Tuesday, 2 November 2010

28th October – Changing the world.


28th October – Changing the world.

When I think back to September 5th, I remember sitting with Laura looking out onto a darkening runway at Heathrow not really knowing what the next stage of my life held in store. Knowing what I wanted was not the problem, we both wanted to be able to give something to a country which is developing, help it along. But what would that be in detail? We didn’t know the people who we would be helping or exactly what we would be doing to help. Almost 2 months into our six month stay I think it may just be starting to make a little sense and the penny has finally dropped. We’re not going to change the world.

Naturally we came to Malawi with hopes, ambitions and targets, but realistic were they realistic plans or just dreams? Never having been to Africa before and relying on Jonathan Dimbleby, Ewen McGregor and the likes for most of our imagination’s forecasts, one may consider some of our objectives to be naïve. But we’re always told to aim high.

Without discussing it, both Laura and I would admit to being frustrated during our time here. We keep saying the same things to each other; “Why is it taking so long?” “If only there was more money!” This is not new to Malawi. As time passes and we meet more and more people whose need is so high we are learning to adjust our goals, make them smaller yet greater at the same time. You can’t change a country in 6 months but what we can do is make life a little better for some of the people we touch. So in essence we can change the world, for a portion of its community.

To change the world for a community in northern Malawi is much simpler than doing so in the UK. That might sound like stating the obvious just a little but an input of a few thousand dollars into a society here can dramatically change lives, whereas it may barely tweak a few areas of our own. Take for instance a village we visited last week.

Hunga is a rural community based just outside the boundary of the Luwawa Forest Reserve. The school there, Mzgambuzi Juniors, is based at the top of a relatively tall hill, with extremely steep banks on either side. The rest of the simple buildings are spread across the ridge which winds its way up from the forest in a zigzagged fashion. It’s the ladies job to collect the water and somehow manoeuvre their way around the rocky edges and up the slopes to their basic homes. A tremendous feat for any person! Walking it in my technical gear was exhausting, bare footed with 10 litres on my head would have been a death sentence. The water collected is from a shallow hole, dug at the base of the hill. It is dirty, both in terms of its colour and contents. It’s their only option.

The school itself is headed by a hardworking gentleman named George. He has recently been joined by another teacher and consequently has added a new year group to the roster. They now have Standards 1-4, meaning George now only needs to teach two classes simultaneously, rather than hop between the three that he had previously been doing. Unfortunately for the school, the rains are on the way. They have a two-classroom mud block which is covered only partly by a grass-thatched roof, once there is rain, it’s unusable. What is inside is barely usable at the moment either; termites have scurried around forming a 5ft mound against the front wall. Whilst considering painting this black and naming it a 3D chalkboard, I think it maybe inappropriate.

So for Hunga, there is a plan to change their world. We are hoping for some money to come through to cover the costs for a boar hole and well. Providing accessible water to this area would have numerous benefits. Not only would this make things easier for the ladies hiking the hill several times per day and improve health & hygiene through cleanliness for the 400+ users but it would improve opportunities at the school. George feels that the school would be a popular choice for teachers, as the surrounding land is so fertile for farming and extra income but the lack of clean water puts them off.

Currently, students who pass Standard 4 move onto another school located 7km away from Hunga. Due to the distance, very few of the Mzgambuzi leavers make it and therefore their education ends at the age of 9 or 10. Attracting teachers would therefore stop this, allowing the school to extend and continue offering education all the way up to secondary school. Clean water can really have such an affect.

Add a few hundred pounds to clear the current classrooms of termites, re-roof them, and add plaster to their partly-completed brick built classrooms and they are well on their way. Quite simple; relatively cheap processes which are definitely life-changing for stacks of people.

There are similar problems faced by many of the communities here. A lack of classrooms, teacher’s housing and good roads name just a few. The problems in Malawi are deep but are going to take tens of years to sort out. We can’t change that yet we can make an immediate impact to some of its inhabitant’s lifestyles. We are keeping our fingers crossed for more donations to the trust.

