Travel to Liwonde

Last Saturday (15^th – sorry i’m a bit behind) we left our training centre and home for the first 2 weeks of this trip in Lilongwe to head to where we’re working. After a stop in Salima for the other half of the Progressio team (and 40 minutes stopped at a police check point waiting for the car containing peoples passports to arrive) we started heading south.

The drive was one of those that annoying travel writers spend pages and pages describing in gushing tones. Long straight roads, blazing sun, small rural communities who now find the road going through the middle. Baobab trees, the mountains rising up on the West and in my case a very engaging local to keep me company. (This local was infact Godwin , Progressio’s Logistics Officer who was driving!!) It was undeniably beautiful, also eye opening – there were many signs for turn off to local charities of all kinds. Living in Lilongwe where we were it was too easy to forget that this is one of the poorest countries on the planet

Liwonde was named after a Yao chief (Yao the majority tribe round here, at one time they lived on the lake and dealt with traders and slavers from North Africa and Arabia – they are majority Muslim) build across the Shire (Shir-ree) River and also giving name to the National Part on the Southern side. The town is split in 2 by the river, the ‘old town’ on the south centred round the bus station and market and a newer settlement called ‘Liwonde Barrage’ north of the bridge which has grown up around a police barrier and several of the lodges catering to tourists on safari. Our accommodation is just east of the market, only 2 minutes from the centre of the old town. It is a lodge – appearing in the travel guide I bought as ‘Shoestring’. That said the rooms are large, the showers work (albeit you can only get hot water in the afternoon after the sun has been heating it – but it is so warm a cold shower is very desirable).  The heat is very oppressive after about 9am, we are in the hottest part of the country and the hottest part of summer, but we will adapt and get used to it.

The centre we are meant to be working at is called Kwatukumbuchire Malayi, I will write more about it in the following weeks. I went with our Director Rev Momore and Ali and Thoko from the partner organisation MANERELA+ (more on them to follow shortly too) to visit the District Officers to introduce our group and be welcomed by the local officials. While we were there fertilizer was being handed out (the government subsides much of the agriculture) but everyone could see that there was nowhere near enough for the number of people who were queuing.

These supply shortages are becoming increasingly common. In Lilongwe the day before we left we ended up trying to drive past a petrol station which was receiving a delivery, the queues were already very long (something we had seen before) and when people saw us some came running up shouting that “we needed to see this” and “this is how bad it is in Malawi”. Others came telling us to leave and that nothing is wrong. (One of the cars in that queue was our minibus for our trip to Liwonde. We had also been sourcing black market diesel all week so we had enough.) These people are supporters of the President, who many other blame for much of the shortages. While getting ready to come to Malawi the British High Commissioner was expelled after one of the wikileaks documents gave away that he called the President “increasingly dictatorial”, aid was stopped and people were generally unhappy. On the Saturday we travelled down it was in the papers that the President had “courageously”  apologised and reinstated ties with the UK. However UK Aid is not resuming fully, the government is putting conditions on it, among them the decriminalising of homosexuality – still a crime in Malawi and something that people working in the HIV field find a real barrier. You can’t even have the conversation about male to male transmission when people deny it happens.

I find this a tricky one – should aid be unconditional and as a gesture of goodwill from countries that can afford it? Or should the UK as a country where freedom of sexuality is protected by law be allowed to support this position outside of its boarders?

Answers on a postcard folks!!

We are waiting for the rains which will hopefully bring the temperature down, and also planning a boat trip on the Shire for this weekend. Many thanks for those who’ve sent me emails/facebook messages. They are appreciated, and I will try and reply in person when i can.

Danny