Today Yanni and I went to a local private girls school to take part in a presentation on deforestation. The school was easily the most attractive and well built I have seen, although we reached it through a slew of shambolic shanty’s shacks and bare foot children playing on the road, as usual. Lilongwe has an odd landscape - the 'old town' and 'new town' built all across each other, and as soon as you draw away from that main build up area you hit acres and acres of flat scrub, then suddenly a burst of little scrub shacks, or empty landscape with a sudden huge building looking like a spaceship has landed from outer space. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea:
Yanni and took part in giving the presentation, which went very well. The classroom - it looked quite a bit like the old bomb shelters used to, brick built with holes for windows and bare concrete floors. There was no electricity which was a nuisance as a power point presentation had been prepared. But no one batted an eyelid about it. They just started hanging blank pieces of paper on the wall and we wrote on those.
After-wards we went out to play some games that were linked to conservation, and once again I was amazed at how the Malawi’s can do so much with so little. We had a running game, and the runners immediately kicked off their shoes and ran in the red dirt with bare feet - there was scrub around with bits of plants, stones and rocks, but no one seemed to give them a second thought. One of the games was an equivalent of musical chairs, but with no chairs or music of course. First, each girl went into the scrub and picked up a broken bit of brick, carried it back and placed it with all the others in a circle shape. Then the girls ran around the outside of the brick circle while a leader removed one or two. When the leader clapped, they all seized a bit of brick, and those unable to grab one were out. Great game! Must try that with kids in a UK school and see what happens!
On the way back we got caught in a traffic jam, which was being exacerbated by the fact that someone had decided to burn rubbish at the side of the road. In a hole - I don’t know if that made things better or worse. Smoke streaming straight across the road, everywhere, cars driving within feet of the hole, people pouring down each side of the road and across the road, no-one seemed to mind the fire, or even acknowledge it. I don’t know if I was more appalled or impressed. Better not try doing it in the UK though!
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