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