Excuse the pun, I couldn't resist!
Team Malawi are back in Lilongwe very briefly after 3 days of training in Blantyre! The week started with a bang with a drive through the Liwonde National Park on Sunday where we saw lots of animals including Impala (stripy bums), Waterbuck (circle bums), Warthogs, Monkeys, Hippos and Elephants! It was amazing to see the animals we only get to see in zoos out in their natural habitat as it should be and we got VERY excited about the herd of elephants trampling past our minibus. Our mini safari was amazing although it did cause a few travel sick GOLDies with all the bouncing around bumpy roads in a hot minibus!
Our hostel in Blantyre (Doogles) was lovely and we were all in one dorm together which was challenging but nice! The bar area had a swimming pool and the showers were hot and had lights in. This is luxury! Unfortunately we were so busy with trainings that we didn't have time to use the pool but it was nice to sit around at dinner!
Training this week was at MAGGA's office in Blantyre which was a lovely venue with a classroom and outdoor space. The girls were camping for the duration of our time there which was much easier as it meant day 2 and 3 started at the the scheduled time as opposed to 'Africa Time'!
The training sessions were a repeat of those in Lilongwe as MAGGA are keen that all the girls get the same information and experience but what was really interesting was how the level of English and the ideas of the girls differed from the girls of Lilongwe. During our Free Being Me sessions where we asked the girls to draw their perfect party guest (or the 'perfect woman') they came up with things like 'wide hips', 'strong arms', 'dark eyes', 'black hair' and 'short wide legs' whereas the girls in Lilongwe had a much more Westernised view of beauty, drawing girls with light skin, blonde hair, blue or green eyes and a slim hourglass figure!
The girls were really enthusiastic and 'Get Loose', 'Thunderation' and 'Everywhere We Go' went down a storm again along with the Compliment Hands and the session on goals and dreams.
Our last night in Blantyre was celebrated with a campfire which was well constructed if worryingly high and the girls all crowded very close to it. It would not have passed a risk assessment in the UK! All the girls had prepared a short performance including songs and dances and a short skit called 'My Ruined Future' about a teenage pregnancy which was hilarious but also really brought home the problems they have keeping girls in education in Malawi. We hadn't got the memo about preparing a performance but when we were asked to stand up we winged our way through a questionable rendition of 'My Ship Sailed from China', 'Go Well and Safely' and 'TAPS' and Edelweiss complete with handclaps and the International Commissioner for Malawi (a diehard Sound of Music fan apparently!). When the campfire burned low we cooked potatoes directly in the embers which the girls dug our with their bare hands! They were delicious and we headed back to the hostel tired but happy.
We didn't get picked up to come back to Lilongwe until 10.30am which meant we got to have a treat in the form of ACTUAL BREAKFAST. This was very exciting because our meals options have been extremely limited as we have had no cooking or cooling facilities since we got here. Breakfast especially has been difficult and has consisted of a variety of pastries, teacakes and doughnuts, all of which are delicious but hard to swallow early in the morning!
Our drive back to Lilongwe was pretty smooth going and we made a couple of stops to refuel the mini van and our stomachs. One of the things we'll miss about Africa is buying snacks, drinks and even vegetables through the windows of our minibus! We even had time to make a quick surprise stop in Dedza to run a mini session for a few girls who were unable to make it tot he Lilongwe trainings.
So that's what we have been up to since our last blog post! Wifi is widely available but unreliable so we'll continue to keep you updated when we can! This morning we're headed to Salima to a camp by the lakeshore which we're all very much looking forward to!
Much Love,
Team Malawi.
Friday, 12 August 2016
Monday, 8 August 2016
It is a Lion. Yes it is a Lion.
So Saturday brought a magical mystery tour of Lilongwe accompanied by the girls from Malawi's new GOLD team! It was another early start (I'm dying for a lie in!) and we were picked up in the MAGGA mini bus ready for an adventure!
First stop was a cultural village somewhere outside of Lilongwe where we were shown some traditional Malawian huts made of bamboo and straw roofs. They were lovely and cool inside and much larger than they looked on the outside. We sat by the water and were served nshima and stew in a bowl which the whole group ate from as is traditional in Malawi.
