Mr. King's Travel Blog
Monday 29th Dec 2008
Today I went to the nurse at my doctor's surgery to have some injections for my trip. I knew I would need a few but she was able to tell me exactly what I needed. As I am visiting for a fairly short period, and not living there or working in remote areas for a long time I needed Polio, Typhoid, Hepatitis and Tetanus injections. I have to say I hate injections but these were the best I have ever had and I hardly felt a thing.
(As I was driving home after the injection, it hit me that I was very lucky. I made an appointment and asked which injections I would need then had four injections to protect me for the four diseases for 10 years. It only took 2 minutes and did not cost me any money. In Africa, tens of thousands of people young and old die from these four diseases each year because there is not enough medicine to go round or because they cannot afford to buy it. It is very easy for us living in Britain.)
Tuesday 30th Dec
...Ouch, my arms really ache today!! I have been to trying to speak to someone official at the Malawian High Commission office in London because I think I will need another injection for Yellow Fever. Yellow Fever is a nasty disease that can be found in a lot of countries in the middle of Africa. Luckily, Malawi does not have any cases of yellow fever disease at the moment but the problem is that if you are arriving in Malawi from a country where there is yellow fever, you have to have had a yellow fever vaccination. Unfortunately for me, my flight to Malawi stops for 20 minutes in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. Ethiopia does have yellow fever! Although I won't be leaving the airport, I think it is just worth getting the injection otherwise they might not let me off the plane in Malawi....and that would be a disaster!
Saturday 17th January
Today is that day that I have been preparing for for some time. My flight, with Ethiopian Airlines leaves from Terminal 3 at London Heathrow Airport at 8.20pm.
I left home at lunchtime & headed for London. When I got there I had to move some things into my hold luggage (the baggage that goes in the baggage hold at the bottom of the plane rather than hand luggage which you take with you and put under your set). Ethiopian Airlines allow you to take 40kg in your suitcase (that’s a lot) but your hand luggage must weigh less than 7kgs; mine weighs 11kgs because I have 2 laptops and quite a few gadgets all in the bag! My only choice was to put Yankho’s new laptop into my suitcase. I didn’t want to because I’d rather make sure it is safe with me and also because the hold gets very very cold and I was worried that this could damage the laptop screen. However it was the only thing I could do. I checked in at 5.30 and I got on the plane at 7.15pm. It was then that I remembered from aeroplane flights in the past that flying, (although I love flying) always sounds more exciting when you are planning it or when you are looking back at it! Luckily I managed to get a seat by the window with extra leg room so that was a bit more comfortable. We took off and headed on the long journey to Lilongwe in Malawi, the first part of the journey was to Rome in Italy where we stopped for an hour to refuel.
I read part of a book in the terminal bookshop at Heathrow which reminded me that Malawi is the 7th poorest country in the world. I am very excited about the trip and am looking forward to discovering about Africa and Malawi. I feel very excited but strangely a little nervous about what I will find and what it will actually be like. It’s very late now and I am on the way to my next stop in Ethiopia so I’ll stop now. My next blog will be from Malawi tomorrow!
Sunday 18th January
What a long day! I woke up suddenly with the stewardess asking me if I wanted an omelette – it was half past four UK time – I said yes please though! Soon we landed in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. As we got lower and lower, I was amazed to see how the landscape was brown – just sand and dirt and dust. As we were about to land, I saw hundreds of buildings in the ‘shanty town’ areas surrounding the city centre. These are houses that are made by people out of any old waste materials and they are built very closely together. There is not usually any water or sewers to take the waste away in shanty towns.
The landing was good and I got off the plane for half an hour before boarding my final flight to Lilongwe in Malawi. Since London I have met two Malawian people who were a little older than me and who were travelling back to Lilongwe for a break from their studying in London. The lady I sat next to has not been back to Malawi since last January and she has 4 children waiting for her – the youngest is 10 years old. I asked if she missed them all and she said yes but she had to go to university in London because then she could get a good job in Malawi and have enough money for her children. Her husband is a doctor and he trained in London for five year too!
Eventually after another 4 hours, we came through lots of cloud and landed in heavy rain in Lilongwe. It is the rainy season until about April. That means that it is warm (sometimes hot) and quite humid. I am glad I had my Yellow Fever injection because I would not have been allowed into Malawi without my certificate. My bags came quickly and I managed to get through customs without any problems. (Customs are the department who check that you are not bringing things that you shouldn’t be into the country. I was a little worried that they would ask me why I had two laptops and perhaps take one away!) The airport is small so they have time to stop and check every passenger.
Outside I got a taxi which took me straight to my hotel. It’s called the Riverside Hotel but I can’t see any river. It’s in a quiet area away from the main city. I checked in and 3 minutes later there was a knock on the door and it was Mr. Assan, the Headteacher of Yankho Elementary School, who had come to welcome me! It was great to finally meet him because until then I had only ‘talked’ to him via email. Soon afterwards, he took me to the school for a tour. We caught a minibus right outside the hotel into the Old Town then changed and got another to Area 23 where the school is. From the ‘bus stop’ there is a 10 minute walk. Area 23 is at the end of a road....well the road carries on but is just mud and very very bumpy. The minibuses cost 100 Malawian Kwacha which is about 47p for each journey (so about £2 a day) The vans are battered and dented. Almost every minibus has a huge crack in its windscreen. They rattle and shake but they are the way that most people seem to travel around the city.
