On Wednesday the students submitted their projects. All except one even managed to get them done on time – going totally against the concept of African Time! Some of the websites they produced were of a very high quality, especially the two most important ones which were the site advertising the services of Ungweru Web Design & Hosting and the Mzuzu Tourism site. We didn’t give out any A’s but there were a few B+ grades. We were a bit soft in giving out a C as the lowest grade in the class, but there was no need to be harsh! As would be expected, some students reached their potential, while others underperformed. The question now is whether the clients are out there to make use of the skills these guys have learned.
Macneil is going to continue on where we left off, and give a course in more advanced techniques in web design to the students. He was eager to know who had received the best grades in our course. I tried to dissuade him from focussing only on the best students, pointing out that the students with the lower grades might have the most interest or the best people skills and so could go on to become the most successful web designers.
I spent a few quiet days staying in Mzoozoozooo before travelling down to the lake. This gave me a chance to tie up a few loose ends with the web design course, such as printing certificates for the students. It would be easy to become angry with the opinionated regulars at the zoo but I stuck to myself, reading the rough guide’s history of South Africa.
On Monday I met Fr Peter, one of John’s buddies here in Malawi. We had an interesting chat about AIDs, corruption, misguided traditional beliefs and some of the other challenges facing this country.
I learned that as education loses hold in a community, belief in witchcraft tends to creep back in. He explained to me one way in which people die from these out-dated beliefs. Apparently farmers refuse to increase the area of land they farm or aim for a large harvest from their crops, solely out of the fear that neighbours will suspect them of using witchcraft to achieve the resulting prosperity. Through this societal-induced lack of ambition they run a much higher risk of yielding a poor harvest. A drought such as the one that struck Malawi in 2005 and their childrens’ bellies will swell as they go hungry.
Jul 14, 2008
Jul 4, 2008
Wells for Zoe
Wells for Zoe, a sister project of Small Change, is an NGO operating in the Northern Region of Malawi which was set up three years ago by John and Mary Coyne from Dublin. The idea is to help small villages to develop their farming techniques. It is a hugely impressive initiative which has been making the lives of the villagers much easier. The great thing about the project is that these communities can very quickly become self-sustainable, allowing the organisation to move on to other people in need.
The villagers have learned to build dams and irrigation channels, so that they can farm much larger areas of land than before. They are experimenting with new crops - strawberries, peas, carrots, radish, and banana trees. Rather than relying on fertiliser which can be hugely expensive, they have learned about natural fertilising and crop rotation techniques. They use the food to feed themselves and sell the surplus at the market in Mzuzu. They save some of the proceeds to provide for the future.
Previously many of these people had to walk a few kilometres to draw water at a spring, and this water was often dirty causing diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera. New wells bring them clean water without the walk. The materials for the well cost just €50, which the village receives in the form of a loan. The wells also allow these villagers to develop vegetable plots. The money that is earned by selling surplus vegetables can be used to repay the loan within around two years. In this way, ownership of the well is transferred to the people. Finally some local people are trained in the maintenance and reparation of the well. The result is that in the future, the village is in no way reliant on Wells for Zoe.
To learn more about Wells for Zoe, listen to this interview by Pat Kenny with John and Mary Coyne.
In fact Wells for Zoe is achieving what Ungweru wants to aim for. That is promoting self-sustainability. Funds coming from Ireland and elsewhere to Ungweru may not continue to flow forever, and the centre needs to be able to stand on its on two feet. Hopefully the web design project will lead to income generation for Ungweru. Ungweru hopes to increase the level of community involvement with its projects, but the way to go about this is not obvious.
The villagers have learned to build dams and irrigation channels, so that they can farm much larger areas of land than before. They are experimenting with new crops - strawberries, peas, carrots, radish, and banana trees. Rather than relying on fertiliser which can be hugely expensive, they have learned about natural fertilising and crop rotation techniques. They use the food to feed themselves and sell the surplus at the market in Mzuzu. They save some of the proceeds to provide for the future.
