Reflections on War

LAST POST
by Carol Ann Duffy
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If poetry could tell it backwards, true, begin
that moment shrapnel scythed you to the stinking mud…
but you get up, amazed, watch bled bad blood
run upwards from the slime into its wounds;
see lines and lines of British boys rewind
back to their trenches, kiss the photographs from home –
mothers, sweethearts, sisters, younger brothers
not entering the story now
to die and die and die.
Dulce – No – Decorum – No – Pro patria mori.
You walk away.
You walk away; drop your gun (fixed bayonet)
like all your mates do too –
Harry, Tommy, Wilfred, Edward, Bert –
and light a cigarette.
There’s coffee in the square,
warm French bread
and all those thousands dead
are shaking dried mud from their hair
and queuing up for home. Freshly alive,
a lad plays Tipperary to the crowd, released
from History; the glistening, healthy horses fit for heroes, kings.
You lean against a wall,
your several million lives still possible
and crammed with love, work, children, talent, English beer, good food.
You see the poet tuck away his pocket-book and smile.
If poetry could truly tell it backwards,
then it would.

…………………..

War is a horrific, horrible thing. I want to say all should refuse to fight, always. “Drop your gun… there’s coffee in the square”. But at the same time, some injustices need to be stood up to. How could we have stopped Hitler without war? Can gross injustice always be stopped through non-militaristic means? If killing someone was the only way to stop them killing just two others, I expect I would do it. Aside from the setting of war, I would think it right to do so. But killing a man simply because he’s in the opposing army? Surely that’s a form of madness? By the time it gets to that point, something has gone horribly wrong, and are we not digging our pit of insanity deeper and deeper the more we fight and kill?

Climate Protestors

I love Climate Protestors. They epitomise active citizenship, love and creative genius. I’m not sure whether they’re totally right that breaking the law in beautiful, brilliant ways is the only way to save the planet… But I still feel an internal cheer when they do! And in the absence of a better solution, I kinda think, well, at least it’s SOMETHING.

This guy above, Danny Chivers, is terrific

Another poem

Actually, I’ll stick this one up too. It needs a proper title, and more importantly, I think it needs a beginning. I thought it up while enjoying (honestly) a ramble across the Lake District with my Pa. Very basic with no real form, punctuation, yada yada yada! But it just made me chuckle as the words assembled into my head, so maybe with later work it’ll be alright:

Ramblers’ poem

Unexpected undulation

En route to our destination

Grows our grumbling frustration

And when then precipitation-

Unforecasted, most unwelcome-

Starts to fall,

It’s clear this expedition,

Which started well,

Will not

End well

At all.

Haiku, etc.

Is this Sapitwa?
Hand in hand we seized each step
To descend alone

I wrote this little haiku this morning. I’d forgotten to leave time for my contributiont to the last ever GX newsletter, but really wanted to have omething in it- surely I had something to say after 6 months of volunteering together. And this little poem came out, making me a little sad actually!

I was really looking forward to being home again- there’s so much I’ve missed, and it’ll be lovely to be back with people from home, and walking the dog through the lovely woods and moors

But let’s not kid ourselves- leaving is a sad thing. As a team of 18 very different but equally lovely young people, we really have gone through it all together therse past 6 months. I feel like I’m just settling into my host home and I really love it, and now it’s time to go, and not really come back. I’m loving my placement too, and I’ll miss spending the day with my wonderfully fun and sweet supervisor. And I will miss my counterpart very dearly. We’ve had a strong six months together, supporting each other and enjoying each other’s company.

There’s so much to enjoy still, that no onereally feels like moping about. The sun has been hovering over Norfolk for nearly the whole stint here. There are trips, celebrations and meals out every day until we leave. We’re surrounded by people we love! And we’ve achieved and grown so much, and have so many happy memories.

I think the end of the program is hardest for the Malawians. A lot of them joined the program from homes where, materially-speaking, they have nothing. And that is where they are going back to. There’s no use pretending otherwise.