Area 23, and the townships that I passed through to get there, are very poor areas. There are no pavements, just muddy edges to the roads and many houses, simply made but proudly owned everywhere you look. There seem to be hundreds of people either sitting around watching the world go by or walking around looking busy. At the edge of the road every so often there are simple stalls where a man or woman might be selling charcoal or maize. In some areas there might be a group of teenagers selling strips of rubber which they have got from taking an old tyre apart. Sometimes there are men making small pieces of furniture or selling second hand sofa. Everything here is reused or recycled. The air is a little smoky and there is occasionally singing & music and quite a lot of shouting. I haven’t seen any other white faces since the airport and in the hustle & bustle of the townships and bus rides; it takes a bit of getting used to.
Mr Assan showed me round the school, the grounds are about the size of our school hall, perhaps a little larger. Within that space he has built (himself) five classrooms, a yard, two outdoor toilets and a house for himself and his family of 6....in fact it’s seven because two weeks ago his daughter had a baby boy. I was amazed to see the school and classrooms and relate them to the photographs on the website and in school. Each classroom holds up to about 20 children and is about the size of our medical room! I was amazed.
I was also amazed by Mr Assan’s dedication and belief in the school. He created the school three years ago as a dream that he had and he named it Yankho, a word which in Chichewa (Malawian language) means ‘answer’ because he says the school is the answer to his dreams from God. He has plans to build another classroom and make it even bigger.
After the tour, we went into Mr Assan’s house & he introduced me to his wife Sarah & his four children. Then Sarah made me my first ever portion of Nsyma, the national food of Malawi made from maize (corn on the cob). It is a bit like mashed potato dumpling. You scoop it up with your fingers & then scoop up some beans and eat it all together. It is amazing to go from the mud and soil paths, yards and pavements into people’s houses which are simple walls with corrugated steel roofs and well furnished. I was very surprised to see that in the school house, Mr Assan has a TV and DVD player as well as a telephone although it is not working at the moment due to vandalism! Most surprising of all is that amidst all the poverty (and you could say chaos) of the township, so many people have mobile phones. In fact Mr Assan’s first advice to me was to buy a Malawian SIM card for my phone so that we could contact each other cheaply. We bought one straight away from a lady at the side of the road and ‘bingo,’ I have my own Malawian phone number! Despite the poverty, and in some cases squalor of the townships, there is a perfect mobile phone signal everywhere. I don’t think he believed me when I said that we have no mobile reception in Trellech!!
While I waited with Mr Assan for the minibus back to the hotel, we saw an amazing sight. Today the leader of the opposition party (the political group that is not in charge of the country right now) was holding a meeting nearby and was due to pass through the main road of Area 23. There was a large group of children, men and women running, chanting and singing as well as waving branches from trees. They got louder and louder and passed off into the distance. The mood was good and people were clapping – I really feel I have arrived in ‘real’ Africa.
I got the two minibuses back to the hotel on my own, sorted my luggage out, had something to eat and then spoke to Mrs King & the children using BT Messenger. I still think it’s amazing that I can sit in a room with no wires coming out of my laptop & speak to (& see) my family thousands of miles away in Wales!
Yankho Elementary School starts every morning at 7.30am and ends at 3pm. I have to get a minibus tomorrow at 6.30am (4.40UK time) so with only 3 hours sleep last night I’m a bit tired - Goodnight .
Monday 19th January
Today was a very good day. It started with breakfast – just bread and butter and cereals on offer and its best not to drink milk when you are in tropical countries as it can make you feel a bit ill.....so I had bread! I got on a minibus outside the hotel and headed to the changeover point in ‘Old City’. It’s an amazing place because it is one of a number of places in the city where minibuses meet and passengers change vans. However it is literally just a muddy patch of land next to the road with possibly about 100 white minibuses and about 500 people milling around and all very busy and chaotic whatever time of the day you pass through. I arrived at school at 7.35am and the children were already in their classes (I will remember this when I’m back at home and the cat wakes me up at 5.30am in the dark!)
I unloaded my rucksack which included the first ‘lot’ of supplies and gifts for the school. He was very pleased with what we collected together in Trellech and today I gave him a laptop, digital camera and about 150 laminated pictures and learning posters. He also really liked the Welsh lady costumes and rugby shirt. I felt a little like Father Christmas handing out flags, and toys. He was particularly pleased with the skipping ropes that we gave them as the children currently have no playtime toys apart from two swings that he has built. I am really happy to bring these gifts as I can see from what Mr Assan says that they will make a massive difference and help improve the school however I really want our link with Yankho to be more than just giving presents – it’s about seeing how we can learn together about each other’s countries and cultures as well as about everyday routines and how they are the same and different. We can learn an awful lot about the world by seeing how children live and learn but these links also help us look very closely at ourselves.
Soon afterwards, the teachers brought all the children onto the ‘yard’ for assembly. I was honoured to watch from the side as one of the teachers prepared the children with some ’warm up’ drills like marching, clapping and singing. Then the assembly started. It included a lovely welcome speech from Mr. Assan, a prayer, singing the national anthem of Malawi and a short speech from me. I tried to speak slowly and quite simply. Afterwards, the children marched back to their classes singing ‘We are marching in the light of God’ and it was break time.
