Final blog: Wednesday 1 March Sharon departed for Glasgow. We will miss her very much. I think we made a great team. We started the day with a service for Ash Wednesday at 6 am in the chapel of Newlands Retirement Home which our host Gay Russell supports. We then spent the day with Mary’s Meals personnel in their very impressive under 6 centres. There is a real response to the advice coming from Glasgow about early years learning. For example, dividing the children into different age groups for learning activities.
Thursday 2 March – an early start at Anglia books to meet Nigel who has been really helpful. They had packed the books purchased by MLOL into separate boxes and added a number of reference books for free. We headed first to Mpata to deliver their consignment.
The rainy season has been very wet this year and the past few days have seen torrential downpours. The road to Mpata was completely impassable for vehicles, so we had to set off on foot with the box of library books. We managed to flag down a driver making progress in a 4X4 who kindly offered to take us further up the hill.
He turned out to be a Bishop on his way to a church conference not far from the school. Bullah, the head teacher met us with some pupils to ascend the last 500 metres to the school. What a welcome awaited us !
Children who had been learning all day outdoors in the sun and rain sang songs of welcome. We visited standard 1 where Carol was in her element and sang some songs with the children. Next stop was a material factory where Carol purchased 3 rolls of cloth, funded by her sister.
We took the cloth to present to the wonderful PTA members at Chitsime ( particularly James and Catherine) who will make school uniforms for orphan children who attend this highly congested school. They were overwhelmed and we are so impressed by the community support at this challenging school.
We also handed over a box of MLOL books with the library pack which Carol had prepared to assist schools with organising and making best use of the library.
Next stop was Namwiyo where the pupils were on holiday but we met Patrick, DHT. and handed over books and a support pack. Then onto Matindi to meet with Regina, DHT, to finalise plans for Holyrood to construct an under 6 Nursery beside the school. This is a really exciting development which we hope will contribute to raising attainment for the children who attend and then transfer to Matindi Primary. Mary’s Meals are very much on board with this development and will train the care givers and feed the children.
I had some good discussions with the head, deputy and school management committee about the importance of early years education. I then returned to Blantyre and had a very productive meeting with the District Education Managers, Evelyn and Paul about the future leadership and direction of MLOL.
Friday 3 March : a lot of today was taken up with attending the funeral of the son of Mercy Nhelma, MLOL coordinator and Primary Education coordinating advisor. It was a very moving and sad event. Hundreds of people gathered at the family house first of all for a service before proceeding to the church and cemetery.
We found time later to meet with Sister Dianna, now reappointed as head teacher of Stella Maris to discuss plans for developing the partnership with Holyrood in June. We also managed to meet with the girl we are sponsoring through school and her mother. We discovered that paying the fees is only part of the challenges facing the girl. Her uniform was worn and torn, her shoes were flip flops and she could not buy her own books, having to share with others. She also lacked good bedding and a lamp to study by. So, Carol immediately headed for the shops to put matters right. Let’s hope this support will motivate the girl to improve her marks which are not great at the moment.
A visit then to Zingwangwa to meet Hastings, head teacher and finalise plans to build a new classroom block there and a quick visit to CI to brief Vincent on the work Holyrood will carry out there in June.
In the evening, we had a lovely meal with Francis and Charity Maseya and managed to put all transport plans in place for June.
Saturday 4 March: the rains finally seemed to have stopped – pity we are now leaving. Last meeting at GBC with the contractor to agree details of the Holyrood projects he will undertake in June. Our good friend Francis Maseya took us to the airport as we bid a very, very sad farewell to this amazing country. Really cannot wait to come back in June with Holyrood.
Over and out.
Tom and Carol McDonald
