Women (Illegally) Jailed for Witchcraft in Malawi

While in Malawi, I wrote of how disheartened I was by the abuse of certain women and children that arose from accusations of witchcraft. There was so much to love in Malawi, and such superstition (towards ‘witches’, gays, atheists, albinos…) and the fear and abuse it caused, was and is such a blemish on a beautiful country.

Accusing someone of witchcraft in Malawi is illegal, and there is no such offence as ‘practising witchcraft’. Nonetheless, it is still more often the accused than the accuser who is imprissoned, which creates a sorry state for Malawian society, where people live with more fear, and quite literal ‘witch hunts’ take place between neighbours.

Below is the story of one women who was improsoned for witchcraft for four years, and released this Wednesday (4th May 2011). It’s written by the President of the Association for Secular Humanists in Malawi, an organisation that campaigns against this sort of damaging prejudice and illegality, whether against ‘witches’, homosexuals or atheists,a nd supports victims of it. This woman’s story offers some greater undrestanding of how such improsonments and abuse can come to happen in Malawi and other states. Have a read!

Fiades, mother of 8, was imprisoned for 4 years on false and illegal accusations of witchcraft.

THE WITCHCRAFT STORY OF MRS FIADES FELIX- THE LONGEST SERVING PRISONER ON WITCHCRAFT IN MALAWI

Case no 68 of 2007-Senior Grade Magistrate Court- Nkhotakota District.

Fiades Felix (55 years old) was sentenced to 6 years (72 months) imprisonment with hard labor from 5 May 2007 for practicing witchcraft. Three other people who were charged with her on the same offence were Asitaliya ( 70) and her husband Kalimake ( 75) and Ms Diamond ( 70). Malawian law does not have a provision for a case to prosecute anyone for practicing witchcraft, and indeed, it is rather illegal to accuse a person of witchcraft. However, these laws are too often not respected.

Fiades Felix was given a plot to grown rice by a certain chief in their area, Nkhotakota District. This plot had previously been given to a different woman, but she had failed to cultivate it for about two years. The move to give the plot to Fiades Felix did not go down well with this former owner. She bore a grudge against Fiades and wished to bring about her downfall. Soon after, her son spat some blood. The reasons for such occurences are generally poorly understood, so the blood-spitting was advertsied as evidence that Fiades and her friends had been teaching her child witchcraft. The accusations worked. Fiades Felix and three old colleagues were accused of being witches. The hospital later revealed that the blood was a result of the child not cleaning his mouth frequently.

Because the four were accused by the child of practicing witchcraft, the child should have been prosecuted in line with Section 4 of the Witchcraft Act, which specifies that it is the Accuser who has committed an offence by accusing others of practicing witchcraft.

The other three people who were named as witches were Asitaliya and her husband Kalimake and Diamond. The case of witchcraft accusations against the four was taken to the chief on 30^th April, 2007, where all four were accused of being witches. On the same day, they were whisked to the police at Benga in Nkhotakota district. The four were interviewed separately and denied the charge to both the chief and police. Their Accusers were not present to testify against them. They were then taken to Nkhotakota prison for remand where they stayed in prison for 4 days.

They were then taken to court for pleading on 5/5/2007. During pleading, their Accusers were again not present. By now, when the charge was read to them, they simply agreed; they felt that their fate was sealed ,considering the manner in which their case was being mishandled. The magistrate sentenced them all to 6 years imprisonment. According to prison records, Fiades is due for release on 4 May 2011; the two year reduction is as a result of prison remission.

Malawi’s Secular Humanists have since also learned that the lady who put Fiades in trouble was a “woman friend” to a policeman at Benga Police. She has since been re-allocated to Dowa District. The son who accused Fiades of witchcraft has  sadly passed away.

Fiades and her colleagues were sent to Maula Prison in Lilongwe to serve their sentences. While at Maula, one of them, Mr. Kalimake passed away. Around December 2009, the other two colleagues were released due to old age. Mrs. Fiades Felix was transferred to complete her sentence at Kasungu prison, where she is now.

Fiades has eight children. She is married. Since her imprisonment, her husband has never visited her. He has another wife. All her children stay in Lilongwe, where her original home is. She went to Nkhotakota with her husband to re-locate themselves. They settled in Mtachi Village, T/A Mwazama.

