Sixth month in Malawi and Conclusion

Arrival: August 9^th 2010

6 month period at project: August 11^th 2010 – February 11^th 2011

Departure: February 14^th 2011

It is safe to say that as the days, weeks, months and years pass, time seems to fly by quicker and quicker. The last six months has been no exception, and here I am recalling it, trying to figure out where the time went.

The last month has mainly consisted of handing over work I was doing, spending time with and saying final goodbyes to HIV support groups, my English class, students and teachers in the Teacher Training College, around the orphanage, local friends I made and also to the other DI’s that are leaving at the same time as me or who I will be leaving behind.

We had a final night out in Blantyre together with dinner and dancing. I also donated blood, got stuck at home for a week with a foot infection, traded some of my belongings at Blantyre Art Market for arts and crafts, gave some of my clothes away to local friends, did some gift shopping and of course the ever-so-fun acts of packing up of my room and packing my bags. And before flying back to Europe from Lilongwe, Laura, Assum and I will have one final night out in Lilongwe to farewell Malawi.

The three of us are flying back to Europe together, and both Assum and Laura will be going back to Denmark for a short while, before heading back to their cities in Spain. We fly through Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, then Frankfurt, which is where I will be getting off and taking a flight to London.

It’s unbelievable that my DI period has come to an end. I won’t lie - there have been many times where I questioned what I was doing here, why I was with this organization (Development Aid from People to People - DAPP) and some of the issues I could see that were staring us all in the face. But something that I have to mention as an advantage of going through DAPP was that it allowed us the ability and possibility to go into the villages and to know the local people. A foreigner by themselves or with friends can’t just come to a country in Africa and do this. Sure you could probably find a local orphanage or school to offer your time to, but probably not in the same way as what we have been able to do here.

Due to the name that has been developed and the set up of the projects, we have been able to get used to the local people and they have been able to get used to us, walking through their communities, exchanging greetings, handshakes, looks, smiles and hugs. Quite simply we were able to be immersed into the culture without being a tourist or traveller, but as a temporary resident, and a friend. Sure there are many people that don’t see us as any more than just “Azungu” – white people, but that happens and is part of the fact that to these people there is not much of a world outside their own country, so in a way, it has been our job to bring the outside world to them.

This Development Instructor program is not something I would recommend for people to do if they want to change the world or do something huge. You can do many little things here to help people, have some ‘time out’ to decide what you want to do with your life, make new friends, enjoy new and different things, and experience the self-development that takes place over the year in Denmark and Africa. As one DI put it, rather than Development Instructor, DI stands for “Development of the Individual.” And in many ways I believe that is true.

Despite the many frustrations, issues and difficulties of the past year in the program, for me it has still been an overall positive experience that one can only learn from, especially upon reflection. I have been able to do many things that would not be possible to do in my normal life, especially without experience or qualifications in certain areas. I have developed things about myself that I am grateful for, such as confidence in public speaking and in myself. I have been exposed to many different ideas, views, cultures, languages, people, places, experiences, perceptions and much more. In general, the good has outweighed the bad, and when I reflect upon all of this, I really don’t want to focus much on the negative, just the positive. Besides, everything that has happened has lead up to ‘now,’ and ‘now’ is not so bad.

In terms of what I feel I have achieved, I don’t think I have changed the world or saved anyone’s life, but there have been many little things. I settled into life, the culture and the Malawian way in an environment quite unlike anywhere I’ve lived before. I gave my time and knowledge to the local people where possible, and I taught some HIV positive people about nutrition, how to make soya milk and about the basics of HIV/AIDS. I didn’t get malaria or any other illness. I taught some people English, how to use a computer, about different places, people and cultures around the world. I shared some of myself with others, I walked a lot, I had fun with the cute kiddies, I played sports with kids in the orphanage I lived in, I explored parts of Malawi outside my project and up around the Lake, and I made many cultural exchanges with local people and other DI’s alike.

I also made new friends - Malawian (and some from other African countries), European (and UK), Asian, North American, South American, New Zealand and even another Australian. If you don’t include Antarctica as there is no human habitation there, my last year has consisted of meeting and befriending people from every continent! Most of my time over the past year has been spent with non-native English speakers, and being with people from different countries and cultures has allowed me to learn so much about many things. Knowledge, ideas, culture, languages, stories, points of view and laughs, among many other things have been exchanged and it has been wonderful. I feel like it has helped me to understand people a lot more and be more aware of other cultures, ways of being and habits. Rather than an achievement though I would say it has been more like a privilege. And for sure I have learnt a hell of a lot! About life, myself, new skills, the world, different cultures, etc.

I learnt how to make soy milk, how to cook nsima (Malawi’s staple food), how to speak useful parts of Chichewa to get me by walking through villages.

I learnt that I am not made for mountain climbing and don’t really have much of an interest in climbing mountains (except maybe metaphorical ones).

I learnt just how much I don’t like small talk – sometimes it’s necessary but this is mostly what conversations with many local people have consisted of and it becomes quite tired and boring after a while. Hence, I learnt that I need some form of mental stimulation and interesting conversation a lot of the time!

I learnt the art of cutting up a mango using a Swiss army knife while sitting in the car without making a big mess.

I learnt to live basically.

*I have also re-learnt many things:

I re-learnt the importance of family, friendship and to appreciate “real friends.”

I re-learnt how much of an interest I have in nutrition and health.

I re-learnt to have even more patience and tolerance than I already have, due to “African time” and difference in cultural ways and practices.

