St. Matthew's Academy - Malawi

Quick update!

2011-07-25T12:45:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-24T10:52:00.001+01:00

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

2011-07-22T10:59:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-21T16:23:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-14T09:00:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-12T11:19:00.000+01:00

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

2011-07-08T10:45:00.000+01:00

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

2011-07-08T10:34:00.002+01:00

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

2011-07-07T09:36:00.000+01:00

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

2011-07-07T09:35:00.000+01:00

‘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

2011-07-05T08:40:00.001+01:00

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

2011-07-05T08:38:00.002+01:00

“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

2011-07-05T08:38:00.001+01:00

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

Day One and Two – Thursday 30th June and Friday 1st July

2011-07-05T08:32:00.001+01:00

The 11 Travellers, 2 Malawians, 2 petrol cans and 2 chickens.

Our epic journey began at Glasgow Airport at 2 o’clock on Thursday 30^th June, where 11 of us met and eagerly anticipated what was to come. All bags were checked in with no need for our sob stories and we were on our way! All flights went on schedule and everything was running smoothly –that is of course until we touched down in Malawi.

Waiting on baggage is always a nerve wracking experience and this time after about an hour we had to reside to the fact that we were minus two cases – us girls will all be sharing after poor Monica’s case has gone AWOL (we are assured it shall be brought to Mzuzu ASAP). So after collecting luggage and forcing our way through customs without having to open every case we walked out into the glorious Lilongwe sunshine. Here we were greeted by some familiar faces that made us feel most welcome, Father Wezi Mfume, Mr Banda and Mr Phiri. We were then helped with loading our luggage into the pick up (which Bernadette pointed out looked like we were flitting with the amount of baggage we have) and were shown to the mini bus. Well what an experience – Malawi has a shortage of petrol at the moment so petrol is rationed –when we got on the mini bus what greeted us was the overwhelming smell of petrol. Four hour bus journey and the strong smell of two cans of petrol, brilliant!!

The next port of call was to go into Lilongwe and pay for the safari trips and hotel etc. What struck me was the amount of cars on the road in Malawi now. The road into Lilongwe was so busy it reminded me of the Kingston Bridge at rush hour! Lilongwe itself has also developed, with lots of new shops being built, shout out to John, there’s a new spar shop opened, and cash machines being at nearly every corner (mind you the queues to use a cash machine are miles long). With all business taken care of we were now back on the road heading for Mzuzu. We were running late by now after the luggage debacle and how busy Lilongwe was and had been on the go, with very limited sleep, for twenty-four hours. We were all looking forward to getting some shut eye on the bus as we made our way for a late lunch at Kasungo Inn.

It was on the road to Kasungo that the real African experience began. The bus was rambling along, with the 11 of us all nodding off here and there, when suddenly Mr Phiri pulls the mini bus into the side of the road and Mr Banda opens the window. All of us wake with a start wondering what is going on, when suddenly Mr Phiri and Mr Banda have a group of chicken sellers at each of their windows!! Forget McDonalds drive through when you can have Malawi live chicken drive through!! So after some hard bargaining Mr Banda bought one white and one black chicken which we named The Colonel and Frank. Yes and you guessed it, in the already crowded mini bus with the 11 of us, the 2 Malawians, the 2 cans of petrol we now had in our company 2 chickens – who from all the squawking we took it really didn’t want to be there.

Finally we arrived at Kasungo and quickly ordered our lunch and bought our first round at the bar. Here was our first experience of ‘Malawi time’. There was absolutely no rush in our lunch coming, but after over an hour it arrived and was quickly devoured. Now that we were all fed and watered it was now time for the final leg of our journey to Mzuzu. Climbing in the mini bus, now in the pitch black as the sun had set was an experience – the location of the two chickens couldn’t be confirmed but Mr Banda reassured us that they were somewhere on the bus so we weren’t to worry! This news only worried us all more, and many of us sat with our legs up off the floor.

Another hour or so had passed, with us all nodding off periodically, when Michael N up the front of the bus awoke those around him by saying he could feel something at his leg. Now Michael N was still wearing his kilt at this point, but we very carefully used the light of his phone to peer down into the darkness of the floor of the mini bus. Bad move. Mr Banda spotted that it was in fact one of his chickens that was up against Michael’s leg so proceeded to grab it. This was an even worse move. The chicken then flailed wildly against Michael’s leg, and flapped its wings squawking hysterically in the process. By this point Michael was trying to move out of the way of the chicken which was now directing itself towards Bernadette. Bernadette then went head first into Celia after the chicken managed to get to her and attack her back in the process. Through all this commotion most of the rest of the mini bus managed to sleep and chicken number two was still AWOL.

The journey seemed to go on forever. Bernadette started a sing song to lift our spirits, which for the majority of us it did. However poor Paul and Anne were stuck up the back of the bus, freezing, with the two cans of petrol and the bus was beginning to backfire. Finally we arrived in Mzuzu and were greeted by all our good friends. With everyone helping to unload our luggage it took no time. Paul also managed to locate chicken number 2 as he was searching the mini bus for things that we had left behind, that was a shock!!

Finally, after around a day and a half of travelling we were at our second home of Mzuzu, Malawi. All of us climbed into bed exhausted but excited as to what other adventures we will be in store for.

The 11 travellers, 2 Malawians, 2 petrol cans but only one chicken made it safely to Mzuzu (unfortunately the chicken involved in all the commotion seemed to die off with shock).

Bernadette's reflections

2010-08-07T22:50:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Having been back a week I now feel ready to post my reflections of the trip. I must admit that I've found it pretty difficult readjusting to life back at home this past week. The more often I go to Malawi the more difficult it is to come back home. Obviously it was great to catch up with friends and family again and especially my delightful 10 month old nephew who has grown a good couple of inches in the last month. However when in Malawi I feel that every day has a purpose (from 6am!) whereas at home it easy to get caught up doing things that really don't matter. I literally came back to earth with a bump when I got a phone call as the plane had just landed in Glasgow saying my mum had a stroke during my last week in Malawi. Thankfully she's doing ok now but is waiting for an operation in the near future. The more eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed my very brief TV debut on the Hour last Wednesday courtesy of my HCPT group.

Rather than recounting all the experiences of the trip again I thought I would pick my top 10 highlights in no particular order:

1. The ex-seminarians party. Totally bizarre but enjoyable afternoon.

2. The truck breaking down on the mountain track to Livingstonia and being stranded for 2 and a half hours.

3. My one wild night (honest!) in Malawi when I partied at Nkhata Bay to 4am with Siobhan McGuire (Elizabeth's sister-in-law). Everyone needs a blow out now and again!

4. The Black Missionaries concert. Surreal!

5. The 2 orphans' parties. If I had put the list in order this would be number 1. I still get emotional thinking about them and not because I feel sorry for them but because they are so full of life, joyful and thankful for the little they have. I can assure you that every penny we give to these orphan centres is used to the greatest benefit of the kids.

6. The afternoon at the Ilala lodge with our 6 exchange kids. This was more emotional than the orphan centres and I was not expecting that at all. Listening to them reflect on their time in Scotland was so humbling. Paul has fantastic video footage from that afternoon, which we will use during Malawi week this year.

7. Visits to Malawian homes. We managed to fit in visits to the homes of Mr. Banda (HT St Peter's), daphne (DHT St. Peter's), Irene (DHT primary), Alex (HT primary) and Thomas Mvula (primary school board). The hospitality we received in each of these homes was again very humbling. They all went to a great deal of effort to make us welcome. Unfortunately we had to turn down several other invitations due to lack of time. Next year!!

8. Uno night. Playing uno (card game) till midnight by candle light ( due to power cut) with Fr. Chunda, Fr. Joseph and Petros - aided by a box of red wine. It was hysterical!

9. The Masses. Totally uplifting whether it be the 6.30am Masss every morning or the 4 hour ordination Mass. The Mass at St. Joseph's out station was particularly memorable and it was great joining their community for the morning.

10. Fr. Chunda. Our amazing host and travelling companion. Most of the places we visited he had never been to in his life and his excitement and joy added to our experience.

Thank you to all our donors, orphan sponsors and blog readers (best blogger award goes yet again to Bernard Walsh) for all your support. We really appreciate you as do our Malawian friends. With the school donations along with many personal donations for this trip we were able to assist our partners in the following ways:

£500 St. Peter's Secondary for textbooks (from St. Matthew's Academy)
£500 Luynangwa Girls Primary for development project (St. Mark's Primary)
£500? St. Peter's primary for sanitation project (St. Mary's Primary)
£250 Women's Centre to support orphan feeding programme (St. Matthew's)
£100 Women's Centre to support child-headed families (St. Matthew's staff donations)
£50 Women's centre to buy blankets for vulnerable orphans (personal donation)
£20 Women's Centre to buy hotplate to help cook for orphans (personal donation)
£100 Women's centre orphans' party (personal donations)
£300 Mary Martha Orphan care for development project (St. Matthew's & staff donations)
£100 Mary Martha Orphan Care for orphans' party (St. Matthew's staff)
£100 St Joseph's out station for church building fund (personal donations)
Numerous other small donations and gifts for the orphans.

Not bad considering this was supposed to be just a holiday! As our Malawian friends always say, "We have no words to thank you, it is only God who can thank you for what you do for us!"

Pawemi,

Bernadette

Travels South

2010-08-03T14:33:00.000+01:00

Here are a few pictures from our last week spent in Malawi. After saying our last goodbyes we set off south visiting Mua, Zomba, Blantyre, Cape Maclear and Dedza before returning for our flight at Lilongue. Our journey took us over 2,000 kms. The 1st picture shows Mr Banda (head teacher), Thumbeko, Kingston, Lilian and Immelda who came to see us off from St Peter's.

Here are the merry group at St Peter's who made our stay in Mzuzu a very enjoyable one: Fr. Joseph, Petrus, Paul & Tobias (the cooks) and the watchmen.

1st stop was at Mua, where the 1st Catholic Missionaries came to Malawi. Now it is a cultural centre with a fantastic display of exhibits, artifacts and information regarding history of the Catholic Church in Malawi, tribal history and customs.

At Zomba we stayed in Malawi's top hotel for one night: the Ku Chawe (Sunbird hotel), our biggest extravagance on the trip, but well recommended for the food, facilities and views overlooking Zomba, the old capital .

This picture shows the market in Blantyre, Malawi's 2nd largest city. Blantyre was a complete contrast to Mzuzu. In Blantyre we went to hear the Black Missionaries playing: a fantastic experience and one of the many highlights of the trip.

The Black Missionaries are Malawi's top band, playing Reggae. The locals at the concert were very eager to show us some of the dance moves.

At Cape Maclear we spent 3 nights recharging our batteries. The 3 pictures are an attempt to show what it looks like. However, they don't do it justice; it was very beautiful and very unspoiled; apart from a few lodges for the passing backpackers and a few tourists there were few facilities. We stayed at Gekko Lodge. Despite the area having a population of 15,000 it was unbelievably very peaceful and relaxing.

The water of the lake was inviting but we were put off swimming here by the fact it is one of the worst areas for catching bilharzia. The island in the picture is Thumbwe; it is one of 2 islands closeby, the other is Domwe.

Finally on the 28 July we arrived in Lilongue, spending the customary night at Nelly's Lodge with dinner at Don Brionne's in the centre. For our farewell dinner we were joined by Frs. Chunda, Charles and Robert. Our flights via Amerstdam and Johannesburg back to Glasgow passed without incident with us arriving safely on the 30 July.

Paweme

Paul, Bernadette, Celia & Anne

Tuesday 20

2010-07-27T16:27:00.000+01:00

Monire

Today was our last full day in Mzuzu. The morning was spent doing last minute shopping and saying our final goodbyes to the staff at St. Peter's Primary and Secondary. Bernadette handed over 100,000 kwachas and a lap top computer from St Matthew's Academy. The money will help to purchase very much needed textbooks while the lap top will be put to good use for admin purposes. In the afternoon in the lounge of the La La hotel we met up with the 6 students who came to Scotland in March to reminisce about their experiences. Each of the students recorded a separate video message for each of their host families back home in Scotland. They also produced several short films about their experiences which we hope to make use of during Malawi week in St Matthew's. It is very hard to express in words how great the impact the trip to Scotland has had on them; as a group they have forged such a strong bond of friendship with each other. We wish them well with their studies and hope to keep in touch. In the evening as a big thank you to Fr. Chunda, Fr. Joseph and Petros, the seminarian, we took them to an Indian restaurant, the "A1", in Mzuzu for their 1st taste of Indian food (perhaps not the best idea since we were travelling south the next day). The food was excellent with no after effects the next day; we certainly would recommend the restaurant to anyone staying or visiting Mzuzu.

Paweme

Paul, Bernadette, Celia and Anne

Monday 19

2010-07-27T16:04:00.000+01:00

Monire

Today was our 2nd last full day in Mzuzu. In the morning Celia and Anne went to visit a coffee factory in Mzuzu arranged by Fr. Eugene. They both came back brimming with information about the process of coffee and also honey to entertain Bernadette. During our stay we have all enjoyed the Mzuzu coffee and we were interested to learn that it should be on sale in Scotland very shortly under the Fair Trade arrangements. In the afternoon we paid our last visit to the Mary Martha Orphans Centre to say our goodbyes. 3 of the orphans from the senior youth section entertained us with a short comedy play about modern life in Malawi; this was followed by the orphans in the nursery singing some songs. Bernadette gave the Centre 100,000 kwachas from donations from people back home in Scotland. On behalf of Mary Martha Roderick Kavouta assured us the money would be put to very good use in finishing the Centre's new building and helping to fund the various services provided. In the evening we were invited to Irene Jere's home for a delicious traditional Malawian meal.

Paweme

Paul, Celia, Bernadette & Anne

Sunday 18 July

2010-07-27T15:09:00.000+01:00

Monire

We are all going to try and update you with our travels. On Sunday it was another wonderful day. The day began with the English Mass at 7.00 a.m. It was wonderful to get a lie in. At the Mass we said farewell to everyone. Although we all feel sad about leaving Mzuzu because we have had a fantastic time we know that God willing we will all return next summer. Our next Mass of the day was scheduled at one of the parish outstations (St. Joseph's) at 10.00 a.m. with Father De Chen. Bernadette did very well driving over the rough ground to get there. The Church at this outstation is a large wooden shed, although the Parishioners have been fundraising along with the support from the other Parishes in the area to build a new brick Church which will accommodate 500 people. By next year this should be completed. Once again we received a very warm welcome, despite the rain. Thankfully Celia chose not wear Bernadette's polythene poncho! Mass was a joyful occasion; a full Church of happy singers and dancers. Even although we do not speak or fully understand the language you can feel the love and the depth of the people's faith. The children were very eager to sit beside or at least get a close look at us. Bernadette and Anne came to the rescue of one little child who was outside looking in. He put his arm through the slatted wood and got stuck.

After Mass we were invited to share a meal with Father and the helpers. Sharing a meal here is a sign of welcome, just like we give visitors to our home a cup of tea. Today we had 2 lunches since we had already accepted an invitation to Daphne and Emmanuel Okoronkwo. Both meals were delicious (chicken, nsima, meat, beans and greens) despite the electrical power being off all day. For the first time the group was introduced to alcohol free Guinness. We spent a wonderful few hours at Daphne's catching up on all the news since she had been in Scotland. It has been a sad time for the family as Daphne's dad had died. However, now the family is looking forward to a new addition.

In the evening we still did not have any electricity therefore dinner was by candlelight. The special treat for dinner was a few of Father Chunda's pigeons. Needless to say we all decided to stick with the nsima, rice and vegetables. Afterwards we all had fun playing Uno with Fr. Chunda, Fr.Joseph and Petros (the seminarian) until bedtime.

Paweme

Anne, Celia, Paul & Bernadette

Internet access at last!

2010-07-24T12:12:00.000+01:00

Monire mose,

Sorry to all our intrepid followers for not keeping you up to date with our recent adventures. We had no electricty all day Sunday and then our last 2 days in Mzuzu were hectic, trying to see everyone before we left. We are of course on tour at the moment and I'm writing this post in the very posh Mount Soche Hotel in Blantyre. Obviously that is not where we're staying - only popped in for a drink and flushing toilet!

It was my turn to write last Saturday's blog so I'll perform my duties in as few lines as possbile.

We attended the ordination of Deacons Kondwani & Tony in Nkhamenya. This involved getting up even earlier than usual and driving for 2 and a half hours to reach Nkhamenya before 9am. The ordination Mass was only 4 hours - the shortest one I've been to! It was of course a fantastic celebration with lots of colourful singing and dancing. Afterwards we had dinner with all the priests of the diocese before heading back to Mzuzu.

