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.