AIDS Day

This Saturday is AIDS Day. This day is in memory of those who have died and those who continue to suffer from this awful disease which is destroying millions of lives all over the world but especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Malawi is one of the worst affected areas with a prevalence rate of about 15% of adults. This is creating a devastating effect on individual families as well as the country as a whole. For example a huge proportion of the Governments education budget is spent on providing funerals for teachers. HIV/AIDS is still an unspoken disease in Malawi with most people hiding away from it. They say that people are not dying of AIDS but things like TB (TB goes hand in hand with HIV in most cases) as there is still a huge stigma attached to being positive here in Malawi.

However, it is not all doom and gloom. Many people who are positive and open about their status have formed PLWHA (People Living With HIV/AIDS) groups in many towns and villages and they form support networks for each other. These are the lucky people who know their status and are getting the correct treatment called ARV drugs (Anti-retroviral). Mind you if you are positive and living in the UK you have access to about 18 types of ARV to suit your body but in Malawi there is only one type and that is the cheapest available on the market. To promote the use of the ARVs the people taking them must also have a balanced nutritionally good diet. Of course the diet of nsima and relish 3 times a day is not nutritional at all! There are many schemes that are being set up by PLWHA groups and other NGOs to create a nutrition garden where they grow their own vegetables, garlic etc. Of course funds are short and this can be quite a challenge from people living positively as they are often sick so need time off work which can equal less money. I was given some money by one of mum’s friends before I left in October and I have decided to put some the cash towards setting up a garden for the local PLWHA group. All I have bought are a few garden tools, watering cans etc and several packets of seeds. I’m going along to one of their meetings to present the equipment and to also see what takes place during their meetings. This is the ideal time to start planting as it’s nearly the rainy season so the water is free at the moment!!

People are beginning to get the correct education about HIV/AIDS but I think a lot depends on the culture and traditional practices of a country. Malawi is no different – there are many weird and wonderful African practices taking place here which often don’t help in the spread of HIV/AIDS. If people are willing then they can go along to a hospital or health centre (in the larger villages) to get tested. Most centres have a separate clinic called a VCT clinic (Voluntary Counselling and Testing) where they can get tested relatively quickly. Firstly they are counselled by volunteer counsellors where they discuss past life experiences and the future if you are positive. They if they still want to go ahead they are tested right then and there. The results only take a few minutes to come through and the counsellor is the one who does the test. All the test involves is taking a prick of blood and dropping a few drops onto 2 different kits (both must be done to ensure that the reading is correct) A single line shows that the person is negative whereas 2 lines shows that they are positive (a bit like waiting for a pregnancy test!). If the person turns out to be positive then they are offered further counselling. Of course the virus can take up to 3 months in the system before any antibodies develop so just because you tested negative your could still be positive depending on your lifestyle. All a bit scary, especially for people who think that they might be at risk.

To show me how simple the whole process is Jonathan (who is a trained counsellor) offered to do a test on me. He regularly gets tested, mainly to show his clients who are apprehensive about the process of the testing. I accepted the invite but because he didn’t want to hurt me with the finger prick he didn’t prick it hard enough and he had to repeat the whole process again with another finger – it actually did hurt as they need to prick it quite deep to get enough blood for both the tests – mother you would have passed out by this stage. I was not worried about the result but I can empathise with people who are unsure about what the result could be – how your life can change in a second. I was negative.


Other news this week is that my poor cat has been ill. He was chased up a very tall Pawpaw tree by 5 vicious dogs who only ran away with me throwing things at them. Then he got stuck up the tree and had to jump into Jonathan’s outstretched arms. After coming down we realised that something was not quite right with him. His paws were looking sore and he was releasing a lot of saliva from his mouth (thank god he had his rabies jag or I’d have been getting seriously worried.) We called the vet (yes there is one in Rumphi and he is friends with Jonathan.) He came and gave him a shot of an antibiotic. They changed us K50 for the service (that’s about 20p) so much cheaper than a trip to a UK vet!! He still was bothered by his paws and they were sticky looking. I thought there might be a link to this bloody pawpaw tree and the sap from the fruit. I called home and asked Cam to do some research. He sent he a text at 11.00 local time, one hour after I was asleep telling me to put butter on his paws as this would remove the sap. I got up from my doze (its too hot to actually sleep properly at the moment) and ploughed butter all over the poor cat. I woke in the morning to see paw prints of butter all over the house. Thankfully after a few more butter treatments the cat is back to normal and catching the mice again!!

Electricity

Well as I write this I am sitting by candle light with the power being out in the whole of the North since midday. Apparently this is quite common in the run up to the rainy season as the water in the turbines is very low so they have to share the power.

Of course my own little house is a story of its own when it comes to power. I am quite used to the power crashing in the middle of the night as I wake up in a hot sweat and realise that the fan has gone off. Usually it comes back on a few hours later. However the other day it still wasn’t back in the morning. Thought nothing more of it until I realised that everyone else still had power – but not for long. The whole area went out for the rest of the day. Different lines kept coming and going and we were told that my line would be the last but definitely back by 6. It is of course dark by 6 and it was easy to tell that the rest of my line did indeed get their power back at 6 but not me. After a bit of an investigation I realised that the main on/off switch for the house had jumped to off all by itself! Turns out I could have had power on off for the whole day just like everyone else! As a bonus however, my freezer managed to defrost itself entirely which was probably long overdue! The problem still isn’t fixed as it now sporadically decides to jump off on a regular basis. Its quite scary when suddenly you are in total pitch blackness. On a plus note if the power is off during the early dark hours and you decide to go to bed at 7 (there is really nothing else to do with no light) you can tell when it goes back on due to all the cheers around the area!
Was actually up 3 times last night as the power was out and the sweat dripping was awful!!!

