Caroline in Malawi

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

TDC on a boat!

Cast your mind back almost one year ago and you might remember the adventure of the trip to the Teacher Development Centre that required a boat to get to, and it was just a disaster from beginning to end. Well the time came again for my annual trip to visit the TDC.

This time we were also going to take 2 of our Malawian colleagues (PEAs) for an exchange visit. It was arranged ages ago and surprisingly the day arrived for the adventure and all was still well!

This time the trip was much more successful but still had some entertaining moments. We were firstly sent on a few errands to various other TDCs on the way to drop of information from the office. Upon arrival at the first one, people suddenly appeared from everywhere, out of bushes or huts and started forming a queue at one of the doors. There was hustling and bustling, pushing and shoving. Apparenlty they thought we were from Mzuzu and were here to sell them maize flour. It was an awful feeling as already these people had been waiting since the early hours and they were disappointed when they found out that we were not here for the maize. The crowd dispersed a little and the wait continued for them. These are the lucky ones as they can actually afford to buy the maize, plenty other people have ran out of last years crop and are now struggling and going hungry.

Anyway we arrived near our destination and had promised the 2 PEAs to take the to lunch in a ‘mzungu’ place. We arrived at a lovely place on the lake where we often stop for lunch. This is truly a white backpackers place and is usually full of over-land trucks. Today was quite quiet but the PEAs where amazed at the whole set up. Bearing in mind that these are 2 educated Malawians they have rarely experienced the white tourists. They took ages looking over the menu and I had to explain what all of the dishes were. There was one Malawian type dish of rice and bean stew which they kept falling back to. Eventually, after much discussion they decided on tuna salad and garlic bread. I’m not sure quite what they were expecting but they ate it all and said that it was good. They did look longingly over at the workers who were eating the traditional nsima and relish.

We set of for another TDC to drop in some information and then headed to the place where we get the boat. There we were staying at the local guest house for 2 nights and thankfully, because we had the PEAs with us there were no problems in ordering food! Upon arrival we went to find the man we had hired the boat from and of course there was the usual cock-up. The host PEA had booked us onto the boat for the next morning and all was arranged, but the owner of the boat had been given a better offer from the District Commissioner’s office (of course they are also more important that us!) and he was waiting to take them. We would be stranded. Several phone calls later from the PEAs to the DC office it transpired that their programme had been cancelled and we were free to use the boat as planned!!

This is a different boat to last years one, thank god!, (especially as that one capsized over Christmas, 4 children drowned and the owner has ran away to South Africa!). The boat was great, much bigger and safer then the last one and even had a canopy over the top to protect from the sun and rains. This was also the first time that the 2 PEAs had ever been on a boat in their lives. They were very excited and laughing throughout the journey. The boat stopped at several places along the lakeshore to collect teachers for our trainings. At each place we were greeted by hoards of children who ran along the shore to chase the boat as we left!

We arrived safely and could begin our trainigs. These were to be about 4 hours long but were shorted to 2 and a half hours as we needed to get the boat back at 2ish. The visit went really well and the host PEA had made a big effort in organising the exchange visit. Our training were nice and soon enough it was time to head back to the guesthouse.

Back at the guesthouse we taught the PEAs a card game which they were loving and highly entertained especially when they won and we lost! The guesthouse id pretty basic and the layout is that the walls don’t reach the ceiling so there is a large gap the whole way along the top, between each room. Lucie reported that the place (which was empty apart from us) is obviously the local brothel as the room next to her was continuously opened and she could hear different men’s voices. Because of the open air layout she could even hear the occasional ripping of the condom packets – which is a good sign, and after each visit she heard the prostitute bathing, again a good sign?! This was of course taking place on Feb 14th – Happy valentines day Lucie!! Thankfully I was on the other side of the corridor and had ear plugs, plus the music coming from the local bottle shop dimmed out anything I might have heard!

