A few more Photos

South Africa

We’ve just spent 2 and 1/2 weeks touring around South Africa with all of Peter’s immediate family.  We’ve had a great time, it’s an incredibly diverse country as we’ve sampled mountains (Drakensburg), Savanah/veldt of various types (Kruger) and coast and coastal esturaries. 

Here are a very few photos of some of the beautiful sights:

Bird list updated

Tuesday 9th-Tuesday 16th Our last week in Neno

Since returning, the days just seem to be slipping away, though we were kept busy wrapping things up, and saying farewells.  None of us can believe that we have been here almost six weeks, and there is the usual mix of emotions – sad to leave but excited to be in South Africa with Peter’s family again.  When asked what the key things they will remember from Neno, Tristan mentioned the birds, Patrick the soccer, Natalie the family – particularly Taluza.  All talked about the food (how it had been great in the beginning but was wearing thin), and looking forward to having “just family” time.

The Project

On Wednesday we had the official “handing over” ceremony of the desks at the school.  All the local brass were there, MP, traditional authority (chief), district commissioner, district education officer, as well as a smattering of other local “politicians” (I’m not quite sure what this meant), most of the teachers, and hundred or so students who’d been roped into appearing the day before.  The classroom floors look really good, the blackboards have been completed and painted, most of the desks have been completed and everyone is very happy with the outcome which is great.  For more details see the Project Report which we are getting together…

Formal handover of books...

Chairs...

And desks.

Refurbished desks

The 80 new benches

New shelves for the library

We then had a couple more meetings to finalise how the school community would manage the payment of the two contractors still to complete their work.  As there were not the “contingencies” we expected, we also agreed to leave K100,000 in the “school development” account, agreeing processes for deciding how to use the funds and account for them, and setting up proposal and reporting forms as well. We discussed small and large possible uses for the funds – support for “vulnerable” kids (possibly uniforms, stationery etc), small funds for the SRC equivalent here to spend as they see fit, teachers houses, electrification for the school. They will make decisions and let us know.

Building stoves

We had one more trip out to build stoves, this time in Ligowe.  All the kids came, including Taluza, and we picked up Jimmy, the head of the local CBO (community based organisation) so he could learn how to make the stoves too.  They seem to be doing a lot on very little – not sure how the CBOs here work, but we understand that they work largely on volunteers, getting experience and training, and paid minimal per-diems when they do work with an outside project.  This CBO works with people living with HIV/AIDS and AIDS orphans – supporting vocational training (they have a carpentry workshop amongst other things), counselling, community awareness raising, in-home care, a “goat-bank” – and receive high praise from the District Social Welfare department.  They work with Partners in Health, and were happy to be involved with the stoves, and Jimmy was very enthusiastic, and as a builder was also highly capable at the making.  He was interested to use the technology with the people he works with as well as help with the PIH patient houses, so we left him the trowel and the laminated handout explaining construction.  We also had a final meeting with PIH and they were very keen to continue with the stove and kitchen building to try and get them in to all 60 of their houses by the end of the dry season.  We left Edwin with the other trowel and all of the info we had on computer, as well as K50,000 (about $300), which will go a long way to paying for materials for the remaining 50 homes!!

The last stove we built

Farewell/Birthday party

The Palani kids had been complaining to Felictus that none of them ever had a birthday party, so it was agreed they could have one to share.  After much discussion, it was decided to have it before we left, and time it to be a farewell for us too.  All the kids really cared about was that there would be loud music to dance to, with food and crates of soft drink (and one of beer) being added as an after-thought.

Learning from the Master Chef

It was great fun.  Friends of the family came to help with preparations, one of whom is a chef/manager of a resort, so he taught us how to make samosa and spring rolls from scratch (yum!).  We also cooked a huge birthday cake in the solar cooker which – much to everyone’s surprise – was perfectly cooked and highly edible (if a little dense because of its slow cooking).  Natalie was in her element, dancing the night away; and Alison and Peter entertained everyone with their gyrations.  We also gave everyone their farewell/birthday presents – Peter had cleverly chosen exactly the right number of T-shirts in approximately the right sizes for Mona Lisa, Tandi, Ted, Gloria, Ruben and Earnest (remarkable as we really had no idea who would be in the household!) and we bought a couple of sets of socks for John and Dalitso, and stationery sets for Taluza and Mwayi.  These were appreciatively worn/used during our remaining days, making us feel well loved!