When we visited her, she was fine and attributed her well bring to having accepting her fate. We managed to buy her a few groceries such as soap, sugar and body lotion and we gave her a small amount of pocket money. She is looking forward to being released. She advised us that she will be in Lilongwe and will contact us then.

I have since managed to meet her son, a Mr. Nyanjayamoto in Lilongwe. He tells us of his unsuccessful attempts to appeal the case to the high court; in the process being swindled by court clerks. He looks forward to the release of their mother. In the meantime, he has promised to see their mother more often at Kasungu prison. (Contact phone at Kasungu Prison: Chidothi Prison Guard- 0995912101)

Fiades served her sentence and she was released on 4 May, 2011. She spent a good full 4 years in prison for witchcraft. Another sad chapter for our women in Malawi. She appealed for an interview with Zodiak and she was on radio at 12 to 3 pm on 5 May 2011. Mr Thindwa was informed of her release and took her to Zodiak. WELCOME BACK FIADES!

Compiled by George Thindwa; Executive Director, Association for Secular Humanism. P.O.Box 2340, Lilongwe, Malawi. Phone number + 265 (0) 8888 53150. Email: secualrmalawi@ymail.com or georgethindwa@yahoo.com

Editted a bit by me!

My visit to Satemwa Fairtrade tea plantation

So, as it’s Fairtrade fortnight, and I’ve just realised I never wrote about my visit to Satemwa, a Fairtrade tea plantation in Southern Malawi, one of the highlights of my Global XChange, I thought I’d better put things right! Below are my reflections on Fairtrade, from my experiences of Satemwa:

Visiting Satemwa really persuaded me, finally, that Fairtrade is a wonderful, beautiful thing! A lot of tea production goes on in Malawi- plantations cover much of the countryside- and it was clear that much of what sits on our supermarket shelves comes from places like Malawi. We rely so much on developing world countries and their production.

But despite all the benefit we gleam from Malawi’s fertile land and hard workers, its population still suffer extreme poverty. Most children are visibly malnourished and many die while young (the family I lived with had lost seven children, although that was exceptional). Children must pay to attend secondary school. Unemployment is the norm. Average earnings are $900 per year (that’s adjusted for the greater purchasing power of money in Malawi, so really is very low). And most people live in rural villages, rarely traveling far beyond them and without the developed-world conveniences of washing machines, running water, electricity, a reliable transport system, supermarkets (Alright, less important! But do think about how convenient it is for us to shop and buy!) and sufficient access to healthcare and education. Going to university in Malawi is rarer than going to Oxbridge in the UK. Young people’s prospects are not promising.

The poverty of Malawi, despite the substantial role it plays in our own lifestyles and economy, made me realise that our treatment of the Malawians is quite simply exploitation of the powerless by the powerful. We run on Malawian oil (tea- we know it’s true!!!), but in the current system, that somehow doesn’t necessitate that we pay Malawians much for the ‘oil’. So we don’t. And they suffer poverty. And that’s that.

That’s not justice. That’s outright exploitation. When I was in Malawi, it made me really sad and angry. Now again, it actually makes me feel slightly sick to be reminded of this position we are in, and how it perpetuates. That’s why visiting Satemwa, the Fairtrade tea plantation, was so thoroughly encouraging, positive and motivating. It demonstrated something like a solution.

The community that supplies the labour for Satemwa had a decent standard of living. They weren’t rich, but they had the social infrastructure needed for decent qualities of life. The most well-known feature of Fairtrade products is that workers are guaranteed a “fair” wage. At Satemwa, the Fairtrade buyers didn’t actually pay the workers any more than other buyers were offering, as the market wages were considered above the “fair” threshold (don’t worry capitalists- they still had to work very hard for very little!).

But Satemwa workers benefited hugely from the second feature of Fairtrade- the Fairtrade Premium. As is always the case with Fairtrade, for every $X spent on the product (e.g. tea leaves), a fraction Y is spent on community development. Fairtrade helps workers organise into a union responsible for allocating this money. Workers elect leaders from amongst them, who are then trained so that they can represent workers effectively and strategise as to the best way to spend money. These elected workers come up with and research proposals for how to spend the money, the best of which are then put to the entire body of workers to vote on. This whole process is hugely empowering for the workers, who usually aren’t organised before Fairtrade comes along.

