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Well a whole month has passed since I last wrote and quite a lot has transpired. And its half past four already, so I had better get writing!

At the beginning of October we had a slight medical scare when Tim wasn’t feeling particularly on top of the world. He missed a few of his lessons towards the end of the week and so on Sunday 12th October we ventured into Lichinga hospital to get a malaria test done, just in case. After paying 10 000 meticais (about 30p – beat that NHS!) and hanging around for half an hour the test came back negative. A couple of days later and Tim was feeling fine again, so we are putting it down to mild food poisoning.

I had heard some nasty stories about the hospital, but (although we didn’t see too much of it) it didn’t seem too horrific. That said, I wouldn’t be particularly keen to spend any time there. There was a strong smell of antiseptic and bleach, which I suppose must be a good sign, but the corridors were very dim and the rooms were not 100% clean by any standard. From what I saw of the wards they looked very cramped, with the beds pretty close together, and a little understaffed too. The facilities are (as you would expect) not up to a lot, with sinks almost falling of the walls in one ward. Hopefully we won’t have to go back!

The Tuesday after our adventures in the hospital saw a significant marker in the year. Just after I had finished teaching, at about 17:30, Tim looked outside and noticed small dark circles were appearing, apparently at random, on the concrete outside. After pondering what this strange occurrence might mean (a message from an alien species? The end of the world? That we were going to have chips for dinner?) we concluded the obvious: we were witnessing the first rain we had seen in a good couple of months! (OK, I’ll be honest, we knew it was rain!) As we walked home many heads were turned skywards: the first rain of the season is clearly quite a significant event. I have to say I am quite looking forward to some decent downpours and storms!

That week also saw the final week of the first computing course, which meant Tim had the pleasure of setting tests for his students. It still seems a little strange to be teaching, and the idea of setting tests is even stranger. It only goes to highlight again the fact that we are solely responsible for the learning of our students, quite a responsibility. Fortunately every student passed the tests, so that’s a good sign. The only concern is whether they will be able to retain the knowledge they have gained, as unless they have access to a computer they have no way to practice. One of the ideas of the Learning Centre is to improve people’s employability, and hopefully we achieve that, but I am sceptical how much knowledge they will be able to retain, based on the fact that I have already forgotten most of my fairly recently learnt A-Level Maths!

The next week we were on holiday, and so on Sunday 19th October we set of for Blantyre, in south Malawi. Blantyre is home to six other Project Trust volunteers and also Neville, our Project Trust representative. We were driven to Mandimba (the Mozambique border town) by the Nakosso driver, and from there on in we were on our own, travelling by chapa – vehicles that make runs between different destinations dropping off and picking up people on the way.

There are two main forms of vehicle doing this: pickup trucks and minibuses. Chapas are very reluctant to get going unless they are full, because that means more money, and they really know how to cram people on! A standard minibus doing these journeys can fairly comfortably seat 14 passengers with a reasonable amount of luggage. A conductor will not consider moving however without at least 18 passengers, 19 including himself, and frequently there are many more, as children sitting on knees are not required to pay. I think our record over the trip was as many as 23!

Before crossing over the border into Malawi we had to change money, United States dollars into Malawi kwatcha. Very enthusiastic youths at the border are keen to buy your dollars of you, and we were originally offered 24 kwatcha to the dollar. The bidding went up slightly and we thought we were about to get a very good deal when we were offered 26 kwatcha. We were just about to agree to this when our driver closed all the windows to the car (nearly trapping the hands of the people trying to sell us kwatcha) and walked off, we assume to the Immigration office. When he came back he was not to happy with our money changing friends, as it turned out the rate was more like 110 kwatcha to the dollar! So we nearly lost a lot of money there!

When we reached Blantyre we found out that our Mozambican mobile doesn’t work in Malawi, and so we had no way of contacting anyone we knew was in Blantyre. We befriended someone on our final chapa of the journey however who knows Blantyre, and so we got him to show us the way to Doogles, the popular and world renowned (apparently, I’d never heard of it!) backpackers in Blantyre. On the way though we saw to white girls walking in the opposite direction on the other side of the road, and so I thought I’d try my luck and simply shouted “Project Trust” at them. Turned out one was Ellie, one of the Malawi volunteers. We then met up with Dave and Nick, (two other volunteers) whose floor we stayed on for the next few nights.

