From Ship to Shore!

I spent a lovely Easter on board the Ilala, Malawi’s luxury cruise liner!! Well something like that anyway. It is quite an old boat that sprints up and down the lake. It takes about a week to get from the top to the bottom, probably because of all the stops in between. We got on at one of the main ports by walking up the plank for a 5 hour trip to a really isolated village. To disembark the boat was slightly more traumatic!! They lowered the life boats (22 people max) and you literally had to throw yourself into them and hope you didn’t land in the water! We all made it (far more that 22 people!!) and were taken ashore.

Spent a lovely, peaceful time on the lake before making the return trip the next day. This time you had to pull yourself aboard (ok so there were a few steps to help you on your way) and the return leg began! The ship/boat is the only means of travel for some Malawians so the lower decks were very crowded with people, animals, food and even the occasional metal roofing!! Back on shore we stopped off at the woodcarvers where I spent the remainder of my last pennies on lovely items of wood!! My best buy was a tall carved old man hunter type creature!! No idea how I will get it all home, especially as I have only been here for a short while and foresee many more trips to the curios!! Note to all who have been to Ghana – the stuff here in Malawi is sooo much cheaper than that in Ghana, which I never thought could be possible. I guess this shows the economic development of the countries!!

Back in Rumphi, the wet season has apparently ended, just a few occasional showers and it is beginning to get windier. It is much cooler (and nicer) at the moment but soon we will be in the HOT, HOT dry season! Can’t wait! Back to my point, the sky at night is so clear that you can actually see the white of the Milky Way and honestly, the stars do twinkle at you – it is amazing, especially when the moon is hiding!!

Thought for the week!! Global Warming. Of so it is happening and to be honest it is the West or North (not sure what the correct development term is at the moment) that are causing most of it! You are seeing weather changes at the moment but, on the whole, your daily lives are not really being affected. People in Malawi, in fact most of Africa, rely on growing their own food to eat for the whole year in order to survive. In Malawi this means certain seasons. The end of the dry season sees the planting time and during the rainy season the maize grows. Too little rain and the harvest is poor, too much rain and the crops get ruined. They need an exact level of rain to get the optimum harvest. They have this down to a fine art and generally speaking this has worked in Africa for years. Already the affects of global warming are beginning to show, the rains in parts of Malawi have been very erratic. A few years ago there was a huge famine across Malawi as there had not been enough rain. I’m sure, year by year this will get worse. What then will then happen to a poor country like Malawi, who is only just surviving at the moment and that is with relatively good crops?

Just back from a trip to Zomba in the south of Malawi for an educational training thing. We were being oriented on the new curriculum which was quite interesting! Managed to visit a few of the sights of Malawi, especially some touristy places including a paper/craft making workshop, Dedza pottery workshop and store and a few wood carvers! Just as well we got our volunteer allowances this week!!!

MOVING DAY

After 3 months of living in Malawi, I am just about to move into my house. Before doing this I needed to collect my furniture from another volunteer’s house. We had arranged this in advance with the driver of the Matola (big truck) in our office, Justus (the volunteer) and my landlady. All was go for 2 o’clock.

By 2.00 Sue and I were in the office. Problem 1 – no driver or matloa. They were out all day on the salaries run! Problem 2 – No Justus (but he did turn up at quarter past 2). My boss decided that we could pop along to the local secondary school and ask to borrow their matola and driver. This we did. Unfortunately there was no fuel in the vehicle. I offered to pay for 5 liters of fuel. Sue had to drive the driver to the petrol station to get fuel! Next problem, after ciphering in the fuel, the van wouldn’t start – something to do with the starter motor, quite a frequent problem! So 5 men pushing the van down the hill and disappearing into the distance. Eventually they appear back with the van in working order! By this point it had started to rain – just a drizzle but still. Eventually got my stuff loaded up (not that there was much to load, somehow a lot of my stuff has been misplaced!!!!) and went to the new house. After some negotiating we managed to get the stuff in. The landlady wasn’t about but the house was open. Decided that we shouldn’t leave the stuff in the house without it being locked. So I had to wait for 2 hours for the land lady to appear! Going to Mzuzu this weekend to try and buy some stuff to put into my house!! Will let you know how I get on!

Hope all is well!!