Stewarts in Malawi

Life Drawing

2011-03-13T21:46:00.000Z

Becky
these are your Life Drawing Images - The order in the movie is not the same as the order that they are presented in

2011-03-08T21:20:00.010Z

Folio Work

Development Work

Large Journal

Small Journal

Bicycle

Dress & Edinburgh

Box

Sanctuary

From our new reporter.... Maureen

2008-11-20T17:15:00.006Z

At last a week end to just relax and catch up with email, so whats been happening hear in hot and humid Malawi?
Well last week end for the first time I headed down the escarpment past the Illovo sugar plantations to an orphanage run by the father and mother of one of the Malawians that go to Livingstones Church.
It was a real privilege to go with a group from the church made up mainly of doctors, Mark and Jill, and thankfully some Malawians who would interpret for us.
As we rolled into the orphanage the children started singing it was quite emotional. Their singing made me feel very happy! We were introduced to a crowd of rural teachers who had come to hear from Jill about how to do dramas and tell stories in the hope of making lessons more exciting. After lunch I would give a talk on some basic first aid plus some bush medicine.
But first we headed to a village to talk about safety in the home, first aid and bush medicine after lunch the doctors came back to do a clinic. It was great fun, at every opportunity the ladies of the village would sing praises to God, dancing and insisted on dancing with us. I learnt to play a new game with some of the children and even eat some goat stew with nsima. We headed back up to Blantyre as the sun was sun was setting.
Our air conditioned car felt good as the temperatures were hitting 40C in the shade. We gave a lift to Peter, the person who started and still runs the orphanage, to the next town - he was preaching that night.
Stocked up on mango's 30p each at the side of the road, was going to haggle but had run out of energy. When we got to the check points and had to get out the car to rub our feet on wet hessian mat, apparently we have another outbreak of foot and mouth - I was less than enthusiastic.

The weekend prior to that Neil and I were helping the Caledonian society to set up and run for the first time in eight years the Thyolo Highland Games. We stayed with Susie Davis on the Tea Estate which her husband manages, nice looking place, the games went well.
Good fun apart from one of the South African Teams - drink and SA's don't seem to go well they just become rude, although they are good at writing letters of apology!

Becky and class mates hiked up Mount Mulanje for that weekend, said it was a doddle, I find that hard to believe! They all had a good time.

Mid Term Break

2008-10-19T14:15:00.008+01:00

I have been most remiss in keeping up to date with this blog - now only managing to write anything during holidays, not even monthly. I even had to be reminded by an old friend to do this, still at least that means at least one person reads it!

We returned at the end of September to meet new staff and settle into life in Blantyre once again. It was strange returning without Rachael as she is now in Aberdeen beginning her degree in education. All the new staff are great and a real asset to the school. Daily life as Deputy Head is quite different from class room teacher here - you are expected to know everything and dish out policy and advice on everything and anything, which feels odd as I still feel like a newcomer to the country.

Week one brought a rabies scare to the campus and I ended up as vet, chief medical officer and advisor to Government, all a welcome distraction to my deficiencies as Deputy! We are still dealing with final innoculations today and trying to write dog policies - the biggest culprit is the Headmaster whose dogs roam the campus with impunity. Once my gun arrives I can get rid of them and my job at the same time.

Becky has started her A level courses and is working as hard as ever. She designed some dresses from black bin bags for the school fashion show, once I get some photos I'll put them up here.

Maureen was marshalling at her school's triathlon and ended up competing in the under 35 womens team event and came a very creditable second.

My own activities have been fairly limited until recently when we all started a lifeguard course and the physical demands of that have made me do some work, again more of this in the next post.

We are on mid term break just now and after that we will be counting down to the Christmas break and our trip home and to Norway for Christmas with all the family - the first time for 10 years.

2 one day holidays for Eid and Mothers Day this term, but not much else of excitement to report, except for a night of terror for our chickens - who number 5 now. We have been enjoying a regular 5 eggs a day from our chickens until one morning we were awoken at 3.30 am with squalking and feathers flying as our brave chicks were trying to see off two dogs - our chickens number 4 now! The wounded are still laying eggs but I fear that they are for the pot soon!

Very few photos have been taken so far, we must have taken them all last year - we did have a good day at Mulanje at the rock pools though.

