Much-travelled Jim’s great Malawi legacy

A NORTH BERWICK ex-pat who has played a key role in fighting illiteracy and disease in Southern Africa has helped build an incredible 3,500 new classrooms in Malawi in just five years!

Much-travelled Jim Craigie, 64, plans to retire to Nelspruit, close to South Africa’s Kruger National Park, when his current assignment as construction manager for the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) in poverty-stricken Malawi ends next year.

Since he arrived in the landlocked African state in 2004, he has supervised the building of more than 3,500 new school classrooms, at an average of 15 per week, providing space for an estimated 250,000 children.

And he has also come up with a solution to the chronic shortage of girls’ toilets in the schools – by devising special female urinals.

Until Mr Craigie’s intervention, absenteeism among schoolgirls had rocketed, as many stayed at home rather than risk having to go to the toilet outside.

A survey had found that many schools had only one toilet for more than 100 children, and that these were often badly

built, unsanitary and liable to be vandalised. Girls blamed the long queues for the toilets for missed lessons.

Speaking from the Malawian town of M’buka on Tuesday, Mr Craigie told the Courier of his immense sense of personal achievement.

He explained: “The urinals were easy to build, and could be constructed by the schools themselves, using local materials.

“Children were taught good habits such as washing their hands after using the toilet, before preparing or eating food, and after cleaning away babies’ faeces – simple measures that can prevent fatal illnesses like cholera and diarrhoea.

“But the most satisfying part of the schools projects I’ve been involved with is that they are helping Malawi’s private sector to grow as a result of the UK Government’s aid projects.”

Mr Craigie and his Newcastle-born wife Isabel stayed in Brodie Avenue before the wanderlust set in 31 years ago.

His foreign postings have also included Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho and Zambia.

The former North Berwick High School rugby captain has had his fair share of hair-raising experiences, including watching with hand on heart as labourers risked their lives for £4 a day wading across a swollen crocodile-infested river to deliver building materials to a remote construction site.

“It was the rainy season and when our vehicles could not make it there was no way I was going to swim across,” he admitted.

“It just shows you how desperate some people are to earn a living. We later agreed to pay the workers danger money by paying them £4 a day for up to 10 crossings – still a huge salary in Malawian terms.”

Mr and Mrs Craigie have two sons and a grandchild in Malawi and Swaziland.

The couple visit North Berwick annually to catch up with his brother Ian, who stays in Old Abbey Road, and sister Moira, of St Baldred’s Road.

“We’ve just bought a delightful house in South Africa for my retirement, as we love the sunshine too much!”, he laughed.

Dowling collects books for African university

The boxes, stacked high and packed heavy, sit in an office at Dowling College - destined for poor students who live halfway around the world.

Their contents? Textbooks - 1,524 in all - that were collected over the past few months for the University of Livingstonia in Malawi, Africa, a fledgling school founded in 2003 in the northern part of the country that put out a call for college-level learning materials last fall.

Yesterday, Dowling officials marked the donation with a colorful ceremony attended by Malawi's ambassador to the United Nations, Steve Matenje.

"It is very important to have an educated population to push forward our national agenda and take our people out of poverty," Matenje said.

The campaign was organized by Dowling's Center for Minority Teacher Development and its director, Lizette Washington, who read about the university's need for textbooks in Newsday.

"It really touched me when I heard about it because I know how costly books can be for our students," Washington said, noting that new editions can make textbooks obsolete after just one semester.

Regina Scarbrough, a graduate student in business administration, donated several of her old textbooks to the drive. "They would have just collected dust, so it's good to know they will get some use," she said.

Washington said she plans to hold a collection every other year from now on, and donate the books to all four major universities in Malawi.

Other school officials said they hoped the book drive would spark other types of partnerships between Dowling and Malawi universities, including student exchanges.

"There are so many different ways we can work together," said Clyde Payne, dean of the school of education.

Saying Goodbye -- Or: "How Was Africa?"

I’m sitting in the airport in Nairobi – a strange feeling of return, since I wrote a blog entry from here when I was first flying to Malawi. I’m now finished my time in “the warm heart of Africa” – at least for now, and I’m heading home.

