Quick update!

Hi everyone Louise here, just a quick update. I've had a lovely morning playing out in the sun with the kids. Built the planes that i 'borrowed' from Paw's Spar and managed to begin packing...although having to leave clothes etc here for next time due to everything i've bought!! Farewell party tomorrow, and Lilongwe on Wednesday. Looking forward to home now but in some ways just don't feel ready =( Bernadette and Celia have been a little 'busy' tying up loose ends haha.

Will have a blog soon detailing our adventures of the last two weeks (sure you all can't wait)


Congratulations to Bernard and Sheena on their new grandson =)

And also congratulations to Thumbiko who has been been accepted to begin University this August.

Pawemi!!

Louise, Bernadette and Celia x

Reporting from Mzuzu

Hi peeps. Back home safe and sound in Mzuzu and it feels great. I was worried we wouldn't be free to walk around town but it's absolutely fine. Still armed police on patrol and lots of damaged property but otherwise it's back to normal. As far as the situation across the country goes, this is only the beginning but I am convinced there will be no more trouble until we are back home. Nevertheless, I feel for my friends here who only want their government to listen to them and act fairly on their behalf. Is that too much to ask? I'll be home on Fri and as usual I'm not ready to leave. x

Bernadette, Louise & Celia
.

Greetings from Malawi/Bahamas

Thought I better check in again and reassure everyone. From all the blog/e-mail/texts/facebook comments everyone at home seems to be worried sick whilst we are living it up in the lap of luxury. Normally I would never darken the door of a place like this in Malawi as it is ridiculously over priced but as boltholes go it's extremely safe. We have a private beach with numerous staff answering our every whim.

Truth be told I'm itching to get back to Mzuzu to assess the damage and see all our friends. Fr. Albert Chilambo, a good friend, is coming to meet us for lunch today and he will be able to fill us in. Thumbiko phoned from Mzuzu last night saying everything was quiet. Hopefully the shops and businesses will open again today so that normal life can resume.

Time to go back to the beach and catch some rays!!

Bernadette, Celia & Louise x

Safe & sound

Celia, Louise and Berandette reporting safe & sound from an African warzone!!! Things all went a bit pear shaped here in Malawi yesterday with rioting, looting, shooting and killing throughout the country. We are all safe and lying low at the lake for a few days before attempting to return to Mzuzu on Sat (where unfortunately Louise & Bernadette's passports are residing). Ten were killed in Mzuzu alone yesterday with several more shot. Pray for us and the bereaved families in Mzuzu. x

Checking in and out

Monire mose,

Our team has now split with 6 going off to Zambia and 5 left in Mzuzu. The kids set off yesterday for a night in Lilongwe with Harris escorting them. I heard from them last night that they had arrived safely after an emotional farewell from their Malawian friends. It was eerily quiet in the house last night but the Malawi Gin helped us acclimatise to the unusual quietness. They were certainly a rowdy bunch!!

The 5 of us head off to Rhumpi today to spend 2 nights with good friend Fr. Chunda, coming back to Mzuzu on Saturday for the annual 5 hour Ordination Mass - the novelty is now wearing off!!

Pawemi,

Bernadette and the Malawi Team

Bernard W - we give up, what is B day and what is the big 4 0 you're celebrating? Also thank you for poining out the feast day of St. Benedict, which is now an important feast for me. Robert Johnston owes me a cake!! Haven't you heard my news?

Friday 8th

Hi folks, it’s back to Mick D to bring you the latest and greatest from Mzuzu town here in Malawi.
So the day started like any other…alarms going off at half five to get up and get showered closely followed by the dreaded church bells accompanied by the howling of the dogs. You can kind of get the picture by now…half six mass, half shut knives and breakfast. After breakfast, we got ready to head down to the schools for our last day of teaching, however, as this was the last day, Caroline, Louise and I didn’t need to be at the school until half nine as the girls were having their end of year assembly and receiving their report cards. The group that was teaching at St Peters were told after an hour and a half that they were finished and could go home.

