I have spent the entire weekend at the house and am now feeling very lethargic, need Monday to come around quicker so I can re-energise!
Tomorrow I am spraying more houses for the malaria project and also at the wound clinic again in the afternoon. It is Izzy's 19th birthday tomorrow so we will be finishing up at 4pm and heading out for a second sunset cruise before the two new arrivals get here.
I have been doing some one-on-one english lessons with the teacher at Chilombo orphanage, her name is Esnart and she understands more than she is able to let on - I think! I have been to this orphanage more than the others and now know a handful of children by name and face, there is so many of them, this is a lot harder than it sounds. My favourite at this place is a 3 year old called Tait, pronounced Tai-ee-ti. I daren't ask if she has lost just one or both parents.
The children turn up wearing the same dirty ripped clothes most days, they bring some food if they have it - this is usually a small bag of nuts or the more well off kids have a packet of crisps. Not what we would consider a filling or nutrional lunch but it's better than nothing. Some kids do turn up with nothing but the others will share with them. Malawi is definitely the sharing culture that was explained to us when we arrived.
We had a poker night on Friday which ended a hard morning nicely. A couple of us decided to have a dip in the lake...lesson learnt, it doesn't matter that hippos have never been seen near this shore - DO NOT go in the lake after dark!
I am looking forward to starting the weeks work again, mainly because there is so little to do other than lesson planning or reading at the weekends. Next weekend we will be heading to Cape Maclear on Friday afternoon, a four hour boat trip with snorkeling and dorm accommodation at Fat Monkeys - a guide book favourite.
I want to write more about the state of living here but someone needs the extension from the office to power the water pump! Ah Africa!
I will try and write more in a few days - I am really really homesick at the moment and maybe I will paint to much of a depressing picture of life here if I write whilst feeling this way!
Tionana xx
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
WAWA
Hello from Malawi!
My flight here was pretty uneventful, I made it so that was my first achievement! 11 hours to South Africa, 2 and a half to Malawi and then a four hour drive.
There is nothing here except hut after hut after hut after hut and the sheer number of people you see everywhere you go is just mind blowing, there is definitely no shortage of people in Africa. I am staying in a large and somewhat luxury volunteers house - at the moment there is about 12 of us, two just left and three more coming next Monday. There is a mixture of medical, teaching and sports coaching volunteers. Everyone is really nice, the age range is pretty wide, 17-60 I think,
I have so far worked at 3 orphanages, they are all very different but only one I would say are the kids taught well. They know English but only to chant numbers or letters, if you ask them a number outside of the chant they have no clue what we mean. It is almost an impossible task to single handedly educate and entertain 60+ children who don't speak English and can be aged 2 or 5. But it is better than nothing.
We have started work on the malaria prevention scheme which involves surveying whole villages, spraying their houses with Fendona and providing mosquito nets - in the first year of this prior to me being here they had a village with over 300 cases of Malaria and 18 or so deaths. After the treatments and six months, there were only 5 cases of Malaria and NO deaths - its pretty simple work, the spraying is exhausting in this heat, but that is such a huge impact! We have a long long long list of villages to get through, the last village had 206 houses in it and it took a whole day just to treat 11 houses this week and that was a good day!
We have HIV groups which I am yet to teach. It is hard to get people from the villages to these groups and therefore educated on prevention or treatment they mostly desperately need. There is such a huge stigma here surrounding HIV that no one will admit they have it.
The hospital face similar problems, we have no doctors and no equipment. People will not come to the hospital because they see it as a place to die. It is just horrible. Some of these people have easily treatable upsets but when left untreated for so long they have little to no chance of survival. Last week we managed to convince a man to let us take his wife to hospital, she had malaria and dysentery she was so weak she could barely crawl out the door, yet he still insisted she was better off at home. He will not visit her there and the hospital cannot provide food so she will very likely die and then the fear will be instilled in his family forever more. We have however managed to buy 8 bicycle ambulances so we can at least make getting to hospital a bit easier if at all.
Getting around here is a nightmare, there is usually a good eight of us in a minibus heading off to different projects each morning. We quite often have to work for a good 30 minutes which through hot sand is not the most fun!
We also have a wound clinic that we hold in two different locations and we see some pretty hideous things! Mostly they are superficial injuries that have been left untreated and so end up engulfing an entire limb. This is run completely by volunteers so this is really helpful to the locals, it means they can get treatment without fear of having to go to hospital. We are so lacking in equipment that quite often we will have no choice but to dress something in an unsuitable type of dressing as it is better than leaving it gaping open...
