Rural life in Malawi #10

It’s been a long time since we have written about our ‘adventures in Africa’, due to the limited time we had access to the internet whilst in Malawi. I’m sure that a lot of you are aware of what we have been up to, but for those of you who don’t here is a summary of the highs and lows of our time in Malawi.

For the two months in Malawi we lived at Luwawa Forest Lodge, Northern Malawi, set in a pine plantation 1600m above sea level. We were 10km away from a main road and therefore we were pretty far away from the day to day amenities you expect, such as shops to buy food, cash points, the internet and we had no mobile phone reception. So as you can imagine this alone was a culture shock and made us appreciate every small thing we did. However, although we didn’t have our home comforts, the local Malawians soon made us feel at home with their warm and welcoming manor. Whenever we walked anywhere we would have to add on extra time due to stopping and chatting to them about their day (although conversation was limited due to most people only speaking Timbuka).

Our volunteer work took place in the ‘Hunga’ village 5km away from the lodge. We were led to believe our main objective would be supporting the head teacher at Mzgambuzi School with teaching, due to him being the only teacher there!! However, it soon became apparent that due to the terrible conditions of the school block, such as leaking roof, mud floor and limited resources we were set about the task of raising funds to build the new school block they hard started and .... project managing it. And as neither of us have building experience that was a real challenge and a steep learning curve.

The village were so pleased to have us working with them, they kindly invited us to live their whilst we worked at the school, and we didn’t feel we could turn this kind offer down, even though we both had a lot of apprehension due to knowing the village had no electricity or running water and we would really have to get back to basics! Which I was slightly nervous about! When we moved in to our little home, AKA ‘mud hut’, half of the children from the local area surrounded our house, so excited to see how white people, or as they say ‘Mazungos’ live.

This a typical day in the life of Nat and Kim whilst living at the village........4am get woken up by the local alarm clock (Bloomin rooster!)...6am woken again by the school children playing outside ... a strong clue its time to be awake at this time...6.30am Make a fire, boil some water, have some tea and porridge....7.15am ready for our day at school...7.20am all the girls sweeping outside the school...7.30am Mr Levin and Ms Trewhella in class teaching either English, Math or Expressive Arts.... 9.30am Play time: children leaping from trees, killing birds, skipping with skipping rope made of reeds and singing and dancing....10.30 Sports: teaching them how to play netball with no net but a ring of bricks on the ground as a goal...11.30am School finishes ....very tired!

Whilst we were teaching we had to come up with a strategy to get some funds together to help complete the new school block. The local community made their own bricks and hired a builder to build the structure. I have to admit it was quite amazing to see how they made the bricks just from local mud. After our appeal for donations we were very fortunate that some of our friends and family helped us out which helped us buy the much needed wood and iron sheets for the roof (thanks again to all of you who donated). It was very rewarding going to the local hardware store and ordering 78 iron sheets for the school as the local community never dreamed that their school would have an iron roof. We even helped carry the sheets (I actually carried 26 roof ridges on my shoulder) from the main road to the school through some really hilly terrain and whilst a massive storm was brewing. On our last day teaching we took some chocolate cake, popcorn and orange juice for the kids as a farewell party and I think they were very happy and grateful as its not the same as eating nsima (the local food they eat 3 times a day) or drinking stagnant river water. As a thank you for what we had done for them we were given a live hen and rooster who are currently residing at the staff quarters as the lodge and have been named Kim and Nat.

When we weren’t staying in the village we stayed in a small tent in the campsite at the lodge. As we discovered our tent had a leak so once or twice when the heavy rains attacked we had to sleep in the hostel and ontop of that a group of mice had decided that our tent was a great spot to have their toilet. So after fixing the leaks and moving the tent life was alot more comfortable. We spent alot of our time at the lodge with the staff as they were always interested in chatting to us and finding out about our lives and for us it was a great chance to mix with the locals. They would often spoil us and give us tasters from the kitchen of some of the desserts. On their lunch breaks we would often sit outside the kitchen on the grass and play card games and we taught them dominoes which they had never played and really enjoyed. The game they all seemed to play and be really good at was draughts, which they played with bottle tops, and also a local game called bough.

We made some particularly good friends from the lodge Sandra and Patrick, and a German guy called Bernd who was travelling up through Africa to Germany on his motorbike. He had this great opportunity, just by chance, of running a national park lodge called Lifupa for a month as a favour for another German guy. He invited us all there and gave us VIP treatment, staying in the lovely chalets, having good food, and going on a game drive together. From the chalets there was a dam where we could see lots of hippos and the elephants often came to drink. He took us up the ‘black rock’ which gave us great views of the whole park. We were all going to reunite once again at Luwawa Lodge before Bernd continued his journey through Africa, where his next stop was Tanzania. We then received extremely sad, tragic news that our kind friend Bernd had been killed by a herd of elephants whilst at the Lodge. It made us realise how precious life is, and you should live it to the fullest, just like Bernd was doing.

We also managed to make a trip to the infamous lake Malawi, which due to its large size it feels like you are by the sea , as you can’t see to the other side. It gave us some time to relax and enjoy the sun, after working hard at the school. We hope to visit it again during our next stay in Malawi.

That sums up most of our time in Malawi. We are now looking forward to spending time with family in South Africa for Christmas and New Year (And Nats mum is coming over from the UK for a holiday, which will make it even more of a special occasion).

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and that the New Year brings you all lots of happiness.

Love Nat and Kim xxx