Earlier in the week, the teachers at St Peters had invited us to have lunch with them…this was something that we were dreading as, on the last visit, the children had prepared local traditional food for us including the rather bizarre combination of bananas boiled with meat and tomato. So as you can imagine, we were a little apprehensive about going. We arrived and were seated. The usual formalities followed, including a prayer from a Jehovah witness and a lengthy speech from the head mistress. The food was then brought out and to our delight; it was prepared by Irene and the people from Mary’s Meals and not a boiled banana in sight. After the food, the speeches resumed, including a presentation of gifts from Anne on behalf of St Mary’s which included two new laptops, one of which contained a dongle for internet access.

After lunch, we headed back to the house for a quick change to head into town. The first point of call again was the dodgy guy that changed our money. The man was very happy to see us considering the amount of business that we have provided for him over the past week and as a result Bernadette tried to get him to increase the exchange rate claiming that we were now ‘good friends’. So we all crammed into the little room that was the guys’ office and started to change our money. However, considering that it is anywhere between k250 and k280 to the pound the man soon ran out of Malawian notes. At this point he shouted one of the workers in the shop; spoke some Tumbuka at which the man disappeared, only to reappear a few minutes later carrying a very large plastic bag stuffed with Malawian K500 notes. Once all of the money had been sorted, we headed into the heart of town; some broke off to do their own thing however the majority decided to stay together. We made our way to PEP, a clothing store, to help find Monica some clothes to buy. Once Monica had been kitted out, including a few pairs of rather hideous ‘Bridget Jones’ style underwear, we went for some pizza. After which we met back up with Bernadette and Celia in a small internet café, who were accompanied by some of the street dealers that we had gotten to know.

After ten minutes of internet and bargaining with the dealers for paintings, we headed home only to be told that we only had 40 mins to get ready to go for dinner. After a quick shower and change, it wasn’t long before, ‘Cabs are here’ rang out. After a rather bumpy ride, we arrived at the Key lounge where we were having dinner. We ordered our food and after over an hour of waiting we could finally eat. During this time, Monica was complaining that one of her ears was freezing and the other roasting. Bearing in mind that it was pitch black out side and the fact that we were inside, Bernadette said that she might have got a bit too much sun on that side of her face through the day, to which Monica turned around to see if where the sun was, providing much hilarity. But the food came and was devoured rather quickly, however, Bernadette failed to tell me that when you order fish in Malawi, you get the WHOLE fish…including everything inside it. I found this out the hard way as after eating half of it I turned it round only to have the fish staring straight back at me. Don’t think that Ann-Mary would fancy coming here for her holidays… After dinner we made our way through to the dance floor where we threw down our best shapes to the African music. After a few hours we decided to head home, not too late as Bernadette had to be up early the next morning to travel to Galamalla for a celebration (will be explained later). And then it was off to bed rather happy as we could have a lie in the next morning…

Best wishes from all in Mzuzu. xx

Day 8

Presidential Suite…open for business!

Today began with another early rise to attend 6.30am Mass. Unfortunately, the Malawians believed that we had brought the Scottish weather over with us, as it was much colder this morning – cardigans and jackets all round . After breakfast it was straight to work for our second day of teaching at our primary schools.
We stuck to the same groups as last time, so Louise, Michael D and Caroline headed off for Luangwa while Jen, Michael N, Steph and myself went to St Peter’s to meet the teachers and first class of the day.
Over four hours we took two classes from Standard 6 to do Maths Treasure Hunts, Art and Songs & Drama. The kids seemed to take to the lessons really well and all the nerves of the first day were soon forgotten. Seeing the wee faces of the kids as they worked out their maths problems was amazing! I’m starting to really understand the rewards of teaching .
It was such a compliment to hear that the Malawian teachers, that had worked with us during the day, had been telling Anne that they had learned so much from us and planned to continue using the lesson plans we had came up with on our own!

After a busy morning it was back to the house for a quick lunch of meatballs and tomato sauce before packing cases full of toys and heading off to The Woman’s Development Centre for our first Orphan Party.
Thankfully the sun was out, shining bright and warm by party time!
We began the party with some games of tig, tunnel ball and ladders – all brilliantly led by Louise! Cheers mrs .
After that it was round to the centre’s hut/hall to serve up the meal for the kids. Chicken, beef, eggs, nsima, rice, leaves, mixed veg, bananas and muffins – all paid for by the amazing donors for the trip. It certainly went down well and seconds were soon served up. I personally had a feeling of wanting to do this for the kids every day. It was so great seeing them all tucking into their huge plates of food. All 60 of them sitting patiently and using perfect manners – even I could learn something from them!
After that it was time to give out the many toys, lollies and stationary to all the kids attending. Again they loved this and thanked us numerous times. I just wish they realised they deserved it all (and more) so no thank yous were necessary.
The women who run the centre were overjoyed to each receive a gift bag full of lovely toiletries and sang and danced to show their appreciation.

