Hello There! I hope you're all well and settling back into work/school/university after a wonderful Christmas holiday. Things have changed quite a bit out here since my last entry. My sister has joined us at last (after a rather stressful journey!), the rains have begun in full force (later and heavier than usual) and we have moved house. Several times!
As many of you know, we spent Christmas away from Blantyre. We went to the lake for a few days where most of us got sunburnt! And then spent Christmas day itself at a nature reserve just outside Blantyre. It was a very surreal experience, swimming in an outdoor pool with a view over the East African Rift Valley, then having a barbecue for lunch outside with people we hadn't met before, accompanied by a local, traditional music group. It was a wonderful day, but I still prefer your typical (white) English Christmas.
Early January Sylvia returned from England so we had to move out of her house, but we had a three week gap before our next house sit. We spent a week house-sitting for a german family we know, and then Mum, Dad and Dom moved in with a couple who work at Queens. Unfortunately, there wasn't space there for Lizzie and I so we had to fit ourselves in where-ever there was space. This involved us staying with a friend for 4 days, then another friend for a night, and then back at Sylvia's until this Wednesday when we finally moved into our last house during our time out here. Needless to say, we are very happy to finally be settled into a home and able to unpack!
The Joshua feeding centres have started up again, after a month off for Christmas which allows the women from the villages to make sure their crops are coping with the change in the weather. For the rest of my time here I'm going to be focussing on three of our centres – Chimwemwe, Kasinje and Makolo. These are the three that Lauren (the teacher from England) started to help. I'm going to carry on with the work she started, making sure it's maintained and continuing it where appropriate. This is where I will use the majority of the money I raise. For those of you who don't know, I'm doing a 48hr fast on Wednesday 22nd – Thursday 23rd February. If you wish to sponsor me, you can do so here http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JulietHeyes . If you have already sponsored me then can I just say Thank You very much! To be fair, given that this is my blog, I can indeed say that!
A couple of weeks ago I went with Lizzie to visit the Joshua Secondary School. It's quite different from UK schools. Class sizes range from 60 to 100 pupils, all with just one teacher. Teaching is more university lecturing style - the teacher stands at the front talking about a topic, a few questions interspersed here and there. Students, as far as I can tell, only take notes once the teacher has left the room!! Every Wednesday is a non—uniform day, as this allows the students to wash their school uniform at the weekend and on a Wednesday.
Another observation about Malawi that amazes me is the ingenuity of the people here. We're house-sitting for a family who have a sunshade made from a disused satellite dish! Many people use converted bicycles as wheelchairs. Out here lots of things are sold in bags – milk, sugar, water, gin, cream, chips, chicken etc., and I've seen children using old sugar bags with string threaded through them as school backpacks. At some of the centres the kids use loads of shreds of plastic tied together for skipping ropes.
One thing that still disconcerts me, though, is the way we (white people) are treated by the locals. Apart from a few exceptions everyone acts as though we are hugely important. If you ask someone to do something for you, they will do it gladly and thank you for the privilege of being asked! I was walking to one of our feeding centres and a young boy ran up to say hello to me, I said hello back and shook his hand. His excitement at this was the most adorable thing I have ever seen – he was laughing and dancing he was so happy, but it does make you think about why shaking a white person's hand is such a wonderful event for these children. Imagine the situation in reverse...
On a weirder note, I received my first proposal this week. Whilst waiting to meet up with a friend at the minibus station, a guy came up to me and started chatting. He asked for money, started talking to me about Nelson Mandela, then told me he wanted to marry me! This wouldn't have been quite so weird if he hadn't only been wearing a pair of too small underpants. Slightly embarrassing for both parties.
That's all I have to report for now, hope you enjoyed reading.
Love to you all,
Julez
xxxx
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