A letter from Ruthie arrives...

Thursday 28th July 2005

Dear David and everyone!
Well I am sitting on the floor of the clinic writing this while Jo sits next to me filing her nails!! Rob is wandering in & out with some tools, Vince has gone fishing… Becky & Lizzie are up at the water mill, doing a technical drawing of it for a plan to make it hydro-electric… Jon, Al & Lizzie F have gone to Tcharo for the day to scout it out…Ah, every day life, eh?
This morning we were down working on the jetty, when I heard lots of squealing from Lizzie K & Jo… as triumphantly Ed strolled down the beach - having just walked the last 5 miles of his five day journey!! Much relief all round! Ed seems none the worse for his sojourn around Africa… although unfortunately his baggage hasn't caught up with him yet - more prayer!
Well, what can I tell you about the last 5 days… it feels like we have been here a lot longer than that! We had a fairly uneventful journey up north after our night in Lilongwe at the Korea Garden Lodge… our next night at Ekwendeni Mission Station included one of the highlights of the trip - an evening of singing & dancing with a local choir… they taught us some beautiful African songs & raised the roof with their incredible singing & even John Challis was seen dancing!! Lizzie K & Al held our end up trying to teach them some English songs & our new songbooks came in very useful. And then a morning of looking around the mission station, into Mzuzu to meet the Chiefs, then up to Mlowe, our home for the next week or 2 or so…
Anyway, enough of me for now. Vince has diligently been ensuring that the team diary is written every day, so here's some quotes from that:

Sunday 24th. By Vince
"Overall journey time from Tollesbury to our Lilongwe accommodation 24 hrs! But the comforts are here - a swimming pool with adjacent bar, restaurant and a sheltered garden with lots of exotic plant life."
Monday 25th. By Lizzie K.
"Passed tiny little houses with straw roofs, passed men dressed smartly riding bikes with wood stacked high behind the saddles, passed women with beautiful posture walking elegantly with boxes, bags, sacks and stacks of wood on their heads; passed children running barefoot by; passed babies strapped tightly to their mothers' back with brightly coloured material; passed strange elephant looking at mountains that loomed before us; passed several road blocks and police & army checks; and eventually we arrived at the guest house (Ekwendeni)."
Tuesday 26th. By Jon G.
"50 bikes were stacked on the wall ready for volunteers to cycle hundreds of kilometres educating, treating and caring for the 37,000 orphans in Northern Malawi. The description of work with young people evoked memories of volunteers in the mud and working away for free in Tollesbury. Those who put in time seem to get out more than they could ever put in." (about our visit to HIV/AIDS project on Ekwendeni mission station.)
"The children inform me in a mix of Tambuka and pigeon English that a snake (possibly a black mamba) lives on the hill. Fear is the same in any language in my book… I am fearful. No loo trips in the night, in fact - as few loo trips as possible!" (at Mlowe. Jon Gay - Iron Man??)
Wednesday 27th. By Becky
"By 7 am we had tucked into Kelloggs cornflakes and watched the sun lift over the mountains. We could see the other side of the lake - Tanzanla? Mozambique? It was the clearest it had been for weeks apparently. It's a beautiful place, the scenery and atmosphere unlike anything. Even the cockerels are forgiven in the early morning light."

So anyway, we are now in our second full day at Mlowe. We are staying at the clinic - where the camp beds are all set our neatly with mozzie nets hanging from the beams above. We have two 'mamas' who are doing our cooking, cleaning & washing etc - they cook on very efficient open fires, expertly pulling or pushing the logs backwards & forwards to increase or decrease the heat. We spent yesterday morning looking around and meeting the local Chief and his council of village headmen. In the afternoon we started restoration work on the jetty - which has disintegrated into the lake even more than it had when we were here last year.

Later:
It's 7.50pm now & it's been dark for about an hour and a half. We're all sitting around writing letters by torch light to give to Bob (Baxter) who's leaving us tomorrow. We met Bob last year also & he has been here for a few weeks to help John. He's been a great & helpful addition to the team & entertaining company! Anyway… yesterday… we spent much of the afternoon moving rocks that have fallen off the jetty into the water, making the bottom too shallow. So we all got in the water and threw rocks around - great fun!! Today we have cracked on with filling in holes and using the rocks to fill gabions. Rob & Vince particularly have made friends with Kingsley, who is our gabions expert. Fortunately Ed has approved the work so far!!! This afternoon Ed had me Lizzie K & Jo scrubbing rocks with a washing up brush to make them less slimey so that concrete will stick to them… although we think that this may have been just to keep us quiet!
Al, Jon & Lizzie F had a good look at Tcharo today & had a great time by all accounts. Al assisted in the clinic & diagnosed someone with diabetes (apparently)… Jon found out that it's just £20 to buy a wife in Malawi, so I'm not sure whether the boys will be coming back!
We've just been given a four minute warning until Bible Study time (!!!) so I'd better write fast. We were discussing yesterday what peoples' impressions are… everyone mentioned how friendly everyone is that we've met, very welcoming. Everyone is trying to learn the local language, Tambuka… Al is fluent in some kind of language, but we're not that sure whether it's actually Tambuka…
Workwise - the jetty I've talked about; there's also a few other jobs here in Mlowe - making a mooring offshore for the boat; fixing some lights & things here at the clinic & a few things at the water mill - which John built a couple of years ago. They had a very exciting meeting at lunchtime with some people from Lilongwe re: making the water mill hydro-electric, hopefully producing 50kw for Mlowe. There are lots of little projects like this… we've seen lots of examples of Malawian's doing great things, lots of hope.
Sorry this is a bit scribbled and rambling! Not used to writing longhand!!
Gotta go! Lots of love from Ruthie xx