It was then time to say our goodbyes for the day and head home. Winnie, Thumbiko and Harris all joined us for the rest of the afternoon for cold beers and some raving to Special D and Cascada – all gratefully provided by Michael D’s horrific iPod collection! A highlight was definitely seeing Harris fist-pumping to the music and shouting ‘Malawi Sure!!’. This was then followed by a game of our favourite made-up game of ‘Crazy Mzungu’ – we are rather easily entertained out here, but it’s so fantastic. We pretty much laugh from the hour we get up to the hour we sleep. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world right now and really do have the best company.
Of course, families and friends are so missed. Every one of us sends our love, hugs and kisses home!

Just have to say a quick shout out to all the girls of the trip for being so selfless and helpful towards me since my case went missing – I couldn’t cope without them. Thank you everyone .

More chat tomorrow, lots and lots of love…. Monica and the Malawi Team  xxxxx

Day 7

Day 7- Day of relaxation



After days of travelling, early morning Masses and busy days it was very exciting when it was announced that today would be a free day. No getting up before six, no sports days and definitely no nsima and rice. Instead we slept in without setting an alarm, walked in the sun and ate sugar cane.
Even though we had the luxury of a lie in Celia, Paul and Anne all got up rather early and took a walk down to Mzuzu stadium where the celebrations for the 47th Independence Day were being held. Hours later the rest of us rolled out our beds and joined them, Mzuzu was especially busy not only because it was Independence Day but because Mzuzu was where President Bingu Wa Mutharika had decided to celebrate the day. After a walk along the road at the stadium we all piled into a café called Food Land, pizzas and burgers all round! To say it was a luxury would be an understatement, especially for me (a vegetarian) as most meals I have been eating have been rice, rice and more rice.
After lunch some of us needed to change money again so we headed back to our dodgy dealer in the back of a ceramics shop; and once again we bought pictures and bracelets from the guys that led us to our illegal friend.
Even though we absolutely love it in Malawi some of us are definitely missing the joys of the internet so cue the long search of Mzuzu to find an open internet café. Unfortunately a lot of the businesses in the city were closed due to the celebrations and we had to continue our day not knowing the latest gossip on facebook and twitter. After we had given up all hope on finding a working computer we spotted a few computers in the hotel, which we were in for a couple of drinks, result! However that did mean we had lost Michael N for an hour. The sunbird hotel is quite popular with the rich and famous so when Monica, Stephanie and myself were taking a wee walk around we spotted a convoy of trucks with VIP stickers on the front and naturally had to slow right down and have a nosey. Unfortunately we saw no-one of interest and ended up looking a bit creepy.
After a round or two of drinks and a couple of games of pool we decided to head home, Celia, Anne and Paul walking; Michael N, myself, Louise and Steph in a taxi headed to St Peters and Michael D, Jen, Bernadette and Monica in a taxi to pick up our next lot of Pizzas. More than half an hour later the food finally arrived and was demolished in about half that time. Pizza and chips twice in one day, but no complaints. I think we were all just happy that we weren’t eating Osama, Bingu, Gaddafi or Saddam the four live chickens the cooks had in the kitchen that we had tastefully named. We divided up our leftovers and gave them to our watchman and the lovely women that usually cooked for us. After stuffing our selves our beds were calling and we had a fairly early night.
What another fantastic day!! I don’t think any of us are ready to go home! But of course we do miss our friends and family, see you all soon! 

Caroline and the Malawi Team xxx

P.s Kathryn stay out of my room, love you haha 

Day Six

Celebrating Michael’s birthday…”it’s tradition”

Monire everyone, it has been another eventful day here in Mzuzu. It’s Michael N’s birthday, wooo hooo! Nineteen today, he’s is “just a baby” according to Modesta, one of the fantastic ladies looking after us here.

We started the day with mass and then back to the house for breakfast. Michael opened his birthday cards and then to Celia and Bernadette’s delight appeared to “turn hot water into Mzuzu coffee”.