I took some photographs and videos and the children were fascinated especially when I turned the video camera screen for them to see themselves being filmed! It struck me that not only had the children never seen video cameras and digital cameras but most had probably not seen themselves before! I think they literally thought the equipment that we use and take for granted were some kind of magic! We returned to Mr Assan’s office (his front room) and drank cocoa & ate cassava, another Malawian traditional food which is a root vegetable, boiled and tasting quite like potato but a little sweeter.
Later Mr Assan and I travelled into the city centre (which looks nothing like any city centre I have ever seen before because each road and building is surrounded by massive wide open overgrown spaces with worn muddy paths made by people taking shortcuts from building to building. We visited the British Council where Mr Assan uses the internet twice a week, often to contact us at Trellech and we also met some of his friends in the VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) office. Afterwards we took a short walk to the British High Commission (in countries that are part of the British Commonwealth, Britain has a High Commission led by a High Commissioner – in countries that are not in the Commonwealth we have an Embassy led by an ambassador). Mr Assan wanted me to meet Enoch, a Malawian who works at the Commission and who helped me with some of the organisation of the trip. Enoch was a good man, about to go to lunch so he invited us to join him! We ate by the High Commission’s swimming pool and I chose fish & chips....well Malawian Chambo and chips, another first. The fish is found in a few Malawian lakes but the Chambo which we ate (& which they said was best) is from Lake Malawi. We talked for about an hour and I learned a lot about the Commission’s work in Malawi, the Malawian president and the elections which take place on May 19th this year. It seems that the current president will win the election and continue to serve. He is popular and done a lot it seems to make Malawi better.
After the High Commission we headed back to a bus stop (minibuses stop anywhere but this was a starting place on a street corner). Unfortunately the minibuses wait until they are full before they start the journey so that they make more money. They are privately owned and there are no rules! You literally pay the driver 100 Kwacha (about 47p) per journey, no receipts, no seat belts, and a lot of bumps! Unfortunately because not many people wanted to go to Area 23.....we sat in the minibus waiting to leave for 45 minutes! It was quite amusing watching the minibus driver arguing with a taxi driver about who should have ‘first picks’ on passengers as they arrived!
Back at school, Mr Assan & I thought it would be helpful to have an IT lesson so I explained how to use the new laptop. Although he has taught himself how to use email and the internet at the British Council office, his children have never used a computer – it was all very new – and it was Windows Vista which is good but a bit different! I showed Mr Assan how to start & shutdown the laptop, use Word & Excel (he uses these currently) and then how to use his new USB memory stick as well as how to use his new digital camera and how to copy the pictures to the laptop using the USB card reader I took. I also talked about how to use the battery charger. It is so important for gifts to be sustainable. What is the point of giving a £50 digital camera if it is useless when the batteries run out and he cannot afford to buy more?
I got the ‘23’ minibus back to Old Town at 5pm and before getting the ‘25’ minibus; I crossed the road and visited my first Malawian supermarket. I was quite surprised by the prices which were very roughly the same as back in Wales....but then you have to remember that, being the world’s 7th poorest country, most people here survive on less than $2 a day (about £1.30).
It’s now 7pm and I’m about to speak to Mrs King and our children – hopefully tonight I will be able to hear as well as see them.
Tuesday 20th January
Today I met Mr Assan at ‘Old Town’ depot at 8am as we were to travel to meet a friend of his who lives in Area 9. Cassie is one of Mr Assan’s students and he teaches her Chichewa, the national language of Malawi. She lives in a nice house in an area where a number of business people live, little way from the centre of the city. Cassie’s husband works in the city and Cassie was a teacher in the UK and now works in a school outside the city where the class size is 160 pupils to 1 teacher! She has worked for Oxfam on their education program. It was fantastic to meet her and to talk about the issues facing education in Malawi. I learned that 50% (half) of children drop out of primary school education in Malawi. Mr Assan thinks this is due to lessons not being interactive and engaging enough and that leads to children asking ‘what is the point’ of coming to school? We talked a lot about learning and how children learn and it was wonderful to talk about all the work we do at Trellech on improving children’s thinking skills and about how we teach and how children learn. Mr Assan was very interested to see our DVD with tables grouped together rather than lines and rows facing the front which often happens in Malawian schools.
Cassie has also worked on school partnerships and has a great understanding of the benefits of linking with schools around the world and how to make the most of partnerships like this. It was a little strange going into her house because once the gate man had opened the gate for us and allowed us in, we were suddenly in a home which was very British & could have been in Trellech. There were children’s toys and games and all the sort of things that we have in our homes. She also has a gardener and his wife works in the house. All houses in this area have security guards / watchmen and most have no problems.
After our visit we headed back to school, stopping off at a supermarket in the city. We bought bread and juice and I bought some Marmite when I saw it on the shelf as I wanted to introduce Mr Assan (& his family) to my favourite toast spread! I explained that, “you either love it or hate it” and I think he and his son both quite liked it!
In the afternoon, we had some bread (& marmite) for lunch and I spoke to Stella, one of the teachers at Yankho who was cooking nsyma for her lunch in the yard. Another teacher cooked kapenta, small fish imported from Tanzania which are eaten with nsyma. I took some photographs and video around the school including the toilets which are literally a whole in the ground and used by all the children and Mr Assan’s family. He showed me the outside tap which provides all the fresh water for the family and school (eating, drinking, cleaning, washing, ‘showering’ etc) as well as the bathroom he has made. There is no bath or taps, just a private room for pouring water over yourself to get clean. Outside this is a rubbish pit which is used for all rubbish. When it is full, Mr Assan digs it over and uses the rotten rubbish as compost for his small Maize garden. In this part of the grounds he has a peach tree, guava tree, mango tree & paw paw tree.
