Tuesday 26th July
27 Eggs
Only few days left before my return to England, but I feel that 2 months was just the right length of time to finish what I wanted to do. Fuel briquette project has been revived and 6 new projects started.
UPILE was my priority and they received 2 sewing machines (one of them zigzag), little library of 15 books for lending (some in Chichewa, some English), plus teaching materials, football and of course the carts which were donated by AFRICART. There is also a plan to teach tailoring to some orphans, particularly the ones who have no adult to rely on.
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Three other orphan centres can also start the tailoring business, two villages are busy digging their new communal gardens and in one village, donuts are being cooked daily. You might remember from my ‘donut factory’ story that they were planning to sell enough donuts to start mushroom production. Fantastic news is that someone –one of you – donated money for the mushroom project. I feel really, really happy about that and the only sad thing is that I won’t be able to see their gleaming faces when they hear the news.
I have also donated corrugated iron sheets to ‘Angoni Tinsmith Centre’. This is an excellent group of volunteers, teaching the skill of bucket making for orphans & vulnerable children. Although learning and making pots, they cannot sell many as they are lacking enough material for producing any extra ones.
The amount of profit people make here have shocked me and it takes very long to get a business growing without a good starter kit. I was very surprised to hear for instance, that when a local shop keeper sells a loaf of bread, the profit is 2 kwacha (one penny) and for a bottle of coke it is only 50 tambala –that is quarter of a penny.
Footballs & shirts were a great success. Most football shirts went to Nasengwe Youth Club. They were so pleased about them that I had to go there twice after my planned good-bye visit. Today they wanted to show me what they have achieved and I was quite impressed about the songs, poems, drama, they had prepared. As a final thing I was told that they all are soon going for an HIV test. This is a group I had such a problem establishing 3 years ago. Now they are openly talking about HIV/AIDS even to outsiders.
If there were singing competitions between my villages, Mjamba would definitely be the winner. The children sang with immense enthusiasm and power: “Welocome, welcome, (Malawian English) we are happy to see you Teli” or “Good-bye, good bye, but not for ever, hallelujah!” The amount of thank you speeches is getting embarrassing, particularly so because YOU are the ones who should be thanked, not me. However, my feeling is that people sincerely mean it, they are thankful and of course that is a very good thing.
Today people were expressing their appreciation for me being independent. “Organisations come and go, but you are the only one who has really helped us. If there were more people like you…” Of course we need organisations, but I hope this will comfort you who have so generously departed from your money. To show their appreciation I was given 27 eggs and 2 huge jams. “Just a small present for you.” Small indeed, I can eat 9 eggs every day until I leave! It was a great gift and I very much appreciate it, particularly when knowing how very little they have themselves.
Even strangers are sometimes showing their appreciation. Few days ago a lady sitting beside me in the minibus, wanted to pay my journey and yesterday a mini-buss driver gave a discount because I am doing orphan work. It is quite touching to get that kind of recognition.
But to keep these ‘achievements’ in a right proportion, I am reminded of something I read recently: “If you want to know how important you are to the world, stick your finger in a pond and pull it out. Will the hole remain?” (Maya Angelou: “ All God’s children need travelling shoes”). No hole in the pond, but temporary relief for some at least.
And that relief will hopefully continue with the help of Joseph who is going to support (not financially, you might guess) for 5 groups and Hilton has promised to visit Mjamba & Nkolesya occasionally, as well as visiting Frocy. Hilton is keen to help, but his life long dream of having an album (gospel music) published, has come true and he is busy promoting it. He has a talent and the whole thing, words, tune and singing are done by him. But, it is a competitive world over there and I sometimes wonder if he can make any sort of income from it. Having said that, two people who heard his songs on the radio have offered to buy him instruments (he hasn’t even got a recorder, let alone any instruments) and that is very encouraging.
A sheet of paper, filled with funny looking Chichewa words is waiting to be typed tonight. I wrote a basic message about nutrition and Joseph has translated it into Chichewa. They will be delivered to anybody willing to have one. I did a similar one about Vitamin A (deficiency very common here) and those went like hot cakes.
My last task here will be on Thursday, when I take an elderly (89) man for an eye test. This Mr Semanje can hardly see, but is looking after himself and even trying to grow some vegetables. He lives in an isolated village and we need to take two mini busses in order to get to the hospital. It is possible of course that he cannot be helped, but it would be a wonderful ending for my trip if he could see again, so what can I do, but try. Hundreds of people are sending their sincere thanks to you all for making this trip, these projects possible.
Zikomo kwambiri,
Teli