week 2

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From Tuesday 16th
It was a lovely weekend at Mabuya
Chameleon was fun, lovely garden, pleasant jazz, cocktails and a glimpse of another side of Malawi life. I had two liquid cocaine cocktails - vodka, curacao and lime, and a blowjob - amarula and coffee. When we got back to the camp, we had another drink and Caroline and I took on Ritchie and Ian at pool. With skill and precision Caroline potted the white four times in the same hole.
Back to the project site on Monday afternoon, after a stop off at a garage for lunch. The garage cooked chips, samosas and vavious other dishes. I tried a small carton of a milky caramel coloured liquid, labelled fruit juice. It was sEeet and slightly bitter, rsther grsnular and pretty disgusting. Kira, Heather's daughter said it looked like cassava and was full of potassium, calcium and various other good things, much more so than any other fruit. Knowing it was medicinal, I managed to drink some more, but couldn't finish it.
We arrived back at the project site and had a meeting and a s hedule of work for the next week. They reckon we will have one side of the roof thatched so that we can take pictures at the ceremony and the building will look finished.
We carried on bundling the thatch, while some of the men dug holes to take the posts for the roof.
Monday afternoon we go to visit M'Bang'Ombe (which means cattle thief) School. This is the best school in the area with 97 out of about 150 of last year's Standard 8 learners qualifying in the secondary school's entrance exams. I visited the school two years ago and what was then a central playground is now cultivated as prrmaculture is part of the school curriculum.
The school has 1500 learners and 16 teachers. Standard 7 and 8 (from ages 10 or 11) have school in the aftrrnoon and they sat in long rows on forms. Eavh clsss sang a song, and danced a dance.for us and clapped when we each introduced ourselves 'Zena lang ndi Jennie Hawley'.

Mornings start early. We're mostly up at 6am and start to help water the crops. Bear, the little puppy makes his rounds in the morning and you can hear him being turfed out of successive tents by exasperated campers trying to wrest laces, socks and ankles out of his mouth. Several of us bear scars from his needle sharp teeth, but he has had all his jabs, so we just slap on some iodine and liquid plaster
Yesterday evening there was an confab as there is a problem with the stairs. Where they should go, there is not enough room for the intended curve, because a door that was meant to be in the corner had to be made more central for structural reasons. So the stairs will have to be straight instead. Nyomi doesn't mind as she is hoing to incorporate some sort of water feature down the stairs. Also, the beams for the rafters have gone to Lilonge to be planed, but the plane machine has broken down. Apparently Malawi, like Ireland and Jamaica, has a reputation for a laissez faire attitude.
Some of us carried on thatching, some levelled the floors in the training centre, others dug holes for the roofing pillars.
There's a huge building programme going on, as there was a large donation to build the village. Some of us wonder whether it isn't too fast, and the community isn't as involved as they might be.
Pat and I want to go over and work with some groups in the school over the road, so tomorrow we'll pop over and see the Head.
.The building site manager built a toilet seat for the combined loo, as one of our number has a bad back and finds it difficult to squat. Opinions are divided about the desirability of this, some don't like the height, some don't like that if you miss the drop into the pit, its difficult to clean. Some don't like that if the loo cover is left up, insects go down, then fly up and hit your bum.
This evening Ian organised a quiz. He divided us into teams so there was a spread of genders and age groups and we had four rounds. Competition was fierce, but we won by a small margin. Rounds were Literature, Cities, Nelson Mandela, Cookery and Music, and we were still in bed by 9pm.
Thursday 18th
Morning - thatching into bundles and levelling the floor in one of the workrooms. We finished all the linya (the strips of tyre rubber) just before lunchtime, and there won't be any more till the weekend. It will force me to do another job.
This afternoon we went to visit M'Bang'Ombe maternity unit.We took 10 chickens as apparently when a woman gives birth, a chicken is given. Kira bought them at the market yesterday and they settled behind a makeshift coop of a bamboo screen. At the maternity wing the women were excited that we were visiting and said we could name the babies.Apparently this often done - a middle name is given by someone else. I named one Toni, after s friend who had donated a lot of the baby clothes we were giving out, as well as raising funds to equip the maternity wing. I'm not sure that the recipient mother was pleased about the name, they do know the name Tony as a boy's name, but not Toni for a girl. Still she liked the clothes and the chicken. We wondered about the hygiene of combining chickens and new born babies, but you can't argue with a cultural tradition.
There have been lots of visitors todsy,; Nigel, (Kira's dad, who in a previous blog I regerref to erroneously as Clive) came to the project site, bringing Ben, a professional photographer who is travelling about photographing different projects, and Solaise, a volunteer who is working at an orphanage, but who also went to school with Sam of Sam's Village. Patrick was also here. He is working with the sanitation guy, checking out the 52 boreholes in the area. He had to write a report on it_ and was asking everyone if they knew Excel as he was struggling to get the total to 42 - he only had 41.
Bear the dog is adding to the notches on his collar. Matt has the most with 3 plasters on his hands. I have two Bear injuries, but many more thatch splinters, and one gouge from the end of a roof pole.

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