Next up was a stop at the grave of the first president of Malawi, who ruled for over 30 years (until he was in his 90's) while Malawi created it's new democratic system. He was much loved by the people and he has an elaborate mausoleum which we were shown round by the lovely guide.
In the afternoon we were taken to the Lilongwe Wildlife Reserve which was all of our favourite part of the day. The park rehabilitates and relocates it's animals primarily and the animals that live there full time are injured or have been bred in captivity. The enclosures are huge and are as close to their natural habitat as possible so they don't guarantee any animal sightings at all but there were plenty of monkeys to be seen and we were lucky enough to be at the lion enclosure at feeding time. It was a struggle at first to see the lion but we all managed (with the exception of Alannah who after several explanations of 'look between the 3rd pole and the first tree under the red bar' divulged she was short sighted and couldn't see that far...).
Last on the itinerary was Kumbali Cultural Village which I can only describe as the Centre Parcs of Malawi where we mostly watched some volleyball and Rhiannon was asked to step in when one team was one player down. The rest of us got very excited because they sold Coco Pina, a fizzy drink which smells like air freshener but is surprisingly refreshing. Despite some enthusiastic cheerleading and several Mexican Waves Rhiannon's team still lost.
At the end of an action packed day we were dropped back at the lodge when we realised we didn't have enough money to pay the hostel bill. Cue an emergency dash to several ATM's in the car of an employee of the lodge's restaurant. Cash points only give out 40 000 Kwacha at a time and we can only use cash points at Standard Bank which has been a bit of a struggle in terms of paying for team essentials but we've pretty much figured it out now!
We're off to Blantyre tomorrow so there will be more news soon!
Much Love,
Team Malawi
First stop was a cultural village somewhere outside of Lilongwe where we were shown some traditional Malawian huts made of bamboo and straw roofs. They were lovely and cool inside and much larger than they looked on the outside. We sat by the water and were served nshima and stew in a bowl which the whole group ate from as is traditional in Malawi.
Next up was a stop at the grave of the first president of Malawi, who ruled for over 30 years (until he was in his 90's) while Malawi created it's new democratic system. He was much loved by the people and he has an elaborate mausoleum which we were shown round by the lovely guide.
In the afternoon we were taken to the Lilongwe Wildlife Reserve which was all of our favourite part of the day. The park rehabilitates and relocates it's animals primarily and the animals that live there full time are injured or have been bred in captivity. The enclosures are huge and are as close to their natural habitat as possible so they don't guarantee any animal sightings at all but there were plenty of monkeys to be seen and we were lucky enough to be at the lion enclosure at feeding time. It was a struggle at first to see the lion but we all managed (with the exception of Alannah who after several explanations of 'look between the 3rd pole and the first tree under the red bar' divulged she was short sighted and couldn't see that far...).
Last on the itinerary was Kumbali Cultural Village which I can only describe as the Centre Parcs of Malawi where we mostly watched some volleyball and Rhiannon was asked to step in when one team was one player down. The rest of us got very excited because they sold Coco Pina, a fizzy drink which smells like air freshener but is surprisingly refreshing. Despite some enthusiastic cheerleading and several Mexican Waves Rhiannon's team still lost.
At the end of an action packed day we were dropped back at the lodge when we realised we didn't have enough money to pay the hostel bill. Cue an emergency dash to several ATM's in the car of an employee of the lodge's restaurant. Cash points only give out 40 000 Kwacha at a time and we can only use cash points at Standard Bank which has been a bit of a struggle in terms of paying for team essentials but we've pretty much figured it out now!
We're off to Blantyre tomorrow so there will be more news soon!
Much Love,
Team Malawi
Saturday, 6 August 2016
Wait! Let Me Take a Selfie....
Our first week of training is over already and we've struggled to find a spare minute to keep you all updated on what we've been up to, so I will catch you all up while we're waiting for our dinner (they're on 'Africa Time' so it'll be a while yet....)
We didn't have long to recover from our somewhat epic flight before we had to don our neckers once more and head to our first training session with rangers and leaders from all across Lilongwe. The training took place at a local primary school which was great for us as it meant the girls had desks to sit at, and we had chalk boards to write on and lots of outside space for songs, games and energisers.