That doesn't do the Mass justice at all but it will have to do. Hopefully my travelling companions will manage to post over the next day or two to fill in the rest of our adventures. Heading to Cape Maclear tomorrow for a few days total relaxation before returning home.

Pawemi,

Bernadette, Celia, Paul & Anne

Friday 16 July Part 2: Children's Party

2010-07-20T08:24:00.000+01:00

The Orphans' Party at the Women's Institute

Some of the children wearing the football tops and teeshirts sent by several sponsors back home

The children playing with some of the toys and games we brought from Scotland. The younger children loved the yoyos.

The divide between rich and poor in Malawi is great; Malawi is the 2nd highest country in the world in relation to the gap between rich and poor. The gap between the north and the south is also great with the south by far the richest.

Friday 16 July

2010-07-19T11:07:00.000+01:00

Monire

Back in Mzuzu, the first full day after our jaunt to Nkhata bay, it was back to business as usual for us. In the morning we visited the schools: Bernadette to the secondary school, Anne and Paul to the primary school. At the primary the Head Teacher held a school assembly. In front of the teachers and pupils Anne gave Mr Shawa a cheque from St Mary's Primary in Largs for 1,000 pounds. The gift was gratefully received and will be used to purchase more books for their new school library.

In the afternoon it was off to the Women's Institute for the party with the orphans. Money had been donated from individual staff members and friends from St Matthew's to pay for the party. We enjoyed ourselves playing various games with the orphans: rounders, frisbee throwing, skipping and yoyos. After the activities the orphans were fed a meal of rice, nsima, greens, a meat stew with potatoes, finished off with a either of a bottle of Fanta or Coca Cola. This was a real treat for the youngsters. Bernadette and Anne helped the ladies dish out the food to the youngsters. Each child also received a gift of a lollipop, a small toy animal, a balloon and a party hooter. The children were extremely delighted to receive the small presents, especially the party hooters which they blew continually. Some of the neighbours from the surrounding area thought it was the world cup all over again with the sound of the vuvuzelas. Bernadette also handed over to the women at the Institute various gifts from St Matthew's Academy and several private donors and sponsors: a lap top computer, a couple of footballs, a sum of money (100, 000 Kwachas)and tee shirts. Again the money will be put to very good use such as buying blankets for certain needy orphans and funding their orphan feeding programme.

It is very difficult not to get emotional at seeing the great joy in the childrens' faces at receiving what most people back home would regard as trifling. So after an emotional charged afternoon it was time for some light relief; off we went to the house of Sister Ann and Lesley for some drinks and a takeaway pizza; yes, even in Mzuzu there is a takeaway pizza place. Then, to finish the evening it was off to the Sunbird Hotel to sample the famous Safari disco for a couple of hours.

Paweme

Paul, Bernadette, Anne & Celia

Leaving Nkhata

2010-07-17T19:05:00.000+01:00

Apologies to all of our followers for the late posting of this blog - I can give no excuses, other than the usual ones of tiredness, busy-ness, laziness, and difficulty accessing the net.
However, Thursday saw us leaving Nkhata Bay. Roderick Kavuta, of the Mary Martha Orphan Centre, came to collect us and joined us for breakfast before we left.
Whilst we were all happy to be heading back to Mzuzu, we tried to eke out our last couple of hours in the sunshine - Mzuzu enjoys a much cooler climate than the blistering heat of Nkhata Bay.
As we left Mayoka we stopped at the traders' stalls en route, picking up a few gifts which they had been making for us. We said our "Goodbyes" and headed into Nkhata to pick up some fish to take back to the Priests' house. Sadly we left fish-less!
We arrived back in Mzuzu about lunchtime. We had lunch, unpacked, and prepared ourselves for an afternoon visit to Mr Shawa's house - Head Teacher of St. Peter's Primary School. We met Mr Shawa at the school and he led us to his house. His house is in the township of Zolozolo - a small suburb of Mzuzu, approximately thirty minutes from St. Peter's. Mr. Shawa led us through all the shortcuts - over burns, up narrow paths, through communities. We were all glad that we didn't need to make such a trek on a daily basis, getting to and from school!
On arrival at Mr Shawa's house we met his wife, son and nephew. We enjoyed their company, and a meal which Mrs Shawa had prepared for us. Mr Shawa's neighbours visited after the meal, coming into the room which we were in and sitting on a bamboo mat which had been put down for them. The company was good and camaraderie was shared. One little boy, obviously not used to seeing Mzungos (white people), was visibly distressed when he saw us. He screamed and cried for a long time!
After an hour or so we visited Mr Shawa's other house - the house which he currently lives in - and made our way back home. We were introduced to many of Mr Shawa's neighbours on the way, which was lovely.
A very early night was had by all. Indeed, even staying up for tea proved difficult for some.
Age doesn't come alone...

Mayoka had been great fun and our visiting had been very enjoyable but batteries now needed to be re-charged in preparation for our next few days in Mzuzu.

Paweme.

Celia, Bernadette, Paul and Anne

Some Photos

2010-07-16T12:04:00.000+01:00

Party at Mary Martha's

Children enjoying meat,

rice and nsima.

Children with gifts:

lollipops, balloons and party hooters.

Children having fun

with the

parachute game.

Children showing their skipping skills.

Nursery children crawling through the caterpillar tunnel.

Relaxing at Nkhata Bay

Meeting up with Siobhan.

Celia indulging in some retail therapy.

View from the waterside chalets at Mayoka Village

Lunchtime at Mayoka with Roderick Kavuta, his son Steven and volunteer helper, Rachel.

Tuesday at Nkhata Bay

2010-07-13T09:29:00.000+01:00

Monire

It is wonderful to be back at Nhkata Bay, just chilling out and taking in the stunning scenery. We are all just enjoying reading and buying yesterdays Nation newspaper for the crossword. Food is fantastic here even although they do not have everything available from the menu. Certainly we would recommend the pancakes and bananas. Last night we had dinner by candlelight with Siobhan (McGuire) and our entertainment was playing Bernadette's Brain Gym - I will not share our scores with you, however for some of us there is room for improvement. The previous evening Michael Mountain, singer and instrumentalist originally from Zambia entertained us and then unexpectantly we had access to a tv to see the World Cup Final.

This morning after breakfast we headed down to the bay to see if the LaLa ship was still in the dock. Siobhan was due to sail on it last evening around 8p.m., however this did not happen. She left Mayoka by a small boat around 4.a.m., however, we were fortunate to see her on the ship at 10.00 a.m. The dock was a hive of activity with everything going on the ship; firewood, food, grain, metal poles and of course many, many passengers everywhere. The ship is now scheduled to sail around 11.00a.m. or noon, however, we will not be surprised if it still here well into the afternoon: this is Malawi after all! The saying from Alex Shaba, head teacher of St. Peter's Primary, comes to mind, "We rule time, time does not rule us."

Will post some more pictures soon.

Paweme

Anne, Celia, Paul & Bernadette

Day 10 - Sat 10 July

2010-07-12T15:14:00.000+01:00

Monire mose,

Pepani for not blogging sooner. The internet at the parish was down yesterday morning and we left for Nkhata Bay around 11am. So I'm blogging from my idea of paradise on earth - beside Lake Malawi.

We had the morning off on Sat so we decided to go into town for coffee. Sounds straight forward however we drove in for the first time. Fr. Nazarius has kindly given us use of his car whilst in Malawi and up until now Fr. Chunda has driven us everywhere. I've driven all over Malawi in the past but none of us are experienced in driving an automatic. It was a bit of a kangaroo journey - jumping all over the place. I drove in and Celia drove back. I'm sure I'll recover from the whiplash before too long!!

On Saturday we had a party and games at Mary Martha Orphan Care which was paid for by donations from St. Matthew's teachers. I can honestly say that it was the best visit I've ever had at Mary Martha. The kids enjoyed a hot meal of offal, nsima and rice. It didn't look very appetising to us but it was a real treat for them. The committee had put on a great spread for us of nsima, chips, greens, peas, chicken, beef, rice, bananas and doughnuts.

After lunch we split the kids, 150 of them, into groups and palyed outdoor games with them. We had brought footballs, frisbees, skipping ropes, bats, balls and even a parachute. It was really rewarding to see them having so much fun. Before we left we shared out balloons, lollipops and hooters, which they were delighted with. All in all it was a very memorable day for all concerned. Thank you to all our donors who make it possible for us to give these kids a day which they will remember for the rest of their lives.

It'll probably be Thursday when we blog again as that's when we're returning to Mzuzu.

Pawemi,

Bernadette, Celia, Paul & Anne

Day 9

2010-07-10T10:16:00.000+01:00

Monire

This morning we are all tired after our exertions on the hills at Livingstonia. Our memories of Livingstonia are still vivid, especially of the beautiful sunsets and sunrises from the top of the plateau. During the morning we made quick visits to the schools and did some shopping for provisions before going to the Women's Institute in the afternoon.

The women at the Institute were busy this afternoon giving out stationery, donated by Bishop Joseph Mukasa Zuza, to the children: each orphan received a jotter, pen and a pencil.

There have been changes at the Institute since our visit last year, most noticeably the new hut at the back of the building. The funding for the hut was provided by the Bishop. The facility has improved the conditions for the children when they visit the centre. When we arrived the children were very pleased to see us and sang a song of welcome. Each child was given a Scottish lollipop.

The children had to sign for the jotter, pen and pencil. We assisted the ladies in distributing the stationery and gathering the signatures.

The children were delighted with the equipment which they will put to good use in their studies at school. Afterwards we all went outside in the sunshine to play football and netball. Everyone had a great time.

In the evening we visited the Mvula family in their home in one of the townships in Mzuzu. Thomas Mvula is a vice chairman of the school board of St Peter's Primary. His home is located in Chipatula, the 3rd largest township in Mzuzu. We were given a warm Malawian welcome by Thomas, his wife, sons and neighbours. Each of us was gifted with a beautiful painting by a local artist.

Paweme

Paul, Bernadette, Anne & Celia

2010-07-10T06:54:00.000+01:00

After an early start - viewing and taking photos of the sunrise, showering in the 'Eco-friendly showers', and having breakfast with the stunning backdrop of the Malawian countryside, Lake Malawi and the coast of Tanzania - we got organised to make the ascent to Livingstonia.
Manu and Tanya (one of the people who was working at The Mushroom Farm) joined us and showed us a shortcut for the first part of the walk. This was a steep climb up a fairly rough piece of hillside. However, we soon met the main road - a red, dusty path - which we followed all the way to Livingstonia.
We passed through lots of villages and skirted the Manchewe Falls and a coffee plantation. We also encountered many very friendly locals, as well as a group of Japanese tourists!
On arrival in Livingstonia we were all surprised at the expanse of the town.
The centre - incorporating the clock tower, House Number 1(the original house of the missionary Dr. Robert Laws), the Stone House (his subsequent residence), the mission church (a church dating from 1894 with a magnificent stained glass window featuring David Livingstone), and a cafe (selling tea and superb scones with homemade banana jam!)- was very colonial. The outskirts were similar in constuction to many other Malawian villages which we had passed through. After wandering around for a while and taking in all the sights, as well as the wonderful views, we began our descent to the Mushroom Farm. It was very warm and the walk home was pretty tough.
Fantas and beers were enjoyed by all on arrival.
Due to the nature of the 'road' up the mountain / hill, Father Chunda and Celia decided to walk back down (15k), whilst the others took the jeep.
The jeep picked up a couple of 'hitch-hikers' very close to the bottom, reporting that they had had a great walk and they had found many shortcuts!
Father Chunda is some man!!
We picked up our car from the campsite in Chitimba, and after another few refreshments made our way back to Mzuzu. Bernadette fancied some chips from a roadside stall en route, so Celia and Bernadette went out to buy some provisions for the journey home - chips and purple tomato sauce, bananas and water.
The journey home was very colourful as usual. In Malawi the roads are just a mass of people; there are many roadside stalls, children playing at the sides of the roads, people walking two or three abreast on both sides of the road and numerous cyclists. As light faded the numbers of people around the road did not reduce. Indeed, men who had been drinking in the village bars added to the 'street commotion'; many staggering onto the road. Father Chunda said that there are many road accidents in Malawi because people / cyclists simply cannot be seen after nightfall. He also reported that some motorists with vehicles which are not roadworthy choose to travel at night. They do this so that they can travel with no lights!!! Scary!
We were all very happy to arrive back in Mzuzu about 7.30pm. After a lovely spread of psima, chicken, rice, sausages, greens, and tomatoes we all retired for showers and early nights.
A great couple of days had been had, with many adventures and tales.
The road to Livingstonia will probably stay with all of us for a very long time!

Wednesday 7 July

2010-07-09T08:45:00.001+01:00

Lunch at the Mushroom Farm

Father Chunda in the 4x4 on route up to Livingstonia

Monire

We started off the day very well with a good breakfast of fried bananas, toast, and of course hot Mzuzu coffee. We were all looking forward to our adventure trip to Livingstonia. Our time of departure was Malawian time around 8a.m. Before setting off we filled the car with petrol at the local garage downtown. This seemed a simple enough operation, however Celia decided to dash quickly out to the shop, ran back, jumped into the car only to be met by a surprised Malawian, (aah Mzungu!) indicating she was in the wrong car. We had moved to a different petrol pump. Celia made her apologies and hastily retreated to us. At this moment we all knew that the day was going to be an adventure.

The 2 hour car journey was comfortable and the scenery along the way in parts, is very much like Scotland; very green with tall fir like trees. When we arrived at Chitimba we met Paul, from Yorkshire, who was going to be our driver up the steep hill. Our first challenge of the day was finding a safe place for Father Chunda to leave the car overnight. Fortunately, Paul recommended the campsite he had stayed at on the beach; the owner was okay with this. At the campsite we had to pinch ourselves to check we were in Malawi as we gazed out over a beautiful sandy beach, with a volley ball pitch marked out in the sand.

Once our baggage was transferred into the 4x4 we scooted off along the track ready for the climb up the very steep hill towards Livingstonia. As soon as we left the main road we were on a very stony track. Inside the car we were being knocked from side to side. There were 21 hairpin bends to tackle on the way; something we were not looking forward to. Anyway about 10 mins. into our climb the car seemed to lurch over a bump on the track then it cut out - dead. Everybody got out of the car to look and find out what had happened. Burst tyre? No. Tyre was fine but the whole bonnet was pressing on it . The car could not be moved. By now the sun was getting very hot. Decision time - what will we do? The driver and Paul decided to go back down to the campsite to collect his vehicle. Meanwhile everyone else waited at the car, relaxing, reading a book, looking at the stunning scenery and speaking to the locals who passed by. At one point there was more drama when a matola bulging with many passengers on the back tried to overtake our broken down vehicle which was stuck in the middle of the track. It got stuck in the mud. Some women and children descended from the matola while a few of the men had to push it to get it out of the mud. Eventually they managed and were on their way down to Chitimba.

Three hours later, our land cruiser arrived to take us up the treacherous path to the Mushroom Farm. Alton Tower rides are tame compared to this journey. Celia was in the front seat hanging on for her life, claiming she would rather walk than continue in the vehicle. It took around one hour to get to our destination.

At the Mushroom Farm we were delighted with our accommodation. We were given a little house - Anne & Paul upstairs with a beautiful balcony overlooking the land, while downstairs Celia and Bernadette who could hear every footstep from above. Bedtime was like the Waltons, as we called "goodnight" from our beds. The views from the rooms were stunning, overlooking Lake Malawi. The Mushroom Farm was very eco friendly - a compost toilet with a view, open air showers, solar panels, food grown in the grounds and several animals (hens, pigs & ducks). Vegetarian food only (made from local produce) was on offer since there was no refrigeration. The menu was excellent; pancakes and bananas, vegetable stir fry and of course nsima and beans and much more. Dinner was by candlelight, no electricity left from the solar power panels. We chatted with Manu, a German chap, who was travelling about Africa. There was much speculation about the result of the German versus Spain football match. At the end of a very long day were in bed early, looking forward seeing the sunrise in the morning and the 5km walk uphill to Livingstonia.

Paweme

Anne, Celia, Paul & Bernadette

Tue 6 July

2010-07-07T06:58:00.002+01:00

Monire mose.

Yesterday was a 'day off' for our group as it was Malawian Independence Day and a national holiday . After Mass and breakfast I took the others on a 3 hour hike after a lot of persuasion. The sky was grey and cloudy and they were convinced we were going to get soaked - but thankfully the rain held off. We went to the reservoir, which I think is the most beautiful place in Mzuzu. It reminds me of Loch Lomond as it is a large expanse of water surrounded by hills and greenery. I picked up a local boy en route to be our guide and he was more than happy to do so. His name was Cairo and he told me that his father and mother had died and he's never had the chance to go to secondary school but he still hopes to finish his education some day - a very typical story in Malawi. We were only allowed 5 mins at the reservoir as it is now guarded due to people jumping in the water. The guard was reluctant to let us as if his boss had appeared he would have been sacked on the spot. We gave the guard and Cairo a little money to thank them for their help.

