Malawian Women: Unexpected, Powerful Leaders

During my past four months in Malawi, I have developed a heart for the women here. The women that I have met have taught me so much and have challenged my motives and attitude towards life. It has also changed my view on leadership. I believe that despite their social status and their poverty, the village women I have met during my time here are both powerful and inspirational leaders.

This blog has not been written to prove a point or promote women’s rights; it’s merely my observations and my admiration of these ladies. 

The way that Malawian women have grasped the responsibility of leadership is both surprising and inspiring, and this is true throughout the country: from the political world to small village communities. Joyce Banda, currently Malawi’s president, is the first female president of the country and the second female president of Africa after Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Libya. Joyce Banda came to power on the 7^th of April, 2012 and she is described as “an educator and grassroots women’s rights activist” and was the founder of the Joyce Banda Foundation, National Association of Buisness Women (NABW), Young Women Leaders Network and the Hunger Project.

 

“I sat down in 1989 and I made up my mind at that point that I was going to spend the rest of my life assisting women and youth to gain social and political empowerment through business and education. I convinced myself economic empowerment of women was going to be key, especially in a country like this where most women didn’t go to school.”
Joyce Banda

Having visited many rural communities with AGREDS (Assemblies of God Relief and Development Services) in the Salima District, I’ve noticed that having a female village leader is not uncommon at all, in fact, I have met several women who are leaders over around ten villages which are known here as GHS’ (Group Village Headsman).

 

left: adult literacy teacher, right: GVH

In this blog, there are 5 different forms of leadership I want to focus on: Leadership in
1) The Home
2) The Field
3) Aspiration
4) A Man’s World
5) Giving

The Home
There is something very beautiful about the mother-child relationship here in Malawi, and surrounding African countries. Babies, and even toddlers, are wrapped in traditional “chiteji” materials around the mothers back. The child always has the comforting warmth and smell of its mother and the mother can feel the weight of her child resting its tiny body against her. Where ever the mother goes, whatever she does, the child is bobbing up and down on her back: she could be in the shop, doing housework or working in the field. When recently assisting villagers with sweeping around water points, a mother was bent over so far forward, sweeping away, that her child looked like he might slip out of the wrap. But, he was happy as ever and the mother confident that her boy was safe as long as he was with her. 

The relationship between women and children are very different out here with women passing babies from one to another like a swap shop. They do not fuss over their children, or coo over them as we do in Britain, and they freely give them independence. They set an example to their children by sitting silently and patiently for village meetings to start (etc), and I tell you the truth and only the truth: the babies never cry!

Another big difference is how comfortable the women are with breastfeeding in public. At every village meeting I attend there is a guarantee to see several mothers with one breast out of their top ready for whenever their baby wants to feed. At first this was strange, very strange, but at the same time, it’s lovely to see that the women use what has naturally been given to them without shame. I’m not suggesting women start doing this whilst walking the streets of Britain (this could cause some commotion), but I do see it as something that is very beautiful and unique to this culture.

Not only do these women embrace the role as mother with diligence, they also embrace the role of cook and cleaner of the home too. Malawi’s staple food is nsima and many rural communities cook using traditional methods: over an open fire, and this takes a long time. At a recent Fuel Efficient Stove training, two ladies migrated backwards and forwards from making the clay stoves to cooking nsima in a nearby shed so that everybody in the training would be fed by two o clock. For hours they were busy preparing the food.

Housework of course is another addition to the list. Around water points, women and young girls will be filling huge buckets with water and then, with a great deal of strength, lifting it onto their head to carry it back to their home to wash the dishes and the family’s clothes.

“She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.”
(Proverbs 31:15-17 – The Good Wife)

The Worker
In early May, our team of six helped out with harvesting maize. The first lady that we assisted was a 93 year old widow who was still tending her acre of land. I was so shocked at how a lady of her age could be so motivated, taking on so much responsibility without male support. What an inspirational woman!

Another story is of an 11 year old girl called Lonely Kabyela who farms with her family before she attends school. Lonely would often miss days of school or arrive late due to the workload. AGREDS have taught new a method of farming to village members which Lonely has applied to her work. Not only is Lonely attending school on time (due to time saving) but she is also teaching other students through assisting with the school garden. In this year’s harvest, Lonely expects two 50kg of maize from the plot. Let’s just remind ourselves, this girl is only 11 years old!

Despite juggling the household chores, the mother role and working long hours in the field, the women I have met are so full of joy. It amazes me! Whilst planting trees in early February the women would sing, clap and dance for every tree that was planted. They knew that the work they were doing was beneficial to the whole community, perhaps in protecting households from strong winds, or crops from soil erosion, and they rejoiced in this.

