Going deep with thoughts and feelings

HELLO! 

It’s now just over 3 weeks since we first arrived in Malawi which is pretty crazy! Time flies! We feel well settled in, our Chichewa’s starting to improve and we have met so many wonderful people.

This week we’ve all been involved in visiting villages and supporting them in their afforestation project - we’ve planted a lot of trees! The villagers found it pretty funny that we were digging in the soil with our bare hands as they were and after trekking through the dense maize field our face, neck and arms had a nice grimey layer of grass and pollen on them! Poor Jonny’s been a bit of a victim this week as his skin flared up with a reaction to the maize pollen and he’s had to walk through deep mud puddles in his sandals! (the second one I found rather amusing!)

David being pro planter

Lois, Jonny, Nia & Ben cutting grass and weeding maize fields with farmers

As a team we’ve spent every evening doing “devotions” where we’ve been able to reflect on the day’s activity, share thought and feelings and look at the bible. In our devotion time the other night we discussed some questions as a team and so I thought I would share these with you..

What have been the most challenging things so far?
Adapting to Malawian time has been quite difficult as we’re so task focused in Britain and there’s such an emphasis on time. Here, it’s very normal to be picked up an hour after the planned time and they’re really casual about it.
Although we’ve had a lesson or two on Chichewa, trying to interact with the communities with limited vocabulary and understanding of the language is a bit of a problem.
Coming face to face with extreme poverty has been really tough, especially seeing children with swollen bellies in rags.

What are you enjoying and what have you learnt?
The Malawian thunder and lightning storms we’ve experienced are both awesome and terrifying, there was a huge, impressive thunderstorm and we were all like ‘woooah!’.
Life is lived almost entirely outdoors and communally here and we’ve felt so welcomed by the community members.
We’ve also learnt a lot about the genuine concern that Malawians have for the environment and we’re so encouraged by the way that they’ve taken ownership of these Climate Change projects and the joy and pride they feel. The farmers celebrate every tree that’s planted and it’s been such a blessing to be involved. The trees serve in a different way in the communities’ e.g protection from floods or strong winds, and to prevent soil erosion which destroys maize fields. Before coming here we didn’t realise how affected third world countries are by the effects of climate change and this has been quite hard hitting.
The villagers have made it clear that they’re really grateful for AGREDS work in their community. We’ve seen that people aren’t relying on relief and handouts- the work here is sustainable and brings a lot of hope to these communities.

Soil erosion has been a big issue since 2001 in the village of Magumbwa

What have you enjoyed about being with the team? Have there been any challenges you’ve come across?

We’re really blessed to be a team of a variety of people with different gifts and personalities but there has been a good sense of consensus on decisions. We’ve been able to be very honest and open with eachother and this has been a real blessing as we’ve been able to discuss things we’re struggling with and have been able to get to know eachother quickly. We’re always having banter with eachother but we are really big on DMCs too. (DMC = Deep Meaningful Chat, and Ben is a huge fan of these!) This has added a lot of depth to our relationships and we all love a good worship sesh and our nightly team bible devotiony time.

Our weekend off at Senga Bay

What are you looking forwards to most?
We’re looking forwards to being able to talk to people in Chichewa so we’re going to need to be super swotty and storm our vocab list! We’re also really excited to building our relationships with the local communities and the people we meet along the way. We’re hoping to make more school visits and hopefully local hospitals too.

Students tree planting at Linthipe Primary School

As a team, we thought it would be a good idea to come up with a vision statement (it was mainly Ben’s idea- the DMC man thinks deeply once again!). It’s taken us three weeks to come up with it but here it is:

Love Humbly
Bring Hope &
Be Changed
for God’s Glory

We all feel really blessed by your support and prayers so a big thank you from us all!

