Italy to Blantyre, Malawi, Africa.
Pre-SYLE Preparation: I came across Servas Malawi 2 years ago when I went to a meeting and I heard Maria-Christina Valenti talking about her trip as a volunteer to Malawi. I was very interested especially as I haven’t been to Southern Africa before. I’ve been only to Egypt and Morocco. So I contacted Demelza and began to talk to her about coming out on a Malawi SYLE-volunteer programme. I went through the 4steps and she came up with a programme for me in June and then I began to look for flights to Malawi. I choose Ethiopian Airways as it flies from Milan in Italy.to Blantyre changing plane only at Addis Ababa.
Accommodation: Stayed with 7 different hosts; it is the first time I have travelled with Servas as a traveller. I stayed with Demelza and her family, Chris + Hannah, Shamaela + Khalid, Bobbex + Gloria and their 5 children, Willy + Kitty in Limbe, Francis, and Exton + Thokozani and their 2 children in Mangochi.
Travel and Arrival:I missed my plane in Milan (I live in Milan) and I just didn’t plan for the traffic to be so thick and take so long – so I just got there too late when the gate had closed. I then had to re-book my plane and I flew 2 days later to Malawi and arrived there on Tuesday instead of Sunday.
Food:I was very lucky in that the people I stayed with cooked very good food for me. I ate Nsima (the local Malawian staple food) at Sabina’s for lunch and Bobbex’s and Francis. I like it very much; in Italy we have nearly the same, it is called ‘polenta’. The Malawian flour is white whereas our Italian flour is yellow – a different variety of maize, cooked in a different way.
Families went out of their way to make me nice Malawian dishes of grilled fish, local chickens, green salads of all sorts. I didn’t cook at their houses but I cooked at Demelza’s on my last night while she went out to attend a student graduation ceremony. THE SYLE-Volunteer Program – KEY GOALS/ACTIVITIES/ACHIEVEMENTS l HOST/TRAVELLER TEACHER The goal:To facilitate Malawian hosts have a Servas Traveller hosting experience.
How I did it: Because I arrived latemy hosting got a bit muddled up and hosts could then not move days around at short notice - it took some magic for Demelza to re-arrange my hosts for me – sorry! I spent the first week staying with them and just going to tourist sites in Blantyre. I spent some time with them at their work places and chatting with their children in the evening time. On my volunteer placement I spent the mornings at the office and then the afternoons I went to tourist or places of interest like, Carlsberg, The Museum, Mandala house, St Michaels Church and Flood victims camp.
l talk at servas malawi meeting Friday June 6th and 26th June. At the first talk I went through a power-point presentation on Italy. It took me a very long time, 45 minutes to show pictures of maybe 1% of Italian art. The 2nd talk I just choose my favourite photos of my stay in Malawi
l CHICHEWA AND CULTURAL CLASS The goal:To learn some basic Chichewa. Why? To break down cultural barriers. How I did it:I didn’t. I wasn’t interested in Chichewa; Demelza wasn’t pleased but I told her I was too old to learn and I wasn’t really interested in it. I met with Fanny the teacher but I felt it wouldn’t work out for me.
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