It is not all doom and gloom though! The Malawian people are amazingly friendly. You can work past 100 people in two minutes and every single one will say hello, how are you, I'm fine, what is your name etc etc - it makes getting around a very slow process! The kids love us, they shout mazungu mazungu and ask for jambule jambule - which means ghost and take our pictuuuure! They have all their secondary school lessons in English so we HAVE to get them speaking it someway or another. It is so so hard.
Last weekend I went on a three day safari - we saw elephants and hippos and sable, lots of antelope type things and a buffallo. We stayed in an amazing lodge, it was like nothing I've ever seen and some of the views here just literally take your breath away. There are baboons everywhere here so you kind of get used to them! We have two dogs at the house, Simba and Benji and they are excellent guards!
We also went on a sunset cruise as one of the staff at the house has a boat. The sunsets here are just incredible - I am yet to see a sunrise although I am up at 6am everyday. We are all usually in bed by 9/10pm at the VERY latest, it is not quite like home!
The house staff are really great, they look after us so well and the food is so good. We have a driver called Gibson who is absolutely hilarious and he cracks me up as soon as he opens his mouth, his wife had a baby last night and named him after our project co-ordinator Mark which is pretty special for him!
So that is pretty much it for now really, I can't really remember what else I've done so far, there is so much, it feels like I have been here for so long! I will appreciate my ridiculously easy life back home so much now. I have hundreds of photos and will put them up when I get back home. Only three weeks left now.
I am most looking forward to having a HOT shower, wow, can't even imagine what that will be like, it is impossible to remain clean out here, my feet are a nice shade of black and will probably remain so until my third or fourth shower on UK soil!
Tionana!
My flight here was pretty uneventful, I made it so that was my first achievement! 11 hours to South Africa, 2 and a half to Malawi and then a four hour drive.
There is nothing here except hut after hut after hut after hut and the sheer number of people you see everywhere you go is just mind blowing, there is definitely no shortage of people in Africa. I am staying in a large and somewhat luxury volunteers house - at the moment there is about 12 of us, two just left and three more coming next Monday. There is a mixture of medical, teaching and sports coaching volunteers. Everyone is really nice, the age range is pretty wide, 17-60 I think,
I have so far worked at 3 orphanages, they are all very different but only one I would say are the kids taught well. They know English but only to chant numbers or letters, if you ask them a number outside of the chant they have no clue what we mean. It is almost an impossible task to single handedly educate and entertain 60+ children who don't speak English and can be aged 2 or 5. But it is better than nothing.
We have started work on the malaria prevention scheme which involves surveying whole villages, spraying their houses with Fendona and providing mosquito nets - in the first year of this prior to me being here they had a village with over 300 cases of Malaria and 18 or so deaths. After the treatments and six months, there were only 5 cases of Malaria and NO deaths - its pretty simple work, the spraying is exhausting in this heat, but that is such a huge impact! We have a long long long list of villages to get through, the last village had 206 houses in it and it took a whole day just to treat 11 houses this week and that was a good day!
We have HIV groups which I am yet to teach. It is hard to get people from the villages to these groups and therefore educated on prevention or treatment they mostly desperately need. There is such a huge stigma here surrounding HIV that no one will admit they have it.
The hospital face similar problems, we have no doctors and no equipment. People will not come to the hospital because they see it as a place to die. It is just horrible. Some of these people have easily treatable upsets but when left untreated for so long they have little to no chance of survival. Last week we managed to convince a man to let us take his wife to hospital, she had malaria and dysentery she was so weak she could barely crawl out the door, yet he still insisted she was better off at home. He will not visit her there and the hospital cannot provide food so she will very likely die and then the fear will be instilled in his family forever more. We have however managed to buy 8 bicycle ambulances so we can at least make getting to hospital a bit easier if at all.
Getting around here is a nightmare, there is usually a good eight of us in a minibus heading off to different projects each morning. We quite often have to work for a good 30 minutes which through hot sand is not the most fun!
We also have a wound clinic that we hold in two different locations and we see some pretty hideous things! Mostly they are superficial injuries that have been left untreated and so end up engulfing an entire limb. This is run completely by volunteers so this is really helpful to the locals, it means they can get treatment without fear of having to go to hospital. We are so lacking in equipment that quite often we will have no choice but to dress something in an unsuitable type of dressing as it is better than leaving it gaping open...
