Thursday 27 October 2016
Up with the sunrise this morning and itching (a mild nod to the mossy bites from last night!) to begin our work here in Blantyre!
However, today was about reacquainting ourselves with the Malawian way of things and sorting out some admin as well as arranging new books for our school libraries from local distributor, Anglia Books.
We are always very keen that we boost the local economy by buying in Malawi whenever we can. And ensuring that the books are all culturally appropriate. We want our children to be reading books which contain children who look like them and live in houses like them.
And a visit to Jacaranda orphanage to say hello to the children and Notre Dame nuns.
The orphanage had made such an impact on us when we were invited during our last stay a couple of years ago. It was lovely to see some familiar faces, sing some songs and see how the children are getting on.
We left a little bit emotional and reflecting on how lucky the small number of children are to have secured a place within this loving and safe environment - so many orphans in Malawi are not so fortunate - many orphaned by HIV/Aids.
But our day started at the Malawian National Library Service to see what book deal Maureen could negotiate for our school libraries - our hope is to have 14 libraries in total by the time we leave. Two years ago we had six school libraries that we stocked.
We didn’t hold out much hope though when Nancy Phiri, the service’s regional manager said; “We are sailing in troubled waters at the moment - we have no money and the government has introduced a daily charge for anyone wanting to come into the library.”
This is a mere 100 kwacha (10p) a day or 500 kwacha (50p) for an annual membership that allows you to borrow books.
It was telling that there were more students reading and studying under the trees outside than in the library using the books. When we visited in November 2014 there was a huge queue waiting for the doors to open.
But this is reality in Malawi - they are in financial dire straits and everyone is having to make sacrifices.
It makes us more determined to establish and help our Malawian schools expand their libraries and develop literacy skills in the youngest of learners.
Maureen still managed to seek out a maths student in the library to help him with his trigonometry and get the best possible deal for 100 new Book Aid books for each of our 14 school libraries.
As Justin and I said - was this ever in any doubt?!?
We also managed to squeeze in a quick catch-up with Paul Chiphanda - the District Education Manager (DEM) for Blantyre Rural at his office to discuss our new partnerships and catch-up on what he has been doing since his return from his Glasgow visit.
Tomorrow it is full steam ahead with school visits and celebrations and we can’t wait