I showed Mr Assan more of the gifts that we had collected for the school and he was fascinated by the parachute. We played a couple of games with the remaining children (there are no lessons on Tuesday afternoon but some children ‘hang around’ or are not collected until 5pm. We had another IT lessons and I showed Mr Assan how to copy files, and change setting on the laptop. It rained for about 1 ½ hours and I cannot tell you how noisy the rain is on the roof of his house. I asked him how the noise from rains affects lessons and learning and he said that sometimes the teachers take the children outside or stop their lessons.
I headed back from the hotel at 4.30pm and it was a very long & difficult journey with very heavy traffic and just like in Wales, when it rains, everything goes slow on the roads. The minibus drivers are very ‘cheeky’ and never, ever, ever let other drivers out. They constantly sound their horns and the ‘conductor’ constantly shouts out to passersby where the minibus is going.
Today is a very important day for the USA and the world and in particular, quite fittingly, for Africa. As I am typing this blog, I am listening to Barak Obama being sworn in as the first black president of the USA. I will remember today.
Yahoo Messenger worked well last night and I could hear and see my family at home. The picture and sound was a bit jumpy but it was great to see them and get an update on life in Wales.
Wednesday 21st January
Today I wanted to be at school again to see the children arrive for their lessons. They line up on the yard & then their teachers take them in their lines into their classrooms. There is one little girl in the Nursery before who is clearly very scared of me! I think it is totally understandable because I think I am the second white face that most of the children have ever seen. She cries most of the time and that turns into a deafening scream if ever I look at her – she looks petrified poor thing!
This morning, I showed Mr Assan the ‘Wales for the Air’ photographic picture book that I brought with me. He was fascinated by the number castles that we have in Wales and found it strange that nobody lives in them now. We talked about the different landscapes in Wales and looked at the different towns and cities pictured. Afterwards we went outside and I showed the children, class by class, some of the games you can play with a parachute. They REALLY enjoyed it and their faces were great to watch. Mr Assan is really determined to make learning fun and less traditional and it was wonderful to see the teachers’ faces too. He said that the game was so important because it was probably the reason why most of the children would want to come to school again tomorrow. He is concerned because so many children just do not go to school. Primary school is ‘available’ for all children but government school which are free have very big classes (sometimes over 100 children for each teacher!) Mr Assan says that the buildings are bigger but the education is less good and many children (about 50+ %) drop out before they get to Year 6. Private schools like Yankho get no money from the government and the parents have to pay for their children to go there. It costs 500 Kwacha per month – that’s just less than £2.50. Many parents in the township cannot afford this so their children simply do not go to school. Also, some parents send their children to Yankho but then have trouble affording the fees so have to remove their children permanently of for a few weeks. I also learned that government school teachers earn a little more, about 6000 Kwacha a month (just less than £300) however at Yankho; Mr Assan can only afford to pay the teachers 3000 Kwacha which is nearly £150 per month. In Wales, teachers earn at least £1000 per month.
The children loved the parachute even though they got a little confused. We then decided to show the children the Welsh costumes that Trellech Primary sent. I explained about St. David’s Day and that girls do not wear ‘Welsh dresses every day! Mr Assan would like to keep the dresses and Welsh rugby shirt safe and only use them for important ceremonies and occasions at the school. All the children wanted to try the clothes on!
Next, I took a photograph of each child in Standards 2, 3 and 4 because they are writing an information sheet about themselves for the children in RG5 and we wanted to make sure the photographs match the writing. We had a short staff meeting in Mr Assan’s front room and we wrote down each child’s name. It was only after about 10 minutes that I noticed the one of the teachers sitting next to me actually had her baby strapped to her back – he was fast asleep (I feel like that in staff meetings sometimes too!) The teachers are keen to send messages to teachers at Trellech Primary – we’ll do that tomorrow.
Mr Assan, his son and I had lunch next. He & his family have been so generous this week ensuring I try traditional Malawian food. Today it was rice, beans, onion and egg in a tomato sauce. It tasted very good. I have to keep reminding myself that every drop of water that is used from washing our hands in a bowl before eating, to cooking rice, making cocoa to drink, washing clothes and personal hygiene comes from one tap outside. There is no sink, no draining board, and no kitchen worktop. Mr Assan has two daughters (and two sons) and both help their mother who is also a teacher at the school) to wash clothes, wash up, tidy the house and prepare food. They work hard.
After lunch, we went out to the yard to introduce the children to rugby! I brought a football and rugby ball (again, I also brought a pump – it’s not so much of a nice gift if you can’t blow the ball up when it starts to go down!) We split the oldest class into two groups and I marked out two tri lines in the dirt and we started practicing passing the ball and touch tackling when.......out of nowhere, it started pouring with rain – very heavily. It’s the rainy season so you tend to get warm or hot weather then short sharp showers or, in this case, long intense showers. We went back inside and again the noise on the tin roof was deafening. As we spoke I had to really raise my voice to be heard. It sounds a bit exaggerated but I was aware that my throat was hurting a bit from having to talk so loudly. I asked Mr Assan what do he and his family do if it is raining in the evening when they all tend to sit in the front room and perhaps watch TV – he replied that they just watch the pictures because they can’t hear the words! I think all of the buildings that I have seen in Area 23 have the same corrugated roofs. Very effective but very noisy. It is interesting looking at how the houses are built. Here, there are no frosts, very strong cold winds and freezing temperatures so the doors fit loosely into the frames. There are gaps but it doesn’t really matter. It is January right now but in Malawi that means it's hot and wet and the door of the house are open during the day time – windows really do not need to be double glazed in countries with climates like this.