But more fundamentally, there’s a huge amount of money at stake. At Satemwa, the workers used the Fairtrade Premium to build bridges that cut their journies to work by up to 3 hours. They built and stocked health centres, schools and creches for the whole community. They’d set up adult literacy classes to empower those no longer in state education. They bought every single worker a device that generates solar-power, so that every single household had renewable, free, safe electricity (This is unbelievably rare for Malawi, where most people have no electricity at all. People use candles or oil lamps for lighting, which produce harmful fumes and cause fires. There’s no effective fire service, of course. Hardly any Malawians have electrical appliances, except mobile phones, because mains electricity is either far too expensive or non-existent in rural communities. They also built bore holes (water pumps) for people who previously relied on unsafe water. And they were looking forward to even more exciting developments that evade me right now. Basically, the Fairtrade premium allowed them to develop their communities’ infrastructure so that despite their relative personal poverty, workers and their community had at least a far better portion of the basic things they deserved.

Fairtrade buyers also enforce stricter conditions on plantations when it comes to worker safety and environmental protection. Sometimes the bureaucracy of this is a bit too much (e.g. at Satemwa, regulations made workers wear special ‘safe’ clothes they found uncomfortable, which they used to discard until they spotted an inspector coming!). But sometimes this protection is really positive, especially when it comes to protecting workers from pesticides, relieving pressure on them to work ridiculous hours without breaks in order to keep their jobs etc etc.

Fairtrade also offer workers stable incomes, essential for future planning and daily survival. Fairtrade prices rise with world prices, but will never fall below a basic minimum level perceived to be around the lowest decent living wage.

Some people say Fairtrade is bad because by offering a greater price, it encourages overproduction (if prices are too low, people should simply switch to producing something else rather than be kept afloat by Fairtrade). This is most fundamentally wrong because Fairtrade don’t set up plantations, but rather have to compete for contracts for existing plantations. They are never, to my knowledge, the sole competitor for a project, so don’t keep production going that otherwise would and should cease.

Another criticism of Fairtrade is that it makes the workers in one area rich, raising prices for everyone in surrounding areas. There may sometimes be truth in this, but on the whole I think it’s a distortion of the facts. For example, at Satemwa the wages offered to the Fairtrade workers were no higher than those offered to non-Fairtrade workers, and this is actually not uncommon. Furthermore, if workers in one area become richer, that’s basically good for the economy and people in the country. Workers earning more money pay more taxes, need fewer handouts from government, and have more money to spend on things produced elsewhere in the country (increasing others’ incomes and therefore spurring economic growth). Most of the goods people buy are made by local, not very rich, people, so the extra money earned by Fairtrade workers will tend to boost others living in poverty, rather than ending up in some rich businessman’s pocket. The big companies, plantations etc generally serve the very rich and the West, from my experiences of Malawi.

So Fairtrade is a wonderful thing! It’s worth the extra few pennies or pounds, because the more it’s supported, the more it’ll grow, and the sooner the awful injustices that current world trade perpetuates and deepens will be ground down. Like good Fairtrade coffee.
Happy Fairtrade Fortnight!

xxx

And as an extra little treat (yes- more!) here’s the trailer for Black Gold. If you haven’t seen the film, do! It’s really quite powerful.

A real Post!

OK ok, so this clearly wasn’t written for this blog alone. but it is an update! Enjoy it, it’s probably the last you’ll get from malawi!

Welcome to Malawi!

I’ve been here in Malawi, on the “Global Xchange” volunteering program, for nearly 3 months, which means that in a few days I’ll be flying back to the UK. I’ve got so much to share with you from the incredible time I’ve had here! All the components of the GX program are teaching me a lot, and also making this a wonderful and unforgettable experience. Let’s start with the all-important volunteer placements…

I’m working (with my Malawian counterpart) at a nursery school in a semi-rural, fairly poor village. When we arrived at the nursery school we found the following resources: a dirty but sizeable room, a small plastic table too high for children, and a bucket with two cups. There were also, thankfully, 6 eager and saintly teachers, who were all Mums from the community, volunteering without monetary reward and (here’s the downfall) without training or experience. Enrollment was 20 children, though around 200 live in the catchment area.