With the approach of the rainy season has also brought many new and exciting wildlife into my little sanctuary. There are these awful spider/scorpion things that come out at night and run like mad. They are huge and really quick and scary looking with their big long pincers feeling the way. Apparently they aren’t poisonous but can give you a nasty bite. I originally got my cat to scare away the mice etc but the little bugger has taken to catching these spider things outside and bringing them into the house to play with and slowly kill them to eat. Meanwhile they are running all about the place. I have been known to jump onto the couch in order to avoid them! Yesterday after bringing in 3 of the creatures I threw him out and shut the door. Thinking I was safe from interruption I began to read a book while Jonathan was cooking tea (yes I have him well trained). Suddenly there was this high pitched continual squeaking noise. I didn’t need to look up to realise that Jambo had now bought in a furry mouse through the window. I was straight up on the chair for the fourth time that night. Jonathan went to investigate as Jambo and friend scurried into the spare room and under the bed. I alerted George my watchman and hid outside while he and Jonathan managed to chase Jambo outside to finish off the mouse. This time I closed all the windows as I didn’t want a nice present on my pillow!

There is a major virus spreading about Malawi at the moment – don’t worry humans can’t get it as it’s a technology thing. Flash drives are picking up viruses and because the technology is quite slow here then the virus is spreading really quickly. Both my pen drives are a bit dodgy as is my laptop and the work one. Think that pretty soon everything is going to just stop working (a bit like my fan as it is on 24/7). I’m just trying to keep backing up all my photos etc and hope for the best! Not a lot I can do especially as the virus seems to attack the anti-virus soft-ware first!

Oh well, it is Malawi after all!

Driving

As you may remember, we have been given a new vehicle to help us reach our far distances. Bearing in mind that this is a big 4x4 truck type thing with an attached canopy roof over the truck part we thought that we’d be having no problems with only 800kms on the clock. Oh yes, the truck is also white – the bog standard NGO colour in Malawi! While I was at home, Sue has already had to take it to the dealers in Mzuzu as there was something wrong with the oil pipe – apparently it hadn’t been screwed on properly.

So off we went on a long journey up to one of our far away TDCs on the dusty, bumpy road. We got there fine and were heading back up a really steep part so I was driving in first gear when we went over a few bumps. Nothing new and at least the path was dry. Suddenly I looked out of the rear view mirror and saw the roof jumping into the air and flying off, literally landing with a thump. We got out and there was the canopy lying in the middle of the road.

Thankfully 2 men were passing in their truck and stopped to help us. There was no way that we would have been able to lift the roof up, far less put it back in place. Unfortunately we weren’t able to secure the roof, which was not dented and missing all its screws so the men asked if we had rope. Of course we didn’t – it was a brand new truck! Thankfully Malawians are resourceful and they appeared from the bushes brandishing trees which were then stripped of their bark and the insides used as ropes. Very clever! Carefully they secured the roof into the truck part and told us to drive carefully – yeah right we still had miles left of the bumpy road. We continued on and had to stop a few times to re-tie the trees. Much to the amusement of the locals who all suddenly appear in their millions!

Thankfully we made it back without injuring anyone and with the roof still in place. We bought proper rope from the market and re-tied the roof in place. It just so happened that we were going to Mzuzu the next day as the car was due its first service. A local mechanic said that they hadn’t tightened the bolts properly and we should have told them that we were driving on bad roads – I mean for goodness sake if you are driving anywhere in Malawi then you are guaranteed to be driving on bad roads!!

We handed it in to the garage but I have to go back to get it refitted on Monday. I was going back anyway as I need to update my drivers licence so I can officially drive a bike and car with the Malawi licence. I was told it would only take a couple of hours to do but again I have to go back for that several days later but that is a whole different story…….

One other great bit of news is it is the mango season so they are everywhere. Much nicer and fresher than the ones you get at home and they only cost about 2p each!!

All smiles

All was going smoothly and I was getting back into the swing of things at work, planning trainings etc. We have a full schedule from now up till Christmas – or at least we did until yesterday when we discovered that the Education Advisors who we work with will all be away for the next few weeks on a Ministry training as they are planning to continue rolling out the new curriculum. Basically the Advisors will be either attending trainings or conducting trainings! So our whole programme has gone out the window!! This is not surprising as we have been expecting something like this to happen, just not to this scale!

We will have a rethink and probably just conduct training without the Advisors which isn’t really the point but still it is better than nothing!

I have also been around the schools that I linked with Winchburgh and Holy Family to deliver the photos of their penpals. When back in Scotland I gave the pupils in Winchburgh their letters along with a photo of their penpal here so my job was to deliver them to the pupils here. The children absolutely loved getting not only a copy of their own photo but one of their new ‘mazungu’ penpal. What are normally calm, peaceful classrooms in Malawi turned into super-hyper environments but it was wonderful to see their reactions. One of the headteachers even told the pupils to kiss their new friends and demonstrated by kissing the photo of one of the pupils! This cause much hilarity all round!

Just goes to show what a small thing like a photo can do!!

I have also had a few requests for teachers to write to someone in the UK. It probably wouldn’t require much so if you are interested in this please let me know!