It will be a strange experience to go back home to Canada after working in Africa for more than two years. I’m bracing for all the emotions that will accompany my reintegration into Canada, and for the inevitable questions I will face. Questions like, “So, how was Africa?”

How to answer that… I have no quick response. Only a flood of memories and feelings and thoughts:

Of the people I know: I’ve met farmers, entrepreneurs, students, the unemployed, housewives, professionals, athletes, artists. I’ve met the desperately poor and the incredibly wealthy; the whole spectrum in this diverse place.

Of my friends: From the group of youths in my neighbourhood in Tamale who “enskinned me” as a chief, to my co-worker Loti in Ntcheu, to all the amazing EWB volunteers and staff I’ve met – I’ve made too many close friends to count.

Of the kindness: I experienced some of the most heart-warming (and sometimes heart-breaking) generosity of my life here. So many times I’ve been invited into people’s homes for a meal of T.Z. or nsima. I’ve slept on the floors of farmers and in the guestrooms of “extended family” members in Accra.

Of the difficult times: I’ve been frustrated by culture shock, frustrated by the slow pace of development, frustrated by inefficient and ineffective development projects, frustrated by the continual low position of women in African society, frustrated by all the external factors that keep a boot on the neck of Africa. I’ve been sick, stomached sometimes strange food, felt like an outsider almost always (while being blown away by people’s acceptance of me).

Of the weather and landscapes: melting in the incredible March heat of Tamale; freezing in the night-time cold of Malawi. The arid, flat and barren landscapes of northern Ghana and the beautiful green jutting mountains of Malawi. The coast in Mozambique, Lake Malawi, Malawian tea plantations, Lake Bosomtwi in Ghana, the desert in Mali. There is too much beauty here to describe.

Of isolation: I’ve spent too many hours on painfully slow internet connections, or on crackly, delay-riddled long-distance phone calls, all in an effort to stay in touch with friends and family in Canada and combat homesickness.

Of sadness: Always recognizing the incredible divide in power that exists between me and the majority of Africans – in terms of financial, cultural and political power. This fundamental injustice exists, and is something we’re born into without choice. Too many times I’ve heard “It’s easy for you to come to our country, but why can’t we visit yours?” The colour of my skin shouldn’t grant me privileges anywhere, but it’s the sad truth that in the developing world, it does.

Of inspiration: I’ve been inspired by the hard work of too many farmers, scrimping and saving to send their children to school. I’ve been moved by the speeches of academics in Burkina Faso, eloquently describing the challenges their country faces; I’ve met Ghanaian development workers who are pushing every day to improve the lot of their people. I’ve met innumerable women who work throughout the day and into the night, running their households and somehow finding time to generate a little bit of money on the side, almost all of which goes towards their families’ well being.

In the end, I know that Africa is a land of immense opportunity – of industrious people, of incredible natural resources, of rich history. But it’s a land with so many challenges that need to be tackled, so many barriers that need to be destroyed. Some of these barriers are within our influence in the West to tackle (see playyourpart.ca). Some of them require significant internal political reform (see Mugabe in Zimbabwe). Some require technological innovations, some the application of existing technologies, some simple behaviour changes. It’s not simple. It never has been, and it never will be.

At the very least, there is hope: there is always hope. I’ve seen hope in all the African countries I’ve visited – in Mozambique, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, Mali, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya. The industriousness and resiliency and dogged determination of the peoples of these countries are testament to the hope that endures despite so many obstacles.

I want to thank everyone who's supported me over the past two years -- my family (I'm indebted to them in many ways for their constant support), the people who sponsor EWB and make work like mine possible, to the dedicated staff and volunteers of EWB, and to the great people I’ve worked with in Ghana and Malawi.

This is only a farewell for me, I’m sure of it. I’ll be starting law at McGill in September, a school known for its strong human rights and international law components. I know I’ll find a way back to this continent some day.

And I know that, when I get back, I’ll be greeted by the same warm welcomes I’ve come to expect from this continent.

Until the next time.