Wrapping up in Mzuzu

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.