The Loving Outdoors Africa Diary

 

Click here to see the pictures taken from the visit

In 24 hours I will be in Africa- Malawi to be precise. The trip was planned 8 months ago and is part of our Loving Earth strategy, aimed at giving time and financial assistance to causes around the world. The plan is to get involved with projects in the UK and abroad including tree planting, repairing footpaths and helping with community projects. In Malawi we are focusing on supporting communities by building free-to-attend schools. As you will know, readily accesible schools are in short supply in some parts of Africa and attendance costs can often be a barrier to entry for most poor African families. In remote areas this issue is made worse by even fewer institutions and higher attendance costs.

So far we have helped to support the building of a school (pictured above – Good Hope School). They are facing many challenges at the moment mostly due to lack of finance, so we are visiting the school to help them out. On our visit we will be taking part in lessons and activities with the children; it’s a jam packed nine-day schedule but I will aim to keep this blog updated each day with pictures and stories of what I have been up to.

See you all tomorrow for Day One.

Keep Loving Outdoors – Scott L.O.

(NB: Internet access is very limited here so blog updates might not be as frequent as promised but I will do my best.)

Day One:

The day started at 4:30am for an early morning departure- a challenging task for my partner but one she was bound to having agreed to be my chauffer for the day.

The airport was packed with Easter holidaymakers with flip flops, coral shirts and straw hats the dominant mode of dress- it was a bit like an audition for the Brady Bunch. Not sure if my microfleece, kiwi pants and Scarpa boots would get me casted but they would surely come into their own in the African bush.

At the airport my 50% DEET insect repellent was confiscated for containing more that 100ml. £12 later I had replaced the offending item with the entirely legal yet wholly insufficient 50ml version. I made a joke about my ticket being downgraded to freight class being that I was now insect food to a lukewarm response.

Currently sitting on the plane now awaiting take-off. I’m really excited about the next 9 days- it’s sure to be inspirational and will open my eyes to different ways of life. We should do more of this kind of thing.

Later On…

I write to you from Amsterdam airport where I await my connecting flight to Niarobi;  other people punching the keys of laptops and hand-held devices appear to be doing the same thing- funny how we used to read in airports and now we write…Anyway, Amsterdam airport is great; there are kids’ play areas, a museum, iPads dotted about, beds, music rooms- even a meditation centre. UK airports could learn a thing or two here. At the moment I’m sat in a chair listening to music coming from speakers built into the headrest- only problem is I think it’s Vengaboys, Hmmm… hardware spot on, music taste needs work. Where’s the ‘off’ button!?!

Day One-and-a-bit:

20 hrs later and I have arrived in Lilongwe, Malawi. I feel surprisingly full and fresh which is probably due to the food KLM have been serving non stop. Perhaps they were fattening me up ahead of a cautious few days food-wise: doctors back home have advised me to avoid pretty much everything. I will of course be ignoring their advice and fully indulging in everything Malawian cuisine has to offer.

Day Two:

I was awoken by the noise and heat of Malawian city life. A quick glance from my hotel window reveals a place of major economic division- on the one hand dire poverty and the other business people driving to work. The roads are bumpy and in places are little more than dirt tracks baked hard by the sun. Adults and children carry water on their heads in large containers and families bath and wash in the local river. Lilongwe, I am told, is one of Malawi’s more prosperous areas.

I was collected by two girls, Angela and Susan from Malawi who are guiding me around and work for a charity over here. They are lovely and very streetwise so I feel in safe hands. They arrive two and a half hours late, a lapse they put down to “African time”. Time, it seems,  is one resource certinly not in short supply here!

I ask my guides if they know a bank where I can change some sterling and am taken to a car park. Here 4 men come to the window and offer me a rate of 285:1 on the pound. With the dangerous parking-lot liaisons of gangster films flashing in my mind, I gratefully and somewhat excitedly accept their offer. In my haste I forget to ask if they have a commission-free buy back policy…

So far everyone I’ve met has been very friendly and so far Malawi is living up to its claim to be ‘heart of Africa’. One gets the impression of a people accustomed to hard work and uncomfortable with the idea of charity despite the dire poverty that affects some regions, however,  the sight of a small hungry-looking child begging is deeply troubling.

Leaving the city we head to Lake Malawi. Total and BP were out of petrol so we join the long line for the last pump in town. Back on the road we pass a salon called ‘Nice and lovely hair salon’- Outside a customer had her partially-restyled head over a bucket.

Lake Malawi was gorgeous, unfathomably vast and bristling with life of all kinds. On the way back we passed some tribal villages more typical of the Africa we see on television. Although it was disconcerting to see people so obviously struggling it reminded me of the purpose of my visit. Today has shown me how much Malawi has to offer- hopefully I’ll have something I can offer in return…

Will be back with more later this week…

Scott L.O.