I re-learnt to appreciate the small and simple things.

I re-learnt to like peanut butter, a lot!

I re-learnt how to speak some basic Mandarin, due to time spent at a Chinese Buddhist orphanage.

I re-learnt persistence and not to take ‘no’ for an answer.

I re-learnt to have confidence in myself and my own abilities.

I re-learnt to speak my mind, but also to ‘bite my tongue’ when it’s necessary.

The learning never stops!

*There were some realisations along the way too:

I realised how important, motivating and enjoyable it is to work together with others that are ‘on the same page’ as you, rather than just working on your own. If you are working on your own sometimes it becomes a question of, ‘what am I doing here?’ or ‘why am I doing this?’ It can be hard to get motivated, especially in an environment such as I have just experienced (even if you are usually a good self-motivator, which normally I am). It’s nice to share experiences with someone else/other people.

I realised I am capable of more than I give myself credit for.

I realised that money is not the answer or the way forward for African countries. Time, knowledge and cultural exchange are a lot more effective and important than this.

And I practiced public speaking, conducting meetings and discussions, sharing information and ideas.

I read a list of books over the past 6 months that I mostly thoroughly enjoyed and learnt a lot from. Most of them were in relation to Africa or development in some way. They were:

“A Long Way Gone” - Ishmael Beah (a personal memoir of a former child soldier from Sierre Leone)

“Selected Writings and Speeches of Nelson Mandela”

“Dead Aid… Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa” - Dambisa Moyo

“The Trouble with Africa… Why Foreign Aid Isn’t Working” - Robert Calderisi

“Natural Medicine in the Tropics” – Dr Hans Martin Hirt and Bindanda M’Pia

“Atlas of Global Development” - Collins

“Dark Star Safari” – Paul Theroux (portrays his overland journey from Cairo to Cape Town, having set foot back on the African continent after living in Malawi and Uganda, 40 years earlier)

“Einstein… A Life in Science” – Biography by Michael White and John Gribbin

“The State of Africa” – Martin Meredith (a history of fifty years of independence)

“Banker to the Poor” – Muhammad Yunus (the founder of the Grameen Bank writes about his life and lead up to success in micro-finance)

“The Pursuit of Happyness” – Chris Gardner, with Quincy Troupe

My perceptions of Africa have changed even more since the last time I was here two years ago. I’m not trying to generalise because I am well aware that African countries are not all the same and you can’t just say “Africa” all the time. Plus I have only ‘lived in’ one, (two if you count Cape Town for 3 months, and even then Cape Town is completely different and is a much more developed city in many parts), and travelled in five of its countries. But even though each country and culture has subtle differences which make it unique, in some ways there are also similarities.

Having lived (in some ways) as the Malawians do, working with them, experiencing their culture, reading various books and information, seeing what I have seen and doing what I have done, I have come to see and think different things about the situation here. I am also well aware that six months is not enough time to make judgments or conclusions, but I do believe that it can give you a good picture of things because you are living the day-to-day life with the people and amongst the culture, and not just passing through on your travels and having 'tourist' experiences or seeing the sights and meeting the people for a brief time.

There is a big difference between living somewhere and just travelling through it. At first glance you might think you know or can see what things are like, but actually you need second, third and maybe fourth glances of some things to understand, appreciate and to perhaps say you actually ‘know’ something small. It’s all life experience but different perceptions are gathered from these differences in travel and living.

It also makes a difference when you have to work with these people because you see a side to them that can make you understand why some things are the way they are. The work ethic is completely different and in many cases not even there. Many hours, days, weeks, months (and once you accumulate all this) years are wasted due to “African time,” no sense of urgency, timekeeping or deadlines. Malawi and many other African countries are about a generation behind the developed world which makes it obvious why many of these countries are in the state that they are. It's very hard to know with development work and aid because it's been going on for years and years and people still don't seem to have figured it out.

Living here I can easily say I was the most ‘free’ that I had ever been in my life. There was no responsibility of having to pay rent, bills, worrying about a car, no one on your back telling you what to do or having to report to anyone. Of course ideally we should have to report to someone and there should be a system in place to monitor what was happening or where we were, but there was/is not and follow-up was very poor/non-existent. Quite simply if we wanted to go to work we could, but if we didn’t feel like it or had plans to go somewhere else then we could do that as well. We could basically do whatever we wanted to do and go wherever we wanted to go, whenever we wanted to. This comes back to how motivated we were to go out and work or if we just came to Africa for a holiday.

Looking back and reading my blog of the experiences I had two years ago, there are many things I have come across that I wrote where I have a different opinion or perception now, such as the idea of sponsoring a child through a charity or organization. I used to sponsor a child in South Africa for 2 years and when I was there I even organised a visit and had the chance to meet her and her family. I had good intentions and believed that I was doing the right thing. When I joined the DI program I stopped the sponsorship because volunteering for a year also meant that I would not be paid for an extended period of time. And even when I knew I wasn’t going to be able to afford to continue to sponsor her, I had reservations and felt like I still really wanted to. But now, since living in Malawi, and being exposed to all the things I mentioned previously, I know I made the right decision and wouldn’t do it again. I don’t regret having been a sponsor, but instead of sending or giving money, it’s more efficient, effective and important to help the people become self sufficient and show them how to generate and develop things for themselves. But sometimes it’s hard to know what the right thing to do is.

