Away Day for Volunteers

On Friday we attended an Away Day for volunteers held in a lodge the other side of Limbe, called Game Haven. It was like a fairly smart hotel set in a large area of grounds with a few animals roaming around, we saw sable and another, smaller antelope. I think the idea was largely to say thankyou to the seven volunteers who have been here for about a year and who are to return home before Christmas. In the morning there were a few brief introductory speeches from Vince, from Peter, The Managing Director of Beehive and from someone from Blantyre City Council, and there was a nice compilation of photographs taken over the last year showing the volunteers in their various roles working alongside local people on all the various Beehive projects. Then we had a visit from staff at Dedza Pottery who gave us four tiles each and lots of colours of tile paint. We were asked to paint something representative of ourselves and our time and role at Beehive. The Pottery people suggested that hand or foot prints with names written beside them might be appropriate. The difference between the approach of the Malawians and the UK volunteers was striking! All but Johani of the Malawians did a hand or footprint but none of the volunteers, even those who described themselves as completely out of their comfort zone, followed the examples given! Some did simple depictions of their name, perhaps with a symbol indicating their role, e.g. a fish for fish-farming, but others painted pictures. David based his around the three letters ECD for Early Childhood Development and I did two quotations, one Emily Dickinson 'Dwell in Possibility' which was on one of the good luck cards I received before I left home (thank you John!) and the other pure Marian Pearson! A few flowers and a rising sun, and there you are!! It is interesting to consider the difference between the two groups in the light of the instruction to us to train our Early Years workers to provide an environment that will encourage young children to become creative problem solvers.

We had a good lunch and then played some team games involving transferring water about, which meant many of us got extremely wet! The afternoon session I found really difficult. It involved us discussing in groups things that had gone really well and things that would have been 'even better if..'. This was taken very seriously by the groups. My group had a discussion that was thoughtful and constructive. The intention was really to build on the good things and look at areas that had caused difficulty in the past and work towards improved communication and planning and more focused targeting of resources. I did the feedback to the whole group and tried to be positive and not personal throughout. This would have been a good exercise if after the groups had fed back the leaders had just said 'Well, you raised a lot of interesting points there and we shall look at them and see what we can incorporate into the way that we all work together', and then gone away and done that. I know that the managing group will have to consider other issues that might not have equal importance for the volunteers and workers, but they did ask for our opinion. There was a long and defensive session where each point was pulled apart and many were publically discounted without any proper understanding of the issues raised. It is not easy for people to bring up issues which trouble them in a public way, but in my group both volunteers and Malawians took that risk and had it flung back in their faces, I think it was a shame. I am new to the project and I know that some volunteers think that I read the session in a way that was not really intended, but I was disappointed and as it was the last session it cast rather a cloud over what was otherwise an enjoyable and positive day.

Saturday

Saturday was a nice relaxed day. I went to the Mount Soche Hotel and sat by the pool with my laptop to plan a lecture on Social and Emotional Development in the Early Years. Just as my battery began to give out, Jane, Claudie and Zoe arrived so we had a lazy time swimming, sunbathing and chatting. The Mount Soche does a barbeque lunch on a Saturday so we had chicken kebabs with loads of rice, salads and veg. Very nice! We were gradually joined by the other volunteers as they finished their errands and shopping. We returned to Mitsidi about 3.00pm and I had a rather disastrous attempt at making a lemon cake. I might have to buy some scales!

In the evening we went to the Blantyre Sports and Social club for the annual fireworks display. It was probably the best fireworks display I have ever seen and lasted for about 30 minutes. The sky was filled with bursts of colour and sparkle over and over again. It kept building up to a crescendo and we would say 'That must be the end…' but it never was! We joined in with the 'OOOhs' and 'Ahhhs' with great gusto and a good time was had by all. There was a Kung Fu display from a group of lads, and one girl, from a local orphanage. They were brilliant, full of talent and energy and in very good time with one another. We thoroughly enjoyed their show. Probably the best bits of the night for me were the journeys to and from the Sports Club. Most of us went in the Blue Hilux and it was girls in the back both ways with the wind in our hair. Marty was driving and on the way, instead of driving up the unmade and very bumpy public road he swung right up a little connecting track to the President's road. We were immediately stopped by a guard with a gun who was definitely not amused and told Marty that next time he must use the public road, but he let us through even though he did not crack his face into a smile at any point during the brief exchange. Marty drove up that smooth and deserted road like the proverbial bat out of hell, and Jane, Zoe and I standing in the back clung on for our lives! I could feel the wind tearing at my dangly earrings and I thought that by the end I would either have lost them or would have forked ear lobes, but no damage was done and I arrived at the sports club slightly shaken but just about in one piece! On the way back Zoe and Jane sang all the way home and I joined in where I knew the words. Comparatively speaking Marty's driving was a model of decorum but on one very dark stretch of relatively unpopulated road he did slow down to a crawl and turn the head lights off for a few seconds in order to shut the singers up I think, but he was only momentarily successful!

And so home, to a cup of tea and a piece of 'sticky failure lemon cake' which if nothing else, did taste of lemons! And so to bed….

Sunday

Today has been a quiet day which I spent entirely at Mitsidi. I am fretting a little about the imminent start of our course and spent most of the day titivating power point presentations and getting things ready for tomorrow. Also boring things like the washing and ironing. Food has been good today! Marty cooked a great brunch of gammon, sausage, beans, tomatoes, scrambled egg and toast with juice, tea and coffee. We sat over it talking for quite a long time on the khonde, which is one of the coolest places at Mitsidi. This evening a consortium of about five people made an excellent supper of chicken pie with loads of veg and mashed potato. My contribution was mango crumble and custard. Good plain English cooking with an African twist!