Can you imagine the challenges you might face trying to sustainably develop such a place? I was daunted. How could I improve a nursery and teach 2-5 year olds when I have no experience or training? How could I communicate with children and teachers with no common language? How could we run a nursery with no paper, crayons, paint, or toys? How could we create a good learning environment with no cleaning equipment, nothing to decorate with, no cement to fill the holes in the floor and no glass to mend the jagged broken windows?

Well, the answer is that we couldn’t. But we didn’t have to. Actually, it seems you never really have NOTHING to work with, and the key is to seek out and pursue every minute opportunity available to you. My incredible Malawian counterpart has helped me build up my confidence, and has eased communication by teaching me Chichewa (the local language) and translating for me. In the face of no resources, we found ourselves pummeling cassava to make glue and flowers to make paint, collecting plastic bottles, containers, boxes, bamboo and scraps of fabric from the tailors to make dolls, instruments, building materials and decorations… In the face of no resources, we became very resourceful! And actually, very soon we had decorated our classroom and provided “toys” for the children without spending a single penny. It was wonderful to see the change.

The next step was to make it sustainable. We went to the Town Assembly to find out why they weren’t supporting the nursery, and were given the phone number of the government worker responsible for nursery schools. We called her and arranged to meet in three days time. Two days later, I was napping in the nursery after classes when a huge shiny white 4-by-4 pulled up. The logo on the side showed me it was a Unicef car. I woke up as quickly as possible and greeted the Unicef and government officers responsible for nursery schools in Malawi! They promised us massive assistance, but first we had to move the nearby primary school from our building.
Our next, and most promising, move was to meet the local MP. In that meting, he agreed to build two primary school blocks so that Unicef can begin their work at the nursery. He’s also pushing our proposals for income-generating activities for the nursery, so that they can continue to function without regular donors. He has delivered 100kg of rice to make porridge for the children (many of whom miss school because of hunger). And he gave us a large immediate donation to buy essential items, and especially toys for the children. As you might imagine, we were walking on sunshine on the way home that day!

Things now are looking really positive. As I write, 75 children’s names are on the school register, and we see new faces every day. Together, Unicef, the Malawi government and the local MP have promised all the assistance, resources, classroom maintenance and teacher-training we need. GX certainly seems to have passed on to me some of the secrets of sustainable development! And it’s wonderful to have been given the opportunity to leave such a positive long-term impact on the school and its surrounding community.

GX is a great program, because as well partaking in such practical voluntary work, volunteers also learn about global issues surrounding development,. To enable them to be more effective global citizens in the future. Every week, two volunteers host a “Global Citizenship Day (GCD)”. Through these, we’ve learnt about topics such as climate change, poverty, HIV, community cohesion, community development and religion. GCDs are also a great opportunity to develop teamwork and leadership skills, which are central to the GX program and life beyond.

There are other avenues for developing our understanding of development issues. This has been the first time I’ve lived in Africa and, I suppose as expected, I’ve seen that development here is very low. There are decent main roads connecting towns, but the 85% of the population that lives rurally has no such facilities. There are health centers spread across the country, but standards aren’t great, and many citizens aren’t educated to use them. Only primary education is free, and even then many don’t attend because of poverty- they are too hungry, they have to stay home to care for younger siblings or sick parents, the distance is too far to walk and they can’t afford transport…

However, a speaker who visited us from a local NGO shared a very important point about poverty and development; he said that instead of just copying the West and building airports and tarmac roads, inviting multinational businesses, moving people from villages and agriculture to towns and industries etc, development should be bottom up- driven by the needs and wishes of citizens. Living in “the developed world”, where depression, suicide and general dissatisfaction levels are the highest in the world, we know that money can’t buy happiness and satisfaction. Development NGOs need to meet with communities, discuss their barriers to such life satisfaction, and together come up with the best possible solutions.