Aspiration
Many girls in rural communities are unable to attend school due to reasons such as excessive workload assisting parents with farming, early marriage or the school fees. Unfortunately, this means that many women are illiterate.

AGREDS have trained several teachers to teach grown women in ‘Adult Literacy’ classes. Upon visiting one class of five women, I asked the ladies what their hopes for the future were. Their answers were so encouraging, all of them certain that by the end of the training they would be literate. One lady said she will teach her children to read and write and another lady said she has dreams of reaching out in business with selling her farmed goods.

Griceria Mponda is one lady with a powerful story to tell after she joined a Village Savings and Loans (VSL) group in her community. Buying shares throughout last year meant that by the end of the year, Griceria had a huge share of MK 62,000 (around £89). In previous years she had only been able to buy 1 or 2 bags of fertiliser but having invested wisely, she was able to buy 6 bags of fertiliser. Her VSL group is still running this year and she has shared that her desire is to employ someone to build a brick house for the family of six and to also buy iron sheets for the roof. If she has money left over she also wants to buy a mattress for her and her husband.

A Man’s World
I started this blog by telling you a bit about President Dr Joyce Banda and how she made her way into the man’s world of politics. I have also mentioned how this new surge of female empowerment has been embraced by women on community level too. Several committees are formed in villages, whether that’s for afforestation purposes (tending newly planted tress), water safety (ensuring water points are kept clean) etc, and the male to female ratio is almost guaranteed 50:50.

The government have also come up with a new initiative for NGOs (Non-governmental organisations) to encourage more women and young people in governance positions. AGREDS are currently setting up a proposal to get involved with the project which is very exciting news.

On Easter Sunday the six of us attended an outdoor church celebration where the pastor preached on Jesus’ resurrection. A surprising, but pretty cool section of the sermon was when the pastor was emphasising that it was the women who brought the message of Christ’s resurrection and that the men were foolish and didn’t believe them.

“Then the women remembered what Jesus had said. So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it.”
Luke 24:8-11

The audience, both men and women, cheered and clapped enthusiastically at this and there was so much joy.

Giving
There are many ways that these beautiful Malawian women give. The women humble themselves and welcome people so gracefully. Upon visiting villagers, the women bring out chairs for us to sit on so that we don’t have to sit on the dusty ground as they do. If there are some spare seats, they will always give these seats over to the men (unless they have a high leadership role such as ‘Chairperson’).

After aiding the elderly with harvesting we were spoilt rotten with wonderful food that the village women had been cooking: roasted ground nuts, roasted pumpkin and warm banana cakes- they were delicious. We always feel guilty in taking because we go to these villages with the intention to assist them, not to be served ourselves. But, out of loving generosity and hospitality, they long to give. They even humble themselves to 

wash our hands.

a delicious lunch of nsima, rice and goat meat stew prepared for us
(not your standard ham buttie lunch but it was good!)

What have these women taught me?
I believe that many of us have a very distorted view of what a ‘leader’ looks like. To many, leaders are seen as strong, powerful, often scary people who dictate and manipulate people into their way of thinking. They seek peoples respect and feel they deserve it too.
However, these women have taught me that this is not what leadership is. The bible tells us

“the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the leader should be like the servant”
Luke 22:26

How strange it is to think that the leader should be like a servant! But I have seen this in these women. Their humility has touched my heart and reminded me that “your beauty should come from within .. and it is very precious to God” (1 Peter 3:4) . Jesus demonstrated His love for people through serving others: He was always welcoming strangers and sharing food with them, and like these women washed our hands, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples (John 13).

These women have taught me the importance of fellowship and the importance of diligence and joy in working.

“A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich”
Proverbs 10:4

These women’s poverty is materialistic, but their hard work and perseverance makes them rich. I will not forget these women; these village women who look so plain and helpless to the outside world, but who are so powerful in their actions.

I do not believe that powerful leadership is displayed through the ability to control people, I believe that powerful leadership is demonstrated when people look up to you and long to learn from an example you set. Powerful leadership should motivate us to change for the better and I strongly believe that these women have given me that wake-up call: to grow in my willingness to serve, my perseverance and joy at work, and to live in hope when the world says it’s a hopeless case.

Written by Nia Templeman

Three stories that have inspired us

Whilst working with AGREDS in Salima, Malawi, we have met so many people with great stories to share.
Jonny, Ben and Laurie had the privilege of meeting three villagers who have been impacted by the work of AGREDS and were willing to share their stories with them. We were very moved by what they had to say and so we have written up these Transformation Stories so that you can hear them too...

