A lot has happened in the last two weeks.
First of all I’m much more flexible again :) I have rented a motorbike! Yippee!
But let’s start from the beginning.
Research approval
I was so fortunate to get the
contact no. of a local Professor here at the University in Mzuzu. Rochelle was so
nice, she invited me over for dinner and we had a proper chat about my research
project. She is the Manager of the Centre of Excellence for Water &
Sanitation here in Mzuzu. That was also the time when I discovered that an
official application had to made to the National Commission for Science and
Technology in Lilongwe to get approval for my research. This is necessary if I
would like to publish anything later on. Rochelle was so kind to send me some
examples what they were looking for and the mandatory documents. I would like
to spare you all from the details they were looking for. This was a massive
application and not done in one day – better said it took one week!!! Anyway, I
started to develop my questionnaire. I had lots of ideas, but phrasing the
questions in the correct way was challenging. I decided to create some headings
and then see where the questions would fit.I put some plain paper up on the walls and stuck the different questions
on there with blue tack. I loved structuring the questionnaire that way. I
reminded me about teaching in Vietnam!
Creating my Questionnaire
Later on that week I did meet up with
Rochelle again to run by my questionnaire and made some changes. I was grateful
for any tips and ideas I got! The rest of the time was spent to prepare all the
other forms. There was no shortage of work. On Monday I managed to go to the bank to pay in the money for the research proposal. Have you ever seen over 100 people in a bank? You need to get a ticket first of all. I got number 609 and guess what number was served at the moment? 478! OMG, yes, I had to wait 1.5 hours for a 3 minute visit at the counter! That was an experience!!!!
Payment receipt - Research proposal
Finally on Tuesday last week it was
ready to go. I was at Mzuzu University trying to get the papers printed.
Mzuzu University Grounds
What
didn’t seem to be a challenge first did turn into one! The first printing
shop was closed; the second who was a green container was only able to copy, as
the guy had gone out who was responsible for printing; in the third place the
printer was broken.
Green Printing container - Mzuzu University
BUT I found a place to print after 1.5hours. It was a
private student who had a laptop and a private printer and he printed
everything off for me :) I was delighted to have found him and that he made
such an effort to get things printed. Thank you! I send the application by
courier to Lilongwe! That felt good!
Courier G4S to Lilongwe
However, so far I didn’t get any
acknowledgement from them, but I will chase them the coming week. Fingers
crossed I will receive my approval in the next 4 weeks. Before that I cannot
start surveying at all.
Pre-School teacher training
Pre-School kids in front of the school during the training
One morning last week was set-aside for
Pre-School Teacher training. We drove out to a rural Pre-school with staff from
Wells for Zoe and the kids welcomed us with applaud and songs. It was a very
lovely atmosphere.
Warm welcome!
Have a look at the video:
After singing and dancing with the
pre-school children the Teacher training began.
We had some speeches in the
beginning and the chief of the village had joined as well. He was interested to
discuss some wells and therefore some of us including myself left the training
and set with the chief to see what challenges they were facing or what help was
needed.
Talk with the chief (2nd from the left)
Florence was there as well, she is local woman from Doroba area and she
will be my translator for the questionnaire. I had a good chat with her and we
agreed to meet the following week to discuss my questionnaire and the
implementation of surveys, what village to choose and so on!
Miriam - The Teacher Trainer
Local Pre-School Teachers
Happy with his toy!
The local women cooked porridge for the
children and the new spoons and plates we had brought were used instantly.
I
was interested how the women were cleaning the pots and so I helped them a
little bit.
Cleaning pots
It takes me a way longer to clean the pots than the locals, but it taught me how to use the nature to get them cleaned.Some strong blade of grass was used instead of a sponge and it did work.
Cleaning the outside with sand
To get rid of the black smut, they scrub the pots on the outside with sand so the pots are shiny again.
Look how shiny my pot is!?
How bricks are made
The chief invited all of us to come and
visit the place just 5min from the pre-school where bricks are made. It was
interesting to watch how these bricks were made locally.
Clay is chopped loose
Clay is needed
Clay is filled into the wooden form
Clay is smoothed
Brick brought to dry
Bricks are covered with straw to protect
them from cracking
More water pumps installed
Last week we went off and the Wells for Zoe
Team installed 3 new water pumps as well as built one slab.
Water pump 9 - Village: Kavumba
donated by Ruth, Sophia, Annika, Sheela & Jane-Ann!
Village - water pump 9
Brick supply
Bricks being wet
Explanation to the locals
Women learn now to maintain the pump
bricks build around the pump
Women celebrate having a water pump
Water is flowing - Thanks to the donors Ruth, Sophia, Annika, Sheela & Jane-Ann!
Water pump 10 – Doroba Area – Mzomere
Ngwira village
donated by Julie and Eugenie
Mzomere Ngwira village
Kids are helping with the pipes
Getting the pump ready
Toolbox
Women learn how to maintain the pump
Almost ready!
William explains that the pump still has to dry and they can fix it in half a day!
Water pump 11 – Khamba Region –
Donegonanmazo
donated by Helga!
Installation work
Pigeon house
Bathroom/Shower
Village pig
On the way to the installation - William leading the way!
A local stove - inspection by Steve and John!
Storage area for maize and tobacco!