I would say that GX is a terrific program for preparing you for life and work. There are so many challenges (living with a total stranger, in another stranger’s home for 6 months, working as a team of 18 hugely different young people, language barriers, miniscule budgets, relying on just two program supervisors, living without beds and washing machines…), but with them come so so many opportunities. Because of this, depending on your nature, and also on the team and situation you’re in, GX could either be the worst or the best 6 months of your life. I’m only half-way through the program, but touch-wood… I think it’s going to be unforgettable for all the right reasons!

Love love
xxx

Helloee

I’m still not writing a proper blog, but will be soon (!!! You’re going to stop believing me aren’t you?). But just to say I’m alive and well, and very sad that we’ll be leaving Luchenza on 4th June (next thursday) and leaving Malawi on the 8th. I keep feeling very sad about this But I’m also extremely excited about the UK phase, and I think the Malawian volunteers are going to love it. We’re starting with 3 days to enjoy and explore London before heading to Kings Lynn for the next 11 weeks. I really will write more than this soon, but for now, thanks for the comments etc and speak to you soon!

Love!!!
Sally
xxx

I’m alive!

So don’t worry. I will, of course, write a proper blog as soon as possible!!!

Nearly a month in

Wow, time here is going so fast. I can’t believe I’ve done nearly a third of my time in malawi already! Yikes!

First, I’d like to thank you so much for your kind offers to send goodies to my nursery! I will look into this seriously. It may not be practical really, as sending things will be very expensive, and we need to do thigns in a sustainable way, so we’re going to try and get regular funding from unicef. I’ll look into it though. Thank you so much, you’re lovely!

My personal situation is still the same as before, so I thought in writing this next installment of “Yes, I am still alive”, I’d write a little more about the society etc here. It’s really fascinating actually.

Firstly, witches. And other spiritual beliefs I suppose. Either way, it seems that everyone in Malawi believes in witches, spirits, charms, curses etc etc etc. At first I was amazed,especially because many of these people who are ernestly telling me about these things are very intelligent people, and to me, I thought those sorts of beliefs were mainly in stories for young children. But people like a good story don’t they? And I also think that once you believe something, you look to prove it, rather than looking to disprove it. They always laugh at my questions, saying “Sally, you’re such a philosopher” or “Why do you ask so many questions?”. Anyway, I realised that these beliefs make life mroe interesting for people so I didn’t challenge them too much. But then they have some very serious, bad effects too. For example, little children can be accused of being trained by witches if they start to behave rebelliously. I’ve heared such accusations made, and thought, well, what does that mean for the child? Belief in the power of witches is also manipulated by village elders and headmen to stop people from disobeying them. If you do, the elders might remove all the bones from your body, lock you in a small pot, make a crocodile jump out of your cup while you’re brushing your teeth…

So yes, worrying to me. I can’t say I’m being very open-minded, but I’m not getting very good answers to my probing questions!

A positive I’d like to write about now: the culture of openness and sharing. If a neighbour needs somethign here, they simply go to their neighbour’s house and are given it. No questions asked. Sharing is a huge part of the culture here, and you can’t even really eat a packed lunch without sharing it with everyone around you. it’s a nice way of living. Of course, it only really works because people know it’ll be reciprocated, but it’s nice that that cultural mechanism is there.

OK, next!!! The other thing that amazed me was the number of people who want to move ot the UK. No other countries in Europe, just the UK. Loads of people keep approaching me, having a nice chat, then saying, “Erm, so, can you take me to the UK with you?”. Or somethign similar. They think it’s like heaven, and I’m trying to dispell that view. But at the same time, I’m beginning to be more aware of what a plethora of opportunities we do have available to us in the UK. It’s quite staggering really. I know they’re not all there for everyone, but things are still so much better. The fact that I’m going to Oxford next year seems like something of a joke when I speak to these people. We have huge social problems, but the opportunities are generally there. I wish we’d make mroe of them.

And now I’m going to make an apology, to everyone who I’ve not replied to by email. Yahoo is being incredibly awkward, and won’t load messages when I ask it to, so I’m relying on this blog for most communication! If you want to email me it might be worth copying it onto a comment on the blog too.

I’m just blabbing today, as you cna see, cos I have no idea when I’m going to have to be pullde off the internet. So, Nsima, you asked.