Late update

2008-07-08T11:34:00.000+01:00

Once again I have fallen behind with this blog - I do not know how people can keep them up to date on a daily basis.
The last 6 weeks of term have been extremely busy with exams, 50th anniversary celebrations, Sports Day, volleyball & football tournaments, School play, Graduation Ball, Boarders dinner and mid term.
We managed to fit another trip to the Lake during the mid term break.
We stayed with a Steve and Dora Wimbush at their cottage on the Lake front and had the usual energetic holiday as you can see from the girls pictures!

The next door neighbours to the cottage is a Crocodile farm, which you can see we visited.

We then headed back to Lujeri cottage, where we spent our first mid term break and enjoyed a weekend there.

The wind down to the end of term did not really exist as the list of activities kept us going right to the end. This did help the time to pass quickly. Maureen and Becky had already headed home ahead of us in mid June to catch up with friends and I have now followed on (5/7/08).
We will record our second year of life in Malawi beginning in September - and hopefully have more regular updates.

Anti Bullying Group work - ICT and PHSE

2008-05-24T19:39:00.000+01:00

Click on images for a bigger view

The opportunities for ICT to be used as a tool to address other areas of the curriculum has always been recognised but it has not always been possible to deliver due to an overcrowded syllabus.

We have taken the opportunity to investigate different forms of bullying with the aim of creating a movie to illustrate and highlight this issue.

Group work is always difficult to manage but the students (Year 7) have been very enthusiastic and creative in their discussions and subsequent storyboarding. The students have 4 weeks to complete the project and present their finished movies.

The movie has allowed us to move outside of the classroom and also to link with the Drama department

The students have been keen to discuss the issues of cyber bullying in particular which has had the dual benefit of being able to study ICT topics as well.

We will evaluate the complete project at the end and hopefully build it into next years scheme of work.

We will use a Rubric to assess both the ICT skills and the Group work

Athletics Match

2008-05-24T18:59:00.000+01:00

Click on images for a bigger view

Saturday May 20th saw the arrival of Kamuzu Academy and Bishop Mackenzie International Schools for an inter schools athletic match.
An early start for athletes and teachers alike.

The match was keenly contested at Junior Girls and Boys and Intermediate Girls and Boys levels, with some excellent individual and team performances.

Staff ready

You wouldn't think that this was the staff all ready for an early start - well its not this was taken at the end of the meeting!

Warm up
Athletes going through their stretching routine

Victorious Relay Team
The last event was the Intermediate Boys relay race, This was a close race until Mwai got the baton in his hand for the last leg, when he ran away from the opposition to a rapturous reception from spectators and athletes alike.

Winning SAInts Team

The event was followed by a brai for all and proved to be a good rehearsal for our up and coming Sports Day. As ever the PE staff ran a very smooth and professional event and we all learnt from it.

Busy Start to May

2008-05-07T21:54:00.000+01:00

Click on images for a bigger view

May weekend saw Maureen and I, and a few friends; Tom, Jo, Gary, Judy and Merin, heading of to Mount Mulanje for a weekend of hiking to celebrate Tom's Birthday.

The mountain is incredible - this picture shows our route up Mulanje and the oldies that made it to the top.

The weekend was the equivalent of climbing higher than Ben Nevis on 3 consecutive days - it was tough going up and harder coming down but worth it for the views in between times - incredible, spectacular but ultimately exhausting.

The pictures of the wood carriers put our efforts into perspective, transporting wooden planks and sections of trees, barefooted over ground that we had difficulty walking on.

The real 'wake up call' for us was the young girl carrying her baby on her back with a bundle of sticks (that I couldn't have lifted) on her head - not only that but she overtook us!

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This evening we headed out to the French Cultural Centre for a concert featuring Dobet Gnahoré. If you haven't heard of her it is worthing watching out for her, it was a great concert especially watching it under African skies.

May will continue to be busy as we have 2 more performances of Shakespeare's 'Taming the Shrew' and a touch rugby tournament this weekend as we hurtle towards the mid term holiday and then on towards our 50th Anniversary celebrations in June.

Term 3 - April

2008-04-27T13:23:00.000+01:00

Click on any of the pictures for a bigger view.

Three weeks of the last term over and we are just about to enter May, time for another update - how do these bloggers mange to update daily?