The rain went on for about 1 ½ hours and it was clearly not going to stop for a while. Interestingly the children go home at lunchtime from 12-2pm and when, like today, the weather is bad, many children just don’t come back for the afternoon session. I decided to head back to the hotel and, being a bit earlier, it meant I could look into a few of the shops in the Old Town. Even more so than yesterday, there was a significant stream outside the school. The rain from people’s gardens flow into the lane, the lane flows down towards the school and after heavy tropical rain like this, a very large stream soon forms and this makes walking up the paths quite challenging, especially if you want to try to keep dry. It is impossible to keep your feet dry or anything like clean. Despite this, the carpeted parts of Mr Assan’s house are incredibly clean and tidy. The bad thing about these streams is that as they flow, they wash away the top soil, the top layer of earth on the land. It is this part of the soil which holds all the nutrients and goodness that plants and crops need to grow so rain like this has a real effect on the success of crops (we tend to think that crops in Africa don’t grow because “it never rains”!) At the ‘bend in the road’ where we get on and off the minibus, the road is mud, there is no tarmac here. It is literally a mud bath with cars and minibuses and the occasional large lorry driving through, splattering mud & puddle water all over anyone standing nearby. There are also many, many huge pot holes which also fill up with water and make driving very uncomfortable.
By the time I got to Old Town, the rain was less so I decided to have a look around and walk some way back to my hotel. I saw the large market next to the now swollen Lilongwe River and I went over to the Malawi Police Headquarters with a hope that I could get a picture of Dai the Dragon with a Malawian Policeman. I spoke to ‘Ernest’ who was on duty at the front desk and he was very happy to pose for the photograph which was great.
I then headed back to the hotel to try hard to connect to the internet and upload some of the pictures and this blog to the school website. (I have to say it’s been a real shame that until today, our website company has been improving their equipment so I haven’t been able to edit the website. Also, the free wireless internet access (wifi) in the Reception area is VERY VERY temperamental and incredibly slow! Usually it says that it cannot connect to the internet and I am forever asking the lady behind the counter to (put her Sudoku book down and) reboot the wireless hub.
At least it gives me more time to write this blog!
Thursday 22nd January
This morning I managed to spend an hour updating the website! I met Mr Assan at ‘Shoprite’ a shopping centre near to Old Town which is popular with more wealthy Lilongwe residents and foreign workers. The food in the supermarket is more expensive but there is more choice and it is quite like home in many ways. We headed back to school on a number 23 minibus during which time two incidents made me appreciate how things work in the city. We had to walk to a different pick-up point as the depot at Old Town was (very slightly) less busy as it was a little after rush hour. When we eventually found a number 23 minibus, we got on and started our journey. We stopped in a different place to pick up passengers and quickly two men in fluorescent jackets approached the bus. It was quite clear that their job was to stop our bus jumping in & picking up passengers and therefore to protect the minibuses who were ‘starting off’ here. Our driver and money collector/door opener started answering back. The man who had tried to get on backed off and our minibus pulled away. We went in front of a parked minibus & pulled in & the conductor shouted for the passenger to Jump in. Again the day-glow men returned and we did the same thing again. This time one of the men went round to the driver’s window & grabbed the wheel – he appeared to be blocking the way and for a moment it got a bit ‘hairy’. Mr Assan explained that while they were trying to protect the other drivers from ‘poachers’, they were also trying to get money from our ‘crew’ to allow them to pick up. We sat there for some time & a few punches were thrown though all of the passengers just sat and waited patiently quite unflustered. It struck me that this hustling was all about one man’s 50 Kwacha fare, about 43p.
I was now aware of a large group of men forming on the opposite side of the road and I wondered if it was to do with our minibus’s dispute. I then notice the men start to walk then run towards the road as a large pickup truck approached with about 10 people on the back and a lot of metal buckets. The men ran to the lorry and some started to climb on. Mr Assan explained that this was a delivery of fish from the lake and that the men were trying to buy it. Very quickly buckets started being off-loaded and taken away. If people started trying to take a bucket without paying or grabbing fish from a bucket, a man on the back with a big stick was frantically hitting them off. It was quite comical that in the mad rush t the lorry, I was aware that one younger man dropped his mobile phone which hit the road, broke into three pieces and was then run over by two cars before he stopped the traffic, picked up the pieces, put them back together and made a call while climbing up on the lorry (and being hit back down!)
At the school I was treated to a wonderful ‘special assembly’ in which selected children stood in the middle of the yard and recited poems that they had learned. The teachers each then gave a speech as did Mr Assan, who asked me to say a few words. I thanked the children and staff for their warm welcome and said that he was very welcome to visit Trellech Primary. It was a lovely and really touching assembly.
Later in the afternoon, Mr Assan and I travelled to the city centre (by taxi because we were a little late). It was while waiting at the bend in the road that I discovered his hand gestures. If you want to as an approaching minibus or taxi if they are going to the city centre, you put your hand out (as if to shake it) then turn your fingers out and make a ‘to the right’ gesture (as if showing someone the way). If you want to ask, “Are you going to Old Town?” you do the same with your left hand! Great and very simple. Today everyone seems to be going to Old Town!