We’ve written up a short Team Prayer Request/Thanks list and we would really appreciate your support in prayer for these things:

●Health
●Learning to be patient and flexible with time
●Learning Chichewa and improving communication with the villagers so that we can build strong relationships with these people
●Thanks to God that he’s blessed our team relationship and that it will continue to be positive
●Thanks for AGREDS – the work that they’re doing and their hospitality

Transform Team meets John -AGREDS director, and Vincent -Malawi's Tearfund rep

 Sending you much love

Team Malawi x

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Things that make us very happy

●For the past two weeks Ben has been using the ladies toilets in the office! How inappropriate!!! Our driver Chimbewa had to discretely break it to him…
●Every time we see a white person we get very excited and if we ever speak with this other ‘azungu’, men on bikes swarm us like vultures in the hope that we need a ride somewhere.
●David has been receiving texts and phone calls from this lady called Vanessa who was at the HIV AIDS course with us – she copied down his number without him knowing (hilarious!). We told Pearson, our AGREDS contact (and brother from another mother) and he was like “eeey! HIGH FIVE!!”
●A monkey jumped onto our car roof and called his friends over to gather in the trees. They had their eye on our peanut butter sandwiches!
●Lovely day of relaxing and frizbee-pool-diving on Saturday at the gorgeous Senga Bay (although we did burn a bit.. David is looking particularly lobster like and we decided that Ben looks like a kidney bean)
●Pearson has latched onto our excessive use of “good shout” – he gave “big shout” a try but Lois was having none of it
●Pearon’s famous phrases:
“Are you sure?! “ (are you absolutely crazy???)
“Sure” (of course!)
“I think so” (=errm, yes!!)
“Maybe.. I don’t think so” (= a definite no)
●Fashion Pantafruit (Jonny’s alternative name for Fanta Passion fruit)
●Turning Ben into a massive hipster (scarf bandanas, multiple shades- the lot!)
●Team bonding - this can include deep chats, highly competitive card games or spraying ants with Doom spray as they try to get into the crisps packet at lunch time

Over and out

Team Malawi x

Getting involved with the projects

We’ve started getting more involved in our projects which is exciting for us so I’ll give a little debrief of what’s been going on these past few days:

Monday (Ben, David & Laurie) [written by Ben]

We went south of Salima, past some beautiful mountains and along a bumpy track, to a village which has been working with AGREDs since June 2012. After almost getting stuck in a muddy rut, we arrived at the village of Nyalira. The first thing we noticed was that the maize here was a lot taller than everywhere else, and densely packed. We were warmly greeted by the local farmers at their community meeting shack. About 40 farmers (a good mix of men and women) were at the club meeting, and they were very happy to answer our questions.

I asked them about the ‘Inputs Procurement’ project, which is where farmers are asked to contribute towards the costs of fertiliser and maize, and AGREDs help. Last year, most farmers contributed 20% of the cost of a bag of fertiliser and received 2 bags. This year most farmers paid for one bag of fertiliser and were given a second one. Carrying on this trend, farmers should soon not need any such assistance in the future.

Laurie, Ben, David and the farmers Nyalira

David asked the club about the ‘Goats Procurement’ project. The club owns three goats, but aims to have six more soon. One of the goats is pregnant and the first kid will be given to the family that looks after the goats and the rest will also be owned by the club. The manure from the club goats is given to the neediest in the village and the goats are not sold but kept so they can breed and grow in number.

Tuesday (Lois, Jonny & Nia)
The three of us went to a rural village called Chindungwa to speak with local farmers about three projects: Rehabilitation of Water Points (Jonny),  Water Safety Plan (Lois) and Tree Nursery Establishment (Nia). The surroundings were very different to that in Salima town, with houses made of mud bricks and straw roofs, and maize fields were either side of the dirt track (the car wasn’t enjoying the bumpy, pot holed route). We individually asked the community committee questions about the projects that AGREDS have started up in the village: the aim of the project, the benefits, techniques, training provided etc.

In the Tree Nursery Establishment project, AGREDS have trained community members on sowing seeds and how to maintain them and this has meant that they’ve been able to sow 9,000 seeds. The feedback was so positive and the community said that they were very grateful for the training they received from AGREDS.

The village, with AGREDS’ guidance, have set up a Water Point Committee that’s responsible for fixing and maintaining their water point. The village has also set up a maintenance fund so that they can all purchase equipment to fix the water pump if it ever breaks. This has improved self-sufficiency within the community.