After lunch and a siesta we went to the Mzuzu Hotel for to celebrate Independence Day with a couple of drinks. Then we were invited to dinner at Mr. Banda's House, the head teacher of St. Peter's. We had a lovely evening with him and his wife Elizabeth, who is an AIDS support worker. Mr. Banda got quite emotional when talking about his trip to Scotland. Interestingly his most memorable part of the trip was Blantyre, the home of David Livingstone. It is hard to put into words how highly the Malawian people regard Dr. Livingstone.

Today we go on pilgrimage to Livingstonia, where he set up camp in Malawi. It is a treacherous journey ending with a 15 km drive up a mountain with 22 hair pin bends. Pray for us!!!! We will spend the night on a mushroom farm before returning to Mzuzu tomorrow.

Pawemi,

Bernadette, Celia, Paul & Anne

Day 4

2010-07-05T19:54:00.000+01:00

Monire

The bells at six, mass at 6.30 a.m., breakfast at 7 p.m.;so began another relaxing day in Mzuzu. Even Celia was on time after wrestling out of her double mosquito net. Today we had the visits to the 3 schools, all in one morning. It was great to see the pupils and staff at St. Peter's Secondary again. We received a fantastic welcome at the whole school assembly; the pupils sang their national anthem with gusto and cheered loudly when we were introduced one by one. We met up with all our old friends, the students who had come to Scotland: Harris, Kingstone, Thembeko, Lizzie, Immelda and even Lillian who was just back from her village after the death of her mother. In the staffroom there were different faces due to several staff changes. There are many more pupils about since the school roll has doubled in size. The school is getting ready for the exam period with Form 2 exams starting on Wednesday.

Then, it was on to Luyanga, the girl's Primary school; here, Anne handed over a cheque, a card of introduction, some photos and a school tie to the head teacher on behalf of St Mark's Primary, which wants to form a link with the school. The children at the school were all excited when we appeared, swarming around us to shake our hands. The head teacher showed us the mattresses which we purchased last year for the form 8 boarders. They have been well used over the year but would you believe it, they are still in their polythene covers and in pristine condition.

Next, it was on to our 3rd school of the day: St Peter's Primary. Despite Bernadette's request for no speeches and a low key visit, the school had organised a short (?) programme Malawian style to be followed. We toured all the classes and met all the children and staff who were present. Today, classes were doubled up inside the building because of the recent cold and wet weather. The children were excited to see "the visitors". All of them recognised "Bernadetta" with her well kent face. It was great to see everyone again. Finally, we had a meeting with the staff and members of the school Board. Mrs Irene Jerre who was over in Scotland was in charge of the proceedings. We saw how the school had developed the library from the funds received from St. Mary's Primary and the donation from St. Winning's Primary. What a difference! Pupils access books and sit in a very nice bright learning environment. When Mr Shaba and Mrs Jerre returned to St. Peter's after their visit to St. Mary's Primary they set up a Student Council with representatives from class 3 - 7. The Student Council gave a very warm song of welcome, then we received a report from the Council on how the funds were spent right down to the number of nails purchased. The staff have enthusiastically welcomed the development of the library: this appreciation they showed at the end of the meeting by bursting out spontaneously into song.

In the afternoon we visited the Women's Development Centre to touch down with them and to make arrangements for our 2 visits with the children. Modesta outlined how the ladies group are now helping children headed families (15 children in total). The ladies are very appreciative of the funds from St Matthew's which allows them to continue to support the orphans. Listening to her talk about the centre's work we were struck by how much the ladies manage to make a little help go such a long way. On Friday we will be having a games afternooon and the following Friday we will hold a celebration party which has been funded by donations from friends in Scotland. We are all looking forward to seeing the children.

After all the formal visits Bernadette led us in a leisurely tour of Mzuzu centre, visiting the market and shops. At the Market we purchased some fruit including an ugly green bumpy thing to have at dinner with the fathers. The unusual fruit turned out to be an African cucumber which had an unusual citrus tangy taste. After dinner and refreshments with the Priests it was time to turn in with the promise from Bernadette that tomorrow is a down day.

Paweme

Paul, Bernadette, Anne & Celia

2010-07-05T12:30:00.000+01:00

Monire mose,

I've been given the task of trying to write yesterday's blog. In the main, yesterday (Sunday) was spent at St. Peter's Cathedral. We attended the English Mass at 7am - a long lie was enjoyed by all! - and the Mass in Tumbuka at 10am. As always, both Masses were very colourful affairs with lots of singing and dancing. The Bishop celebrated at both.

After a little bit of 'downtime', in which we enjoyed a lunchtime refreshment, we were invited to the Bishop's party - a party held for ex-seminarians. This was held in the grounds of the Priests' accommodation. A meal was provided, a barbeque was in full flow, speeches took place, and crates of Malawian refreshments were laid out for people to help themselves to - soft drinks, Kuchi Kuchis, Greens, and wine. People did help themselves to the refreshments and a fun time was had by all. Much chat took place and various styles of dancing were in evidence!?
The Malawians enjoyed some good old-fashioned shortbread, and the Scots enjoyed some good old-fashioned Malawian snacks.
The party wound up about teatime.

As always, tea was provided after this feast, and most of the group retired to their rooms at around 7.30pm. Someone (Bernadette) was said to be in her pyjamas by 7.20pm; someone (Celia) was said to be a lot tougher, lasting until about 7.40pm! Paul and Anne, the seasoned travellers of our group, lasted considerably longer. Many lights were put out early, after the usual wrestling with the mosquito nets, in preparation for a busy day at our partner schools today.

Tiwonanenge sonosono.

Celia, Bernadette, Paul and Anne

Day 2 Visit to Mary Martha

2010-07-04T18:48:00.000+01:00

Monire

After our long journey, it was not surprising that we did not hear the church bells at 6a.m., however, a couple of us were awakened at some point in the night by the very heavy rain falling on the metal roof; it was torrential. We had a leisurely morning, a nice breakfast - toast, Mzuzu coffee and some cake. After breakfast, Harris and Thembeko came round to say hello and to hear news from Scotland. They were both looking well and asking fondly after their 2nd family. We look forward to seeing them again at school on Monday. Mr Paul Banda called in to welcome us back. He gave us an update on the school news. It is great there are many more students enrolled for the next session, although a few more teachers will need to found for certain subjects. Mrs Irene Jerre also arrived to say hello. Her new hairstyle means she no longer has as Stephen (nursery pupil at St. Mary's) thought "2 heads". Her hair is very short and curly. Irene is looking well and keeping much better, thank God.

We were scheduled to attend the Mary Martha Orphan Centre around 1p.m., however in true Malawian time we left some time after 2p.m. Roderick Kavuta collected us in his 4x4 and I'm pleased to report that the rain had stopped and the sun was coming out a little. Before arriving at the Orphan Centre, Roderick took us on a guided tour of his land which stretches over several areas. The land is very hilly and green although the track was very muddy and full of puddles due to the rain. Roderick grows pineapples but they will not be harvested until later in the year which was a pity for us. We stopped at the place where his first house was built. Now his son stays there. We met many members of his family including Matthew (Roderick's grandson) who is 3 years and blind.

On ariving at Mary Martha's we were given a wonderful welcome even although we said this was a "holiday" and not an official visit. Once more the children touched our hearts by their cheerfulness and friendliness on greeting us. We noticed that the colourful windmills given last year were still outside and twirling away. The new building has progressed; the walls are plastered and there is now a complete floor and small platform area. We assembled here for introductions. Once again it is overwhelming to hear how much the adults support the children and families in the surrounding area. The people give so much of their time and love to care for each other. There is so much we can learn from the people here in Malawi about remembering how to help our neighbours.

We had a wondeful afternoon with the children and adults. Today the children were delighted to receive their lollipop and we all look forward to a grand party with food and games on Saturday. Roderick and Matha kindly entertained us in their home with a treat of yams and small buns like doughnuts and of course hot Mzuzu coffee.

We returned home and after tea everyone watched the football match Spain versus Paraguay. Daphne and her family joined us for part of the evening.

Paweme

Anne, Paul, Bernadette and Celia

Welcome to Malawi!

2010-07-03T10:13:00.000+01:00

So far so good. We had a really good journey and no problems with over weight baggage or transfers. The others laughed at me for having mine wrapped at Glasgow airport but they're not laughing now as Celia's sleeping bag disappeared from her rucksack and paul's razors were nicked out of his!

As is now customary our first stop was the Kasungu Inn for my first green (beer) and lunch and also our first power cut of the trip. I had luke warm rice, boiled leaves and chambo fish - delicious. We nipped in to a supermarket after lunch to buy bottled water and, considering we were more than 3 hours drive from Mzuzu, we were shocked when the girl at the till said to Fr. Chunda, "is that Bernadetta McFadden?" Turns out I taught her at St. Peter's 8 years ago.

Next stop - Nkhamenya Girls school. This was allegedly for a cup of tea and to say hello to an old friend, Sr. Kaunda but in true Malawian style the whole school had gathered to put on a concert for us. They also had baked us a big cake with "welcome visitors" iced on it. At least this year I was saved from the embarassment of last year when I had to cut a cake with Eric Allan in front of everyone as if it was a wedding cake!

We reached Mzuzu about 7:30pm after 2 exhausting days travelling. A lovely meal was waiting for us, which we shared with the 3 parish priests, a deacon and 2 seminarians along with Fr. Simwaka from Rhumpi who was there to greet us. We then all watched Ghana's exciting exit from the world cup. We thought they would all be supporting Ghana but it turns out it's just like Scotland-England.

Unfortuntely I've had to take in a lodger in my "presidential suite". Celia spent approximately 3 secs in her room before jumping ship for mine with the en-suite, fridge and kettle. It's been pouring of rain all night and all morning so it's just like home.

It's great to be back!

Bernadette, Celia, Paul & Anne

Here we go again!!

2010-06-30T15:52:00.000+01:00

Monire mose,

Setting off tomorrow for more funfilled Malawian adventures with Celia, Paul and Anne. I'm really looking forward to this trip as for the first time ever we have no kids with us. As much as I love taking kids out it's nice just to be responsible for ourselves and to have the freedom to do more touring and sightseeing.

Our rough itinerary is as follows:
1 July leave Glasgow
2 July arrive in malawi
2-7 July Mzuzu
7-8 July Livingstonia
8-11 July Mzuzu
11-15 July Nkhata Bay
15 -21 July Mzuzu
21-22 July Mua Mission
22-23 July Zomba
23-25 July Blantyre
25-28 July Cape Maclear
28-29 July Lilongwe
30 July Arrive home

We will have internet access throughout our time in Mzuzu, so we should be making regular posts when there at least.

Pawemi,

Bernadette

Goodbye Scotland

2010-03-31T00:32:00.000+01:00

My time in Scotland has been so far good and I have injoyed.It is a great experience in my life and now I want to express my stay here in Scotland. I have proved that Scotland is a beaultiful country with friendly peaple. My host family were so friendly to me and there were treating me as their on son, they kept me with all their hearts, even the children & the relatives of Mr & Mrs Oneill were so good to me and I have injoyed with them. They have spent much on me which I can not repay, on all these I say yewo chomene(thank you)

I would like to thank Mr & Mrs OneilI for the wonderful job they have done to me, they fed me, may God bless u, my Scotish mum & Dad, Craig & Kaylay and all the relatives of Mr & Mrs Oneill, I reary enjoyed with you & life was so cool.

I would like also to thank the Headteacher, Miss Bernadette and the entere Staff & Pupils of St Matthews Academy & also without forgating all the 10 Catholic Primary Schools, for you provide School fees to some of us at St Peters Catholic Secondary School in Mzuzu, u provided School blocks and the desks even the Rab materials to our School, we are proud of you & its our prayer that this relationship should exist up to the end of the world, Yewo chomene chiuta wa mutumbikeni ( God bless u friends ).

I would like to say good bye to the entere St Matthews acedemy and to everyone in Scotland as we are going back home tomorrow.....................

Its Me Jocker Boy
Harris Khembo

LOVELY DAYS IN SCOTLAND

2010-03-30T20:07:00.000+01:00

It is time to pack up and go back to Malawi. We are very grateful indeed to the St Matthews Community for their love for us.
Just to list a few things that we shall not forget in our lives:
1. The 12 of us flew together from Malawi to Scotland. The experinces in the flight, the love we had for each other, the smiles etc deminished the gap that exist amongst us at home. We hope this way of living shall continue. Our trip has united us more than ever. We thank God for this.

2. Upon landing in Glasgow, we were welcomed with a lot of smiles and we experienced a lot of love. We forgot that we were away from home. Scotland is the warm Herat of Europe just as we are the warm Heart of Africa.
3 The visitations around school brought a lot of amazement in me. I could not believe my eyes at first. The varrying sizes of students in the dining hall. The nu,erous students etc. I toook as many pictures as possible to remeber this.
4 The different places we heard about in history and Geography while in Malwi: Blantyre, Scotland, Edinburgh et were not historical any more. We actually set our feet there. We were privileged to visit the parliament, huge and magnificent indeed. I have not been in the malwi Hous of Parliament. This one is so memorable for me because it is the first one. we followed a very heated debate whereby the First Minister was clarifying some issues on some hard questions. It was a great honor for me to be present in the house on that day.
5. I also visited Glasgow Centre. I can not just explain how splendid the buildings are. they are built on stone, great work of art and a lot of engineering work. It was lovely indeed. I also had a chance to visit the famous Celtic Club ground. I also saw the seat of Rod Stewart, so lovely indeed.

In short, we enrished our eyes wiith so many things difficulkt to explai.
If I had the power to appeal to the Malawi Government, I would ask the president to put a lot of preference in Education for the young Malawians. The facilities that are here inScotland in schools can also be made available to Malawians. It just needs a serious mind to consider the good of all Malawians.

In Tumbuka we say, " Kusambira kukumala yayi" meaning education will also be there to help us. We have just learnt alot.
God bless our partneship between Scotland and malawi. We are really blessed to be here.

Fr Andrew Aubrey Chunda

Kingstone's blog

2010-03-29T17:11:00.000+01:00

I am kingstone Nyirenda. I am very thankful to you Scotish peoplebecause of what you have done for me and to my friends, may God bless you all. Your friendly, your kindness, your kindness has really made some Malawians to continue their education, without you some of us we could not find a chance of continuing our education and my self I could not see Europe but because of your kindness all these things have been done so I am verythankful.
I am hope that your money is not misused, because al l busary holders are working hard, for example the results of last year all Junior busary holders passed their national examsincluding me myself. So please continue your kindness, may be next coming years Malawi can be better as Scotland is. thank you, may God bless you all. [Yewo chomene chiuta wamutumbikeni mose] Ndine Kingstone.

2010-03-26T16:53:00.000Z

hie am emelda, and l hope that every one in malawi is fine especilly in my famiry and st peters secondary school.lwouldl like to talk abit about how was our journey,it was very important to every one of us because through this trip we have learned so much things which is very nessesary to all of us. we will be back very soon to teach you people each and every thing which we have learned here. while we are here we have visited so many places such as scottish parliament, dr david livingstone centre and duling night times we have also visited some of intelesting places like pin bowling at saltcoats, we went also to xscape at glasgow where we had play with snow .just wait for us so that you can learn more things from us .thank very much.lam e....me....l ...da .nice to meet you there.

Emelda's Blog

2010-03-25T19:21:00.000Z

h1e malawians especially st peters secondary school.am very very happy to talk to you people in this evening just because am enjoying at st matthews academy each and every day. to say the truth we have enjoyed and we are still enjoying up to 31st march 2o10. i just want to thank the famiry of mr and mrs grant for welcomed me into their houses and all the things which their have done to me for this l say yewo choomene may the almight god who knows how to bless ,bless this famiry.and another most and important thing is that l would like also to thank the head teacher of st matthews academy and all members not forget the students for all the support which their do provide to us ,such as school blocks, laboratory and its equipments ,they also provide school uniform to those who are needy together with school fees ,for this we say also yewo chomene .

H.O.J KHEMBO

2010-03-25T16:14:00.000Z

hello, its so good so fantastic to be here in scotland, I went to the scotish Parliament it was so exciting. Its a beautiful building in a beautiful city with friendly peaple. I would like to thank those peaple who have lost their time just to be with us, yewo chomene.