In relation to this, I fundraised some money from family and friends during the Denmark period, but I haven’t spent a cent of it because again, I have realised money is not the answer. So I will be returning it all back to everyone that was kind enough to make a donation through my website. Too much money in foreign aid has been sent to Africa over the last 40-50 years, and there is not a lot to show for it, plus what also comes of it is the continued dependence on outside help, and that is not something I want to be a part of. Sure I could put money into something small to help a local person get started in a business, start up a vegetable garden or afford further education, but what is the difference between this and the United States transferring money to African governments, not knowing if the money you give them is going to be put to good use? It almost seems to be quite similar, but just on a smaller scale. The smaller scale may reach the local person on the ground, where in comparison a government transfer may not because there is a lot of corruption around, but it’s difficult to find people that you know will continue to fight hard, work hard and that have the determination and right intentions for these kinds of things to prolong after you have left, resulting in sustainable development in some way. It is really hard to find this and from my experience, few and far between.

I was also asking questions like: Why is there such an unequal distribution of wealth in the world? The same world has overindulgence, excess and waste on one side, and underdevelopment, malnutrition and extreme poverty on the other. Having been in Africa the second time around, I can’t say that I know, but I now have more of an idea as to why some things are the way they are in some African countries. Cultural differences, attitudes, habits, practices and years of dependence, among others, are some of the things I have witnessed. Last time I just saw many things on the surface – the shanty towns, the mud huts, the swollen bellies, the bare feet; the unclean water, the lack of everything. I had more sympathy than I do now. But I have realised these people don’t need sympathy. I don’t know if I can even say what they need, because who am I to know what is best for people other than myself?

Before any real change and significant sustainable development can take place, it is the local people of each struggling African country that have to help themselves. It is not up to foreigners to do it for them or throw some money at the problem because they will never become self sufficient and get out of this never ending cycle of dependence and poverty. We can give them time and knowledge, but at the end of the day it’s up to them to make a difference. Though I do realise it is easier said than done because part of what makes things difficult to see a positive way forward is that many of the barriers that get in the way are due to culture. For example, the way many people think. People’s mindsets and the way they have grown up to think and act is in some way a part of their culture. But there is a problem here. What we’re not here to do is change their culture, because we can never do that and it is not something we want to do. Culture is what makes each country’s people unique.  So how do we do this? I don’t have an answer and I doubt even living in an African country for many years on end would produce a solution.

Again, just like the last time I was in Africa 2 years ago, I appreciate, possibly even more so now, how fortunate and lucky I am to have the life I do, to have been born where I was and to have the opportunities and choices of so many things. We have the luxury of choice, which is such a valuable thing, and something that I think is overlooked and forgotten about or not realised in the developed ‘first’ world. We can choose where we live, how we live, who we live with, what we eat, when we eat, what we wear, who our friends are, who we marry, etc. We have access to education, health care, clean running water, food, housing, electricity and so much more. We have the opportunity to work and earn a regular income, to support ourselves and our families, to leave our countries and visit or live in others, to experience many weird and wonderful things life and the world have to offer. These things, however basic and normal they may sound and seem to us, are an absolute luxury and something I think a lot of us take for granted.

This life experience that I have just concluded has reminded me to not take anything for granted and appreciate the fact that I have a plethora of fortunes in my life and even to have had this whole Denmark-Malawi experience in itself was also something I was able to ‘choose’ to do. It has all been a very humbling and eye-opening experience and one that I am grateful for.

I can easily predict that it is going to be a challenge to step back into the ‘real’ or ‘conventional’ world, with many inevitable adjustments. I am used to living the basic life with not much money or variety in food, not always running water, sometimes no electricity, limited internet access, filling the toilet with water when there is no running water, mostly bucket showering, no hot water so if it’s cold then boiling water to take a shower, hand washing clothes, sharing rooms, living far away from shops, restaurants, transport, etc, etc. It’s going to be quite strange and obviously quite nice to have access to a more comfortable way of living that I had before all this, but I know that this time it will feel really amazing to be able to do things such as have a ‘normal’ hot shower, use a washing machine, fast running internet, have running water and electricity all the time, walk shorter distances to buy food or to get transport. It will also be very different where over here I would meet up with friends (mostly other DI’s) to go and see an orphanage, community group, school, etc, whereas in the ‘real’ world I will go back to meeting up with friends to go to the pub, the movies, the park, etc. We could still do those other things over here, but wasn't as common or usual.

But two things I found hard to accept last time I came back from Africa, which are also things I have never really been fond of, are the ‘consumerist’ and ‘image’ ways of the Western world. I know I am going to find it difficult again to be immersed back into this way of life of shopping, buying, new technology, fashion and having new clothes and accessories all the time, worrying about what to wear and what you look like, what other people think of you, television, complaining about the weather, other people, a bad day or that you hate your job, throwing away food, or having the latest iPhone, iPad or iFucking piece of equipment! So much is bought, consumed and wasted and there is an excess of everything. Living amongst all this after just coming from living in Malawi where majority of people are struggling to make ends meet, support themselves and their families and can’t even afford to buy food, medicine or clothing will take time to adjust to. I had a problem with these kinds of things before this whole experience so it will be tenfold now.

Despite these things, after being in Africa for 6 months I am actually looking forward to getting back to some ‘normality’ and familiarity, even though I do like randomness and the unknown and unexpected. I am going back to London for some months, which I don’t really think is the best place to go straight after living in Africa, but let’s see. It’s actually a change of plans to what I previously wanted to do. Originally the plan was to go back to South Africa to visit family, friends and do some things and see some places I missed out on last time, but unfortunately I was unable to change my flight and I also realised that I probably wouldn’t be able to afford it. So now the plan is to try and find a job in London, at least until the Summer.