Those of us who are more privelidged can see GX as a springboard to a really fullfilling future brim-full of opportunities. I’ve always chased my dreams-even the most ridiculous ones- because I can believe that “The dreamers of the day are dangerous people, for they dream their dreams with open eyes, and make them come true”. For a young person from a family that is reasonably economically-comfortable, I believe that’s true.

But when you’re trapped in a poor rural village, one of many children of poor parents, in one of the worlds poorest countries, sometimes dreams have to stay just that. That’s reality. I hate to admit it; hope and optimism can take a person far. But only so far, according to their means.

Everyone can go home after GX and live fulfilling lives. But it’s hard to be satisfied with a simple life after you’ve seen and learnt so much. You want to go far,  make a difference, use the talents you know you have. And I just hope really hard that some of the wonderful, talented young Malawians on the program are able to fulfill their brilliant potentials.

Interview with my Host Dad

Another of my newsletter contributions pilferred for blogging purposes:

Clive stepped in to rescue Sally and Wanangwa from GX homelessness a couple of weeks ago, and they were lucky to find him! On the practical front, he has two spare rooms and was willing to host the only mixed-sex counterpart pair. But more importantly, he is an awesome, down-to-earth, kind guy who any volunteer would feel lucky to live with. His living room overlooks King’s Lynn’s beautiful park, so the pair have easy access to all the delights that King’s Lynn has to offer (!). A 45 year-old fireman and born-again Christian with four teenage sons not living at home, he may not match the typical profile of a GX host parent. Still, Clive has quickly become the favourite with Team 88. So let’s find out what Clive has to say about the “GX-perience” (sorry- *groans) after two weeks of hosting:

Welcome Clive! Can we start by finding out why you decided to be a host parent?

Well, I think my answer to that is one people might find interesting. I imagine most people host because of a wish to help out the volunteers, but it wasn’t like that for me. I was having a conversation about the program with Lindie at a church barbeque, and although my house has always been available when people in the church have needed rooms, I’ve never felt I wanted to offer it to them before. But as soon as Lindie talked about the students, I felt I had to give the spare rooms to them. To say it clearly, I thought it was a calling from God saying, “Open your house to these people”. I bet that’s different from the other answers you’ve had isn’t it?!

So what were your expectations or worries before hosting?

My only worry was obviously going from having the freedom of my own house to having other people there. I didn’t have any conceptions or worries about what you’d be like.

So you weren’t scared by the thought of having two unknown teenagers in your house?

Well, I’ve got the bonus of having four sons in their teens, so the idea of having two young people in my house didn’t phase me at all.

And what challenges have you faced so far?

“Challenges” is a strange word to use. I’d say more “adaptations”: adapting to thinking about people again in my own home environment; having to think more about food, like how to cater for the two of you. In terms of challenges, one is communicating to you both equally. Obviously when Wanangwa is here, it’s not so easy to talk to him.

What have you enjoyed about hosting so far?

At the moment it’s nice to have company and just talk to people about things I don’t usually get chance to talk about, like Wanangwa’s home and work, how the day’s been… And it’s been nice to be able to take you out to things like the judo we’ve started going to.

We’ve not been here long, but is there anything you’ve learnt yet from being a host parent?

I’ve learnt how to play some guitar chords! (Should I write that?!) Yeah, put it down! And I can say I’ve learnt something about Malawi, which I knew absolutely nothing about before.

Really? So, what did you know about Malawi before?

No, really nothing. I mean, I would have probably guessed it was in Africa. Another thing I’ve learnt, which is really just confirmation of what I’ve learnt before from interacting with lots of different people, is that we’re all the same, no matter what country you’re from. Meeting Wanangwa, for example- he’s not like a different being! He’s just a person like everyone else.

I think that’ll do. Thanks a lot Clive!

Thank you!

Poems

Here’s a poem I wrot for our newsletter:

Scandalous Youths Getting Rich from Voluntary Work

The press cry that, “Youths are all thugs,
Who scare grannies, form gangs and take drugs!”
If they opened their eyes,
To our lifestyles worldwide,
Would they see they’re being taken for mugs?!

