Some Photos

Here is the waterfall we hiked to - it was absolutely beautiful!


Here are some of the children from the village. As you can see, they LOVE to have their photo taken. They were a lot of fun, they had so many questions for us.


These women danced for us when we arrived and when we left. They were grateful to have us visit and we were grateful to have them share their way of life with us.


This boy is collecting water for the village. The pit is about 12 feet deep and takes him a few minutes to fill up each 20 L bucket. They share this water source with 2 other villages (a couple thousand people)! The water is also shared with animals, making it a breeding ground for disease.




This is the sun rise view from my hotel room.

Two Villages

Yesterday we went to two villages, both without water or electricity. What we saw was very hard to imagine and the large majority of this post may be difficult to read.

At the first village, we parked the mini-bus and then walked a few hundred meters to a small water source where there were some families washing clothes and dishes and gathering water. There were mostly women and children there. They were very happy to see us! We shared some greetings and took some photos - they love having their picture taken and especially getting to see the digital photo after it is taken. There was a girl who looked to be about 12 or 13 who very proudly showed us how she lifted the bucket of water, which contained about 20 L (5 +/- gallons) and put it on her head and then flexed her muscles. It was very funny :) I need to let you know though what this water source was like - it was a small hole that they dig, about 3 feet in diameter by about 1 foot deep near a small stream that was fairly dry because it is the dry season. They fill up shallow pans with the water and then empty it into the 20 L bucket. They fill up several buckets and then the women put them on their head and carry them back to the village - they never spill a drop.

From there, we walked with them to their village. It was several hundred meters (about 1 km). They let us know that they walk to the water source at least 5 times a day and sometimes as many as 20 times. As we approached the village, they begin drumming and dancing as a welcome to us. They gave us such a warm welcome and the children came running to meet us as we approached. There was some more dancing and then they set up some chairs for us and they asked us to sit in the chairs while the entire village gathered around and sat down in front of us. There were about 200-300 people or so (the entire village was about 380 families, each with about 5 people per family). One of the men from the ministry of health, who is a partner with WFP spoke to the village and let them know why we were there. Then the chief spoke and he let us know that the water source their water source is polluted and causes disease among the village. They share their water source with He asked us to help them get a clean water source so they don't have to share their water source with the animals and they can reduce diseases like cholera and diarrhea.

Then we took a look around the village. There were many houses that were brick, they make the brick right there. The roofs are straw and the houses are on average about 200 SF big, and about 5 people live there. In the entire village there were 38 pit latrines, meaning only 10% of the village has some kind of sanitation facilities. They don't usually share latrine facilities, so the rest go in the bush. In many cases, children are afraid of going in the pit latrines because there are no concrete slabs on the top of them - it's just a hole in the ground that is about 10-feet deep. Sometimes, especially when it is raining, the ground around it gets soft and the children fall in and drown.

After the chief showed us the village, we came back to the main area where they did some more drumming and dancing and we took lots of photos. The children LOVE to have their photo taken. I'll try and post some later, it looks like I can pretty easily upload them to this computer that I'm using.

The second village was very similar - I'll write more about that later. Some of the things that were truly outstanding to me was that the villages were extremely welcoming to us, they basically have nothing yet they set up the chairs for us and welcomed us into their community and let us see how they live. Many people speak English very well, but most speak native Malawi. There is a strong sense of family in the village and protection of their children. It is clear that these folks need some help.

As we left the village, they all walked with us back to the mini-bus, singing and cheering along the way. When we got to the bus, they begged us for some bottled water. It's very hard, because we didn't have enough for the entire village, and giving out one or two bottles would surely have caused a ruckus.

When we got back to Blantyre, Nelson, our bus driver, took us to his favorite place to eat, called Martin's. It has lots of really excellent local fare, including Nsima which is sort of like polenta. I had some vegetables, pumpkin greens in a nut puree, beans and rice - it was fabulous.
~k

Hiking Mount Mulanje

Yesterday, we started the day with an orientation to some of the projects Water for People is doing in Malawi given by Elias, Efrain and Joseph. There are three regions where work is happening - Blantyre, Chikwawa, and Rhumphi. We will see programs in Chikwawa and Blantyre. Rumphi is about 700 km away. One of the most interesting and unique aspects of WFP is their commitment to partnership with local district assemblies, government, and constructors. In addition, the people working for WFP in the various countries where work is being performed are local and native to those countries. Combined, this makes for a sustainable program that can continue to work long beyond when WFP has completed their work there.

Only about 15% of households in the rural areas have improved sanitation facilities (meaning, they have a pit latrine that gets emptied occasionally).

They have implemented a program here to make sanitation a business. Starting in schools, there is a hygiene and sanitation education program for the children and children are given vouchers to bring home and explain hygiene and sanitation to their parents and encourage them to use the vouchers to obtain a composting latrine. In the meantime, WFP works with local constructors by providing them with seed money to begin constructing latrines (about 20 of them). When the households turn in their vouchers, they get one of these composting latrines. Each latrine has capacity for about 6-months. With each use, you are supposed to add ash and soil to aid in the composting process. After the latrine is full, it gets covered and allowed to compost for about 6 to 9 months. Upon completion of composting, the constructor gets the compost (until the latrine is "paid off") and they are able to sell it to fertilizer manufacturers. Once the household has "paid off" the latrine with the compost, the household is able to use the compost for their own use or farm. Pretty neat, eh?