In the second week the school resurrected its International Food and Dance evening with some 20 different nations providing food, we even managed to get some of MacSweens haggis for the occasion. The dancers ensured that it was a successful and colourful night and hopefully the event will only grow from here.

Not so much travelling since Easter as we are settling down for the exam period which means a lot more studying for Becky, but she is self disciplined and is organising her time well.

Rachael has successfully completed the selection process for Aberdeen University and will be heading for the Northern Lights in September, we are so proud of her as she had to endure a long telephone interview during which she had to give a presentation based on an educational scenario - well done!

Maureen and I continue to enjoy the relaxed environment, aided by a lovely climate which means breakfast on the khonde (verandah) every morning and generally enjoying outdoor living. When this is combined with Maureen's various lunch clubs and social gatherings it makes for a tough existence.

Although we are enjoying all aspects of living and working here we are also looking forward to our holiday back home in Scotland. Maureen and Becky are scheduled for return on the 18th June with Rachael and I following at the end of term.
I was invited join a team of our senior boys in a volleyball tournament, luckily there are no photographs of the event - suffice to say that it succeeded in making a 'A Happy man feel very old'. I am not sure what the boys were expecting but I can confidently say that they were surprised and probably disappointed. Nothing to the surprise and hurt that I felt when the ground seemed to be a lot closer to me than it should have been when I jumped as high as I could!

We should have a climb to the top of Mulanje in the coming weeks, so there may be some more pictures to share soon.

The market picture is to show the colourful event that shopping is and what is known as an ATM in Malawi (African Trade Mark!)

Easter Holiday

2008-04-02T21:05:00.001+01:00

Following on from the previous posting....

Our Easter holidays arrived and with them Mum and Kath endured flights via Amsterdam and Nairobi to arrive in Lilongwe to join us.

It was great seeing them again and the last 6 months have flown by, it seems like yesterday since we saw them.

The following 2 weeks followed a similar pattern as the trip with Fiona and Andrew in that we visited Nyala and Mvuu parks - both tremendous and each with their own wildlife.

We continued with a trip to the lake, but this time visited a new area - Nkhata Bay.
Nkhata Bay is a stunning location and quite different from other areas we had visited - a busy market town with activity centred around the weekly visits of the MV Ilala
The Ilala brings people and fish to the mainland and returns the next day to take the same people and their purchased goods back to Likoma Island. This turns Nkhata Bay into a noisy and exciting town.
Our first chalet in Mayoka Village brought its own challenges with it ie some 50 steps hewn out of rough rock between the chalet and the restaurant - a beautiful setting if not that practical for Mum let alone me.
We moved across the bay to Aqua Africa and spent the rest of the week there in very comfortable rooms with a great view.
We continued our diving here and all participated in a night dive - challenging but ultimately worth the stress even if I did loose my torch!

The 2 weeks passed in a blur but we did manage to cover 2500 kms and saw a lot more of Malawi.

Oops where did March go?

2008-04-02T17:26:00.000+01:00

As the title says What happened to March? No updates for a couple of months - I put it down to a hectic term at school and the much anticipated visits of family.
I will try and catch up with events now...
The end of February saw the arrival of Fiona and Andrew, leaving a wintry Dunoon behind and arriving in a balmy Blantyre - although the rains were still hanging around. A busy few days of Brais (barbecues), rugby watching and generally socialising ensued culminating in a khonde (verandah) party to mark the start of our mid term - thanks to our new neighbours Herman and Carleen for providing us with the braiing facility in their recently completed brai - built to South African specifications and fit to cook a Wildebeest whole!

Next day off to Mvuu safari camp with friends Gary, Judy and Merin, a wonderful 24 hours of safari followed with luxury accommodation thrown in.

Swiftly following Mvuu we headed north up the lake side to Nkhotakota safari lodge and pottery. after a slight mix up with the booking we settled into our deluxe chalets at a greatly reduced price thanks to Gary's negotiating skills - a warm smile and greeting swiftly followed by "so how much are you giving us off the cost?" seems to work!

Back to school after mid term and with just enough time to make a day trip to Mulanje Mountain (the inspiration for Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy - the Misty Mountains of Morar - by the way. My daughters told me)

The waterfall was a lot warmer in November, Fiona has a couple of points that will tell you how cold it was if you ask her and I am sure that Andrew would show you how cold it was too!.

