Cruiser, Freaky B, Coffee & Phonics

Here in Malawi, I have already given up on asking people what their real names are. I met Cruiser, Mr B, Coffee & Phonics this weekend in Cape Maclear. Our cook is called Computer. Our driver is called Gift. A colleague of mine is called Massage. It’s true what they say - Malawians ARE the friendliest people. I have been made to feel so welcome my first week here. I have already had several invites to join people for Kuche Kuche (beer) and Shake Shake (a local beer that looks like porridge and comes in large milk cartons).

My first impressions? My work, my location, and the people I am with are all making me think this is going to be great. My journey from Lilongwe airport to Monkey Bay took 4 hours. It was in the obligatory Toyota minibus (Africa’s vehicle of choice) with the obligatory smashed front windscreen. A bar across the roof fell off during the journey and I found myself holding it up for several hours. “Bumpy” does not even begin to describe the roads here. To put it into perspective, it takes one hour to reach Cape Maclear, which is 15km from us. I arrived at the volunteer house (where I am currently living with just 2 other volunteers) to be greeted by a selection of large and colorful insects, which included some that looked like they would be more at home in Lake Malawi (lobsters, crabs etc).




Josephine's gift to us Naomi's face says it all. If you look at my eyes you will be able to tell that my smile is fake. What can I say, I tried!

I woke up the next morning feeling pretty battered and bruised from the journey and also highly satisfied with myself and my mosquito net when I saw the number of insects attached to the outside of it. I also woke up to scorching temperatures (all the locals have tartan umbrellas to shade themselves from these) and an absolutely beautiful view of Lake Malawi. Our house is right on the beach. The scenery here is absolutely stunning. The roads curve through the hills, all the way down to white, sandy villages by the lake.

This weekend we went to Cape Maclear. Our mode of transportation this time was a ‘matola’, a.k.a. pick-up truck. I found myself in a comfortable ‘seat’ next to a bucket of dried fish and with someone elses baby in my lap.

Over the weekend we snorkeled in the lake (amongst the cichlids that it is famous for), ate freshly bbq’d chambo,

kampango and tigerfish, listened to bands that were using their own home-made instruments (and singing songs such as ‘how are you? I’m fine’), and saw incredibly clear shooting stars. Lake Malawi has been called ‘lake of the stars’. The African sky in general is amazing.

As far as work goes, I am really enjoying it so far. I am working at Monkey Bay hospital. It’s condition is not good but a bit better than I expected (thanks to funding from an Icelandic organization). There is a big shortage of staff. This may have something to do with the fact that doctors are paid around 25 pounds/month. For this reason, I am being trained up to help out in a lot of areas. I have already been in the lab, collecting specimens and performing TB, Malaria and Blood Count tests. I have also been trained to measure blood pressure (to be able to go round the wards). I have been assisting with outreach clinics - weighing babies, giving polio drops and preparing some of the vaccines. Tomorrow I am to be trained to give the vaccines myself. I have also been helping out in the dressings room (where I have

seen some pretty nasty wounds due in part to the fact that no one wears shoes, everyone works with sharp hoes and machetes, and the road safety leaves a lot to be desired). Finally, I have been working in the ARV clinic, which sees up to 400 HIV pos. people per month. I feel like I have learned so much and am happy that I am able to help out already. The sheer number of patients is overwhelming.

I am at the hospital from 8-1 each day. At 3 o’ clock I have been going to football training! Fellow volunteer Steve has gathered together some of the local kids and has been doing some coaching. They were in need of a ball (Steve provided their first ‘real’ one), and also some soap (they informed us they couldn’t come to their 3rd football practice as they had no soap to wash their clothes). Other than that, regardless of whether or not they are wearing shoes, one shoe, or barefoot, they are amazing.

I’d better go for now. Sorry it has been so long. I am 50km away from internet access plus it is slow so this is going to be hard. I’ll do my best though. To anyone who has emailed me on yahoo recently, I will try and email you back on Saturday. Hope everyone is well. I’m looking forward to Christmas in Malawi!

Take care,

Joanna x

Almost forgot to say - thanks again to the people who have been donating money. Although the hospital is in better condition than I expected, they are still in need of a lot of things. I will be having a meeting with some of the staff to decide on the equipment/supplies which they think are most needed. I will keep you posted.

Malawi teams on a roll

Malawi continued their dominance over South Africa in netball when a club side from that country clinched the African Netball Club Championships title in Soweto on Sunday.

The fourth edition of the yearly competition, which involved 24 clubs from as far as Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho, took place at Elkah Stadium.

It started on Saturday morning and the theme of the tournament was “Africa unite against women and child abuse”.

Star-studded Malawi Tigres offered a free netball lesson to Soweto’s Chipeya Academy, winning 36-29 in an exciting women’s final .

Malawi’s nation team have been beating South Africa’s Proteas, most recently at the World Championships in Auckland, New Zealand, last month.

“The Malawians are pretty good, you can’t take anything away from them,” said tournament director Professor Chipeya.

In the men’s final, Chipeya Academy captured the title after beating Bay Sharks from KwaZulu-Natal 28-25 in a closely contested final.