Rehabilitation of Water Pumps

Lois thinks that it’s amazing how AGREDS has empowered the village committee to take on the responsibility of maintaining the safety of their water supply through providing training and support.

The community members were really welcoming and as we were leaving the ladies followed us to the car and started singing, dancing and clapping- so cool! (although we hope it wasn’t because they couldn’t wait to get rid of us and they were celebrating our departure!!)

Spot the azungus!

Wednesday (Lois, Laurie, Nia & David)
We all attended a HIV Youth Leaders Training Course in the capital, Lilongwe. Around 20 youth leaders were on a 3 day course learning about what the virus is, its symptoms, prevention etc, and it was really interesting. We were super swotty with our notebooks and I’m sure I wrote about 6 pages of notes!

Outside the HIV training course venue in Lilongwe

Office Work
Being out of school/uni for a few months I don’t think any of us feel prepared for report writing but this is a part of what we’ll be doing during our 5 months. However, after a good debriefing on projects and visiting the villages we’ll be working with, report writing doesn’t sound too bad at all! These reports will then hopefully get published so that AGREDS can receive funding for these projects to continue running. Pressure is on ey!? Jokes, it’s good to know that we’re doing something that’s really useful and valued to AGREDS.

A hard days work at the office!

GamesOften when we get back to our lodge from our days’ work we have a group of children waiting outside the gate waving at us and these past few afternoons, we’ve taken a football or frizbee over and played games with them. The small original group of about 7 children has now morphed into about 40 children and women, and our most recent game of netball was really enthusiastic and exhausting and Ben threw the ball smack into Lois’ face and her lip went all puffy- Ben sure knows how to improve their team leader’s relationship!

Just a nice little picture of the boys in their Sunday best

The highlights of this weekThere are some excellent sign posts that we've spotted around Salima town. Here are some of our favourites...

‘God is with us motors’
‘The only place in Africa you can have delicious food’
‘God is gracious fashion wear’
‘Let God be God shop’

It’s become a bit of a team hobby to be on the lookout for brilliant cheesy God related signs and shop names!

Another funny thing this week is Lois and Laurie have been locked in their room because their door knobs faulty! I’ve had a few texts and yells from them asking me to set them free. However, this one time all six of us were locked in the room together with no one to let us out!! It was a bit of a ‘aaaaa this is really funny but what are we gonna do???’ kind of moment. Thankfully, Ben has the landlady’s number so he texted her to come and save us from our distress. Huzzah!

Much love, Team Malawi xxx

We're here!!

Aaaa we’re actually here!! MENTAL! We’re on day 5 but it’s only just starting to sink in that this is home for the next 5 months!

How was the journey?
Travelling from Heathrow to Lilongwe was a success although we did have a few minor problems, for example, one of David’s suit cases went missing! However, Laurie was very kind in giving David a spare toothbrush so all previous grievances were forgotten. On Tuesday he was able to retrieve it from the airport which is good news: Malawi-missing-suitcase-challenge complete!

What is Malawi like?
As we were nearing Lilongwe we were all surprised at how lush Malawi is. The land is full of greenery, with brown veins of dried up rivers and small tinned or straw roofed houses.

For the next 5 months we are based in Salima which is just by the edge of Lake Malawi. The drive from Lilongwe to Salima took about an hour and a half and it was a real eye opener. Beautifully dressed women in colourful wrap skirts were carrying allsorts on their heads: baskets, a pile of logs, a suitcase! Men in short sleeved shirts, rolled up trousers and sandals rode one gear bikes on the road (there aren’t pavements), often carrying a second person on the back (or third if a little baby was tied to its mothers back!). We were riding in a crammed, narrow minibus and the driver would honk to let the bikers know that he was about to overtake. I don’t think I would’ve passed my driving test if I overtook cyclists so closely and quickly. It’s actually very nice to escape the health and safety craze of Britain. Also, there are often herds of cattle and small goats at the edge of the road, sometimes very young children herding, and the one lorry that drove past us had two men sitting on the roof of it!