It is not all doom and gloom though! The Malawian people are amazingly friendly. You can work past 100 people in two minutes and every single one will say hello, how are you, I'm fine, what is your name etc etc - it makes getting around a very slow process! The kids love us, they shout mazungu mazungu and ask for jambule jambule - which means ghost and take our pictuuuure! They have all their secondary school lessons in English so we HAVE to get them speaking it someway or another. It is so so hard.
Last weekend I went on a three day safari - we saw elephants and hippos and sable, lots of antelope type things and a buffallo. We stayed in an amazing lodge, it was like nothing I've ever seen and some of the views here just literally take your breath away. There are baboons everywhere here so you kind of get used to them! We have two dogs at the house, Simba and Benji and they are excellent guards!
We also went on a sunset cruise as one of the staff at the house has a boat. The sunsets here are just incredible - I am yet to see a sunrise although I am up at 6am everyday. We are all usually in bed by 9/10pm at the VERY latest, it is not quite like home!
The house staff are really great, they look after us so well and the food is so good. We have a driver called Gibson who is absolutely hilarious and he cracks me up as soon as he opens his mouth, his wife had a baby last night and named him after our project co-ordinator Mark which is pretty special for him!
So that is pretty much it for now really, I can't really remember what else I've done so far, there is so much, it feels like I have been here for so long! I will appreciate my ridiculously easy life back home so much now. I have hundreds of photos and will put them up when I get back home. Only three weeks left now.
I am most looking forward to having a HOT shower, wow, can't even imagine what that will be like, it is impossible to remain clean out here, my feet are a nice shade of black and will probably remain so until my third or fourth shower on UK soil!
Tionana!
Thursday, 3 September 2009
D-day Minus One...
This is it, the time is here!
One year of planning and a matter of hours before I head to Heathrow. Financially, this trip has crippled me, emotionally, I am more drained than I have ever felt but now I just feel ready. I am impatient to leave but yet to pack...
I don't have much time to go into anything more than a few thank yous....
They would be without a doubt for my family and friends and my colleagues.
If it weren't for them I probably wouldn't be going anywhere tomorrow so to them I am eternally grateful. They have helped the people I will meet in Malawi as much as I will do when I get there and start teaching, building and caring.
Project work will probably begin on the 9th/10th September once we have settled in to our accommodation surroundings, village - Monkey Bay. I am not sure when I will next get to update on here but we do have internet access at our volunteers house.
I don't think I would have come close to making it to Malawi if people hadn't donated in such HUGE numbers. I never expected to raise as much money as we did, it was totally unexpected, it wasn't always easy but it made all the difference.
Malawi, for me is a huge turning point - I expect it to change my values and perspectives forever and I can only hope that shows on my return.
I will miss those closest to me more than they will ever imagine and I will miss what I see as 'normal' life but four weeks is so little time and more than anything I wish I could stay longer...
So I guess I will see you all on the other side...
One year of planning and a matter of hours before I head to Heathrow. Financially, this trip has crippled me, emotionally, I am more drained than I have ever felt but now I just feel ready. I am impatient to leave but yet to pack...
I don't have much time to go into anything more than a few thank yous....
They would be without a doubt for my family and friends and my colleagues.
If it weren't for them I probably wouldn't be going anywhere tomorrow so to them I am eternally grateful. They have helped the people I will meet in Malawi as much as I will do when I get there and start teaching, building and caring.
Project work will probably begin on the 9th/10th September once we have settled in to our accommodation surroundings, village - Monkey Bay. I am not sure when I will next get to update on here but we do have internet access at our volunteers house.
I don't think I would have come close to making it to Malawi if people hadn't donated in such HUGE numbers. I never expected to raise as much money as we did, it was totally unexpected, it wasn't always easy but it made all the difference.
Malawi, for me is a huge turning point - I expect it to change my values and perspectives forever and I can only hope that shows on my return.
I will miss those closest to me more than they will ever imagine and I will miss what I see as 'normal' life but four weeks is so little time and more than anything I wish I could stay longer...
So I guess I will see you all on the other side...
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Humbled.
Six weeks to go and we have had a pretty tough month in these parts. I haven't had much time to worry about the ticking clock on the countdown to Malawi.
Firstly, we lost a good friend in Lucinda & I don't really know what to say - but I will always remember hearing that any life, no matter how short lived, is never a waste. No matter how it ends.
