Seventh letter from Africa
April 08
Hello Everyone,

We just got back on Friday from a very busy but most enjoyable 10 days in Mangochi, Blantyre and Lilongwe (check out a map of Malawi on the internet if you are interested - we live in Karonga right up near the Tanzanian border). The 13 hour drive down to Mangochi was pretty grueling but it was certainly worth it to have the time with Rina. We went on village visits with her on Wed 19th (most informative) then early next morning left for Blantyre (2 1/2 hr drive) to start shopping for our house.

The hardest part was ordering cane furniture from a big factory (bewildering choice) and purchasing the fabric to cover all the base cushions and scatter cushions! Ideally the material had to match the walls and two tone lino tiles, lighten the room, meet our colour tastes and also be suitable for other Paladin personnel using the house after we leave. We finally selected the fabrics only to find the shop didn't have enough of the main material :(. Fortunately we were later able to get suitable fabrics in Lilongwe and post them back to Blantyre. (I hope I won't ever need to go through that ordeal again!) Rina was such a help, not only with the shopping, but also arranging accommodation and telling us the best places to eat - quite an international food fest after Karonga where restaurants offer fish and chicken with rice or chips. Easter Friday was a much needed day of rest before we hit the shops again on Saturday.

Sunday we left early to go for a 45 minute boat ride up the mighty Shire River (pronounced Shirree) to a Safari Lodge for a road safari, a delicious smorgasborg lunch then the boat ride back again. We saw lots of animals - impala, water buck, wart hogs, monkeys, baboons, hundreds of hippos on the river and lots of different birds, but the huge male elephant at close range was definitely the star of the show! A most memorable birthday for me.

Monday was a day of rest back at Rina's before we headed off to Lilongwe on Tuesday morning. Our car service was booked a day later than we requested and took two days to complete so it was Friday before we got back home to Karonga.

Talking of 'home' our house rental has hit another delay when we discovered the American missionary family were being kicked out of 'our house' two months early and have to move into alternate accommodation. After telling the owner not to put any pressure on the tenants, we were not happy to hear this but the landlord was adamant. So it's been arranged that Paladin will take over the lease on April 8th and the tenants will stay on until June 8th paying Paladin their usual rent. We start using their extra shed space for all the freezers we have parked in several locations and hopefully move in on June 8th! There is a two bedroom granny flat we want to fix up as well as 4 bedrooms in the house, so feel free to plan a visit once we are settled!
We've enjoyed getting to know the American family and we will be buying quite a bit of their furniture making it easier for us setting up and for them moving out.

I kept my fingers busy while we were travelling and only need to crochet about 18 more squares to complete the total of 85 for our bedspread. In Lilongwe I also purchased some wadding/backing and beautiful African print fabrics to make bedspreads, a wall hanging and table runner. It's fun making things for our 'new' home and helps make the delays easier to bear. I have been also been establishing potted herbs and ornamental plants in readiness for the move - yes, I'm looking forward to having a place to call 'home'!.

Chris has been very busy with the food supply line and Mr Kaluba, our Agricultural assistant, did an excellent job organising it in our absence. Chris ' phone still rang hot as there were a few things to sort out most suppliers were used to contacting him. Chris also got the pedestrian suspension bridge completed the afternoon before we left so there are lots of happy workers up at th minesite who can now count on getting to and from work regardless of how much it rains.

My language lessons are going well and I've discovered some interesting and encouraging things about the Chitumbuka language:

- all Citumbuka words end in a vowel
- almost everything introduced into the culture with the coming of the British is described in English, sometimes with a slight adaptation (vowel on the end) but usually still recognised by an english speaker eg sekerti (skirt), tabula (table) and trouseri (trousers).
- there are no words for hands and feet.
- fingers and toes are arm 'digits' and leg 'digits'
- there are Chitumbuka words for the numbers 1-5 but after that it's english all the way!
Enough for now, warm regards,

Chris and Anne Mattinson
2/04/08

Fifth letter from Africa
24th Jan 08

Adjusting back to life in Malawi has been surprisingly easy after our 2 ½ weeks in WA, almost as if we never went away. But the rains that began in earnest after we left have brought about amazing changes – the temperature has dropped by about 5 degrees, the ants which were in plague proportion have almost vanished, the dry, parched soil has burst forth with vegetation, ‘dead’ trees have turned into lush, vine draped jungles, and everywhere we look there are gardens of rapidly growing maize – the people worked so hard over Christmas/New Year establishing gardens to feed their families for the next 12 months. We enjoy the electrical storms and find the increased humidity much easier to tolerate than the high temperatures of last year.

Chris has been very busy filling weekly food orders and delivering them to the minesite kitchen. With over 500 workers the quantities are huge – 300 kgs beef, 300 chickens, 100 trays of eggs (30 per tray), 100kgs cabbage, 100kgs tomatoes, 50 kgs onions etc. He has a supplier who delivers 1000 kg rice, 500 kg maize meal, 300 kg beans and cooking oil direct to the site so that is taking some of the pressure off. The resulting paperwork also takes time to sort out.