Salima, our new home

 How about accommodation?

The lodge where we’re staying at is really pleasant: we have air con in our rooms, a shower and a toilet (with multi coloured speckled loo roll!) and despite having a few power cuts we all feel grateful to have good accommodation. A few of us have had a few *cough* interesting experiences, for example I (Nia) hate spiders, and this beast of a spider with super long legs was hiding by my suitcase, and after a frightened squeal I was going to get one of the boys to heroically save me, but I decided to be an independent pro-Africa survivor and so I grabbed by converse and managed to fling it and it landed perfectly on top of the spider and (sorry animal lovers) squished it! Since then I have attacked another spider with my flip flop and wellies. Malawi-spider-challenge complete! Ben also woke up on Tuesday morning to about 100 ants by his bed climbing his mosquito net whilst devouring a moth. Nice.

What’s going to be happening for the next five months?
Monday and Tuesday we met all the charity, AGREDS, staff and had a two-day introduction to the work that we’ll be doing over the next coming months. I’ll give you a brief overview:
● Improved Food Security and Livelihood (e.g building fuel efficient stoves)
● HIV AIDS Prevention (e.g training youth leaders)
● Water and Climate Justice Project (e.g running climate change in 10 primary/secondary schools and Eco-san toilet construction)

We’re all buzzing about these projects and as individuals we already see which areas of the projects we feel we could contribute to most. We are currently discussing who would like to take up different tasks so that we can write reports as the projects go along in order to publicise the work that AGREDS do and to monitor the difference their work has made in local communities.

Us with the AGREDS team during orientation meeting

Cool fact:- At the back of the AGREDS office there is a Joke Shed!! This is where they go out, hang out and have a laugh- we're well impressed! 

What’s the weather like?
It is hot and humid here! At the end of each day we can’t wait to shower and whack on a pair of flippy floppies. However, yesterday disaster struck- no running water! Plus, it was extra humid yesterday and we were pretty devoed that we couldn’t wash off our layers upon layers of sticky sweat, suncream, DEET and grime- yum.

Lois and Nia experiencing their first ever bucket shower

It can also POUR down with rain too. This morning I woke up at 6am to the loudest thunderstorm I’ve ever heard, the ‘bang’ bit sounded like a hippo belly-flopping on my roof!!

How’s team bonding going?
Team bonding’s been really good so far and we’re loving a bit of banter and competitive card games. Last night we had a good team devotion sesh where we wrote every team members name on separate sticky pads and wrote one positive quality that was outstanding for that person. This was a really good exercise and it was a bit ‘gnawwwwh’ moment when we received the paper with our name on it and read what the team had written. We’re all pretty impressed that Malawian banter is really similar to British banter: loving that bit of cheekiness and sarcasm! We’re all pretty obsessed with calling this trip our Gapyah and we keep having deep conversations about politics, theology and other super nerdy subjects. Good hipsta-geek combo right there. We’ve also started learning Chichewa too which is a pretty cool language!

Lois, Laurie and Nia, Lake Malawi, Senga Bay

What are the team’s thoughts at the moment?
Our favourite thing so far/our moment of joy:
“Meeting new people”, “Nsima & Goat meal”, “Banter on the bus”, “Hanging out with AGREDS team”, “Slipping on a pair of flippy floppies after a day of intense perspiration”.

Things we are most excited about:
“Experiencing a new culture”, “Getting involved in schools”, “Going on safari”, “Becoming more intimate with God” and “Interacting with locals”.

Our expectations for this trip:
“Many challenges, like being so close to poverty, but also many blessings, serving people and seeing hope in local communities”, “ Building up a close relationship with the AGREDS staff”, “Becoming familiar with the culture of Malawi and after time, feeling a part of it”, “Being able to go into town and buying produce from the market using the language, Chichewa”.

Although the contrast with British life is hard hitting and a bit surreal, we’re all really excited about the time that we have ahead of us. We can wait to get stuck in with these projects, settling into the community, more ‘quality team bonding’ time and growing closer to God.

Sending much love to you all at home,

Team Malawi

The ‘Azungu’s (white people)

xxx