Would they recognise Global XChange?
A program no doubt they’d find strange!
“Youths who work overseas?
Then back home (if they squeeze
In the 18-25 age range)?!”

In both countries volunteers live,
With host parents willing to give,
Their hearts (and a room),
To young volunteers whom
The Sun warns you just CAN’T live with.

But our team, Team 88,
Will never give way to such hate.
We care for each other,
Like sisters and brothers,
And, frankly, I think we’re all great!

So for six months we don’t earn a penny,
But find we grow richer than many,
‘Cos though work for yourself,
May bring masses of wealth,
You’ll find your mind won’t amass any.
…………………………………………

And here’s a poem by Michael Rosen that I just found and thought was beautiful:

Today; One Day

Today
The rain has died
My shoes have died
The sun has died
My coat has died
The earth has died
Today.

One day
The rain will flower
My shoes will laugh
The sun will sing
My coat will fly
The earth will dance
One day.

Photo time!

Cooking porridge at the primary school

Making paint at the nursery

Me planting one of 80 fruit trees at the nursery where I worked

View over Lake Malawi

Inside the nursery (after we decorated it!)

SETEMWA FairTrade tea plantaion

One month to go!

Hello all!

I have yet again been a very bad blogger. Things seem less exciting and worth blogging about when I’m in the UK, and I’ve been able to phone most of you.  But this site does need updating, so here are the stories of the past few weeks.

After 2 weeks in Ealing YMCA, we finally moved to our host community in King’s Lynn. Still, I was one of 8 volunteers who still didn’t have their own host homes! After a week or so staying in a travel lodge with my counterpart, about 30 minutes out of king’s lynn, (fun fun fun) 6 of us moved into “The House”! And it was lovely. It was a large, old, terraced house near the centre of town, with an enourmous kitchen, light spacious rooms, a patio and barbeque area and a big double bed all for me! I couldn’t really complain, and it was great to be able to cook and choose my meals for myself after so many weeks of being catered for.

Still, it wasn’t a home, and the novelty of house-training 5 messy boys wears off surprisingly quickly, so I was extremely happy when about two weeks ago I learnt that I finally had a host home. I’m now living with a single dad and firefighter Clive, who is in my view undoubtedly the best host parent . We’re also a little jammy with the location, as we’re in a lovely terraced house overlooking the park, and on the same road as the volunteer house I lived in previously. This means that unlike the other volunteers, who are all trapped in their villages by terrible public transport, 1 minutes walk takes me to the town centre, and 15 minutes gets me to my work placement.

Ah, work placement! I am again a lucky girly. Why am I always lucky?! I’m working in  Development Education Centre called NEAD, and it is really great work. Before the summer holidays began, we were going into schools to help with a program aimed improving community cohesion by increasing children’s understanding of and enthusiasm for other countries. The children were loads of fun, and the teachers all seemed worthy of knighthoods, if not sainthood (lots of religious schools, ha ha ha), and it almost made me want to be a primary teacher.

Now the schools have closed, my work counterpart and I are creating catalogues of the cultural artefacts in NEAD’s “Artefact Boxes”. The research is really interesting, and although it’s hard to focus all day,my sister tells me that’s great practise for university (yipee…). I think this job is another one I’d seriously consider for the future.

Other things we’ve been involved in include a weekend break/ mid-phase review at the seaside, an upcoming African night at an eco “hideaway”, fundraising on the street for the local homeless shelter,planning fundraising for the malawian volunteers to use for community projects back home, making steps for the Queen’s sandringham estate, enjoying the king’s Lynn music festival (SClub 3 and Beverly night, yes!) and probably all manner of thing’s I’ve tragically forgotten.

Andnow for fear of droningon, on, AND on, I’ll go and eat my lentil and spinach soup. Yum.

Lots of love,

Sally

xxx

Back in UK

Hello, avid readers!

