Latest News from Malawi

Hi from Malawi where we are moving into winter and the rains have finally stopped.  Although in Mzuzu we can expect showers at any time of the year.

On 7th May I was a guest at the coronation of Senior Chief Mtwalo.  Chief Mtwalo is the T/A (traditional authority) in the area we are working in.  The tribe is N'goni and it was a colourful occasion.  The President was there to perform the ceremony with two chiefs being elevated to senior chiefs.  The families are regarded as the 'Royal Family'.  There was entertainment throughout the day as we waited for the arrival of the President.  After the crowning ceremonies there was a lot of dancing and singing performed by visitors from other areas but for me the best was the tradtional dancing of the N'goni warriors - this is a fantastic specatacle........

it was impossible to get close as it is not allowed to stand in front of the President's podium so this was the best view I could manage of the dancers......there must have been at least 100 of them!

The newly crowned Senior Chief Mtwalo and his wife.

On a more practical note we have now received a delivery of 45 boxes from our friends in Scotland.  Included were white boards, easels and flip chart holders donated by Spaceright Europe and work boots donated by St. Margaret's High School, Airdrie.  I mention these donations particularly as the Adult Literacy training programme started on Tuesday of this week and the instructor had been using masking tape to attach the flip chart pages to the board and the walls of the class room as you can see in the photo below.......

but when we arrived with our delivery we were able to provide a flip chart holder much to the delight of the instructor......

There are two people being trained as trainers who will then work in the community, using the class rooms, to deliver the adult literacy programme.  The programme will run for 10 months and is desigend for those who cannot read or write and will include from the seventh month onwards those who have some literacy skills.  At the end of the course there is an exam and a certificate is awarded to those who pass. 

And the boots are mentioned because............... The boots as you can see from the out of focus photo, were gratefully received by our watchmen and ground workers who are based at the site.  Some of these guys have no shoes and are either barefoot or have flip flops and one or two were wearing gum boots (wellies).  The gum boots are supplied by the Trust for the site workers.  The photo is out of focus as they were excited to have the boots and were jumping around.  We have 7 workers at the site and the boots laid out are for the ones who were not present at the time - the night watchmen. 

Thank you Scotland......we love our boots!

Also in the latest consignment there were another two sewing machines which means we now have 5 sewing machines.  With this we now intend to start the tailoring programme.  We have an instructor coming who will train 10 people, five in the morning and five in the afternoon over an 8 to 10 week programme.  Once trained they will then be encouraged and assisted to set up a working co-operative to improve the lives of their families.

Our latest consignment.......

We are grateful to everyone who has taken time and effort to donate, store and to pack up these items to be sent out to us.  We are particularly grateful to Aabsolute Storage in Glasgow who continue to provide us with a free storage unit where items can be safely stored until such times as they can be sent out and to Bill Richardson for his tireless energy in packing and delivering to the Raven Trust for transportation to Malawi.