We met with Alex, one of Mr Assan’s Chichewa students who works in the Malawian government’s Department of Trade and Industry. The building was quite old fashioned – Mr Assan said it was built in the South African style – Malawi has long been friendly with South Africa, even during times when South Africa was treating black people very badly and most other countries were not helping them to live and trade. Alex is from Exeter but, by coincidence, he studied at Cardiff University so knows the area well. He is an economist and is helping to improve private businesses to develop and grow in Malawi and he is trying to help the government to make Malawi a more attractive place to set up a business. It was fascinating talking to him about his job and the improvements that are being made. He told me that despite all we hear of the ‘credit crunch’ which hasn’t really affected Malawi, the country has the world’s second fastest growing economy (it grew by 9% last year). We also talked about education and schooling in the country. For a few years now, primary education 4-11 years has been free to everyone in Malawi but it is not compulsory so you don’t have to go. There are two types of school; government schools which are free but very overcrowded and private schools which charge a fee. The problem seems to be that in the free government schools, the classes are big, there are not many teachers and therefore children can get very bored and many drop out before they reach Year 6 (Standard 6). Many other children just don’t go to school, usually (in these areas) because their parents ‘just don’t bother to send them’ (in the words of Mr Assan). They cannot afford private school fees and perhaps the government school is too far away and they just don’t understand the importance of education. We also talked a lot about health and disease and I was surprised to learn that everyone catches malaria! Mr Assan has had it many times and people expect to catch it about once a year. It makes you poorly for 3-4 days and is a little like ‘strong flu’. If you are relatively fit and healthy, you can fight it off and get over it (a bit like a cold or flu) but if you are already ill, old or young, it can be life threatening, especially if you cannot get malaria drugs. It’s not so much that malaria is a deadly disease, just that it is if you cannot get treatment for it and you are young, ill or old.
After lunch with Alex at a roadside cafe, (I could get used to the idea of sitting down and eating lunch!) we said goodbye and headed to the British Council to meet a man called Faith who co-ordinates the Global Schools Partnership in Lilongwe. He was really interested to hear our plans for sharing learning between our schools and explained that we could register our ‘partnership’ on the British Council website, we could be eligible for funding to provide more learning materials and information as well as a trip for Mr. Assan to Wales. After our meeting, I showed Mr Assan Google maps and, having travelled the minibus routes from area 25 to area 23for 5 days, I was able to identify exactly where Yankho School is from Google’s satellite photographs. I think Mr Assan was amazed as he had not been to this website before. I have promised to print the photo out and send it to him so that he can show the children Area 23 and the school – from space! Again I wondered how he would even start to explain the idea of space and satellites!
Our final appointment was a short minibus ride away in Area 12, another more affluent part of the city. Here roads are wide and empty and gardens are well tended and for recreation rather than growing crops. We visited another of Mr Assan’s Chichewa students called Barbara who used to be a German social worker. Well she still is German but her background is in working with young people, helping them to understand about HIV/AIDS, a disease that causes enormous problems throughout Africa. We had a really fascinating talk for an hour before we noticed the sky turning darker and felt we should head back to the minibus stop before the inevitable afternoon tropical downpour.
Area 12
The journey back to Old Town then the hotel was eventful. Again, the minibus was very slow. You have to realise quite quickly that the minibus gets you from A to B but it’s on the driver and conductor’s terms. They will do everything to fill every seat and if that means stopping by a known hot-spot for 10 minutes shouting “Townie, Townie,” then that’s what they do. The heavens opened and by the time I got off at Shoprite and tried to cross the road I was absolutely (ABSOLUTELY) soaked to the skin. This is a busy intersection in the middle of the city yet the rain water was about 20 cm deep, very brown and muddy and flowing very fast across the road and car park to the river. I had no choice but to walk through it quickly and got very very wet! There was simply no dry route from one side of the road to the other. It is like this every day at this time of year!
Tonight, instead of the usual beef curry in the restaurant (I always order something a little different but it always comes out as beef curry!) I decided to get some food in the supermarket so went for Cornish pasty (Malawian style), Chelsea bun and Mango which I have just finished and really enjoyed. It’s 8pm now, time to speak to my family on the webcam and to show them the lovely Malawian dress that Mrs Assan has bought for my little girl.
Friday 23rd January
Today was quite a different day. I wanted to more of Malawi having spent the week so far in Lilongwe, the capital city. Before left Wales, I arranged to visit Sankhani, a little boy who our family sponsor through a brilliant organisation called Plan International. Sankhani is 7 years old and lives with his mum, dad and three sisters. He lives in a small village of around 30 families in the remote countryside north of Kasungu, which is a town 120km north of Lilongwe.