Previously many of these people had to walk a few kilometres to draw water at a spring, and this water was often dirty causing diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera. New wells bring them clean water without the walk. The materials for the well cost just €50, which the village receives in the form of a loan. The wells also allow these villagers to develop vegetable plots. The money that is earned by selling surplus vegetables can be used to repay the loan within around two years. In this way, ownership of the well is transferred to the people. Finally some local people are trained in the maintenance and reparation of the well. The result is that in the future, the village is in no way reliant on Wells for Zoe.To learn more about Wells for Zoe, listen to this interview by Pat Kenny with John and Mary Coyne.
In fact Wells for Zoe is achieving what Ungweru wants to aim for. That is promoting self-sustainability. Funds coming from Ireland and elsewhere to Ungweru may not continue to flow forever, and the centre needs to be able to stand on its on two feet. Hopefully the web design project will lead to income generation for Ungweru. Ungweru hopes to increase the level of community involvement with its projects, but the way to go about this is not obvious.
Jun 29, 2008
A Good Weekend
There was a good deal of excitement when we handed out the projects in class on Friday morning. They were pretty pleased as well when we gave them the afternoon off! We’ve assigned each of them a local organisation to build a website for. I reckon most of them will be well able for the task of handling a real life client. And for the others, it should be even more valuable as a learning experience.
They will need to meet with the clients a few times to discuss the layout and content of the site. One flaw with the idea is that they only have ten days in which to complete the whole thing – we’ll have to allow for that when giving them marks. Hopefully having completed the project, they will have the confidence to approach clients in the future and provide a professional service that they can charge for.
After lunch we packed everything into the pick-up truck, took a photo, and set off towards Vwaza Marsh, a nearby wildlife reserve, with Val and Deirdre working on their tans in the back. On the journey down John told us about the tutsi flies whose bites can cause a potentially fatal condition called sleeping sickness. Just after we arrived one of the feckers bit Jack
We had a long meal and an interesting debate started up, covering everything from gay adoption to nature vs nurture to Fr John’s interpretation of God. Later Jack, Rosanne and I stayed up on hippo watch under the stars. Of all the animals in Africa, hippos kill the most humans. It was going fine until a loud hippo grunt freaked us out and we headed for bed!
Six o’clock the next morning, and we were heading out to look for elephants with our rather useless guide Raphael. Three hours later, without an elephant in sight, I was starting to get hungry. All I could think of was barbequed sausages and fried tomatoes! We gave up eventually and returned to the camp. I spent the rest of the morning listening to The Cure and looking at some hippos lounging about in the mud. They don’t do much but they are bloody massive!
We decided to go for a quick game drive before heading home and lucky we did because we were only half way down the road when we spotted a trio of elephants fifty metres ahead of us! The male wasn’t too pleased to see us bearing down on them, and let out a huge bellow. We let them go and started the journey home.
On Saturday night Jamie and I went to the university to see what the craic was at big student gig that was on. A few Carlsberg stouts later and I was the token mzungu trying a bit of white-man-dancing in a room full of smooth-moving Africans. Very embarrassing!
This afternoon the first meeting of a new board of directors for Ungweru took place. It offered a real insight into the workings of a growing NGO. Another thought I had was that the evaluation of the lusekelo school of computing is a worthwhile project. We thought the whole thing was fairly well set up after our initial analysis but it turns out we left more than a few stones unturned.
They will need to meet with the clients a few times to discuss the layout and content of the site. One flaw with the idea is that they only have ten days in which to complete the whole thing – we’ll have to allow for that when giving them marks. Hopefully having completed the project, they will have the confidence to approach clients in the future and provide a professional service that they can charge for.
After lunch we packed everything into the pick-up truck, took a photo, and set off towards Vwaza Marsh, a nearby wildlife reserve, with Val and Deirdre working on their tans in the back. On the journey down John told us about the tutsi flies whose bites can cause a potentially fatal condition called sleeping sickness. Just after we arrived one of the feckers bit Jack
We had a long meal and an interesting debate started up, covering everything from gay adoption to nature vs nurture to Fr John’s interpretation of God. Later Jack, Rosanne and I stayed up on hippo watch under the stars. Of all the animals in Africa, hippos kill the most humans. It was going fine until a loud hippo grunt freaked us out and we headed for bed!