A Safer Way to Cook

Alice and Margret live in a rural village in Malawi called Mlongoti. Alice lives with a family of four and Margret, her mother, lives with a family of eight.

In 2012 the two women both cooked using mafuwas, a traditional cooking method using three bricks to create a stand with firewood underneath. Each morning they would get up at 4am to walk to the nearby hill where they would collect firewood to cook with. At this time in the morning it was still dark and was dangerous for the two women due to robbers and bandits, but they needed firewood to live, so they had no choice.

Once they had collected the firewood they would be able to boil water and cook nsima (traditional Malawian food, which could be described as very thick cornmeal porridge). This process often took very long, due to the inefficiency of the mafuwas. It was also dangerous, to Alice, Margret and the children, due to the open flame and the large amounts of smoke produced. On a recent visit, both women showed us singe marks in their chichendis (a traditional wrap-around skirt) from cooking at weddings and funerals, when they had to cook a lot.

In November 2012 AGREDS (Assemblies of God Relief and Development Services) introduced them to fuel efficient stoves. These stoves use less firewood, produce less smoke, cook faster and are safer than their traditional methods. They were also taught how to make the stoves, from collecting the clay all the way through to firing them, so that they can sell them to other villagers and companies to make some money from it.

Since then, Alice and Margret’s lives have been changed. They no longer have to get up at 4am in the morning to collect firewood, but can take one or two branches from surrounding trees. They no longer have to worry about the risks with children playing around the fire and burning themselves. And they don’t have to spend as much time cooking, which means that they can spend more time working out in their fields. The children are no longer needed to work days in the field and can continue with their education instead.

In the harvest of 2013 (November 2012 – April 2013) some of Alice and Margret’s maize crops were attached by aphids, which meant that they didn’t have enough food for their families for the whole year. However, they were able to sell some of the stoves they had made, to others in their village and to a company called MAEVE (the same company that AGREDS bring in to run the training). With the money raised they were able to purchase more maize, so that they had enough food for the whole year and didn’t go hungry.

In the months of April-May 2014, AGREDS have been running Fuel Efficient Stove training in six rural communities alongside MAEVE. A total of 92 committee members have been trained in the construction of these clay stoves and since the training, the members have been teaching other villagers how to build their own stoves. In one village, Phaka, the hope is that every household will have a fuel efficient stove, and this will help to tackle the climate-change-related problem of flooding that has caused destruction of crops.

Committee members in Phaka village are busy making their Fuel Efficient Stoves 

Thanks to AGREDS, Alice and Margret’s lives are now easier and safer, and they can be more self-sufficient and provide an income for their families. 

Written by Jonathan Pawson

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Learning new techniques increases maize yield

Brave Matikisoni is a husband and father of two from Mphandamkoko. He and his family farm maize to feed themselves, and tobacco to earn some money. In January 2013 he began to run out of maize to feed his family, which meant his family struggled to eat in the months of January-April, before the harvest in early May. However, this year he has been part of a farming club which meets together with AGREDS. 

Traditionally, farmers in Malawi make ridges between the rows of maize, but Brave learned from AGREDS that research has shown this is a waste of energy and time. He also learned that he can increase the amount of maize he produces by placing old maize stalks and dead long grass between the maize plants, which hold the rainwater in the field (instead of it evaporating) and prevent the weeds from seeing sunlight. AGREDS have taught Brave more improved techniques and also given him access to fertilisers and better maize seed.

Brave is also part of a Village Savings and Loans group in his area. VSL groups are typically about 20 people who meet weekly. They can buy 'shares' for a low price, and the money raised can be lent to group members who need capital to fund their enterprises. These loans are then paid back to the group a month later with interest (usually 30-50%). At the end of the year, after lots of buying of shares and loaning, the money is distributed proportionally according to how many shares each person has. For Brave, buying shares throughout the year helped him to save to buy more fertiliser, and taking out loans enabled him to hire labourers to help him harvest his crops.

Brave with him wife and bumper yield

Being part of the farming club and a VSL group helped Brave to have a far better harvest this year. When we met him, he told us that last year he filled one silo whereas this year he had filled that silo and had a lot more leftover. He therefore thinks that he can feed his family for the entire year and have some left over to sell. He's also continued to be a part of the VSL group this year which will help him to buy more fertiliser and maize seed for planting later this year.

  

Written by Ben Hampson

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Are you ever too old to learn new skills?

Fanny Yohane is 60 years old and is from Mlenga village. She was unable to attend school as a child but decided to enrol in one of the three adult literacy schools in her village in October 2013. She was very dedicated to her studies, attending four 2-hour-long lessons per week, and within 3 months was able to read and write. This skill has made her much more independent in her community, and she is able to travel on the bus on her own because she can now read the signs to see where the bus is going.