Just time for Andrew and Fiona to treat us all to a steak dinner at a local restaurant before they departed for home.

Thanks for coming and it was great seeing you and sharing the whistle stop tour of Malawi with you.

One last thing their departure coincided with a Scotland victory over England at Murrayfield, sadly their only win of the championship, I had predicted a Scotland Grand slam at the beginning of the season and we only managed to avoid the wooden spoon on points difference, there is always next year.

January Come and Gone

2008-02-02T12:40:00.000Z

Well I have been rather lazy at updating this blog and I have reached the end of January with barely an entry. I will try and cram it all into this post.

January has seen all the usual Birthdays; Granny in Edinburgh, Becky and I sharing a meal out at Ryalls hotel but Auntie Fiona topped them all with her 50th in Dunoon.
School resumed and straight into exams for everyone with Becky doing particularly well.

We had a class trip one Saturday to Mulanje, where my form class, various staff and our family had a great time in the river rapids and enjoying the magnificent scenery.

We also attended the Blantyre Caledonian Society Burns Supper where I gave the 'Immortal Memory', thankfully sufficient amounts of whisky and the fact that most of those attending couldn't understand a word I said made it a good evening.

The chickens have come home to roost, not only that, they have brought a friend with them. The new chicken remains nameless at the moment but it is the noisiest of the three and if it carries on like that it will not be long for this world, and will make its way into the pot.

We look forward to the end of this month when Fiona and Andrew will be the first of the family to visit, and we look forward to touring some of Malawi with them.

The promised rains duly arrived with a vengence and although spectacular at times we have now had enough of them. I am glad to say that this the first weekend that we have had glorious sunshine agin and it is so nice to sit outside working, reading and generally doing nothing. Malawi needs the rains for its crops but now it needs constant sun and hopefully this is the start of it.

Now we wait to see what February brings.

Christmas in Cape Town

2008-01-09T12:06:00.000Z

Thanks to the generosity of my cousin Alan we were able to spend Christmas and New Year in a beach house close to Cape Town.
This meant a very different Christmas, Christmas morning body surfing on the beach, Hogmanay swimming at midnight, sipping champagne on the lawn in Stellenbosch and in general chilling by the beach. The Cape has so much to offer and we barely scratched the surface so no doubt it will necessitate another visit. Shopping played a major part of the trip for the girls having been deprived of fashion shops etc in Malawi - I must say its a relief in many ways to be back in
Blantyre for this reason! Other new experiences included a day at Newlands cricket Ground for the South Africa v West Indies test match and surfing - or in my case falling off a piece of plastic in the waves - still a lot of fun. Rachael and Becky now fancy the life of a surf and beach bum or maybe it was just the instructors they fancied?

NOW back in Blantyre we are fitting into the normal routines again, everyone working hard and beginning the planning for our next journey - Zanzibar, Mozambique, the Lake, Tanzania who knows we are spoilt for choice.
The chickens haven't returned from their holidays yet - I add this because many people were more concerned about the chickens' well being than they were about mine. We have delayed their return in order to build a chicken run for them rather than giving carte blanche to crap all over the house - more updates on this topic will follow.

Around Blantyre - Mount Mulanje & Michiru

2007-12-08T13:27:00.000Z

We visited Mount Mulanje one Saturday and took a short hike, with a guide up to a waterfall. The scenery is spectacular and the pools great for swimming in.
As we approached the mountain we drove through tea estates.
I am planning another trip to Mulanje in January with the form class, where we will visit an area called Blue Lagoon for some white water rafting with inner tubes.
Higher up Mulanje than we ventured, there a Cedar forests, which form a crucial part of the country's economy - we'll maybe get some photos next time.
More pictures of Mulanje can be seen here

Schools International Link up - through GLOW

2007-12-04T12:25:00.000Z

A first for Malawian Schools

Today was an historic day in the 50 year history of St Andrew's International High School. Students in St Andrew's linked up with pupils in Lairdsland Primary School, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland to share projects that they had been working on this term.
The conference was possible because of Glow - Scotlands National Intranet, a unique development in Scottish Education. The two schools used Glow Meet, the video conferencing and collaboration tool within Glow to share presentations about their respective countries.
The students then questioned each other and began to discuss future collaborations they would like to take part in.
A very successful conference that lasted for 60 minutes across two continents, showing the potential and the role that collaboration can play in education.
More pictures here

St Andrews Swimming Gala 2007

2007-12-01T11:54:00.000Z

A 7.00 am start saw us registering the students and making a colourful procession to the pol. Some of the students were more willing than others but they soon all got into the spirit of the day.