We spent Monday and Tuesday in Blantyre doing a little sightseeing, a little shopping, and we also met Neville, our aforementioned Project Trust representative, who runs the Open Arms Orphanage in Blantyre. We clocked up quite a few days at the orphanage, playing with the kids there – made a nice change from teaching adults! – and also catching a bit of the Rugby World Cup (USA vs. Scotland I believe the game was). All in all a relaxing couple of days. We also made arrangements to borrow Neville’s tent for a trip to the Mvuu Camp in Liwonde National Park. (Mvuu means hippo in the local language, Chichewa.) So, on Wednesday morning we departed Blantyre by chapa again and headed to the park.

The chapas can only get you as far as the small village of Ulongwe, and from there it is 12km to the park. Fortunately there are some very business minded youngsters there, who have identified the problem and have bikes with seats on the back ready to ferry you to the park, once you have negotiated your price. 1km into the park is the River Shire, and once you reach that someone from the Mvuu Camp radios over and a boat is sent to pick you up. The Lonely Planet guidebook told us that you had to raise a flag to let them know you were waiting, and we were quite disappointed to learn that things had changed!

That evening before dinner we went on a short wander around the site to see what we could see, and we were pretty glad that we did! Walking along the bank of the river we saw quite a lot, including some interesting ornithological sightings (including a rather smart looking kingfisher), a large reptile of some description who didn’t seem to want his photo taken and some impala and waterbuck in the distance. Most impressive (and quite scary actually!) was a hippo, who was in the water only a few metres away from the bank. In true hippo style only 0the top of his head was visible, but the impression of size that it gave was slightly alarming, I didn’t like the though of making him angry!

The next day we were up early for breakfast and then we went on a boat safari, two hours on a small boat with a guide to take you around and tell you what you were seeing. We were fortunate in that there were only four of us on the boat including the guide, meaning we were very comfortable and could pretty much make stops where we wanted. During the safari we saw many more hippos (hence the name of the Camp), some large crocodiles, a lot of birds including kingfishers and a couple of fish eagles - the national bird of Malawi, more impalas and waterbuck, velvet monkeys and baboons, and probably the highlight of the safari, a heard of five or six elephants walking along the bank. Although I have been close to elephants before, during a trip to India last year, I had not seen them in a completely natural environment before. I have heard them described before as graceful and elegant, and I can’t think of a more apt description for them, they are very impressive animals.

In the afternoon we went on one of the other activities offered by the Camp, the game drive. Again you have a guide who takes you around the bush in an open top Land Cruiser, the seats raised to offer you the best view. The drive is three hours long and crosses over into the evening, giving you the opportunity to see some of the nocturnal creatures Africa has to offer. Again we saw impala and waterbuck, elephants, some more birds, warthogs, and when it got dark: a porcupine, who the driver thought it would be amusing to terrify by pretending to run it down! We also saw the empty shell of a dead terrapin (cunningly spotted by Tim! - Tim).

The next morning we left early after paying, and headed back to Blantyre the same way we had come, first by boat, then by bike, then the rest of the way by chapa. To be able to travel around Africa in this way, the way local people consider ‘the norm’, is very satisfying, and although it can be uncomfortable at times due to the cramped seating arrangements, bumpy roads and exhausting heat, it is very exciting and a privilege to be able to do. The act of getting to the Camp was in fact more rewarding then actually being at the Camp itself!

We spent another two nights in Blantyre simply relaxing and enjoying the company of the friends we had made there, and on Sunday 25th October returned (or attempted to return) to Mozambique. We got as far as Mandimba (the Mozambique border town) where we were told by Immigration that our visas had expired. We stayed the night in Mandimba and in the morning telephoned our boss in Lichinga, Augusto, to try and sort the problem out. He maintained that he had told us that on leaving Mozambique we would be required to get a new visa. This was, however news to us! At the border the advice was to return to Blantyre and get the new visa, but Augusto’s advice was to return to Lichinga, so we did. And remained there for three days as illegal immigrants!

The following Thursday it transpired that Augusto didn’t have the power he thought he did and was unable to sort the problem out from Lichinga, and so he phoned us and told us to return to Blantyre. So after only one days teaching (on account of being ill on the Wednesday) we were back on the chapas and off to Blantyre. After an overnight stop in Mangochi, Malawi, where, to save money, the two of us slept in a very cosy and very stuffy single bed, we reached Blantyre and headed straight for the Mozambique Consulate. We were, however promptly turned away, on the basis that no one would remain as a tourist in Lichinga for more then three months, let alone a whole year. Can’t say I blame them really! Because the Consulate is only open until 12 and closed on the weekends there was nothing we could do until Monday, leaving us with another weekend in Blantyre, which we took advantage and enjoyed to the full!

