October 2007 Newsletter...
Welcome to the October Newsletter of ABC’s Build Malawi Project!
News from Malawi
October has been both a busy and exciting month for the project. Major, the project's contractor, brought in more labor a few weeks ago, and you can really see a change in the pace of work. While it's great to see the bricks flying up, it has been a challenge to supply the sites with enough sand, water, quarry and bricks to keep going! But the results have been outstanding. The school site is starting to look less like just a building site and more like a school every day. Everyone on site is working as a team and morale is high. Major and his laborers have been excellent teachers to the TEVET trainees, who are proud of their many accomplishments and new found skills.
The first double-classroom block has been completed, with the exception of plastering and painting (which is scheduled to happen next week).
It's incredible to stand inside the first completed classroom and imagine that in just a couple months, classes will be starting for the first time at Chisala Primary School.
The second double-classroom block is at roof level. This second large structure, perpendicular to the first double classroom block, is what makes you realize how close were are to the finish.
The administration block and teacher's housing sites are well under way too. Both sites have concrete foundations and the walls are going up. These buildings are smaller and will be finished in no time.
With just five weeks until the end of Phase One, the pressure is really on, but there is no doubt that we will finish on schedule (a minor miracle for any building project!) Tanya and Happy have done an excellent job in mobilizing the community and coordinating everything from deliveries of quarry and concrete to organizing the collection of water and sand.
Desks
We are excited to report that we have contracted a carpenter from Mzuzu who will be making the school desks (which will be made from local timber). He will be bringing some labor with him from Mzuzu but will also be employing a local carpenter from Chisala. They will be starting construction early next week.
The Rains
The raining season, which usually starts mid-November or early December, is a real concern for the project. We have been aware from day one that we would be racing against the clock to finish Phase One before the rain started. So when we experienced some early rains a couple weeks ago we were justifiably concerned. The rain started at about two o'clock in the morning and didn't stop until midday, a nail-biting 10 hours. A deluge of blinding rain completely paralyzed the project that day. Building couldn't happen, meetings didn't take place and even more disheartening, the bricks and ovens that hadn't been burned suffered some damage. Fortunately, nothing was beyond repair and the losses were not too great; it was only a minor setback but a clear reminder of the rains that will shortly be arriving. This has made us even more motivated to keep things going at this increased speed. We are fortunate that the rain did not continue and it's been blue skies ever since.
Much needed help
In difficult times, it always good to have some help (particularly when you aren't expecting it!) One of our biggest problems has been finding reliable transport to shift heavy materials like bricks and sand. We are lucky to have an excellent supplier, Vijay, who allows us to use his 3-tonne and 10-tonne lorries for a few hours when he makes deliveries. But the Kawalazi Tea Plantation has recently come to our rescue with the use of a tractor at weekends, allowing us to get even more of these much needed materials to the sites. Renting large vehicles is costly, so we are very grateful to have these resources at no cost.
Another exciting development is the involvement of the local MP, Sylvester Kasambara. He showed up unannounced at the site a couple weeks ago and has been a real support ever since he found out about the project. The issue of bricks continues to pose a problem, but the MP has kindly offered to take some pressure off the community by buying the rest of the bricks needed for Phase One of the project.
A place for the Youth
Because the building aspect of the project is going so well, we have been able to start thinking about some of the future initiatives we hope to accomplish, initiatives that will further enrich the school and the community. Peacecorps Volunteer, Annie Carisma, who has been living in Chisala since August 2006 and Maggy Keet, a Build Malawi volunteer from the UK who arrived in October, have recently started a Youth Group with great success.
Meetings have had excellent attendance with 20 and 30 young people participating. Maggy and Annie have also started preliminary work on a Playground and Youth Area which will have playground equipment as well as a netball court and theater area in which the youth can perform. The site has been chosen and they have already started clearing the land with the help of the youth.
Villager of the Month
The work on site is by no means easy. The sun is hot, the days are long and the physical labor is exhausting. The community's involvement has been much appreciated, but understandably they have other commitments which prevent them from being on site everyday. However, there are a few people we can always depend on, who are there to do anything we need, who have the utmost faith in this project and its vision and who we could not live without. We are so grateful for their hours and hours of dedication and hard work.
This month we would like to recognize Douglas Gondwe. If you didn't know any better, you'd think he lived at the building site – he's always there! Whether he's shoveling sand or mobilizing the community, Douglas has made this project his full time job. He's become an integral part of the day-to-day operations of the project and above all, he's a pleasure to work with.
Meet the TEVET Trainees
There are six TEVET trainees who are learning building and bricklaying trades through the project. They are young, full of energy and a real asset to the project. This month we'd like to introduce three of the six trainees:
Aubrein Gondwe is 21 years old. He was born in Mzuzu and went to school at Kawalazi Primary School. His favorite subjects were Mathematics and Biology. In his free time, Aubrein enjoys listening to music, watching movies, chatting with friends and making art. His favorite food if nsima with beef. He would some day like to be a bricklayer or a mechanic.
Mulambeni Banda is 18 years old. She enjoys listening to gospel and local reggae music, watching football and hanging out with her friends. When not working hard on the TEVET scheme, she is a wonderful mother to her nine month old daughter, Queen. Mulambeni hopes to pursue a building career.
Kondwani Longwe is also 18 years old. He was born in Mangochi (in the Southern region) and went to school in Nkhata Bay where his favorite subjects were English and Geography. He enjoys football, music, swimming and chatting with his friends. He would like to be a bricklayer.
The TEVET trainees have all expressed interest in having pen pals. If you are interested, please write to Tanya at buildmalawi@hotmail.co.uk.
News in the UK
The Build Malawi Project will be at the Synergy Project in London 23rd November. Come and meet us there!
Our website www.buildmalawi.org has had a couple of useful new features added. We now have an RSS Newsfeed so that people with the latest web browsers (such as Internet Explorer 7) can easily keep track of our most recent news and updates. To make use of it, either click the "Subscribe to our feed" link on our homepage, or go directly to www.buildmalawi.org/rss.xml to subscribe.
You can also subscribe to updates for Tanya's blog by going to http://blog.myspace.com/blog/rss.cfm?friendID=92375003. For more information on RSS, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss.
It is also now possible to view our website in several different languages - Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Simply go to our mainpage and scroll down to the AltaVista Babel Fish translation box, then click on the appropriate flag - be warned, the translation isn't perfect!
Our team in the UK
We have a great team in the UK, so please contact Alice Boff (alice@buildmalawi.org) for any information or if you would like to get more involved with the project.
Volunteering
If anyone would like to volunteer in UK or Malawi, then please contact Alice Boff in the UK at alice@buildmalawi.org or Tanya in Malawi at buildmalawi@hotmail.co.uk. We love fundraising events! Please contact Alice for more information on this.
Please do keep checking out the project website at www.buildmalawi.org for updates and pictures, as well as Tanya’s blog at www.myspace.com/buildmalawi from Malawi.
Best wishes,
The Build Malawi Project Team
NB. If anyone would like to get in touch with Tanya by post, the address in Malawi is:
ABC, c/o Kawalazi Tea Plantation, PoBox 237, Mzuzu, Malawi
By phone:
+265 (0)9 600 734/ +265 (8) 152 020