THE WONDERFUL TIMES

2010-03-24T17:52:00.000Z

It is lovely to be here. each dya is bringing different lovely experince in this Warm Heart of the World. We meet smiles and love in each and every corner we visit.

Today I had good times with priests at St Mary's Parish. The christian community at mass and their love for me spoke volumes and volumes of the warmth the world should give to a stranger. It was lovely indeed.

I also had a chance to get a free eye test. as I say I shall go back to Malawi with better sight. What an experience indeed. My eyes were faulty, a thing I knew ofcourse but never cared to do something about them. Today and on, I shall be able to see better.

What else can wes do to the Lord for his Goodness to Us! The only response is Thank You God for make us partners. We are able to experience things we never imagined before.

Once again, thank you everything.

Fr Andrew Aubrey Chunda

THUMBIKOS THIRD DAY

2010-03-24T16:45:00.000Z

Here comes again Thumbiko,it been agreat day for me because i have been attending some of subjects which in my life i have never ever learnt before.Oh it was quate interesting for me to be in a spanish class only that it was difficult to understand but i had to enjoy.To add on we had also to attend french with kingstone where we had to translate french words into our normal language which is tumbuka.
I should take this chance to apreciciate anybody who is taking part in terms of my hospitality for instance the family of Northcote,Eric ,Bernadett and the staff members of st matthews plus students.I love you all and do not stop doing that ,may God guide,protect and be with you.Yewo.

2010-03-24T08:01:00.000Z

It's Kingstone again I had not finished. I am very thankful to them for providing transport for us. We had a very good journey. Now we are having a great experience. Here in Scotland we are enjoying with them for playing bowling. I would like to encourage all my fellow students who are on bursary to work hard in class. Because to find fees is very difficult. It is better to work hard for them to be interested so there fees are not misused. Here in Scotland we are enjoying with our fellow students of St Matthew's Academy. The students are very friendly. We are chatting with them very well. St Peter's also have very friendly students. Today at night we are going to see snow which I am very interested to see. Thank you to everyone in Scotland and Malawi. (Monire mose)

2010-03-24T07:59:00.000Z

H.O.J KHEMBO IN SCOTLAND

2010-03-23T15:52:00.000Z

Hello, it has been a good trip for me and I have achieved alot & the great expiriences from the Scotish. This day being my second day @ School I have been welcomed by all the Students & Staff of St Matthews Academy in their Classes with all their hearts & I have enjoyed the day and the lessons, Yewo Chomene.

I should also take an orppotunity to thank the family of Mr & Mrs Oneill for their loving hearts and the fact that they are taking me as their own child, I m very glad with the family. I would like also to thank the Brothers & Sisiters, children, glandsons and doughters & all relatives of Mr & Mrs Oneill for the good welcoming in the family, Yewo chomene.

I would like also to thank Mr Allan & Miss Bernadette for the encouragement they are giving to us, as the group from Malawi, Im very greatful, Zikomo kwambiri.

Lastly I woud like to thank my fellow Malawians for the togetherness they are showing to me Im very thankful. May almighty Father bless us all.

Ndine, ( its me )

HARRIS ONEILL JOKER KHEMBO.........

2010-03-23T15:09:00.001Z

bravo to malawians especially in the northern region here we are in scotland we enjoyed the journey and they have wellcomed us very well. let me ask god to bless them all because of their kindness.iam very thankfull to them for providing transport

THUMBIKO'S DAY TWO

2010-03-23T15:09:00.000Z

It has been my second day at st matthews academy. I am very impressed because i have attended some of the lessons especialy physics, i had to participate in some experiments.For instance Titration and on Electricity.My day has been fine with my fellow st matthews student,we had to eat together during our lunch break.I hope to have more fan with them for the lest of my days at there school.Yewo chomene,Tawonga.(THUMBIKO).

Thankyou God

2010-03-22T17:03:00.000Z

I am very happy to be here in Scotland and i thank both my friends from Scotland and in Malawi, because of the support you have given me. I want everyone there in Malawi to know that i arrived very well by the grace of God. I just want you to know that i was very happy to have a warm welcome by my hosts and i am so happy that i am hosted by a loving family. I am very happy and i alson hope that you are very happy there too. I pray for you each and every day and my God bless both you and everyone here in Scotland.
See you soon Lizzie x

Am Enjoying

2010-03-22T16:44:00.000Z

Hello the St Peter's Group,I am very delighted this morning to greet all of you. I have already forgotten where am coming from. From the airport, we were warmly welcomed by our Scotland friends.Am enjoying every minute of my stay with Ally's family. I tell every member of the family is very friendly. I hope you are also enjoying your stay as well.Bye for now and nice stay.James

2010-03-22T07:54:00.000Z

I am very happy that am hosted by the Northcoat family.The have given me the whole opportunity to do what ever i want and am enjoying.Am no longer a malawian now but a scottish and am i have even changed my surname,am now Thumbiko Northcoat.May God bless you.YEWO CHOMENE,MUKANOZGA KUWAKO.

Greetings from Scotland

2010-03-21T12:51:00.000Z

Hello,

I wish to express my gratitude to all of you that has contributed to our visit to Scotland. I appreciate all your efforts. We are excited to be in Scotland, we are having real fun.
we are one day old here but my experience in the meantime can make a book.

My experiences in Scotland will linger a lifetime and i think it is thesame with other members of my team.

May God continue to bless you all for your generousity, kindness and hospitality.

Thank you.

Daphne.

Here we are in Scotland!

2010-03-20T19:18:00.000Z

It has been a pleasure for us, 12 Malawians to travel to Scotland. We had a very wonderful trip to this new home. I travelled with students and teachers who had not been on the aeroplane before.. It was an adventure I tell you!

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks on behalf of the St Peter's visitors.

We also recived a very wonderful welcome at the airport. We were amazed at seeing so mnay friends waiting for us. I actually felt vvery shy because we never did this in Malawi. I hope you will understand us because the distances to the airport would not allow us.

Wher I am, at the house of the Headmaster, Eric Allan, I have also been welcomed very well. I have already forgotten where I came from. It is so lovely and nice. As my prayer, I say God be blessed.

Fr Andrew Aubrey Chunda.

SORRY FOR THE LOSS OF THE TEACHER

2009-09-11T20:51:00.000+01:00

Indeed, I learnt this morning that you have lost one of the teachers at school. Humanly speaking, we all fear death. The thought about death brings sorrow.

However, for all those who believe in God, this is just the beginning of a new chapter in life. It is a life different from this one.

As you bury our dear teacher, we join you in prayers at mass in the morning.

May the soul of the departed teacher rest in peace.

Fr Andrew Aubrey Chunda

Malawi

2009-08-11T18:42:00.000+01:00

GOD BE PRAISED THAT YOU ARE BACK IN SCOTLAND

2009-08-06T11:16:00.000+01:00

I am very happy to learn that you made it safe back home in Scotland. We are still nursing the beautiful memories of your stay with us here in Malawi. We are very much looking forward to the day we shall visit Scotland.

Our memories are filled with a lot of joy, happiness etc. The boys and girls on the list keep asking me if it is real. The dream to fly for the first time is not believed. let us wait and see.

Once again, Yewo Chomene.

Fr. Andrew Chunda

Greetings from Dalry!

2009-08-04T22:11:00.001+01:00

Monire mose,
Sorry, it’s taken a while to post my final message since returning home. For the first couple of days I was feeling quite down and really missing everyone in Mzuzu. It gets harder to leave each time I visit. I’m still waking up at ridiculously early times in the morning – I think the bells are ingrained in my memory. My body clock will just be getting back to normal when it’s time to go back to work.
Overall I think that this trip was a resounding success and for me it was the most enjoyable one so far. The St. Matthew’s group was a real credit to the school and certainly made me proud. There will definitely be a few more Malawi enthusiasts about the staffroom now and I’m looking forward to sharing the workload of the partnership more evenly with them!
The people of Mzuzu were every bit as welcoming as I expected. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with all my old friends, visiting their homes and working and socialising with them. Fr. Chunda was without a doubt an absolute star. He could not have looked after us any better and he provided much humour along the way. I definitely miss both the daily and Sunday Masses. The people at St. Peter’s can teach us plenty about how to “celebrate” the Eucharist.
It was good to see how the school has developed even further since my last visit. It has come a long way since I first arrived in 2002 when they had only 2 quite derelict classrooms and 60 pupils. There is a real buzz about the place nowand a lot of hope for the future. The teaching staff and school board were very open to discussing how they could improve as a school – probably more so than thestaff at St. Matthew’s !
I’m delighted that St. Mary’s P.S., Largs has partnered with St. Peter’s P.S. and there is hope that we will find a partner for Luynangwa Girls P.S. shortly. There is tremendous scope in both primary schools and a partnership will really help them flourish.
The 2 orphan centres are places I hold close to my heart. When I’m struggling to get out of bed on a wet Monday morning I’ll try to think of the kids who constantly battle against poverty, hunger and disease and yet are always smiling. The volunteers who run both centres are an example to us all. They don’t have much themselves; some are even HIV+, but they give their time and effort to care for these orphans, to give them respite and hope for a brighter future.
I’m really looking forward to the return visit in March and I think the group who are coming over will make a tremendous impact on the St. Matthew’s community. Our partnership with St. Peter’s is stronger than ever. Thank you to all of you who helped to fund raise or made donations to make this trip possible. Your support is greatly appreciated both in St. Matthew’s and St. Peter’s. Now we just have to find around £10 000 for the return visit!
Pawemi,
Bernadette

BEST WISHES TO ALL WHO HAD VISITED US AT MARY-MARTHA

2009-08-04T08:38:00.000+01:00

I still recall the great day when we were priviledged with 13 visitors from Scoland which was lead by Eric Allan but pioneered by Bernadette Macfaden but due to reasons beyond our control, one deligate failed to come due to a funeral which happened in the family and we are sorry for the loss of a family member.

For those who did not come but represented by the team which came to Malawi, we are saying God should bless you also, as all the gifts and donations which you organize always reach us.

Paul and Anne also came in with a donation to the centre but this went straight to Nursery school and we appreciate for everything including the song you taught the orphans which is sung almost every day ( chic chic chin) wrong spelling )

I and my family Martha, wish you all the best.

Rodrick Kavuta

Paul & Anne's last post

2009-08-01T22:23:00.000+01:00

We arrived home yesterday in Glasgow airport. It was sad saying farewell to Fr Chunda at the airport. We have greatly enjoyed his company, with his stories and enthusiasm for everything. He insisted on waiting till the plane took off in case there were problems of delays; we thought he was making sure we left in case we changed our minds about coming home. The flights were fine and there was no hassle with the connecting flights. Even in Nairobi the 5 hour wait passed effortlessly. In fact it was too good to be true: it was. When we reached the baggage recovery in Glasgow airport our luggage did not appear; it was still in Amsterdam. Finally our luggage arrived at our home today (Saturday) delivered by the airport companies.

The last few days have been hectic. We said our goodbyes on Sunday and moved on to Mua. To get there from Mzuzu we took the bus to Salima along the coast road besides the lake. It took 7 and a half hours; we were told it would take 5 hours. We are now experts at travelling on the local transport. We have learned that when you ask a Malawian how long the journey takes you have to add another hour or 2 to their estimate. When you ask when does this bus leave the station you are told, "When it is full." Full mean not just all the seats taken but it also includes many passengers standing n the passageway also. At Salima bus station we changed to one of the minibuses which the locals use to go to Mua Mission. We were told it would take half an hour. The journey lasted an hour and a half. What an experience! They pack the people in. There are no bus stops; people stand at the side of the road and the buses stop. At one point there were 24 people, 2 of which were “mazungus” (us, the “whitemen”) and a chicken in the minibus. Along the way the minibus was stopped several times at police roadblocks. Finally, we arrived at Mua Mission, just as the sun went down (5.50pm). There was a power cut so we had a meal in the candlelight along with one Swedish girl and 2 Dutch people. The food was delicious. Mua mission was well worth the journey. It has a museum which contains fascinating information regarding the coming of Christianity to Malawi and the history and customs of the 3 Malawian tribes. The collection of the dance masks of the Ngoni tribe was fascinating. We stayed in a lovely chalet which looked like something out of Hansel and Gretel. The mission is just across the river from where the village is. We could see the people washing themselves and their clothes in the river. After 2 nights we pushed onto Lilongwe where we met up with Fr Chunda and Bernadette. In Lilongwe we met up with the traders from Nkhata bay and we exchanged a pair of boots (Paul’s) for a wooden chief's chair. We spent a lovely evening at the restaurant and Nelly' s lodge. It was nice to meet Fr Robert again. We also managed one last ride on the back of the pick up truck as we headed off to the airport.

We have enjoyed travelling about in Malawi. While we did not manage to get to the south to see Blantyre and Zomba, we are keen to go back in 2 years time. The country is beautiful, has a lot of potential as a tourist destination with a natural charm. Several parts of the landscape in the north reminded us of Scotland. Nkhata Bay and the lakeside are beautiful.

We have met lots of lovely people both in St Peter's schools, Parish and the 2 Orphanages (Mary Martha & the Women’s Development Centre) and made several good friends. We are looking forward to seeing Fr Chunda and the group in Scotland in March and contributing to making their visit to Scotland, including St. Matthew's and St Mary's as happy and enjoyable as we experienced in St Peter's. Above all, we are looking forward to going back to meet up with everyone again in Mzuzu and to see the development of the eco garden project in St. Peter’s Secondary, the school library in St. Peter’s Primary and the nursery at Mary Martha. Meanwhile now that we are back home our thoughts will be turning to finding ways to help promote and support the Orphan scheme and fundraise for the impending visits. We also look forward to meeting up with all members of the St. Matthew’s group to exchange our stories and photos.

We know several of you in Malawi have access to reading the blog - Fr Andrew, Roderick and Lesley. We will be in touch by e-mail over the next few days.

We think the visit has been a great success. Finally, another big thank you to Bernadette for including us on this visit which has been a rollercoaster of emotions. A truly wonderful experience filled with many memories.

Regards

Paul & Anne

2009-07-30T10:54:00.000+01:00

Just in time at the airport.
Bernadette, Paul and Annie just said goodbye. They were whisked away from my looking into the room where they have to be by themselves waiting for the plane. Since I did not sign any Exit card I had to accept it all, otherwise it is illegal to get into the lounge.

The plane will arrive in few minutes time. I am standing at the balcony waiting to see them off. I know they have a long way to go but I place them into the good care of our Lord.

It has been such a lovely time. I have alot of great memories. I never thought that the visit would end at such a short time.

Since the battery is drining, I intend to close down here . The plane is arriving in any minute from now.

New Learning

2009-07-30T08:46:00.000+01:00

Wea rae here at Nelly's Lodge with Bernadette, paul and Annie. Tey are busy filling in cards for the airport while at the same time trying to teach me how to blog. It is interesting and wonderful.
It is new adventure each and every day.

With Love,

Fr Andrew Aubrey Chunda

Last post from Mzuzu

2009-07-28T20:17:00.000+01:00

Monire mose,

Well I’m all packed up and ready to leave Mzuzu tomorrow morning. I’ve been here over a month now yet I can’t believe it’s time to leave already. The thing I’m most looking forward to when I get home is sleep - I feel totally physically and emotionally drained. Obviously I’m looking forward to seeing family and friends again – especially the size of my sister’s bump – but there is truthfully nothing I miss from home. I feel just as much at home here and I very quickly adjust to not having all the material things that I have back home.

We held the interviews for the 2010 exchange trip yesterday. It was really hard choosing but I think we’ve selected a great bunch of kids. The 6 are: Lizzie Ngasula, Kingstone Nyirenda, Emelda Banda, Lillian Chavula, Thumbiko Soko and Harrison Khembo. I spent over 2 hours with them today preparing them and the staff for what to expect on the trip. The staff are Fr. Andrew Chunda, Paul Banda, Daphne Okoronkwo, Margaret Nyirenda & James Mbale from the secondary school along with Alex Shabwa and Irene Jere from the primary. So you can start practising saying the names! Naturally the whole group are very excited about the trip.

I met up with Winnie Mwamsamali and Mercy Wowa yesterday. They were the 2 girls from the 2006 exchange trip and it was lovely to catch up with them. Winnie is now at university and Mercy is a primary teacher. They still fondly remember their time in Scotland and send their regards to all of you who know them as does Sylvia Nhlane.

Lots of people have been coming to say goodbye today and most of them have brought gifts – I’ve had to pack, unpack and repack several times. It still doesn’t feel real at the moment but I’m sure it will hit me at my last Mass tomorrow morning and when I hear the bells for the last time. I’m looking to forward to my last night out in Malawi. Fr. Chunda is spending the night with Anne, Paul and myself in Lilongwe. Hopefully Paul and Anne have had a good couple of days at Mua. We are meeting a good friend of mine, Fr. Robert Mwangulu, for dinner and drinks tomorrow night. Fr. Robert is quite a character so between him and Fr. Chunda we should be well entertained.

