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!