Life on the Chimaliro Road

The Chimaliro Road leads up the hill to the north east of Mzuzu through the township of Chimaliro and to the dust track road which takes you eventually (after two and a half hours) to Usisya .   The Temwa compound is half way up it, next to Masimbiro Private Secondary School.  It's been my home for the past two and a half weeks and will be for the next four months.  It's also my office.

View down the Chimaliro Road to Mzuzu town - it's a 25 minute walk (or 250 kwacha in a shared taxi)

View from the Chimaliro Road past Masimbiro school to Temwa compound.

View across the valley from the Chimaliro Road

It's a strange experience living in the office - you never get away from it.  My alarm goes off at 7am, I have a shower, take my anti-malaria tablet, go out to the kitchen for a strong coffee (Mzuzu blend of course!), say the first of my 'mwauka uli?'s ('good morning, how are you? ') to staff as they arrive, sit at my laptop at 8am, stop for lunch at 12 noon, start for the afternoon at 1pm and finish at 5pm (the fixed hours remind me of one of my first jobs in the UK when I worked as a researcher for the National Union Railwaymen in the early 1980s and everybody was at their desks at 8.55am, knocked off for lunch at 12.55pm, back at their desks at 1.55pm and knocked off at 4.55pm - all ex-railwaymen used to making sure the trains ran on time and getting off on time at the end of a shift). While officially I finish at 5pm, living in the office means I am never properly off duty...

...not that I am the only one.  Fishani, who leads Temwa's HIV/AIDS work (Straight Talking, Mobile Voluntary Counselling and Testing Clinics, and Teen Clubs), was in the office in Mzuzu all last week and then spent the weekend in the field (our Nkhata Bay North catchment area) leading Teen Clubs and other activities.  Maria, who is the micro-finance loan business manager who lives nearby, came into the office on Sunday to ensure repayments are up-to-date on the Mambu loan system (Jericho, the micro-finance project officer, had been in the field collecting loans last week and had sent her a spreadsheet with the information she needed to upload) .   And Charles, the Finance and Admin Manager, is in most weekends; he would have been in last Saturday to complete the audit of the accounts were it not for the electricity being off for most of the day. Work life balance appears in short supply.

Maria submitting loan information to the Mambu system on Sunday

Animals have dominated my early days in the Temwa compound. We have two kittens, Mpatso (meaning 'gift') and Chimwemwe (meaning 'happy') whose main purpose is to get rid of unwanted visitors but have, during their growing up stage, made themselves fully at home.  We have quite a few lizards around the place but, although I don't see them as unwanted guests, Mpatso and Chimweme appear to do so!  We have  a resident bird (a heron, I think) who greets me outside my bedroom window in the morning.  The watchmen tell me that we have small black snakes in the garden - Wellington, one of the watchmen and somebody who enjoys a bit of mischief, claimed one was a black mamba.

Best of friends - Chimwemwe and Mpatso cuddling up on a chair.

Welcome visitor for me; unwelcome (or, possibly, more welcome!) for the cats

View from my bedroom - heron(?) can just about be made out in the distance

I have learnt a bit of Chitumbuka - enough to say good morning, how are you, I am fine, thank you etc but not enough to converse in.   As I said in an earlier blog, most Malawians speak English but to varying degrees.  There is also some interesting pronunciation - 'l's and 'r's are often treated as interchangeable.   So, Gideon, an auditor who is working on our accounts, asked me if I was going to the 'rake' for the weekend - he clarified by saying Nkhata Bay but it still took me some time to realise the 'rake' was Lake Malawi.  And I've constantly been confused by the name of one of the watchmen who greeted me when I arrived here.   To start with I thought his name was Howard; he then spelt it out to me and I started to call him Harold.  But in practice, as I found out when I was looking at some papers in the office, his name is Halord (I presume a Malawian version of Harold with the 'l's and 'r's switched round).

Wellington enjoys mischief, and often wears Wellington boots!

James and Halord - couldn't have given me a warmer welcome to Temwa

Ronald, the fourth watchman, who had to pose for this about 5 times until I got the light right!

