A working day in the life of Bwengu Village North Malawi

The time we get up will depend on 3 things, is it a teaching day? What animals have come in from the bush to our bedroom window? Or how many visitors we have outside waiting to see us. The insect life in the bush is very large.

First things first is to chase, capture, and kill all the previous nights visitors that still remain in the house, essential before Suzanne will put a foot on the ground. Living and working in the village life is very basic. No running water, no flushed loos or TV etc, so basic ablutions are carried out without regards to past niceties it’s a case of needs must.

Our middle daughter told us she had a vision of seeing two old farts being held captive in a cave by left wing terrorists on TV; she insisted we give a false name if this happened. She then decided she wanted us both sectioned, but our eldest daughter refused to sign the papers. (I guess she thought there would be no one to look after her kids)

If teaching (3 days a week) we are out by 6 .30, schools open 7am for first lessons. Suzanne is not a morning person so a cup of tea is a must, toast or cereal depends on what food is available.

If visitors then they will be at the house 6.30 making their plea for aid for their village, the record is 2 young guys on bikes 35 k to reach us. But we are committed to Bwengu and must stay focused on our projects

I go every day to the 2 projects we have on the go, to check on progress and any building needs or problems. Having come out to teach it only took 3 days to realise that with such dreadful conditions we found in the schools there was no way we could spend 19 weeks in the village with out trying to fix some of the problems.

The village lies in the southern end of the rift valley some 3500 ft up in the mountains, 450 k from the capital Lilongwe and 70 K north of Mzuzu the nearest town of any size with shops phones, internet (gas fired). Some 5000 souls live in the village.

Malawi has great beauty it’s lake, mountain rangers and national parks, it also hides much corruption from government civil savants to church preachers the only way to bring aid to the village people is to bring it your self and control how it is spent.( we saw aid donated by national governments being sold in the towns)

There are 3 schools in the village all much in the same condition 22 classrooms without Doors, windows, secure roofs, solid floors, working blackboards or any furniture for children or teachers. Some 2000 children attend these schools.

I try to limit how many times I have to go to Mzuzu in the pick up to collect more cement in any one day. Having no hand break, shocks, rev counter, Air con, and 4 very dodgy tyres, one is miles from anywhere( No AA here) so it pays to have your phone with you) It costs us £3 per day to hire the pick up so maybe we should not complain.

We try to stop work for lunch around 2pm; this will depend on visitors or sick people and children being brought in wheel barrows to our front door. Sickness and death are all around you and are a daily occurrence. We try to do what we can but we are not Doctors nor can we save all the children.

Being pensioners we have done our best and funded the projects our selves in 2006 but like most things in life we ran out of savings before all the classrooms could be renovated.

We have managed to fix 11 classrooms, furnish 4, bringing electricity to 4 classrooms (the first in Northern Malawi) I bell tower, 1 Head teachers office and 1 staff room. Plus other community projects.

We plan to return in 2007 to complete the projects this time with funds for schools and business breakfast clubs plus private donations. We think some nice things will happen this year in Bwengu village.

Food in the winter months is very expensive , children go for days without food, we have plans to build a women’s development centre that will house a grain bank , shops, workshops, library, chicken farm and further education classes .

We believe that the yearly cycle of starvation in the winter months can be broken, with an on going education in business basics being provided and being run by the women of the village a better future for all the 5000 people in the village is possible

Subject to yet more visitors we try to have dinner by 6 then if we really luckily Suzanne will up date our diary we keep for our girl’s and send each week via e mail. we aim to be in bed by 8’30 I fall asleep in mins.

Visit our Webb site www.bwenguprojects.co.uk

Email sue@bwenguprojects.co.uk

tony@bwenguprojects.co.uk