Malawian Diary Part three (Monday 2nd June -Thursday 5th June 2014)

Monday

 

I spent today photographing on up on Zomba plateau. Zomba is about 35 miles from Blantyre, and it took about an hour and a half to get there. The plateau was eeriely like Falkland Estate in Fife where I regularly spend time photographing, because it’s covered by pine forest with dirt tracks. Every so often I was brought back to reality by seeing a tree fern, or exotic plant.

 

Zomba Plateau or Falkland Estate?

 

I saw my first ever wild snake today, and was impressed to be told that it was a black mamba, one of the most deadly snakes in the world! This would have been a very scary experience if the snake had been more than 25cm long. I thought it was a worm at first…

 

Tuesday

 

I taught a workshop today to women who have been affected by HIV. I'd been told that some of the women were very sick and had horrific experiences, so I wasn't sure what to expect, and thought the workshop would be hard-going emotionally and very stressful.

 

It was the total opposite of what I'd imagined. The women gave us a fantastic welcome. They sang, danced and laughed all the time and the workshop was one of the most memorable experiences of my trip here. I’m not a Christian, but I saw how the group finds a lot of joy, strength, and support through their faith. It feels somehow ironic to me that these women who have been dealt such a hard life will praise God with such joy for what little they have.

 

Some of the women couldn't write, but everyone managed, with a bit of help to etch a picture for me to take back to Scotland. It was an amazing, live changing day.

 

Workshops with WOFAD (women for fair development) Project

 

Wednesday

 

I taught my last workshop in Malawi today and we finished on a real high. The workshop was taught at Chimwmwe Children’s Centre to street kids in a village on the outskirts of Blantyre called Baluti.

 

The children have been through a really rough life, including many instances of sexual abuse and imprisonment, but they were so full of life and enthusiasm. The workshop was chaotic, noisy, and crazy, and really really fun to teach.

 

The pictures the children produced were fantastically well executed, with one of the most surprising coming from a 15 year old boy who etched an incredibly beautiful flower. I felt that teaching this workshop would create memories they would treasure, and that it provided them an exciting time-out from their troubles.

 

I got the impression that being part of this project will also raise their status with the other kids in the village, as some of the more fortunate local kids spent the workshop staring in through the windows to watch what was happening with the white people.

 

Fundraising for the Children’s Chimwmwe Centre is managed through Bill’s work colleague Amanda Fleet, and the Howe of Fife Rotary generously donated £6,500 towards a dedicated building for them. We were taken to the site of the new building where work has just started on the foundations. It will make a huge difference to these kids’ lives to have their own building

 

Foundations for the new Children's Chimwmwe Centre

 

Thursday

 

The really exciting thing that happened today was that we filmed a famous Malawian musician for the scout’s film of the project. The scouts wanted some traditional Malawian music to feature as part of their film, so I asked my contact who runs the Blantyre Arts Festival if he knew anyone. I was expecting someone who plays part time at the weekend in bars for fun, not one of the most famous musicians in Malawi!

 

Ben Michael Mankhamba was amazingly kind to us, he played us one of his songs so we could film him, and gave us permission to use one of his properly recorded songs in the final film. It was wonderful to meet such a lovely person.

 

We also went to a tea tasting at the Satemwa tea plantation today. It was very interesting to learn more about how tea is produced and we enjoyed tasting all the different teas grown on the estate. It was surprising how different the different grades of tea taste. The green covered rolling hills of the tea plantation felt surprisingly familiar to parts of England.

 

Bill and I talked about western impressions of the landscape of Africa, and how I imagined Malawi would be like the wide, hot, African plains that you see on the TV. I’m still taken aback by how green and colourful this landscape is. Talking about the landscape of Africa, is like talking about the landscape of Europe. The Scottish Highlands are very different from the Dutch landscape, which is again completely different from the rolling hills of Tuscany. There is no typical landscape for an entire continent.

 

Satemwa Tea Plantation

 

 

Tomorrow we're back off down the hillside to the rift valley (about 1000m) to visit a sugar plantation and another wildlife park. Then on Saturday afternoon we start the long journey home. I can't wait to see my kids again, but I'm very sorry to be leaving this incredible country. I hope I get to come back again sometime.

