Another busy day today – with many more to come!
In the morning we met with Ruth and Jessica from the
Likhubula steering committee to visit all of the houses being built. These were
funded through a grant from Scotland-Malawi Partnership following floods in
Malawi in 2015. This is possibly one of the most challenging projects for the
Partnership with huge delays and frustrations on all sides.
We visited all 6 houses (each in a different village) and
met with the beneficiaries. It was important to understand what had been
completed, what still remained, and who had undertaken the work to date. Most
importantly, we spoke with the beneficiaries to apologise that they still did
not have a completed house and to promise we would be returning to Scotland
armed with the information and photos we had gathered to ensure that, one way
or another, their house would be complete.
Emotionally, it was a difficult morning. Many of the
beneficiaries had already moved into their homes despite some still being
building sites due to the delays. We all – on all sides of our partnership and
the project – have a responsibility to see this through and to learn from the
challenges.
More positively, while travelling around the villages we
were able to visit a number of the goat koalas from the goat project! In
Nakonyo village there was even a goat due to give birth any day now, while in
Mbewa we visited a second generation koala housing the goats born from the
original project. This will, we are sure, be well received news at the Dunblane
steering committee!
Travelling around Likhubula, it is amazing the number of
people who ask if we are from Dunblane and come to say hello. Indeed, some people have even stopped and given us
thanks for the work we are doing. The
partnership really is a whole community one.
In the afternoon, we visited the market at Chitikale and an
internet café in Mulanje to update the blog (yesterdays!) as well as the BB
blog. While wifi at Likhubula house is best accessed standing on one leg
holding your ear (we might have tricked another school group into believing
this….!), Mulanje had great speeds.
We were due to meet with Mr Nyambalo (bursar monitor), Mr
Safari (Chairperson of Likhubula steering committee) and the Headteacher of
Nansato Primary school in the afternoon but we had fallen so far into Malawi
time by this point that we thought it best to re-arrange until later in the
week to ensure a good discussion.
We are trying to fit a lot into a short space of time, but
we believe it to have been very successful so far…