Apart from this DI program, my life is never planned too far in advance. I think I like it that way because going by previous life experience, even when I have plans or some ideas in my head, for one reason or another, they change and I find that I want to do something else or go somewhere else. Of course Mum would love to have me back now, and I miss family, friends, home and Australia in general, but at the moment the idea is to earn some money first and get the love of being away ‘out of my system.’

My time away from home this time around has really given me some inspiration as to the direction I would like to take with my life, career-wise. Before living in Malawi, and for a few years beforehand, I thought that my real interest was social science in some form, which is partly why I decided to do this development/social work program; to get some related work experience in working with people and trying to figure out which area to specialise in. However, after Denmark and Malawi I have realised that I do not want this as a career, but rather something that I do as an extra throughout my life where possible. So what I mean is, working with people, for example, in a hospital, school, community centre or wherever is still something I would like to do for as long as I can, but only as a volunteer for one or two days a week or fortnight or whatever, in addition to everything else. I do still have that want/need/instinct (call it whatever you like) to help people where I can, even in my everyday life, but in terms of an actual career, it is not where my primary focus is. It’s not that I’ve had bad experiences or don’t care as much as I did before, because I do care, but I have realised there is something else that I want to focus on.

After all the experiences of living in Malawi, it has reminded me what an interest I have in nutrition and health. When I was in school and involved in participating in a lot of sport, I always thought I wanted to be a Nutritionist. But then somewhere along the way I stopped doing so much sport due to lack of time once I started working full time, and that interest got lost and slightly forgotten about. Although, about 2 ½ years ago I was working in the Public Health department of a university in London for a couple of months and it did confirm my interest in a possible future in health/healthcare, etc, however I didn’t really look into it much and I was also still at a stage in my life where I just wasn’t sure whether I wanted to do this or do that.

But after seeing how poor the nutrition is over here and remembering what it was like sometimes in Denmark too, teaching people about it, learning about natural medicines, seeing/knowing what some of the other DI’s I’ve been with prefer to eat and what they add to their meals, and even after some of the things I’ve been eating over here, it has become a concern and interest at the forefront of my mind, and this is what I really have an interest in pursuing.

Seeing the lack of nutrition of the children here was and is especially devastating. Poor nutrition in children affects their whole lives. Mental, social and physical capacities are impeded, resulting in poor concentration in school, low energy levels and weak immune systems which allows greater possibilities to be susceptible to diseases and infections. Of course the same can be said for adults, but it is even more concerning with the children because good nutrition needs to start from a young age or else growth and development can be stunted, and can prevent them from becoming healthy and well functioning adults.

I have given all of this a lot of thought over the past 6 months and I figure, in years and years to come, besides family and friends, what else is it that will be of utmost importance in my life? And what I can say without hesitation is my health. I have always been conscious of healthy eating, not adding much salt or sugar to my food and being physically active by doing regular exercise and/or sport. Of course we all have our days of eating things that may not be so good for us, being lazy or going overboard with portion sizes, but I try to keep a balance, always making sure I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables and other things that my body needs to function well, plus regular swimming and playing basketball as my main forms of physical activity.

So in addition to other things I can do to stay healthy, I feel like the best way I can contribute to this over a prolonged period of time is to study more about it. I have already found two courses I would like to do, one being an introduction course by correspondence to be completed in 4 months, and after that a 2 or 3 year Nutritional Medicine course. This is my plan once I get back home later in the year, however if it’s possible I may even start the correspondence course while I am in London.

Here’s to family, good friends, good health, good food, love, peace and happiness.

Fifth month in Malawi

As of December 31^st, the contract that DAPP has with the pre-schools will come to a close after its third year. That means that there will be no funding for pre-schools for workshops, materials, supervisor allowances, etc. But, DI’s are still expected to continue visiting the schools without the supervisors for translation because they are unable to pay them. The idea that management had was to try and find someone in the communities that speaks English who would help with translation on a voluntary basis. But it’s not likely that anyone would be willing to do so without getting some form of payment. I’m not visiting pre-schools anymore anyway (even though they think that I am) so it’s not such a concern for me, but even with a system that wasn’t working, they continue to want to keep it going.

We have also been told that we are welcome to do some things in the college, which is what I had been trying to do for the first 3 months of my DI period, but without any success, because as previously mentioned in other months, things are scheduled, then cancelled or something always seems to come up. I don’t know what they expect us to do really. I have tried and tried and tried, and after a while it gets tired. So I will just continue with my HIV groups, and other bits and pieces here and there.

At the beginning of December we had the last pre-school workshop, but instead of for the teachers like last time, this one was for the committee members. This workshop was completely different to the last one and a lot better. Last time we stood up in front of the teachers, giving presentations and feeding them information without having any interaction or involvement. So we learnt from that one and decided that this time around we needed to make sure there was interaction and also that we broke the participants into smaller learning groups of 8 or 9, rather than just one big group.

The headline this time was ‘My role as a pre-school committee member,’ and we broke this up into five categories: Water and hygiene, nutrition, building classrooms, vegetable gardens and contributions/school fees. My topic was nutrition and since I had been working on a soy project doing demonstrations of making soy milk with HIV groups, I decided that I could also do the same thing with these committee members because soy products are nutritious and beneficial for the health of everyone, including children.

