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Last weekend we finally left Chipata and tagged along with some other volunteers who were driving over to Lake Malawi. We pitched a tent literally three metres from the beach and next door to the cocktail bar (think Tom Cruise in ‘Cocktail’). We couldn’t believe our luck – all for £2 a night.
We were awake by 6:30 the first morning and jumped straight into what felt like the biggest swimming pool on earth, the Lake.JPG)
was completely calm, clear and warm even at that time in the morning.
The rest of the weekend went pretty much as you’d expect, more swimming, lots of reading and frisbee and I stupidly managed to turn a lovely shade of pink. We did manage to horrify our companions at the all-you-can-eat breakfast on the last morning. We just couldn’t resist trying the fresh fruit, muesli, omelette (made while you wait), scotch pancakes, Danish pastries…needless to say we didn’t need lunch!
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Back in Chipata, it felt like we’d been away for weeks but the feeling quickly subsided when we both ended up at the doctor mid-week. There was no receptionist at the doctor’s surgery, we just took up our place in the queue and waited for our turn. No one called when it was our turn, instead every few minutes or so the ladies at the front of the queue would peak into the ‘Consultant’s Room’ to see if the doctor was finished with the previous patient. Our turn came and we met Dr. Mutali complete with a smoking rolly between his lips, brilliant! He was pretty good despite first impressions and sent us almost immediately into the next room for a blood slide to test for Malaria. Thankfully, despite all the hungry mosquitoes, we’re both still Malaria free but I think we’ll be taking care to wash our hands more carefully before dinner from now on.
On top of being ill my week’s been pretty tough. I’ve been trying to organise a training course for the peer educators from all three organisations. This has proved to be a bit of a challenge – writing 20 hours of participatory workshops (in a participatory way), finding a venue for fifty people, scraping about for spare flipcharts, pens etc. all with a budget of zero and the course was due to start on Monday (its starting on Tuesday!). I’ll let you know how it goes….
However, to end on a positive note, Friday afternoon we got a game of frisbee going with some of the peer educators. Hopefully it’s going to become a weekly fixture – there’s absolutely nothing for young people to do in Chipata. Reminiscent of the trip to Navatika a few weeks back there were more under 10s spectating than there were people playing. It seems to be the case here – that what ever you try and do there will always be a gaggle of children gathering to stare.
We were awake by 6:30 the first morning and jumped straight into what felt like the biggest swimming pool on earth, the Lake
.JPG)
was completely calm, clear and warm even at that time in the morning.The rest of the weekend went pretty much as you’d expect, more swimming, lots of reading and frisbee and I stupidly managed to turn a lovely shade of pink. We did manage to horrify our companions at the all-you-can-eat breakfast on the last morning. We just couldn’t resist trying the fresh fruit, muesli, omelette (made while you wait), scotch pancakes, Danish pastries…needless to say we didn’t need lunch!
.JPG)
Back in Chipata, it felt like we’d been away for weeks but the feeling quickly subsided when we both ended up at the doctor mid-week. There was no receptionist at the doctor’s surgery, we just took up our place in the queue and waited for our turn. No one called when it was our turn, instead every few minutes or so the ladies at the front of the queue would peak into the ‘Consultant’s Room’ to see if the doctor was finished with the previous patient. Our turn came and we met Dr. Mutali complete with a smoking rolly between his lips, brilliant! He was pretty good despite first impressions and sent us almost immediately into the next room for a blood slide to test for Malaria. Thankfully, despite all the hungry mosquitoes, we’re both still Malaria free but I think we’ll be taking care to wash our hands more carefully before dinner from now on.
On top of being ill my week’s been pretty tough. I’ve been trying to organise a training course for the peer educators from all three organisations. This has proved to be a bit of a challenge – writing 20 hours of participatory workshops (in a participatory way), finding a venue for fifty people, scraping about for spare flipcharts, pens etc. all with a budget of zero and the course was due to start on Monday (its starting on Tuesday!). I’ll let you know how it goes….
However, to end on a positive note, Friday afternoon we got a game of frisbee going with some of the peer educators. Hopefully it’s going to become a weekly fixture – there’s absolutely nothing for young people to do in Chipata. Reminiscent of the trip to Navatika a few weeks back there were more under 10s spectating than there were people playing. It seems to be the case here – that what ever you try and do there will always be a gaggle of children gathering to stare.
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