I am a Malawian now.

3/3/13

This week has been busy but not particularly exciting, so I’ll try to find something to say about it.

We have decided to go to TST in the afternoons now, rather than the mornings, as there are more children about and therefore usually more for us to to. To fill this time, we have been helping out at Nama Simba more as the children usually get sent home around 1.30pm at the latest. It has been earlier this week however as, due to the maize shortage, the caregivers have only been able to supply one meal for the children, rather than two. The children are becoming more manageable as time goes on and we spend most of our time playing with them. They all love the ‘Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear’ rhyme and when we do it once the children shout ‘Ine! Ine!’ (‘Me! Me!) for a good 15 minutes, demanding their turn. Since my Chichewa has improved, I’ve been able to pass a ball around the kids. This sounds simple, but it would have been impossible 4 months ago without knowng ‘dikirani’ meaning wait, ‘ayi Iwe, apa’ meaning no you, (stand) here, ‘osamenyana’ meaning stop fighting and, of course, praise words like ‘eya, wakhoza’ and ‘zili bwino’.

At TST, we’ve been providing Maths help as usual. Juniyo struggles with writing, so I tend to get him to copy out simple Chichewa words, their English translation and draw a picture. One day he came to me looking rather dejected, which was sad to see as he usually greets me with a smile. I asked him if he wanted to do some Maths like the others (ukufuna Masamu?) but he said no and that he wanted to play a game. So I taught him a paper game, not sure what it’s called. The aim is to have won the most boxes at the end, gained by being the one to finish to box, drawing one line at a time. Anyway, he really seemed to like it, but was hindered by his desire to make the page look symmetrical. Not the most competitive kid I have ever met, but such a sweetie.

We did manage to to buy a 5 kg bag of maize flour this week, so I have been able to feed my phala addiction. As we haven’t been having lunch at TST anymore, and the lunch at Nama Simba tends to be served with this minging fish that we don’t like, we haven’t been having any nsima. I have missed it more than I had anticipated. Nothing fills you up like nsima and I’ve found that a lunch of banana on toast just doesn’t leave me satisfied. To make up for it, we cooked nsima and soya ndiwo for our dinner a couple of nights this week. It’s really tasty and filling, and we feel very Malawian for it.

I have also become quite good at balancing things on my head. The African stereotype that women carry buckets on their heads for miles and miles is bang on – it is completely sociably acceptable to cart any manner of things around on your head, even if you’ve got two empty hands and no baby on your back. The balance of the Malawian people is absolutely phenomenal; I have never seen anyone wobble or drop anything – not even very young children. I am nowhere near as good as the locals, but I give it a good go from time to time.

So, I have 2 videos for you this week! Do enjoy. The internet connection I am using is really slow, so I'll post the links here if and when they are completed.

http://youtu.be/mB1xusn-n5k

http://youtu.be/s4OwmZHjZBc

TTFN

Notable Event

This week, we went into town to shop at our favourite cash and carry, only to find it absolutely empty. We have no idea whether it has moved premises or closed down… but it makes me sad. We’ve been going there religiously for 5 months, and they had the best and cheapest pasta. RIP Sana Cash n Carry.

Rain, rain... please go away.

24/2/13

Okay, on the 17^th of February I wrote this:

“I have decided to try to continue doing a weekly blog. I have stopped writing my diary, so if I don’t do a blog post there won’t be any written record of this last week in Malawi. And I know, one day, I’ll regret that.”

Trust me to fall at the very first hurdle.

So, what happened that week? It rained.

It’s like no rain we have ever experienced before. Holes in the roof we didn’t even know existed opened up to spice up our lives. We had to spend most of a morning frantically running around the house with buckets – conveniently there is a leak right above my pillow, so there’s an upside. That day we were rained in yet again – the ground around our house turned to whirlpools as the rain came down in unrelenting sheets leaving us soaked in seconds. I wore my sandals more that week than the past 5 months combined, as it become nearly impossible to walk while sliding around trying to keep my feet in flip flops. My umbrella couldn’t deal with the stress so broke in protest, but fortunately I still had my sister’s old Berghaus jacket with a tiny hood. This has caused me to discover why jacket cuffs are equipped with velcro straps – to stop the rain from going down your sleeves as you hold your hood to your head. Unfortunately, they are not entirely effective.

We also had a couple of weeks of feeling perpetually cold. Our house seems to be unable to cope with any temperature or weather – when hot the metal roof heats us up like a green house, when windy the gaps around the windows and doors cause drafts, when cold the single glazing window panes do nothing to keep out the chill and when rainy – see the above rant. Our poor little house. It tries so hard.

So, other than the rain, it’s been business as usual here in Baluti. Oh, I forgot to mention that fellow volunteer Georgia turned 23 two weeks ago, and invited us to help throw a joint birthday party for her and two of the children she works with. There was cake, party hats, games and dancing – the children seemed to have a really good time… and so did we! Thank you to Georgia for sharing your birthday with the lovely Richmond House children – everyone had a really great day.