Another of our projects whilst here is Environmental Education within the forest. A couple of weeks back we took on the task of delivering environmental lessons to three standards at Luwawa Primary. Having spoken in depth to George here (the owner and MD of the lodge, not the Mzgambuzi head teacher!) about the issues and discussing some things which we had noticed ourselves, we broke the subject down into three topics, all of which are relevant to the locals; the forest, the dam and littering.  Over the last two months we have seen examples of problems in all three areas. In fact we have seen examples in all three areas during the last seven-days!

Within the forest there have been huge fires of late. Last night as well as this morning every member of the staff here has been out, east of the lodge pre-burning huge areas of land to stop a fire which has spread and travelled kilometres through the forest, over hills and through valleys to put the lodge and its staff under threat. This isn’t the first time it has happened but the Forestry workers are either not bothered, too lazy, under-staffed, unequipped or a mixture of all. It seems that their ways won’t change unless rulings come from above. We hope by educating the children of the area of the importance of the forest as a source of income, materials and beauty, along with being a habitat for the animals that we can improve its future.

We see (and hear, via gunshots) poaching and illegal fishing (with mosquito nets) on a regular basis. We hear of the forests depletion due to lack of planting and burning of new and old trees. The forest and its contents are a great resource for the area and the country but at the moment it is mistreated and disrespected. It’s sad and frustrating. The phrase ‘education is the key’ is bounded around and we hope it’s true. Next week we begin construction work with the children on our new school nursery, we are anticipating that a sense of ownership of new trees can spur the next generation to look after them and make their business sustainable.


Away from community development over the last few weeks we have seen much more of Malawi itself. Other than returning to Mzimba and Lilongwe, we have driven through the Viphya Plateau and up to Mzuzu, the capital of the north and travelled to the south of the lakeshore to a small place named Nkopola, north of Mangochi.

The reason for our visit to the lake was for the growing music festival which goes by the name ‘Lake of Stars’. Arriving early in the afternoon it was clear to us what we were to expect over the next 3 days (other than a load of music and trips to the beach bar), 40 degree heat. It was scorching!

After pitching our tents no more than 100 yards from the beach, we made the short walk along sandy paths to the arena. Before reaching the main gate to enter the sectioned off area of white sand, you were forced to walk through a section of market given to the locals to encourage trade with tourists.  I haven’t felt like a tourist at all since being here, yet knowing that each and every person walking through the gate had paid more for their ticket alone, than the average Malawian would earn in 6-8 weeks made me feel more than uncomfortable. It was hard to look a local in the eye when you know that they know this fact too. I cringed each time we passed through the forced bottle neck but couldn’t convince myself that I needed a hammock or fake football shirt either.

They festival runs with the slogan “there’s no festival in the world like it”. And there really isn’t! Imagine Glastonbury … take away the huge crowds, grey clouds, burger stalls and muddy ground. Replace them with sit-down restaurants, views of mountains below clear blue skies and people scattered across a white, sandy beach with a cool glass of gin & tonic in their hand. Then you’ve got maybe a sniff of the relaxed atmosphere it generates.

The event started with Malawi’s first ever skydive. News quickly spread that it was the Minister of Tourism that was going to making his entrance from high above the shore and land on a small plastic sheet that people in matching t-shirts had laid out just metres from the waters edge. Of course there where whispers of “wouldn’t it be funny if…!”
As he fell from the sky, the crowds tilted their heads back and stared. “Come on,” I heard whispered from over my shoulder. “Finish in the water.” Everyone chuckled a little and brushed it off, but reached into their bags for digital cameras and eagerly switched to video mode. Thankfully for the Minister it all went well, he landed on the spot, crowds cheered (video’s were deleted and cameras put away) and it was a pretty cool kick-off to the weekend.

It was a great experience. To summarise, we were assaulted by ants, robbed by monkeys, jeered at by Malawian Man United fans (Boing Boing!). We ate dinner with the Noisettes, peed with Goldierocks, conversed with Mistajam. Had passports stolen, passports found, drank too much and ran out of diesel 40km from home. I couldn’t start to write about it all now but there’s a stack of stories for a rainy day in Brum.

Get in touch, take care everyone

Dan and Laur. 

 Looking cool in my sunglasses!
 How about this for a view whilst watching the baggies!??
 The school at Mzgamuzi under the careful watching eye of George, headteacher.

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