14th March - 13th April: Mzuzu, Malawi

After a couple of weeks of relaxing on and in the lake, I headed North to Malawi's third city - Mzuzu - for a couple of nights before heading over the border into Tanzania.  

One of the reasons that I particularly wanted to visit Mzuzu was that I had heard about an interesting project there for deaf students that I wanted to see.  The project is a fresh fruit and vegetable shop and café in the city, which provides vocational training for five deaf students in horticulture, food preparation, hospitality and customer service. It also provides them with English and Life Skills classes.  As it is a fully functioning shop and café, all are welcome to pop in, buy some fresh food and enjoy a juice or freshly baked cake, so I did just that.

'The Greenshop' (as the project is called) is in a beautiful airy building in the town and provides a calm place to escape to from the noise, bustle, dust and heat outside. As well as fruit and vegetables, the shop sells other locally grown or made products including coffee beans, macadamia nuts, herbs and spices and organic soap.

After ordering a cup of fresh herb tea and a slice of homemade lemon cake, I started chatting to a Dutch couple - Jan and Lonneke - who were standing at the counter. They explained that they had set up the project in partnership with a local man - Bobby - who ran a fruit and vegetable business, but wanted to find a way of also supporting deaf and disabled people to work. By working together, 'The Greenshop' was born.

After an introduction to Bobby and a little more chatting about the project and about my job, Jan and Lonneke said that they were about to go to South Africa for a holiday and were looking for someone who could help out at the project while they were away...

So it was, that just over one week later, I had put my Tanzania plans on hold, decided to extend my Malawian visa, found somewhere to stay for a couple of weeks and was getting ready to learn some Malawian sign language! 


The Greenshop

Jan and Lonneke had also arranged for another volunteer to help out whilst they were away - Jody, who lived locally. So, we worked together for a couple of weeks, which was lovely.

Some of the work we did at The Greenshop during our fortnight together included:

• Consultations with the students about their experiences of and feelings about The Greenshop 
• Gaining the students' ideas about how The Greenshop could be improved for staff, students and customers
• Designing some new signs and order forms to encourage more customers to learn and use sign language
• Encouraging the students to take more of an active role in decision-making
• Accompanying the students to tennis lessons
• Drinking lots of herb tea and eating cake! (ok, not technically work...)
• Trying to forget British Sign Language and learn Malawian Sign Language!

It was a great experience helping out at The Greenshop. It was a privilege to spend time with five incredibly hard-working, motivated and welcoming students.  I learned a huge amount from them and am very grateful to them for their friendship, patience, honesty and laughter. I hope that I was in turn a little bit useful.

Jody and the students designing signs

The students - Ayiti, Collins, Levy, Sisya and Nthandose

Tennis lesson with Southern African Junior Champions

My Mzuzu 'home'

I was really lucky to find a lovely place to stay in Mzuzu, called 'Macondo Camp'. It was recommended to me by Brad, one of the people I visited the Lake Malawi islands with and it was a fantastic recommendation.

Macondo Camp is a very new lodge, run by an Italian couple - Luca and Cecilia. The lodge, which is set in beautiful gardens, is several kilometres outside of the centre of Mzuzu, away from all the noise and close to a forest.  Macondo Camp is also home to Mzuzu's only Italian restaurant, serving up delicious home-made pastas and fresh sauces.

I loved my time staying at Macondo Camp. It was relaxing and very homely thanks to the beautiful surroundings and to Luca and Cecilia's friendship, food and great taste in music!

Luca and Cecilia 

Livingstonia

While i was staying in Mzuzu, I decided to take a trip up to LivingstonIa.  Livingstonia is a small town that sits on top of a mountain in the North of Malawi. It is the site of Malawi's first church which was built in the 1880s by Dr Robert Laws, from the Free Church of Scotland and was named after Dr David Livingstone (the same one who 'discovered' Victoria Falls). 

To get to Livingstonia I took a local minibus from Mzuzu through the mountains, keeping my head stuck firmly in a book to avoid seeing the sheer drops by the side of the road!  After just over 3 hours, i finally clambered out of the bus at Chitimba, a lakeside town at the foot of the mountain. 

At Chitimba I met my guide and escort for the mountain climb - a local guy called Vegemite. (Not the name his parents gave him...) It was Vegemite's job to encourage, persuade and - if necessary - push me up the 10km of mountain that stood in front of me. He told me it should take us somewhere between 2 and 4 hours - depending on my level of fitness. We set off, Vegemite chatting and me feeling reasonably confident of my fitness. After 30 minutes of trekking, I was a complete mess! As I sat in a sweaty heap, Vegemite told me stories of previous trips up the mountain including one where a group of 6 young fit walkers were all reduced to tears at one stage or another by the climb... 

Strangely, this information helped. Filled with a new determination to get to the top and - more importantly - to do it without crying, I set off. In the words of my guidebook, the road up the mountain 'forces it's way up the escarpment in a series of lethal hairpins'', and during our trek we were passed by several local pick-up trucks - piled high with produce and people - screeching their way around those bends. Seeing people perched precariously on top of sacks, bananas and other people, i felt almost relieved to be tackling the mountain on foot.  We were also passed by many women carrying phenomenally heavy loads of bananas or wood on their heads who were nonetheless almost skipping up the mountain...putting my efforts to shame.

After just over 3 hours, a lot of sweat but no tears, we reached Mushroom Farm; a beautiful collection of chalets and tents perched on the mountainside where I would be staying for the night, before the final  5km walk to Livingstonia in the morning. It was a very welcome sight after the trek, as was the beautiful view.

After a lovely sleep in my four-poster tent with a view, I woke rested and refreshed and ready for the last part of the walk to Livingstonia and the nearby waterfalls - a much more relaxed stroll.

My final night on the mountain was spent at Lukwe Permaculture Camp - another beautiful camp with a view - a sheer mountain drop on one side and lovely permaculture gardens the other. I could quite happily have sat on the wooden verandah and stared at this view for a week...

...but the next morning it was time to leave.  Luckily I was able to get a lift down the mountain (quite an experience!) and all the way back to Mzuzu with the manager of Mushroom Farm, so could rest my aching legs and avoid another crazy minibus ride.

Interesting facts

• There are quite a few deaf schools in Malawi and they each teach a different sign language. However all use a common alphabet (the same as American Sign Language)

• The unit of Malawian currency is the 'Malawian Kwacha'
• I am not as fit as I thought I was...

Critters

No blog post would be complete without some critters, so here are a  couple I met on the mountain.

Mantis or miniature alien...? 

:)

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