I am over half way through my year, so I’ve shot another video of the house. It’s changed a lot since we moved in 5 months ago. I intend to upload it… before April.

I really will try to update this more regularly – I am very disappointed in myself.

I hope everyone is well. TTFN

Notable Events

When going into town at the weekends, Lou and I walk up to the filling station to get a minibus. There are usually quite a few, each with a conductor standing outside shouting where they going. We got on one that was headed to Blantyre only to have it turn around 5 minutes into the journey and start to head in the opposite direction. We were told it was going to Chikwawa instead, so everyone got off and started back to the filling station to get another bus. This is Malawi.

This week we had carpenters and painters in to fix the roof and doors and other broken things around the house. It has basically been a week of waiting – African time means that someone will swear that there will be there ‘soon’ or ‘in the morning’ or even ‘at 9am’, only to turn up at 3pm, often with absolutely no apology. Again, this is Malawi.

Due to the excessive rain, the maize is struggling. Fortunately, the rice crops have been very successful, so prices are low. However, over the past 4 months I have become addicted to phala (morning porridge made from maize) and maize flour is now scarce and expensive. Phala has literally become my life. I used to have it 2/3 times a day before I rationed myself. I might have to go cold turkey – wish me luck.

It was very good cake.

2013!

So it’s been a while!

It’s now 2013 and I am almost halfway through my gap year. The weather at the moment is crazy – sometimes as hot as October but with proper torrential rain to go with it. When I started writing this (which was the 28^th of January – I am an expert procrastinator), I was watching a movie but couldn’t hear the audio due to the sound of the rain on the roof. We have to shout over the din just to make ourselves heard. Then today, Louise and I had to do a lot of walking through Blantyre and were absolutely dripping – it was so horribly sunny. Would love some snow please.

So I have been back in Blantyre for about a month now. My fortnight long holiday evolved into three weeks due to visa issues getting back into Malawi. However, I am here now and glad to be back in my little house again.

It was really great to be able to spend Christmas with my family and I’m so glad I did. It was much more difficult than I’d imagined to switch from my minimal living conditions to the opulence of Dubai. I found it difficult to deal with how much food and water went to waste while I knew how much people were going without back home. It was a lot to get used to – a little snapshot of the reverse culture shock we’ve been warned about for when we return home.

As soon as I got back into Malawi, African life hit me like a tonne of bricks. On the bus journey home, three guys were caught in the possession of cannabis through a routine police check. Everyone loved the show – a huge crowd gathered and lots of people were taking pictures and videos. The drive back was really lovely otherwise as the start of the rainy season had caused the scenery to change completely – everything has gone green and there is maize growing on every available patch of land.

The rain has been so heavy recently that we are often house bound by it. Last week it was the worst we had ever seen, so much so that we couldn’t manage to walk to work. We walk alongside a river that very frequently bursts its banks and trekking through the mud is like trying to cross a swamp. We felt very Malawian – the locals are defeated by the rain, choosing to take refuge under buildings and trees rather than walk in it.

Work at TST has been busy, as we have been doing Maths exercises with the children who aren’t at school. It’s so great to see them improving and they really seem to enjoy it. They come and demand ‘Masamu’ every minute – even when we’re eating lunch! I’ve also been doing a lot of first aid – mostly bandaging up toes and feet as many of the kids don’t have shoes. I am still astounded by the bravery of these kids as I attempt to reattach toe nails or bandage up a ridiculously deep cuts – very rarely do they utter a word of complaint. They even help to cut the bandages to size with their uninjured limbs.

I met a Med student from London on the eventful bus ride from Lilongwe to Blantyre who invited us round for cake last week. (The cake was amazing, thank you Angela!) There was a strange tree in the back garden with these massive blah blah fruits that Louise and I had never seen before. We took one home to try – it smelt really bad but Angela assured us it tasted better than it smelt. It is, without a doubt, the strangest thing I have ever eaten. It weighed about 2 kg with a spiny skin and was filled with tens of grape sized seeds. The actual flesh was really tasty, but cutting it up felt like carving a dead animal. Unfortunately, without a fridge, there was no way Louise and I could go through 2 kg of fruit, so the ants claimed the rest of it before we had to throw it out.

I am sorry this has taken so long to go up – I’ve got lots planned for the rest of the year so I promise more pictures and news.

TTFN

Notable Events

The other week, were on a routine minibus trip home when we were stopped by the traffic police. This is quite a normal occurrence and nothing usually comes of it. However, this time the driver was taken to the side of the road and, we presume, questioned. The driver did look a bit suspicious – he had one trouser leg rolled up and the other down, and made no attempt to rectify the matter. Lou, our fellow travellers and I simply watched as the policemen walked away with the driver without a backward glance. We followed the lead of the others by disembarking and then walked back towards the station to get another bus. It was one of those moments where we had absolutely no idea what was going on.