This is more than likely my last post from Malawi but I will post a blog when I return home.

Tionanenge sonosono (see you soon),

Bernadette

Mon 27 July

2009-07-27T20:06:00.000+01:00

Monire mose,

My last blog ended quite abruptly, so I’ll try to continue where I left off. After the various farewell parties on Friday we went to Daphne Okoronko’s for drinks then headed to the hotel for the infamous Friday night disco with Lesley (Canadian missionary) and James Mbale (St. Peter’s teacher). We impressively managed to last until 1:50am and even more impressively Paul and Anne still went to Mass on Sat morn whereas I just tried my best to ignore the bells and have a lie in.

On Saturday it was party time again, this time at Mary Martha’s orphan centre and another emotional farewell. The kids at Mary Martha would melt the hardest of hearts as they have so little but are always smiling. They danced and sang for us as usual but the icing on the cake was when the nursery class performed various rhymes – they were adorable.

We went for dinner to Irene Jere’s house on Sat night, where we had lovely traditional Malawian food and lots of chat, as Irene never stops talking. She will make quite an impact on the exchange trip to St. Mary’s next year. Anne made a new friend during the meal – you’ll have to wait until we get back for the details but I will say that Roland would be an appropriate name.

You can never get too many Masses here so on Sun morning we went twice, totalling over 4 hours. We were forced up onto the altar during the second one to bid our farewells and I managed to impress the congregation by saying half of my speech in Tumbuka without any notes. After lunch at the Head Teacher’s house I had 4 hours of meetings whilst Anne and Paul enjoyed a rare lazy afternoon. The first meeting was of the school committee and the second one was the orphan scholarship committee.

Both meetings were very encouraging. The school committee were very keen to hear about all my observations of how the school is doing and they were very open to any ideas for improvement. The orphan scholarship committee really impressed me with their dedication in caring for these orphans physically, educationally and socially. We provide the scholarship money but they work really hard here to make the scheme a success. Unfortunately I had to officially inform them that we can no longer afford to keep 100 orphans in school. This has been the only negative aspect of this trip and I feel as if we are failing them. At the same time I feel as though we are constantly appealing for more sponsors at home with little response. Everywhere we go here people go on about what we are doing for the orphans of Mzuzu and it really saddens me to have to reduce our help but this year St. Matthew’s has had to supplement the money from direct debits quite significantly. Probably everyone reading this is already a sponsor but if not please think seriously about becoming one. It costs £12 a month to educate an orphan but we accept any amount from £5. I would love to be able to go back on the decision and keep the number at 100 in January. One addition I have made is to add the eldest son, Wisdom, of the teacher who committed suicide on to the scheme. He is at Nkhata Bay Secondary, which is a Catholic boys boarding school. I’m sure we’ll find the money from somewhere.

Yet another Farewell party on Sun night but this time it was us throwing the party for our hosts. We went out to dinner with Fr. Chunda, Matthias and Steven (seminarians), Mr. Banda (Head Teacher) and Elizabeth (his wife), Boniface Chirwa (school committee chairman), Irene Jere (St. Peter’s Primary) and Miriam and Annie(our housekeepers). We went to our local, the Ilala Lodge, and had a lovely evening together ending with the now Malawian favourite game of OH-SO-KO. Critical Skills has reached Malawi.

On my own again as Paul and Anne have left for Mua. Had the interviews for exchange visit to Scotland but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for the details.

Pawemi,

Bernadette

Anne's Blog 2

2009-07-26T22:02:00.000+01:00

Monire mose

Every day is a busy one here in Malawi. We managed to go to Nhkata Bay at the Lake. The weather is quite different from Mzuzu. It is much warmer, which I am sure the group will remember. For a couple of days, Bernadette, Paul and I chilled out in the bright warm sunshine. We even managed a long lie in and a leisurely breakfast just after 7.00a.m. Believe it or not we missed attending the daily 6.30a.m. Mass and the Malawian food: nsima and beans were nowhere to be seen in Mayoka Village. We did, however, sample pizza, pancakes and toasties. We managed to shop at the stalls for various gifts. Taking tips from the group, Paul has traded his yak boots for a wooden chair (it is currently being carved). The exchange will take place in Lilongwe on Wednesday as we prepare to fly home. I managed to buy a drum, so I hope Celia, you will give me some lessons.

On Friday morning, there was a farewell gathering with St. Peter’s Primary staff and committee members. Bernadette and I were both presented with a chetenje – you should be able to see the photos later. We all enjoyed the samosas made by Sylvia who is one of the secondary school teachers. Unfortunately, Mr Shabwa, head teacher was unable to be present because his mother was still very ill. Sadly this morning after Mass, we were informed that she had passed away. May I ask you to remember his family in your prayers?

I watched the netball match which took place at the end of the school day. The girls were delighted with their new blue bibs and navy skirts. Having purchased the desks and the netball gear we were able to use the rest of the fund to top up money the school had set aside for looking at electricity to be put into a building. Everyone is delighted that now the school is in a position to get electricity for the library and the Head Teacher’s office. This is a great step forward. Establishing a good library for pupils will be the big development for the coming year.

On Friday afternoon we had a great time with the Secondary school staff. They were very happy to show us the different dances relating to the various tribes. We also attended the school disco where many of the pupils were keen to try and help us learn some new steps.

We have attended parties at the Women’s Development Centre and Mary Martha. At both places the volunteers were responsible for getting the food for the parties. The party food is quite different from ours. Here the food for the celebration is meat and rice. For the orphans this is a treat. Roderick explained that the orphans would tend to eat nsima and they may if they are fortunate get meat and rice at Christmas. We enjoyed hearing the children sing and watching them dance at the parties. At Mary Martha I shared with the children the simple rhyme “I know cheeky, cheeky chin. Cheeky, cheeky chin nose eye.” When we left, there were plenty of “cheeky, cheeky chins” waving us off. It was an honour to be able to join both celebrations and to become friends with the children and the grown ups who give so much of their time and love to them.

It is sad to be leaving but it is exciting to know that everyone is committed to developing a partnership with St. Mary’s staff and pupils. I can see the difference that the partnership with St. Matthew’s is making in the schools and the community. Bernadette is very modest but I have to say that it is truly amazing how she has managed to get everyone’s support at home to help make a difference to lives of the children here, yet ensure that the people from Malawi are still in charge of their own destiny. I am grateful to Bernadette for giving Paul and I the opportunity to be here in Mzuzu and to become more directly involved. For us it has been a rollercoaster of emotions and a life changing experience.

Anne

Sat 25 July

2009-07-26T12:31:00.000+01:00

Monire mose,

I’ve finally got sometime to write up the last few days, even though it’s 10:10pm and I’m in bed.

Wee returned from the lake early on Thurs morning when Mr. Kavuta came to have breakfast with us before driving us back to Mzuzu, where we it the ground running and haven’t stopped since. We spent the morning in school catching up with the staff and finishing off bits and pieces.

In the afternoon we had a party with the orphans at the women’s development centre – another tear jerker. The maths dept had a whip round to pay for a party at each orphan centre, so I was able to give them 15000 kwacha each to fund it. When you think of a children’s party it probably conjures up images of jelly, ice-cream, sweets, pass the parcel etc. but not in Malawi. The biggest treat you can give these children is a hot meal of beef and rice. One of the organisers remarked that it was just like Christmas for them. Anne and I were asked to dish out the food, which both of us found quite heart wrenching. The kids queued up holding there plates as we dished out beef, rice, nsima and cabbage. I was giving out the beef, trying my hardest to give each child the same amount whilst making sure I didn’t run out. Thankfully I had enough left to offer seconds. One of the orphans was sick straight after the meal as she wasn’t used to eating as much. To finish off the meal each child had a bottle of coke or fanta, which was a real treat for them. I went round every orphan to clink bottles and say cheers. They chanted”, Long live Bernadette! Long live Paul! Long live Anne! Long live St. Matthew’s Academy

Unfortunately I had to leave the party early to meet with the Artisan staff (Greenwood’s partner school) and Mr. Banda (Head Teacher of St. Peter’s) to provide them with partnership training. The meeting went really well and I was very impressed with Mr. Banda’s input. He really has a sound understanding of what a true partnership entails. They’re coming back on Mon for some internet training so that they can improve communication links.

Afterwards we had another very emotional experience when we visited the family of the primary teacher who committed suicide 2 weeks ago. It’s still totally incomprehensible even to his wife who told us that they did everything together and she can’t find any reason for him to have taken his own life. They have 4 beautiful children as well as an orphan they had taken in a few years ago. We donated 20000 kwacha (about £80) from St. Matthew’s to help care for the children and pay school fees as well as giving the kids some toys. The youngest, Martha, is only 4 and the eldest, Wisdom, is in 1st year at secondary school. I also gave Mrs. Munthali an article on suicide that Bernard Walsh had sent and she was really appreciative. She asks that we all continue to pray for her and her family.

To chill out after an emotionally draining day we went out for pizza and then to a bar with 2 Canadian missionaries Lesley and Sr. Anne.
Friday was the last day of term and so it was time to say goodbye to the staff and pupils and to distribute our development fund. We had a reception with the St. Peter’s Primary staff at 10am, film show with the secondary pupils at 11am, staff party 2pm-4pm and then a school disco until 5:30pm. It was a whirlwind of a day. The highlight for me however was when we presented the girls’ primary school with mattresses for the boarders. The reaction of the girls will always stay with me. You may recall the story of the whole group visiting the girls school 3 weeks ago and all of us being appalled by the living conditions where 3 girls had to share a single straw mat. I was able to give 50000 kwacha from St. Matthew’s as well as 30000 kwacha from personal donations from staff to buy the mattresses. It was quite a sight when Anne, the Head Teacher and I carried in the first mattress on our heads with the girls carrying the rest behind us whilst singing songs of thanks. When we laid them on the floor the girls went absolutely hyper.

Phepani, I’m going to have to call it a night as I can’t keep my eyes open any longer. More tomorrow!

Message from Rodrick Kavuta

2009-07-25T13:57:00.000+01:00

Monire mose,

This is Mary Martha reporting that we have 3 visitors: Bernadette, Paul and Anne with a very beautiful presentation to the orphans. We have enjoyed a meal together with the orphans donated by St. Matthew's Academy Maths Dept.

The orphans are very happy and it's a rare opportunity to have a dish of rice and meat in the village because it is expensive to afford but with you it has been possible today. For your information we eat meat once or twice a month and we are very grateful for what our fellow students and teachers from St. Matthew's Academy have done for us at Mary Martha Orphan Care.

We have nothing to pay back but we continue to pray for you so that you can continue to support the orphans in need.

God bless you all,

Rodrick

Fri 25 July

2009-07-24T16:25:00.000+01:00

monire mose,

Just checking in to let you know that we are still alive. Already our 3 days at the lake are a distant memory as we have had a very busy programme since we returned with some really touching and rewarding experiences. I don't have time today to write about them all but I plan to do so tomorrow - so watch this space.

We had a really relaxing time at the lake with plenty of rest, sunshine & good food - they cocktails weren't bad either. The three of us were pretty exhausted and needed some down time to recharge our batteries.

I'm taking Paul and Anne out clubbing tonight in Mzuzu. If we last to 10pm we'll be doing well. Mass at 6:30am every day certainly hampers your social life!

Pawemi,

Bernadette

Carolines Malawi Experience :)

2009-07-21T20:51:00.000+01:00

Monire Mose!!

Sorry I haven't written this sooner but my internet was broken.

Even now ,nearly 3 weeks after arriving home from Malawi, I still can't believe that we have been and gone .
Looking back on photos im like, Did that really happen!?

At the beginning of the week, I think most of the group were wondering what we had got our selves into and curious to see what the group dynamic would be. Fortunately we all fell in love with malawi, most of us wondering how we can get back, and thankfully the group gelled well.
(Some more than others, *cough* monica in jens bed *cough*) haha

Malawi has seriously been the best experience of my life and probably the most life changing event i will ever have. So i have to thank all the teacher that went especially Mrs Mcfadden! Who was my allocated teacher, this was good right up until she mocked me for not being able to swim in the lake!

I think the biggest surprise about Malawi was the fact that the people were so friendly! Every where you went people would greet you and we were completely accepted into the St peters community. I don't think i've shaken so many hands in my life! Malawi truely lives up to its reputation as the warm heart of africa.

Eventually getting up for church at six was easy and eating nothing but rice was normal. Now i feel guilty if i sleep in until 10.
I would just like to thank every one involved i have made so many new friends and it has been such a humbling experience!

Caroline xx

Paul's blog

2009-07-20T09:32:00.001+01:00

This is the 1st chance I have had to post my thoughts on the experience of coming to Malawi. The programme has been exhausting, even for Anne and myself after the group left. Where do I start? What will be my lasting memories of the trip?

I have been completely overwhelmed by the welcome we as a group received from everybody we have come into contact with. I have never shaken so many hands in my life as I have in the past couple of weeks. I have still not mastered the language pronunciation, especially the greetings. I still can not get beyond "Monire" and "Yewo", despite the people's attempts to educate me. But, my efforts to speak the greetings have caused hilarity. I love to see the children smile; their whole faces seem to light up. The Malawians like to call their country the "Warm Heart of Africa". For me their reputation is well justified. I have felt very much at home here. When Anne and I returned from our trip to Victoria Falls it felt like coming home.

When we 1st arrived I was moved by seeing the conditions of the girl’s boarding school, the living conditions of many people and the working environment for the pupils and teachers. In a country where a pencil or a pen is a desirable item for many children it is difficult not to make comparisons with the amount of possessions we have back home and realise we take a lot of things for granted e.g. hot running water, flushing toilets. However, I didn’t feel sorry for the Malawians since they have a great enthusiasm and happiness, which makes you feel they have a lot more than we have back home with regards to possessions. I was struck by their enthusiasm for their faith. A highlight for me on the trip has been attending the Masses which are very lively with singing and dancing; the people really know how to celebrate their faith. Recently Anne and I were privileged to attend an ordination which was an unforgettable experience. It lasted 4 hours but felt like 1 hour.

The trip has made me a lot more aware of the great difference the efforts of Bernadette, the staff from St Michael’s and now St Matthew’s have made to a little corner of Malawi in helping both the orphans and St Peter’s school. I was very moved to hear a lady from one of the Orphanages humbly show appreciation for all the help they had received and explain how they wouldn’t have been able to give the children Christmas dinner this year without the help from St Matthew’s. Again, it was very moving to see the joy of the orphans when they received the gifts which our group had brought over from Scotland. The pupils made me aware of how great a struggle it is for many to get an education where they have to pay fees and provide their own learning materials.

Despite Bernadette’s scare stories about the food, I have eaten very well, enjoyed trying the different Malawian dishes and even getting to like the nsima. I still don’t like chicken but have got by on their various vegetable dishes. Anne and I intend to buy a Malawian cook book to try out on our return to Scotland.

Lastly, it was a great pleasure to be part of the group which came out from St Matthew’s. I was amazed at how easy our students fitted so well into the school life at St Peter’s and were a big hit with the Malawian pupils. A big highlight for me was the farewell concert, seeing Michael N leading the group in playing the bagpipes and our group performing the Scottish country dances in front of the whole school.

It has been a truly unforgettable experience. I am really looking forward to the group from St Peter’s coming over to Scotland in 2010.

Paul

Sun 19 July

2009-07-19T13:15:00.000+01:00

Monire mose,

The ordination was really special and it was a privilege to be part of it. It was great meeting up with so many Malawian friends whom I haven’t seen for a couple of years. For those of you who have been before, I met: Fr. Mwangulu, Fr. Philip Nkunika, Fr. Cosmas Mwanjabala, Fr. Chinula, Sr. Kaunda, Fr. Albert Chirwa (my least favourite Malawian but at least we shook hands) Fr. Steven Bulambo and of course the 3 new priests Frs. Daniel, Cecilio and Joseph. It was announced at the end of the ordination that Joseph will be appointed here at St. Peter’s, which Fr. Chunda was ecstatic about. We also met some fellow Masungu at a dinner party on Friday night, which was arranged by Fr. Chinula. There were 2 Irish and 2 English who were out working with various projects/parish links.

The journey to Msiku was nothing short of spectacular if a little scary. Imagine the Alton towers rides Oblivion, Nemesis and air mixed with an off road driving experience and that would come close to the drive up a mountain track. We got stuck at one point and all had to get out of the car and swap drivers. Chris McLeod did a lot of the driving but when we hit the really difficult terrain Fr. Chunda took over. Fr. Chunda is a superb driver and at no point did I feel unsafe, even when looking over the side of the track to the lake thousands of feet below!! The breathtaking scenery and the ordination itself more than made up for the treacherous journey.