Malawian Diary Part Two (1st June 2014)

Reflections

I’ve now been in Blantyre for nearly a week, and starting to get used to it here. To begin with I found it very strange to be an ethnic minority, and be stared at wherever we go. Saying this though, I’m surprised to see as many white folk as there are. You have the absurd feeling of wanting to say ‘hello’ when you see them. It was like when we had our VW camper van, and if you see another one you’d beep and wave at each other.

While we’ve been here, there’s been a lot of discussion about the presidential election that was held here just before we arrived. There have been problems getting the results agreed, and a lot of people were getting very angry. After riots and a death in a town further north, a new president was declared at midnight two nights ago to big celebrations.

This was lucky for us, as everyone had calmed down and happy the next morning when we were scheduled to visit one of the poorer areas of Blantyre to teach some workshops. Mary, our contact, told us that she wouldn’t have let us go to that area if the mood hadn’t lifted because it would have been too dangerous. It's something I hadn't even thought about. We’d spent the day shopping and photographing in the city centre and were blissfully unaware of any underlying tensions at all.

One of the weirdest things here is simply that the sun goes down at 5:30pm. I know that this shouldn’t be so strange, and it took me a few days to realise why I was getting so freaked out by it.

I realised that when we have a lovely sunny day in Britain, it will last well into the evening, and everyone will sit outside, go for a walk, and do fun things after work to enjoy the cool of the evening sun. When it's dark by 6pm on a beautiful warm sunny day, it feels very strange indeed.

Malawian Diary Part One (Monday 26th May - Thursday 29th May 2014)

Tuesday
 

My husband Bill and I arrived safely in Blantyre, Malawi yesterday afternoon. We’d had very little sleep on the 23 hour journey, so we were very tired but all our luggage had arrived with us, which was a huge relief.

We woke up completely refreshed this morning, and spent the day finding our bearings, going shopping for supplies, and meeting up with our friend Mary Boloweza, who is my contact for a lot of the workshops.

The scenery is really beautiful, with a greenness that might come as a shock to some people. Blantyre is 3000ft above sea level (correct me if I’m wrong), and has a rainy season from mid-October to February. At this time of year the countryside is still lush but will soon start to die back. I chose to come here at this time of year so the greenness will give my Malawian photos a similar feel to my Scottish ones, and make it more of a challenge to distinguish between them.
 

Wednesday
 

Today we were out of the apartment at 7:15am to travel to Chikwawa Primary School down in the Rift Valley for 9 o clock. Chikwawa Primary School is twinned with Auchtermuchty Primary School, and I met the deputy head teacher, Monica Nakoma in Fife last December when she came to Scotland on an exchange visit to Auchtermuchty School. It was wonderful to see Monica again, and visit her school. The children were fantastic, with the younger ones even yelling with delight and excitement upon seeing us.
 

 

Everyone made us feel very welcome, and the etching workshops went really well. I was really impressed with the drawing ability and creativity of the class. However, this doesn’t mean there weren’t any problems. From our driver, I was expecting the children to have a much greater grasp of English than they had, and having to have everything I said translated made me nervous, and forgetful of my lines, causing a bit of confusion. I’m going back to teach another workshop there tomorrow, but I’ll know what to expect, and will teach better.

Thursday

I taught my second workshop today, which went a lot better. There was less confusion, and I was a lot less tired afterwards. The only problem I have is that some of the kids don't seem to understand that I want them to etch what they love most about their county, and I'm getting a lot of pictures of snakes! I guess that they are easy to draw for the less able children, because some children get the idea immediately and are giving me some amazing pictures. I've got to be a little clearer in want I want from them, (though everything has to be translated which doesn't help)

 

I'm having an amazing time in Malawi, and saw my first wild elephant today when we went to the Majete wildlife park, which is close to the school.

 

 

 

Nearly There

Its nearly time to pack my bags and start the 23 hour journey to Malawi, and I'm getting mega excited!

A couple of weeks ago I was very panicky about the amount of things I still had to do before I went, but on Sunday I actually finished last week's todo list and realised that the majority of the items on this week's huge list were really quick jobs.

So, with three sleeps to go, I'm almost ready and taking it easy in preparation for the tiredness that's to come. I'm incredibly impressed with my time management skills that have somehow allowed me this easy few days.

The last couple of weeks have been amazing, but tiring.

We raised £320 at the Decades Disco on the 10th, which was fantastic. I think everyone had a good time, but I had slightly cracked under the strain and the tiredness, and was beyond judging other people's body language properly. I danced lots, and everyone else danced lots, and we raised lots of money for the project.

