The thoughts of one participant well sum up the reaction of many to their first visit to Malawi.  “It is difficult not to become attached to the people and their enjoyment of life despite the poverty. They have a great sense of community and family responsibilities and are very appreciative of help whether from their own society (Mothers’ Union or MACOBO) or from outsiders like us. It is a compliment that I did not feel like an outsider after the first couple of days having experienced their desire for friendship.”

A cancelled flight and fairly brief disappearance of all our luggage made an inauspicious start but there were plenty of unexpected pleasures and excitements in store.    One aim of the visit is to show supporters how their money has been spent and the range of projects that MACS manages under the brilliant supervision of Grafiud Tione.   We visited Buzi church whose roofing is now complete, classrooms and school laboratory at Nkhotakota, a new hostel for secondary pupils and the dam at Malosa, our biggest ever water project.  We saw new houses for four nurses and a teacher at Malindi, an orphancare centre at Mtonda and the refurbished laboratory at St Luke’s hospital.  But it is meeting people and making relationships that warm the heart and provide the lasting memories, and at the heart of the trip was our stay in the village of Nkope.

As usual many hours of work went into replacing mosquito screens on nurses’ houses and the complete redecoration of the house of Clara Njawala, the senior special needs teacher of the Blind Unit.  Her pupils had given up a week of their school holidays to stay for our visit!  Our four 15 – 18 year olds put down their paintbrushes in the afternoons to run activities for some of the village children.  Rounders seemed new to them as was the huge and colourful playground parachute and the games it provided,  generating much laughter and excitement.   Amy, clearly a teacher in the making, offered art and craft sessions using materials that we take for granted but provided eye-opening new experiences for the children.  They skipped home with their colourful creations, full of delight and pride.

On a visit to the homes of villagers our groups were challenged, and in a way honoured, to cook for their hosts the traditional meal of Nsima and relish and a few days later these skills were called upon again during the excursion into the bush by bicycle-taxi to see the work of the Malosa Based Community Organisation and meet some of the recipients of nearly 10000 mosquito nets that MACOBO had distributed for us last autumn.  One visitor wrote,” The MACOBO volunteers, they are the people who best sum up the work of MACS for me.  It was impossible to fail to be inspired by the MACOBO team who do the everyday jobs of looking after the elderly, sick and needy in these rural villages with such devotion.”

Of course there were more leisurely times: the fascinating guide to the culture of Malawi at Mua Mission, the trip to a crocodile farm that gave us an unusual eyeball to eyeball experience, a magical open-air and fire-lit dinner at Mvuu safari park, our gradual return to a different way of life with tea and scones at Dedza Pottery and our final evening supper in Lilongwe.  If I have omitted our drive to enjoy the view from Zomba mountain it is only because the memory was soon eclipsed by the kindness and hospitality of the house-owner who allowed us to take shelter from a police-inflamed anti-government riot that we encountered on our pretty exciting way back!

If the most important aim of the MACS visit is to enable participants to encounter closely the people of Malawi, both their daily problems and their love of life, this group seems to have achieved that in full measure.    An unpredictable innovation was the formation of the whole group including our brilliant driver, Suzgo, into a choir!   The crocodile eye of the choir-mistress quelled any thought of absenteeism or mutiny and our ability and confidence grew.  The outcome was amazing.  We were able to sing back to the blind children, draw prolonged ululation from the Mothers’ Union groups who welcomed us to their villages and make sometimes rather formal and passive Introductions into wow events.

On Sunday we had been invited to St Paul’s, Chizula, recently built by MACS and at the end of a four-hour Consecration with Confirmation with Eucharist service we could bring our gift to their celebrations.  The result certainly proved that the roof was firmly attached to the walls. 

The hallmark of this group was the empathy achieved between visitor and visited.  One just-mother in the maternity ward at St Martin’s even asked us to name her baby for her!

Richard Barton, November 2011