Thursday Already!

Day Two of the new austere catering regime dawned with a traditional Malawian breakfast of – wait for it – cornflakes (Kelloggs) with hot milk, rolls, boiled eggs and avocado!! Even Bernadette was bemused by that combination – and, by the way, cornflakes taste (much) better with cold milk!

While St Matthew’s staff were back at the chalk face (literally given that a blackboard is the only teaching resource available in most classrooms) to get started with their curricular projects, Anne was at St Peter’s Primary School continuing to work with staff there to set up a link with St Mary’s Primary School in Largs. She has been involved in meetings but has also been in classes and has been making a big hit with the pupils if the smiles on their faces are anything to go by.

Following 4 periods of teaching classes, interviewing Malawian pupils, undertaking surveys and, in the case of pupils, following the timetable, we beat a hasty retreat and headed to Nkhata Bay for our afternoon off. Nkhata Bay is an hour’s drive down from the high land where Mzuzu is located to the shores of Lake Malawi. The spectacular scenery along the way is surpassed only by the beauty of the lake which was shimmering in the hot African sun by the time we arrived – it had been very cool although mainly dry in Mzuzu in the morning.

We stopped briefly at stalls selling traditional Malawian “tat” but were advised by Bernadette only to look because she would arrange for one of the traders to come to the Mayoka Village restaurant after we had lunched and she would negotiate a good deal. She had also advised us that the stallholders liked to trade their goods for named or designer gear and some of our number had brought items for this purpose – more on this later!

After an excellent lunch, we relaxed in the sun (plenty of Factor 15 for Ally’s head), explored the coastline around the restaurant, got excited by the Compost Toilet (can you believe that 3 separate female members of staff took a photo of the instructions for use?!) and failed miserably to buy any souvenirs because the “wee dodgy guy” (a direct quote from Bernadette) turned up with nothing although he did take orders for about 50 hand carved wooden key rings which he promised to deliver to Mzuzu on Friday – guess what you are all getting from Malawi, folks!

Before we left Scotland, we had asked our pupils to get written permission from their parents before they could go into the water at Nkhata Bay because the lake is not totally clear of the water snail which causes bilharzia. Only Michael D had received this permission – although Caroline did spend most of the afternoon trying to persuade Eric that her mum had accidentally ticked the “No” box when she really meant to tick the “Yes” box. Eric eventually snapped and tried to shut her up permanently – but don’t worry, McCourts, he didn’t leave too many bruises on her neck and, no, she didn’t get in the lake! Michael D’s attempts to stay reasonably dry on the dugout canoe proved to be unsuccessful – so he will have to take the giant tablet required to ensure that he doesn’t catch the dreaded bilharzia!

And so to the undoubted highlight of yesterday. Darkness was falling as we left Mayoka but the market traders had kept their stalls open in anticipation of our bonanza shopping spree. In almost pitch darkness, our intrepid shoppers plundered the stalls of rings, bracelets, necklaces, wood carvings, paintings and so on with much bartering going on (usually preceded with shouts of “Bernadette, how much should I be paying for this?”). A certain amount of “trading” of designer gear did take place but the supreme champion in this regard was definitely Dominic who even traded the trainers (and socks!) he was wearing – this was in addition to the other 3 pairs of trainers he had brought with him, his baseball cap and his sweatshirt! Fortunately, we had to leave otherwise there was no telling what state of undress he would have returned to the bus in! Definitely our trading hero!

Back to a full day of work today – first of all in school and then a visit to Mary Martha Orphan Care Centre which will undoubtedly tug the heartstrings. We are printing off your comments on each day’s blog at the internet café in Mzuzu and this is proving to be a very popular read each evening so keep it up. See you tomorrow.