 

One of the biggest advantages she has found in being literate is being able to read the bible, and she studies the bible every day before bed. She has been able to lead bible studies and devotions within her church and from this has become a girl’s councillor and youth class teacher in her church, and has had the chance to preach to the whole congregation. She was able to take on these activities just 3 months into her 10 month adult literacy course.

This new found confidence she has in reading her bible and in her faith has led to her organising bible studies and worship sessions with her friends outside church. It has also had an impact on her husband. He was initially unhappy about Fanny joining the classes as he couldn’t see the value in it so late in life, but from observing the difference it has made in his wife this attitude has completely changed. He hasn’t been to church for a long time, but has been moved by his wife’s passion for the bible and bible studies she has done with him, and is considering going back to church.

“I cannot believe I have opened up a door for all these new responsibilities. People are now entrusting me with responsibilities, and I am happy with this.”

Written by Laurie Horner 

April: a month of clay hands, maize corn, bibles and birthday balloons

Hi! Hi! (a very Malawian greeting)

We are now into our second ‘quarter’ with AGREDS (Assemblies of God Relief and Development Services) and we are really excited about what’s to come during April, May and June. Here's an update of what we've been doing during April....

9^th – 11^th April: Quarterly meeting
During these 3 days we met up with the AGREDS board and other office members across Malawi in order to debrief last quarters projects: what’s been learnt, what’s been challenging, progress made etc, and then looking towards the future: what is the work plan?
The previous orientation we attended was on our 2^nd day in Malawi and I’ve got to say, we didn’t really understand what was going on.. at all! However, this orientation was very useful and interesting as we have a much better understanding of AGREDS’ projects and vision, and we were able to contribute with feedback, questions and suggestions.

Here’s an overview of some of the projects we’re going to be involved in:
•Follow up on… fuel efficient stoves, trees planted, adult literacy, eco-sanitation toilets & water points (this can involve practical assistance too such as building fences at water points, weeding, distribution of work books etc)
•Harvesting (which will also include building fire breaks for mulch protection and making manure(!!!))
•Office work e.g composing a brochure and document for prospective donors, writing short reports on field visits, updating the AGREDS website
•Climate change clubs – running sessions at 10 schools when they reopen in May after harvesting

14^th – 23^rd April:  Fuel Efficient Stove Training
In three rural villages  (Phaka, Mlenga and Chindungwa) there has been a four day training on the construction of fuel efficient stoves. It’s been so interesting to attend these days and see how these stoves are made. Two professional trainers per village demonstrated the process and the the committee members were very quick in learning and were able to get on it with making their own stoves.
In Phaka village, the aim is that every household will have a stove and when that is done they will be able to build more stoves to sell for money. Up to now, the villagers in Phaka have made over 50 stoves and committee members have taken ownership of the project by teaching other village members how to make the stoves.

Phaka's committee leader showing us how it's done!

Building these stoves means an increase in safety whilst cooking and also means cutting less trees down for burning. This in its turn have a very positive impact on the village as cutting down trees has caused disasters of flooding.

Birthdays
Big birthday rampage with Lois turning 22 on the 13^th April, Nia turned 19 on the 23^rd and Ben will celebrate his 20^th on May 5^th! Both girls celebrated their birthday morning with presents and a pancake breakfast! Lois was deafened by the blows of birthday horns and Nia was barricaded by birthday banners and balloons across her bedroom door!

I don't know about yoooooou, but I'm feeling TWENTYYY TWOOOOOOO

With Malawian tunes blaring (check out Skeffa Chimoto on youtube!) we travelled to Sunbird Hotel at Senga Bay for a day by the lake for Lois’ birthday where we had an incredible three course meal and swam in the pool (with a satisfied  ‘food baby’). We celebrated Nia’s birthday on bank holiday Monday 21^st because her birthday was mid-week, and so spent the day climbing rocks and chilling out by the lake. On the 23^rd Nia spent the whole day at Chindungwa village making fuel efficient stoves with Lois.

The start of Nia's 20th year with her hands caked in clay

The day was a lot of fun working alongside villagers and getting stuck in with clay caked hands! Afternoon tea and cake on both birthdays was a lovely bit of British tradition and a girly film to end the evening (Mean Girls- Lois, Bridget Jones’ Diary- Nia) was a must!

22^nd – 23^rd April: Harvesting
It’s harvesting time in Malawi now and as part of the Food Security project we have been assisting the elderly with harvesting. Huge stacks of maize crops are seen scattered around fields all across Salima and the process of harvesting involves removing the maize cob from the rest of the plant.

