Thursday Already!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Welcome to Wednesday

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

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

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

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.

More from us tomorrow if we can.

Having trouble with photos - hence only one in this post!

Well, today was our last day in school and we gathered together in the auditorium with some of the staff and pupils of the school to celebrate Mass and to pray for the success of the trip. We will meet tomorrow at about 2.00 p.m. at Glasgow Airport before jetting off on our 24-hour+ jaunt to Mzuzu. More from us when we arrive.

Final Parents' Evening

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!