We have finally managed to tear ourselves away from Malawi and are now ensconced in Tanzania. We spent a day at a Students Partnership Worldwide (one of the charities we are supporting) community forum where we watched a discussion on women’s rights and clean drinking water. I was shocked to discover that in Tanzania more children die from respiratory diseases from the smoke breathed in when their mothers are cooking or boiling water than die from Aids every year. The forum told mothers that they could sterilise water simply by placing a clear 1.5l water bottle on a corrugated iron roof for 6 hours, thereby reducing the need for boiling water. The women eagerly came forward for a bottle and the children repeated the instructions to themselves which is encouraging. The women’s rights issues were slightly harder to get discussion. The men firmly insisted that there were certain things that women could not do and the women sat in silence. When questioning the head master after the forum he said that the forum was very informative but that obviously the Western world was very different from Africa. Still Milindi the volunteer is only a month into her placement and at least the community is turning up to meetings. Hopefully she’ll make some real headway in the next 6 months.   

We are now in Dar Es Salaam and planning our trip from hear on while we upgrade our shocks to heavy duty 4x4 ones. Wish us luck.

Georgie

PS: Apparently there is a Swahili song that goes something like ‘da da da Georgina, da da da Georgina.’ I’m getting used to being sung at regularly and retorting with ‘hey there Georgie girl.’ It certainly brings a smile J