This widowed lady is 93 years old and by using the Farming the Gods Way methods
taught by AGREDS, she is able to continue farming, even in her old age

These huge piles of maize take ages to work through

The remains of the maize plant will be used for mulching and the individual corns on the maize cob will be handpicked into a bowl and grinded to separate the corn from their shells. After separating the corn from their shells they will be taken to a mill so that it can be ground further into maize flour for nsima (their main staple food).

Lois giving grinding a try - YOU GO GIRL!
It will take two hours to grind this corn to separate it from it's shell- it's possible to do this at the mill
but many villagers cannot afford to pay for this and so have to do it by hand

Helping out with the harvesting made us realise how demanding the work load is and it shocked us that these elderly ladies work for hours in the heat of the day. The villagers were so hospitable and grateful that AGREDS have been aiding them by providing fertilizer and they expressed how their harvest has been much more plentiful this year in comparison to last year which means that they will have enough food for the rest of the year. The villagers were so hospitable and gave us incredible tasting food like roasted ground nuts and roasted pumpkins mmmmmm!
A little exciting addition to this is three of the village children received a Samaritans Purse box that day too! Seeing the children open their boxes was lovely and made us appreciate how much we have at home and that making something as simple as an Operation Christmas Child box is a blessing and source of joy to children in third world countries such as Malawi.

The excited children showing us what they received in their boxes

Gideons Bibles
We have been very blessed to have been able to link up with Gideons and have received hundreds of Chichewa and English bibles for distribution. So far we have distributed to staff workers at our lodge and at 3 rural villages. At Village Plaza Lodge (where we’re staying) we hosted a 20 minute outdoor meeting with around 12 members of staff, shared the gospel message, explained how to use the bibles, led a prayer of salvation and we had the opportunity to pray with individuals too. It was a really blessed time and it’s really exciting for us to be building a stronger relationship with the staff here too.
On Friday 25^th April, we visited three villages where we did a similar introduction to the gospel message and read John 3:16 (classic!) and Romans 10:9. The members present were then asked to read a verse from 1 John 4 and were given a bible. Those who were illiterate complained that they wanted a bible too because their literate children could read it to them. It was great to see that these people has such a desire to own a bible and that they wanted to read it with their families. On that day 80 Chichewa bibles were distributed and we pray that these villagers will know the love of God through reading their bibles.

Village members started reading through their bibles as soon as they were given one 

Office work
When we’re not doing field work we’re busy with office work. Some of these office tasks include
•making two Food Security brochures: one in English for prospective donors and one in chichewa as a guide for farmers
•making a short ‘transformation story’ video on how fuel efficient stoves has changed the life of one villager called Alice
•finding solutions to the issue of termites destroying crops by researching biological prevention
•composing teaching packs for climate change club classes
•collecting data and putting them into dash boards
•finding out whether we can introduce ‘Health and Sanitation Clubs’ to Salima. We have ideas to introduce malaria prevention programmes and female hygiene to AGREDS’ project list. These could possibly include educating people on malaria, how to prevent it, distribution of nets etc, and we hope that AGREDS will be able to educate women on how to make their own sanitary towels. These projects are unlikely to be launched before we leave but we believe that they are very relevant projects and we’re really excited about the prospect of them starting up.

Some prayer points
•thank God that we've been able to distribute so many bibles already and pray that we’ll have many more opportunities
•thank God for the increase in people’s harvest and that AGREDS have done such a great job in distributing fertilizer and teaching villagers new methods of farming
•pray that we will be useful in our office work and that there will be progress in starting up the Health and Sanitation Clubs

We're all buzzing about all the stuff that's going on here and the things yet to come. We have some exciting blog posts coming up with what we call 'transformation stories' and we will keep you posted with everything that we get up to. 

Sending much love from the very hot Malawi,

David, Lois, Ben, Nia, Laurie and Jonny

(The six ‘sweatzungus’)

Azungus complete reports, take a break and are near to hitting the halfway point

Report writing = FINISHED!
Our final week of report writing was slightly hectic with many field visits, interviews, picture taking, formatting and proof reading. However, by 5pm Friday afternoon we all handed in our final draughts and were able to dance with sheer joy/sigh with exhaustion and relief.

HOLIDAYYYYY
The wonderful AGREDS staff agreed to give us a week’s holiday and so from Sat 29^th March – Sat 3^rd April the six of us have been chillaxing and relaxing by lake Malawi at two beautiful locations: Monkey Bay and Cape Maclear.