Day Three:

I started the day with a nice cup of Rooiboos tea which got me thinking about the team back home who will no doubt be drinking several cups over the course of their working day.

Today I visited Mango Chi, a settlement area South of Lake Malawi, a four hour drive away. I was struck on the drive at how no matter where we were, be it 4000ft up the side of a mountain or wherever, there are people settled and living. On the drive to Mango Chi I visited some of the most remote and hostile places I’ve ever seen and still there were villagers going about their business as if it was the most normal thing in the world- it was an eye-opener to say the least!

Like yesterday, today’s trip was presided over by Angela and Susan who I am becoming increasingly wary of. As my tour-guides I expect them to take the reins a bit, but I can’t help feeling that I’m being taken advantage of. Obviously I don’t mind incurring a little expense for services rendered but when expenses include endless cocktails and pricey slap-up meals that I am expected to pay for I can’t help feeling like someone’s meal ticket. Sure, I’m here to help but even my kindness has a limit! Anyway, rant over.

We drive back passing through a goat market where a goat costs roughly £10. In the centre of the market a half-built building is surrounded by scaffolding made of sticks. One brave builder hangs on by his feet without ropes: somewhere a health and safety officer spins in his grave.

Day Four:

Today I meet John, Marjorie, Richard and Don the head honchos of the charity I will be helping out with. A quick meet and greet establishes them as really nice people with years of charity experience between them. Pleasantries done with we get down to business heading out by jeep to a village North of Lilongwe. I’m told that from this village it takes an hour to reach the main road by bike which gives an idea of how remote it is. Driving there I am repeatedly winded by my seatbelt as we bounce down the dirt track and on more than one occasion we are required to stop to negotiate huge trenches in the road.

Despite the spirit of adventure, our journey to the village is for sombre reasons; we are to visit a family of five whom the charity have been supporting since their mother and main provider died of AIDS. Since their mother’s death the children have been in the care of their Grandmother who, despite her best efforts, is too old to provide for five hungry kids.

We arrive to a warm reception. The children are particularly striking- they stare at me looking concerned, puzzled perhaps by my presence. I throw out a couple of winks receiving radiant smiles in return and before long we’re getting on famously. Winking- the international language of rapport.

I have a bit of a shock when I ask the head of the village for the toilet. I am led to a small hut no larger than a double wardrobe and slide in through the narrow entrance. Inside is a dark smelly hole. That’s fine, we’re in the middle of rural Malawi, I hadn’t anticipated any different. However, I wasn’t prepared for the insects. Swarms of the blighters; wasps, bees, strange out-size flies and huge mosquitoes with fat bodied spiders clinging to the wall. I’ll admit I was apprehensive to say the least, but when you gotta go you gotta go.

Anyway, let’s not get bogged (!) down with tiny details…

Having spent some time getting to know the family, Don gives the elderly grandmother a financial gift. Although the charity is reluctant to perpetuate the damaging hand-out culture, sometimes there is no other option. The money, roughly equivalent to £100, will enable the family to eat well for a good while and will go a significant way to paying their eldest’s school fees. The family are overjoyed and give us a live chicken and 10Kg of freshly harvested monkey nuts in return which sustain us on the way home (the nuts that is, not the chicken).

Today was my first glimpse of the true nature of the problems facing Malawi and it was heart-rending to see people living under such strain. I will never forget my visit here: the enforced stoicism of the adults, children playing listlessly at the roadside, the incredible warmth of their smiles – it really hit home.

Day 5:

Today I visited the school built by the charity we support and it was great to see how our donations were being used. One such use was the purchase of a blackboard which allowed the upturned door used presiously to be returned to regular duties. In the absence of chairs, children sit on the floor and listen attentively to their teacher. Suffice to say the school is very basic but at the very least it is a school where no school existed previously.

Currently there are 60 children in attendance in a school able to accommodate more than 250. One of the main problems affecting school attendances is the lack of an educational culture in Malawi. The free education we take for granted is such a rare thing as to be considered by most to be non-existent by most Malawians. Rather than have their hopes of education dashed, most children in rural villages forgo school for a life of work with no real chance of bettering their or their family’s situation. With no little in the way of advertising or mass communication, spreading news that free education is available can only happen by word of mouth which, as anyone in business will tell you, takes a long time.

One idea currently being floated to help move this process along is to offer children a free breakfast on arriving at school. This, the theory goes, would boost attendances by making school attractive to families for whom basic food provision is a daily struggle. Bearing in mind that many children in rural Malawi get by on little more than a cup of maize per day, I would concur with this theory. Unfortunately, as these kids know all too well, there’s no such thing as a free lunch so we’re appealing for support to make this idea a reality. Money is also needed for books, pencils, furniture and to protect the school from poachers encroaching on land designated for schools. There are many obstacles to overcome if you think you can assist with any of them let me know on scott@lovingoutdoors.com.