Natalie dancing the night away

No trouble getting people to dance here...

Meetings with Important People

We finally met the two MPs for Neno in the last week too.  One came to the formal “handing over” ceremony for the school and invited us to her home for dinner that night, which was lovely – she identified the road, local water supply, health care and education as the four priorities for her electorate, and had a clear focus on the needs of women.  She also talked about how democracy has changed how people view the role of people in government. She feels that people now have a much higher expectation that MPs can solve their personal problems – including calling her at all hours to drive them to hospital. This view was mirrored by an agricultural extension officer we spoke to who said that now when he visits farmers they expect him to provide seed, fertilizer etc a well as advice, whereas before they would have listened, done what they were told and given gifts! The MP loved her job, and was happy that people were engaging with the democratic process, though admitted that it was really hard work!

The other MP (Minister for Aging and Disability) had invited us to take us on a trip to one of the National Parks, but this kept falling through due to her and our schedules not matching. We would have liked to have spent time speaking with her, as both the MPs were remarkable women. But our meeting was ultimately Peter spending an afternoon visiting an “older people’s shelter” which the Minister established with a group of women in the Banda Era, and speaking with her briefly.  The shelter is largely for women, including those escaping from DV, which is a significant problem here, as everywhere, and he was impressed by the work it does.

Final departures

Another set of demonstrations was scheduled for the 17^th, the day of our departure, so everyone was a bit nervous about the day.  We were leaving at 8:00am, so decided to stay in Neno for the night of the 16^th, then leave at 3:00am to drive to the airport, which would get us there by 5:30 and leave Lawford and the car time to get back to Neno by 8, to miss any trouble that might occur.  Civil Society leaders announced that they had called off the protests on Tuesday as the Government had agreed to meet to discuss their petition, but no-one was sure what would happen, and UN and government cars/workers were requested to remain at home for the day just in case.  Our major concern had been that we would be unable to find fuel for the journey out of Neno, so we had arranged to buy diesel a few days before and had it stored at the house in jerry cans.

We said our farewells the night before, hard to imagine that we may not see people again, even though we like to think we will be back.  It was odd leaving in the dark, but it added to the kids excitement, and we had no mishaps along the way – except perhaps that security thought that Patrick’s clarinet was some form of bomb, with all of its wires and tubes.  They didn’t mind us carrying on full water bottles or a mirror though!  We had changed money to have the departure tax ready, but it was not required, so Peter tried to change it back at the airport bank – but they only had some small amount of Rand and no other foreign exchange – another reminder of the difficulties Malawi is facing at the moment. The plane was also a charter plane as Air Malawi planes are all grounded due to lack of maintenance…

So our trip to Malawi ended!

 

 

Monday the 8th

We had originally planned to return to Zalewa in the morning, but Felictus had ending up travelling to Zambia that day to buy goods for her shop so it was agreed that we should meet up with her at 5 in the evening in Zalewa.  This seemed somewhat optimistic, and indeed it turned out so.  In the end, we arrived back at Neno around 10 pm, Sam having experienced mechanical difficulties so we got a lift from the social welfare officer, Peter, who had travelled to Mwanza to buy fuel.  This led to our most uncomfortable trip yet, as the back of the pick-up was already full of fuel (a 44 gallon drum and 7 20 litre jerry cans), and there were already three adults in the truck.  As usual we squashed in somehow, 6 of us in the back of the twin cab with luggage; it was a 2.5 hour ride on a bumpy road and one that no one is keen to repeat… but we were welcomed very warmly as always, and collapsed into bed, glad to be “home”.

August 6th – 8th More Travelling and back “Home”

Our holiday at Cape Maclear was fun, but we were ready to head back to Neno which has definitely become a second home for us. Agogo (Mwayi’s grandmother) was keen to see us again but rather than have her travel all the way to Cape Maclear from Zomba we agreed to meet in the Mangochi Boma at the southern end of Lake Malawi and get a lift from there. The travel out to Monkey Bay seemed quicker than the trip in, and there was a mini-bus waiting there which transported us quite comfortably to Mangochi.