Staying at a rustic backpackers lodge in Monkey Bay was a very African experience including a few creepy crawlies, nightly bonfire on the beach and incredible stars. The little private bay was surrounded by huge bouldery rocks which brought out the Bear Grylls within and we spent hours exploring the rocks and soaking in the incredible 360 view.We could see the presidential house which was pretty impressive and swimming in the lake was an experience especially with the extensive jokes about bilharzia, hippos and crocs chilling in the reeds.

Monkey Bay providing endless rock climbing entertainment

Cape Maclear was much more touristy than the village of Monkey Bay, although Cape Maclear itself was a much smaller village. Our lodge, Thumbi View, had a brilliant location overlooking Thumbi Island and the South African owners were so lovely and made us an incredible chicken pie for dinner. Our craving for a bit of Western life was satisfied with good coffee, an African craft shop and Snickers bars!

On Tuesday 1^st we hired 3 two-man kayaks and rowed out to Thumbi Island, explored there and swam around the bay in our life jackets. On exploring, there was a little trouble with Lois and David’s kayak capsizing.. three times.

But there was no harm done and we had a really good morning.

David rocking the straw hat and life jacket combo

Wednesday we climbed about ‘The Warm Heart of Africa’ with Captain Simon and sailed over to Otters Point for some snorkelling.

Honey moon worthy or what??!

The location was that in a honey moon brochure and the fish were so colourful! We fed them bread out of our hands and later explored the edges of the rocks for a few hours.

Laurie the ultra cutie befriending the fish

Following this, Captain Si took us to see ‘fish eagles’. He whistled very loudly and the big eagle flew over into a nearby tree. He continued to whistle for his attention and threw a fish into the water a few meters infront of our boat. After a few moments consideration, the huge bird swooped down from the tree and gracefully glided down to claw the fish from the surface. The eagle returned to his tree and Captain Si would start whistling again and throw another fish into the water. Several times, the eagle swooped down for the fish: a second fish eagle joined in too, and every time was just as enchanting as the first: absolutely incredible creatures!

Being a bit of a poser

Reflection
The week has been a really good time of team bonding, out of the ordinary events (such as Lois getting stung by a scorpion!), top banter (the ‘bees knees’ is now the ‘Bens calves’) and plenty of relaxation which was greatly appreciated by all of us. This time has given us a lot of space to reflect on our past two months in Malawi: what we’ve learnt from our report writing and what we’ve learnt from the people we’ve met.

As a team exercise we’ve written down examples of some of the things that have stood out to us about the Malawian people, the way that they live and how they have been towards us…

ŸHumble
When meeting people and shaking their hand, they often place their left hand on their right elbow and bow down slightly as a sign of great respect
AGREDS staff never expect any kind of gratitude for their work

ŸPatient
Children are very disciplined and are content with sitting patiently and not expecting to be entertained

Students at the Climate Change Club listen attentively and join in the group activities (even when we're slightly unsure of what to do during the session!) 

Villagers never seem to be bored: they never groan or moan even when they’re sat on mats on the floor waiting for ages for a village meeting to start

ŸGenerous
On visiting villages we've often been thanked with roast maize to eat and  they even throw a few more maize into the car boot for us to take back with us to the office
Before and after eating and after using the bathroom the villagers wash our hands with water that they've fetched from the pump

ŸHospitable
We are treated like honoured guests when visiting a village: we’re given seats when all the community are sat on mats on the floor- it feels uncomfortable to accept this but this is way of showing hospitality and respect
Introductions are important here as they are very interested in who you are. They put emphasis on relationship before task
At Mchoka Lea Primary School, one of the teachers invited Lois and Jonny into her home whilst they were waiting for a lift back to the office. The teacher offered them fruit and cooked vegetables and was very happy to make the two of them comfortable in her home

ŸJoyful
When giving us maize, the villagers give willingly and joyfully with singing, cheering and dancing: it’s not a sacrifice, it’s a privilege to them
Each tree that was planted was celebrated with singing and dancing as they saw the hope these trees brought in tackling the effects of climate change
At AGREDS’ Food Security open day, the villagers wrote and performed a song thanking AGREDS for their hard work and intervention in the village

Villagers at the AGREDS open day expressing their gratitude for AGREDS' work

ŸUnited
Village communities are united in their support for their chiefs and have great respect for their leaders
The AGREDS staff support each other with work and personal life
Mothers look after each other’s children and older siblings carry their younger siblings on their backs
At an elderly persons funeral, the whole village will stop their daily activities to gather together to mourn and give thanks for that person’s life

ŸDetermined
Whilst visiting VSL (Village Savings & Loans) the members told us of their ambitious plans for the future
Members of the Adult Literacy group who had never been to school as a child due to fees, expressed how they will be literate by the end of the course and will be able to expand their business and teach their children how to read and write

The passionate ladies at adult literacy enjoying their outdoor lesson

Children at Climate Change Clubs plan on educating other students through drama productions and song
When trees are washed away by heavy rains and floods, community members gather together to plant more trees in order to battle the effects of climate change.