The trip back to Rumphi was pretty uneventful except we did drop in at the local museum (still as funny as last year and no improvements made) which the PEAs loved and also found quite amusing. They were even taking the piss out of the tour guide!

This was a much more successful trip and achieved much more than last year!


Here is the photo link to see the beautiful Lake Malawi:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41919&l=cb02b&id=521356310

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Another Photo Link

I'm getting good at this uplaoding - the net is working quite well these days! This one goes with the photos from the supervision entry!

Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41182&l=21875&id=521356310

Supervision Stint

Today I visited a school with some of the Primary Education Advisors to take part in joint supervision. I always find this interesting and a bit of a challenge as I can sometimes feel like ‘who am I to tell these teachers who have 20 years experience how to teach!’. But they do listen to what I have to say and especially respond to the positive aspects as they don’t often get positive feedback. (One PEA once told me that we didn’t need to tell them what they were doing well because they already do it well!).

Anyway the school was the local school and is quite a big one. I have been many times to do various things at the school especially supervision of the new curriculum which last year was just in the standard 1 class (6 year olds). Today I was watching a Standard 5 class. The schools in the centre area tend to be better staffed as there are more job opportunities and generally a better quality of life so the average ratio is normally quite good (say 50 learners to one teacher).

However, that doesn’t stop teachers calling in sick, attending funerals or other trainings at the last minute resulting in a shortage of teachers for the relevant classes. There is no supply list to call and it is up to the management of the school on how to best ‘fix’ the situation. The headteacher of the school today was off sick as were several members of his staff. Nothing new and to be honest I have yet to go to a school where every member of staff is present.

There are 3 standard 5 classes but today due to shortages they were all combined. I counted 152 pupils and they were sitting outside under a tree with a portable blackboard. There were actually 2 teachers but unfortunately one had completely lost her voice so was really just monitoring and whispering to some groups. I was really impressed that she had come to school in the first place! Large classes of 150 plus is not uncommon but the difference between these classes and todays lot is that the children today are not used to being in such a large group. The poor teacher really did her best and I was impressed with her attitude. Her planning and everything was fine but having so many children was really a challenge to her. I’m not actually sure how much learning was taking place as most kids were just sitting and watching what was going on, plus enjoying the view of a ‘mzungu’ in their classroom! She was using the new ideas of this new curriculum which encourages participatory methods including pair work and group work but with so many it was hard to monitor. I really did think that I would not have managed any better in the situation, only that my voice is louder so they might have heard better!! It is also worth noting that the behaviour of the class was excellent!

For all you teachers out there, just try to empathise with this poor teacher and many like her all across Africa!!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Is this really that bad, or have I been in Malawi for too long?

Ok so it is the rainy season here so the rivers are all flooding and really fast flowing. Actually today 5 people were really late for our workshop as they were stranded on the other side of the river and Rumphi was only accessible by the big trucks! Anyway, occasionally stray Hippos from Vwaza marsh wildlife reserve venture out of the park and get swept down stream. (Perhaps they are going on an adventure or holiday!) This happened yesterday and what a stir it caused!

The locals of course shot the beast. Lucie had found out about it from her night watchman who had been to see the hippo so she had also been and called us to tell us about the excitement. We decided to go for a look at what was going on.

We followed a line of Malawians all looking for a bit of the action, weaving in and out of the maize and following a very muddy path that was probably not there 5 hours earlier.

We heard a lot of noise and excitement ahead and eventually right before us was this bloody mess with several men and their machetes literally hacking away at this poor dead animal. It seemed like half of Rumphi had turned out to watch the event and in the hope if picking up some tasty hippo meat. I know that hippos are large animals but the size of this thing sprawled everywhere was immense.

I was of course the only ‘mzungu’ there so out came the camera to catch the action. This caused even more excitement and the men with the machetes where posing with blood dripping down them and with their thumbs up! I even got to put my hand in the hippos mouth and hold its teeth!