They are also working with schools on beautification projects and improved sanitation facilities. This is very important for girls because without improved sanitation facilities, many times girls need to drop out of school when they hit puberty because they don't have the facilities at school to deal with their period. These programs help reduce sanitation borne diseases and allows girls to stay in school, hopefully breaking the cycle of poverty.

In addition to the hygiene and sanitation program, there is a water program here. The goal is to provide water kiosks in such a fashion that people do not need to walk more than about 0.5 km to obtain water. The government sets water tariffs for the water and the households pay for each day's worth of water. It is generally the woman's job to go and get the water. When water is not readily accessible, women can spend an entire day walking to a water source (many times one that is polluted) and hauling the water back to the village. Often times, this means that they can not attend school. With water facilities nearby, girls and women don't need to spend nearly as much time gathering the water for a day. When they go pick up the water, they usually carry about 20 L at a time, in buckets on their head (wow!). A typical household uses about 100 L per day. Just to give you an idea of how much water that is - a typical shower that you probably took this morning uses about 80 L of water.

When we go to Chikwawa today, I'll be able to better see some of this in action and I'll post more.

After the orientation, Nelson our bus driver (who is amazing by the way), drove us to Mount Mulanje for some hiking. It was about 1.5 hours from Blantyre and on the way, we drove through several small towns. Along the way we were stopped a couple of times by security guards, who asked Nelson a few questions and looked in the bus and then we were on our way. When we got to Mount Mulanje, there was another security checkpoint, where a little bit of heated conversation between Nelson and one of the guards. Apparently, they wanted us to stop and buy some of their curios (knick-knacks) but Nelson said that we would stop on the way back - which they were not too happy with. In addition, a man named Boniface came to the window where I was sitting and asked if we would pay for him to be a guide. When I told him that we had Nelson, he asked if we would pay him to watch the van. People there were desperate for work.

We went up the mountain in the van and then parked and walked a very steep hike to a waterfall (sound familiar Akua?? :) ). It was a fairly strenuous hike with amazing views. On the way, we bombarded Nelson with questions about life in Malawi, which he was more than happy to answer. When we got to the waterfall, it was beautiful. The forest was lush and there was a high peak just beyond the waterfall making is very picturesque. We saw some hikers there who seemed like they were camping. They had two guides and were off to hike to the top of the mountain. For the moment, they were basking in the sun and wading in the shallower part of the water. After hiking, we went back to Blantyre and had a great dinner at Bombay restaurant.

Today, we are going to Chikwawa to see some of the WFP projects - will write more later!
~k

Welcome to Malawi!

I finally made it, and when I saw my bag coming out along the carousel I was nothing less than ecstatic. It was a short drive to to the hotel and on the way, we drove through some really poverty stricken areas. The hotel is located in the city of Blantyre and the rooms and staff are positively lovely. The reception area is very comfortable and welcoming and there is a computer for the guests to use. Hopefully, I'll be able to post every day while I'm here. We met up with the Water for People group and everyone is fantastic. After we got back to the hotel, we stopped out to exchange money and ended up stopping by a market. I was completely overwhelmed by the high pressure sales and price negotiation that is involved. After 26 hrs of flight and hardly any sleep it wasn't something I could process right now.

Tomorrow, we start with an orientation about WFPs mission here and go over the itinerary. For now, I'm going to get some sleep.
~k

fancy a sprint?

nah, me neither but that didn't stop me. I had only 1 hr to switch planes between London and Johannesburg. Naturally, the London flight was delayed. When I got to the border guard, they told me that the flight was already closed and I would have to rebook on a flight the next morning. So I went over to rebooking desk and was about to get new flight when lo and behold, the border guard called me back over and said I could get on the flight but that I would have to run, and assured me it wasn't that far. Apparently, we have different ideas about what "far" is when your running through an airport with bags - hehe. In the end, I made it on to the flight.
~k

ready as I'll ever be

The trash is out, hot water heater in vacation mode, and my football picks are made. I wish I didn't drink all that espresso at lunch, because I'm still wired. The flight is at 8 am tomorrow and it will be 30 long hours of flying and layovers. In the meantime, I'm going to drop off my car so I'm signing off until my next chance at a computer. See you on the other side of the pond.

~bekind

From 5 Weeks to 5 Days - Wow

Just 5 days until I leave on the Water for People country tour - Wow! I've been doing a lot of reading and planning, even though I know that no amount of planning can prepare me for everything. These world statistics are staggering:

- 1 in 8 people in the world don't have access to safe water supplies

- The effects of not having clean water have a huge effect on the entire community, but particularly women and children because they spend several hours a day obtaining water, usually from polluted water supplies

- 38% of the world doesn't have access to improved sanitation - that's 2.5 billion people. Of that, 1.2 billion don't have any sanitation facilities at all.

- Did you take a shower today? I did, and in the process I used more water than most people in the developing world use in a day.

Providing clean water supplies and sanitation facilities improves health and reduces health care costs, allows for better attendance in school, and benefits the overall economy.

I am so looking forward to this trip, and hope that even in some small way, I can help make a difference for someone.

~bekindtoearth