I’m actually managing to sneak off with Paul and Anne for 3 days at the lake from tomorrow so my next blog will be on Thurs. I’m really looking forward to lying in the sun and recharging my batteries before the last hectic week here. All being well Paul should manage to post his blog later today.

Anne's Blog

2009-07-19T13:06:00.000+01:00

Monire mose.

Being here in Malawi is a wonderful experience which I really cannot describe fully. Bernadette has said a long time ago that you really have to experience coming to the country that words do not fully convey the experience and I totally agree. Being here stirs up emotions you never knew you had.

I have been very touched by the warm and sincere welcome from everyone in Malawi and particularly here in St. Peter’s Mzuzu.

My visits to St. Peter’s Primary have been most enjoyable and educational for me. We are looking forward to developing a meaningful partnership like the one that has been established between St. Matthew’s and St. Peter’s Secondary. Mr Shibwa, the head teacher and all the staff have been most welcoming. The children, as you can imagine, get very excited when they see us (asungu). I was taken aback by the number of children in the classes; ranging from 50 to over 70 pupils. It was overwhelming the other day when we entered one of the closed classrooms only to look down and see many faces looking up in the darkness at us. The classroom did not have electricity or desks. The young children were sitting on the floor with their paper on their laps, keen to learn about new things. A few of the classes for the older children have desks for the children to sit at. Standard 8 pupils are currently sitting exams for the secondary school.

Every day there is an assembly for the children. This is a gathering together time to hear the news of the day. Children are expected to communicate the news to their homes at the end of the day – perhaps we should try this instead of all the letters we send out? I love hearing the drum beat calling everyone to the assembly point which is outside near the outdoor classes. Music and singing is part of daily life here. It great to hear the children singing and see them dancing in school and at Mass. This morning we attended the Children’s Mass. Unlike, Scotland, there were very few adults at this Mass; older children brought their siblings to Church. There is a great feeling of happiness and community spirit everywhere you go, which deeply touches me. There is much we can learn from our friends here in Malawi.

Our donation from our fundraising is being used to kit out a classroom (standard 6) with desks which will mean 90 children will be able to sit. Already some of them have been made locally and this week 30 children were using them. Our donation is also being used for netball strips for the school netball team which has won some matches and leagues within the local area. The tailor is busy running up the bibs, he is using the bibs St. Matthew’s brought over as a template. Next week before we leave for home, we have been invited to watch the team play, wearing the new bibs.

There is so much I wish to share with you, but time is limited at the moment with our full schedule. Today we intend to visit the family of the teacher (there are 4 children) who committed suicide. Please remember them in your prayers.

Finally, my thoughts and best wishes to all of the group who are safely back home – Eric, Celia, Ally, Frances, Dominic, Michael N, Michael D, Jennifer, Monica and Caroline – wish you were still here, we miss you lots. You were all great company and I look forward to catching up with you on our return.

Anne Carmichael

Friday 17 July

2009-07-17T10:59:00.000+01:00

Just a quick monire to let you know we are still alive. Not enough hours in the day or days left in the country to fit everything in. We were on the go from 5:30am until 9pm last night without a break with Mass, school, shopping, bank, visit to Marymount Catholic Girls boarding school and dinner party at MR's house (school board member). Paul has started to type up his Zambian adventures in the 5 mins he had free this morning and I've promised him at least an hour off on Sunday, so hopefully he'll get it on the blog then.

We are leaving in 10 mins for an overnight trip to the very north of the country for an ordination of 3 priests tomorrow. One of those, Daniel Kamanga, was on placement at St. Peter's when I first arrived with Marianne in 2002 and we got to know him pretty well. Tomorrow is bound to be quite a spectacle with probably a at least a 4hour Mass. Tonight we are staying in Karonga and we'll leave at 6am to reach the ordination for 9am. Soon after the Mass we will begin the 7 hour journey back to Mzuzu. Everyone is scaring us about the state of the roads we will be travelling on, so it's bound to be quite an adventure.

Pawemi,
Bernadette

Wed 15 July

2009-07-15T19:19:00.000+01:00

Monire mose,
I am delighted to announce that I am posting this blog whilst sitting up in bed. No, they have not put beds in the internet cafe! From our development fund we have installed wireless internet access to be shared between the parish and the school. To say that Fr. Chunda is ecstatic would be a complete understatement. The two of us installed it ourselves about 5pm yesterday and last night he sent more than 40 emails! If any of the exchange group wish to drop him a line his e-mail address is: aachunda@gmail.com. He would be delighted to hear from any of you.

The other good news is that Paul and Anne are back safe and sound but exhausted from Zambia. They're having an early night, which is just as well considering the programme I presented them for the next 2 weeks. Paul will blog tomorrow about their adventures.

The student exchange selection process is going well. I met with the exchange committee today and we whittled down the 40 applicants to 15 for interviews. The reasons for eliminating some students were quite novel: 1 because she faints and therefore might faint at the airport and another because he is satanic!! Speaking of satanic - the front page of yesterday's newspaper had the headline story of a woman giving birth to a 3lb stone tied with black cloth, which has been attributed to witchcraft. Worryingly, all the teachers at St. Peter's believe it.

The bad news today is that I'm not very well. I usually succumb to some sort of illness out here and this time it's a stomach bug. I'll spare the gruesome details but the last 2 days have not been pleasant. I feel much better today due to the fact I've only eaten 2 bread rolls and a spoonful of rice and loads of water. I had managed to cover up the fact that I haven't felt 100% since Friday but I couldn't keep going at the same pace today when I had been up most of the night, so I missed Mass and breakfast. News of course travels fast and by the time I reached school one of the nuns was interrogating me on whether I had eaten yet as she heard I hadn't taken breakfast. Then when I also didn't appear for lunch Fr. Chunda thought I had malaria. I've promised him that I'll eat tomorrow.

Pawemi,
Bernadette

Tue 14 July

2009-07-14T12:54:00.000+01:00

Tues 14 July

I spent most of the day yesterday with Maggie Frame, a support for learning teacher from Greenwood Academy. When I came here 2 years ago Alison Scott, maths teacher at Greenwood but formerly St. Michael’s, came out for a couple of weeks to find a partner school. That school is Mzuzu Artisan Secondary School, which is a fairly new school with just about 100 students.

Maggie’s son and daughter-in-law have been out in Malawi for 1 year as volunteer workers and she and her husband are visiting them for 2 weeks. They are based in Blantyre, which is at the other end of the country but came to Mzuzu for 1day to try and improve the partnership links with Artisan. They are experiencing most of the problems we encountered when starting our partnership and I was glad to be able to advise on how best to move things forward.

The staff at Artisan were very receptive to new ideas and they are keen to come to St. Peter’s to learn about how a partnership can operate in Malawi. I think it is tribute to the St. Peter’s staff that they can now offer training to other Malawian schools on partnerships, just as we often do in Scotland.

Of course we had the usual Malawian welcome at Artisan with Singing, poems and drama and of course the obligatory speeches. I thought I would be spared this time but no such luck!

Meanwhile at St. Peter’s there are 36 applicants for the exchange visit next year. I thought it would have been higher but the teachers told me that a lot of students are too scared to travel as they have never been out of Mzuzu and others would be worried that their English isn’t good enough. Also we did not allow form 4’s to apply as they leave school in November this year. Although for the selection process I’m glad that the number isn’t higher – it’s a hard enough task! Tomorrow I will meet with the exchange committee to select up to 15 for interviews.

Paul and Anne are due back in Mzuzu tomorrow. I’m looking forward to hearing all about their Zambian adventures.

Pawemi,

Bernadette

Monday 13 July

2009-07-13T21:11:00.000+01:00

Hard to believe that I have only been back from Malawi for one week- seems like so much longer!
Already missing being out there, and already looking forward to any other opportunities to visit the area.
So sorry to hear about the Primary School Teacher - this will be a very difficult time to be in the school. As with all of the other 'blog-ees' my thoughts are with the man's wife and children at this time.
Good to hear that things are going well for Paul and Anne - we will need to have a photo evening on your returns. Difficult to believe that the roads could be any worse than some of those that we travelled on!
Running out of people to 'bore' with my Malawian exploits, although I have been very touched to hear that so many people followed our adventures on the blog when the group was out.
Sure you're not telling the truth re. the full day power and water cut - yet another scary story for the next unsuspecting exchange group to fret about!??
Hope all continues to go well.

Celia

Mon 13 July

2009-07-13T14:02:00.000+01:00

Apologies for not blogging for a few days due to the following reasons: Fri – too tired to walk into town, Sat – too busy & Sun - Internet café closed.

On Friday there was a minor miracle when I actually slept through the bells and missed Mass. I think the exhausting schedule from the previous week plus the daily 6am starts had finally caught up with me - at home I can’t even sleep through a text message beep. As a result I had a long lie (until 6:30am!!) and took it easy for the rest of the day with my usual couple of hrs in the staff room in the morning and a visit to St. Peter’s orphan group in the afternoon. I really enjoy my time chatting with the teachers each day. They tell me fascinating stories about Malawian culture including witchcraft, circumcision, child marriages and death rituals. On Fri evening I set up the laptop and projector to watch a DVD with Fr. Banda and the seminarians. I chose Jerry Maguire thinking there were no “dodgy bits” – I was wrong!

I visited Mary Martha Orphan Care Centre again on Saturday. I had planned on a very informal visit to spend some time with the orphans but even with the little notice I gave them they still managed to prepare a really nice welcome ceremony with singing, poems, games and speeches from the Director, village headman, the founder Mr. Kavuta and myself (due to absence of Big Head!) We planned a party for the orphans on 25^th(funded by St. Matthew’s Maths dept.) and I asked them to think about a proposal for the donation from St. Matthew’s, which I’ll present at the party. I asked Mr. Kavuta about how prevalent HIV is among the orphans and unfortunately there is a large number. Celia – you would have found it hard to cope when he pointed out certain kids, including his own grandson, who were HIV+. It was heartbreaking but as usual they had smiles on their faces. Even some of the volunteer workers there are positive.

On Saturday evening I was invited to dinner at Daphne Okoronko’s. Daphne is Nigerian, married with 2 gorgeous kids, Chukes 5 and Ingo 3, and was formerly Head of St. Peter’s but she gave it up due to Cultural differences. We had a really lovely meal followed by a very interesting chat about Malawian culture compared to Nigerian culture.

Sun was a bit of a non-event due to no water and electricity for the whole day. Welcome to the real Malawi! This is a weekly occurrence but when the whole group was here unfortunately it only went off for 10 mins. I worked on the statistics project for a couple of hours, which is almost at completion. The general knowledge quiz was fairly close with St. Peter’s scoring 47% and St. Matthew’s 58%. However 91% of St. Peter’s students answered 23 x 12 correctly compared to only 58% of St. Matthew’s - shocking!

Thanks for all the blog comments. They mean even more to me when I’m here alone and it’s been great reading about all the kid’s experiences as well. I think they haven proven without doubt that Celia, Eric and & I couldn’t have picked a better group of kids to share this experience with us.

Busy day today as Maggie Frame from Greenwood Academy is visiting for the day - details tomorrow.

Jenny's Experience In The Warm Heart Of Africa

2009-07-09T21:46:00.000+01:00

I really don't where to start to be honest as I could sit on this computer chair for days talking about Mzuzu. I can hand on my heart say that it is now my favourite place in the world and am already thinking about when I can go back.
At the beginning of the week I actually thought I was dying on having to rise at 6am with crazy dogs disrupting my dreams as a result of some unexpected morning bells. However as the week past, although I may still have looked and felt shattered, I truly realised that there wasn't actually the slightest thing wrong with me and I was perfectly capable of rising at this time to attend mass and it wasn't actually the end of the world if I had to experience a bit of tiredness.
I was amazed to discover that such a warm, welcoming place really did exsist in this world as I had never came across anywhere with such genuinely friendly people in it in Scotland. The inhabitants of the area we were based really did go out of their way to welcome our group when we arrived and continued to help us feel most at home throughout the whole stay.
At St.Peter's Secondary School I have made friends for life and will never forget my good friend Patience as she looked after Caroline, Monica and I so well and is such a lovely person. I'll always remember the day we all ended up making up a dance routine when we were supposed to be playing netball and they are all such INCREDIBLE dancers!
I don't think any of us could have done it without the support of each other. I have to thank the teachers for everything and just for making the trip possible. They were all such amazing company - even if they didn't let me forget the embarrassing 'passion fanta' comment I made to the Bishop - and we had so many laughs that I lost count of how many times I ended up crying with laughter. I think Miss McFadden is an absolute star for being so committed to helping the schools and Orphanages and I know I'm speaking on behalf of all 6 of us pupils when I say that we are so grateful that you would choose us to share this experience with you.
Of course, I couldn't forget to mention my homies :- Caroline, Michael N, Michael D, Monica and Dominic - who are all awesome people who are so full of life with decent banter that I think I might just have to stay friends with them ...heehee !!
On seeing the extent of the poverty in Mzuzu I have become evenmore determined to continue raising money and maintain this link between the schools as I didn't realise how much they depend on our contributions and didn't even comprehend how much I would learn from them!
I have a sneaky suspicion that this is only the beginning of our relationship with Malawi and that it will continue grow and grow as we help them and as they teach us
that it's perfectly possible to be happy without countless possessions.

Michael D's Malawi Blog

2009-07-09T18:57:00.000+01:00

When I found out that I had been chosen to go on the trip to Malawi I was excited but also a little aprehensive. I tried to prepare for the trip by talking to others who had visited the country before but looking back now I realise that nothing could have prepared me for this experience.

Since I have returned, people have been asking me about the trip and one of the questions that has stuck out is, "What was the best part of the week?" There were so many highlights through the week and so i find it difficult to pick only one, but the warm welcome and the friendly people will stay with me forever. Even though they live in difficult conditions, they are so happy and this really makes you appreciate what we've got and gives you a different outlook on life. Going into the schools and meeting the pupils was great. A few friends in particular that I made were Frank, Hastings, Montford and the head girl, Pilirani. I will never forget them as the hand-carved giraffe that Montford gave me will always remind me of them.

The whole experience was enriched by the fantastic group of pupils and teachers. A special bond was developed through having this experiance and new friends were made.

I'm very grateful and proud to have been chosen to go to Malawi and I'd like to thank Mr Allen, Miss McFadden and Miss McArthur for giving me this opportunity. I'd also like to thank the rest of the teachers for having put up with us through the week. It really was an honour to represent St Matthew's and I now appreciate the difference our fundraising and support can make.

I am now looking forward to the return visit in March when we will be able to return some of the hospitality shown to us. I hope that we can make their experience as great as ours.

Malawi and its people now have a special place in my heart and hopefully I will one day be able to return.

Before Finnishing, I would like to say thanks for all the support and help that everyone has given us through the past six months.
Michael D xx

Monica's Malawi Blog

2009-07-09T18:01:00.000+01:00

It's so hard to put my experience of Malawi into words. It's taken me a couple of days to build up the courage to actually write this - I get all teary when I think about my time over there. Tears of happiness though, of course :). The one word that I keep using to describe the trip is 'incredible'. I had no idea what to expect from the trip before going out but it was definately the best 10 days I've ever spent out of the country - even if there was no air conditioning on our bus!!

The people of Malawi are some of the friendliest and most welcoming people I have ever met. I was made to feel right at home and that they were happy to have me there. I miss them all already. They provided us with so many laughs + are without a doubt the best dancers in the world! I think it was their smiles that kept me going through the week. I had no time to be upset or miss home too much with everyone around.
Even though I was only there for 10 days, I can definately say that I have fallen in love with Malawi and it's people - The Warm Heart of Africa indeed :D.
It totally baffled me when I first witnessed the happiness of everyone despite the fact that they lived in a very poor country and literally had nothing..but it soon became clear to me that family, friends and faith is all that is needed to keep your spirits high - not the latest ipod or wardrobes full of nice clothes!
Maybe its not for me to say, but I feel like my attitude to almost everything has changed for the better - I even tidied the kitchen while my mum was at work today!

I cannot wait to return to Malawi in the near future. I haven't decided what I will return to do but I know for definate I will be going back. Such a beautiful country with beautiful people.

Just want to thank everyone I went to Malawi with. You were a fantastic group to be with. Thank you for the incredible memories.

Also a quick Hello to Lesley (hope I spelt that right). All the best for the remainder of your visit.

