We found other
wildlife in the garden though. There was a praying mantis on a wooden
statue, a millipede and some sweat bees nested in the wall (the photo
below shows Neville playing the role of David Attenborough!)
We also saw a fish eagle and a Harrier Hawk (?) before breakfast of kings - “the best scrambled eggs in the world”(TM) good toast and strawberry jam (again!) along with some fabulous fruit salad (straight from the trees).
After a fair amount
of faffing around (there is always a fair amount of faffing!) we
headed to the orphanage to be “welcomed”. The orphanage is about
three miles from Neville's house (the cottage we are staying at). So
we all piled into our two vehicles, and off we went!
We arrived at the
orphanage to the staff performing a welcome dance for us. There are
many photos, I've chosen just a couple. Even Rasheed, the manager at
this orphanage donned a sarong and joined in!
After the official
welcome dance, there was a group of local dancers, men dressed in
military attire (complete with sergeant pepper lonely heart club
hats!), women in traditional sarongs. They performed a dance (the
Beni) inspired by the British military after WWII accompanied by the
most enthusiastic drummer I have ever seen! It was a sight to behold.
The photos will not do this justice.
Not everyone was so
impressed, however!
We then had a tour
around the orphanage. There are 40 babies here right now – about
half of them are unable to walk properly yet, and the oldest is
three. They are all incredibly affectionate – and demand to be
picked up as soon as you step within arms length of their grabby
little hands! Here is Mike holding Little Hamza (in fact, it looks as though
Mike is having an in-depth debate about the political situation in
the United Kingdom and the West Lothian question... and all Hamza
cares about is why Mike is so hairy).
They are the boxes
right at the back on the right side. Look how sparse this pharmacy is
for 40 babies. This is everything – nappy rash cream, talc, baby
wipes. Everything.
On Monday another
HIV+ baby arrived – but you'll have to wait for tomorrow to find
out about that.
When we arrived, all
the nurses introduced themselves, in a very routine way. We did not
think much of this at the time – but later we realised that this is
one of the things kids are taught in school – how to introduce
yourself. So, here is my introduction to give you an idea... “Hello,
My name is Jane Hillier, I live in Zug in Switzerland, I go to
Johnson & Johnson every day, I am 21 years old, I am a girl”.
After the tour (I
have dozens of photos of cute babies and not so cute volunteers –
will share once internet is not so paltry) we drove down to see a
house that was close to being complete.
The house is in the
background of this picture – but check out the wire car that this
boy has made for himself. I have since realised that this is made
from the reinforcing wire for the houses... so it might be that this
house has slightly less reinforcing wire than it ought to!
Here is a better picture of what we were aiming for:
This house is made
of baked clay bricks – which is not terribly environmentally
friendly, so we will be using compressed soil bricks (“soil
stabilised bricks”) which are pressed out in a very powerful
machine (when it's working).
The layout and roof
will be the same though. The layout is a living area of about 4m x
4m; a sleeping room of 2m x 2.5m and a store cupboard taking up the
rest of the space.
The roof is made of
galvanised steel and the floor is concrete.
Here is a picture of the house that we will be replacing.
This is the Grandma
(Agogo) who will be taking possession of the house with the orphan,
Chukungbutso (and her other children) once the house is complete.
Check out the pile of bricks to the left of the picture. We will be
turning these into foundation.
This will be a
palace compared to the current accommodation.
From the building
site we visited Takondwa School (“I'm happy”) in Ku'mgumb village
(“place of the flying ant”) which was build by J&J, Kingswood
School and a school in Arizona. Glad I didn't know the translation of
the village name until right now! I have a phobia of ants and am
terrified of flying ants!
Anyway, it was
Sunday, so school was shut... or was it?? After just two minutes, we
were surrounded by school children. Rasheed magic'ed up some keys,
and the children were more than happy to entertain us. I have a
couple of short videos, one of a boy telling us the months of the
year, and another of the children “singing” their ABC's... but I
do not know how to share them. One day I will.
Here are some photos
of the kids, including one of Mike doing fist bumps with a group of
kids.
Check out the girl
in pink at the front of the picture – she is a future leader of the
country, if she gets the chance – she was at the centre of every
bit of trouble.
This is Neville
encouraging one of the children to introduce himself (loudly, and see
above for the script!)
And this is Neville with a hugely efficient stove which cooks for around 75 – 80 kids each day (They eat Likuni Phala – a specially fortified porridge which is particularly good for malnourished kids). These stoves cost about $500 and really do make a massive difference to the well-being of a lot of children when they are put into the right environment with the right infrastructure. (available food, and someone to cook). In this village, the cook is a volunteer from the village.
After all this
excitement, we headed to a government sponsored bar for a well
deserved rest.
This bar has been
built at the top of a rocky outcrop on the plain – so there are
spectacular views to the lake, which are very difficult to
photograph. Soz!
The government built
this and keep it open (barmaid, janitor) with the intention that it
would be a cultural village – a show to tourists of what Malawi is
like... But Neville told us no-one has ever gone there.
The apothecary (witch doctor demo) house has never even opened. The complex has chalets which are rarely slept in and which each have an air-conditioning unit attached (would not want to assume they are connected to anything though!) Mike found it amusing that, with such a stunning view, the chalets have been built behind the summit, so they have no view! (Apparently this is seen as a good feature as it means that the paparazzi won't be able to take long-range photos of ministers taking their secretaries there...)
We got to the bar,
and ordered a round of cold beer... there was none. “A large party
have just left, and they drank it all” the barmaid offered to
Neville as an excuse. He called her on this obvious fib, and she
wandered off to put some in the freezer. The beer was good though,
Carlsberg green, I'm developing quite a taste for this!
We watched the birds
in the trees (a spotters paradise, according to Neville) and saw a
Dickinson Hawk. Meanwhile, Peter was playing “simon says”
with a group of kids who were a long way off on the plain (they would
imitate him standing on one leg, or waving his arm around). I'm not
sure which party in this game was having more fun!
Back to the cottage
for a marvellous dinner of chicken curry and green beans washed down
with some good South African wine!
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