preparing for rains

We didn't manage to get a newsletter out this month, so just a quick update here.

This is crunch time for a lot of our projects because the rains are coming. Last year it was late November but the signs are showing early rains. Right now is the best time to dig wells and pit latrines because the water level is at its lowest but the holes have to be lined before the rains or else all you'll have is a gross muddy mess. Right now we are building latrines at two schools that had no toilets had all (imagine 1600 students without shoes using a bamboo area and then sitting back down on the floor in the classroom) -- so we have 24 toilets to build before the rains. We also just received funding for a river diversion project in Namasalima (where we rebuilt the dike last year) because the natural flow of the water has been blocked and it's flowing up against the dike, causing damage -- so we're starting that on Monday to finish before the rains. And then there are various other projects that will become next to impossible once the rains come. So, this is crunch time.

People are also busy digging in their gardens, getting them ready for planting. And this is the time for construction -- people are making bricks and building houses everywhere, hoping to have a dry place to sleep soon.

We have also enjoyed some time with Andre's parents, who visited us here in Malawi for 2.5 weeks. We showed them some of our projects and also took the opportunity to see some sights and visit the lake.

My computer died so I can't even post a picture. Sorry!

President 'Determined' to Lead Country Out of Poverty

Malawi is striving to move from poverty to prosperity. How far along the nation is along that spectrum is, of course, questionable but President Bingu wa Mutharika seems to making some right steps towards that. These are some of his comments:

"We are saying we are an economic miracle because, five years ago, we were an economic pariah. The World Bank, the IMF and the donors almost abandoned us, because we were following policies that were not taking us anywhere.

Malawi is not a poor country. The people are poor, and that is where the miracle started..."

"We are saying: why is it that others come out of poverty and the rest stay there? That is what is propelling Malawi. We are determined to come out of poverty. We will come out of poverty and, relatively, in a shorter period perhaps than the others. They invented the wheel. We will not invent a new wheel. We will just make it faster."

allAfrica.com 29 September 2009

why sustainable development is so difficult in rural Africa

Can a community facing grinding poverty and insecurity turn its fortunes around?

There is a lot of debate about how to create sustainable communities, but nowhere is this more difficult to achieve than in poor subsistence farming communities in Africa.

Of course, this is easier said than done. There are multiple reasons for this. One real danger is that development projects create a culture of dependency whereby communities expect things to be given to them and lose sight of their own power to create change.

But equally difficult is the grinding poverty and lack of security faced by the Katine villagers, who are so used to living day by day that it can be a real challenge to think about planning for the future.

If you would like to follow the debate and progress, then I highly recommend that you explore the Katine website. It's a unique project because never before has one development project been monitored so closely and openly in the media, and it gives a real sense of the extraordinary complexity of development.

guardian.co.uk 30 September 2009

Hopeful Signs in Malawi (slideshow)

The number of children dying before their fifth birthdays each year has fallen below nine million for the first time on record, decreasing to 8.8 million last year from 12.5 million in 1990. One of the most vertiginous drops in child mortality has occurred in Malawi, a country in southeastern Africa that is so poor that half the children are stunted by malnutrition. It is so bereft of doctors and nurses that workers with 10th-grade educations dispense antibiotics.
New York Times slideshow // 11 photos