Our morning was spent working between St Peters Primary School and Luynangwa School for girls. We split into two groups - Michael N, Monica, Jennifer and Steph went to St Peters while Caroline, Louise and Michael D went to Luynangwa. The children got to draw their own tartan, hearing stories about Scotland, kilts, bagpipes and took part in a maths treasure hunt - running between stations they solved sums and problems to complete the course. Our first teaching session ended with a good sing song to some of the classics – head, shoulders, knees and toes and the hokey kokey.

We waved goodbye to the primary schools for the day and went to St Peter’s Secondary for their closing ceremony. A group of students amazed us with an acrobatic bonanza of back flips and rolly pollies.

Packing into the minibus after lunch, we went to Mary Martha for some traditional Scottish sports day games. We played everything from sack and bean bag races to egg and spoon races with the kids. Each child then stepped up onto the podium and presented with a medal and a ‘well done’ sticker. The kids and the volunteers at the centre then sang happy birthday to Michael. Our visit ended with an emotional march to the minibus to the sound of the pipes with a crowd of kids surrounding us.

An evening of partying was then enjoyed by all. Thumbiko and Father Mfune joined us for drinks after dinner. Speeches were made, drinks were drank… A little pink and weather beaten from the sun we headed to bed. All in all, another amazing day.

PS. Shout out to Christine Northcote. See how Steph couldn’t find that brother birthday card. You wrote it to Michael from you and dad ha ha ha. I knew I put it in the trolley…

PPS. Michael says that Tony D has to stop complaining about the state of the scaffolding Pennyburn after witnessing the Mzuzu equivalent.

Stephanie N & the Malawi Team

Day Five

‘Bodily Figures Arose From Their Accustomed Surroundings’

(Movie sound-over voice)

Deep in the darkest crevasse, in the darkest heart of Africa, Mzuzu (Malawi) seems to be some what of a different place. This may be due to the unfortunate blackouts that we are experiencing. Oh yes as I speak we are experiencing an intriguing and in-thrilling blush of darkness. Oh wait, the light has re-appeared from its evil be-holder.

The bell shimmered with the loudest shriek any man has ever come across, and in turn the homosapiens arose from their dusty, crusty resting places. After several complications with the running water supply in the female habitat, scruffy and in-frizzed hair became un-kept and fluxed with a creamy washing substance. The bodies moved forward to look for a clean, consistent energy force in which their individual hairs could be sufficiently kept neat and flourished. It was found. It was used…..

The bodily figures gathered in a communal outset, where the men had joined for the feast of communion. It was early. It was 6.30….. Although remaining in a fatigued state, all figures became inspired and amazed by the community and holy-spirit from the mass at hand.

Their was a sudden urge of stomach ache that ran through the camp, it was hard at first to discover what was wrong with the inhabitants but it was soon discovered that the bodily figures required nourishment to remain active and fulfilled. It was to their delight that ‘totches’ (bananas) were once again on the early morning menu. Debacle struck through the camp, as it was quoted that ‘banana’s and bread would be the death of me’. The chief of the site became confused and unhappy and it was suggested that a warm oaty alternative should be arranged for a later date.

The bodily figures became intrigued and interested with their current surroundings and became infused with the idea of exploring to seek a new culture and new people. Therefore, explorations where initialised and the features and characteristics of the bodily figure became more apparent. This was due to the interaction between themselves and the children from the surrounding two primary schools and secondary school. Stampedes of children and, the once bodily figures, human beings became excited and enthused with the joy to sing and dance with all of the children. The increasingly high noise of the screams of excitement and love from this civilisation sparked delicate emotions within the human beings and passion gleamed through with every move they made.

The human that they call Michael N thought it was an exciting idea to test an increasingly popular technology that was big in the area of camp. All of the milk ice creams where thrown in the water piped sink to melt away due to the distaste that the majority of the group had towards them. Full stop.

Greetings from Michael N and all the Malawi Partnership Team

Monire mose

Hi folks,

Sorry for the delay in posting but the usual internet access problems have kept us back. Hopefully we will be able to post daily now. Regards to all at home who are thinking of us.