It's hard to stay positive when people seem to be dropping around you. Young people too. Young makes it seem so much harder. How will I ever cope with the poverty and life expectancy in Africa.
Some people never do get over the things they see & that plays on my mind a lot.
I'm not really sure if there is any way to prepare...
I am happy to say on the other hand that my brother has set a date for his wedding, with his first son on the way & has asked me to be the sole reader at the ceremony.
I'm having trouble trying to decide on what I might like to say and what they might like to hear.
Luckily I have never had to read at a funeral. I'm not sure if I could ever manage that, but part of me hopes that one day I would have the strength to read for someone I loved.
In loving memory of Lucinda, Brian, Daniel
We live in hope that we lose no more.
Firstly, we lost a good friend in Lucinda & I don't really know what to say - but I will always remember hearing that any life, no matter how short lived, is never a waste. No matter how it ends.
It's hard to stay positive when people seem to be dropping around you. Young people too. Young makes it seem so much harder. How will I ever cope with the poverty and life expectancy in Africa.
Some people never do get over the things they see & that plays on my mind a lot.
I'm not really sure if there is any way to prepare...
I am happy to say on the other hand that my brother has set a date for his wedding, with his first son on the way & has asked me to be the sole reader at the ceremony.
I'm having trouble trying to decide on what I might like to say and what they might like to hear.
Luckily I have never had to read at a funeral. I'm not sure if I could ever manage that, but part of me hopes that one day I would have the strength to read for someone I loved.
As each day passes
we sit and wonder why?
Why you were taken
without a chance to say goodbye
and as we start thinking
with tears running down our cheeks.
We think of life without you and it really makes us weep
We think of the future
and nothing seems that bright nothing is the same without you by the families side
all we have is memories and a hole inside our hearts.
We knew how much we loved you from the very start.
In loving memory of Lucinda, Brian, Daniel
We live in hope that we lose no more.
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Catch Up
Wow it has been absolutely ages since I updated here but plenty has been going on.
The discrepancies with Orphancare Malawi turned out to be too true to ignore and Real Gap pulled the Orphan Care project. There has been much drama surrounding how my trip will continue since this decision was made but pulling out wasn't an option.
I have now removed my fundraising page at Just Giving and will now be joining a medical programme in Monkey Bay.
I only have £320 left to pay of my project costs and have started thinking about kit and equipment I will need.
I have created a gift registry which has had over a 100 hits in less than two days.
http://justthething.co.uk/themalawiproject/The-Malawi-Project
Starting to get excited now...much improvement on being just consumed with fear...
The discrepancies with Orphancare Malawi turned out to be too true to ignore and Real Gap pulled the Orphan Care project. There has been much drama surrounding how my trip will continue since this decision was made but pulling out wasn't an option.
I have now removed my fundraising page at Just Giving and will now be joining a medical programme in Monkey Bay.
I only have £320 left to pay of my project costs and have started thinking about kit and equipment I will need.
I have created a gift registry which has had over a 100 hits in less than two days.
http://justthething.co.uk/themalawiproject/The-Malawi-Project
Starting to get excited now...much improvement on being just consumed with fear...
Friday, 30 January 2009
The almost $2 a day challenge
My last entry ended with me wanting more time & more money. Surely in life that is just what everyone is hoping for but how often do we do anything about it. In my eyes I see the time between now and my departure to Africa as EIGHT paydays. I do not see over half a year, 8 months or even 243.494799 long days. I see how much money is coming in between then and now & there’s not a lot to be honest.
Almost two years ago I left a job I disliked and moved home to my mum who was not so long ago bedridden with ME. She is now much better although still blighted by the illness and fighting for its recognition as a serious debilitating condition. My being there and contributing towards the mortgage means she is able to upkeep a car, get out of the house and regain the social life she saw slip away.
Anyway, my mum is always making a point about what this trip will do to me. That being, that it should change my values forever…
I have read about the $2 a day challenge…one week on roughly £1.30 a day but that is for food alone. So my plan is to give myself £80. £20 a week, far more than I will need in Malawi per day, but this will cover my food, travel and hopefully cure my cosmetic addiction in the process. If it’ll make my hair thicker I’ll buy it, if it’ll make my skin less shiny, I’ll use it, if the adverts right, I’ll fall for it.
My ever patient mum will be sole keeper of my purse and this gives me the opportunity to save £500 if not more in one month. With no choice but to pull it off, no money to fall back on and no hole in the wall to feed my spending habits.
