The First Seventy Years: Chapter 75 - Teachers Wanted
...Mary, having secured a seat at the rear of the bus found herself squeezed between a mother and her young child together with a live chicken secured within a plastic shopping bag, its head poking out of the opening. On her other side sat a Presbyterian minister. He was keen to strike up a conversation. He told her that deforestation was a major concern in many parts of the country...
Eric Biddulph and his wife Mary go travelling in Malawi, visiting places where they lived and worked decades earlier.
Eric’s book The First Seventy Years can be obtained for £10 by contacting mary@bike2.wanadoo.co.uk or telephoning 01484-658175.
All the cash raised by the book goes to a water aid project in Malawi.
During our stay in Mzimba we were taken on a visit to a lodge deep in the forest of the Vipya Plateau. The car was driven by Elliot with Honoratius in the front passenger seat. Mary and myself occupied the rear seats together with a rather large friend of Honoratius.
Luwawa Lodge was superbly located many kilometres into the forest alongside a magnificent lake. It had been developed as an activities centre with walking and mountain biking experiences amongst the many on offer. After two nights as the guest of Honoratius Mzimba bus station beckoned for the journey up to Mzuzu, the capital of the Northern Region. The Sacramento bus duly arrived, albeit an hour late exhibiting external damage to the body. It proceeded directly to the hospital without stopping. It had been in an accident with a mini-bus and some passengers had been injured. There was going to be a long wait.
We opted to take a minibus. We said our goodbyes and squeezed ourselves aboard amongst the twenty or so passengers on a bus designed for twelve people. I found myself rubbing shoulders with a primary school teacher. He told me he had retired a few years previously but had been coaxed back into the classroom by the government. As part of the UN programme to make primary education universally available by 2010 there had been additional external funding. Owing to the shortage of teachers trained to a sufficiently high standard it was proving difficult to meet the demands of an expanded primary school population. Many teaching posts remained unfilled or were taken by untrained staff.
My travelling companion had returned to the classroom to fill this serious staff shortage. Only 15% of primary schoolchildren make it to secondary school so it was important that the few years spent in education were fully utilised.
Mary, having secured a seat at the rear of the bus found herself squeezed between a mother and her young child together with a live chicken secured within a plastic shopping bag, its head poking out of the opening. On her other side sat a Presbyterian minister. He was keen to strike up a conversation. He told her that deforestation was a major concern in many parts of the country. Most villagers depended on firewood for cooking, paraffin being too expensive for them. Tree felling had become problematic; it was being carried out in an unregulated manner.
The Malawi Forestry Commission had managed to control entry into forests and introduce a degree of regulation over tree felling but in the main wood was being gathered in an uncontrolled manner. Wood gathering was seen as the task of women. Owing to the unregulated regime which had existed for so long women were now unable to gather sufficient wood from sources close to their homes. They were obliged to walk long distances. This additional burden was accompanied by erosion resulting in even greater deforestation. The country had suffered a failure of the rains for several years. This had become so serious for residents living on the shores of Lake Malawi there was now real fear of starvation.
