Annie’s last week

The week and a day since my last entry has passed very quickly. I have loved having Annie here and will miss her greatly. I took her to Chileka airport at lunchtime today and put her on a plane for Johannesburg. She will be at Heathrow early tomorrow morning. The month has flown by; she has involved herself in the doings of Beehive and become a very popular member of the community in the short time she has been here. Her course for the child care students was extremely well received. They appreciated her gentle style of delivery and the interactive approach of the workshop. I am not sure that those who spoke in the feedback circle of 'now knowing how to deal with conflict situations' were entirely realistic, but at least they have been given some pointers to think about. Let us hope that they use them, and also that those who manage them over the next few years also remember the value of listening carefully to the views of both parties in a conflict, considering the other party's point of view, using non-judgemental language, and saying clearly what it is that they want.

Annie and I have been attending the practices of the Beehive Construction Choir. Annie first attended with Lin about 3 weeks ago. After our holiday I went with her to a couple of practices and we sang with the choir in assembly last Monday. We were not really quite ready, but it was Annie's only opportunity before leaving for home. We have been very warmly welcomed. We sang two songs, one in English and one in Chichewa. Sue and Brian spent a lot of time in their last couple of weeks here supporting and encouraging the choir and the Construction Drama Group. They arranged for them to have uniform t-shirts, yellow for women and blue for men, with Beehive Construction Choir emblazoned on the breast. They also funded transport for a joint expedition and performance. A second expedition is planned and the choir-master and organizer of the choir enlisted our help in arranging transport through Beehive. We said that we did not think we had much influence and encouraged them to ask for themselves, but said we would mention it, which we did. I am glad to be able to report that the two groups will be off on another joint venture this weekend. I wish I could go, but this weekend is the 'Lake of Stars' festival and a group of us are off to the southern lakeshore to join with that.

I have a new next-door neighbour in Father John Dimba, a member of the Spiritan community who is taking a sabbatical year and spending a few months as Principal of the JPIILITA college. His expertise is in the leadership rather than the IT side of the college's specialisms. He has a lot of experience in human formation, and developing leadership skills through the training of priests. Annie and I have had a number of interesting conversations with him over the last week or so. Yesterday he invited us to go with him to see his parish in the Thyolo area, a tea-growing region, so that we could meet some of his brothers and understand a little more about where he comes from. We had a fascinating day meeting people, visiting his chapels and churches, visiting a tea and macadamia nut factory, and being given lunch by a village family of a couple of sisters who each have a number of children. They are subsistence farmers. In the garden there were, chickens, pigs, a calf, dogs. They had prepared a delicious meal with both pork and chicken, vegetables from the garden, rice and chips. We were a bit worried that we were eating their food for the next week, but they were obviously delighted to be able to feed Father John and his guests and made us feel very welcome. Father John obviously felt equally at home in this humble household as he did in the luxury home of the lady who kindly loaned him her Hilux car as the Brother's car was not really suitable for the dirt roads of the country parish. In both places he opened the door and called out to announce our arrival, stepping into the back yard of the one home and the smart entrance hall of the other with the quiet confidence of being in the homes of friends. He also has taken an interest in the Construction Choir and has raised with them the possibility of making a CD of spiritual songs together. His vision is of singing with an ecumenical choir and encouraging their development through working together. He is keen that I continue taking a part in the choir after Annie has left as he feels that the interest of an azungu woman will be affirming to the members. I am a bit muddled as to what I feel about this, but have sufficient confidence to allow myself to be led by him where I do not fully understand the culture myself. Those of you who know me well will know that I am far from a good singer, so perhaps it is just as well that he sees other benefits in my membership! I am glad that he will be there as I shall miss Annie next time I go to practice. Sue and Brian made a DVD of the choir which they sent out to them last week. Unfortunately no one has the equipment to view it, so I have promised to take my laptop to practice on Friday. I wonder how the CD project will develop, and what fundraising ideas the choir will have. If any of you with musical connections are interested in encouraging the project I will put you in touch with Sue and Brian so you can see the DVD and find out what we are like.