My travel to work alone costs me £13.00 for just over a week so it will be a challenge to see just how far the remaining money can stretch. I am determined to kill my itchy cash machine finger and it seems the only way to do it is with some serious tough love.
Almost two years ago I left a job I disliked and moved home to my mum who was not so long ago bedridden with ME. She is now much better although still blighted by the illness and fighting for its recognition as a serious debilitating condition. My being there and contributing towards the mortgage means she is able to upkeep a car, get out of the house and regain the social life she saw slip away.
Anyway, my mum is always making a point about what this trip will do to me. That being, that it should change my values forever…
I have read about the $2 a day challenge…one week on roughly £1.30 a day but that is for food alone. So my plan is to give myself £80. £20 a week, far more than I will need in Malawi per day, but this will cover my food, travel and hopefully cure my cosmetic addiction in the process. If it’ll make my hair thicker I’ll buy it, if it’ll make my skin less shiny, I’ll use it, if the adverts right, I’ll fall for it.
My ever patient mum will be sole keeper of my purse and this gives me the opportunity to save £500 if not more in one month. With no choice but to pull it off, no money to fall back on and no hole in the wall to feed my spending habits.
My travel to work alone costs me £13.00 for just over a week so it will be a challenge to see just how far the remaining money can stretch. I am determined to kill my itchy cash machine finger and it seems the only way to do it is with some serious tough love.
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Hunger; been & gone...
I carried out on my fast on Tuesday just gone in the end because I was pretty run down on Monday so decided to play it safe and wait till I was feeling a little less like death.
It went well, despite me morphing into a very grumpy little girl indeed! The trick, it turns outs is toothpaste...as soon as I'd brushed my teeth ready for bed, I felt fine, now if only I'd known that five hours earlier. All in all I raised an extra £40 or so for Orphancare Malawi which isn't a huge amount but it was just a small fundraiser & every penny counts.
I have learnt that there is some trouble with Orphancare Malawi at the moment and someone from Real Gap will be visiting Blantyre to assess the situation within the next couple of weeks, I guess for now all I can do is sit and wait and hope that my place on this project is not in jeopardy.
We said goodbye to a friend and neighbour yesterday so things haven't been great lately. It was a nice service...but funerals always leave you feeling a little dark & so the pessimism creeps back in. Eight months just doesn't seem enough time to prepare for this in my mind, which frustrates me, because I know plenty of people who could jump ship and do this next week.
This and the news that all is not well in Malawi hasn't made for the best of weeks.
While I wait on news from Real Gap I will be having another fundraising sale at my local cricket club on February 21st, the same day as my sister's 30Th movie themed birthday...costume ideas anyone?
I will also be having my third day at Barnardo's on Saturday and the closing date for the job I optimistically applied for was yesterday so fingers, toes and numerous other bodily parts crossed.
Thanks to everyone that donated at www.justgiving.com/sarahkitchen & everyone at work who donated their loose change.
I now need time to go a little slower, things to go a little smoother and money to grow a lot lot faster...
It went well, despite me morphing into a very grumpy little girl indeed! The trick, it turns outs is toothpaste...as soon as I'd brushed my teeth ready for bed, I felt fine, now if only I'd known that five hours earlier. All in all I raised an extra £40 or so for Orphancare Malawi which isn't a huge amount but it was just a small fundraiser & every penny counts.
I have learnt that there is some trouble with Orphancare Malawi at the moment and someone from Real Gap will be visiting Blantyre to assess the situation within the next couple of weeks, I guess for now all I can do is sit and wait and hope that my place on this project is not in jeopardy.
We said goodbye to a friend and neighbour yesterday so things haven't been great lately. It was a nice service...but funerals always leave you feeling a little dark & so the pessimism creeps back in. Eight months just doesn't seem enough time to prepare for this in my mind, which frustrates me, because I know plenty of people who could jump ship and do this next week.
This and the news that all is not well in Malawi hasn't made for the best of weeks.
While I wait on news from Real Gap I will be having another fundraising sale at my local cricket club on February 21st, the same day as my sister's 30Th movie themed birthday...costume ideas anyone?
I will also be having my third day at Barnardo's on Saturday and the closing date for the job I optimistically applied for was yesterday so fingers, toes and numerous other bodily parts crossed.
Thanks to everyone that donated at www.justgiving.com/sarahkitchen & everyone at work who donated their loose change.
I now need time to go a little slower, things to go a little smoother and money to grow a lot lot faster...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