So is it wrong that these people practically poached (although not quite) this poor animal that we in the west pay money to go and watch or is it this perfectly acceptable? A year ago I would have said that what they did was wrong and been disgusted by the whole event. However I now realise that it is down to a matter of survival. Although hippos don’t attack humans like a lion would they are still very dangerous animals that could easily kill a few people, especially if they get between it and its water source as they feel threatened and then charge. The hippo was also destroying the local’s maize which means people will go hungry by this time next year. Plus it is also the ‘hungry’ season just now when the maize from last year is running low and the new crop won’t be ready for at least a month so the bonus of hippo meat is a real treat. Although I’m not sure how the money works as apparently because a police man shot the hippo, it now belongs to the government and they should be auctioning off the meat so the government get money for it (or who ever is in charge that day!) but we saw many people proudly carrying about the meat, still dripping with fresh blood! And I reckoned that the people who had the job of hacking up the bits had a big say in who got what! Also apparently it is just to difficult to try and shoo the hippos back upstream in the rainy season so it would have just continued to be a threat.

So after a few snaps we left with blood splattered on my trousers back to the house, without any meat and thinking about how the need for food and survival overrules any other thoughts. Decide for yourself. Was going to upload some of the action shots but didn’t want to gross you all out although the video action would be great on You tube!!

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Photo Link

Here is the link for the photos that go with the previous post, Raleigh Malawi! Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40068&l=67b9c&id=521356310

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Raleigh Malawi

Driving in Malawi is bad at the best of time but right bang smack in the middle of the rainy season is a total nightmare. I am taking from experience here and quite possibly spent one of my most frustrating days in Malawi yet the other day.

We have now expanded into two new district and have been given the ‘toy’ car to travel around these great distances. We had arranged to visit some schools and a Teacher Development Centre (TDC) with some of our colleagues in one of the new districts. We were given a hand drawn map that looked quite simple to follow. (That was our first mistake – being lulled into a false sense of security!) Schools start at quarter past 7 so we knew we wouldn’t make it for that time so told the others that we would catch them up. We set of at 6am sharp and I thought it would probably take us about 2 hours as I knew where one of the places was on the map (Vwaza – a national park) and that takes about one hour to reach along some pretty bad roads. (That was mistake 2!)

The first part of the journey was ok, pretty bumpy and juddery but at least we knew where we were in Malawi. We then ran into our first spot of bother. The river had over flown and was streaming down over the road. Luckily there was a flood plain, hump thing over the road. We got out and took a look. Lucie threw a few stones into the water and to be honest we couldn’t really tell either way. Thankfully 2 Malawians on bicycles appeared at the other side of the bridge thing. They simply rolled up their trousers and off they went, bike in tow. Since they didn’t disappear into the depths of the water we felt it would be safe to cross – feeling slightly silly that they had managed with their bikes! Over we went and we were just glad that it hadn’t rained the day before!

We reached the end of the known territory roughly on time and were feeling in confident spirits. We then had to cross some pretty bad bridges. They are made from wood going horizontally with lots of planks going down them vertically, for where the tyres of vehicles would go, only these 2 bridges had several of the planks missing. We managed ok and just hoped there were no loose nails that may have gone into the tyres.

We came to a junction and instinct was telling up to go left. We got out our trusty map and spotted a junction. We were to turn right. (Mistake 3 – maps are never ever to scale!) As we had just passed a village which was drawn in the map before the junction we were sure that this was the way. Along we went on this road which actually resembled a country footpath and was really muddy. 4 wheel drive went on and eventually after the 8th patch of mud it stayed on! Next up was a big coca-cola truck stuck in the mud in front of us blocking the road. Usually this would be a pain as we would just have had to wait and sit it out but this was a blessing in disguise. We asked the men trying to dig it out if we were on the right road and they just laughed and told us that we should have not left the main road. Yeah right it looked like a main road in comparison with the one we were actually on! Off we set back along the way we had come and then turning left!

We kept going thinking that according to the map we couldn’t have been that far! (Mistake 4!) We miles later we actually arrived in the village we that thought was the one before the junction!