Last weekend Annie and I joined Linda on a trip with the Society of Malawi to the home of a couple who make soaps and balm, from local materials in the ironing room of their house. It was a fascinating morning, hearing about the development of a cottage industry, seeing the family home of this South African/Malawian couple, meeting their children, meeting a selection of expatriates from at least four different countries, moulding soap off cuts into balls, learning about making cosmetics from beeswax, macadamia nut oil, essential oils etc etc. The packaging is handmade, mostly from wood by a local carver. We all had the opportunity to buy for ourselves and for gifts and the morning was rounded off by excellent coffee and homemade biscuits and brownies. The three of us had lunch in Blantyre before returning to Mitsidi for a swim and a lazy afternoon. I slipped away for an hour to David's 'welcome back' barbeque for Zoe, a low-key affair compared to her leaving do, but nevertheless a pleasant occasion. On Sunday we got up fairly early for the weekend and climbed to the peak of Michiru mountain, just Annie and me and Chris. It was a steep old climb! I do not think I would have made it a year ago, but by taking it slowly I reached the top where we had just opened the picnic when we were joined by a couple of dozen Malawian children and young people. This was probably a church youth group as they soon burst into song. Annie and I joined in with the English words as they sang in Chichewa to the tune of 'Bread of Heaven', but that was the only tune we recognized. It is lovely to see the landscape spread out below one from the top of the mountain. There is Blantyre in one direction and barely inhabited countryside in another. I was able to pick out a familiar section of Chilomoni ring road but most of the township was hidden by a subsidiary peak.

This afternoon Sarah and I finished the planning of our half of the 'Outdoor Play' short course which will run after our return from 'Lake of Stars' next week. We have collected together a lot of materials for the students to use to devise activities by scavenging our way across the building site, through the containers and around the local area. More details next week when the course actually happens.

Return from holiday

We returned to Blantyre from a splendid holiday trip on Friday evening and have settled quickly back into life at Beehive and Mitsidi. I was going to write an account of our holiday, but having just read my sister's blog I feel that there is little I could add to her account and so I shall just post you a link and you can check it out for yourselves. www.malawizikomo.blogspot.com It was a week of blue skies, beautiful scenery, convivial company, good food and generally good places to stay. It is not always a successful venture to mix family with friends from different parts of one's life, but the four of us, two sisters, old friend from the UK and new friend from Malawi, all seemed to jog along comfortably together, at least for five days! I had a great break and managed to forget about teaching and my students for whole days together!

We put Lin on the plane at Chileka on Saturday morning and she is now safely back in Norwich, UK. It seems a little strange and quiet without her. On the way back we went to Blantyre and I finally managed to get my hair cut. I returned from the UK last May looking quite neat and tidy following a hair cut by my friend Doreen which was rounded off by an excellent fish supper in her kitchen, but since then I have struggled to find anyone who could cut azungu hair, my previous hairdresser, a talkative Zimbabwean, having returned to her homeland and left the salon with a vacancy. However finally they have acquired a young and competent male, Asian stylist who efficiently cropped my hair into the requested 'messy, easy-care' style in a very short time and for exactly half the price I was charged last time! I do not think that my hair has been this short since I was about six months old and it was rather a shock at first, but now I have had 48 hours to get used to it I think I like it! It's certainly cool!

Annie and I have had a fairly quiet weekend. Saturday afternoon was spent at Mitsidi doing the washing, reading, swimming, cooking cauliflower cheese and apple muffins for supper and generally pottering about. On Sunday I prepared a picnic and we went to Michuri Conservation area with Hugh and Chris, both engineers who have arrived in the last few weeks, for a walk. It was a hot day. Mindful of my newly exposed ears and neck I took Karl's hat off its hook on the sitting room wall and wore it on our expedition. Winter is definitely over and the temperature seems to be rising by the day. It seems that here in Malawi the dry and cold winter is followed by a period when the leaves fall off the trees, but the weather gets steadily warmer. Many trees have bare boughs and this means that it is easier to see the birds, so we spent a happy few hours picking out and identifying louries, flycatchers, hornbills, sunbirds etc etc. Hugh knows a lot more about African birds than I do, so I was able to learn quite a bit with minimal effort! The colour of Malawi has changed again. There is little green left. The grass is brown, there is much exposed earth of a warm shade of terracotta, the leaves that remain are yellow, brown or red. Many trees support flowering creepers in shades of red and pink. The Jacaranda trees are gradually coming into flower. A couple of weeks ago the first purple flower buds on just a few early-blossoming trees began to burst out of the buds. On the President's road just one or two of the trees of his stately avenue showed the odd mauve branch, but now more and more each day are becoming coloured that extraordinary, ethereal purple, becoming more intense each day as more blossoms open. Because the trees have no leaves at the moment the colour is undiluted by the green of leaves and the impression is almost, but not quite unnatural!