Our house and the Nama Simba nursery buildings are surrounded by a wall and we go in and out via the front gate. It has a padlock that is never locked. However, one day last week we came home to find it locked for the first time in 5 months, with our copy of the key inside the house. And this is why we were forced to climb our own gate to get into our house.

To try to encourage volunteers to explore and get to know where they are living, Project Trust recommended that we draw a map of the local area and send it back to Coll. Louise and I decided to make ours out of our rubbish as nothing goes to waste here. We used bottle tops, plastic bags and receipts to recreate Baluti. We have also recycled various items around the house to save money – we have a door stop made out of Fanta bottles, empty peanut butter tubs holding our cutlery and a shower curtain that PT provided us with cut up to make a washing line, to store our fruit away from the ants and as a curtain for the bathroom window.

This month I also received a letter from Freya at home that had been missent to Malaysia! No wonder it took so long to come. Thank you Freya! 

ROAD TRIP!

End of Week 14 – definitely one of the best weeks yet.

Where to start?

At Nama Simba, our role seems to have shifted from ‘teachers’ to ‘First Aiders’ – a progression I am definitely in favour of. First, it was Andrew cutting the underside of his little toe, which Louise tells me is a very common dancing injury. However, it was usual to be losing such a crazy amount of blood. Two weeks later, we were eating our nsima when one boy fell by the swings and hit his head. Again, they was more blood leaving the wound than I thought his little body could contain and we began to worry about a concussion. This was confirmed when he had trouble walking straight and began to throw up. It made my Chichewa seem pretty pathetic when we were running inside for the dictionary in order to ask him if he was feeling dizzy. I worried about him that night, knowing his mother wouldn’t be able to afford to take him to hospital. I was comforted when we saw him going into nursery the next day – Mary told us that his mother was extremely grateful for all we did, which was lovely to hear. This is the difference I came out here to make.

TST has been fairly common place – mostly getting to know the children better and hassling them about going to school. Millie organised a TST Nativity which the children loved getting involved in. It’s all part of the fundraising Millie’s doing to get a collection together for the children’s Christmas presents. Here it is - http://youtu.be/dmTfeypgbik  It’s a good view, I recommend it. Millie’s asking for donations of as little as £5 to help us buy Christmas presents for all the children. They want for so little, it’s hard to find children more deserving. But then I am very biased. Please click the Samaritan Trust link above for more details about donating.

However, it feels like I haven’t been to work in ages – due to having to repeatedly go to into town for visa extensions and this week’s Lake trip. Ever since arriving in Malawi, everyone has been asking us ‘Have you been to the Lake, yet?’. Well, now I can say I have. And it was an absolutely awesome experience. We were lucky enough to be invited by our friend Walter’s family to spend the week at their holiday cottage, right on the Lake’s edge. We were literally a 30 second walk from the beach, as well as having hot showers and electricity all day! Our crew was made up of the Ridderhofs – Walter's parents Isette, Janneman and himself – the lovely Sung and the volunteers – Matilda, Steph, Georgia, Louise and myself. From delicious meals to bonfires on the beach to boat rides and swims in the beautifully warm Lake… I am definitely suffering from Lake Malawi withdrawal. The visit was bittersweet, however; as the boys are off to university in South Africa in January and Janneman is being transferred to Zambia next year. It felt the same as saying goodbye to my friends when I left home, but without any guarantee of seeing them again.

It’s my own fault, really. I would be able to see them over Christmas and New Year, but I am spending the holiday with my family in Dubai. When it became ambiguous whether my sister or Dad would be able to come out to see me in Malawi, I decided that I would take an early holiday and go out to see them. It’s going to be really odd being away from the children for so long – or away from the other volunteers for that matter. So expect another two weeks of silence as I’ll have nothing to report.

So a million thanks to the wonderful Isette, not only for putting up with us for the past 2 months, but also for her extremely generous hospitality and tremendous cooking of the past week. You could not have doted on more grateful subjects.

Might have unearthed more pictures before January, but otherwise, see you in the New Year!

TTFN

Sorry!

End of Week 12 - this is just a little note to say that I am still alive!

Again, the transformer is down in Baluti and no one knows when it will be working again. Water is also being more temperamental than usual. Life is tough at Casa Lou and Cat, atm.
So I'm sorry I have been unable to post anything recently but no electricity means no laptop or internet at home.
Here's some pictures from this weekend - fellow volunteer Georgia enlisted our help to take the children she works with at Open Arms Infant Home to get ice cream at Kips', which was really great. I've also got a photo of our group (minus Georgia :( ) about to go out to Doogles. I look terrible in both photos, but everyone else looks great, so that's why I'm putting them up.
Apologies for lack of information, will do a real blog post when we get power back at home... if we get power back at home. XD
TTFN

Sung, Stephanie, crazily happy girl, Louise, Matilda and Walter