Some things are the same the world over, police are seen by the government as a source of revenue and with the recent issues around/reductions in aid funding, this has become even more important so police are quite zealous about handing out fines. Mini-buses are only allowed to transport the registered number of people but operators are naturally keen to maximise revenue. Our minibus had started out relatively empty but quickly became (over) stuffed so we were surprised when we stopped, seemingly at random and a lady was asked to get off and get on a open-air truck bus (Matola). The reason became apparent as a police roadblock materialised and our passenger numbers duly checked. I wondered if we would stop again at the other side of the road block to re-acquire our erstwhile passenger but this didn’t happen so presumably the driver had organised that she shouldn’t have to pay for her truck ride. It’s ironic, of course, that there is no ‘passenger rating’ for matola so they presumably are allowed to have as many passengers as they like.

We got to Magochi town around 11 and as Agogo was only just leaving Zomba. After hanging off at the bus station for a while we decided to go to the bridge across the Shire (pronounced she-ray) River. We had a choice of transport, private taxi for K1000 or bicycle taxi for K150 ($1) each. No contest really – we thoroughly enjoyed balancing our luggage on the 3 km ride through town.

The Bicycle Taxis

Agogo arrived safely and we stopped at the local police station to receive advice as to where was the best eating place.  It was another very satisfactory (and large) meal with most of us enjoying lake chambo (telapia).  Alison then went off with Tristan and Agogo to buy more chambo to take home with us to Neno (Felictus’ favourity meal) while Patrick, Mwayi, Natalie, and Peter stayed at the restaurant to have a bounce on the trampoline!  Everyone enjoyed having a good bounce, particularly Patrick who was pleased that he could still do somersaults.

The travel back to Zomba was eventful for a couple of reasons.  The first was a witnessing a form of transport that we have not yet used….

The "Malawian Duck"

The other event of note was our stop for curio shopping.  We’d been assured that we would be going past the cheapest place to buy wooden carvings.  By the time we arrived, it was getting late so as a result, there were lots of vendors keen to make sales and no other customers- it was another example of the good nature of Malawian vendors who while very keen to make sales, never seem to get aggressive; we came away with a few more things and resolve that we had now finished our curio shopping! (Well, until Laos anyway!).

 

 

Thursday: Not going to Cape Maclear

Chris from the pottery had been planning to be back in Dedza early Thursday, so we planned to meet him for breakfast then catch a bus down to the Lake.  We called him at 7:30am, and he had not left Lilongwe yet, and would not be home till after lunch.  After some discussion we decided to spend one more night in Dedza so Peter could catch up with Chris.  We arranged to leave all of our gear at the Lodge to be picked up later, then we wandered back onto the mountain to do some scrambling.

wooden bicycle

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful; we stopped at a curio shop on the Dedza pottery road and admired the wooden bicycles, trucks, diggers etc.  Mwayi distinguished himself again with his bargaining process, purchasing some pull-along wicker trucks for half the list price.  Next door was a paper making place which we demurred from making purchases until we noticed that they had made binding for their handmade books.  My Birds of Southern Africa book has been looking very sad this holiday, we had done a temporary fix at the beginning of the holiday but that was now failing.  We asked the shopkeeper if he could re-bind the book and he said “no problem”, yes he could have it ready for early the next morning, how much would it cost K150 ($1).  So we left the book there to be re-bound.

Dinner with Chris and Charity was very pleasant, the operation is obviously doing well as Chris was off to Likoma Island the following day to investigate opening another resthouse there.  They already have 3, the one in Dedza and two in Nkhotankota; one of these is at their pottery where you can do a week long pottery course while enjoying the lake and surrounds.  There only problem just now is that with the fuel shortage they are seeing far fewer weekend day visitors who would previously have come out from Lilongwe.  The fuel shortage is a bit bizarre as all the border areas (e.g. Dedza, Ntcheu, Mwanza, Mangochi) seem to have plenty of fuel and buyers (but of course you pay the higher prices of the black-market.  I’m not sure why volumes of this fuel do not flow into the rest of the country except perhaps you need permits to transport fuel and the numerous police roadblocks make this difficult with fuel obtained through irregular channels.  Mozambique has obviously developed a lot since Peter was here, just after their civil war ended in 1994.  The border crossing at Dedza is now quite a major spot and Chris and Charity had crossed there and driven to the world cup in South Africa in 2010 without any major difficulties.