Meeting the Chiefs

Friday

This morning David and I went into Blantyre on the minibus from the bottom of our road. We waited beside the road and got into conversation with a young man who was also waiting. I found some dried fruits under the tree where we were sheltering from the sun which was pretty hot even at 8.00am. I asked which kind of tree it was and the young man apologized for not knowing the name in English and then said 'We call it Mahogany!' Anyway Maureen would have been proud of us because we collected a lot of the fruits and put them in a heap at the side of the road to pick them up and bring them back for children to play with! The trouble was we came home a different way. I hope they will still be there when we go back for them! The bus was fairly full but we wedged ourselves in with the rest of humanity and lurched into town!

After doing our errands in town which included buying some nice bumpy balls in the K99 Shop to play name games with our students at their first session, we repaired to the Mount Soche hotel for ice cold drinks and a good broadband connection to continue planning our course. Then it was back to the bus stop for another minibus to Chilomoni.

This afternoon we were privileged to be taken to visit the two chiefs of Chilomoni, escorted by George and Gift, the two child protection workers for the area. The two visits were very different. We decided that it would be prudent to go and see them because caring for children is such an important issue and we wanted them to know what it is we are planning to do, so that if we do inadvertently upset anyone the local leaders will at least know who we are and that our intentions are good! The first chief was a lady, a grandmother, at least my age and possibly older, it's not easy to tell. Gift had to interpret as she spoke no English and we no Chichewa. The house was low and dark, simply furnished and apart from a television that continued to play throughout the interview, although the sound was turned down, there was little evidence of Western influence. We took a gift of tea, sugar, salt and bread. We asked advice of Malawian staff members to find out what would be appropriate. The exchange was brief and quite formal, but we did manage to ask her what she thought were the most important things about bringing up children. This may have got a bit lost in translation, because now I can't remember what her answer was. She offered us water to drink which was very welcome as the day was extremely hot.

The second chief lived in a house tucked away behind the market. It was surrounded by its own garden and was brighter and with much more evidence of wealth. We sat in easy chairs. The chief was a man dressed smartly in business clothes and perhaps about 40 years of age, again it was difficult to tell. He spoke excellent English and David and I were able to speak for ourselves and understand everything that went on. Again we asked the chief what he felt was most important about raising children. He was a bit lost for words, but after a few moments his sister came in and it turned out that she is a teacher, and has young children herself and she was very helpful in her comments. She seemed to be saying that the children have many things to learn and that there must be time to teach them, also that the teachers should ensure that the children understood and did not simply learn by rote and repeat without understanding. We told her about the staff ratios we hope to have in the new Children's Centre and she seemed to be impressed and truly to understand the significance of the difference that this could make. I think we were very fortunate that she was visiting her brother when we called. On the way out we met the chief's two little girls who were beautifully dressed and well-groomed.

Next week George and Gift are to take us to see the TA chief ( Traditional Authority), who is responsible for the whole of Blantyre. Mary says we must be careful to take him a gift that is perhaps a little more that the gift we took to the local chiefs, she suggested maybe adding washing powder to the four items we gave to the others.