Blogs from Malawi, Africa - page 8

Geo: -12.0559, 34.7616On Friday we were booked on the MV Ilala, a ship which was built in the 1950's and has become something of an icon for Malawi. Once we arrived in the country we mentioned to everyone our intention to board the ferry at Senga Bay and were met with blank faces. No one seems to have done this trip and most people said the ferry did not stop in Senga Bay.I was assured by email and telephone from a very nice lady called MaryZulu in the shipping company that it would pick us up and the captain would be looking out for us so what could possibly go wrong.The timetable said the ship would call in Senga at 13.00, at 15.00 we saw it sail past to it's next port of call! Frantic phone ... read more

Travel back to Lilongwe Malawi was long and uneventful. The border crossing was very slow. It was time to wrap up our trip and prepare to go home. We had a great group dinner at a local restaurant where many of us chose burgers and steak. I think we were all hankering for familiar food. The morning of our departure the Habitat staff came to take many of us to a Habitat sponsored water and sanitation project. As one of the fastest urbanizing countries in the world, the housing and health situation in Malawi’s cities is desperate. People come to the cities to seek economic stability, only to find no work and limited shelter options. Growing numbers of overcrowded, low infrastructure slums border the city limits of Lilongwe. In partnership with the government and other NGOs, ... read more

Our arrival in the village today was different. We were not greeted by song, boisterous children were scarce, and energy was missing. We were quickly notified by our liaisons that a village member had died during the night and so began a period of mourning. The village chief agreed we could continue our work, but to do so in a quiet and respectful manner. Before beginning our work, several of our team members walked to the home of the bereaved to offer our condolences. We were told to quietly sit on her porch. After a few minutes we each offered a word or two of sympathy and excused ourselves. We commenced our work without the usual cacophony. We quietly climbed our scaffolding and worked on finishing the last, more technical part of our interior and exterior ... read more

Wanting to be respectful of the village as its mourned the death of one of its members and knowing that we would unlikely return to build on Friday as anticipated, we worked hard to finish everything we could on the two houses. We completed most of the walls, though the builders completed the very top when it became more complicated. Since the top of the walls tended to be peaked, the strings that served as our levels needed to be moved more frequently. As a result we had extra downtime. We used part of that downtime to ask the Habitat staff and village leaders questions. One thing we learned is that for people's birthday, they sing "Happy Birthday" in English. They do not have any native song or tradition beyond using our simple ones. This topic ... read more

Progress on the walls, exterior and interior was swift today. Those comfortable up high, continued to work on the scaffolding (me), others choose jobs lower to the ground. We are working well with our Malawian builders and homeowners. Our Chichewa is improving and we can now add pleasantries to our calls for bricks, motor and water. Our day began with a visit to the local primary school. The concentration of children is astounding. We were greeted by a dozen children and the crowd quickly swelled to hundreds! We met with the principal and toured 2 different classrooms. The 3rd ‘form’ (grade) classroom held 175 children. There are 203 enrolled. They are taught while sitting on a dirt floor, shoulder to shoulder with no light except what filters through the open windows. They work in groups of ... read more