Soy beans contain a lot of vitamins and minerals, such as protein, fibre, calcium and iron. Some of the nutritional properties are beneficial for strong and healthy teeth and bones, lower cholesterol, helps in prevention against diseases such as cancer and heart disease, and contributes to good body functions, overall health and well being. Because children are still growing, soya beans are particularly good to include in their diet, especially if the children do not get to eat much of other things that contain the nutrients they need to be healthy.

I spoke about the importance of nutrition for children, how in some schools the children don’t get food at all, why soya beans are nutritious and encouraged them to make soy milk for the children after talking them through how to make it while they actually did it. They seemed quite interested and asked many questions about the use of soya in food.

What each group then had to do after the morning tea break was to have one representative of the group present what they had learnt about their topic. It was really nice to see that each representative was able to speak a fair amount about what they had learnt that morning and many of the fellow committee members asked a lot of questions. I think it was a step forward from the last workshop and I hope that each member was able to take something away from their group activity as well as learn from their peers.

I have been lucky enough to have my own room now since the beginning of December, so I feel a lot more free and comfortable. I forgot how nice it is to have your own space and privacy, and also more room to do what you want when you want without needing to have consideration of another person living in the same room.

I’ve been playing a bit of basketball on the courts at the orphanage/school I live at with the ball I bought some weeks back. Every time I go to shoot around many of the young girls come and join me. Sometimes we play a game of netball or basketball, sometimes we just shoot around, and lately I started to ‘coach’ them a little (like I used to do when I was about 13 and coaching my brother’s under 12’s basketball team). I showed them many basketball drills that I used to do when I played and coached. They love it and so do I and they are forever laughing at themselves and each other. It makes me feel really happy when I get to spend time doing this with the girls and they always put a smile on my face.

Whenever I go into town, I always see street kids with a document of paper and a pen, stating that they are trying to raise money to get off the street and are asking people to sign their papers and also for donations to help them with this. It is difficult to see this but I don’t condone handing out money because you never know where it goes or if these kids are not just working for someone who is taking all the money they collect.

Recently I was at a bakery and there were some kids out front and inside asking for signatures and donations. And then I saw one of them pick up something that looked to be a scrap of pastry or bread from the floor of the bakery and eat it. That really broke my heart because it was obvious that he had no choice to do that because he was hungry, plus he didn’t know any better not to eat things from the dirty floor. But who knows when his last meal was. So I decided to buy a bag of sweet bread rolls to give to these kids. I made my purchase and asked them all to come together outside – there were 5 of them. I opened the bag and gave each of them one. There seemed to be enough left for one more each so I gave the bag with remainders to the oldest kid, telling him in Chichewa and pointing to each of the kids, “Modzi, modzi, modzi, modzi, modzi” (meaning one, one, one, one, one), suggesting that I wanted him to share the rest with them all. He said ok and then I left them, watching how quickly they were eating the bread. I wish I could do more to help, but that was the least I could do.

I recently had a nice holiday break over Christmas and New Years. Four of us, Eva, Laura, Travis and I hired a car and went north to various places to spend time by the beach at Lake Malawi. Because a fair amount of the money we budgeted for the trip was spent on the car, we were trying to keep everything else really cheap – food, drinks, accommodation.

On day one we drove to Nkhotakota and managed to get really cheap accommodation at a rest house. We originally asked if we could park our car in their parking area and sleep in the car for 200 Kwacha. The lady was really lovely and said we could sleep on mattresses we had brought with us on the floor in the old dining hall, use the shower and toilet, and park our car in their parking area for 400 Kwacha between 4 of us. That is less than £1.50. Amazing.

On day two, before we set off further north to Chinteche, which is where we planned to spend Christmas Eve, we had to make a stop off at the local hospital because I seemed to have an infection on my foot. What started off as a blister from my shoe days earlier was swollen and unpleasant looking, plus it really hurt when I walked. There were so many people waiting at the hospital, but because I am a “mzungu” they saw me straight away. It was not nice for the other people and I don’t like that kind of thing to happen, but that’s how it is and we would have spent hours waiting otherwise. I was told it was an abscess and given antibiotics, pain killers and had the wound disinfected, cleaned and taped up. It meant I couldn’t swim for around 5 days.

The plan for Christmas Eve was to make a nice dinner for children at an orphanage there, spend time with them playing games and just having a nice day and night. I organised this through a friend of mine who works at the Teacher Training College in Amalika. He put me in contact with the people at Chikondane Orphan Care and we went along on this day to introduce ourselves, meet some of the kids and responsible adults, and let them know of our plans to come back the next day to spend Christmas Eve with them.

That afternoon we went and bought food and drink in preparation for our meal. Rice, vegetables, beef, Sobo squash (sweet cordial-like drink). With some money that Eva and Laura fundraised in Spain we also bought some sacks of maize flour (for nsima), blankets, plates, cups and a football. That night we got more cheap accommodation at a rest house quite nearby to the orphanage. We asked if we could share a single room for 2 or 3 people and have 1 or 2 people sleep in our car whilst we parked our car in their parking area. They were fine with this so for this night we spent 350 Kwacha between four of us. Bargain! And we were able to sit in their back garden to cook our dinner and relax.

On day three we had planned to go back to the orphanage around 10:00am, but it was pouring with rain half the day so we said we’d be there at 1:30pm. It seemed that we had the rest house to ourselves as there were no other guests staying and the manager had to go out for some hours, so we basically hung out there as if it were our own house. It was great!

