Volunteering with Tikondwe and Zomba Plateau

As with any new job, after a week or so everything starts to become normalised. This is exactly the same with volunteering. After my first week in Malawi the dusty roads, njinga taxis to and from

A group of lads fishing in the local stream I met whilst on a
village walk. They loved posing and were absolutely
hilarious!

places, constant carbs, cacti farms, tiny houses, children screaming 'muzungu' and pigeon roosts became pretty standard. I taught the younger kids from 8ish to 11:30 or 12ish and the elder children from 3 to 4:30/5. My lessons ranged from English to Math to Science to playtime with a different focus for each day. During break the volunteers ate lunch and enjoyed activities like playing with the local children, writing diaries, going for village walks, lunching at the elders homes, playing the local game Bawo, or cake baking (an activity, which has to be completed on a fire, is extremely difficult in my opinion).

Lessons were again like any job you'd have at home; some days were wonderful, others were downright boring or just crap. The younger kids were entirely aware that I was like a substitute teacher in comparison to Diana and so whenever she left the room the morning class would go wild. INSANE.

Satan in the girl on the far right. Don't be fooled by her cute face.

    A lesson which was to be held inside would suddenly be outside as 40 or so children would go running around everywhere making any learning environment impossible to control. Another example of this craziness is when the Parla arrives; the children suddenly stop anything they're doing and crowd around the poor njinga boy struggling with this large bucket of porridge. Some days it would drive me mad and I could not wait to get back to our little common room and have a nice rant about what evil brats some children were. There was actually one child I'd nicknamed Satin as she clambered all over me as soon as I arrived at Mapanje and then proceeded to hit, kick and bite any part of me she could find. She was only about 3 and thought this was hilarious. I didn't care how old she was, it drove me crazy!!

Excitable children in my afternoon class on my last day.

So happy for school to be over and get
some stickers (pody) and mangoes!

There were some lessons though that were an absolute joy to be a part of.
When the younger children listened you could have a LOT of fun with them and felt as though you were making their day that little bit brighter. The elder children were far better behaved and actually managed to learn a fair amount during lesson-time and retain the information for weeks after (as proved by tests at the end of each week). They were active during teaching hours and kept me on my toes constantly, either by finishing work extremely fast or asking relentless questions about the subject at hand, work I had set, and a lot of the time England in general. They were also extremely cute on my last day and sung me a leaving song (which will be put up as soon as my external hard-drive is fixed!).

They were(/are) wonderful kids. I even stayed after school most days to play netball with them. The most aggressive games of netball I have ever, and hopefully will ever, experience! Rules are loosely enforced as criterion's such as 'obstruction' and 'contact' were never applied. At one point I full on body slammed into my TINY partner who didn't even seem to notice! It wasn't just me taking part in sports with the locals; all the volunteer boys were cajoled into playing a game of 'Muzungu vs Malawian' football. It was hilarious! And such a brilliant way to really immerse yourself in the local life. We also won 4-2!

There are some experiences I will never forget, one of which is when Diana invited myself and another volunteer, Sherene, to dinner with her and her family. We bought a few sodas for the kids and proceeded to go inside her home (first time ever even though I visited nearly everyday after school). It was extremely quaint and she had popped a table in the middle of a room set for two. Well there were most definitely more than two of us given the sheer amount of children outside, but she insisted they all ate on the floor whereas we were guests and so should eat at the table. She had cooked rice and an egg, tomato curry; a real privilege in Malawi as rice and eggs are far more expensive than nsima and beans. It was really wonderful to spend the evening with her family and be treated to such a lovely dinner. I felt extremely honoured to have been invited.

A second experience I wont be forgetting is when a long term volunteers grandmother died back in the UK whilst she was in Malawi. It was horribly sad and she dealt with it very, VERY well. Papa had contacted a priest and asked him to come and say a few words in her memory that night. I am in no way religious, but I thought the gesture to be really touching. That evening I heard a group of people mourning and singing from inside Mama and Papas house. This demonstration of affection and appreciation for life shown by the people of Domasi has really stuck with me. I thought it was so beautiful that people who have never met the one who has passed away could mourn so earnestly.

