him” and “her”…which means when someone is being described to you, you are never quite sure whether they are talking about a male or female. This is especially interesting when you consider how divided the culture is in respect to gender roles…all very anthropological anyway.
• In the Malawian family children get tough love. Adults are given priority when it comes to meal times, the kids will get the scraps. A child given a sweet by a doctor may have it snatched from them by the mother. Children in Malawi are not allowed eggs, as the parents worry that if the child works out that they can get eggs from any chicken in the township, none of the eggs will be left to produce more chicks. In Malawi it is entirely normal to see a pre-school child (girl most likely) carrying a younger sibling on their back with one of the wrap-around pieces of decorated cloth their mothers use…parents seem to take very much a back seat with raising children if there are siblings about.

So that's the update, I hope you enjoyed it!

Majete Crossover hike

Aloe plant



A goat corral we walked past before entering the park (our first 6km on Saturday was outside the park boundary)



Prickly Pear



Twisted Baobab




Monitor Lizard



Hippo guarding a beautiful looking play-wave for kayaking!



bathing/wallowing spot near the camp



flowers of an invasive species



large pod of hippos!



leopard tortoise



elephant family crossing to an island in the Shire River



A big bull elephant



Finishing off at the falls near the park entrance - see previous Majete post for more photos



Last week was rather stressful for us. Absence of key members of staff, looming project deadlines and large chunks of missing vital information – combined with an apparent lack of acceptance of any requirement for speedy action was not a good combination!

However, there were also some really good bits too. Sister A has arrived from the emerald Isle. This is her 8th or 9th year of volunteering in various areas of work in various African country and she gets around the apathy and lethargy which plagues most progress in the area by doing loads of fundraising before she leaves (by selling what sounds like a very popular recipe book) and arriving with enough money to make things happen immediately! A novel approach to us, but it certainly seems effective as she has already arranged for 2 boreholes in outlying villages in Rural Blantyre region, before her main body of work which is to take part in one of Rachel’s work camps building a school. She is quite an amazing lady, very very generous to us and to the locals, but also with a good understanding of the complex issues of aid. While understanding to a certain extent about aid dependency, she doesn’t take the approach we are heading towards which is rather pessimistic – she takes a more short term approach which is ‘these people are poor, I can help them, I’m going to help them’. This results in her being able to achieve her goals very quickly and easily. For Rachel and I it is harder, as we are walking the metaphorical minefield of trying to support Malawians to enable them to support themselves long term…a much bigger issue as it deals with culture change rather than just donations and infrastructure project. However, both are valuable and we have really appreciated Sister A’s presence and calming influence!

On Friday we finished early (apparently we should only work a half day every Friday anyway) and went to our favourite greasy-spoon in town to have a beer and watch the first game of the world cup. Having heard practically nothing else on the radio for weeks we figured, ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!’. We were the only asungu in the bar, but the locals were friendly and nonchalant to our presence as it is in the middle of Blantyre, so they are more exposed to asungu. The game was pretty mediocre, with some moments of interest, but it was great to be there when South Africa scored, as most Malawians seem to be supporting AAT (Any African Team), which is nice to see. After the game, our friend AP came to meet us for beer and food and then we headed back to her side of town to stay over night at her neighbour AB (who climbed Sapitwa last weekend with me). We needed to stay over as we had to be at the Blantyre Sports Club for 5.30 in the morning, and AB had a reliable taxi arranged from her place. It was also lovely to have a nice relaxing evening socialising with friends.

Saturday morning arrived far to early and the taxi was surprisingly on time. We arrived at the designated spot to meet up with the Wildlife and Environment Society of Malawi (WESM) for their annual Majete Crossover hike. Majete wildlife park is a reserve around 90 minutes from Blantyre with loads of wonderful wildlife and scenery (the observant among you will notice we have been there before…). Every year the WESM run a hike which requires the group to split into 2 teams – one enters the park from the North and the other from the South. Meeting in the middle to camp, vehicle keys are swapped and each group continues to the opposite side of the park to drive home in the vehicles of the other team.