I was collected by one of the Plan field officers at 8.30am & we headed off on a 2 hour drive to Plan’s field office in Kasungu. On the way we passed a number of schools, most of which had lots of children sitting outside in the sun having lessons. AT the office, five other staff joined us and we made the short journey further up the M1 (it sounds like a motorway but it is a bit like the Wye Valley road and although it is the main north – south road through Malawi, it is very quiet!) After five minutes, we turned off the road onto a mud track which wound for 5 km through fields and in between maize crops. Eventually we reached a small building, and then saw a few more then Herbert the driver explained that this was where Sankhani lived. As we drove slowly between the houses, ladies from started to come out onto the track behind us singing a song that Herbert said meant ‘welcome’. They were clearly very excited and happy which was very nice although I felt a little uncomfortable about all the attention. We stopped and got out of the jeep and quickly Sankhani was brought over. I have only ever seen photographs from the Plan team in Kasungu so I had to double check that yes, this was the little face I had seen 12 months ago in a photo. I have to be honest; the experience was rather overwhelming for him and for me too. A large smiling crowd grew quickly and I Sankhani’s father appeared to shake my hand and usher me into his house. The building is small, made of mud bricks and has one central (larger) room with the parents’ bedroom to one side and the children’s room to the other. Mr Nkhoma spoke a little English which surprised and impressed me although he was quite literal; as I approached the door he smiled, extended his hand and said “get in.” Inside Sankhani and his sisters were sat on seats that had been carefully arranged and I though a good way to break the ice would be to hand over the presents I had brought from my family to him. He was a bit overwhelmed still – I can only imagine how ‘weird’ it must be for a little boy to be the centre of attention when this big white man (he’s only seen 1 or 2 white people before) starts talking to you and giving you things you have never seen before, in your own house! I gave him two footballs and showed him how to pump them up as well as an inflatable globe, dictionary, colouring pencils, Frisbee, watercolour paints, crayon, felt tips, geometry set and pencil sharpeners. I also passed on some drawings that Samuel, Jacob and Rebecca had drawn for him as well as photos of each of them and Mrs King and I. Within moments, one of the local field officers who was also translating for me took the picture and photos of the children and blue tac’d them to the wall. I should say that I brought blue tac and am amazed that it even sticks to whitewashed mud walls!
After the presents, we went back outside and had a short walk around the buildings. It was smoky with one building being used as a sort of cook house and two ladies preparing nsyma (ground maize and water dumplings) over an open fire. I also saw each of the crops being grown by the villagers like maize, okra, tobacco and pumpkins. We were invited to sit down (the chairs had now been moved) to watch some dancing and singing. This started quickly with 4-5 boys from the village drumming on drums made from hollowed out logs and covered in stretched goat skins. The sound was awesome and quite incredible. Two older boys came from behind Sankhani’s house dressed in bright colours and started to dance a typical Malawian dance. It was wonderful to watch and as I clapped at the end, the ladies on the other side of the open area joined in their approval of the dance by making the noise which I am having trouble describing! (Imagine sticking your tongue out and then wangling it from side to side while giving out a high itched yelp?) After another dance, the ladies started to sing and it sounded wonderful. The boys drummed and the ladies formed into a circle and were singing so loudly that others from local villages started to arrive to join in and watch. It dawned on me how lucky I was. I have always been interested in Africa and African development issues long before I studied it at university and now, here I was, the guest of honour in a very remote, very African village watching tribal dancing and singing. After the songs, I was ushered back into Sankhani’s house by his father who invited me and the rest of the Plan team to eat inside. Only Sankhani and his sister joined us for the meal which was nsyma with beans, leaves and....pigeon. There were only two (whole) pigeons and I tactfully avoided the first one. Herbert said that I really was expected to accept one and even if I didn’t eat it all, the family would be honoured if I had some of it. I am always happy to try new things and feeling a little anxious, peeled some of the skin off and pulled off some meat. It actually tasted nice! I didn’t have any more as I could see the insides of the pigeon really clearly and I know that there are bits of a chicken that you shouldn’t eat, even if you’ve just bought it from Asda! Let alone a pigeon, in rural Malawi!
We were treated to more dancing and drumming and singing after lunch then it was time for the village Headman to make a speech. It was amazing how, as he stood up, everyone went quiet. His words were translated sentence y sentence, then I was invited to a say a few words to the village. Now I don’t really mind talking, in fact sometimes I talk too much but there were now over 100 people standing in front of me and only one or two spoke broken English. Every sentence received a round of applause and ‘tongue wiggling’ and it was a very special moment when the Headman said that next time I must return with Mrs King and the children and that they would be honoured if we were to stay overnight in their house! I very honoured and very humbled that these people who had very little were so welcoming. I have to be honest; we donate £14 per month to Plan to help them work in this community. The money does not go to Sankhani directly but it does go to develop his community. In the past 10 years, Plan have built school and two bore holes for the villagers as well as helping them to plant and grow their crops more effectively. The villagers and the Headman are very very grateful to Plan for their support and assistance and this was extended to me. I felt slightly uncomfortable that we only give £168 a year to Plan yet now, here I was being treated like a king by these people. But then as Herbert said, the money makes a real difference and they just want to say thank you.
After one or two photographs, we said goodbye and left the village. We’d had 1 ½ amazing hours with the vibrant welcoming locals but now it was time to go and let them carry on with their day. I have found that whether it’s at school or here in the village, the children have never seen cameras and camcorders (obvious thing to say of course) and after the initial suspicion, you can amuse them for ages by taking a photograph then turning the camera around to let them see it on the school. That’s something else that we in Britain are just so used to and which they are so new to.
The drive back to Lilongwe seemed to take ages although it was nice to see more of the lush, green rolling countryside. Tomorrow is Saturday and my last day in school which I am quite upset about. It’s amazing how quickly you settle into a routine and I will really miss the minibus journeys and the walk from the ‘bus stop’ up to the school as well as the warm welcome I always get when I arrive.
Singing, dancing and a farewell from the village Headman
Saturday 24th January
Today was a quieter day. Last night I’m very glad that I checked with the man at Reception who now decided (even though he said I could use my Visa card when I booked the room) that the hotel no longer takes cards, only cash! That meant I had to go and get £300 from the middle of town.....and what an experience that was!