Barbara Creecy, Gauteng MEC sports, arts, culture and recreation, who attended the games, said they were delighted to see an international tournament in Soweto.

She said this is in line with the policy to make Gauteng the home of competitive sports and champions.

U-17s on Course for Glory

It is all looking good for Zimbabwe's Young Warriors on the international front. Barely a week after the Under-20 team claimed the Metropolitan Holdings/Cosafa Trophy with a convincing 3-0 victory over hosts South Africa last Sunday, the country's Under-17 side are on course for success in another regional competition in Windhoek, Namibia.

Rodwell Dhlakama's teenagers have defied odds to power their way into the Cosafa Under-17 semi-final after topping Group C with an unbeaten run. They will now face northern neighbours Zambia in a crunch semi-final in Windhoek today while the other semi-final clash pits Malawi, who finished as the best runners-up, and Group A winners South Africa. Despite travelling to Namibia in batches on the eve of their opening match against the hosts last Saturday night, the Young Warriors defied such odds to force a 1-1 draw.

Coach Dhlakama and six other players who were in the second batch actually arrived in Windhoek hours before the match, a move that forced a delay to the start of their game against the Namibians.

That the Young Warriors were in a tougher four-team group that also included Angola and Swaziland while the other groups had three teams each, meant the Group C countries had to play their matches on successive days. After getting off to a slow start with the 1-1 draw against Namibia, the Young Warriors moved a gear up when they upstaged Angola 2-1 in their second match on Sunday night.

Chegutu Pirates striker Ashley Mukwena and defender Malvin Matanda of Sport Excel found the goals for Zimbabwe. And when news filtered in from Mpumalanga that the Under-20s had won their championship, Dhlakama's boys knew they had to win their last group game against Swaziland if they were to stay on course to secure the Under-17 title and emulate Methembe Ndlovu's charges.

Zimbabwe turned on the power in what head of delegation and Zifa board member Solomon Mugavazi, speaking from Windhoek yesterday, described as "a strong first half showing by the boys". Sundowns striker Patrick Kaunda struck a brace before Aces Youth Academy defender Elvis Mazivise added a third to ensure the Young Warriors went to the break with a healthy lead. Zimbabwe then held out to preserve their lead and Dhlakama even had the luxury of throwing in CAPS FC's Archieford Gutu in the second period just hours after the teenager had joined his teammates from another tour of duty with the Under-20 team.

Should Zimbabwe beat the Zambians and go on to win in the final against any of Malawi or South Africa, Gutu could write his own piece of history by being a double gold medallist inside a fortnight. Mugavazi, however, said the Young Warriors were taking each game as it comes and were focusing all their attention on today's semi-final showdown with Zambia.

The Zifa Northern Region chairman also maintained that Zimbabwe would not read much into Zambia's 8-0 demolition of Botswana in their final Group B game. "Yes, Zambia have been scoring highly, but I would say theirs was a weak group and teams were scoring many goals. For instance, Malawi beat Lesotho 4-0 today to finish as the best runners-up.

"But it will be a different story when we take them on tomorrow. "In our first match, the boys were tired due to the problems with the travelling arrangements. Now they are settled, playing very well and there is so much confidence in their game. "I also believe the win by the Under-20s in South Africa has inspired them because at the back of their minds they now know it can be done and they are also eager to win the Cosafa tournament here," Mugavazi said.

He also lauded the Under-17 side for their discipline and revealed that coach Dhlakama and his assistant Lloyd Mutasa will have the luxury of choosing from all the players they took to Windhoek, as there have been no suspensions to date. Interestingly, the triumphant Under-20 side also scooped the tournament's Fair Play award in Mpumalanga. "We do not have any injuries or suspensions because the youngsters have been very disciplined and focused. "It has been very hot in Namibia even though we have been fortunate that until the semi-finals we have been playing our matches at night when temperatures are a bit cooler. But now that the semi-final matches are 4pm, it will also be a test of their character," Mugavazi said. That this latest generation of Under-20 and Under-17 squads are being lauded for their discipline and talents is also a positive change from the trips of shame that characterised the two sides' last visits to South Africa last year during which the Under-20 team went on strike at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg over unpaid bonus and allowances.

Later in the same year, the Under-17 side had a nightmarish trip to Johannesburg for an African Youth Championships qualifier where they spent five days on the road after enduring successive breakdowns of their bus.

But after winning the Anoca Zone Six Games in Lesotho, Zimasco Shurugwi coach Dhlakama knows he has to clear the hurdle posed by Zambia before he can dream of winning his second championships title with the Under-17 side.

A Young तिन्केरेर Builds a Windmill, Electrifying a Nation

MASITALA, Malawi -- On a continent woefully short of electricity, 20-year-old William Kamkwamba has a dream: to power up his country one windmill at a time.

So far, he has built three windmills in his yard here, using blue-gum trees and bicycle parts. His tallest, at 39 feet, towers over this windswept village, clattering away as it powers his family's few electrical appliances: 10 six-watt light bulbs, a TV set and a radio. The machine draws in visitors from miles around.

