Snake eyes Sam, lucky Liane, and their wicked gang of rebels

                                                                                

Team Zomba Plateaupus at Saint Mary's School 

Hello and welcome to Team Zomba’s

group blog, if you’re sitting comfortably then I’ll begin.

You join us in the first blog of our 8-week series (currently working on the filming rights) which is being written by myself Bryn Williams, an 18-year-old UK volunteer from the rural heart of Leicestershire, I am part of an already strongly bonded group so, I hope to say that in future blogs you will hear more of the other fascinating characters in my group. I have never actually written a blog before and was something I thought I should try, so, apologies to my harshest critics. My plan is to formulate this first blog like a story, as most of our journey so far has been a quite funny and unique story with many twists and turns along the way, we are quickly learning that is the general flow of things in Malawi.

Our team consists of, two team leaders, Samson the in-country team leader, Liane our UK team leader, and eight volunteers Wezzie, Hazel, Mwayi and Jack; the four In Country Volunteers (ICVs). Me, John, Diana and Emily; the four UK Volunteers (UKVs). On Monday October 9^th our flight landed in Lilongwe - on what appeared an abandoned airfield in the middle of nowhere – and our Malawian journey began.

We met the project organiser Jack Mudd whom took us on our bus journey, through enchanting purple tree lined streets and bustling roads to Messa’s lodge. A fenced lodge on the outskirts of Lilongwe, where we were to stay for three nights with all of the other volunteers and team leaders. An amazing three days getting to know everyone to just enjoy the warm company of all the different characters working in Malawi. One evening we gratefully were able to journey into the intestines of Lilongwe and see the places Lilongwe had to offer. We got to meet Liane (Samson was in Zomba) and on the Thursday of that week we were to travel to Zomba, sadly and quite selfishly three of us, including our beloved team leader Liane and me, preferred the thought of a hospital bed and off we went (definitely wasn’t because our stomachs can’t handle Messa’s food!!) setting our travels to Zomba back a few days. Me and Emily - whom was also ill - luckily headed to Zomba on the Sunday evening with Mr Mudd escorting us, with Liane joining us and Mr Samson to lead us to glory the next Friday. Meeting my host mum was lovely and I felt welcomed immediately, it was the same case for all other volunteers, it has been great eating the local food and seeing how our family lives here, with the classic nsima eaten most nights. This is ever kindly joined by a power cut, a common thing here that we have adapted to quickly, after all a candle lit dinner isn’t so bad.

Monday morning, we walked to our meeting point (a walk I adore every morning) where we are picked up to be delivered to our location; sadly, if we were a DPD package a refund would certainly occur for not being on time! Although many transport issues have occurred we are seeing past it and accepting it as part of the crazy culture. The first week for me started with a speech and a Q&A session at a local private all-girls school called St. Mary’s. All other volunteers also attended and gave their own speech based around life skills before the Q&A session, this being something that is never usually part of International Services’ programme and something we enrolled ourselves in thanks to Diana and Wezzie. The rest of the day consisted of meetings, introductions and training which was the general theme of our first week. YONECO training commenced the next day and did so for three more days on typical topics such as M&E, data management and our own Theatre For Development group and parenting clinic. Although we sat about taking notes for the most part, there was definitely a highlight for most people on the Wednesday, when we headed to witness and help with monitoring at a local football tournament set up and run by YONECO at the Zomba Police Academy. It started very quiet with around 100 children dotted about the place. This rapidly picked up to 1000 kids freely dancing to the blissful and foot tapping, hip swinging sounds of the YONECO band with others screaming and playing in the dirt, probably giddy after a few Frozys, even Mr Samson got up on the mic!

The Children of Zomba at the YONECO football tournament 

For me this event will stay with me forever, the scenery, the smells, the atmosphere and most importantly the people, and even I had a little dance on the stage and that certainly made the children laugh.

Keen football players at the YONECO football tournament 

The next day sadly compiled of more training at YONECO HQ. We usually work on Saturdays and have Sunday and a mid-week day off, as we knew our next week was going to be a busy 6-day week we decided to have the Saturday off. Some of  us met on Friday for a hike up one Zomba’s terrific mountains, striding towards old parliament we climbed quickly and before we knew it we had the most glorious view of Zomba as if intricately painted specifically for us. Later that day we went swimming at Sir Harry Johnston’s International School, a much needed cool down, as Liane had arrived in the later afternoon of that day we met at a place called The Backpackers or Pakachere, a sweet little spot in the middle of the park being home to a hostel where there was more mzungu than wakuda. This meant getting home later than usual which worried my host mum, however, it was of course before the 9pm curfew.

Tensions have arisen in the south with prospect of bloodsuckers haunting villages so sadly our curfews have been changed to 7:30pm, not because we turn into vampires after 7:30 but because there has been attacks on strangers in communities in the more rural areas of south Malawi, quickly spreading north by word of mouth and Malawian whispers. The curfew change is something of a rarity and is only done if completely necessary for safety.

Saturday was a great day for me, I went material shopping for cloth to make some tailored made clothes, it appeared me and Liane were the only two who really wanted to get some shirts/skirts (I only wear skirts on the weekend) and we headed to the tailor who took my measurements and he was a top-notch gentleman who I shall be going back to for many more shirts as he did a sterling job.

Sunday for consisted of sleep and was a lazy day to ‘recover’ and toured the local pub and eat some local chicken with my host brother Paul and watch the football, they love the premier league here.

Monday started off with the weekly YONECO meeting at Mapale which wasn’t too long but getting your voice heard is quite tricky. After this we headed to Ndola drop in centre and did our own weekly meeting and discussed the week ahead planning who would do what and which schools we would visit for our life skills sessions such as, Sir Harry’s International School, High Profile, Mponda etc. The most part of this week has been revolved around sports coaching with creative arts sessions taking place in Bwaila. We completed our community investigation for our theatre for development and the next day started to write our story for our play. It was great fun getting into character and seeing Mr Samson act, you can see he really enjoys it and realises the power of it!

By Bryn Williams (UK Volunteer)