Wow where to start? It’s been an adventurous week in the province of Zambezia.
The work (Picture: Rebecca, Florinda and Evo talk to an Equipa de Vida in Chire about HIV)
I spent most of the week listening and learning. We went to the area to talk to people who are affected by the flooding of the Shire river and its tributaries and to find out whether there was anything we could do. It’s a really sad situation. The poorest people live on the flood plains and farm there, their only access to food being what they grow. We met families who have lost their farms already this year to the water and they have no other income. For the first time I was face to face with real hunger and desperate poverty and it was hard to walk away. The government have provided new huts with facilities such as water supply and schools in the dryer part of the area to encourage people to move out of their flood prone houses. This seems to have worked although we’re still unclear on the details and whether people really can move for free. This doesn’t solve the farming problem however. It also appears that the flooding has been getting worse over the last couple of years, an interesting week then to be doing this work alongside the negotiations at Copenhagen. (For those that are interested, the work I did on vulnerability of the least developed countries to climate change is now available online as a PDF publication here.) Although a desperately poor area, people were always very kind to us and we slept each night in our tent either within a straw church or in the chief’s grounds. They were also very generous with food and we ate well. We visited the flood plains and came across a kind of canoe city where people trade food from the other side of the river, it was a fascinating place. The whole area was also very flat and so also scenically quite different from other places I’ve seen.
So what can we do about this? One of the things that people have problems with is getting seeds to grow well on drier land so Rebecca is going to organise for some of the team to do some training there in agricultural methods. It’s funny… I’d always assumed that people who have lived off the land for years couldn’t be taught by a westerner how to grow crops but it really does seem that there are better techniques out there that people just aren’t aware of to maximise their harvest. There’s a possibility that one of the communities could extend a wall which was built by the Portuguese to keep the water back. Other than that it’s a case of continuing to show support and encouragement to those who choose to move to drier lands to the government provided houses and to try to understand the cases where people haven’t moved. Is it that they can’t or that they have chosen not to? Is the choice well-informed?
The Portuguese (Picture: A building from the colonial era)
In many of the areas we were working last week there are huge ruined buildings which were built by the Portuguese who dreamt of these remote rural areas becoming big centres. It’s such a stark contrast between these and the tiny huts which surround them. The Portuguese also linked these two places. We wanted to travel from a place called Megaza to Chire and there was a road on a map we had that none of the locals we were working with knew about. We asked around and it sounded like it was passable so we set off in the landcruiser as the route seemed very direct.
Direct it might have been but it took hours. If there ever was a road there it was a very long time ago. At times we found ourselves driving through bush land dodging trees and driving over 6ft plants as we went basically just following a compass (which there happened to be one of on the lid of Rebecca’s mosquito repellent!) It was the craziest driving I’ve ever seen. We passed through so many different terrains, came across a random shop in the middle of absolutely nowhere, saw plains with trees with no branches or leaves, met children who’d never seen a car, men who were dubious about our chances of making it through to Shire and we also got stuck. The “mud” we got stuck in was more like thick clay. You could mould with it and it stuck everywhere. We were about 70cm deep in it and it took 2 hours, help from 3 locals (as well as the 6 of us in the car), many branches and leaves, and everybody getting very muddy before we got out. We were still finding hardened clay under the car days later despite a thorough wash! We did eventually make it to Shire, a huge well built bridge appeared out of nowhere just before we got there, proving that there did used to be a road, or at least a dream of one at some point!
Whilst speaking of the Portuguese, my language is coming on… I can understand a lot of what’s going on and my vocabulary isn’t bad (although involves an unusual collection of words: firewood, pump rod, crocodile… you get the idea) but I need to practice speaking more than I do because it takes me a long time to form sentences. Slowly but surely!
Some treats (Picture: the canoes used for transporting food in Megaza)
We spent a couple of nights in Blantyre, Malawi on the journey and had some amazing meals out: 2 pizzas, a Chinese and an Indian. It was such a treat for the tastebuds! We also managed to get a tour of a tea factory in Mulanje which was fascinating (health and safety would’ve never allowed it in England). We did a lot of shopping in Blantyre for people back here: medicines, books, plastic sheeting, nice peanut butter, and coloured card!
Rebecca and I also spent a great night at a trout farm on Zomba plateau (also in Malawi) and where I’d spent my last night in Africa two and a half years ago. We had a lovely 3 hour walk the next morning before heading back home.
It’s been really really hot, and there’s a real lack of rain for the time of year. People are losing crops which they planted when the rains first seemed to start. It’s hard for me to imagine the snow in England (although I did get shown my back garden via Skype this morning!) as I’m sure it’s hard for you to imagine what things are like here! I hope you are all well and it’s lovely to be hearing from you via email or Skype.