We also had to buy some last minute things, so Laura and Travis went to do that while Eva and I stayed at the rest house, sorting through gifts for children and making bags for each of them. In Amalika there were many things brought over by old DI’s, such as pens, notebooks, pencil cases, small backpacks, stationery sets, balls, yo-yo’s and lots of other goodies for children. Laura also managed to get some things donated from an organization that she was put in contact with by a friend. So we had many boxes of things to give to the kids for Christmas.

In the afternoon once the rain slowed down we headed over to the orphanage. We were told that there were 55 kids at the orphanage, but only around 35 would be there for Christmas because the rest were on holidays at their villages (some of the kids are half orphans, meaning they only have one parent, or some were living with relatives). But because they heard that “azungu” were going to be around for Christmas, they all came along. So we had the 55 children, as well as 4 adult caregivers, and us four DI’s. There were also many children from the local area gathering around outside to see what was happening because they heard we were coming.

We spent some time playing games with the kids, getting to know their names, singing songs and dancing with them. It was really nice. The ages were from around 4 years to 14 years old. After some games we prepared refreshments for the kids. We had found out they hadn’t eaten since breakfast time, so we gave them bananas and some sweets and chips to snack on. Then after this all of us adults began to prepare dinner while the children either played football or hung around watching what we were doing. Then just before dinner while we were waiting for the food to be ready, we gave each of the kids one of the gift bags we’d made for them.

Once dinner was ready each of us adults helped to dish the food out for the kids, making sure that all kids had a plate of food, and if there was enough left over then we would also eat. It turned out there was just enough food for everyone so it was great. But there were also many local kids outside watching what was happening inside, so Laura, Eva and I gave our dinner to some of these kids as they didn’t have anything.

After dinner we spent a little more time with the kids. Then the caregivers asked the kids to say thank you to us, and made sure that they remembered all our names so that if we came back they would recognise who we were. 

This Christmas was a really memorable one and we were glad to be there with the kids who probably wouldn’t have had a meal for Christmas otherwise, and that breaks my heart. It was a really nice experience and I’m glad we did something like this. There were a couple of things that were slightly disappointing though, but we tried not to let it get to us, especially because it was Christmas. 

The first thing was that the husband of the chair lady to the orphanage came to meet us while we were preparing dinner, and the first thing he said to us was, “Do you have any books for our library? I am a teacher at a local school.” One thing that continues to happen in Malawi many times is when you do something nice for people, instead of being appreciative with what they get, they ask for more and ask why we didn’t also bring them this or that. The expression, “you give them an inch and they take a mile” is what always comes to my mind when I see, hear about or experience this kind of situation.

The second thing that was quite disappointing was that as we were saying our goodbyes, the chair lady said to me that one of the caregivers told her that the day before when we came to the orphanage we mentioned something about getting an account number from them. I knew exactly what this meant and I told her there was no mention of any account number and that we were not here to give money, that wasn’t the purpose and we have already given them a lot. They did appreciate what we did for them as they told us how much it meant to them that we went there, but it ruins things a bit when these kinds of things are said.

Once we had said our goodbyes we headed further north to a beautiful area called Nkhata Bay. We had heard from some other DI’s that there was a lodge called the Butterfly Project where you could do some volunteer work and pay half price for your accommodation. The lady that runs the place is an English ex-pat and was really nice to give the 4 of us a lodge for the price of a tent on the first night because it was late and would have been difficult for us to set up tents.

We ended up staying here for 3 nights by the beach, chilling out, swimming, enjoying the sun, exploring the markets and centre of town, meeting people and forgetting about our work back at our projects which seemed like a long way away. On Christmas day we met the District Commissioner of the area while we were relaxing by the beach, and he invited us to dinner at his house.

We also organized to do some volunteer work with the local HIV support group that is affiliated with the lodge, so we taught about nutrition and made soy milk with them, as well as about income generating and showed them a cheap and easy way they could make peanut cookies to sell and be able to afford soy milk which is good for their overall health. It was really nice and the owner joined to watch our demonstration and seemed to be happy with what we did.

On day seven we started making the trip back down south and stopped in Senga bay for a couple of hours. There wasn’t much around and the beach was quite dirty, so we decided to leave for Monkey Bay that evening. On the way to Monkey Bay though we were quite low on diesel, and we were told by locals that there weren’t any nearby filling stations, so we didn’t think we’d make it that night. But we asked around to many people and somehow we found a guy who told us he knew where we could buy diesel at a nearby village. He got into our car and directed us to where we needed to go. Somehow in Malawi, you can always manage to resolve difficult situations, even in the middle of nowhere!

We drove to a lodge called Mufasa which is where some other DI’s already were – Frida, Vaida and Attila. The lodge is owned by a South African guy who also owns the other Mufasa lodges in Cape Maclear and Lilongwe. He was nice enough to let us park our car on the private beach and sleep in it, while also using their facilities. All he asked was that we bought a drink at the bar. We were really lucky with accommodation everywhere we went, and it’s amazing what you can get if you ask. We saved a lot of money on accommodation by having the car, and we cooked most of the time as well as bought cheap local food from the market sometimes too. There were times where we treated ourselves to a restaurant meal, but mostly we lived on the basics.

We only planned to stay at Mufasa two nights but we stayed three. On the first night the owner told us that when we woke up in the morning we would know why we were staying here. And he was absolutely right. This area had to be one of the most beautiful sights I had seen since being in Malawi. It was such a nice atmosphere, with the most perfect surroundings for relaxing. The water was amazing and Laura and I did some fishing off the rocks on one of the days. We also enjoyed some camp fires at night and the staff and other guests were really nice and it was quite a social place. I am thinking about coming back here before I leave Malawi.