On Sunday we spent the afternoon at another Project Trust project, the Yamakani orphanage in Blantyre, which is both home and place of work for Ellie and Izzy. The kids there are great, and are very responsive to "chap!", a greeting in the local language. This phrase goes along way to making a Malawi kid your friend! We spent a very enjoyable afternoon doing a bit of drawing, some cooking, dancing and even having a child tied to my back in true African style. (Picture available soon!)

The Yamakani orphanage is one of the closest projects to us geographically, but after visiting it I realised how different the projects our. The volunteers at the orphanage live on site in two rooms, a living area and a bedroom with a small bathroom off it. In Lichinga we have a three-bedroom house with a living room and a dining room, five minutes walk from our place of work. In Malawi the volunteers have access to supermarkets selling anything from supermodels to porridge oats, things not available to us in Lichinga, where we have the market and a few small shops. These are fairly basic differences but they make all the difference to our lives and shows what a different experience each volunteer has. I’m not sure which I prefer to be honest!

On Monday we attempted to contact Lichinga to see what was being done to sort out the visa problem. Having heard nothing we returned to the Consulate to await the arrival of a letter by fax that would get us our visas. It didn’t come, meaning we had yet another night in Malawi. We returned to Doogles, the aforementioned backpackers where we were staying, and met up with Nicola and Jo, two other Project volunteers. They needed to see a friendly face after a meeting they had that day in which they were effectively sacked from their secondary school project and moved to a primary school! The life of a Project volunteer is never plain sailing it seems. The next morning we returned once again to the consulate and this time were issued with visas no problem, meaning we were free to return to Mozambique the next day. Which we promptly did by chapa once again, getting very good at it by now!

That problem finally out of the way I returned to work on Thursday 6th November, all ready to teach, to find that my pupils had given up on me returning and not turned up! Friday was the same, and so in total they had a three-week gap in between lessons, easy life hey. Monday was a different story, where I had about half of each class turned up – four students for each class. When I think of other Project volunteers in China and around the world teaching classes of 70 or more kids I realise how quite life in Lichinga is!

Last night (Tuesday 11th November) saw the farewell party of Elias, a Mozambican who has been working here in Lichinga for a few years now and is leaving in Thursday. He has always been friendly when we have seen him and so it will be a shame to see him go. The BBQ at his house was more entertaining then the last one of his we went to earlier in the year primarily due to the fact that we have picked up enough Portuguese to be able to vaguely follow, if not actually partake, in the conversation! The food was better this time too! It is a big time for leaving at the moment, with Pete (who has been here two years) returning to Britain later in the year, Denise, who left unexpectedly while we were in Malawi, and Augusto (our boss) who is moving to a different town soon, to head up a new Nakosso office there.

Life in Lichinga is very enjoyable at the moment, and is set to improve with the long awaited new generator on the brink of coming online, meaning we will have electricity all the time. Will take some of the fun away and to a certain extent I think I will miss candle lit nights, but not that much! When we arrived we were told the generator would be online by the end of September. Then we were told the end of October. Now we are told it is online, but they appear to be having one or two teething problems as the supply has been off for 10 minutes at a time about five times tonight. Ah well, the excitement of life in Lichinga!

In typical British fashion I will now talk about the weather! It is steadily getting more exciting, with a few more sprinkles of rain and some impressively loud rolls of thunder accompanying lightning far of in the distance. Walking around Lichinga tonight we were surprised by how impressive the sky was. It then occurred to us that it always had been, just recently however clouds have frequently covered it, another indicator of the deteriorating weather. The wind has also been picking up, which is very annoying because of the large dust clouds it forms.

We are now in the run up to Christmas and are investigating options for getting to Cape Town for our Christmas break. At the moment it’s looking very expensive, so we are planning to ask our bosses very nicely if they will give us a free flight back down to Maputo, Mozambique’s capital. It’s got to be worth a try!

Thanks once again to all those who have been keeping in touch, and especially to those who have sent items of post, which finally got through after about a month! Until next time…

Nic

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