Today it was back to work. Annie's course on 'Staff Relationships, Team-building and Conflict Resolution' is scheduled for tomorrow and Thursday so we spent the day getting that planned and organized, and catching up on what David, Sarah and Marc have been up to while we have been away. I joined Annie at the lunch time rehearsal of the Construction Choir, which was a real highlight. They asked us to bring a song and we suggested 'Morning has Broken'. Martin the choir master was astonishing. He managed not only to make up, but also to sing himself, soprano, alto, tenor and base parts. We may have only practiced two lines in the 20 minutes or so we had before the bell rang for the choir to return to their construction work, but we certainly made a joyful noise!

First short course

On Tuesday and Thursday of this week we have run a short course called 'Looking back and looking forward' during which we have looked at the feelings of the students about what they have learned on the Child Care Training, how it has affected their lives, for better or for worse, and how the delay to the opening of the Children's Centre will impact upon them. I am left this afternoon feeling like a wet rag! I am struck yet again by how difficult life is for ordinary people in Malawi. There is no Social Security here and in the cities at least, those who do not work do not eat or pay the rent unless they are supported by the extended family. Perhaps things are not quite so bad in the villages where families have their land where they can grow food, I daresay there are different problems, but there are certainly many of our students whose lives are profoundly affected by the decision to postpone the opening of the Children's Centre. Of course the reasons for the delay are complicated and it is not possible to provide child care in a building site. I am not suggesting that it would have been possible to make a different decision, but I am appalled by the hardship which a few of our students will have to go through in the next few months as a direct consequence of the delay. We used a community conversation technique which involved each student having about a minute to tell the whole group how they felt about the delay and how it would affect them personally. Annie fed back to each person the main points of what they had said and I took notes, trying to pull out common themes. The following words were used to describe feelings: frustrated, discouraged, disappointed, angry, cheated, worried, impatient. There were many comments along the lines of:

'I was looking forward to putting what I have learned into practice and am frustrated at the delay.'

'I was expecting to have my Diploma by Christmas.'

'Some things are not in the control of Beehive.'

A significant proportion of the students seem to be resigned to the situation. I think they realize that at this stage there is little that can be done about the delay. However the comments of some of the others I found harder to deal with.

'I hoped that for the first time in my life I would be spending my own money this Christmas.'

'My family has lived for a year without me bringing in a salary while I did this training, now it will be another four months.'

'I could get work as a teacher, but I want to work for Beehive. I don't think I can afford to wait another four months.'

'I have been dependent on my brother for nearly a year. He understood I would have an income from September, and now he must support me again, but I have not received my sack of flour. I must eat anything, whatever I can get.'

'I have made plans based on having an income from September, I like to plan and know what will happen next. Now I am confused and disappointed and my family is asking if there will be more delays.'

'I am wondering whether I can have a future in Beehive after all.'

'I am responsible for others. I do not know what I am going to do.'

'My family thinks I am unreliable because I said I would have a work placement by now, and I don't. That MK8000 a month would have made all the difference.'

Despite all these comments which show considerable difficulties, there were also many positive remarks and a great willingness to look at how to develop strategies to help get through the difficult four months which are coming.

'There is creative thinking needed.'

'I want to start working with children.'

'I am ready to put the course into practice.'

'I am worried, but I will wait.'

'Can we work to try to get the subsidized meals reinstated?'

'Is there anything Beehive can do about helping with Transport costs for the short courses? I want to come, but I need the money for food for my family.'

'Could Beehive send out notes for the courses to those who cannot afford the transport to get here?'

'Could the salaries (and fees) be reviewed in the light of the recent devaluation of the Kwacha?'

Despite all these difficult issues the courses raised many positive points also and to my delight a few creative, if not necessarily realistic ideas about how we could help to overcome difficulties. Some are concerned about getting to work for 6.30am, which is the start of the early shift and someone said, 'What we need is a dormitory where we can stay over the night before we are on an early shift.' Whether this would actually work in practice I don't know, but it was an interesting idea.

I asked about how doing the training had brought about changes in their lives, and whether they were good changes or bad changes. There were many comments about interest in, knowledge about, relationships with, approach to and understanding of children. All these were considered good changes. There were a whole collection of changes about relationships. An understanding and respect for confidentiality, listening skills, new friendships. There were a collection of changes that related to enjoyment of classes, learning together, singing, dancing, and then a few comments showing the effect of the course on what they do in their private lives e.g. I write more, following the sessions on creativity. The input in the course on interview skills, writing a CV, application letters etc was also raised as something that had been usefully applied.