Six o’clock the next morning, and we were heading out to look for elephants with our rather useless guide Raphael. Three hours later, without an elephant in sight, I was starting to get hungry. All I could think of was barbequed sausages and fried tomatoes! We gave up eventually and returned to the camp. I spent the rest of the morning listening to The Cure and looking at some hippos lounging about in the mud. They don’t do much but they are bloody massive!
We decided to go for a quick game drive before heading home and lucky we did because we were only half way down the road when we spotted a trio of elephants fifty metres ahead of us! The male wasn’t too pleased to see us bearing down on them, and let out a huge bellow. We let them go and started the journey home.
On Saturday night Jamie and I went to the university to see what the craic was at big student gig that was on. A few Carlsberg stouts later and I was the token mzungu trying a bit of white-man-dancing in a room full of smooth-moving Africans. Very embarrassing!
This afternoon the first meeting of a new board of directors for Ungweru took place. It offered a real insight into the workings of a growing NGO. Another thought I had was that the evaluation of the lusekelo school of computing is a worthwhile project. We thought the whole thing was fairly well set up after our initial analysis but it turns out we left more than a few stones unturned.
Jun 26, 2008
Progress
The web design course is coming along nicely. The students have coped very well with building some simple web pages. Tomorrow we reach the half way point and we are going to assign them the projects which will be their test. They each have to build a website for an organisation in the local community. In this way they will learn about the whole process of delivering a web design service, and not just how to build web pages. They got very excited today when they got to play around with the digital camera.
Val and Deirdre are hoping to complete the painting at Temwanani before they leave on Monday. The good news is that the suggestions they made in their report on the day centre have been taken on board by the committee and work has already begun on the planned vegetable plot.
Last weekend we went to Nkhata Bay on the lake and stayed at a class hostel called Mayoka Village. On Friday we celebrated Val’s birthday…we were steamin! Nobody ever plans to combine Kuche Kuche and Malwian G&Ts but it happens I guess…Val was in bed by nine o’clock, pretty disappointing for her twenty-first! Our rooms were a few feet from the water and the view across the bay was amazing. Sunrise over the lake was even more impressive. I enjoyed two long days relaxing in a hammock, listening to some Nick Drake. On the way home we stopped at a craft market, where after extensive haggling I picked up a few bargains. I got a nice notebook which I might use for a photo album, and a beautiful wood carving of a globe. It’s kinda heavy to be lugging around with me but it’ll be well worth it once I get it home.
At John’s suggestion we’ve been brainstorming the idea of an Ungweru Volunteer Hostel. It would provide accommodation for future Ungweru volunteers or any other volunteers coming to Mzuzu. There’s also of course the possibility of targeting the backpacker market, which could have potential for another source of income for Ungweru.
Edson, our mandazi (local donoughts) supplier invited a few of us round to his house this evening. It can be difficult to know what to say when visiting somebody’s home. They gave us samosas and cokes, but didn’t have any with us. I guess they had a more affordable meal for themselves after we left. The family was a mixture of various ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’, terms used very loosely in Malawi. Some of the older girls in their twenties had babies. Then there was a group of three in their teens which included Edson. I didn’t want to press them too much to find out exactly what relation they were to each other, and obvious question of where the parents were.
Val and Deirdre are hoping to complete the painting at Temwanani before they leave on Monday. The good news is that the suggestions they made in their report on the day centre have been taken on board by the committee and work has already begun on the planned vegetable plot.
Last weekend we went to Nkhata Bay on the lake and stayed at a class hostel called Mayoka Village. On Friday we celebrated Val’s birthday…we were steamin! Nobody ever plans to combine Kuche Kuche and Malwian G&Ts but it happens I guess…Val was in bed by nine o’clock, pretty disappointing for her twenty-first! Our rooms were a few feet from the water and the view across the bay was amazing. Sunrise over the lake was even more impressive. I enjoyed two long days relaxing in a hammock, listening to some Nick Drake. On the way home we stopped at a craft market, where after extensive haggling I picked up a few bargains. I got a nice notebook which I might use for a photo album, and a beautiful wood carving of a globe. It’s kinda heavy to be lugging around with me but it’ll be well worth it once I get it home.At John’s suggestion we’ve been brainstorming the idea of an Ungweru Volunteer Hostel. It would provide accommodation for future Ungweru volunteers or any other volunteers coming to Mzuzu. There’s also of course the possibility of targeting the backpacker market, which could have potential for another source of income for Ungweru.
