The weather has remained decidedly Scottish
today as we embarked on another painting day. We did, however, travel down to
see Mary’s Meals before painting and Calum had to take a wee trip into
Blantyre.
Blantyre by Calum
Today I travelled through to Blantyre with
Mr Boyd to go to the hospital for a check-up. We left after seeing Mary’s Meals
at Nansato and dropping everyone one else of at the other school. The Mary’s
Meals was a bit strange. It was raining and cold so there was not a huge amount
of kids when we arrived around 6.20. It was awkward watching the kids line up
to get, what could be, their only meal of the day. Everyone was a bit muted
either because it was so cold and rainy or because they were so hungry. We all
took a turn stirring the big pots which seemed a bit touristy. We then got a
taste of the likuni phala which is fortified with vitamins. It was quite sweet
and a wee bit sandy in texture. The trip to Blantyre was very interesting.
After the bad rain that we have been having over the past few days it made the
first bit of the journey very interesting as to get to the road we have to
travel down a mud road for about half an hour. The road was now hard to pass as
there was now lots of potholes and the ground was wet and very slippery. Andrew
had a very tough job avoiding all the cyclists, people walking on the massive
potholes and even ditches before we made it to the tarmac. It felt like I was
on a rollercoaster. The tarmac turned out to be not much better with the
drivers here being crazy with them almost hitting each other. Also one thing
that we have noticed since being here is the crazy things that they have on
their bikes. Today we noticed someone carrying a goat and someone with a huge
stack of chairs. When we got to the hospital in Blantyre it wasn’t what I
expected as it was very nice and not too much different from home. Some of the
methods like taking my temperature was different as they don’t have the
technology that we have but all went well and got some lunch before heading
back along the road to go back and help with the last bit of painting the
schools today.
Pasani by Cameron and Ben
Today at Pasani we arrived in the rain and
started doing a second coat of light blue gloss on the doors and windows. We
were waiting for PVA to paint on the walls of the last classroom before we
could paint it. While we were doing the doors and windows Mr Christmas, Connor
and Alex started drawing the alphabet and numbers on the walls in the
classrooms. We had a great lunch of sausages and sandwiches in an empty
classroom, then went straight back to work. We cut empty water bottles in half and
filled them up with the acrylic paint diluted with water, half of us using the
acrylic to paint the murals on the walls while the others finished off the
windows and door of the last classroom. At half past two Jacko arrived to give
us a lift home and we stopped at the woodcarvers on the way. The toilets were
especially smelly today but the classrooms are starting to look great.
Nansato By Bjorn and Alex G
Today at Nansato we were glossing 5
classrooms with blue paint and also lime washing the last classroom. With two
members of our team away on a hospital run we were short of members but as we
got there we got a nice surprise as one of the bursars called Gift showed up to
help us paint. Once we had glossed the 5 classrooms before lunch and had a much
needed break consisting of bread and sausages delivered to us by our amazing
guide Jacko, we went and started to undercoat the windows while Mr Anderson and
Niels started on the murals with the help of Luscious, a sign painter by trade,
helping make a visually stunning alphabet above one of the near completed
classrooms. After the dreaded undercoating of windows we moved on to the much hated
lime-wash. Half way through Calum and Mr. Boyd returned from the hospital and
started to help on the last classroom. With Mr. Boyd providing detail on
information of what’s happening in the UK (such as Teresa May’s potentially
becoming PM and making us think twice about returning home) and to help lighten
the mood from our tedious task that was the dreaded lime wash by telling
stories of Bjorn’s Mum repeating in every photo of Project Malawi’s blog:
“Where’s Bjorn” and “I don’t see Bjorn”. At this point, Mr A decided that I
(Bjorn) was going to be writing the blog tonight and also reminded me to tell
the parents that photos are very difficult to upload and that all boys are all
still alive and very much being photographed for future sharing. Overall it was
impressive to see how a fresh coat of paint can make such an improvement to an
otherwise dull and dreary building. At the end of the day we had a lot of fun
with the local gang. We played games with them, made funny faces and also
taught them how to chant the theme tune of John Cena. It was George’s last evening with us tonight
so we gave him one of our much sought after tea towels and a thank you for
putting up with us. I’m sure he will enjoy his long journey home tomorrow in
peace and quiet.
No comments:
Post a Comment