Maintenance instructions by Steve!
Everybody is interested!
Almost ready!
Water is flowing!
Happiness!
Watch the video!
Motorbike rental
As you might remember from the last blog
entry I was looking for a motorbike for rent. This didn’t seem to be as easy as
I thought as most of the people tried to ask for a fortune to rent a bike. It
seems like if they see your white skin the price is 5 to 10 times as high as
for locals. I decided to not pay these ridiculous prices and kept looking. I
met Jim, an American who is also involved in pump installations and borehole
drilling. When we were talking about my research project he somehow mentioned
that he had a motorbike, which he gave to a Malawian friend. He said he would
ring him and see if I could rent it from him. That was last week Thursday and I
found an agreement with Chimaliro to rent the bike to me for 2.5 months. I was
very excited.
My bike for the next 2.5 months!
So now I’m driving since one week with my ‘new’ bike and guess I
often I had to see the mechanic. Yes, three times already.
But well, I had
known it is not a new bike and the repairs didn’t cost must at all. I hope
after some maintenance is done that the bike will run smoothly after all ;)
Fingers crossed!
Getting approval from the chiefs
As I was finally mobile and able to drive
to some villages myself I had agreed to meet up with Florence in Doroba Area to
visit some villages which I would like to survey. So I headed off, after a
quick stop at the pump factory where the guys gave me some directions how to
find the village Florence is living in. I was a bit afraid if I can find it myself,
as there are no signs or anything if you leave Mzuzu and get out on the dirt
red roads. So I drove on my new motorbike ready for the next adventure and it
was one indeed. I managed after asking twice some locals on the way to reach
Florence house!
Florence House + my bike
Dirt roads - however that was a flat one!
First milestone reached :) The roads were unreal I have to say.
I never drove between such craters before, really bumpy and lots of sand. Yeah,
you could ask yourself if you wanted to train for a cross-country motor race! I
was wondering how I would manage to drive with a passenger on these roads. Well
I soon found out. After chatting to Florence about the questionnaire and that
we would need translation into Tumbuka the local language, we decided to hit
the road. Florence had planned to drive to 4 different villages. We arrived at
the first one where we were nicely greeted and asked to walk to the local
church. Some people from the village would come and talk to us. So they did and
soon we were in the middle of an official meeting with the chief’s attendance.
Women and men were seated totally separate. They were all very friendly and
asked lots of questions; most of them were related to how I or ‘Wells for Zoe’
could help them. We explained the nature of my study and my survey and they
were very pleased to participate in my studies. I was chuffed!
Maize storage
Local house with sponges on the roof
The sponges are used for bathing to rub the skin.
1st meeting in Ngoti Ngwira
The roads we drove on to visit the next few villages was more than adventurous!There was not even a road sometimes and others were just accessible by foot or a bike. No car would be able to drive there to be honest! We had massive ascending and descending slopes with massive craters in it. Sometimes Florence had to get off the bike as it was impossible to drive with two people. But we did manage and we had a very successful day. All four villages were pleased with my survey coming up and they all welcomed me back! Thanks so much Florence for your help! You are an amazing help!
2nd village - Mlokota Tupa
3rd meeting - Bandawe
Local women with a 2 weeks old baby girl!
4th village - Kachasu
5th village - Yesata Moyo
Chief with his wife in Yesaya Moyo
Umosa “Street Children”
Last Thursday we were invited to the local
Street Children program in St. John on God in Mzuzu. They have a programme
every Thursday afternoon where they do story telling, play games, dance, learn
something about Culture, Music and History and they get a meal as well. It was
just a joyful event. Our housekeeper Phil invited us to come along and I’m so
grateful she did. The funniest part was a local dance! Some of the kids dressed
up in Uniforms and performed the dance. They asked Emer and myself to
participate as well! So we did :) It was so much fun to dance with them!
Mary Coyne handing over a cheque
Kids dancing!
Special dance in the uniforms!
Add caption
Emer and Kerstin trying their best :)
So much fun!
Food for the children!
School opening in Rumphi – My first bigger motorbike trip
I had an eventful morning yesterday. I got
up early as the school opening where I was invited to was 70km away from Mzuzu
und it did start already at 9am. So I left my house a quarter past 7. However I
didn’t get very far. Shortly after Mzuzu University my motorbike decided to not
accelerate anymore. I was only able to use the first or second gear. So I
turned around and tried to reach the mechanic place, where I was beforehand,
around 2km away. I did, but nobody was there. After a call and an hour spend
waiting from the mechanic he checked the bike and said it is the exhaust pipe.
He cleaned it and then I finally started my trip to Rumphi. It was a nice
drive, even if the M1 is the main road. Just some Minivans have no idea how to
overtake a bike. They drive so close past you that you almost fall of your
bike. So I decided to leave more space between myself and the left side of the
road, so I can actually move to the left if that happens again. It took me 1.5
hours to reach Rumphi.
Chandamale Primary School
The opening ceremony had just started! It was brilliant
– a big Primary school and so many kids everywhere.
Chiefs wife dancing away!
They were so excited to see
some white people, so I had a lot of chats and dances with the kids. The
building works were not completely finished but the roof was done and most of
the classrooms were usable. It was a lovely experience and thanks to Laura who
invited me in the first place!