Bernadette and the team

Day Four

“Master of Ceremonies”

Only in Malawi could you wake up to an entire gospel choir rehearsing for the Chitumbuka Mass and not even be in the slightest bit bemused by the situation. Celia, Paul, Anne, Michael N and Steph decided to brave the 7am English Mass whereas the rest of us enjoyed a couple more hours beauty sleep; before heading to the more vibrant 10am Chitumbuka Mass. However before this, at breakfast we were joined by Winnie Mwamsamali – an ex-student of St.Peter’s secondary school and good friend of Louise. Winnie came to Scotland with the first group of students that visited in 2006 and stayed with Louise and the rest of the McGinness family. Winnie sends her love to Kathryn, John and Alison.

Just as we remembered, the mass was filled with the most wonderful singing and dancing that we never seem to tire of. It also makes a rather nice change to see and hear such enthusiasm taking place at mass which is a rarity in Scotland. Michael Northcote, in one of Bernadette’s favourite expressions, “took one for the team” and spoke on behalf of everyone at mass. He did us all very proud may I add!

After Mass, we mingled for a while outside the chapel before heading up to the house for lunch; at which point we all became ridiculously excited at the sight of pasta and potatos.

At this point I would like to apologise to anyone I shouted at – there is actually quite a few – for suggesting that Mzuzu must be very hot at this time of year. These comments were always followed by, “IT’S THEIR WINTER…IT’S FREEZING!” I stand corrected…it has been positively roasting! This brings me to immediately after lunchtime when we all decided to take a chair each and sit outside; resulting in some strange looks and confusion from our Malawian friends – they cannot understand why anyone would choose to sit the sun!

We were then obliged to attend a formal welcome with some board members and teachers from the different schools. Drinks and snacks were served as we talked with people and followed the “protocol” created by our “Master of Ceremonies” – the name Mr. Sandros Banda (one of the secondary teachers) gave himself. We were introduced to Sister Anne at this event – a Canadian nun who practically tried to force us in to going to the new nightclub on Saturday night! She’s a lovely woman…not your average nun!

Speaking of Canadians, we were overjoyed to see that our old friend Lesley is still living in Mzuzu! We all made friends with Lesley when we came to Malawi 2 years ago. Lesley and another Canadian friend came to visit later on that night; at which point we decided to go for a wee walk round the campus as it was a beautiful night. During this time Michael N seemed to be continuously gathering children behind us as we walked, which resulted in us spending sunset singing nursery rhymes and playing “Simon Says” with a rather large group of weans!

We had yet another lovely dinner followed by a not so lovely power cut. This apparently happened to poor Celia just as she had turned the shower on – quite a challenge to shower in the pitch black one would imagine! Bernadette’s little battery operated Halloween candles proved to be of great use throughout the couple of hours that we all sat in the dark. The night was rounded off perfectly with some drinks and good banter but with some of us staying up a lot later than we probably should have! Another eventful day in Mzuzu – who knows what tomorrow will bring…

By Jennifer H

Day Three

Two weddings and crazy mzungu.

Monire mosse to those back home.

Just an update on our first day in Mzuzu from our very own Mick D. As it was Saturday we were to have a relaxing day to recover from the previous days travelling. As we did not have to be up for mass, we were given permission to sleep in; however, for some of the more unfortunate ones, their sleep was interrupted by the rather familiar church bells…or Louise’s snoring as Bernadette shared with us in the morning. Although not all of us took advantage of the lie in as Paul and Anne could be heard out side the boys room not long after the bells. Slowly but surely other members of the group emerged, some later than others. We all had breakfast at different times due to this, consisting of bread, bananas, coffee and tea. Shortly after we were joined by a few familiar faces, Harris, Emelda and Lilian. Once fed and watered, we broke off into smaller groups, some decided to got for a walk to reacquaint themselves with the area again, meeting Kingstone and Thombiko along the way, others opting to stay at the house.