Monica xxxxxxxx

Thu 9 July

2009-07-09T14:46:00.000+01:00

Monire mose,

I was woken up around midnight last night with a commotion outside my room - it was Fr. Banda shouting Fr. Chunda. I then heard a car driving away and knew something was wrong in the parish. Fr. Chunda informed me before Mass this morning that a teacher in St. Peter's Primary had committed suicide. It's very sad as he has left a wife and children and nobody knows why he did it. He was at school as normal yesterday. After school he went for a drink, went home, had his supper and then when his wife went to bed he went into the kitchen and hanged himself. The group who were here may remember him as he was the only male teacher apart from the Headmaster.

Unfortunately there is not a lot of sympathy for him among the people but the priests have been very supportive. Usually the neighbours would gather outside the house for prayers straight away but they refused because it was suicide. It is very much frowned upon here and as a result his wife will not be treated very well by his relatives. I tried to explain that to be in that state of mind means he was not mentally sound and that it should be treated as any other illness. I told them that at home the family would receive even more support from relatives and friends because of the circumstances. It led to a very interesting discussion about cultural practices and burials. They told me that in the villages is someone hangs himself from a tree then a pit would be dug below and he would just be cut down to fall in the pit with no proper burial or funeral.

Ive just been to visit my old neighbours the Mhangos. It was a good 50 min walk, mostly over rough terrain, into a very poor area where they are not used to seeing mazungu. It was a bit disconcerting walking through the village with everybody staring and shouting azungu! Thankfully I managed to find the primary school where the mum works but she wasn't there so another teacher took the youngest,Emmanuel, out of class to take me to their house. Can you imagine a total stranger arriving at a primary school in Scotland and being allowed to take a 7 year old child away? I felt like Madonna walking through the village with Emmanuel holding my hand - cue even more stares! It was good spending time with the kids and giving them their gifts from Scotland. If I can remember Eric's instructions I'll try to add some photos tomorrow.

Tonight I have Irene and one of the nuns coming to watch my sister's wedding DVD. There will be much laughter when they see Fr. Naz in a kilt!

Pawemi,
Bernadette

Wed 8 July

2009-07-08T13:54:00.000+01:00

Monire Mose,

I must admit that I found yesterday quite tough as it was my first full day in Mzuzu without the rest of the group. I was tired, extremely cold and pretty homesick. I'm much better today - but still tired and cold! The torrential rain woke me up at 5am this morning so I didn't need my 6am alarm call in the form of the church bells. Mass this morning was offered for Robert Johnston's dad whose funeral was today. It was really nice that they made a special effort especially when it is for someone they didn't know. Fr. Banda was due to say the Mass but last night he asked if I would mind if Fr. Martin said it as he needed the Mass offering more, so they concelebrated together. It is lovely how they help each other out.

My social diary is filling up nicely. It sounds ridiculous but I'm now using an appointment system to try and fit everyone in as I've had numerous invites over the past 24 hours. Of course as soon as Irene heard I was booking people in she put herself down for 4 evenings!

I have to rush as MR has booked an appointment to visit at 4pm, which will probably lead to another dinner invitation! Obviously I'll expect the same celebrity status back at St. Matthew's!!

Pawemi,
Bernadette
p.s. The fridge has now been filled with beer!

Tuesday 7 July

2009-07-07T13:08:00.000+01:00

Monire mose,

I’m now back in my second home Mzuzu. I arrived last night to find that my room, which was previously inhabited by Eric, has been upgraded – it now has a fridge, kettle and hotplate! Fr. Chunda was apologising that they forgot to put beers in the fridge for me! They have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome at the priests’ house, which I’m sharing with 4 priests and 2 seminarians. My constant appeal to live simply as a Malawian is falling on deaf ears. Dinner last night consisted of chicken, beef, rice, nsima, chips, beans and vegetables but this meal was outdone by breakfast this morning of vegetable omelette, boiled eggs, toast, cassava, sweet potato and bananas. I was hoping to lose weight in Malawi not put it on!

Last week the school employed 2 housekeepers and 2 guards to take care of us all and Paul, Anne and I have decided to keep them on. It’s not really necessary but it gives them some much needed cash while giving us some extra security - and clean clothes! During my meeting with the head teacher this morning I asked how much they were being paid. I was shocked to find that they are getting about £10 a week each for a minimum 12 hour shift 7 days a week. I especially felt sorry for the night guard who stood outside our house in very cold weather from 6pm to 6am for just over a £1 a day.

The process has now started to select the 6 St. Peter’s students who will come to Scotland next May. The deadline for applications is on Fri with a written exam next week followed by interviews. It was hard enough choosing the St. Matthew’s pupils but this is much more difficult. This really is a chance in a lifetime for these young people, who most likely will never have been on a plane or even travelled outside Malawi. The ones who are not chosen will be very disappointed.

I was relieved to hear that the rest of the group are now safely back home in Scotland. Hope you are all enjoying your long lies without the 6am bells!!

Pawemi,

Bernadette

Dominic Sharkey - After Malawi

2009-07-07T10:43:00.000+01:00

Now I’m back home I’m finding it hard to face going back to normal life after my wonderful experience in Malawi. Before the trip, I couldn’t wait to get to Malawi. During it, I couldn’t wait to get home. And now it’s all over, I wish I was back there.

No words of mine can really do any justice to our time in Malawi – the stories we can tell, and the hundreds of photos we have, will only reflect a shadow of what we experienced.

The most effective and (I hope) life-changing part of the trip was the people of Malawi. The way in which they celebrate their faith, live in great optimism, and laugh, despite their apparent poverty, made me think that although we have so much more materially; they really have a greater quality of life than us. We have worked hard to give them money, new buildings, Christmas presents, water pumps, but they just lived their normal lives, and gave us so much more.

I very much hope that in the future I will have the opportunity to return to Malawi, and help in any way that my career in Veterinary Medicine will allow.

I must take this final opportunity to thank all of the teachers for their superb organisation and management of the entire trip, from when the planning first began, for selecting me as one of the 6 pupils to represent St. Matthew’s Academy, and for being such a pleasure to be around and share my experience with.

Finally I would like to acknowledge my good friends: Michael N, Michael D, Caroline, Jennifer and Monica. I feel privileged to have been part of this with all of you. You have made it so memorable and enjoyable for me (despite the nasty chilli trick), and we had such a good laugh.

All the best to everyone!

Dominic x

P.S. – If anyone wants to see my photos or journal (yes – I’ve typed it up – I’m that sad) – dom.sharkey@hotmail.co.uk

Tired But Enriched

2009-07-06T22:30:00.000+01:00

Now that we are back in Scotland, I just wanted to say to all our readers/followers how much we appreciated the efforts you made to keep in touch with our progress. I can't tell you the number of people I have spoken to today who said they dipped in and out of the blog during the course of the last week or so eve if they weren't official followers or commenters.

Our journey home was tiring but the bond we had developed while in Malawi kept us going - even when the bad security men in Amsterdam confiscated the drink which we had bought as presents for our families and friends! Supposedly, this was because we weren't supposed to go through more than one security check with any liquids which had been bought at duty free and despite the fact that all the bags containing the bottles were sealed - we think it was just because the security people were looking for some drink to take to a party tonight!

It was great to see all of the parents/family members at Glasgow Airport - cue tears, hugs and fond (if temporary) farewells. Please keep in touch with what is happening in Mzuzu throughout the rest of the month by dipping into the blog from time to time to see what Bernadette (and Paul & Anne) are up to.

Best wishes to you all for a great summer holiday.

The (ex-)Blogmaster

Michael (Corky) Northcote Shares His Experience!

2009-07-06T18:36:00.000+01:00

Obviously i cant share everything with you because you would be here for days but i will give you a brief summary of my travels.

I feel so privelleged to have been picked to travel to Malawi with 5 students and 8 other teachers. (Although my good friend Mrs Shiell's never managed to accompany us, i felt that she was with us and supporting us throughout our journey) The total travel time was roughly an excrutiating 25-35 hours and all of the travellers began to bond extremely well.

My aim for this trip was to make and strengthen new friendships with different people and to become more interactive. I feel as if i have accomplished my goal to the highest ability and this will cause me to never forget my life changing experience.

I must admit that the food we were given was extremely well prepared and kept us going throughout the week - even though i was tricked into believing (by Ms Mcfadden) that chicken and rice was our staple diet.

I have several videos and photos which i would like to share with all blog members - so "if you fancy a gay gordans bishop" email me on the following - mick15north@hotmail.com.

Both St. Peter's Primary/Secondary school were packed to the nearest brim of students enticed to learn for a future career in medicine, law, e.t.c
I have to mention two teenagers who i got attached to when i travelled to Malawi:

Hastings-who looked after me in our fourth form class
Pilirani-who was extremely welcoming

i will never forget them and hopefully, destiny will bring us back together.
i will keep in touch with them.

I MUST ADMIT THAT FR CHUNDA WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY TRIP! He was always so happy and we had good laughs together. I have to see him again - one day.

Finally, I would like to say thankyou to Ms Mcfadden/Mr Allan for organising the trip and having the upmost trust in us. I find it really satisfying that they know how life changing this event has been for me and I HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH MALAWI. I must go back lol.

cheers!
For all the good times!
have a green on me!

Michael Northcote xxx

Monday 6th July

2009-07-06T08:42:00.000+01:00

And now there are 3!!

The 6 of us had a lovely meal out in Lilongwe last night talking about our experiences and favourite memories of the past week. We were surprised and humbled to hear Fr. Chunda say that it has been one of the best weeks of his life and that he has enjoyed our company so much, as well as the singing and dancing. To us it feels as though he has just been running after us all week - he has certainly been the perfect host. Eric presented him with a Glenfiddoch miniature and hip flask and a laptop for the parish. Last night he tasted whisky for the first time ever.
We gave him a night off as our chauffeur and used taxis, which was quite an adventure for the men. As we ladies climbed in to our comfortable taxi a total boneshaker came spluttering round the corner to pick up the guys. Fr. Chunda had a go at the driver asking if he thougt his taxi would make it to Nelly's to which the driver took great offence saying, "Are you disrespecting my taxi?" Anyway it did make it back with smoke coming from it and a very strong smell of petrol!!
This morning we got up before 7am to wave off Paul and Anne on their Zambian Adventures and I'm just about to go the airport to see off Frances and Ally. It's quite emotional (even for me!) saying all these goodbyes after becoming so close to everyone over the past week but I'm definitely in safe hands with Fr. Chunda. For those of you who are more concerned about my health and wellbeing than I am, you will be glad to know that Fr. Chunda has insisted that I move in to Eric's room in the the preists house for the rest of my stay rahter than staying myself in the house next door.
The firstt group will just have arrived home in Scotland by now. Sorry to hear about your drink embargo at Amsterdam!

Looking forward to hearing from you all soon.
Bernadette

Sunday 5 July

2009-07-05T17:44:00.001+01:00

Monire mose,

This is your new blogmaster reporting for duty due to the previous one leaving the country. So, now for the real story about what happened last week ...only joking!

Today we had our first lie in of the trip - 7:45am!! I know it sounds ridiculous to think that 7:45am could possibly be considered a lie in on a Sunday. Fr. Chunda said a lovely Mass at 8:30am where he prayed for a good journey home for the travellers and also for Michael N who had his 17th birthday today. After Mass we had a fry up then birthday cake before heading off to the airport where Eric , Celia and the kids set off for home.

It was strange this afternnoon walking around Lilongwe without our big group in tow. It has been a truly fantastic week and I couldn't have asked for a better group of staff and pupils to share this experience with. There has been much laughter and tears (thanks to Celia!). It was great for me to see everyone falling in love with Malawi and its people just as I did 7 years ago.

Well I'm off to an Italian restuarant now with the remainder of the group before we go our separate ways tomorrow. Ally and Frances head home, Paul and Anne go off on safari and I will return to Mzuzu to continue working on the partnership for a couple of weeks.

I will try to blog most days to keep you all up to date but I can't promise to be as good as Eric!

Pawemi,
Bernadette

Saturday - Our Last Post!

2009-07-04T20:45:00.000+01:00

After morning Mass on Friday (that’s 6.30 a.m. – remember!), Eric presented Fr Chunda with a certificate to commemorate our visit to St Peter’s but, fortunately, he didn’t inflict the Chitumbuka speech on us again – it’s last outing was earlier today at Galamala village which we visited on our way to Lilongwe earlier today (more details later on).

The final assembly at school was delayed until 7.30 a.m. so that we could get breakfast (porridge again) after Mass. Dominic led the whole St Peter’s school community in prayer including some Chitumbuka – nice one, Dominic!

After a few words of thanks and an indication of our hopes for the future of the partnership from Eric, the Head Girl from St Peter’s spoke; this was followed by stirring renditions of both the Malawian national anthem and “Flower of Scotland” before we presented more of the gifts which had been so generously donated to us before our departure. The school received a laptop, a multimedia projector, netball bibs and tracksuits and football strips and boots while the pupils were given pencils, pens and toothbrushes. The resultant excitement meant that no classes took place for most of the day – although the Head Teacher did tell the pupils that anyone caught dogging school would have their pen/pencil/toothbrush taken from them!

We quickly nipped into town before lunch so that the pupils could buy their nearest and dearest some more gifts – bet you’re all on the edge of your seats now and unable to contain your excitement about your presents! If it helps, part of the shopping spree took place in the Tanzanian market – if there was a picture in the dictionary next to the word grotty, it would be Mzuzu’s Tanzanian market!

After lunch, we marched behind our piper, Michael N, from the house to the church hall to the strains of “Highland Cathedral” for a farewell concert. After we had been entertained with a variety of dances, songs and sketches from the pupils (and staff) of St Peter’s, we inflicted – sorry, performed – our own cultural items on the audience. These included “Flower of Scotland”, “Loch Lomond” and “500 Miles” as well as the Gay Gordons, the Dashing White Sergeant and the Strip the Willow. Members of the Malawian staff were invited to take part in the dancing with varying degrees of success! We were also presented with T-shirts by the school to commemorate our visit –the 3 spelling/grammatical mistakes in “St Matthew’s Academy” did upset Mr Banda just a little although we all thought it added to the whole atmosphere of our visit! The concert finished with the whole audience singing the two National Anthems – this proved just a little emotional for some of our staff! To finish off a wonderful afternoons, Eric, Michael D and Caroline were interviewed by the local radio station – although how much sense the listeners will be able to make of their unprepared responses is open to question.

Our two “dodgy wee guys” (© Bernadette 2009) from Nkhata Bay, Bob and Tosh (yes – really!), duly appeared with our carved key fobs and whole lot of other high quality (?) souvenirs. While Michael D managed to get rid off a wide variety of items such as his binoculars and some batteries, Captain Trading (i.e. Dominic) again reigned supreme by trading his school blazer for goods! As Paul said, “Dominic – the man who put the ‘shark’ in Sharkey!”

We finished Friday off with a final visit to the Ilala Lodge; several staff from St Peter’s Secondary, St Peter’s Primary and Mary Martha Orphan Care also came along and joined in a great evening of dancing and singing – both Malawian and Scottish – and including, believe it or not, “Old Macdonald’s Farm” (initiated by Irene from St Peter’s Primary School), “The Hokey Cokey” and “The Slosh”.

And so to this morning, when it seemed as if half of Mzuzu turned up to wave us off at shortly after 8.00 a.m. Again our luggage was packed into a pickup while we settled into our seats for the trip south. Celia was a bit overcome with emulsion but soon recovered although tended to suffer a relapse when anyone spoke to her.

On the way to Lilongwe, we had a diversion to make to Galamala village (home of Fr Nazarius). To get there we had to journey for many kilometres on very bumpy dust tracks but, on our arrival, we were greeted with all of the ceremony normally reserved for special guests. Ngoni warriors performed tribal dances but proved to be less fearsome than they looked when they posed for photographs with us afterwards. We presented the head of the village with K100000 (about £400) from the project fund which will be used to carry out some gardening initiatives in the village to help them become more self-sufficient. The locals showed us some of their traditional houses as well as one of the water pumps which were installed during our previous visit as part of our joint project with Irvine Seagate Rotary Club.

From Galamala it took the best part of 6 hours (much of it spent sleeping) to reach the luxury of Nelly’s Guest House in Lilongwe by which time various parts of our anatomy were aching. However, the promise of a shower, a hot meal and a beer or two was enough to overcome our discomfort.

Tomorrow, the 6 pupils along with Celia and Eric will begin the trek home, leaving here at around 10.00 a.m. to head for Lilongwe Airport – assuming all of the connections go according to plan, we will see you all at Glasgow Airport at 7.50 a.m. on Monday morning – unless, of course, you are a loved one of Frances or Ally who return a day later at the same time or Anne, Paul or Bernadette who don’t come back until the end of the month.