Edson, our mandazi (local donoughts) supplier invited a few of us round to his house this evening. It can be difficult to know what to say when visiting somebody’s home. They gave us samosas and cokes, but didn’t have any with us. I guess they had a more affordable meal for themselves after we left. The family was a mixture of various ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’, terms used very loosely in Malawi. Some of the older girls in their twenties had babies. Then there was a group of three in their teens which included Edson. I didn’t want to press them too much to find out exactly what relation they were to each other, and obvious question of where the parents were.
Jun 19, 2008
Some Good Ideas
Classes in the web design course are continuing.
Despite being thrown in at the deep end, the students are coping very well. Yesterday in our first lab, around half of them were viewing web pages for the very first time. Today the whole class were looking at a webpage editor, dreamweaver, for the first time! In a class of ten, three have progressed particularly quickly, and all are showing promising levels of interest. We've also seen great patience on their part with the fairly disorganised running of the course. This morning class began an hour and a half late due to the double-booking of the classroom...we mzungus were getting pretty frustrated but the students weren't too bothered, African Time i guess! In general though I'm optimistic about the prospects for this web design business idea.
Yesterday I had an interesting chat with Dave, an Irish guy here working for a small volunteer organisation called Solar Aid. A businesslike fellow, he had valuable insights on the workings of a small, independant development agency such as Ungweru. In particular he had two decent practical suggestions. The first was to investigate the possibility of mobile internet via 3G, as an internet connection alternative for Ungweru. The second was an addition to Cormac's tourism website idea for mzuzu.org, that we might use it as an information portal for ex-pat volunteers wanting to come to Mzuzu. Local landlords could advertise things like accomodation.
This evening Cormac had the good idea of showing a movie using the projector in the conference room. Some of the youth group and some local kids watched it as well. Jamie and I listened to an informed view on Malawian politics from John. Jamie had a lot of questions for him from his daily reading of The Nation.
Despite being thrown in at the deep end, the students are coping very well. Yesterday in our first lab, around half of them were viewing web pages for the very first time. Today the whole class were looking at a webpage editor, dreamweaver, for the first time! In a class of ten, three have progressed particularly quickly, and all are showing promising levels of interest. We've also seen great patience on their part with the fairly disorganised running of the course. This morning class began an hour and a half late due to the double-booking of the classroom...we mzungus were getting pretty frustrated but the students weren't too bothered, African Time i guess! In general though I'm optimistic about the prospects for this web design business idea.
Yesterday I had an interesting chat with Dave, an Irish guy here working for a small volunteer organisation called Solar Aid. A businesslike fellow, he had valuable insights on the workings of a small, independant development agency such as Ungweru. In particular he had two decent practical suggestions. The first was to investigate the possibility of mobile internet via 3G, as an internet connection alternative for Ungweru. The second was an addition to Cormac's tourism website idea for mzuzu.org, that we might use it as an information portal for ex-pat volunteers wanting to come to Mzuzu. Local landlords could advertise things like accomodation.
This evening Cormac had the good idea of showing a movie using the projector in the conference room. Some of the youth group and some local kids watched it as well. Jamie and I listened to an informed view on Malawian politics from John. Jamie had a lot of questions for him from his daily reading of The Nation.
Jun 17, 2008
Web Design 101
The first class in the web design course went very well, the second not so good.
Seven students attended today – hopefully we’ll have the same number tomorrow. We went over the basics of the internet to begin with, as some of the class have never once used the internet. Hard to imagine coming from our background of itunes, facebook and youtube. They were very quiet today but hopefully they will relax and become more responsive over time. For the afternoon lab class we were hoping to get them started on browsing some locally stored websites via the network. Technical problems with the network though meant that they sat around doing nothing for an hour before we sent them home. It was terrible! Later in the evening we managed to get everything sorted, with Jamie’s help.