I’m back in the UK now, so have probably spoken to you on the ohone already. Still, I’d like to let you know how things are going here.

There are a few things to consider before I get started. Our team is down from 20 to 18; we’ve lost a program supervisor to illness, and a malawian volutneer to bad behaviour (though we think she’ll be coming back after an apology and commitment to be better). Because of these problems, we’re stil in London, and will be here for nearly 2 weeks in total, though we were meant to leave for King’s Lynn just a day after arriving here!

This caused some emotional confusion after all the excitement and anticipation built up around phase two. As one volunteer said, rather poetically in his gruff welsh accent- “up feels like down and left feels like right”! But we’re over the initial troubles now it seems, and are actually really enjoying London.

It’s been really special showing the Malawians the UK. Only one has ever been out of Malawi (they went to Zimbabwe by bus when they were younger), so esculators, lifts, huge multi-storey buildings, fast trains, the tube, big red buses, our nice clean, finsihed-looking streets… all this is new to them. It’s so nice introducing it to them all, although we dn’t like the ideas they’re forming, as expressed by one, “The UK is a thousand thousand thousand thousand times better than Malawi”.

They’ve not been impressed by everything of course. We did a tour of London on Saturday, and although seeing the queen from about 3m on her birthday and visiting the missionary Dr David Livingstone’s grave were higlights, they weren’t so impressed by the naked bike ride we stumbled excitedly upon. “It was disgusting” was the comment of my counterpart!!! He thought that people with such disgusting bodies (his view, not mine) shouldn’t be allowed to show them in public! Others were more openminded, and enjoyed the chance to see what white people looked like underneath their clothes!

Immediately after this, we walked along the south bank near the London Eye, where there were all manner of street performers, again celebrating the eccentricity and individual freedom integral to British culture (IMO). I tried to explain the importance of this freedom and individuality to my CP, who very much enjoyed the street performers (though thought the circus act were definately using magic!). He aggreed freedom was very good. I then swung it round to the naked cyclists’ case. He thought freedom should have restrictions.

He he. Still it’s all good and they do seem to be enjoying life here.

One challenge is the GX allowance. £15 a week is all we have to live on, outside of food and accommodation costs. It’s actually quite good for me, cos it’s stopping me buying all the naughty treats which are inundating me as I wander around Ealing. I’m trying to be healthier, as I want to develop good habits for university. I guess it’s the same with the budget too- others are supplementing their allowances with their own money, but I’d rather learn to live on £15 a week, and know I can do it.

We’re staying in a YMCA at the moment, which is kind of a challenge, and kind of an opportunity, and kind of just fun too. I guess all three often go hand in hand anyway. The residents have all different backgrounds- some are here cos thye’ve got leanring difficulties, so need some extra support. Others are homeless, or recently out fo prison. I don’t know about other reasons, but I think none are here just through their own choice. So shared mealtimes can be a lively experience, when one doesn’t get as many eggs as the person in front, or someone sips someone else’s orange juice etc etc!!! But at the same time, nearly all the residents are really friendly and curtious to us, and all of them are at least harmless. It’s more interesting living with them anyway, and it ties into our program’s aim to teach us about development and social problems in the UK too.

Last night was the night I most felt I was back in England, doing what I love. You’re about to see how sad a person I am:

We went to the local church to watch a film about Climate change called “The Age of Stupid”. It was a really inspiring and powerful film, and was screened by a local group fromt he “Transition Towns” movement. The idea of transition towns is to make towns (and other local communities) energy efficient and sustainable as soon as possible- making sure the changes that need to happen happen now, and are driven from the bottom up. Me and a volutneer who went with me were really impressed byt he idea, and want to try and introduce it to King’s Lynn, especially since our theme for the voluntary work is “environment, climate change and food security”. It’d be a great impact to leave if we were successful.

OK, it seems the whole team has left to do activities on the park,a nd I’ve been left behind, so I’ll have to pop off! Thank you for reading and please leave me your notes or comments!

Loads of love,

Sally
xxx

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