After our spell on the 'Lake' we spent a few days in lilongwe, the capital, again to carry on writing up the case studies and interviews. Also, to buy reading material from a wonderful secondhand bookshop we found, to use the internet and try to sort out our visas for Zambia so we could leave Malawi for a couple of days as we were advised to re-enter for another 30 days without taking out the temporary residents permit which would cost a fortune. We decided to find cheap lodge in Lilongwe, to be shown into the executive suite (at the same price) with an enormous room with wood floors (unheard of out here), a very large bed and a walk -in modern shower. So much for going down market! The Zambian visa proved a farce as the Zambian High Commission wanted to charge us extortionate rates which were out of date. (Very strange) so we decided to try our luck at the border.
We then went to Zomba, a large town in the south, for a few days as we needed some excercise and Zomba plateau has great mountain walks according to the guidebook. We searched the town to rent a cottage up on the plaeau, following a variety of people as they led us around many church and theological college buildings in search of the holder of the keys to a cottage. We finally ended up going to a convent in a girls school where a nun agreed to us renting their cottage on the plateau very cheaply and presented the keys to us in an ancient little tin holding it in both hands, as nuns do. After a night in a very basic lodge in the town (a sort of Cell block H) we drove up the long winding road wondering what we were in for. The cottage was right on the edge of the escarpment with a vast panoramic view of the valley below. We sat on the veranda as the sun went down spellbound by the scene before us. Zomba town was spread out in the green vegetation right below us, with a small range of mountains dotted with forests beyond. There were smaller mountains in several directions many with perfect mountain peaks. A large mountain range loomed on the horizon with other mountains dotted around. The colours ranged from deep green to rocky greys to pink skies with misty eery shapes in the distance. The sky was vast as usual with the light on a few clouds adding to the drama of the view. As we were pretty high in the mountains it was rather cold, which was a bit of a blow, until a man came in and made a log fire for us. Very cosy, so thank you nuns. The following morning we got up early to find a magical sight with the cloud circling the mountain peaks below us giving the whole scene an astounding beauty. Another sight we shall not forget. We found a guide called Whisky who although 21 was still attending primary school! He took us on two really good walks, the first day to see the views from the escarpment and the second to the highest peak and then to another special site of interest, a 300m deep hole.
The following day we dropped the car in the compound of the friends where he works for the foreign office in Lilongwe so that we could travel to Zambia for our visa to be renewed in Malawi. Of course little goes as planned here. The immigration people at the border refused to accept our plan saying we must stay in Zambia for at least a week which would have scuppered our work schedule. Then, after taking us to one side offered to sort it all out for the cost of the Zambian visas without us needing to go into Zambia at all. It was an offer we couldn't refuse. It clearly didn't bear asking questions and our passports were handed back to us duly stamped up as we waited 100 metres down the road. H'mm, not something we would have wanted to be involved in if we had a choice. It all felt a bit set up.
Then back to work with Jane interviewing more women and children in an area north of Lilongwe, again many stories of poverty and resilience.
A colleague of Jane's from Barnardo's is arriving next Tuesday for two weeks to help with the interviews and writing the report. We're looking forward to seeing her and expect that we won't update the blog now until we leave Malawi in 3/4 weeks time.
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Starting the Childrens Study
Blog 13
Back to the North
The children's interviews are now in full swing. Well, Jane is in full swing. Ken sits in the car reading his book whilst Jane carries out the interviews. Ken is called in to photgraph and video the families at the end. Ken comes into his own later in the follow up work of turning the interviews into case studies, and fascinating it most certainly is.
So many of the families survive on next to nothing and the loans from MLF are a complete Godsend, sometimes they are the difference between the kids eating one meal and two meals a day. Managing on £2.00 to £5.00 per week to feed a family of 5 or 6 is not uncommon. Quite a few of the businesses are not yet successful as they are selling fish and apparently the Lake is too choppy for much fishing as the men use dugout boats which turn over and they drown if they go out in choppy waters. This makes the fish in short supply and more expensive. These women really struggle as their profits are often extremely small, but they are still desperate to have the loans so that at least they have something to buy the fish with. Some of the women have businesses that are growing and doing well and are making enough to pay their kids school fees and giving them 3 meals a day.
Although we work long hours, it is good to have something to get our teeth into. We returned to the orphanage lodge for more interviews in Rumphi and then back to Mzuzu city for more of the same. The weather in Mzuzu was dreadful. By far the worst yet with rain all day for about three/four days. Fortunately it didn't stop us frm working as we had the high vehicle again and most of the families were near the town. Whilst some families in town are a little better off, the urban poor live in more squalor than those in rural areas. On one occasion Jane fell over in the mud three times and her trousers were very mudded, much to the delight of the local people who thought it a great joke. We travel quite far into the rural areas on occasions. Once we had to wade thigh deep through a stream to reach the house of a woman we were interviewing. She was delighted we made the effort, but of course she and her children have to do it all the time when it has been raining.