On New Year’s Eve we headed to Cape Maclear Mufasa and also got lucky with being able to stay for free with our car. We cooked lunch on the beach once we settled in there, relaxed a while, swam, and then got ready for dinner at the Mufasa restaurant. Another of our DI friends, Annie, joined us on this night so that was really nice. There were two parties going on nearby, one at a nearby lodge called Gecko’s that cost 1500 Kwacha and included some international DJ’s from the UK and South Africa. The other was at a bar/club called Hiccups which included some DJ’s as well and cost 500 Kwacha. We would have preferred to go to Gecko’s because it seemed like the place to be and the party was bigger, but we went for the more affordable place for everyone and chose the latter. We were lucky because 4 of us girls, Laura, Eva, Annie and I got in for free thanks to Laura knowing someone there.

We had a really good night and danced until around 4:00am, when we decided to go and see what was happening at Gecko’s. We danced there for about an hour, and then hung out under a tree on the beach while the sun came up. By this stage it went from six of us to four, so Annie, Eva, Travis and I went back to Mufasa. I went to sleep on one of the hammocks for about an hour and then Eva woke me up to say that an American guy she had met that night who was also staying at Mufasa, had a daytrip already booked and paid for to the nearby island, but his plans had changed and he was leaving that day so he offered Eva to take the trip and to go with her friends. It was for four people so it was going to be Annie, Vaida, Eva and I, because Travis was sleeping in the car and Laura was still out, but then the others were too tired so it was just Eva and I. We got a boat out to the island, had a delicious Kampunga fish and rice lunch, did some snorkeling amongst the hundreds of amazing and colourful fish in the crystal clear water, and had a short siesta in the shade on the rocks before heading back on the boat to the lodge. What a great day on the island we had!

At night we decided to go back to Monkey Bay to Venice Beach backpackers as we had met the owner a few days before while we were at Mufasa Monkey Bay, and he invited us to his lodge for a New Years Day party which included some great local reggae/pop music. Again we were extremely lucky because he let us camp for free wherever we wanted, although we just slept in the car. We also got free food because the owner of Mufasa was there and had ordered 5 meals for some friends, but they hardly ate any of it so rather than throw it out he gave it to some of us, the homeless, cheap/poor volunteers/travellers!

The next morning we headed back down south, the end of our lovely holiday approaching. On the way back we stopped in Zomba for lunch. And then to add a turn to the end of a great holiday, we were stopped at a roadblock by police for having one too many people in the car, and they wanted us to pay a fine of 3500 Kwacha. We actually didn’t even have that amount of money between us, because 1. It was the end of our holiday so we had next to nothing left with us, and 2. We are volunteers so we couldn’t even afford to pay that amount anyway.

After waiting around for about an hour, and pleading our case as to how we always see trucks, cars and minibuses loaded up with too many people all the time in Malawi, plus discussing other issues about corruption and lack of education in Malawi, among other things, we were let off without having to pay anything. Thank goodness!

It was a really great experience to get out of the project and see other parts of the country. The local people are very different the further north you go compared to what we are used to down here and in the city/urban area of Blantyre, The people seem to be more relaxed and respectful, not so ‘in your face’ saying stupid things to you or trying to see what they can get from you because you are a foreigner. Down here there is always a lot of staring and ‘give me this’ or give me that’. Up north there is less staring and more ‘genuine’ friendliness and people don’t really ask you for anything.

I was supposed to have one week of investigation straight after the holidays at the Chinese Buddhist Orphanage, Amitofo Care Centre that I have taught at and visited a few times, but at the last minute it was cancelled by the headmaster because the Malawian Government requires all schools to follow the calendar year, meaning that school would start again on the 3rd January. Amitofo was going to start on the 10th, so Assum and I had planned almost a week’s worth of fun and educational activities with the kids before they started school. And because they are too busy everyday from the morning until the evening, it is not possible for us to change the date. So I have to think of something else to do for my investigation week, which I think I will now take at the end of January.

This month I read a biography about Albert Einstein called “Einstein… A Life in Science.” Although quite interesting in some parts, I found there to be too much detail about scientific theories and terminologies that made it kind of hard for me to understand. So I didn’t actually finish the book because I wasn’t able to get into it too much or completely enjoy it. But I did read a very interesting book straight after it which I couldn’t put down and finished in about 3 days - “Banker to the Poor” by Muhammad Yunus, who is the founder of the Grameen Bank, which is an unconventional bank that started in Bangladesh back in the 1980’s and lends money to the poor using a micro-credit system. Yunus believed that credit, just like food or clean water, should be a basic human right.

The objective of Grameen (meaning “rural” or “of the village” in Bengali) is to alleviate poverty and empower the poor, with a special focus on women, due to their poor social status in Bangladeshi society. As required by regular financial institutions, Grameen does not require a borrower to have collateral and makes small loans to poor people in the villages to use for income generating activities such as starting up small businesses to help get themselves and their families out of poverty.

There are many more qualities that make Grameen unique such as sponsorship for educational scholarships for children of Grameen borrowers, support groups which consist of five people that act as guarantors for each of the other members, the bankers go to the villages rather than the other way around, the bank is owned and run by the poor (they are majority shareholders) for the poor, among many other things. The bank offers pension savings opportunities and health insurance, something that the poor would have never thought possible in their lives.