Tomorrow we visit a hospital and will be returning to the school where I will be hosting a sports day for all the children. Hopefully the egg and spoon race won’t get lost in translation!

Day 6:

This is the second time I’ve had to write today’s blog- the hotel electrics went out before and wiped everything I’d done. *clicks ‘save’*

Today we visited Lilongwe’s main hospital and a medical centre on the outskirts of the town. The medical centre was particularly poor with just four nurses on shift in a small facility that serves an area of 180,000 people. Mud and dirt are moved about the hospital grounds with bare feet and medication is locked behind a large iron gate. On the inpatients ward two lads wait to be seen, both seriously unwell. You have to admire the nurses who work day in day out in these conditions for just 20,000 kwacha a month (about 70 pounds sterling). The Director of the charity here Richard Trotter is hoping they can help them this year with better equipment and facilities.

In the main hospital conditions are much better but still a long way from the standards we take for granted in UK. People waiting to be seen set up camp in the courtyard- judging by the fires and clothes hanging to dry, I would guess that they have been waiting for days on end. It’s hard for me to imagine having to sleep outside a hospital with a life threatening disease and then be saddled with medical bills equal to two months wages- but that’s real life for some in Malawi. Sometimes we take the NHS for granted, I feel.

Day 7:

Today we woke early to visit the school.

Three classrooms are filled with children all learning busily. It’s a beautiful sight. In Class One 4-5 year olds are learning mathematics, next door the 7 and 8 years olds are doing maths and then the 9-10 year olds, English. The kids seem happy for us to be there but seeing children no older than my nephew back in the UK with hunger-swollen stomachs in various states of ill repair was distressing.

In the afternoon I take the kids outside for Sports Day. Eggs not being in abundant supply we have a Stone and Spoon race as well as all the other usual sports day activities. The children seemed to enjoy it but a lot was lost in translation as you will see from the pictures and videos I will post when I am back. We then played football with me in net and the kids taking turns to take penalties. Whoever scored against me got a lollipop- luckily for the kids I was well stocked with sweets and I’m no good in net.

Day Eight:

The last few days I’ve have taking stock of the assessing the trip. To help me wind down I visited an animal sanctuary just outside Lilongwe. Although I didn’t see too many animals, a thrilling encounter with a lions was enough to make it a worthwhile trip. I was also amused at the tour guide’s insistence on showing me a pigeon they had rescued and taken into the sanctuary. A pigeon! I was more impressed with the spider the size of my hand nesting in the cage. “Oh, a spider” he said, humouring me, “but look- a pigeon!”. Funny old world.

Then we went to see the hyena. Unfortunately he wasn’t anywhere to be seen but we did stumble across a long green snake. “Oh, a green mamba- extremely venomous”, my guide tells me, barely able to contain his ambivalence. He later informs me that hyenas are a far bigger worry. They roam wild within the sanctuary confines and are frequently hungry. My guide advises to ‘stand tall’ if they approach. “How many of them are there?” I ask, thinking there was only one. “One in the sanctuary, yes” my guide laughs, “70 wild”. “I see…”

Leaving the hyenas to make alternative dining arrangements, my guide and I take a trip into Lilongwe Nature Park to go kingfisher spotting on the Lilongwe River. Like our illusive friend the hyena, the kingfishers aren’t playing ball today but we do spot a large wild crocodile making a dash for the water. The park is teeming with all kinds of live, living together, eating eachother and are pretty much left to their own devices. We see far more animals wild in the park than in the cages at the sanctuary which is the way I like it.

Day Nine:

The last day of my trip and a day of reflection for me: I have many lessons over the course of my stay.

One of the most important is about judging people. Hands up, I got Angela wrong who, it became clear, had the best of intentions at the beginning of the trip and who presented me with some wonderful gifts on her departure: a key ring with my name carved in it, a wooden fan and a clock on a wooden cut-out of Lake Malawi.

So, what else did I learn?

Firstly, Malawi needs help from the UK and I want Loving Outdoors to play a significant role in that. Secondly, in the UK we take a lot of things for granted, our health, prosperity, services and infrastructure: we’re often told it, but it took coming here for me to really know it.

The most important thing I will take away is a little pearl of wisdom my guide shared with me when I asked him the secret to his unshakable inner calm. He laughed and put it down to something he called ‘Malawi Attitude’. Life can be hard, he tells me, so it’s best to live in the moment: ‘you can’t live all your live at once, so best not to worry.’ It’s a familiar idea but I’ve never heard it expressed quite like that and never has it rung quite so true- it’s not so much about ignoring problems as being thankful for what you’ve got. For the moment I’m in Malawi and have a lot to be thankful for: new friends, amazing memories and incredible natural beauty- let us not ignore Malawi’s problems but confront them in the here and now.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for updates on Good Hope School and our ongoing Malawi project.

Scott L.O.