I have been visiting Likhubula since 2005
and in this blog I shall reflect on some of the things that are hitting me
today as having changed over the
years.
I have always loved the walk down from
Likhubula House to the village - the sandy road, the views of the mountains,
the chickens (cocks crowing all day long) and the children who join you to take
your hand or carry your bag. Now there
is a new sound, that of steadily running water.
There is a culvet dug into the side of the road, sometimes visible,
sometimes underground, carrying water down from the mountain. At house after house it can be diverted for
irrigation as long as it returns to flow downhill. There is far more irrigation than I have ever
seen in this area, and yesterday our committee described failed rains to us
without the previous sense of disaster: the initial crops may have failed but
now people are turning to irrigation. As
the climate in this area changes, this is offers a path of hope.
Outside the school there is a tap. Beside Mary’s Meals there is a tap. As we waited yesterday for church (did Fiona
say it was a long wait?) we watched members of the community come to fill their
buckets, clean their plates, drink from a mug, or just hang around, knowing
people would be arriving for a chat. We
had some of our best meetings with people by these taps, the flurry of
recognition, the smiles, the handshakes, the hugs. When Stuart and I came in
2009 we were frustrated that several key taps bringing water from the mountain
spring had broken washers and water flowing freely all day long, but no one was
fixing them. When they were installed,
every tap had a committee, you know, established for this very purpose! Well
the days of broken taps appear to be past. People are taking pride this visit
in showing us the good state of the taps and their environs.
Our pictures will have to tell their own
tale, but I do see the children’s faces as in the main healthier and
fuller. When Mary Meals first landed in
Nansato School in 2006, providing a 1000 meals of fortified porridge to the
pupils each day, 100 children returned to school within the first two
weeks. They no longer had to miss school
in order to forage for food. Seven years
on and Mary’s Meals is going strong in Nansato School. So as not to interrupt lessons they have
agreed to serve the phala as soon as the children come to school, then they
settle to their lessons. We hope to take more pictures later in the week.
Visting Mulanje today there was more
activity around the market, a better stocked ‘cash and carry’ (once upon a time
a whole shelf could be filled by single packets of biscuits, each placed a foot
apart), and the Opportunity Bank will let you save in Malawi Kwacha or dollars.
Visiting Mulanje Mission Hospital is a
reminder of the extreme challenge of providing healthcare to a very rural
area. We have heard in Likhubula of one
grandmother who carried her dying grandson on her back for the 35km to the
hospital. Today we saw a new Waiting
House at the hospital for women about to give birth. They are being encouraged
strongly to make the arduous journey to the hospital in advance of the time
when they will go into labour, and in the Waiting House they can rest, prepare
meals and have only a short walk to the ward when their time comes. We hope to
be able to promote this within the Likhubula community, since as yet it is not
heavily used.
Back to Fiona. While teaching a song in church yesterday she
took the hands of the small children in the front. When later in the service we were introduced
to the congregation, the children spontaneously joined the group of elders who
came forward to shake our hands and say welcome.
That’s Umodzi – all working together.
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