Grameen has become a worldwide success with branches in many countries including Philippines, Malaysia, India, and the United States and has managed to lift millions of people out of poverty who now have endless possibilities in their lives for themselves and for their families. It has also influenced many similar micro-finance programs around the world.

I found this a very inspiring book and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in third world development, poverty, economics, international relations or if you just want something that makes you think and is quite motivating! I already knew a bit about Grameen because I studied about it while I was in Denmark, but it was great to find out even more information and actually how everything came about right from the beginning.

A rather interesting experience that I had recently was when Mohammed, a Kenyan friend of Laura, Eva’s and mine was taking us out to dinner one night. Mohammed picked me up from Blantyre and then we went to Chilangoma Teacher Training College to get the girls. That day and the day before it had rained quite heavily so parts of the roads that lead to the college were nothing but mud. As we had picked up Eva and Laura, we were driving out of the college towards the main road, we came to one of the really muddy parts and the car became stuck and there was no way we could get out. Mohammed called a man he worked with and ask him to bring 4 or 5 guys from his neighbourhood to come along to help us, as well as to bring some rope and bricks.

In the meantime, there was a Malawian guy walking past and we asked him to help us by pushing, lifting and also putting rocks in front of or behind the wheels to try and help us possibly roll out of the mud. But it was impossible so we asked if he could try and find some other guys to help. He came back with 3 or 4 others and for more than 2 hours they were trying to help us, getting knee deep and barefoot in the mud but still unable to get the car out of the mud. Somehow during this time more guys showed up to help and there must have been 8 or 9 of them.

Eventually the man that Mohammed called came with the other guys, and there were then around 15 guys gathered at the front of the car who managed to lift it enough. It was an amazing sight to see and we really wished we had a camera! In only a few minutes we were able to back out of the mud and then drive partly on some grassed area and partly on the road. Finally after being stuck for over 2 hours we were free! Mohammed gave the guys some money for their help and trouble and we went on our way. It was after 10:00pm and we were beyond hungry so drove into town to have our long awaited dinner.

Mohammed knew the owner of a pub in town which was probably one of our only hopes of getting a meal at that time, so he called ahead and asked if they could prepare us some chicken and chips. They were already closed but said they could cook us dinner and allow us to sit in the restaurant. It was a nice end to our experience and even though it was a hopeless situation for a while, none of us got mad or frustrated or worried, we just laughed a fair bit and accepted the situation for what it was. TIA!!

One Saturday I decided that I wanted to have a day all to myself, so I went into Blantyre and had lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant. It was actually the first time I had tried Ethiopian food, and I really liked it - much better than Malawian food. I had Injera which is a traditional Ethiopian pancake/crepe which you use to scoop up nicely cooked meat and vegetables, eating with your hands. It was really nice and the owner of the restaurant was a lovely Ethiopian lady who showed me the way the people eat Injera because I wanted to do it properly. I also had some amazing Ethiopian coffee. I think I will go back one more time before I leave Malawi.

After lunch I planned to go and check into a lodge to stay overnight to get out of the ‘bush.’ There were 2 decent lodges that I knew of, one called ‘Doogles’ which I visited first. Doogles was really nice, with a swimming pool and a bar which you could easily sit at, have a drink and meet people. I asked to see a single room, which was fine and priced at 3100 kwacha (about £12), but one thing it didn’t have was a TV. I hadn’t watched TV in more than 6 months so I was keen to have one in my room this time. Also, the toilet and showers were not so close to the room

I also went to check out the ‘Oriental Lodge’ which was a bit cheaper at 2500 kwacha (just under £10). The room looked nicer than the Doogles one and it had a TV, although there was no common area so not a really social place to stay. The toilet and shower was right across from the room to so for convenience sake it was great. Under normal circumstances I definitely would have stayed at Doogles because of the social aspect of it and in general it was a nicer atmosphere. But my purpose for this day was to be by myself in a room, lay on the bed watching world news on TV, read my book or listen to my iPod, sleep, etc, without worrying about anyone else or having a care in the world. So I checked in to Oriental Lodge and did exactly all these things. I also had 2 hot showers with actual running water which is the same amount of hot running water showers I have had in Malawi in 5 months! It was amazing and all this was just what I needed for a day.

I had my last English class at the end of this month and for something different, since my main line of work was promoting soya in nutrition and doing soy milk demonstrations in communities, I thought it would be good to also extend this to my English students. I gave a quick lesson in the classroom about the benefits of soya and then we went outside and I gave a demonstration on making soy milk. What I normally do is talk the people through the steps while they actually perform the task themselves, so they are ‘learning by doing.’ I think it’s the best way because they are more likely to remember what to do if they are actually have a turn at doing so.

We went back into the classroom and enjoyed a cup of soy milk together. Because it was the last lesson I also bought everyone a sweet bread roll to go with their milk and gave a little goodbye speech. The students were really disappointed that I was to be leaving soon because I have been with most of them for more than 5 months. I started teaching English in the second week I was in Malawi so for most of my DI period we have been together. I am also disappointed and sad I have to leave them because they are such nice people and a pleasure to teach as they are always so interested and polite and I had such a nice relationship with them. Out of  all the local people I have worked with here, I have been together with them the longest so naturally it’s the most difficult to say goodbye to them. I will see them one more time for a final meeting the week before I leave Malawi. So that will be nice, but I really don’t like goodbyes and never have.

Time is starting to wind down here at the project. 5 months gone, just like that! 6 months will be here in no time!