We opted (upon good authority) to walk North to South and were very glad we had as this put us into a delightful group of people, meant the sun was behind us rather than in our face all day, meant that we did the longer day on Saturday and saved the best of the wildlife for Sunday. Also, our WESM organisers were L & J who spoiled the whole group of us with fantastic food all weekend, from croissants and fresh coffee on Saturday morning, a fantastic Bolognese with all the trimmings on Saturday night (including red wine!) and bacon rolls (on fresh home made rolls) on Sunday morning…we definitely landed on our feet! In case you are wondering, no we did not have to carry all this food in, nor did we have porters, but we had a crew of WESM members who drove a vehicle in to the campsite, loaded to the gunwales with our tents and food - very very luxurious camping!

As well as the culinary highlights we also saw some fantastic animals, and we had a few people in our group who were particularly knowledgeable about the various birds and beasts, so that really helped. We saw (in no particular order, and with lots of omissions and spelling mistakes)

• Boham’s bee eaters
• Little bee eaters
• Baboons
• Hippos
• Elephants
• Monitor lizard
• Tortoise
• Fish and Snake Eagles
• Ibis (or something like it)
• Hornbills
• Perhaps parrots, not entirely sure
• Wart hogs
• Élan
• Some other wild deer-type things
• And loads of butterflies and dragon flies

Once we got to the park (the first 6km of our walk on Saturday was outside the park) we were met by 2 park wardens who would act as scouts/guides/protect us from a charging elephant with their rifles, as well as making sure we didn't get lost. It was certainly reassuring to have them with us when we came across a rather large bull elephant near the end of Sunday who would have been quite a terrifying sight otherwise. How effective the wardens' rifles would have been against a charging elephant I wouldn't like to know...

It was great to walk along the banks of the Shire which looks like it would be a beautiful and exciting white water trip if it weren't for the massive population of hippos (and croc's too apparently, but we didn't see any).

A great trip, and a wonderful culinary experience (which as you will all know, is of almost equal importance for us!).

Tiwonana!

Sapitwa Sleepover - Another long post!

Dawn mists on the plains, from summit of Sapitwa

Peaks of the massif, from left: Khuto, Chigaru, Dzole, Namasile, Chinzama?, unnamed?

Chambe peak at dawn from summit of Sapitwa

Sunrise on the summit of Sapitwa

sunset on the summit of Sapitwa

self portrait on summit at sunset...chilly!

Our campsite

From left: me, J, E, B, A, C

The view from the summit when we arrived - we camped in the grass on the far right

J, and a little of E on the final scramble to the summit

C, A and a little of B in the dense undergrowth found in gullies on the peak

Steep slab on the lower slopes - tricky with heavy packs

Flowers on the way up the peak - I'm told they are Aloe

This sign should be on top, but is actually just next to the hut!

Chisepo hut, with lower slopes of Sapitwa behind

dawn on the plains, from Chisepo hut

sunrise from Chisepo hut

Chambe peak as the sun set while we were still 2 hours from the hut on Friday

B on the way up, near the bottom

Photos are in reverse order again...sorry!

Last weekend I joined up with the mountain club again for another trip, this time up the 3^rd highest peak south of the Sahara (excluding South Africa)…a bit of a convoluted title, but basically it’s by far the biggest thing for miles around.

Sapitwa peak (Sapitwa apparently meaning “don’t go there”) is around 10,000ft and is the high point of the Mulanje plateau. Of course, the “plateau” is not very plateau-like. I think it’s best described as follows: Once you have climbed up 3000ft from the plains, to an altitude of around 6000ft, it is quite like being at sea levels in the West Highlands of Scotland. Lots of hills and valleys and ridges still to be negotiated to navigate around the ‘plateau’.

The characters in this story are: B, leader of the group; C, a young lad from Blantyre; A, a German medical student out on elective; J, who works in malaria research; and E, who works in social development. And me!

B, C and I set off around 2.30 from the car park at Likabula. B & C had decided to hire porters, as most people do, but I figured I would see what it would be like without their assistance – experimenting in the name of science and so I can advise visitors when they come…Well, I think I would certainly have appreciated a porter, as I ended up carrying over 15kg (carrying communal food, fuel, etc which couldn't fit in the bags for the porters), but as it happened I coped ok, just sweated A LOT!