The people that we've been meeting have been teaching us so much and we’ve all been so blessed by their welcome, their acceptance and their enthusiasm for the work that AGREDS are doing. We are now going into the new quarter excited, expectant and ready to serve.

Had to end this with a SIIIIICK picture at Cape Maclear during sunset

 Will blog about our assignments for the next two months once we've been orientated. Until then, "stay blessed" / "remain blessed" (classic Malawian quote!)

Much love
The slightly more tanned azungus in Salima xxxxx

Toilets, birthday hats, road block giraffe & a bearded legend

Mwadsuka bwanji nonse! Hello everybody!

Sorry it’s been a while since the last blog post. I’ll TRY to condense stuff big time so that you’re not reading looooooads but there’s so much to say this’ll probably be our longest blogpost so far- I’ll make it worthwhile though! So here you go, here’s an overview of things that we’ve been doing this past two weeks…

Eco-Sanitation toilet 27/02/14 – Mtachuira
One of the two reports that Nia is writing about is about Eco-san toilet constructions in primary schools. Nia and Laurie did a 2km barefooted walk through a muddy maize field trail and waded through thigh-deep swampy pools of water to get to Mgando Primary School where four Eco-san toilets were mid construction.

Laurie soldiering through the swampy water

Brief intro to Eco-san: The units are built around 1m above ground level so that they don’t sink and collapse in the sandy ground, and waste can be stored underneath where it will decompose for 9 months and then be used as fertilizer by the farmers. The units will have a ramp and fitted support bars to make it accessible to disabled children, and each cubicle will have a concrete basin and plastic seat. The toilets are really beneficial in that human waste is stored in a safe, hygienic way and the villagers are learning to be self-sufficient as they have to supply the building materials.
It poured down with rain whilst we were there and so the 2km walk back was horrifically slippery- so many near death experiences! But, the day was really informative and interesting and it was so good to see how beneficial these toilets will be for Mgando School.

construction work in Mgando school

Jonny’s birthday – 01/03/14
Yay! Birthday boy Jonny’s turned 19! Balloons, banners, presents and a full english greeted him in the morning and then we all left for Senga Bay for a day at the pool and lake. We all had a lovely day chillaxing and relaxing and messing around in the pool with ball games. Fun, fun times J

party time at breakfast

Kuti Wildlife Reserve – 03/03/14
Bank holiday Monday in Malawi = day off at a Wildlife Reserve yaaaaay! The drive to Kuti was beautifully green if a little bumpy and being greeted by a huge, overly friendly ostrich was an experience and a half.

We hired three bikes between the 6 of us – the other 3 walked- we didn’t think two per bike was the safest of ideas, and were free to wonder around the reserve. Nobody else was around and we’d been warned against some of the routes as cars had previously had to be dug out of the mud! First moment of excitement was spotting 8 zebras bathing in a pool of water which was pretty cool. We continued on our journey and what greeted us by blocking our cycle path was nothing less than a 5m GIRAFFE! Aaaaa! So exciting!!

Giraffe road block!

After a top, top day walking the beautiful grounds, spotting animals such as gazelles and seeing David and the ostrich having a staring competition, we went to the sun set deck to, funnily enough, watch the sun set! The view from the wooden deck was incredible with huge, dark mountains in the background and a reedy lake reflecting the colourful, cloud patched sky. We couldn’t resist having a classic gap yah back shot from the balcony! With a cold fizzy drink and legs dangling over the edge, we all sat and watched as the sun got nearer and nearer to the tops of the mountain and the sky was a brilliant mixture of pink, deep purple and orange. We were all pretty blown away at Gods amazing creation- Fair play, He’s done a pretty good job!

Awareness Campaigns – 28/02/14 à
For three weeks, AGREDS have been running awareness campaigns on specific projects e.g Fuel Efficient Stoves and Water Quality Testing. Not all of us have attended these campaigns but from hearing what the others have said, it usually starts off with dancing, games, a comedy sketch and then a talk by an AGREDS staff and/or village chief. The performances draw a big audience and villagers are always very engaged in what’s going on. This seems to be a very good, fun way of promoting very relevant and important issues

Climate Change Clubs – 05/03/14 à
Last week we started going into primary schools to introduce ourselves, ask questions, play games and sing songs – they love head shoulders knees and toes, especially when we speed it up a lot- they’re in fits of laughter! From this week onwards we will all be involved in running sessions and teaching club members on climate change issues. AGREDS are keen for us to introduce different learning methods so this could involve sketches, art, writing poems etc so this is really exciting!