Because I have no Chitumbuka and a lot of Malawian people's English is basic, conversations can be at quite a basic level.  Nkhoma, who looks after the house and garden, was in work on Saturday doing a deep clean of the kitchen.  I asked him if he thought the rat (unwanted visitor) was still around; in response, he shrugged and, more in hope than expectation, said 'perhaps catty got ratty'.   My sighting of the rat disappearing behind the sink the next morning suggests the cats need to progress from lizards (and cockroaches) to the bigger stuff.

Nkhoma who told me 'perhaps catty got ratty'

My life outside work has been dominated by shopping for food in Mzuzu and football - not playing (if you recall from an earlier blog - old men don't play football in Malawi) but watching.  All the Arsenal games are shown on television so I have been going to Red Chilli (or Red Chile as it says on the sign outside!), an Indian/Malawian restaurant just up the road, to watch them.  A group of us sit round the bar watching the game - unlike the UK equivalent, there are a fair few people not drinking alcohol. I also went to see Moyale Barracks, one of the two local Mzuzu teams in the Malawi top division, play KB, one of the Lilongwe teams.   It was a  1-1 draw.  There was some enthusiasm in the crowd but the biggest cheer came at 4.20pm Malawi time (3.20pm UK time) when Manchester United scored against Everton. People were paying as much attention to their transistors listening to the Premier league live as to the Moyale game.   Ticket prices are a bit different from the UK - 500 kwacha which is around 60 pence.

Fans 'invade' the pitch at the end of the Moyale v KB match

My last blog talked about the work Temwa does in Nkhata Bay North and the day I had out in the field seeing it at first hand in Kasasire.  An unanswered question in previous blogs was what work I am actually doing!!!   My primary purpose is to support Charles on budgeting and financial reporting. I'm used to working for large organisations where whole teams of people keep the finances running. Charles has to do  it largely single handedly (he has a colleague, Gift, who supports him on certain aspects but he has been off most of the time I have been here - studying for and taking exams - and so Charles has had no support for the past week or so). Plus he faces a number of obstacles most of us in the UK don't ...nearly all transactions are in cash so there is a huge amount of paper money that has to be accounted for (the largest denomination is the 1,000 Malawian Kwacha note which is worth about £1.20, the smallest is 20 Malawian Kwacha which is worth two and a half pence); there are frequent power cuts which prevent computers being used (once laptops run out of power) and access to the internet; inflation is running at almost 25% which complicates managing budgets in  a way that most in the UK have not experienced (the last time inflation in the UK was at a similar level was in the 1970s); he has to operate in Malawian Kwacha and Pound Sterling at a time of continuing (but not predictable) reductions in the value of the Kwacha relative to the Pound; and he has to work in multiple languages (Chitumbuka, the main language used in Northern Malawi, Chichewe, the national language of Malawi, and English which is the official and business language of Malawi and the language used by the Malawian government, the UK office and UK donor organisations).

And Charles also has multiple accountabilities...to Tiwonge, the Malawian Programme Director, and Jo, the UK Managing Director; to a Malawian Board and a UK Board; to Malawian government agencies; and to UK donors.    Each has their own deadlines.  Each asks for reports in a variety of formats.  And each wants explanations of the information provided.

So I hope to be able to support him managing conflicting deadlines, planning the reporting workload, and anticipating and therefore reducing requests for additional information.

Movement in Kwacha to £1 - from under 300 in 2011 to 847 now

Tom and Elle, the other volunteers from the UK, cooking on charcoal during one of the frequent power cuts

Enough about work. Liz arrives this evening and I have taken tomorrow off work to show her round Mzuzu.  I think I have been suffering cabin fever - staying and working in the same place - so hope to get to the 'rake' next weekend.  It's meant to be beautiful so expect some pictures....

Nkhata Bay Natural Way

I didn't do my promised trip to Usisya, the main centre of Nkhata Bay North, but I did get to Kasasire, a remote village in the uplands area. There are about 150 villages in the Nkhata Bay North area, which is divided between the lakeside area next to Lake Malawi, centred on Usisya, and the uplands area which lies west of Lake Malawi.  Temwa staff were going to Kasasire as part of the launch of the new Nkhata Bay Natural Way (NBNW) programme and I joined them as part of my induction.