Self-taught, Mr. Kamkwamba took up windmill building after seeing a picture of one in an old textbook. He's currently working on a design for a windmill powerful enough to pump water from wells and provide lighting for Masitala, a cluster of buildings where about 60 families live.

Then, he wants to build more windmills for other villages across the country. Betting he can do it, a group of investors are putting him through school.

"I was thinking about electricity," says Mr. Kamkwamba, explaining how he got hooked on wind. "I was thinking about what I'd like to have at home, and I was thinking, 'What can I do?' "

To meet his family's growing power needs, he recently hammered in a shiny store-bought windmill next to the big one at his home and installed solar panels. He has another windmill still in its box that he'll put up at a house 70 miles away in the capital, Lilongwe, where he now goes to school.

A few years ago, he built a windmill for the primary school in Masitala. He used it to teach an informal windmill-building course. Lately, he has offered to help the village handyman down the road build his own machine.

"Energy poverty" -- the scarcity of modern fuels and electrical supplies in poor parts of the world -- is a subject of great interest to development economists. The windmill at the Kamkwamba family compound, a few brick buildings perched on a hill overlooking the village, has turned it into a stop for the curious: People trekking across Malawi's arid plains drop by. Villagers now regularly make the dusty walk up the hill to charge their cellphones.

The contraption causing all the fuss is a tower made from lashed-together blue-gum tree trunks. From a distance, it resembles an old oil derrick. For blades, Mr. Kamkwamba used flattened plastic pipes. He built a turbine from spare bicycle parts. When the wind kicks up, the blades spin so fast they rock the tower violently back and forth.

Mr. Kamkwamba's wind obsession started six years ago. He wasn't going to school anymore because his family couldn't afford the $80-a-year tuition.

When he wasn't helping his family farm groundnuts and soybeans, he was reading. He stumbled onto a photograph of a windmill in a text donated to the local library and started to build one himself. The project seemed a waste of time to his parents and the rest of Masitala.

"At first, we were laughing at him," says Agnes Kamkwamba, his mother. "We thought he was doing something useless."

The laughter ended when he hooked up his windmill to a thin copper wire, a car battery and a light bulb for each room of the family's main house.

The family soon started enjoying the trappings of modern life: a radio and, more recently, a TV. They no longer have to buy paraffin for lantern light. Two of Mr. Kamkwamba's six sisters stay up late studying for school.

"Our lives are much happier now," Mrs. Kamkwamba says.

The new power also attracted a swarm of admirers. Last November, Hartford Mchazime, a Malawian educator, heard about the windmill and drove out to the Kamkwamba house with some reporters. After the news hit the blogosphere, a group of entrepreneurs scouting for ideas in Africa located Mr. Kamkwamba. Called TED, the group, which invites the likes of Al Gore and Bono to share ideas at conferences, invited him to a brainstorming session earlier this year.

In June, Mr. Kamkwamba was onstage at a TED conference in Tanzania. (TED stands for Technology Entertainment Design). "I got information about a windmill, and I try and I made it," he said in halting English to a big ovation. After the conference, a group of entrepreneurs, African bloggers and venture capitalists -- some teary-eyed at the speech -- pledged to finance his education.

His backers have also showered him with new gadgets, including a cellphone with a hip-hop ringtone, a laptop and an iPod. (Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" is his current favorite tune.) They rewired his family's house, replacing the homemade switches he made out of flip-flop parts.

They're paying for him to attend an expensive international academy in the capital, Lilongwe, for children of expatriate missionaries and aid workers. But his teacher, Lorilee MacLean, sometimes worries about his one-track mind and about all the attention he's getting.

"I don't want him to be seen as William the windmill maker," said Mrs. MacLean one day recently. While Mr. Kamkwamba quietly plowed through homework, his classmates were busy gossiping and checking their Facebook profiles.

Mr. Kamkwamba has taught his family to maintain the windmill when he's away at school. His sister Dolice and cousin Geoffrey can quickly scamper up the tower, as it sways and clatters in the wind, to make repairs.

A steady stream of curiosity seekers make the trip to the Kamkwamba compound -- mostly unannounced. The visits are unsettling for the reserved family.

One afternoon, a pair of Malawian health workers came by to get a closer look and meet Mr. Kamkwamba. The family scattered, leaving the pair -- dressed in shirts and ties for the occasion -- standing awkwardly in the yard.

"We have heard about this windmill, and so we wanted to see it for ourselves," one finally spoke up. Mr. Kamkwamba came around to shake hands, then quickly moved away to show another visitor around.

Jealousy is a social taboo in these parts, but Fred Mwale, an educator who works in Wimbe, the area that includes Masitala, says the family's new prosperity is causing some tensions.

"People do desire what is happening here. They come, and admire," he says. "They think that they might get the same support if they build a windmill."

Down the hill, the village handyman started building his own windmill after secretly studying Mr. Kamkwamba's. A gust of wind blew the blades off the man's first few attempts. Mr. Kamkwamba offered to help him rebuild, but got no reply.

"I'm waiting to see if he's serious," Mr. Kamkwamba says.