 

Since I wrote this David and I sat down and discussed the issues raised and some of the students' ideas for strategies to help to solve some of the problems. We have also had a meeting with Vince and a few things have been decided. Firstly the subsidized meals have been reinstated for the Child Care students as Vince recognized that their situation is not exactly the same as the other students at Beehive. We also had considerable discussion about the way that we fear the trust we have built up throughout the course, between Beehive and the students has been undermined by the delays, and the timing of, and way in which, news of inevitable delay has been communicated to the students. I felt it was a constructive meeting and went home with spirits somewhat uplifted compared with earlier in the day.

Annie and Linda and I have talked a lot about what, if anything we can do to help some of the students who are in most immediate need. There are a number of key issues here and unfortunately there are no simple answers. Firstly how can you tell who is truly in need and who is not? Do you ask intrusive questions? If you give an allowance to everyone you are handing out money to those who already have plenty as well as to those who do not. Is dishing out azungu cash a good way to go? The Krizevac strapline, 'A hand up, not a hand out!' describes a principle that I feel is a good one. I would rather spend money encouraging others to develop themselves and thus move out of poverty under their own steam, than just buy a few hot dinners that in the grand scheme of things will not make any difference. On the other hand it is difficult to see people you know be hungry, and yesterday I did buy a couple of hot dinners. There is an important issue here in that some, by no means all, of the students have really struggled to enable them to come to our course. The prospect of a work placement in September and a job in January has been a beacon of hope and this delay must feel very tough. Nevertheless they are still here. The reasons for the delay are multi-factorial. Beehive and Krizevac could possibly have predicted and averted some of them, but there are others that were certainly completely out of our control. From a personal perspective, I do not want to lose any students in the period between now and January. My fear is that those we do lose are likely to be the best and the strongest candidates.

Sue and Brian out; Chris in!

Here I am at Chileka airport again, sat in the café with time to kill, waiting for someone to arrive. In this case it is Chris somebody, the new volunteer, an engineer. And that is literally all I know about him! I have no idea how old he is or what he looks like and he is expecting to be met by Vince, so he certainly won't be looking for a slightly over-weight, middle-aged woman with an overgrown haircut and purple glasses! I have just delivered Brian and Sue to Departures and have half an hour to wait until Chris's plane touches down and then probably almost an hour until he emerges from Arrivals. The two months Brian and Sue have been here have passed in a flash but they have certainly had a significant impact on the preparation for opening of the Children's Centre. I think I have said before that they are good at all the things that I am not and that the Children's Centre really needs to get right. It is important that not only does it provide excellent services for children but also that it is run on sound business principles. It is so important that the services provided are sustainable. It would be a great pity to offer this hugely different approach to child care and then to have to withdraw it for lack of funds. Continuity will be very important for the children. We are already looking at what might be done to work with the local primary schools to support the children who move on from our Children's Centre when they reach statutory school age. With this in mind David and Sarah have joined Marc in St James' this week, which is the first week of term and the introduction to school life of a new cohort of 5 and 6 year olds. Apparently the first few weeks they do not follow a formal curriculum but a transition programme designed to help them to settle comfortably into school life. This aim did not preclude the teaching of the 'letter A' this morning however! I just popped in to get the key to the office. David, Sarah and I have only two keys between us and both were at the school this morning.

Today is full of little bits of jobs again. I look forward to having a few days to myself to get on with the assessment tasks, but there is a lot of random stuff that needs doing… I dropped Annie and Linda off at the bottom of 'The Way of the Cross this morning so that they can do the climb at the cooler end of the day and look down on Chilomoni and Blantyre spread below them. They were well equipped with water, sun hats, little snacks and lotion, and will take their time. They expect to be back down in Chilomoni in time for lunch and they have a date with Martin, the choir master of the construction choir to attend practice after lunch. The plan is that they will teach the choir an English song and the choir will teach them a song in Chichewa. I arrived at work to find I could not get into the office. This took a while to sort out and then I helped Linda(Rogers) to deal with a little printing problem that was driving her demented and so I had only an hour or so to get my head down over the writing of practical tasks. Then it was back to Mitsidi to begin the airport run.