We spotted a TDC and popped in to just check our directions. The Assistant said it was about another 40kms (bloody miles on these roads) and that all we needed to do was to go straight! Literally 200 metres later we came to a junction – left or right! So much for just go straight. We took the left, but then thought that this was maybe the right turn on the map. We asked someone and we again needed to back track. We got excited as a TDC sign approached but no – it was for another TDC. We dropped in and seemed to be going in the right direction.

Another 20kms later we finally reached the TDC. We had been told that on this day they would stay and supervise the local schools. After a quick pit-stop in the local pit latrine (amongst about 20 half dead cockroaches) we were given another hand drawn map! We were to go to another zone to catch up with the advisors there. In between times we were to stop at the local secondary school to drop of an envelope for one of the students. This was actually the only successful part of the day!

So back to the adventure! Off we went again in search of this other school. Over the bridge, down a hill, up a hill, over a broken bit of road etc. We passed another TDC on the way and then the car started to give up. Everytime we braked or went over a bump (roughly every second) it made this awful sound. We reckoned that by the time we actually made it to the school the kids would have all gone home for the day so we gave up!

The only thing to do was to head back. We knew that there was another way to get back to Rumphi, and this way was via Mzuzu. We thought that the road might be better than the one we had come on. (Mistake 5 thousand – especially as we had absolutely no idea of where the hell in Malawi we were especially in relation to Mzuzu!)

We followed this road for a while and no it was no better than the one we had been on, perhaps even worse as it was used by more vehicles! After a while we came across a signpost and got very excited! (its not often you actually see signposts in Malawi, let alone on a back and beyond road) The sign pointed to Rumphi one way and Mzuzu the other. We obviously opted for Rumphi. (Yep you guessed it – next mistake!) By this time we had been driving non-stop for about 6 hours!

This bloody short cut lead us up and over hills, along isolated paths, over battered roads and eventually to another TDC. By this time we just wanted to find the tarmac road as at least by then we could work out where the hell we were! Another junction. We asked a local man which way was Rumphi and the tarmac. He pointed straight but wanted to be our penpals so we had to give excuses and eventually he left us his number so we could call him if we were in the area again! A group of young men had also congregated about the car wanting lifts to the road – not a good sign as they looked dodgey so we quickly made our excuses and bolted for the tarmac! Again over a few strips of muddy parts, sliding all over the place, we turned the corner expecting to see the tarmac. But no, all that greeted us was a load of young lads and 2 vehicles totally stuck in the mud. One had potential of getting out but the other, a huge articulated lorry (what it was doing on a back road in this weather is beyond me) looked stuck for a while – even the tractor that was pulling it out looked like it could struggle!

Man desperation set in but suddenly the first truck got free and started coming towards us (did I mention that this was a very narrow path and we were facing the stuck traffic?) Lucie quickly did a 50 point turn and the truck was not impressed at having to stop and wait for us! We went back to the TDC to ask for advice. The advisor told us that Mzuzu wasn’t actually that far and we would probably be quicker going that way. She said it would be about 21 kms before we take the fork in the road that leads to the tarmac.

Off we went again and only 12kms later we came to the fork in the road. I decided that we should try it for a few kms and see where it ended up as we know that Malawi distances can vary a lot! We asked a few people who couldn’t speak English but I was still hoping that this road was the one. Thankfully 100 metres after asking the last man was reached the tarmac! Horray!

From there is took about another 30 mins to get back to Rumphi. It was 3.00 by the time we got back – driving 9 hours anywhere is a treck but on the roads we were on and the car that we were in, it really was no laughing matter. The colour of the vehicle said it all – it is supposed to be white but was orange!

We were both knackered and unable to move properly the next day. At least we know have a rough idea of the parts of the area we are to be working in but I tell you it will be as minimum as possible!

The most depressing thing about it all is that we are giving a workshop at the same TDC in 2 weeks time. We have to go through it all again but next time, no short cuts………..