It’s been a brilliant week and we want to thank everyone for keeping in touch via the blog. Although this is the last entry for this part of the visit, Bernadette (and Anne & Paul when they get back to Mzuzu from Zambia) will be posting from time to time – so keep logging on to find out how Malawi is managing without us!

See you bright and early (although quite late for us!) on Monday morning.

Why Is It Friday So Soon?

2009-07-03T11:05:00.000+01:00

We were joined at morning Mass yesterday (6.30 a.m. in case any of you had forgotten!) and at breakfast by Chris, who was teaching in St Peter’s in 2005 when we were last here, and Dominic and Anne-Marie Sutherland both of whom are teachers from Scotland, with Dominic being the driving force behind the St Maurice’s link with Nkhamenya Girls’ School. Chris is doing some work with an organisation out here in Mzuzu this summer while Dominic and Anne-Marie are on holiday and are visiting all the people they know throughout the length and breadth of the country.

Thursday was a pretty busy day with pupils in class, working with groups of Malawian pupils on projects and, in the case of the three girls, spending time with Anne in the primary school interviewing pupils on video. Meanwhile, Eric and Mr Banda (Head Teacher of St Peter’s) completed the last of a successful series of meetings by signing the official Partnership Agreement between the two schools. Arrangements were also initiated for the return visit to Scotland by a party of Malawian staff and pupils next March – we are planning to fund a party of 10 so get your fundraising hats on again!!

During the morning Form 1B were spotted digging a pit behind the science block. On closer investigation, it transpired that this was punishment given to the whole class by the Head Teacher for being noisy – food for thought for the St Matthew’s school behaviour procedures! The whole punishment thing kind of collapsed when we took their photograph, however, as they were all vying to get into the shot wearing their widest smiles!

After lunch, Paul and Ally took a staff training session which was a great success with Malawian and Scottish teachers working closely together to identify priorities which could be addressed by the Malawian staff once we have left and do not necessarily rely on additional resources being made available. Mr Banda has indicated his intention to continue to look at the themes identified with a view to making some of the improvements which had emerged from the initial workshops with staff and pupils which we had carried out earlier in the week. All in all a very successful move into staff development and one which was greatly appreciated by our Malawian colleagues.

We headed off to Mary Martha Orphan Care Centre in mid-afternoon. This centre is located out in the countryside to the south of Mzuzu and the difference between the orphans there and the ones in Mzuzu town is really noticeable because of the poverty and lack of facilities in the countryside. Because we were coming, the 50 or so orphans were supplemented by around another 50 “hangers on” but all of them got some kind of gift, even if it was only a pencil and a sweet. Apparently, after our last visit some of the youngsters had asked the centre volunteers how they could become orphans so that they could get nice presents! Enough to bring a tear to a glass eye, as they say - no wonder Madonna keeps coming back for more!

On the way back from Mary Martha we called in to see Bishop Zuza – a highly hilarious experience because he is the funniest man, has no airs and graces and one of the most infectious laughs in Western civilisation. Unfortunately, he wasn’t wearing his usual brightly coloured (almost Hawaiian) shirts because he was feeling the cold but he was so pleased to see us and provided us all with a welcome drink. The offer off a drink led to two of the most unlikely statements ever made to a Bishop:
Celia – “Can I have an Elephant please?” (It’s a type of beer!)
Jennifer – “Passion please, Bishop” (It’s a flavour of Fanta!)

However, the hilarity caused by these requests was eclipsed by Paul who, in the context of describing our input to this afternoon’s cultural exchange experience (or concert, as it is more commonly known), said to Bishop Zuza “If you fancy a Gay Gordons, Bishop, you know where to come.” Cue much falling about by all and sundry – although we weren’t sure if Bishop Zuza and Fr Chunda were entirely sure what they were laughing at. It’s not often you can say that going to meet a Bishop would be light relief, but it certainly provided us with the perfect antidote to the emotion of spending a couple of hours with the orphans at Mary Martha.

A final word today to the parents of our students – we are really proud to have them here as representatives of St Matthew’s Academy. They have been an absolute credit to themselves, to the school and, of course, to you. We couldn’t have picked a more fantastic group of young people – they have got on so well with each other and with the staff and have conducted themselves so well in everything that they have done that we feel very privileged to be with them.

Tomorrow we head off back to Lilongwe via Galamala village (where Fr Nazarius is from) and should be able to post our blog from Nelly’s Lodge Guest house as long as their internet connection is working. Keep posting comments – and, if there’s anyone out there who is reading but not posting, please do post because all of us really appreciate your comments. Michael D gets very emotional every day when we bring the previous day’s blog and comments back to the house!

Tiwonanenge namachero! (You’ll need to find out for yourselves what it means.)

Thursday Already!

2009-07-02T07:26:00.000+01:00

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.

Welcome to Wednesday

2009-07-01T08:21:00.000+01:00

You know the story by now – Cathedral bells, half-shut knives, not morning people, etc, etc. We breakfasted after 6.30 a.m. Mass with Monday’s Scottish-style porridge being partly replaced by Malawian porridge made with maize and peanut butter – don’t worry, Northcotes, all 7 members of staff made sure Michael was eating the oat mixture without the peanuts!

We headed off to school on what was a dull, damp, cloudy day with Monday’s dusty paths and roads turning to sticky red mud and making our shiny shoes look a tad unattractive. Tuesday was a pretty heavy day in school with our 6 pupils shadowing Malawian youngsters through a day’s timetable, staff shadowing teachers in their own subject disciplines and Eric and Celia meeting with Mr Banda (Head Teacher) and Mr Lungu (Depute Head Teacher) to look at how the project might develop from here. For some reason, there seemed to be a lot of Malawian staff not at work yesterday so several of the staff ended up teaching classes – some of them even ended up teaching classes which were being observed by other St Matthew’s teachers!

Bernadette has been really disappointed by the high quality of the food so far and made the executive decision to instruct the school to stop spending so much money on looking after us – her argument being that every Kwacha spent on us is a Kwacha less to spend on the needs of the school and the local community. So it was with some trepidation that we approached lunch only to find that the instruction to reduce the food budget by 50% had not yet been communicated to the cooks! Evening meal – well, that was a different story as you will see later. However, the day was still cold – so much so, in fact, that Annie our house lady appeared with a brazier full of red hot coals which the pupils huddled round as they tried to get warm; Caroline even put her pyjama trousers on under her school skirt – very attractive!

The school day here has nine periods – four before break at about 10 o’clock; another three from break to lunch at 12.30ish and only two in the afternoon which is supposed to be followed at 2.00 p.m. by an hour’s study. However, Tuesday’s study period was abandoned in favour of sports in which some of the more enthusiastic and fitter members of staff (i.e not Eric) took part along with the pupils. By this time, the weather had cheered up a bit which we hope augurs well for our trip to Nkhata Bay this afternoon.

And so to dinner. So far we had feasted on lovely lean beef (a real luxury in Malawi), beautiful fillets of chambo (locally caught fish), plump chunks of chicken, diced potatoes, boiled rice and vegetables. Tuesday’s evening meal was somewhat different, although we all agreed that it was none the worse for being typically Malawian. We had vegetable soup followed by pieces of chicken with nsema, boiled mustard leaves, boiled mustard leaves mixed with groundnuts (don’t worry, Northcotes – see above comment re breakfast, only for “porridge” read “leaves”!), boiled/baked plantains (hard, fairly tasteless bananas) and a sort of kidney bean stew.

We downloaded your comments on the first blog yesterday and will do the same today for Tuesday’s report. It’s good to know that you are following our adventures. Everyone is keeping well, no-one has been bitten by mosquitos and we are all looking forward to being tourists this afternoon at Nkhata Bay. Tune in tomorrow for the next instalment.

Tuesday's Blog

2009-06-30T12:58:00.000+01:00

Another day dawned bright and early – yes, those cathedral bells again at 6.00 a.m. and even Celia heard them on Monday morning. We all gathered together for breakfast at 6.30 to be greeted with 3 steaming tureens of porridge – brilliant! Because this was going to be our first day in school, we had decided to give 6.30 a.m. Mass a miss and headed over to St Peter’s school for the back of 7 o’clock. After being introduced to the staff in the (very small) staffroom, we took part in morning assembly where we had to suffer Eric’s Chitumbuka speech again – we all thought he must be telling jokes because of the pupils’ laughter but, apparently, it was simply the result of his poor pronunciation!

Our morning was taken up with a tour of St Peter’s and then visits to Lunyangwa and St Peter’s Primary Schools – a real eye opener for all of us, even those that had been before. In Lunyangwa, they have turned two small classrooms into boarding facilities for the Standard 8 pupils (equivalent of P7); 45 pupils sleep on the floor in each of the rooms and the cooking is done by volunteers on a wood fire on the back porch of this block. This provision is the school’s attempt to raise standards of attainment and get more pupils through the examination they need to pass to get into secondary school – it certainly puts the St Matthew’s school improvement plan into perspective! However, the Standard 8 pupils are the lucky ones because their two classrooms have desks; the rest of the pupils in the school learn in very cramped conditions and they have to sit on the floor all day. Mary’s Meals also operate in Lunyangwa and Celia couldn’t resist a bit of stirring before we were entertained by some dancing led by the girl guides in the school. We presented the school with 2 footballs and a netball from our substantial supply of gifts.

St Peter’s Primary School is next door to Lunyangwa but is in no better condition – a fact that proved to be a bit emotionally overwhelming for some of the adults in our party, never mind the pupils. However, the pupils and staff were so pleased to see us and the inevitable dancing and speeches followed our arrival. We met with the staff in one of the classrooms (one of the few with desks) and feasted on Fanta/Coke/Sobo and custard cream biscuits! The pupils were persuaded to try some food that the youngsters from the primary school had prepared – suffice to say that the cooked bananas with meat did not go down too well, with the fact that it was stone cold adding to the unappetising nature of the dishes! Monica and Caroline seemed particularly unimpressed!

Bernadette had prepared us with dire warnings about the food in Malawi but, once again, our fears were unfounded with delicious fried fish for lunch. We spent the afternoon in St Peter’s Secondary with staff and pupils observing classes before we convened a staff meeting to discuss the project and what we hoped to get out of it this week. While staff met together, the pupils were looked after by senior students from St Peter’s.

Shortly before 4 o’clock, we all went to the Women’s Development Orphan Centre next door to our lodgings on the St Peter’s campus. Here, around 35 orphans were waiting to meet us and they were very excited when we gave out pencils, glider planes, T-shirts and other “goodies” from the stock of gifts which so many people back home had generously donated. The look on their faces was the best “thank you” that any of you could ask for!

Eventually, the “real” Malawi which Bernadette had been warning us about came in the shape of our first power cut not long after darkness had fallen – this was only really a problem for Celia who happened to be in the shower at the time and couldn’t see a thing! Another delicious meal (yes, really!) was followed by a brief trip to the Ilala Crest Lodge Hotel with the Head Teacher, Board Chair and Fr Chunda before we crashed out exhausted knowing that we were due at Mass at 6.30 on Tuesday morning.

It’s great to see so many “followers” on the website – keep watching for further news.

P.S. Feel sorry for us - it's cold and wet today!

Monday's Missing Photos

2009-06-30T12:49:00.001+01:00

These are the photos we had problems posting yesterday - from the top:

1. The group with the Ngoni warriors after Mass on Sunday.

2. Anne C. pumping water at Nkhamenya Girls' School.
3. Bernadette and Michael with the barbecued mice.

4. The pupils on arrival at Lilongwe Airport.

Monday in Mzuzu

2009-06-29T12:20:00.000+01:00

We arrived safely here in Mzuzu at around 7.00 p.m. on Saturday evening having left Scotland at 4.30 p.m. on Friday afternoon. We flew from Glasgow to Amsterdam to Nairobi (overnight) to Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi. From there, our luggage was piled into a pick-up truck while we all piled into the diocesan minibus for the 250 mile trip north to Mzuzu. Monica’s innocent “does the minibus have air conditioning?” question provoked quite a bit of hilarity given the reality of life here in Malawi.

Our driver was Fr Andrew Chunda, the parish priest at St Peter’s Cathedral in Mzuzu who is also the Director of St Peter’s Secondary School. The road from Lilongwe to Mzuzu is called the M1 but the only similarity between the Malawian M1 and ours is that the road is tarred – it is only a two-lane road and is pretty bumpy. All along the way there are people selling things like tomatoes, sugar cane, potatoes, furniture – and barbecued mice complete with fur, paws, heads and tails!

To break the journey, we stopped at Nkhamenya Girls’ School which is partnered with St Maurice’s H.S. in Cumbernauld. The Headteacher, Sr Kaunda, was very pleased to see us – she met our group the last time we were in Malawi and, when she was over at St Maurice’s last year, Bernadette and Sheila (Taylor) went up to Cumbernauld to see her. We were treated to our lunch at Nkhamenya and the pupils entertained us by singing and dancing before Sr Kaunda gave us a tour of the school, including the pupil dormitories. Saturday being washday all the girls had spread their clothes out on the grass to dry – no tumble driers (or even washing lines) here! Anne and Monica took a turn at operating the hand pump which supplies the water which the girls use to wash their clothes. The two Michaels seemed to make quite an impression on the girls in the school although the asking price of 10 cows for a wife did put them off a bit!

The last half of the road journey from Nkhamenya seemed to take forever because we were extremely tired and darkness had fallen meaning we couldn’t even distract ourselves by looking at the countryside but we eventually arrived at St Peter’s where we were warmly welcomed by members of the local community and served yet another enormous meal! Tiredeness quickly got the better of us and we all hit the hay before 10.00 p.m.

We all slept soundly although only Celia did not get woken up at 6.00 a.m. by the bells of the cathedral next door announcing the start of a new day – no need for alarm clocks for the rest of the week because that apparently happens every morning! Our first (yes – first!) Mass of the day was the English Mass at 7.00 a.m. following which we had a quick breakfast before returning to church for the Chitumbuka Mass which was an incredible experience – singing, dancing, holding hands, clapping (wait till you see the video!) – and lasted for the best part of two and a half hours! At each Mass, Eric had to say a few words and introduce our staff and pupils – he did this in Chitumbuka at the second Mass which seemed to go down quite well despite some rather questionable pronunciation and phrasing! All of us were genuinely affected by the whole experience and by the warmth of the welcome we received from the congregation which included a couple of Ngoni warriors who were very keen to get their photo taken with us – and vice versa!

Following the Masses there was a formal welcome lunch for the team in the Church Hall at which the Chair of the School Board, the Secretary of the Parish Council, the School Director (Fr Chunda), Bernadette and Eric all had to make speeches. After we had woken Ally up, we took a wander into town to show those who hadn’t been in Malawi before what Mzuzu is like. We visited the market – ask the pupils about the fresh(?) fish section – although we missed out the second hand clothes section! Michael N thought he had made a new friend until he realised that he was being persuaded to buy postcards!

Towards the end of the afternoon, we headed to the Mzuzu Hotel, a favourite watering hole of Bernadette’s when she was here in 2002/03, but Celia was distracted en route by the sight of Mzuzu Golf Course and wandered on to the less-than manicured fairways for a photo opportunity. One “Kuche Kuche” each later, the group returned to base camp for yet another huge meal and a working session where gifts were sorted out, teaching materials were prepared, Scottish dances and songs were practised and arrangements sorted out for school this morning.
Our accommodation is great – the beds are comfy, most of the showers are nice and warm and there are relatively few beasties about (although Frances did depart her room in a screaming hurry last night because there may be a large unidentified flying thing lodging in her wardrobe and the boys are sharing their room with a small lizard). Ally has already developed an unhealthy addiction to cherry and plum flavoured Sobo (don’t worry, it’s a fizzy drink, Mrs McGuigan!) and Dominic made the serious error of trying a whole red chilli at dinner last night – we think Caroline persuaded him that it wasn’t all that hot but it was and copious amounts of water, milk, oranges, lemons and bananas until his mouth returned to something approaching normality. Monica’s sleepwalking may turn out to be problematic – as Jennifer will testify following an unexpected guest in her bed on our first night! Paul has asked the name of everyone he has met so far although whether he has remembered any of them remains to be seen. As you can see, everyone is really enjoying the experience so far – although, if Eric uses his Chitumbuka speech many more times (4 so far and counting!), that may not remain the case.

Final Parents' Evening

2009-06-09T12:54:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday 9 June, trip staff, pupils and parents met in Miss McFadden's room in St Matthew's to finalise the arrangements for the trip to Malawi which departs on Friday 26 June.

Only 16 days to go!

Testing2

2009-02-03T23:10:00.000Z

Testing from the centre of the universe - aka Dalry!

Just Testing

2009-02-03T11:08:00.000Z

Just checking that this works.

First Post

2009-02-02T20:53:00.000Z

Trial post for demo

Trial photo upload