This evening we had a visit from Jim, an Australian man who has been living here in Mzuzu for the last twelve months or so. He has been to Vwaza Marsh four times and was able to offer some info on what the accommodation is like as well as a few tips on what to bring. He suggested a bottle of Malawian brandy and a crate of Kuche Kuche! It sounds class, the main attraction being the elephants and hippos. The best part though is that John is coming with us!
Seven students attended today – hopefully we’ll have the same number tomorrow. We went over the basics of the internet to begin with, as some of the class have never once used the internet. Hard to imagine coming from our background of itunes, facebook and youtube. They were very quiet today but hopefully they will relax and become more responsive over time. For the afternoon lab class we were hoping to get them started on browsing some locally stored websites via the network. Technical problems with the network though meant that they sat around doing nothing for an hour before we sent them home. It was terrible! Later in the evening we managed to get everything sorted, with Jamie’s help.
This evening we had a visit from Jim, an Australian man who has been living here in Mzuzu for the last twelve months or so. He has been to Vwaza Marsh four times and was able to offer some info on what the accommodation is like as well as a few tips on what to bring. He suggested a bottle of Malawian brandy and a crate of Kuche Kuche! It sounds class, the main attraction being the elephants and hippos. The best part though is that John is coming with us!
Jun 15, 2008
Visiting Kafulufulu
Out of respect for Patrick, the painting was put on hold today.
Instead we attended a mass given by John in a tiny village of one hundred people located way out in the bush. As the first “visitors” in over a decade we were treated like kings and queens. The mass was of course pretty lengthy, and nearly every prayer was celebrated through song and dance. Well worth the journey, even if it was an hour and a half on dirt tracks in the back of a pick-up truck.
The villagers are for the most part farmers, growing tobacco and maize. A bail of tobacco will bring a farmer Kw25,000, and a hard-working family can produce maybe fifteen of those a year. John tells us that around 80% of the 12 million populations live in similar conditions. Although in many cases quite isolated from the more densely populated city areas, these villages do not escape AIDS. Jamie noticed one boy with a swollen belly – I guess his father hasn’t been working hard enough on the land. Or perhaps his mother was HIV positive, and isn’t around any longer to feed him.
This evening Jamie had arranged a trip to a nearby bar with Macneil and some of the other University students. We played a few games of pool and watched Turkey execute an amazing comeback against The Czech Republic. A cracking match, but I was wrecked and failed to make much conversation with the lads. I think they were pretty happy to get a few free beers.
Jamie and I have been wondering what we should do when we start travelling. The trip to Nkhata Bay this weekend should throw up some ideas. Jamie’s driving license would be a huge asset in that it would allow us to rent a car, but right now it’s sitting on his desk in Cork! Hopefully we can get it posted over.
Instead we attended a mass given by John in a tiny village of one hundred people located way out in the bush. As the first “visitors” in over a decade we were treated like kings and queens. The mass was of course pretty lengthy, and nearly every prayer was celebrated through song and dance. Well worth the journey, even if it was an hour and a half on dirt tracks in the back of a pick-up truck.
The villagers are for the most part farmers, growing tobacco and maize. A bail of tobacco will bring a farmer Kw25,000, and a hard-working family can produce maybe fifteen of those a year. John tells us that around 80% of the 12 million populations live in similar conditions. Although in many cases quite isolated from the more densely populated city areas, these villages do not escape AIDS. Jamie noticed one boy with a swollen belly – I guess his father hasn’t been working hard enough on the land. Or perhaps his mother was HIV positive, and isn’t around any longer to feed him.
This evening Jamie had arranged a trip to a nearby bar with Macneil and some of the other University students. We played a few games of pool and watched Turkey execute an amazing comeback against The Czech Republic. A cracking match, but I was wrecked and failed to make much conversation with the lads. I think they were pretty happy to get a few free beers.
Jamie and I have been wondering what we should do when we start travelling. The trip to Nkhata Bay this weekend should throw up some ideas. Jamie’s driving license would be a huge asset in that it would allow us to rent a car, but right now it’s sitting on his desk in Cork! Hopefully we can get it posted over.
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