It has been a real joy to have Annie and Linda here. It is not always easy to combine looking after visitors properly with working full time, but I have done my best! I am looking forward to my week off next week when I hope to be able to relax properly. I think we rather overdid it on Saturday after they arrived as although we had a quiet afternoon at Mitsidi we dropped in to the Liquor Garden for a quick drink, collected Marc and Sarah and then went to Chez Maky to meet Sue and Brian for an azungu, candlelit supper which included my first gammon steak for 30 years! I am still not used to the fact that I am no longer a vegetarian!! Sunday was another domestic day. We had a swim and helped prepare a celebratory barbeque to honour the imminent departure of Brain and Sue. During the course of Sunday night Annie managed to tread on a scorpion which caused us all a few anxious moments but I am happy to report that all has ended well although she was uncomfortable for a while. As she has recorded the incident in detail in her own blog I shall not say more here except that I took her to a GP recommended by Lindy and I share Lindy's good opinion of that lady. On what was left of Monday after the scorpion incident and on Tuesday we have spent the time in Chilomoni, visiting all the Beehive projects and drinking in local atmosphere. Lin particularly has taken loads of photos and we have met a lot of people. Both of them helped with the first class of the short courses programme for the Child Care students and with a new project, teaching basic English to Beehive staff.

Transitions

It is Saturday morning 3 September, a day that has been a bright star in my metaphorical calendar for a couple of months now, ever since Annie and Linda booked their flight. As I type they must be in Johannesburg airport waiting for a connecting flight to Blantyre. Annie is staying for a month and Lin for 2 weeks. For the second week we are off on holiday again. Schedule not yet planned and heavily dependent on how much diesel we can get hold off. The three of us will be joined by Amanda. I think it will work out very well. Annie is going to run a short course for the students in the third week using her mediation skills.

This week has been a bit bitty in terms of work; busy, busy all the time with lots of different jobs! We have done a lot of sorting and moving 'stuff' for the Children's Centre. Sue and Sarah have done Trojan work collecting all the toys and equipment that has been brought in by container from the UK, catalogued it all and stacked it neatly in a container which has only CC stuff. This is the sort of job I hate and am really bad at! My spare bedroom needed to be cleared for Lin, so all the training materials which have been stored there since we cleared the classroom a few weeks ago have been sorted and moved, and we have almost dealt with the contents of the Lake Malawi room at Mitsidi also. This has been a glorified cupboard for storing anything vaguely connected with the CC that we weren't sure what to do with, since before I arrived 11 months ago!

I have finished the first draft of annotating my share of the Malawian ECD curriculum and David is well on the way with his share too. Next step is for us each to read and comment upon the other's work, then adapt as necessary and print out a copy for each room in the CC. I am making steady progress too with the first run through of the practical assessment tasks for the third part of the student's Diploma. I have done about two thirds now. Of course there is still a lot of work to be done. Really we should prepare model answers and a proper marking scheme. I guess that now the CC opening is delayed until January we may actually have time to do this! The other major task for this week has been the preparation of a presentation to bring Vince up to speed on the developments re the CC while he has been in the UK for the past couple of months. This is Sue and Brian's baby really. My part has been to explain the plans for a second cohort of students, possibly starting next March. It would be great if this becomes a reality. If the vision for the CC as an example of excellent practice, showing the effect of a multi-agency approach on outcomes for the children of Chilomoni, is to be sustainable we shall have to make plans for training future staff members to the same standard as the first group.

This week has also seen the students receiving letters telling them the arrangements for when the Centre opens. All students have been given an opportunity to finish the course. For most it is a three-month paid work placement, but there is a group of 15 whose situation will be monitored closely and reviewed after 4 weeks. We have distributed the programme of short courses. Responses to this are varied but mostly positive. David, Sarah and I have put our heads together over the first one which is called 'Looking back and looking forward' and is mostly about giving the students a forum to air their views about the delay to the opening. We need to know what the important issues are for people so we can keep on top of potential problems. There will be lots of preparation needed for these courses so David and I will be kept pretty busy through the next three months despite the change of plan.

Sue and Brian are off back to the UK on Wednesday. They have worked extremely hard while they have been here and from the point of view of running the CC as a business they have put some good structures in place. I think Sarah has a tough job to do to follow this up, but she too appears to know what she is doing. I think we are experiencing some of the difficulties that come from using short term volunteers in positions of leadership. My gut feeling is that the CC needs continuity in terms of management and however good the skills of individual volunteers may be, bringing people out for 2 or 3 months is not really ideal, especially in management positions. However no one yet has come forward prepared to do the job for a year or so, so of course we must make do with what we have.