Mizuzu was our first stop in Malawi. It’s easy to get a bit
blasé about how beautiful this continent has been. We’ve seen spectacular
scenery so often that it could be taken for granted. I’m certainly not there
yet. It is a gift that keeps on giving. Tanzania had been full of lush, green,
rolling landscapes and Malawi simply picked up the baton and then threw in a
beautiful clear blue lake (that is also massive). We’re in the country to visit
the ‘Build Malawi’ project but we stopped in Mizuzu as the most convenient
place to rest our heads past the border. It proved to be fruitful for many
reasons. We had the opportunity to visit some unscheduled charity projects,
meet some excellent characters – thanks to the tremendous Mizoozoozoo camp site
which FAfrica heartily endorses, and see Andy Howie dancing in his own ‘unique’
style to ‘Killing in the name of..’ by Rage Against The Machine. Which I
captured on video. Brilliant.
Never let it be said that FootballAfrica rest on it’s laurels. We’ve tried to take the initiative wherever we are, and find African run charities to continue to highlight their work and maybe raise a little more awareness. One such charity was FOMCO (Friends Of Mizuzu Community). It’s a very small setup. The project came to FAfrica’s attention when Andy went off hunting for ‘Build Malawi’, he came back with a young man called ‘Freeman’ who didn’t know the ‘Build Malawi’ project but was himself a volunteer with FOMCO. He asked us to meet Violet, who runs the charity. She explained that they have a small orphanage and school that looks after children in the community. It feeds them in the mornings for breakfast and lunch, gives them schooling and then returns them to their guardians in the afternoon.
FOMCO was in the process of building a better schoolhouse but had run into problems. Rains had washed away a lot of work and resources, and caused damage to the structure. They were looking for $12000 from OrphanSupportAfrica to try and start again, before any more rains came.
To be honest, this was passing me by a bit. Due to a technical error (we forgot to charge the batteries) we weren’t filming at this charity. Quite often I’ve been holding the camera when filming, so this felt like a bit of day off. The rest of FAfrica were chatting to Violet as she walked them round the school. I decided to sneak off to the orphanage and monkey around a bit. Being surrounded by these children can be addicitive. They’re so full of joy and excitement that it’s amazing to be around. They’re amazed to see a ‘Misongu’ and are fascinated, and just want to run around, jump about and have fun. I pulled out the classics; pretending to be a monster, lifting and swinging them round, hide and seek. To be fair, it’s a pretty easy audience. Like Cliff Richard doing a stand-up routine for the Womens Institute. I then helped out with handing out breakfast and sat with the children as they ate.
To find out that 40% of these children had HIV was pretty devastating. Andy told me as I poked my head back through the door to say goodbye. Violet had been explaining this to him as I was larking around. And now it’s still going round my head. It’s not like this is anything new to us is it? We see it on the tele all the time. Every year we duly give our fiver to Comic Relief or Sport Relief, we don’t really watch Children in Need because it’s a bit bland and may have Gaby Roslin in it, or the cast of The Royal doing a dance routine to ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’. We know there’s people, children, dying. All over the world, on our own doorsteps, amongst those we love and care for. I suppose this is just my chance to say that it’s better people help one another, because living your life can be tough. I don’t think I’ve become a hippie, and I stole that last bit from an Oasis song, but the point remains.
As we left, a volunteer at the project told us that god had sent us to help. I’m not sure about that. I would hope he’s busier then getting us round Africa (though all help is welcome). I’m not really sure how much we can help, we’ve seen so many who need support, but we can try. Got a little bit preachy today, I’ll be setting up another BandAid next. I won’t be getting Pink Floyd to reunite for this one though because I don’t think that really worked.
Lots of Love from the parapet,
JJ FootballAfrica
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