Well, shockingly to malawians, we don’t have nsima in the UK, but if you google it you should get some helpful pictures. it’s closest relative in UK food is probably if you were to get white cous-cous, then squeeze it togetehr so it wasn’t in balls anymore, but was just a bit lump. Then you tear bits of, mould them into balls in your hand, and use it to pick up the various relishes. It’s a messy business, but quite enjoyable! Not sure how nutritious is- it’s made of white maize and water.

Ooh, maize, there’s another topic. Malawians love maize! And many, if not most, families have their own maize fields, which help them to maintain food security at the household level. I’ve been harvesting maize, which is really nice and made me get all philosophical and ponderous! The maize cobs are hidden in a parcel of leaves folded around them. And sometimes, it looks like the whole parcel is mouldy and rotten, and it’s just going to crumble in a pile of nasty insects as you prize it open. But then sometimes, the most mouldy parcels have the biggest, brightest maize cobs inside, and it’s a lovely surprise. It’s a lovely setting as well, as the field has views across the landscape, over mountains and blue skies and dozens of other maize fields. It’s rather yummy.

I’ll be back…

So much to tell…

Well helloeee! It’s been a long time, I know, but no fears: I’m alive, well, and haaaapppy

I have a brilliant host family here. I have an agogo (grandmother) rather than parents, but ME OH MY, do I have an agogo!!! She’s amazing . She cracks a load of jokes that I can’t understand cos they’re in Chichewa (prompting me to work extra hard to pick up the language, which I’m beginning to have some real success with), and she’s really grounded to earth. She’s also a lovely lovely person. An example:

On the first night, I arrived at my home in the pitch black, rain peltering down and no electricity to welcome me in. I was tired and apprehensive, but still was quickly informed that I’d be doing the cooking for the family since I’m the only girl in the house (she lives with her son and grandson). I was a little overwhelmed by all this, though also glad I’d be able to help out. Over a week later, I have yet to cook a meal. I always wake up early, and go to the cooking area ready to help, and they always say, “Oooh, today it’s not possible. Tomorrow you can cook though. Yes, tomorrow you’ll cook for all of us”. And I get a little scared because of my limited cooking skills, but also am pacified because I can relax, without feeling I’m skipping chores.

Of course, at first, I believed her, but after a week of “tomorrows” I’m learnign that my cooking role is going to be very limited. he he he. Instead, I’m insisting on plucking maize at every spare opportunity, and helping wash up etc, both of which worry her no end because she thinks my “azungo” (white person”) hands are too soft for suchmanual work. I tell her they’re not, but to be honest they are starting to hurt! I’m hoping to get some nice working calouses I’ll be careful, don’t worry.

My counterpart is also really nice. He’s called Wanangwa. Yes, I’m paired with a boy, and he with a girl, basically because in the group we were the only two happy to be with someone of the opposite gender. It’s worked out pretty well though cos we have some great conversations, and he’s very good at looking after me. He also has a sense of humour. Note the absence of a positive modifying adjective in that sentence. Ha ha ha. But yeah, I’m happy with my counterpart, and all in all my home situation is excellent.

Work. More good news, eh?! I’m working at an ECD (early childhood development centre), which is basically a preschool. And this preschool is basically a room. I’m not even exagerating. In listing the resources we have, I usually mention the keys for the door, because aside from a small table that’s too high for the kids in one corner, and 4 chairs we’ve recently been borrowing from the primary school next door, that is IT. No paper. No pens. No toys. No sand pit. No water bucket for washing hands. It doesn’t even have its own toilet. And the teachers have very kind hearts, and some are good with the kdis, but none have ever been trained and they presently seem to just get the kids to sing songs or recite the calender etc. The kdis are basically repeating what they hear, as ask them any questions about content and they have no clue.

But we’ve got lots of exciting plans for them, and have already been running some great sessions. We’re recycling waste to make toys (plastic bottles, waste paper, cloth from the tailors etc) and are going to go round lcoal shops asking for anything they can spare, even cardboard boxes etc. And we’re also going to send a proposal to Unicef, who should help us out with toys etc.

