So again I am in Mzuzu with a little update... only 7 weeks left in the country!!
Over one weekend we decided to climb up to
Rakesh and Claus’s house which is on top of Livingstonia and meant a 4 hour
hike up the mountain. The trek was good fun and there was some great rock
climbing parts once you got off the road and onto the shortcuts. But hiking for
4 hours in 30 degree heats is tricky and I don’t think I have ever sweated that
much in my life – I drunk 1.5 litres of water and yet I was still dehydrated
once I got to the top. Luckily Rakesh and Claus have a shower which was very
welcomed and we spent the night at their house with 9 other volunteers crashing
on their floor to save money! The next day they took us to see the Manchewe
Waterfalls which were very impressive and we got to go to a cave that the falls
went over! Unfortunately Anthony and myself had to go back down the mountain,
little over 24 hours since we came up but this time we got a lift for about
half way down!
Also on 1st of May we had a day
off to celebrate Labour Day which was great timing as it coincided with the big
match Man City v Man Utd! So we popped down to
Hara with a couple of others to a small bar to watch the game. The “room” was a
small shack, covered by a grass roof and was only about 15 by 10 foot! To say
it was packed is an understatement as there were men everywhere, all sitting on
wooden stalls to get a view of the 2 small portable TVs at the front of the
room. There must have been 200-400 people in there and to my surprise about 75%
of them were supporting City! The atmosphere was perhaps the best you will ever
get for watching a match on TV and the crowd had a strange love towards Gael
Clichy who they cheered everytime he was on the ball! If ever there was an
example of globalisation then this was it as you had hundreds of Malawians
passionately supporting two football clubs from Manchester as if it was normal!
When City scored the reaction was intense and, although I enjoyed the game, I
was pleased when it was over as I could get some fresh/cool air for once.
Also Matt’s lodge, Maji Zuwa, has just got
satellite TV in the hope to attract more customers which is excellent for us as
we now get to watch more football and western TV. Last weekend I watched the
F.A. Cup final with many locals all cheering for Chelsea as they have more black players! Also
Chloe, Elizabeth and I had an evening of British programmes with Who Wants to be a Millionaire, followed
by Total Wipeout, QI, Come Dine With Me, Ramesy’s
Kitchen Nightmare and Live at the
Apollo. I did feel guilty that I wasn’t embracing the Malawian culture but
it was the best couple of hours of TV watching ever – instead of watching
terrible Nigerian soap opera’s (the acting in those makes even Hollyoaks looks
spectacular). The satellite TV meant that I could watch the final weekend of
the Premier League, which was pretty incredible as I am sure you are aware…
when that final City goal went in it was pretty funny scenes around Maji Zuwa.
Also I can’t wait for Euro 2012 and I am already preparing to make England flags
to give to the students (Anthony has green, white and orange face paints and he
is sure that he will convert more Malawian’s to the Irish!)
At school we had our first really intense
staff meeting that lasted just shy of 2 hours. All 7 of us were called to
gather during school (so no one was left to teach) and we were discuss the
upcoming football tournaments. The next 2 Saturday’s bought football
tournaments organised by the government and all schools were asked to
participate up and down the country. The games were to be held in a
neighbouring town of St Anne’s
and it would cost the school K34,000 to transport the students back and forth
for both weekends! However there was a problem… the school only had K13,000 in
the bank so we were summoned to think of solutions. We were amazed that they
still continue to try and take part! We suggested the idea that their education
was more important than sport and the fact that we couldn’t even afford to buy
chalk meant that an expensive football game wasn’t that best idea. This was
well received but I think if we weren’t there they would have found a way to
borrow money and put the school into more financial difficulty. So in the end
we saved the school a tonne of money, the students we disappointed that the
games we called-off but I think they understood! And now we can even afford
chalk again, which is excellent as trying to teach without chalk is a
nightmare!!
A few weeks back I managed to buy a radio
from Karonga that meant that I could listen to the BBC World Service which is
so amazing! Everyday I am listening in to what is happening across the world
and I don’t feel out-of-touch anymore. On Monday we listened and the opening
story was about Malawi
– President Banda had devalued the kwacha by about 50% so it’s now K250 to the
$1. This is excellent news for me as the kwacha had been at such a poor rate
and I was spending far more than I expected. But now it’s K400 to the pound
instead of K250, which means I save a bundle of money! The price of a coke goes
down from 24p to 16p, but more importantly a nights accommodation somewhere
goes down from 5 quid to 3 quid which will save me so much in the next 2
months. The news should also be good for the country as a whole, it is now
going to be cheaper to export goods so hopefully the countries exports will
grow and help out the trade balance. Obviously it’s going to be more expensive
to import but hopefully this won’t make too much difference as fuel is already
on black market rates and so a rise at the pumps won’t push the price up too
much. All in all the change should be good for Malawi, the new President has
bought more optimism into the country and hopefully her gamble will pay off.
Now we have so little time left at the
placement and with lots of Public Holidays we have realised we have just 2 full
teaching weeks left. I will definitely miss Fulirwa, the kids and the teachers
as they have all become so normal in my life. I love teaching now, particularly
Business Form 3 at the moment as we are doing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which
I love and then going onto creating CV’s and job interviews which are all going
to be great fun. Day by day I am getting more used to the way of life and
experimenting more… just the other day I made a soya curry with Bombay potatoes which was
a lovely change from the normal rice and soya that we have every day!
Anyway, I had best be off!
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