I decided to do a little shopping for souvenirs because I had seen a line of sellers who had all sorts of carvings and crafts that they had made near the old town market. First of all I got the minibus to old town then I went into the old market. I have been looking at the market area all week and really wanted to go in there to explore but I was aware that this was an area which was very busy and I might feel a little uncomfortable.
Within a few minutes, I was surrounded by sheets laid out on the floor selling all sorts of things from bars of soap to scourers, belts to shoes. I saw a very small pair of shoes which I thought would make a nice present for Mr Assan’s daughter’s baby who is only 3 weeks old. I went further into the market where I passed probably about 150 stalls all selling clothes. But most of these were not new clothes; they were second hand clothes which have been shipped over from more developed countries. There is a very good chance that when you throw away your t-shirt or jeans in the recycling box or at a charity shop, they will end up being shipped to a developing country where they are sold at markets like these. I talked to Mr Assan about this subject because I had always been aware that, while these clothes from Europe and North America provided cheap clothing for people with little money, I had been concerned that if people bought them, it would damage the cloth making industry in that country and put local tailors out of business. He understood but said that people felt it was a good idea. It means cheap clothes for poor people and, well, we all need to wear clothes don’t we?! I really wanted to take photographs in the market area but it would not really have been a good idea to do that in an area like that. I managed to buy two Malawian shirts for my two boys which cost £3 in total. They were made by a man outside the shop on his sewing machine. I bought Mrs. King a traditional wrap around skirt for £2 and a necklace for my little girl. Then I went to the carving traders and bought 4 or 5 authentic carvings made from ebony, a very strong, dark wood which grows in Malawi. The carvings that I bought were all done on the site by the men selling them. I think I managed to get them for good prices but these sellers are experts at bartering and making you think you have got a bargain. I think it is so important to try to give your money to the craftsman who actually makes the product - it's his skills after all. If I was going to pay £10 for an African wood carving, I would much rather give the person who made it £10 than buy if from a shop and therfore give the craftsman £2 and the shop £8.
The sellers always remember you even days later and come running across the road to catch you. On Tuesday I was approached by a man selling stunning paintings. I said I really liked them but I wasn’t going to buy anything until Friday. This morning he running across the busy street calling my name and asking me why I had not gone back yesterday! I was amazed. His prices were too expensive though and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. But I didn’t buy them!
Next, just before I headed back to the hotel, I had to get some money out. It was now 9.30am and I went to the ‘Standard Bank’ cash point. I never like getting £300 out from cash machines and I felt a little nervous about doing it here with about 60 people standing round. It turned out that the machines were out of order so I thought I’d go inside to the cash desk. As I opened the door I heard a quiet roar and there were probably about 150 people in a queue to get their money out. I asked a man on the enquiries desk if there was a problem (have aliens landed and everyone wants to get their money out for safety) but he said no, “it’s always like this,” the cash machines should be working again “any minute now.” So I headed back outside chose one of the three queues and one by one the machines started working. Well the machine I was queuing for wasn’t but soon it would be...wouldn’t it? After 15 minutes, I decided to move to another queue. After another 5 minutes, my cash machine stopped working & the one I had been queuing for started working – doh! I thought I should stay there and sure enough it started up again. I was counting down the people in front of me, 17, 16, 15, 14...then it got to 4...and the machine stopped working again! Again I waited and again after about 10 minutes it came back to life. I was almost excited when I put my card in, entered my PIN then was told that I could only take out 20,000 Kwacha....I needed 60,000! I went back inside and a lady told me that I could take out up to 50,000 but only 20,000 at a time! I decided to go back later as I had now been waiting for 1 ½ hours and I couldn’t stand it any longer. Other people didn’t seem too bothered so it is obviously just the way it is. I suppose one of the problems is that Malawian money is in such big units that you need so many notes. The cash for my hotel room was such a big pile, I couldn’t fit it into my wallet, I felt very briefly like a millionaire. The machines must need restocking with money much more often.
I had agreed to meet Mr Assan at the school at 1pm where he had invited me to lunch and I wanted to go over a few more things with him on the laptop as well as saying a final goodbye to all his family. They have been so warm and friendly with me, a complete stranger. They have opened up their home and prepared food and drinks and I wanted to have a final photograph with them and one just of them which I will print and send over to them once I am home. The rain started and Mr Assan joked that I already had my own seat in their living room as I always sat in the same place. I think it always starts raining when I sit there so maybe it’s a good time to go. We said our goodbyes and I felt really sad and moved leaving the school. It is a fantastic place, a really calm oasis in the township and it has a very special caring feeling about it. Mr Assan has so many plans for the school and he is really keen to develop in so many areas, in particular the global dimension, the link with the wider world and that’s where Trellech comes in.
I got my final minibus out of Area 23 and the only seat was right at the back so I had my last experience of bouncing up & down as we drove over the deep potholes. I managed to take a little more video as we drove along but I am very aware that my presence could be very intrusive to people in their own homes and localities. I apologised to Mr Assan, his family and staff for all the photographs but I explained that they were to show our families, pupils and staff in Trellech what Yankho Elementary School is like and they all agreed happily that that was very important – maybe I worry too much but I don’t want people to feel like they are exhibits in a museum or zoo!
From school I headed back to the hotel via Old Town where I crossed the river and took out the remaining 40,000 Kwacha f