Off to Mulanje

Hey All!

This blog post has been a long time coming. Although I've had the best of intentions I've been extremely busy at work and somehow posting here has kept sliding down my list of things to do. Because I've waited so long I have a lot to tell.... so I'll divide it into bite sized chunks. First up, the journey to Mt. Mulanje.

Just over a week ago, I set off for Blantyre in the south of Malawi to climb Mt. Mulanje. I left Lilongwe on a Thursday night. My travel companions were Garrett, Alynne, and Graham. Garret and Alynne have been in Malawi since November last year. They are both Engineers Without Borders volunteers working in the water and sanitation area (EWB has two different programs in southern Africa - agriculture and value chains, and water and sanitation).

Garret is working with the district government trying to map the location of all of the water pumps that different non governmental organizations (NGOs in development speak - think World Vision, UNICEF amongst many others) have installed. Maintenance of these pumps is often not properly considered when the pumps are installed, and currently no one organization knows where all of the pumps are located. I see people using the pumps on a daily basis and I know that they do really help rural Malawians, but currently only 70% of them are working.

Alynne was working with another local Malawian NGO that installed water pumps in the semi-urban areas surrounding Lilongwe. Her placement with that organization has just finished and she'll be starting work with PLAN (an international organization that has a child sponsorship program in Canada I think). PLAN is moving into the area of Community Lead Total Sanitation (CLTS to those in the know). CLTS is the new wave in sanitation work. It is pretty controversial because it involves using shame to get a community to use latrines and wash their hands. However, if you really think about why do you use a toilet and wash your hands afterwards. What techniques did your mum employ? (Or for the mothers and fathers amongst you - what techniques did you employ to get your kid to wash his hands?).

And Graham... I met Graham on Thursday night. He's Garrett's brother and he's in Malawi visiting for three weeks. He's having a great time by the way... so if any of you are pondering a trip to visit me you too could have a fantastic time.

So.... back to the actually journey part. We made our way to the bus station on Thursday night after work and we were quickly approached by the people who make it their business to get you onto their bus. We found the most full bus that was heading for Blantyre and got on to wait. Most buses in Malawi don't leave on a schedule, they start their engines and honk a lot to attract people initially and then sit and wait until they are full before they leave for their destination. We were pretty lucky on this occasion and only ended up waiting about half an hour (I've had to wait 3 1/2 hours before). So we set off from Lilongwe around 8:30pm. This bus happened to be pretty uncomfortable. For about half of the trip I only had about half a seat. However, I consider myself extremely lucky to have the ability to sleep just about anywhere, so I slept for almost the entire way to Blantyre. I was woken now and then when the bus stopped to let people off and pick a few people up. At these stops (even in the middle of the night) people come up to the bus and sell things to you through the windows. You can buy nuts, fruit, drinks, donuts, and other snacks without even leaving your seat. Convenient!

We arrived in Blantyre around midnight. We walked the short distance to the closest hostel to meet the fifth member of our party, another EWB volunteer called Mike. (As a side note, most of the other passengers on our bus stayed on the bus and spent the night there - it saved them money because they didn't have to pay for a place for the night.).

Mike is another volunteer who works in water and sanitation. He works for a rural Malawian NGO called Freshwater that provides water pumps to even more rural villages. Mike's role at this organization was to oversee a leadership transition. The founder of the organization is retiring and EWB's role is to help make the transition as seamless as possible.

We met up with Mike in the hostel where he was dozing on the couch waiting for us. After checking into the hostel we decided that an early start was in order. We decided to be back at the bus station at 7am, and headed to bed around 1:30 am for a solid 4-ish hour sleep.