We took the ‘skyline’ path - so called because of the old cable that runs down from the “plateau” for the forestry operations. The weather was mercifully cloudy and we plodded up an ever steepening path through the woods, passing many beautiful flowers, and with regular views across the valley to Chilemba peak and beyond to the plains and the tea plantations. I continued to sweat.

Having reached the “plateau” in around 90 minutes, we had around an hour and a half of daylight left. We managed to successfully find the ‘short cut’ path which took us through recently felled forestry (the Mulanje Conservation Trust are trying to get rid of pine trees in order to let the endangered Mulanje Cedar take over again) which was disorientating for B, but we made it through and onto the main path again in daylight. A quick snack stop for much needed salts (C was suffering particularly with cramps) and we put on head torches and plodded off, up and over ridges and valleys, past what we think were baboons who made a rather funny noise a bit like the noise produced when you bounce a rock along an icy pond, and eventually arrived at the Chisepo hut at around 7pm. We’d beasted the “6 hour” hike in 4 and a half hours, and boy could I feel it!

A, J and E had left earlier in the morning and taken a more leisurely pace up to the hut. The hut was comfortingly smoky and basic, like so many huts in Scotland, and after a feast of spag bol cooked on the fire we bedded down for the night. (by this point the B and C’s bags had arrived courtesy of 2 porters – not the ones they had chosen. Some dodgy business was suspected, as these porters were not on the qualified list, and so had probably been subcontracted onto the job by the originally selected porters, who would have taken a cut of the fee).

We awoke around 5.15 the next morning, thanks to B’s warning of a beautiful sunrise. A leisurely morning of drying sweaty clothes and eating lots of breakfast, then we headed off up to the Sapitwa peak around 10am. A, J and E had porters taking some camping stuff up for them, but C, B and I were carrying quite big packs – which proved a little problematic when it came to some of the tight squeezes between boulders, climbing up narrow gullies, and scrabbling through dense undergrowth. When we left, clouds had rolled in – as they tend to do apparently between 10am and 5pm, but by lunch time we had climbed above them, and remained above them for the rest of the day. We arrived on the summit about 2pm, having taken quite a leisurely pace, and set up the tents on a strip of grass. The rest of the afternoon was spent chatting and either sunbathing or avoiding the sun, depending on sunburnability. The clouds stayed with us until after sunset, but the feeling of being isolated on an island in the sky was lovely.

After sunset we cooked and stared at the fantastically starry sky for as long as we could bear before the cold drove us all into our beds. The time was around 7pm! The night was long, and very cold (down to minus 2 celcius), and the winds were whipping our tents, so most people had disturbed sleep. However, when we dared to head out for the sunrise the wind had dropped and we huddled in our sleeping bags silently watching the African dawn develop for over an hour.

The colours were fantastic, and my camera work cannot do it justice. In all, I took over 130 photos this weekend, but this blog will only allow a small number per post, so if anyone is interested I have many more photos of hills, flowers and sunrises/sunsets which I can show when I get back to the UK. I could upload more into another post, but I think I’ll just leave you in suspense!

We headed back down the hill, and got to the hut around 10.15 – 10.30. C by this point was not in a good way. He may have had food poisoning from an inadequately heated meal on the summit, or it may have been sheer exhaustion, but he stopped for a quick vomit near the hut to clear his head. Luckily A had some pills she could give him for his condition, which at least kept him mobile if not particularly happy. He battled on, to his credit, and made it down with B, A and I. (E & J were staying up the hill one more night). C was on his first major hike, and didn’t have proper equipment, so it is no wonder he was pretty beaten when we got back down just before 4pm.

He perked up a little when we got to the pizzeria in Mulanje town. To my delight Rachel had come out to meet us! She had taken the minibus from town out to Mulanje and arrived about 1 hour before we did. She had spent that time reading at the pizzeria, and enjoying a cool beer.

So, that was my weekend – thanks for reading this far! There are far more details to tell and photos to show (lots of beautiful flowers), but too much for this blog entry, so I will have to try to remember them.

Recipes please!