All the races were keenly contested and provided a wonderful sporting occasion, with many of the students performing well beyond expectations.

The spectators were noisy and enthusiastic supporting all the swimmers equally.

St Andrews Night - Blantyre Sports Club

2007-12-01T11:33:00.000Z

30th November - St Andrew'sDay. We celebrated St Andrews Day, Malawi style, at the Blantyre Sports Club with a ball.
A good evening was had with Becky providing some of the entertainment with some Scottish fiddle tunes.

The food was good with Haggis imported from McSweens, Scotland.
The dancing was enthusiastic if not very cultured - I feared carnage on the dance floor, but most escaped without too much damage.

We had a multi national table incuding Jorge Inglesias a Cuban 'Jimmy'

Unfortunately (or fortunately) we left at midnight because of the school swimming gala which began at 7.00 am the next day - see next post.

Campus life

2007-11-23T17:21:00.000Z

The campus is a thriving community with many clubs using the facilities, but we also have a large community that live on site and the families and children enjoy living here.
There are never many mangoes left on the tree as they are eaten before we get a chance to collect them

Freight Arrives

2007-11-21T21:10:00.000Z

At last, 4 months since we last saw our boxes packed up in our garage in Edinburgh the container arrived on the school campus on Friday 16th Nov.
With great excitement we unpacked the containers and waited for the customs officials to clear our goods.
With a little gentle persuasion we were soon allowed to take the goods up to our house and start the unpacking. An immediate transformation occurred with our house turning into a home, it was like Christmas come early.

The school builders have been working to complete our khonde (aka verandah) and we are looking forward to sitting in the shade of our extension sipping Malawi Gin and Tonics (MGTs)

Nearly 3 months

2007-11-15T16:48:00.000Z

Well its nearly 3 months since we left Edinburgh and landed a day later in Malawi. The first few weeks have seen a whirlwind of activity as we are learning to find our way around Blantyre and further afield.

Maureen and Rachael are a lot more adept at traveling and both of them have been social butterflies since arrival. Rachael through her work in the school has developed a busy social life with the young teachers and to date has competed and come third in the 'Mak Mile' a national one mile race in Lake Malawi and climbed Mulanje Mountain (the video of her return may soon be available for general release - worth watching!)

Maureen through her various invitations to Lunch clubs and her massage work has put herself at the top of the invites lists - unfortunately all this will have to stop as she has started working full time (temporarily) at a local primary school.

As for Becky and I we tend to be based on the school campus more and don't get out much. Becky is swamped with homework but typically is doing very well in all subjects. I am enjoying teaching and the school and its students are a delight - I hope that this honeymoon period doesn't finish.

The highlight of the school week is our family night of waterpolo on Thursday evening, this provides us with an hour of hard exercise and usually leaves us all exhausted and a cold Green (Carlsberg beer) is most welcome.

Chickens Earn a Reprieve

2007-11-15T16:25:00.000Z

The chickens have been here for 1 week and only produced 1 egg, a house and verandah covered in chicken poop along with a destroyed vegetable patch and flowers dug up.
Then lo and behold this morning found under a bush this clutch of 11 eggs....
So another a week for them to prove themselves and if they keep up this rate of laying I will be going into business.

Rachael's 20th Birthday

2007-11-09T17:25:00.000Z

We have been celebrating Rachael's 20th Birthday the last few days - I know we look too young to have children over the age of 8, but we were child bride and groom!
What do you give a 20 year old daughter for her birthday - its obvious 2 chickens
The competition now begins to name them - they have been temporarily named Delilah and Tallulah but please leave your suggestions here. Alternatively leave some nice chicken recipes.
My main concern at the moment is that Becky's birthday is in January and she has seen an awfully nice goat and Maureen has met a Great Dane that she has her eye on! You will have guessed that I have very little say in the whole matter!