The work (Picture: Rebecca, Florinda and Evo talk to an Equipa de Vida in Chire about HIV)
I spent most of the week listening and learning. We went to the area to talk to people who are affected by the flooding of the Shire river and its tributaries and to find out whether there was anything we could do. It’s a really sad situation. The poorest people live on the flood plains and farm there, their only access to food being what they grow. We met families who have lost their farms already this year to the water and they have no other income. For the first time I was face to face with real hunger and desperate poverty and it was hard to walk away. The government have provided new huts with facilities such as water supply and schools in the dryer part of the area to encourage people to move out of their flood prone houses. This seems to have worked although we’re still unclear on the details and whether people really can move for free. This doesn’t solve the farming problem however. It also appears that the flooding has been getting worse over the last couple of years, an interesting week then to be doing this work alongside the negotiations at Copenhagen. (For those that are interested, the work I did on vulnerability of the least developed countries to climate change is now available online as a PDF publication here.) Although a desperately poor area, people were always very kind to us and we slept each night in our tent either within a straw church or in the chief’s grounds. They were also very generous with food and we ate well. We visited the flood plains and came across a kind of canoe city where people trade food from the other side of the river, it was a fascinating place. The whole area was also very flat and so also scenically quite different from other places I’ve seen.So what can we do about this? One of the things that people have problems with is getting seeds to grow well on drier land so Rebecca is going to organise for some of the team to do some training there in agricultural methods. It’s funny… I’d always assumed that people who have lived off the land for years couldn’t be taught by a westerner how to grow crops but it really does seem that there are better techniques out there that people just aren’t aware of to maximise their harvest. There’s a possibility that one of the communities could extend a wall which was built by the Portuguese to keep the water back. Other than that it’s a case of continuing to show support and encouragement to those who choose to move to drier lands to the government provided houses and to try to understand the cases where people haven’t moved. Is it that they can’t or that they have chosen not to? Is the choice well-informed?
The Portuguese (Picture: A building from the colonial era)
In many of the areas we were working last week there are huge ruined buildings which were built by the Portuguese who dreamt of these remote rural areas becoming big centres. It’s such a stark contrast between these and the tiny huts which surround them. The Portuguese also linked these two places. We wanted to travel from a place called Megaza to Chire and there was a road on a map we had that none of the locals we were working with knew about. We asked around and it sounded like it was passable so we set off in the landcruiser as the route seemed very direct.Direct it might have been but it took hours. If there ever was a road there it was a very long time ago. At times we found ourselves driving through bush land dodging trees and driving over 6ft plants as we went basically just following a compass (which there happened to be one of on the lid of Rebecca’s mosquito repellent!) It was the craziest driving I’ve ever seen. We passed through so many different terrains, came across a random shop in the middle of absolutely nowhere, saw plains with trees with no branches or leaves, met children who’d never seen a car, men who were dubious about our chances of making it through to Shire and we also got stuck. The “mud” we got stuck in was more like thick clay. You could mould with it and it stuck everywhere. We were about 70cm deep in it and it took 2 hours, help from 3 locals (as well as the 6 of us in the car), many branches and leaves, and everybody getting very muddy before we got out. We were still finding hardened clay under the car days later despite a thorough wash! We did eventually make it to Shire, a huge well built bridge appeared out of nowhere just before we got there, proving that there did used to be a road, or at least a dream of one at some point!
Whilst speaking of the Portuguese, my language is coming on… I can understand a lot of what’s going on and my vocabulary isn’t bad (although involves an unusual collection of words: firewood, pump rod, crocodile… you get the idea) but I need to practice speaking more than I do because it takes me a long time to form sentences. Slowly but surely!
Some treats (Picture: the canoes used for transporting food in Megaza)
We spent a couple of nights in Blantyre, Malawi on the journey and had some amazing meals out: 2 pizzas, a Chinese and an Indian. It was such a treat for the tastebuds! We also managed to get a tour of a tea factory in Mulanje which was fascinating (health and safety would’ve never allowed it in England). We did a lot of shopping in Blantyre for people back here: medicines, books, plastic sheeting, nice peanut butter, and coloured card!Rebecca and I also spent a great night at a trout farm on Zomba plateau (also in Malawi) and where I’d spent my last night in Africa two and a half years ago. We had a lovely 3 hour walk the next morning before heading back home.
It’s been really really hot, and there’s a real lack of rain for the time of year. People are losing crops which they planted when the rains first seemed to start. It’s hard for me to imagine the snow in England (although I did get shown my back garden via Skype this morning!) as I’m sure it’s hard for you to imagine what things are like here! I hope you are all well and it’s lovely to be hearing from you via email or Skype.
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