This may look like vomit on spaghetti but it was actually quite delicious! (a tuna, veg and tomato sauce with a Kuche Kuche lager - yes, there is a bit of lime in there...well, actually an under ripe green orange from the tree!) Note also the wind-up solar powered radio...

Certain foods here are easily available and fairly cheap, however this does mean we buy the same things, and consequently end up cooking basically the same things all the time. So this is a call to request inspired (or just different) recipes for evening meals involving the following ingredients:

Beef sausages
tinned Pilchards/sardines in tomato sauce
kidney beans (actually, a reasonable selection of dried pulses are available)
Eggs
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
rice
spaghetti
nsima
carrots (sometimes)
Onions
Red Onions
runner beans
green peppers
fresh peas
tomatoes
courgettes/marrows
avocado
garlic
most herbs and spices
milk
yoghurt
'cake flour' which seems to be some sort of white plain flour
baking soda
sugar
salt
black pepper
tomato ketchup
vinegar
peri-peri spicey sauce
banana
tangerines
oranges
popcorn
honey
marmite

Any and all ideas welcome! please email us!

Now, off for the obligatory marmite and avocado sandwhich for lunch...mmm...

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).

A busy week!

Rachel was dressed smart, but not this smart…read below for details!

This week has been great. All change from the slow start of the last couple of weeks. Both Rach and I have been in and out of external meetings, in the car getting out to people, getting decisions made and getting things done.

I am working on a funding proposal for waste and composting collection in the township, where there is currently no waste collection at all. I had a very encouraging meeting with a very high heid yin representative of the City Assembly who was excited by our proposals and even suggested we could hook up with a bloke making ‘biofuels’…of course I’m fully aware of the controversies of biofuels, so I will have to thoroughly check that it is being sustainable produced, but it’s a good indication of the level of deep support I hope we can expect from this representative of the City Assembly. Incidentally, I got smartened up in the ‘office’ clothes I bought at the market the other day. This is the first time I’ve been in smarts since March, and it felt a bit odd – but perhaps that was down to the cheap Chinese made shoes (already falling apart) and new cheap trousers. However, I’m reliably informed that I looked smart, so that’s all good.

Since then I have also had really exciting meetings with a local Environmental Youth group and the Executive Director of AYISE, who has been in the office an unusual amount this week. We have 2 or 3 new avenues of funding applications to make so we have been brainstorming for ideas for new projects. Additionally, in my spare moments I’ve been crafting a new Environmental Policy for the organisation, writing up a process for the compost operation, reading up on ‘Group formation and dynamics’ to assist me in the creation of an Environmental Youth Group to run the Compost project, and finalising the budget for the Compost project

One of the funding streams we are investigating is for Human Rights – and so the area that springs immediately to mind is the treatment of homosexuals by the judicial system. However , the E.D. , although recognising and agreeing that this is a significant issue of human rights abuse in Malawi, was cautious against this area because it would alienate us from all areas of Malawian support and political leverage (which we regularly rely upon for lobbying meetings on other topics) and the level of funding was not sufficient. He suggested the analogy of a battle, and stated we would not have enough resources to be able to safely complete the battle – we would therefore be sacrificing the organisation on the battlefield. It’s a tough moral call, but there you go – it’s his organisation, I can only give him my opinion.

Rachel has been out hand delivering begging letters for materials (such as building supplies and paints) for the volunteer projects she is organising. She had to hand deliver them as post takes around 2 weeks to get just 15 minutes down the road here! She also had a meeting today (for which she also got dressed up smart – maybe I should have got photos of these outfits…) with the National Youth Council of Malawi where she presented ideas to them on strategic development, and was applauded afterwards! Tonight she hopes to head off to Lilongwe to meet the National Secretary for UNESCO among other esteemed individuals. On top of all of this she is juggling various logistical arrangements for the (very fast approaching) work camps she is organising, along with fielding a host of questions and queries from interested parties – with some explanations being frustratingly lost in translation, and having to be repeated and repeated…

Anyway, this is just a quick note (while I wait to be summoned for another meeting) to say that this week has been really satisfyingly productive and we hope for many more like this!