Usysia is north of Nkhata Bay - Kasasire is west of Usisya

Village women at Kasasire - the woman on the left is wife of the group village headman

NBNW (I hate acronyms but I'm going to have to get used to using them!) is funded by the Big Lottery Fund  and is a four year programme that Temwa is running in partnership with the International Tree Foundation (http://internationaltreefoundation.org/) and Deki which raises funds to provide micro-finance loans in poor countries (http://www.deki.org.uk/).

The programme builds on the work that Temwa is already doing in Nkhata Bay North, supporting agricultural and forestry development, helping local people develop income generating activities (IGAs), providing micro-finance loans, and supporting local ownership of development activities through Area and Village Development Committees (ADCs and VDCs).  In villages, lead farmers take responsibility for spreading good practice on crop variety and rotation which helps subsistence farmers feed families all the year round, Village Natural Resource Management Committees (VNRMCs) take responsibility for leading on the planting of trees and protection of forests, and VDCs take responsibility for prioritising loans.  Community extension volunteers from villages will take responsibility for  ensuring community liaison and mobilisation, acting as link persons to relay information about the programme to community members and beneficiaries.  (Note: Readers will be tested on acronyms!)

There is a close connection between each of the main projects - for example, the Deki loans in many cases will go to support development of forestry based businesses such as bee-keeping and mushroom farming.  There is also a close connection between NBNW and other activities that Temwa undertakes. Temwa already aims to support development of sustainable farming and forestry and will continue to do so in the villages not covered by NBNW. A key aim of Temwa is also to support sustainable governance in the area so it can move its focus of activity to other areas that need support and the work being done to strengthen ADCs and VDCs as part of the NBNW programme, including 50% female representation on them, is crucial to this.

The target beneficiaries of the Temwa projects and NBNW are also the same - families are prioritised for micro-finance loans and other support if they are headed by females, elderly people, or younger adults, have members who have HIV/AIDS, are large or are orphan hosting.  Technical and financial training is given to people applying for loans and organisation of the loans process through Village Loans Schemes is aimed at ensuring collective ownership of the loans process.

A tree in leaf in Kasasire

Kasasire football pitch

The school at Kasasire

Our visit to Kasasire was part of the 'sensitisation' (awareness raising) programme for NBNW. Temwa is already well known in the villages so this is building on the relationships that already exist. Each of the 18 group villages (the local structures already include grouped villages with a group village headman)  covered by the NBNW programme are currently receiving information through 'sensitisation' meetings and they will then determine between themselves who should take on particular roles (for example, community extension volunteer and lead farmer) and also help with the process of determining access to micro-finance loans.   There had been some confusion about time of the meeting at Kasasire and it was poorly attended (around 15 villagers when other meetings have had 50 or more).  The business of the meeting was conducted in Chitumbuka so I was somewhat at a loss about what was being said ...but the atmosphere in the meeting was very creative and positive with engaging presentations from Temwa staff and lots of contributions from the villagers.

Efrina, one of the Temwa project officers, explaining the NBNW to villagers

A villager makes her point at the meeting

The journey to Kasasire itself was eventful.  The drive was two hours from Mzuzu, mostly along rutted dirt tracks. We arrived in the village just as the children were finishing school so were the centre of attention for a while.  Because not many people had turned up at that stage, we decided to drive to see one of the tree nurseries that had been planted nearby.

Unfortunately, our 4x4 broke down about a kilometre away from the village. We waited there for some time as Moyo, the Temwa driver, tried to fix the engine.   After a while we all went back to the village, carrying with us the fizzy drinks and biscuits which we had brought as refreshments for the meeting. When we got back to the car after the meeting, Moyo was still trying to fix it.   It gets dark at 6pm in Malawi and Moyo had got no further at fixing the engine.  At this stage we contacted the Temwa office to arrange for the other 4x4 we have to come and fetch us.  This arrived just before 8pm, together with two mechanics from Mzuzu. They spent a further two hours trying to fix the engine.  Eventually it was decided to tow the broken down vehicle back to Mzuzu (which was pretty hazardous given it was pitch black and the roads had huge ruts in them).  Unfortunately the tow rope broke after a little while and in the end the two mechanics were left behind to stay the night in the broken down vehicle with a view to trying to fixing it in the morning whilst the rest of us were driven back to Mzuzu in the rescue vehicle.