I've been travelling round Fife meeting up with artists who have donated work to the art raffle. Even though we all do Open Studios together, we don't meet up very often, and I met lots of artists I'd not met before. Thanks to all of you for donating an artwork.

The Dundee Courier printed a wonderful article about the project, and I was shocked to discover that I was the headline news for the day. Wow.

But even this achievement was eclipsed this week, when on Tuesday I was filmed talking about the project for the local telly!

The resulting film is incredible, and I'm sorry I can't put a link up for you to see it, but The News only stays up on the STV site for 24 hours. They plan to do a follow up piece when I return, so hopefully you'll see that one if you missed this one.

I forgot to mention some really basic things in the film like: the name of the project, and the fact that I haven't got any 'official' funding for the project and need sponsorship. Major woops. The reason why I forgot to say things is that I didn't include them in my interview notes because they were so fundamentally basic that I thought I'd remember them. This is not a mistake I'll make again. You have to answer the questions they ask you, but you have to make sure you manage to talk about the bits you want to talk about too. Just like in a job interview.

A few days I was given some advice from a friend who told me to make sure I got to a point where I could enjoy myself, and enjoy the experience without being so stressed out by everything I need to do.

I think this has finally happened Marilyn. I'm nervous certainly, but I'm mostly calm and sleeping well, and I have this huge bubble of excitement in me at all times that makes me want to giggle. I can't believe this is actually happening, or how big this project has gotten.

I'll be updating this blog every few days while I'm in Malawi, so keep an eye out for changes.

Thank you to everyone for your help and love x

Publicity

The last couple of weeks have been amazing, but very busy. I've started publicising I Love Scolawi, and have been contacting as many people in as many media as I can think of. If you have contacts that you think would be interested in I Love Scolawi then please email me their details and I'll get in touch with them.

I've been interviewed by Stuart Russell from Arts in Fife for his radio arts programme (that starts soon on Kirkcaldy Radio).

I have started a mailing list. (if you would like to join the mailing list then please email me)

And I have had a brilliant article written about me in the local paper (The Fife Herald)

Last Saturday I ran a stall to promote I Love Scolawi at the 'Muchty Street Mercat' in Auchtermuchty. It was great that so many people are interested and excited by the project and wanted to see that it happened. I raised about £100 and added 20 names to my mailing list, which I was delighted about.

One of the things I'm doing this week is sorting out the music for the Decades Disco this Saturday at Falkland Village Hall. There will be music from the 50's onwards, and if you're local it would be great if you could come down and join me in a boogie.

I'm constantly touched by how much the local community is behind this project and wants to help me make it happen.

When I originally heard that I hadn't got the funding I'd applied for I thought that I would be having to find this huge amount of money by myself, and felt quite alone. But as soon as I mentioned my funding issue on Facebook I have been given support and help. Every offer of help has made the mountain of money I have to find seem less, and every pound donated made me feel less alone and scared.

I now feel like I'm part of a team of fundraisers which is quite unexpected and very wonderful, and I'd like to thank you all.

Special thanks go to: Violet, for organising a belly dancing hafla in July; Betty, for organising a bingo tea in September; Sandra, for selling so many tickets to the disco; Laura, for your help and support; and last but not least to all my family - I have (very) gratefully received large cheques from parents; and Bill, Alison, and Alasdair have been brilliant and supportive as ever.

Thank you.
xxx

Filming, fundraising, and photography

I'm sorry I've not been blogging for a few weeks. Lots of things have been happening behind the scenes, and I've just not been telling anyone about it.

Filming workshop

On the last weekend of the Easter holidays I took a group of explorer scouts off to the YMCA in Perth to go on a filmmaking workshop.

You can spot Bill ,my husband in this picture. He is on the course because he'll be filming me in Malawi, and needs to know what he's doing too.

The workshop was delivered by Tony who was fab - really eloquent and knowledgeable, and everyone really enjoyed the session. It made me realise just how different filmmaking is from photography, and there seems to be so much more to think about than just taking photos that I almost started panic. Then I remembered that I wasn't actually making the film, and that I was only there so I could keep up with the kids. By the way, I realise that there is an awful lot to taking good photos, but I've been doing it for 25 years and it comes a lot more naturally to me.

Fundraising news

I keep dreaming about my ideal world where I got the funding I applied for from Creative Scotland and I'm taking it easy this month learning about promoting a project, and starting to etch my pictures. No such luck I'm afraid.