The first day was daunting, none of us really knew what to expect (although Rhiannon had a bit of a better idea having done this before) and when we got there there was a distinct lack of girls. However we started with a song in true GOLD style and they started trickling in until we ended up with around 40 girls. Training for the day focused on their Guiding promise and laws, what makes a good Girl Guide, fundraising techniques and some self esteem workshops which saw all the girls writing compliments on their handprints. The compliment hands were a great success and we stuck them all onto a drawing of a tree at the front of the class. Alannah made a lot of new friends with her willingness to pose for an unending parade of camera phones and her game 'Fishy, Fishy, Fishy' which became a firm favourite of the girls. 'Get Loose' also went down well, with the girls leading their own version by the end of the day albeit with some questionable lyrics - 'Get Dunky' anyone? This was also the day we discovered nshima, pineapple Fanta and hole in the floor loos...
By day 2 we were feeling a lot more confident and turned up armed with newly rewritten session plans to account for the late arrival of the majority of the girls. Sure enough we started with a handful of girls which gradually swelled into a classroom full by our second training session of the day. Alicia taught the girls 'Camarussa' a song/dance combo no one had ever heard of but the girls adored. We ran through some of the 'Free Being Me' activities focusing on self esteem, the image myth and beauty standards around the world (fun fact: some of the girls told us they knew about false tan as they'd seen it on SpongeBob. Weird). We also created some posters for the girls to take away and use to promote MAGGA in their communities. The girls taught us a few of their songs and games in which we made up for lack of pronunciation with effort and awesome dance moves.
Day 3 turned out to be a half day which meant some hasty reshuffling but we did some more work on how to fundraise for their units and a session on role models and how they could be role models in their communities. We ended the day by teaching the girls 'Make New Friends' and singing 'Thunderation' again which the girls love!
After posing for approximately 42,544 photographs, the Malawi GOLD team took us into town into some of the local markets which was definitely an experience! We squeezed through some tiny spaces surrounded by swaths of gorgeous fabrics and left with purses slightly lighter! The markets are like mazes and we were grateful that the Lilongwe girls were there or we may still have been wandering in there now!
It's been a crazy busy few days interspersed with moments of hilarity such as Clare becoming the Hulk and snapping the door handle in two, Clare following a waitress around a restaurant for a considerable length of time while trying the track down a taxi, the powercut in ShopRite (Malawi's answer to Asda) and freezing cold showers (shortly followed by a total lack of water at the lodge).
Tomorrow we have a rare day off and the girls from Malawi's own GOLD team will be taking us out to see the sights of Lilongwe! We're very excited and off to bed early ready for another early start.
More to follow soon.
Much GOLD love,
Team Malawi.
We didn't have long to recover from our somewhat epic flight before we had to don our neckers once more and head to our first training session with rangers and leaders from all across Lilongwe. The training took place at a local primary school which was great for us as it meant the girls had desks to sit at, and we had chalk boards to write on and lots of outside space for songs, games and energisers.
The first day was daunting, none of us really knew what to expect (although Rhiannon had a bit of a better idea having done this before) and when we got there there was a distinct lack of girls. However we started with a song in true GOLD style and they started trickling in until we ended up with around 40 girls. Training for the day focused on their Guiding promise and laws, what makes a good Girl Guide, fundraising techniques and some self esteem workshops which saw all the girls writing compliments on their handprints. The compliment hands were a great success and we stuck them all onto a drawing of a tree at the front of the class. Alannah made a lot of new friends with her willingness to pose for an unending parade of camera phones and her game 'Fishy, Fishy, Fishy' which became a firm favourite of the girls. 'Get Loose' also went down well, with the girls leading their own version by the end of the day albeit with some questionable lyrics - 'Get Dunky' anyone? This was also the day we discovered nshima, pineapple Fanta and hole in the floor loos...