Laurie leading a hang man (changed to 'build a house') game

introductions to a crowd of around 500 students

David’s Grandparents –
grandma: 29/12/33 à 28/02/14, grandpa 10/08/30 à 11/03/14
These past two weeks have been very difficult for David as he has lost both his grandparents within the space of eleven days. AGREDS have been very sensitive to the situation and gave us a few days off work so that we as a team could spend quality time together and support David through this tough time. On one of our days off, this past Thursday, we went to Safari Beach Lodge, Senga Bay, and relaxed by the pool and lake. The location was beautiful and there were monkeys everywhere. We did have an incident where two or three big cheeky monkeys stole the bag of bananas we foolish left on our table whilst we were in the pool. Although this was incredibly amusing, we had to eat lunch with a collection of rocks on the table to throw at them as we were paranoid they’d steal our dins. David has been very strong and brave in his situation and is very grateful for the support he’s receives- please continue to lift him up in prayer, thank you.

Meeting Chris – 12/03/14
On Wednesday we were really blessed to have Chris Harding, a fellow mazungu from Southampton staying at Village Plaza Lodge. For the past 7 months, since August 2013, Chris has been fundraising for Kick 4 Life and cycling all the way from England to South Africa travelling east across Europe and crossing over to Egypt and travelling south through countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. We all went for a walk together and shared dinner outside and talked for hours and listening to his incredible stories. One story was when he had to spend his Christmas week in no mans land between the Ethiopian and Kenyan border as there had been an ambush with gunfire which meant it was too dangerous to continue his journey. He stayed with Kenyan police who were very hospitable and inspirational people and during that week they all ate a whole goat - brains, hooves, the lot! His story of growing in faith was incredible and he shared stories of how in desperate, near death situations he fell on his knees in prayer to God and his situation was somehow flipped over and he walked away unharmed knowing that God had protected him. This was so encouraging and we felt that it was very much God planned that we were able to meet Chris and bless him before he continued his journey to South Africa. You can follow Chris’ blog on: http://aridefortheirlives.blogspot.co.uk/ – his stories are incredible and well worth checking out (he’s also written some very lovely things about meeting the 6 of us!). We have much love for you Chris!

Us with the bearded legend

Lilongwe 01/03/14 à 02/03/14
Catching a mini bus from Salima to Lilongwe is an experience and a half! Patience in Malawi is vital, without it you’d be tearing your hair out. You get onto a mini bus and sit there sticky and hot waiting for an hour for it to fill up and leave. The mini bus gets filled up as much as possible- 5 people sat on a 3 person row and what’s even better than being sandwiched between strangers is having the bus filled with the delightful smell of fish! In order to try and fill the mini bus the driver drives the bus in a miniature circle whilst his friend dangles out of the door shouting “1,2 Lilongwe! 1,2! 1,2 Lilongwe!” We like to call this stage ‘strolling and paroling’ or ‘holler doller’. It is very, very pointless.
On Saturday we visited Lois’ family friend, May Machemba, who is a vicar in Likuni and he was very hospitable and we were well fed. Laurie had the head of a cooked chicken on her plate- beak and all included- she didn’t however fancy eating it!
Lilongwe is very different to Salima and nowhere as pretty, infact it’s a very ugly city with piles of rubbish everywhere and areas of very pungent, yucky smells. However, it’s very interesting and the buzz of the city makes it a really enjoyable experience. The streets have people sat on the edges with huge piles of clothes or plastic shoes or very offwhite underwear for sale and markets are full of fruit, vegetables and even cooked crickets!!
On Sunday we went to the craft market where we were swarmed by sellers enticing us to their stand: “Sister, sister! You come and see my paintings”, “It’s free to look, free to touch.” Surprisingly, haggling is quite enjoyable and although the sellers can be quite pushy, they’re polite and friendly, wanting to shake your hand and find out where you’re from. We were able to buy some really nice souvenirs and we’ll definitely be returning next month.

This week
This week we will be more involved in teaching at school climate change clubs and will be continuing with our report writing which need to be handed in for printing by the end of the month. The reports are going well so far and writing them has made us more appreciative of the work that AGREDS are doing and the impact it’s already made in local communities.

Thank you for your continuous support and love.

The Malawi famalam x