This month I've been manically busy trying to raise funds so I Love Scolawi happens fully. As well as the events listed I've been applying to a few Charitable Trusts as well.

There has been a lot of excitement about the Decades Disco on the 10th May, and quite a few tickets have already been sold. A big thank you to everyone who's told me they want to come.

I'm still waiting for my small lotteries license for the raffle. My tickets have arrived from the printers and I can't wait to start selling them once I'm official.

I've organised a 'guess the artist' quiz. These will be sold for £1 each, and I'm not sure where they will be stocked just yet, as I've only just written it. My friend Laura Appéré has offered to sell them at her Open Studios venue in Falkland (3rd-5th May) and I'll be selling them at every event I can.

If you'd like to sell some quizzes or raffle tickets for me to your friends and contacts I'd be extremely grateful. Email me and I'll sort you out with some copies.

My friend Violet, has offered to run a hafla in Auchtermuchty for the project. Violet is a belly dancer, and a hafla is the name for their get-togethers, as hafla is Arabic for party. I've seen some of the pictures Violet has taken and they looks awesome. people take turns to perform, and choreograph their piece to suit the fundraiser of the evening. I've never been to one, and can't wait.

I will be running a crowdfunding campaign when I get back from Malawi in June to raise funds specifically for the workshops materials and exhibition prints.
I've been trying to organise a variety of events  that will suit different people, and which means that I'm not just asking my friends to pay for this project. I'm happy that the events are sufficiently wide-ranging and interesting that other people will want to join in too. I hope so anyway.

If you have any thoughts about other ways I can raise funds then I would be delighted to hear for you.

Photography

The weather might have turned a little colder now, but we had a week of gorgeous weather and I took full advantage of it. Here's a few of my favourites.

Forth Road Bridge

Newark Castle, just outside St Monans

Dysart Harbour

Culross Palace

Picking myself back up

As some of you will have heard by now, I didn't receive the Creative Scotland grant funding I applied for. I went for two grants: one to travel to Malawi a first time to take photos and to teach etching workshops, and the other to take the exhibition back to Malawi to exhibit it there.

I first heard that I hadn't got the exhibiting grant, and I was gutted. After that, I was expecting not to get the other grant, so it didn't come as much of a disappointment when I didn't.

Creative Scotland gave me useful feedback. With the 'first trip' application,they gave me very encouraging feedback even though I didn't get the grant. They said it sounded like a wonderful project and that they believed in it and thought I'd written a great application showing that I had good public support. Unfortunately, they had a fund of £1.1 million, and were over-subscribed in applications by £2 million.

With those figures I wasn't surprised that I didn't get a grant. I have no experience of managing projects on this scale and have never received a grant from them before.

But, this left me in a financially scary position. I sat down and calculated what the absolute minimum project costs would be. It came to £8000: £3000 for each trip to Malawi, and £2000 for the community exhibition costs. I had already planned to crowdfund for the £2000, but a second self-funded trip to Malawi would cripple the family finances irrevocably so the exhibition trip would have to be scrapped.

A few friends told me to fundraise by any means possible, that they would help, and that it was a great project and that the money could be found from somewhere. I could do cake sales, raffles, dances etc. and bring money in. I felt it was unfair to ask family and friends to help me fund the project when I was already relying on their help to raise the crowdfunding total.

But I had to come round to the idea. I'm not earning any other money this year because I'm too focussed on this project and I don't like relying on the my husband's wages to fund my work. It's bad enough not bringing income into the household, without being a drain on our other resources as well.

I started to make plans...

I am a committee member for the artist's Open Studios North Fife, so I asked the participating artists if they could offer an artwork/art related gift to me to raffle off for funds. So far 20 artists have offered work, which is wonderful. I've applied for my small lotteries licence and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will have received it in time for my fundraising Decades Disco at Falkland Village Hall on 10th May.

Various people have let me know about other charitable foundations I can apply for, and I've been encouraged by Diana at FCAC to reapply for the grant to exhibit the show in Malawi, as the feedback from that application mentioned a few areas I lacked information for. and can make better.

I'd like to thank my friends and family who've refused to allow me to wallow and give up, and who have offered me so much love and support over the last few difficult weeks.

I'm now re-enthused about making I Love Scolawi happen and I'm ready to take on the world!