We have now returned to the Lake (or 'lakeside' as they say here) in Nkhotkota to stay in a lodge on the beach for further interviews in the area. And very nice it is to. The weather changed from constant rain to constant sunshine. One evening we were having supper on the terrace just a few feet from the beach (Yes, life is hard for us) when the local choir turned up complete with keyboard, amplifier and speakers. It was a real treat and gospel music like you have never heard it, with a strong beat, fantastic harmonies and syncronised dancing. The backdrop for the choir was a full moon reflecting on a strip of cloud and glinting off the sea behind them. This gave the whole thing a magical air. Quite extrordinary. It did go on a bit and lasted for over two hours. Quite an event nevertheless. The next night another choir to serenade us. Not so professional as the previous night, but very good. On the third night the first choir returned so we even know some of the words of the songs now!
Unfortunately we have had another theft. Jane was lying on the beach outside our banda (hut) with her MP3 player. Whilst she had her eyes closed someone must have crept up from the nearby bushes and took the player from beside her. Of course, it is not surprising to have the occasional problem of this sort as the gap between what we have and most people around us have is so great, it must be quite a temptation to take advantage of these sort of opportunities. Perhaps it is surprising there are not more problems like this. Of course, for Jane it is very sad as she has lost all her music for the rest of the trip. Although we try to be vigilant, these things take us by surprise.
Back to the North
The children's interviews are now in full swing. Well, Jane is in full swing. Ken sits in the car reading his book whilst Jane carries out the interviews. Ken is called in to photgraph and video the families at the end. Ken comes into his own later in the follow up work of turning the interviews into case studies, and fascinating it most certainly is.
So many of the families survive on next to nothing and the loans from MLF are a complete Godsend, sometimes they are the difference between the kids eating one meal and two meals a day. Managing on £2.00 to £5.00 per week to feed a family of 5 or 6 is not uncommon. Quite a few of the businesses are not yet successful as they are selling fish and apparently the Lake is too choppy for much fishing as the men use dugout boats which turn over and they drown if they go out in choppy waters. This makes the fish in short supply and more expensive. These women really struggle as their profits are often extremely small, but they are still desperate to have the loans so that at least they have something to buy the fish with. Some of the women have businesses that are growing and doing well and are making enough to pay their kids school fees and giving them 3 meals a day.
Although we work long hours, it is good to have something to get our teeth into. We returned to the orphanage lodge for more interviews in Rumphi and then back to Mzuzu city for more of the same. The weather in Mzuzu was dreadful. By far the worst yet with rain all day for about three/four days. Fortunately it didn't stop us frm working as we had the high vehicle again and most of the families were near the town. Whilst some families in town are a little better off, the urban poor live in more squalor than those in rural areas. On one occasion Jane fell over in the mud three times and her trousers were very mudded, much to the delight of the local people who thought it a great joke. We travel quite far into the rural areas on occasions. Once we had to wade thigh deep through a stream to reach the house of a woman we were interviewing. She was delighted we made the effort, but of course she and her children have to do it all the time when it has been raining.
We have now returned to the Lake (or 'lakeside' as they say here) in Nkhotkota to stay in a lodge on the beach for further interviews in the area. And very nice it is to. The weather changed from constant rain to constant sunshine. One evening we were having supper on the terrace just a few feet from the beach (Yes, life is hard for us) when the local choir turned up complete with keyboard, amplifier and speakers. It was a real treat and gospel music like you have never heard it, with a strong beat, fantastic harmonies and syncronised dancing. The backdrop for the choir was a full moon reflecting on a strip of cloud and glinting off the sea behind them. This gave the whole thing a magical air. Quite extrordinary. It did go on a bit and lasted for over two hours. Quite an event nevertheless. The next night another choir to serenade us. Not so professional as the previous night, but very good. On the third night the first choir returned so we even know some of the words of the songs now!
Unfortunately we have had another theft. Jane was lying on the beach outside our banda (hut) with her MP3 player. Whilst she had her eyes closed someone must have crept up from the nearby bushes and took the player from beside her. Of course, it is not surprising to have the occasional problem of this sort as the gap between what we have and most people around us have is so great, it must be quite a temptation to take advantage of these sort of opportunities. Perhaps it is surprising there are not more problems like this. Of course, for Jane it is very sad as she has lost all her music for the rest of the trip. Although we try to be vigilant, these things take us by surprise.
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Moving on
Blog 12
Back in the office in Kasungu Jane put the final touches to her proposal for the children's study and the chief executive from the UK arrived with a chap from South Africa who is an expert in Micro finance. They both, together with a young chap from MLF in England, stayed in the guesthouse with us which gave us lively and interesting evenings. Lots of good discussions about MLF and the survey work we had been doing. Jane's networking with UNICEF went down very well and all in all it proved to be a very good week. Jane's proposal was agreed and we went ahead with the plans to visit other regions around the country.