I say we very ambiguously. I mean Ruth and I. Ruth is my volutner placement counterpart. She must be the best work counterpart possible. And loko- I know that by now you must be thinking that my enthusiastic nature has made me delirious, but the fact is that I’ve simply been very lucky. Other people are having a much harder time, and I’m feeling rather jammy. So as I was saying, Ruth is amazing. She has so much energy with the children, and she plans great activities for them, and also hm. She’s always pose when I do things with them. She’s always positive and fair-minded, and is also very bright, so we have great conversations, and if something’s troubling me, she’s just the perfect person to speak to. My strengths at the moment lie more in planning the sessions and thinking of materials to use and activities to try, whereas Ruth really shines in the execution. In that way, we form a great term, and if we can both learn to develop the other’s skills we’ll benefit so much from this placement, it’ll be awesome!

I think I’ll leave it at that for now. I have lots more to tell: about the… well, I’ll bullet point for you:

Religion (No God?! What?! Why?! Oh, but God is great! How peculiar!)

Spiritual beliefs (esp Mulange mountain and mystical bananas)

Percetions of white people (esp when they’re eating sugar cane as well as the locals, he he he)

The weather, which is not too but three hot.

Community culture- which lives up to all expectations and is just lovely.

All the wonderful people I’ve met.

Food (Nsima with strictly vegetarian relish, much to agogo’s concern)

And oh, a load of other things! But for now, much much love and my very best wishes,

Sally

xxx

Update

Helloey!
Well, I’m just bearing the price and slowness for now, cos I want to share as much with you int he time I’ve got. Which is about a minute.

We move into host homes tomorrow, so I’ll tell you about accommodation and daily life and all that other jazz etc later. Mum. Hee hee.
I’ve been doing lots of singing and dancing so far! The kdis we see in the street remember us from our trip to the primary school, so they always start shaking their bums and singing, cos it’s the dance we taught them! And like I said before, music is everywhere, and always happy, and everyone dances and shouts when they want. Mucho fun.

Wildlife and scenery. Well all is very green, and there are lots of these big beautiful trees adorned with masses of bright yellow blossom, which are just lovely. The roads are tarmacced which is a nice surprise. Mulange mountain is an awesom sight on the near horizon. It looms over you, all bluegreen and jagged and gentle. Like an awesome but sleeping giant.

There’s not much in the way of wildlife. Chickens, cows, goats, volutneers… he he he.

Erm, and like I said, this week’s been an anomally, so I’ll have mroe to tell you afterwards. We’ve just been doing team-building and welcoming and orientation etc. And I don’t have time to write long poingant blogs tday! We’re abotu to go and find out who our counterpatrt pairsare, and what volunteering we’ll be doing. I think I’m going to be with a boy, cbut he’s really amazing and nice so I don’t mind. Plus iot mweans I’ll get my own room, hurrah!!!

OK, I’m going to split. Thanks for your lovely comments. please keep them coming.

Loads of love
Sally
xxx

Neary a week in…

Hello!!!!
I’m in Malawi! It’s awesome. I’m having to be quick cos the internet is slow and expensive, but what to say…

Well, we have a totally fantastic team of 18. I really do like everyone very much. It looks like my counterpart is going to be a boy, as I’m the only girl who doesn’t mind, but it’s all good cos the boys are lovely.

We visited a primary school today, and the children were incredibly cute! and I’m quite keen to volunteer there, as it’d be really fun and there’s loads we can do to educate the children and ease the load on the teachers, who have class sizes of about 140. OMG. There’s also chance to work to reduce the stigma around HIV of my own initiative a little, which I’d really love. We’ll see.

Africa is awesome. Happy music plays everywhere, people chat to you, the weather is hot but usually not too hot. People have so much energy and are so outgoing, not like us reserved english folks. I love it.

And Malawi is a prettya wesome country. Their government actually seems rather good, and have loads of schemes in place to help the poorest people in long-term, effective ways, which is really surprising and encouraging for me.

I’ll have to leave it at that for now cos I have 48 emails. Yikes. Hope you’re all well! Love Sally
xxx

Malawi

I’m alive. The internet is horrendously slow (I’ve been loading this page for quarter of an hour!). People, weather and scenery all good and i’m very happy and excited! Love you! Happy Birthday Jess! Bye,
xxx