Chris has also been working with the head of the Department of Education to address the need of building schools/teachers houses in the area of the mine. There is also a need for a suspension bridge to be built between the mine and the village where most of the workers live because they are often cut off from home when the flash floods rage through after heavy rain. (Another job for Chris!)

I have been visiting widows’ groups who have micro loans from the Catholic church, with the loans manager and our horticulturalist Mr Kaluba. We have been to eight villages and spend about 2-3 hours explaining to groups of up to 28 ladies how we can help them set up their own little businesses selling vegetables directly to us for the mine. We teach them how to grow things they are not familiar with like carrots, eggplants and capsicums and guarantee them a market.

At each meeting I talk to them (through a translator) about the importance of working together and encouraging one another to achieve their goal. They are enthusiastic and we are now revisiting them to actually plant into their prepared gardens. There are over 100 widows’ groups (widows or women caring for orphans) and 200 more on a waiting list for a loan so we won’t run out of work anytime soon!
At each village there may be between 2 and 12 widows groups each consisting of three women, but we encourage any of the village women to be involved.

We are still looking for a suitable house to rent but each one has been a let down so far – owner decided not to rent or not available for another 3 months, 6 months etc.! There just aren’t many options like we have in Australia!

Since we have been back we have had two self funded Natural Resource Management students doing practical experience with us as part of their course. Happy and Henry have been assisting us both in our respective work and are a pleasure to have around.

We mentioned to some of you that we have struck up friendships with 6 young American volunteers at the Catholic College. The three girls and three guys are of like mind with us to learn how best to help the people.
To date they have had to fund their own work, but now the Marianist (?) Brothers in the US have decided to get behind them and will send out more volunteers on stipends in August. They have been asked to find a mature Expat couple to be mentors to the whole group and approached us. Guess they didn’t have a lot of choice since we are the only mature expat couple in Karonga!! Even so, we enjoy their company and will be happy to be there for them – a listening ear, occasional meal or a place to escape to if things get too much.

Out in the villages very few of the women speak any English and using translators is tedious and time consuming. I’m preparing to start language study on a part time basis as soon as I get a tape recorder (on order) and find a language assistant. There are so many dialects its difficult to know what I’m learning by myself so I need a pure Chitumbuka speaker to learn the ‘trade’ language for the whole district.

Enough of my ramblings,

Warm regards,

Chris and Anne Mattinson

Second letter from Africa.

It's two weeks today since we arrived in Karonga and we've had so many new and interesting experiences it feels like months!

Saturday 22nd Sept. was a big day for us. We were handed the keys of the new vehicle which was purchased for us - its a white Toyota Hilux dualcab with a fibreglass canopy and a very effective air conditioner - a must out here! Later in the afternoon we moved out of the hot little donga into a spacious new home we will be sharing with another couple until the end of the year. C and K invited us to share it with them weeks before we left Australia. They are a nice, young, laid back couple and we all get on fine together. We have a big bedroom and our own bathroom and there are still two extra rooms and another bathroom for visitors. C and K spend most week days up at the exploration camp and just come down for weekends. They are presently in WA for break so there hasn't been a lot of overlapping yet!.

Last week we were invited to a meeting at the Karonga District Office to meet with Chief Karonga and about 30 village headmen and chiefs, all dressed in suits and ties (Yes, Chris packed a tie for such occasions!). We were given an opportunity to talk about what we will be doing and then a number of the leaders responded by welcoming us and offering what ever assistance we might need. They said they would work out a schedule for us to visit all of their villages - this will really help us to get a good overview of what is currently happening in the area.

The next day we went with a young man from the Agricultural Department to look at three irrigation projects. The first one is a lake canal system which has not been sucessful because the water level in the lake fluctuates and the waves have silted up the entrance. The government is looking at installing a pump and tank for gravity irrigation using water from the dam that has formed behind the silt bank. The second project is an amazing success - 365 hectares of rice padis being gravity irrigated through canals from a river. The beautifully productive green land stands in stark contrast to the surrounding parched and dusty countryside. The third project we saw was also well set up but not running to its' full potential because farmers using the ten hectare area are not working together. Our day ended with a visit to a farmer who is trying all sorts of innovative ideas and sucessfully running his land organically. He propagates fruit trees and we're interested in buying his grafted citrus trees for wet season planting in the villages.

This last weekend was a lazy one for us - as Chris pointed out, the first time we've really been able to stop for many months. I baked bread and a chocolate cake - my way of relaxing and feeling more at home in our new location!!

This week we had the first two days back up at the construction camp. We helped the environmentalists by collecting and potting small plants from the area where one of the tailings dam will be situated. Later on these plants (if they survive!) will be used to rehabilitate the area. It was fun though I kept an eye out for snakes!

If you get a chance to write a few lines we'd love to hear from you.

Chris and Anne

Third letter from Africa.

It's four weeks today since we arrived here at Karonga so we feel like part of the landscape now - a hot and dusty part at that!

You may be wondering what the climate is like. Up until the last few days the inside temperature has averaged around 31 - 32oC in the afternoons dropping to 29oC at bedtime and 25 - 26oC at dawn.
However this week it's warmed up and was 34oC inside yesterday, over 30oC at 11pm and 27oC this morning - and we've been told it will get worse :)!! It's been a lot windier lately too so everything gets covered in fine dust. (The fan we purchased is getting well used!)