Another is that everywhere you go in the Domasi region, you hold celebrity status.

A young girl running after the njingas to town

The villagers really seem to enjoy having muzungus living near them! It's almost a game for the children to spot a muzungu miles away and yell hello to them so the volunteer looks around wildly trying to find the source of the sound. How they actually see us from so far away still baffles me! Adults stop you in the roads, streets and dirt tracks to say hello and ask how you are. You're invited into homes and schools and asked to play games from dawn til dusk. Children run after your njinga or taxi just to say hello and get a wave; it's so adorable it's unreal!

I really do love Domasi and would go back there in a second if given the chance. The project is entirely worthwhile and the villages surrounding your home could not be more typically Malawian even if they tried.




The local town Zomba was nowhere near as beautiful or as cultural, but it does have the Zomba Plateau which is STUNNING. Myself and 3 other volunteer girls went here for the weekend and it was entirely worthwhile (if you love hiking. If you don't it becomes entirely pointless). We stayed at the basic 'Trout Farm' which advertises some non-existent fishing and is a bog standard place to

Klara queen waving whilst walking uphill.

sleep. The best part of staying here by far was the sheer amount of fruit we were offered upon arrival. Berries upon berries, yellow, black and red and so, soooooo yummy.

Our first walk was to the highest point of the Plateau. It wasn't a particularly difficult walk but the views were superb; even my beautiful camera couldn't do them justice. We had a guide called Bonface (fantastic name!) who spoke little to no English but was brilliant all the same! The walk back took us through rocky outcrop and fields of ferns before getting to Chingwes Hole. This hole is where locals used to throw those affected by leprosy to stop further infection. Now its a large hole with various species of tree growing out of it and a bunch of touts trying to sell local rock to you. There is however another beautiful view and the walk to come was to be the best of our trip. We trekked through dense jungle-like plants with no idea where to put our feet so as to not fall over! We passed through a forestry village, a gorge, numerous impressive large rocks, huge baboons and a hollow rock. That's right, a large rock that was entirely hollow and sounded like a drum when you knocked against it. I studied this rock intensely to try and find how it had been hollowed out but every face was solid or touching the ground. Years ago it must've been hollowed out by a river or something and the opening is facing the ground right now so it can't be seen. It really did baffle me! The last part of our 6hour walk took us through some beautiful waterfalls which (much to Bonfaces delight so he could wash) we stopped at to clamber over rocks and generally splash about.

Me in my geek outfit.

Our second day was a lot shorter than the first with only 3-4 hours of walking. Bonface eagerly turned up outside our door at 7am which was excruciating on a Sunday, but we obliged and got changed quickly to walk to Chagwa Dam. This walk was another 'where-do-I-put-my-feet?!' moments as we scrambled over streams, through dense jungle-like-forest and generally got quite wet. Chagwa Dam was unimpressive, but Queens View and Emperors View a few minutes walk past it were superb. A full 180 degree view of Zomba town in all its glory, mountain behind and all. Absolutely incredible in the early morning sun.

Locals live on the plateau walking roughly 10km every day to buy produce from Zomba town then the 10km back again to use or sell it. The plateau has a section of pine forest (which is slowly becoming more and more scarce) where locals cut down trees to carry down to the town to sell to other town locals. The way they carry this is nothing short of incredible! We passed a bunch of men and women walking down with an incredible load of tree trunks on their heads! Just check this out:

WOW!

 

I can't do it. Believe me, I tried.

There are also some mind-blowingly skilled people working in the carpentry industry up the Plateau. Really amazing artistry.

This is to be my last blog about my time in Domasi, Zomba and with Tikondwe. I was genuinely sad to be leaving after my month was up. It was extremely tempting to extend my stay, however the Ilala was calling me up Lake Malawi to Nkhata Bay.

Sunset in Domasi in the fields at what volunteers called 'the rock'.