First stop was Selima near Lake Malawi, in the central region, where we interviewed more women. These women turned out to be not quite as poor and living in a more urban setting. We stayed in a lodge on the lake ('Cool Runnings') and the white Zimbabwian woman who ran it announced that we were cool when she heard about our trip. Cool? Can you imagine?
From there we planned to go to another town further north, but a bridge on the access road had been washed away. The alternative route was unpassable due to heavy rains and the only other way was via the northern route which would mean a 400 KM detour. We decided to give this a miss and went instead for a few days at a lakeside resort, Cape Maclear, which was said to be beautiful. And so it was. We had a strange experience getting there. We took a well signposted road (unusual in Malawi) to the M10 for the resort to find ourselves on a very bad dirt road with the prospect of 100 KMs to go. We were surprised that there was no traffic in either direction whatsoever, but slowly struggled on negotiating the deep ruts, mud, and potholes. After about an hour and 20 KMs we joined a brand new road which was the best road we had seen. We discovered that this new road replaced the old one we had been driving along, but no-one had taken down the signpost for the old road which was not far before the junction for new road. We were amazed, relieved and amused in equal measure.
We stayed in a lodge right on the beach, but, of course, there was no electricity as a transformer had broken down. We also discovered (after Jane had been swimming a few times) that the clear lake water was badly infected with Bilharzia in that area, a very nasty parasite. It is a minute worm which enters the bloodstream via your skin, and because there was no power for the usual water pump this water was used for the washing/shower water in the lodge. Fortunately there is medication we can take when we return to England that should stop it from doing serious harm. However, the lake, the scenery and the skies were quite extrordinary, and we spent hours watching the incredible sunsets from the bar seated right on the edge of the lake. It is hard to find the words to describe how such sights make you feel.
Next stop was a mission at Mua. The elderly priest who has been working there for many years is an artist, so the whole settlement was beautifully painted and decorated, with a museum which covered the history and culture of the main groups of people in Malawi. Quite fascinating. The large Catholic church was decorated with African designs and colours, with lots of wood carvings and some beautiful sculptures. The overall impression was quite stunning.
Unfortunately we still can't post pictures - we are working on it. Also this blog is rather behind the times but we'll post another one in a few days now we have internet access!
Back in the office in Kasungu Jane put the final touches to her proposal for the children's study and the chief executive from the UK arrived with a chap from South Africa who is an expert in Micro finance. They both, together with a young chap from MLF in England, stayed in the guesthouse with us which gave us lively and interesting evenings. Lots of good discussions about MLF and the survey work we had been doing. Jane's networking with UNICEF went down very well and all in all it proved to be a very good week. Jane's proposal was agreed and we went ahead with the plans to visit other regions around the country.
First stop was Selima near Lake Malawi, in the central region, where we interviewed more women. These women turned out to be not quite as poor and living in a more urban setting. We stayed in a lodge on the lake ('Cool Runnings') and the white Zimbabwian woman who ran it announced that we were cool when she heard about our trip. Cool? Can you imagine?
From there we planned to go to another town further north, but a bridge on the access road had been washed away. The alternative route was unpassable due to heavy rains and the only other way was via the northern route which would mean a 400 KM detour. We decided to give this a miss and went instead for a few days at a lakeside resort, Cape Maclear, which was said to be beautiful. And so it was. We had a strange experience getting there. We took a well signposted road (unusual in Malawi) to the M10 for the resort to find ourselves on a very bad dirt road with the prospect of 100 KMs to go. We were surprised that there was no traffic in either direction whatsoever, but slowly struggled on negotiating the deep ruts, mud, and potholes. After about an hour and 20 KMs we joined a brand new road which was the best road we had seen. We discovered that this new road replaced the old one we had been driving along, but no-one had taken down the signpost for the old road which was not far before the junction for new road. We were amazed, relieved and amused in equal measure.
We stayed in a lodge right on the beach, but, of course, there was no electricity as a transformer had broken down. We also discovered (after Jane had been swimming a few times) that the clear lake water was badly infected with Bilharzia in that area, a very nasty parasite. It is a minute worm which enters the bloodstream via your skin, and because there was no power for the usual water pump this water was used for the washing/shower water in the lodge. Fortunately there is medication we can take when we return to England that should stop it from doing serious harm. However, the lake, the scenery and the skies were quite extrordinary, and we spent hours watching the incredible sunsets from the bar seated right on the edge of the lake. It is hard to find the words to describe how such sights make you feel.
Next stop was a mission at Mua. The elderly priest who has been working there for many years is an artist, so the whole settlement was beautifully painted and decorated, with a museum which covered the history and culture of the main groups of people in Malawi. Quite fascinating. The large Catholic church was decorated with African designs and colours, with lots of wood carvings and some beautiful sculptures. The overall impression was quite stunning.
Unfortunately we still can't post pictures - we are working on it. Also this blog is rather behind the times but we'll post another one in a few days now we have internet access!
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