We've noticed a strange phenomenom here. We were told all the dead looking trees on the barren hillsides would turn green once the rains come in December, but in the last few weeks we've noticed new leaves on many trees and shrubs. The chief told us that a month or so before the rainy season begins the water table starts to rise and this causes the sap to start flowing in the vegetation - interesting and encouraging!

After the first few busy weeks things have slowed down and we're trying not to get impatient playing the waiting game - waiting for Ed to get back from Australia (another week? 10 days?) to interview applicants for the position of our Agricultural Assistant, after which he (our new assistant) will contact village leaders to arrange our visits.

Meanwhile some of the highlights of the last two weeks are:

- A weekend in Mzuzu which is a fairly big town about 3 hrs south in the cooler hills. The steep winding road with slow or broken down trucks was tortuous and the music festival we went for was a bit of let down though the beach resort location for it was nice.

- Coming back we diverted to have lunch at "The Mushroom Farm" 10 kms up an incredibly steep road with 19 hairpin bends (one of which has to be negotiated with a three point turn!) to the very basic, quirky restaurant and accommodation perched on the edge of the cliff with the most incredible view of the lake. They didn't have any mushrooms (!) but we did enjoy our meal and consider it a very memorable occasion!!

- More time spent digging up and potting plants for rehab. of the tailings area.

- A really good public meeting on Monday with the chief, local agricultural advisor and about 30 of the local women from the village near the minesite who will be involved in producing vegies for the mine kitchen. They are friendly, enthusiastic and rearing to go! They said they will bag up cow manure for the gardens (something they don't usually do) and get a whole lot of garden beds prepared by Friday. We will then transport the manure to the gardens and help them plant the first gardens. I'm sure they could do it themselves, but because they are not familiar with a lot of the vegetables we want them to grow they want us to make sure they do it right! We got a range of packet seeds in Mzuzu and have put in an order for cans of various seeds for later on.

- On the weekend I worked with the gardener at our house to plant a personal vegie garden. C and K had a whole lots of seeds someone sent out from Aust. and said to feel free to get some going. Paladin rents the house and employs a young guy to look after the established gardens and he seemed happy to have something to do besides watering.

- C and K got back from Australia yesterday and had to go straight up to camp with a car load of workers while we were driving an hour south to pick up a South African Biologist who also needed to get to camp - Chris took him up after lunch.

Well, enough of my ramblings, cheerio until next time,

Love, Chris and Anne.

First letter from Africa

Greetings from Karonga, Malawi,

At last we have access to internet - in fact technicians have just connected the office to wireless broadband today. We had a good flight to Johannesburg and each managed to get about 4hrs aleep then we had 5hrs in the airport before our 2hr flight to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. We were delayed there overnight and half of next day waiting for a new vehicle to be released and finally came up to Karonga with Ed (our head geologist travelling companion) in a hired vehicle.We overnighted in a guesthouse in Mzuzu and arrived for lunch at the Karonga house/office. We put our luggage into a donga (workers' ensuite room) and left for the minesite with an overnight bag - extremely rough road - delightful exploration camp all made of bush materials, (Saltbush Bill style!) no nails, hard packed mud floors, bucket showers in thatch open air cubicles and a similar arrangement for toilets with choice of squat or cement throne!! Hand basins are buckets with taps atbottom on tables over plastic tubs.

We slept in a nice tent on a foam mattress on a proper bed frame. A generator provides electricity from 5am to 10pm. All cooking is done over open fires in cement structures. Meals are simple but tasty eg beef stew, boiled potatoes coleslaw; chicken/tomato stew, greens and rice; boiled eggs, sausages, steamed platains and toast for breakfast, sausages and mash for tea last night back here at the Karonga office.
We drove a brand new toyota twin cab back from camp yesterday (The one we'd been waiting for the day before - they had to get a driver to bring it up to the camp from the capital!)- it's not ours - we're getting one of the two new ones being driven up from Lilongwe today! Bit flash but sure takes the edge off all the nasty bumps!

We met with Chief Kayalekera and did a trip around his area incl. the coal mine which employs 230 people and an irrigation system he has going - exciting for us as we can eaily modify the system to have it irrigate a much bigger area for dry season gardening. He's a nice guy and seems very keen for any assistance we can give. All the people both expats and Malawians are v. friendly and have made us feel most welcome.

Because of our time in Irian Jaya this new culture has probably had a lot less impact on us than it might have - some of the terrain is a lot like coastal IJ, the smiling, national faces seem familiar and there's even something vaguely comforting about the familiarity of bucket showers and long drop toilets!! (We have western toilets here in Karonga just in case you were concerned! :)

We are grateful to have missed out on jet lag, in fact we have felt very well since we arrived. Word is we will be shifting out of the little, hot Donga tomorrow to share a spacious house with a young WA couple until something becomes available for us. We met them at the camp and get on well together.

We'd love to hear from you.
Until our next update,

Love from Chris and Anne