We arrived back at Mzuzu at midnight.  It was a great experience for me - the beautiful sunset, the clear dark star lit sky, the bird song,  distant village noises in the bush, and the camaraderie of all the people - but, despite their good humour, it must have been a strain for the staff who have to put up with this kind of thing quite regularly and had to be out at 8.30am the following morning to do three more sensitisation meetings in another part of Nkhata Bay North.

Moyo (in yellow) trying to mend the engine, watched by Benson, Maria and Greham

One of the village women carrying refreshments from the broken down 4x4 to the meeting

Benson, Beatrice, Maria, Anne, Efrina, Greham and me waiting for the engine to be repaired

Me posing for the camera (with mechanic looking on) - I know nothing about engines!

In future blogs I will talk about living in Mzuzu and also the work I am doing to support the finance team (I'm a bit clearer now though I need to be here longer before I can be sure how I can help). I'm also hoping to get down to the lake shore at Nkhata Bay when Liz arrives - it is meant to be truly amazing - and no doubt will be sharing experiences from there.

More to follow in future blogs....

First impressions

I left Heathrow on Tuesday evening and arrived in Lilongwe airport at about 12 noon Malawi time (1 hour ahead of UK time) following a three hour transfer at Addis Ababa airport.  Having sorted out payment for my visa at the airport (they needed dollars and I had only brought pounds), I got a taxi the thirty odd km into Lilongwe.  I was struck by the number of people walking along the road side in both directions with no obvious destination -  no houses, no shops, no obvious workplaces  - and most of them not carrying things (although a few women carried fruit or vegetables on their head).

Liz and Rose seeing me off at Heathrow

My hotel, the Kiboko, was in the Old Town.  I was due to be picked up to be taken to Mzuzu the next day so I had a day in Lilongwe.   African city life was a  totally new experience to me - very busy, lots of street market stalls, small shops, colourful dress, an almost total lack of begging.  The absence of any obvious traffic rules (beyond - a surprise to me - keeping vaguely to the left), the sharing of roads between cars and people, and the open drains on the pavements made me glad I had travel insurance!  I also had my first experience of African shared taxis, going out to the Lilongwe wild life sanctuary which is between Old Town (the commercial centre) and Capital City (the political centre).

View of Lilongwe Old Town from the Kiboko Hotel balcony

     
Liz and the girls were expecting me to contact them as soon as I got to Lilongwe but wifi was down at the Kiboko and, when I went to an internet cafe, I couldn't get on email or any social media.  My UK phone was also not getting any signal.  I went to the cafe beneath the Kiboko for an evening meal, not sure how I was going to contact anybody.  In desperation, I asked a  woman who was sitting at a table near me to use her phone to ring home.  I then joined her and her companion for my meal.

She was Susan from Edinburgh and had been coming to Malawi on and off for the past 10 years (her first visit was accompanying Jack McConnell, then Scottish First Minister, to meet Bingu Mutharika, then Malawian president); her companion was Thoko, who's a nurse and wife of the official Malawian government photographer. We were later joined by Mabvuto who is a driver in Lilongwe and organises all Susan's travel in the city.  Susan was also staying at the Kiboko and at breakfast she gave me lots of advice about life and work in Malawi which will be invaluable in my time here.  She also introduced me to some people who work for Chance for Change, an NGO which works with young people who have been in prison.

Susan and Mabvuto, both of whom were a great help to me in Lilongwe

Temwa had arranged for Thumbiko, a driver based in Mzuzu, to pick me up.  We left Lilongwe about 1pm and got to Mzuzu just after 5pm.  When we got past the airport, the number of people by the side of the road reduced but there were still a lot.  There were also roadblocks (police and/or tax officials) at virtually every settlement we passed through.  About two thirds of the way along the 380 odd km between Lilongwe and Mzuzu there was a dramatic change in countryside from virtually flat plains to the beginning of the Northern uplands.  We stopped at a market at the side of the road where there were large numbers of women selling bright red tomatoes, greens of various kinds, onions, bananas and so on.  Thumbiko bought bags full of tomatoes, onions and greens for 2,500 Malawian Kwacha (there are about 850 Kwacha to the pound).