By day 2 we were feeling a lot more confident and turned up armed with newly rewritten session plans to account for the late arrival of the majority of the girls. Sure enough we started with a handful of girls which gradually swelled into a classroom full by our second training session of the day. Alicia taught the girls 'Camarussa' a song/dance combo no one had ever heard of but the girls adored. We ran through some of the 'Free Being Me' activities focusing on self esteem, the image myth and beauty standards around the world (fun fact: some of the girls told us they knew about false tan as they'd seen it on SpongeBob. Weird). We also created some posters for the girls to take away and use to promote MAGGA in their communities. The girls taught us a few of their songs and games in which we made up for lack of pronunciation with effort and awesome dance moves.
Day 3 turned out to be a half day which meant some hasty reshuffling but we did some more work on how to fundraise for their units and a session on role models and how they could be role models in their communities. We ended the day by teaching the girls 'Make New Friends' and singing 'Thunderation' again which the girls love!
After posing for approximately 42,544 photographs, the Malawi GOLD team took us into town into some of the local markets which was definitely an experience! We squeezed through some tiny spaces surrounded by swaths of gorgeous fabrics and left with purses slightly lighter! The markets are like mazes and we were grateful that the Lilongwe girls were there or we may still have been wandering in there now!
It's been a crazy busy few days interspersed with moments of hilarity such as Clare becoming the Hulk and snapping the door handle in two, Clare following a waitress around a restaurant for a considerable length of time while trying the track down a taxi, the powercut in ShopRite (Malawi's answer to Asda) and freezing cold showers (shortly followed by a total lack of water at the lodge).
Tomorrow we have a rare day off and the girls from Malawi's own GOLD team will be taking us out to see the sights of Lilongwe! We're very excited and off to bed early ready for another early start.
More to follow soon.
Much GOLD love,
Team Malawi.
Tuesday, 2 August 2016
London to Lilongwe!
Well what can I say? It's been an action packed 48 hours since we left London on Sunday night, fresh faced and excited. Here's the story of our somewhat epic journey...
Team Malawi were reunited at the Hilton Heathrow Terminal 5 (courtesy of Emma's amazing boss and Hilton York) and enjoyed what could definitely be one of the most luxurious starts to a GOLD project there has ever been. We had a lovely evening meal, a never ending breakfast, a relaxing afternoon in the spa and hydrotherapy pool and plenty of hot water (a commodity we are already sorely missing).
The next morning we headed to Heathrow carrying/dragging our very heavy bags between us. A game of higher or lower amused us whilst checking in our bags (as well as most of the queue behind us). One GOLDie's bag weighed in at just 13kg! This girl packs light, can you guess who?! Passing through security took a while, not pointing any fingers (Laura who managed to lose her passport in the space of a few feet and Emma who had to be frisked and swabbed for explosives...) but we were in the departure gate in no time.
The flight was delayed by 40 minutes but that just gave us extra time for the goodbye calls to our families and some food to keep us going. We have some nervous flyers in the group, particularly Alannah who was shaking like a leaf by the time we got to the gate. We weren't able to get seats next to each other and were spread all over the plane and that hadn't helped the situation. As we tried to switch our seats the Captain was passing by and came and had a chat with Alannah, talking her through the flight and reassuring her. She was truly spoiled from that moment on and the BA staff were fantastic, smuggling her gin and sweets, taking her to see the sunset through the emergency doors and giving her a copy of the flight path signed by all of the crew at the end of the flight. She did so well and we're all really proud of how brave she was.
The flight itself was uneventful but bumpy in places and we landed in Lilongwe 17 hours later after a quick connection (there was running) in Johannesburg. Arrivals in Lilongwe was out first taste of how Malawians queue (they don't) but we got through without any major issues. A lovely driver was at the airport to meet us and drove us to our hostel in Lilongwe, the Golden Peacock Lodge.
We were met by a team of people not long after, some lovely girls from MAGGA and from the Malawi GOLD teams who we will be working with throughout the project. After some introductions, hugging and some singing they left us to recover and it was freezing showers and an early night all round.
Our second day has been spent planning tomorrow's training, buying the resources we'd need and exploring the local area. Tomorrow will be out first day of training and we're all really looking forward to getting stuck in!
That's all from us for now, we have a very early wake up call!
Much love,
Team Malawi
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