We were amazed to discover that the small church shop at the end of the road had acquired a fridge freezer…and was now selling ICE LOLLYS! Not long before lunch however, Lizzy appeared at the door along with her niece. We then sat down to a few pre-lunch snacks, although, having being sitting in the petrol fume filled minibus, some of the crisps had taken on a distinct flavour, prompting Monica to ask the question between mouthfuls, ”do you think its alright to eat these if they smell and taste like petrol??”. As you may remember from the previous blogs the food was actually rather good and sure enough this has continued through this trip. Really, the only real difference between this trip and the last is the weather…it has been fantastic, high teens through the days at least. After lunch Bernadette informed us that we would be attending a ‘fake’ wedding at the Mary Martha orphanage. It turns out that an old couple were celebrating their wedding anniversary by having a ceremony, bizarre none the less. So in honour of the occasion the two Michaels donned their kilts, a present of Scottish items were assembled, Michaels Bag pipes were packed and we were off…or so we thought, we were barely out the door when we realised that a wedding reception was taking place forty yards away from the house in the community centre. Getting caught up with taking photos and watching the dancing through the procession we did not realise that the minibus was waiting for us until Bernadette rounded us up and had us on the bus. Arriving at the orphanage it was apparent that the celebrations were in full flow. Dancing, singing and a dodgy music system…it felt like a wedding from home. Apart from the fact that people were dancing up to buckets to put money into and that the ‘bride and groom’ were sitting on a sofa on a wooden stage out side and that the precession car was a 4x4 with toilet paper stuck to it, Bernadette commenting ‘if you have to go, at least you know where the toilet paper is…’. Michael N piped us up to the stage where we presented the happy couple with their gift. We tried to blend in with the crowd…rather difficult as you can imagine considering where we were and the fact that both of the boys were wearing ‘skirts’ and that a rather large group of children had gathered round us wanting pictured and the likes. Soon after, one of the men in charge of the orphanage approached us asking us to dance to the buckets and put in a donation. After a few reluctant minutes, we decided to join in. However, as we came through the circle of people into the opening, most of the crowed had cleared leaving us in full view of everyone, and in a rather un-rhythmic fashion we embarrassed our way to the bucket and quickly retreated to the safety of the crowed. It came time for us to say our good byes’ and we climbed into the petrol filled mini bus and headed for Mzuzu town.

On the way there was a clamour of excitement as two monkeys ran out on to the road…the only disappointment came from Michael D who got half way through assembling his camera when they disappeared up a tree. We were dropped off in the town so that the previous day’s blog could be typed up and arranged to meet back at a bar in twenty minutes. Michael D and Jen headed off to try and find a cash machine to lift money…with no avail might I add. However, the internet café was closed by the time that we arrived so the rest of the group headed into town unknown to the other two and by the time that they had arrived back, everyone was gone and so decided to sit on a step at the edge of the road until everyone reappeared. It wasn’t long though until Paul and Anne arrived back having been separated from the group and so the four went for an early drink. The rest of the group joined us after around 15 minutes and we all sat down and had a drink. We decided to walk home, comments being shouted at us all the way…bearing in mind that the boy were still wearing their kilts, ‘GENDER! GENDER!’ most of the way home.

It was dark by the time that we arrived home to dinner, beef stew and tatties waiting. After dinner, the orphan cases were emptied and categorised. A small foam rugby ball that was found in one of the cases provided the entertainment for the rest of the night leading to a new catching game which the girls named ‘crazy muzungu’ due to the comments, structure and competition that crept into the game between the pupils with the teachers watching in the background. The night was rounded off with a “quiet” game of cards…fat pig which was finally decided by a head to head game of spoons between Bernadette and Michael D. it was soon time far a well deserved rest after a long day.

Twonganenne sono sono.

PS. Gail, Jen has asked to put in a mention to remember to send off her college acceptance letter, thanks.

PS. To the Northcote’s, Natasha, Dave and XS peeps, Michael and Steph here. Just a wee message to say that we are alive and most definitely well, enjoying the warmest and sunniest weather that we have seen in a long time. Due to our malarial drugs, doxycyclone has proved to be a supermodels tanning agent, and yes, Natasha! I believe I am more tanned than you. J. We are both missing everyone so much because “our days feel like weeks and our weeks feel like months and yes you’ve guessed it, our months feel like years!” LOL. Every minute spent in the company of our fellow Scottish and Malawian friends has been pure and utter bliss and we can’t get enough of it! So much fun! On a little personal note, Natasha, I hope to be on facebook on Monday afternoon/night and I will leave you a little message! Although it has been a few days, I am truly missing your chat and warm hugs! All the best and our love, Pawemi!
Michael & Stephanie Northcote xxx J