Women selling bananas at market next to Lilongwe to Mzuzu road

Thumbiko tried to teach me some basic greetings in Chitumbuka (the language of the Tumbuka people of northern Malawi) with limited success (I must try harder to address my complete inability to retain new words for more than 5 minutes!). We talked about Arsenal - he's a supporter; he told me about his family - 20 siblings in total from three separate mothers who are doing a variety of things now (teachers, working for the Ministry of Justice etc) and three young children of his own; his church where he is an elder (the CCAP - the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian - which is closely linked to the Church of Scotland); and attitude to drink - he is teetotal which I have subsequently discovered is common in Malawi. Thumbiko was also amazed I play five-a-side football - old men don't play football in Malawi!

First impressions of Mzuzu were of a very green, hilly city which, whilst busy, is much quieter than Lilongwe.  The Temwa office (where I work and live) is in a residential area about a 25 minute walk out of the centre.  I was greeted first by Harold and James who are two of the guards at the Temwa complex.  It is amazing how warm the greetings are in Malawi.  It's a combination of a firm handshake and a high five with tremendous smiles.  It's great and, unlike the language, came to me absolutely naturally (note to self - use smiles rather than language to communicate!).  Everybody (or most people) speaks some English (it's the official language) but the level at which it is spoken varies.

View from the Temwa garden in Chimaliro Road, Mzuzu

The Temwa office where I am also staying

Tiwonge, the new Temwa Programme Director in Malawi, and Charles, the Head of Finance and Administration, were also there to greet me.  They will be the people I work with closest over the coming months so I will be getting to know them very well.  Jo, who is the director of Temwa and is usually based in Bristol, is also here and Jo, Tiwonge and I went out for a meal in a local hill top restaurant on my first evening.

So now I have to settle in.  The local team had prepared an induction day for me on Friday so I got to know more about the projects and finances but I still have to work out how I can contribute effectively.  I went into the centre of Mzuzu after work on Friday with Jo and Elle, another volunteer who is leading on communications,  and they took me to the market which had a wonderful selection of fruit and vegetables, together with fresh fish from Lake Malawi.

Local street scene in central Mzuzu

Jacaranda trees in bloom in Kamuzu Avenue in Mzuzu

I will be settling into the office routine next week but I am also due to go to Usisya on Tuesday which is the only town in the Nkhata Bay North area where Temwa delivers its projects.   So it will be really exciting meeting some of the people from the local communities and seeing at first hand the work that Temwa does.  Usisya is about a two and a half drive from Mzuzu on not very good roads so I will be staying overnight there.

So that's it at the moment....more once I have been in the field at Usisya.

Leaving for Mzuzu tonight

This is my first blog about my trip to Malawi to work with Temwa, a community organisation who work with the communities of Nkhata Bay North on the shores of Lake Malawi.  I'll be based in the Temwa office in Mzuzu, supporting the finance team there.

It will be my first trip to sub-Saharan Africa and I'm not sure what to expect.  I knew little about Malawi before I got this placement through Accounting for International Development (http://www.afid.org.uk/) and my knowledge is still pretty limited - it's land locked (neighbours Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique), is dominated by Lake Malawi (which takes up about 20% of the land mass), is very poor (has the lowest GDPs per head in the world), has strong Scottish connections (its second city is Blantyre), has some of the  most welcoming people in Africa (known as the 'warm heart' of Africa), and has beautiful scenery.  Since I got the role, I have come across a number of people who have been to Malawi and all of them love it.  So I'm hopeful that travelling to Malawi will be a great experience for me.  I'm certainly expecting it to be like nothing I've experienced before!

I also don't quite know what to expect from working for Temwa.   All I have seen and read about what they do makes me really enthusiastic about working for them.  It's worth looking at their website (http://temwa.org/) to get an idea of what they do.  Their aim is to support sustainable development in the local community and they see success as ultimately not being required and being able to support development in other communities.  But I still need to work out how I can help.   I haven't any experience working for Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) but I'm hoping that my skills and experience built up over years working for government organisations will be of use and bring a different perspective to what they are doing. I'm certainly looking forward to getting to know and working with the team in Mzuzu/Nkhata Bay North.

I leave from Heathrow tonight at 9pm and arrive in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, at around lunch-time tomorrow (having had a three hour stopover at Addis Ababa airport).  I've got one night to acclimatise in a hotel in Lilongwe before heading up to Mzuzu.  Liz will be flying out on 26th October and we both plan to stay until the end of February.

More posts to follow....