You may be pleased to hear, this is the last of my African updates, as tomorrow I leave Open Arms Mangochi.
I know I have said this countless times, but I have never seen anything like what I have seen today. I am sitting here in my bungalow, not really knowing where to start to be honest! My head and my heart are spinning! I guess the beginning is as good a place as any so.....
As some of you may or may not be aware, fundraising has officially begun in the UK - with huge thanks to Dad, Mum & Nin who have spoken to countless people about what is going on over here (whether they wanted to know or not!) which has resulted in money being donated to me to pass on. Since I arrived, I have been lucky enough to be able to give Open Arms, Mangochi £750.00 which is quite amazing given the fact I'm still in Malawi! I am not going to name names, but for those of you who have given some money, I can not thank you enough. No amount of words will ever come close to being able to illustrate the gratitude the people here at Open Arms have shown. You know from previous emails, I have had to see some pretty emotional things, but, being sat in front of a room full of adults and having them all start to cry in front of your eyes is definitely up there in terms of having to battle to hold things together.
In an attempt to put into some kind of perspective how much that money means.....
Today, £1 is KW 492, making the £750 equal to KW 369,000.
The average Malawian working full time takes home KW 28,500. Which is the equivalent to around £120.......A YEAR!!!
A Malawian Bank - Indebank - donated KW 200,000, which to date was the biggest single donation Open Arms Mangochi had ever received.......a bank! And here is little old me, handing over nearly double that from friends and family in Nottinghamshire!!!
You can imagine the reception that news got, actually, I don't think you can, but I'll get on to that later!!
So this morning, Rashid & I went to the bank to withdraw the "fresh donations" and I, personally, deposited them directly into the Open Arms, Mangochi account. Rashid is absolutely adamant on "accountability and transparency" so was insistent that I deposited the money into the account. When we got home, unbeknown to me, he was straight on the phone to Neville (Director) of Open Arms to inform him of the donations and to make him aware of what was happening. This is the reason, I can safely say, absolutely and categorically, any money that gets here is 100% for the children. Rashid didn't have to do what he did with me, he could quite easily have said thank you very much and pocketed the cash....I would have been none the wiser and gone on my merry way. He is such a good man, and I trust him implicitly which makes my job of getting them as much help as possible so much easier.....I honestly believe in his management and trust every single penny will be put to the cause it has been given.
Rashid sat me down and asked me what I wanted the money to be spent on. My initial reaction was to have it as funding for the children's medication/hospital treatment as and when necessary, given the horrendous things I've seen with Hamida and Melanee. I then thought about it and given the level of trust I have for both Rashid and Chiku the Matron, I have said I will leave it to their judgement to use the money as they see fit. To compromise, Rashid has agreed with me, that he will come to me with any proposals for the money before they spend anything. So, speaking to both him and the Matron over the past week or so, the first purchase will be new mosquito nets for the children's beds. Every bed has nets, but they are the original ones bought in 2008 when the Mangochi home was opened. As you can imagine, nothing is sacred in a house with one child, let alone 40 so nearly all of the current nets have holes and rips allowing the mosquito's to get in - resulting in there being an average of 3 cases of Malaria each week. This means there are initial testing kits and subsequent medicines needing to be paid for, plus a child being very poorly and in some cases not surviving. A net is KW 2000, there are 40 beds so KW 80,000 will be being spent over the next few weeks which will undoubtedly mean Malaria need not be an issue for these children for the coming years. Amazing.......good job people. :)
Anyway, Rashid called me into his office this morning to tell me had arranged a surprise leaving 'do' for me with all the staff. Those of you that know me well, know how much I can not stand to be the centre of attention so knowing how these ladies like to "party" I must admit my initial reaction was dread!! However, I managed to get on with it!! I was ushered out into the main entrance to the campus where all the ladies were wearing their "chitenjes" - cloths wrapped round their middles, they were singing and dancing - amazing! The videos are priceless. To make my earlier dread worth while, I got pulled up to join them.....clearly I didn't know the words to the songs, nor did I have the faintest idea what they were singing about, but I managed to pull out a move or two with Mary, Dorris, Lonny & Chiwemwe (my favs!!) We had such a giggle, I can not tell you. The best party I've ever been too! :)
After all the singing and dancing I got scooped up and carried (literally) by all the mothers through the home to the feeding area where there was a crate of Fanta, Coke and bread rolls for our "party food"....then the speeches started!! Rashid said some of the kindest things anyone has ever said....I cried. Going back to his "accountability and transparency" thing, he also took the opportunity to announce to all the staff about the donations made by my family and friends......they cried!! They clapped, sang, danced, praised God.....I have been asked to be blessed with many, many children (I think I should have been grateful for that, but really hope God was busy with other things and missed that request!!) These people have never dreamed of that kind of money in their lives. Never could imagine that someone would be giving them something like that...to think we in the UK wouldn't really think £750 was that much money - spend more than that on a television!!
Chiku the Matron made a speech.....I cried. Mags (supervisor) made a speech......I cried. Chiwemwe (one of the mothers) made a speech.......I cried. There were a lot of speeches and I cried a lot!
Rashid then presented me with some gifts. From Open Arms I got some handmade figurines, made by David the watchmen, to include a candle stick holder that is a mother holding 2 children - as I am now "one of them". There are three groups of Mothers that work shifts - Group B (the attached photo) are my absolute favourites and they had clubbed together and bought me a bag. Mary who is one of Group B gave me something just from her....she had made me a bag out of sacking and had sewn on the Open Arms logo. She burst into tears when she gave it to me and told that my skin was getting browner which was a sign of me becoming a Malawian so I should just stay!!! These people are just so, so lovely I can not tell you. At the risk of repeating myself, I am so lucky to have been able to come here and meet them. They are just amazing.
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| My gifts |
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| Adam (my "Darling") |
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| Hawa & Adam.....my gorgeous twins! |
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| The love of your twin! |
So to round up, I have spent nearly 6 weeks in Mangochi and have had the best and worst things possible happen in front of my eyes. Brand new life and death all within the confines of little campus in the middle of nowhere! It has totally changed my life and I am convinced I am a better person because of it. I am so sad to be leaving, knowing my little Adam and Hawa won't be able give me a cheeky giggle every day, Tiwonge won't be looking up at me with her hands in the air asking me for a "duddle", Latifu won't be able to sit on my knee and have a cuddle at 4pm while we wait for his porridge, I won't see Mussa wearing his wetsuit......you get the picture.
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| Atupele |
:)
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| Playtime |
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| Bernadi....stressed! |
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| Me and my favourites..... |
However, on the positive side - I will be able to wear a pair of trousers for more than 10 minutes without having a leaking nappy incident, my shoulders won't constantly smell of milk sick, I can lie in after 5.30am without feeling like a child is starving because I'm not there, and I can actually have a day off!! I'd forgo all of those things any day of the week if it meant I could do this again though.
Onwards and upwards now......its been emotional!
Love you loads,
Z xXx
http://www.justgiving.com/Zoe-Morrison1
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