Day 2

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…