Migowi is where one of our furthest community Groups live and meet. Although its more than 30 klms away in actual fact its not so difficult to get to since the road is partly tarred...a tar which comes off the dirt road and then returns to it. As we go I remind myself that since Im no stranger to these parts I have to see with “new eyes” - so that I remain in Awe, Wonder and ...Despair !
We began our journey down the mountain track passing a line of women with huge bundles of firewood on their heads...having climbed as much as 1000 metres up the mountain in the hour before dawn and now on their long journeys back to their villages ...some as much as 10 and more klms...a little moment of Despair.... no change here over the long years ! En route we stopped to get fuel and I had an Awe moment when I saw a thing which in all my times here Ive never before beheld..a man giving a piggyback to a big goat...not over his shoulders as in the Christmas Crib...but like you would carry a child. Ive seen big black pigs being carried on the backs of bicycles but never this.! When we got to our group of volunteers we found them sitting in their roofless centre...since the winter floods had taken part of the walls and roof. They looked as bedraggled as their centre due to this bad year for everyone....houses fallen, crops destroyed. We all sat around the inside of the walls in the baking sun while they got on with their weekly meeting while I just wonder that they are here at all since many have walked a very long way in this hungry time. I had a Wonder moment when the home care supervisor was able not only to rattle off the statistics of the patients but also the day and date when the group was founded way back in in 1993 ! wow!
As we left julius rememebered that Luka..a handicapped shoemaker whom I knew about 15 years ago had met him and asked for us to visit and so we deviated into the Trading. Centre. Migowi Trading centre is a boisterous higgildy piggildy shambles of all sorts of little businesses....bike repairs, groceries, hairdressing, traditional medicines etc...all having their own little business shacks. We managed to negotiate the bike without knocking anyones business over and arrived at Luka's ...him sitting amongst piles of shoes just as he was the last time I had seen him all those years ago. After greetings he climbed down from his high perch and crawled on hands and knees to the backroon with us following.It was so dark that at first I couldnt make out all the photos on the wall , but as my eyes became accostomed I saw that the wall was covered with photos of himself, family and the donors whom he had manaed to find ( through browsing on the internet ) to help with his handicapped bicycle organisation. Also on the wall was a blackboard with english words...it turns out that hes also trying to teach himself english. He has to be admired not only is he profoundly physically handicapped, is HIV positive ,has no education...but has managed to start a small organisation to get bicycles made for hanidcapped peoples. He also has a wife and 6 children...one now in secondary school.! Awe ! He is also now stuck for the internet as are we since the only internet “cafe” in the area has closed. I did wonder if a person such as he would have been able to live such a fulfilled life in our western world or would he have joined his friends in a “comfortable” institution and left on the outside of “normal” society.
We stopped at “The holy” market to get our maheu drink ( a sweet “pick - me-up” maize drink) and I asked one of the traders if the “Dancing man” was still around and was gratified to hear that he was.....and that he was still dancing there every day. He has been there for as long as I can remember...a tall man with long twists of hair and dressed in rags. No one seems to know his history but he has perfect english ( very unusual) the mark of being well educated but somehow “lost the plot” way back when. Hes also unusual since he wont accept charity and if you try to give him money he just gives it back. Luckily I think that the traders look after his food needs and he sleeps in the abandoned bus shelter full of rubbish.
Having forgotten to get phone credits and to recharge my radio batteries ... Despair...a long night ahead! However I had a call from Mthobwa in blantyre and he sent me credits through his phone ... I had forgootten that little” trick” ,can we do that at home.? And so I end in wonder!
We began our journey down the mountain track passing a line of women with huge bundles of firewood on their heads...having climbed as much as 1000 metres up the mountain in the hour before dawn and now on their long journeys back to their villages ...some as much as 10 and more klms...a little moment of Despair.... no change here over the long years ! En route we stopped to get fuel and I had an Awe moment when I saw a thing which in all my times here Ive never before beheld..a man giving a piggyback to a big goat...not over his shoulders as in the Christmas Crib...but like you would carry a child. Ive seen big black pigs being carried on the backs of bicycles but never this.! When we got to our group of volunteers we found them sitting in their roofless centre...since the winter floods had taken part of the walls and roof. They looked as bedraggled as their centre due to this bad year for everyone....houses fallen, crops destroyed. We all sat around the inside of the walls in the baking sun while they got on with their weekly meeting while I just wonder that they are here at all since many have walked a very long way in this hungry time. I had a Wonder moment when the home care supervisor was able not only to rattle off the statistics of the patients but also the day and date when the group was founded way back in in 1993 ! wow!
As we left julius rememebered that Luka..a handicapped shoemaker whom I knew about 15 years ago had met him and asked for us to visit and so we deviated into the Trading. Centre. Migowi Trading centre is a boisterous higgildy piggildy shambles of all sorts of little businesses....bike repairs, groceries, hairdressing, traditional medicines etc...all having their own little business shacks. We managed to negotiate the bike without knocking anyones business over and arrived at Luka's ...him sitting amongst piles of shoes just as he was the last time I had seen him all those years ago. After greetings he climbed down from his high perch and crawled on hands and knees to the backroon with us following.It was so dark that at first I couldnt make out all the photos on the wall , but as my eyes became accostomed I saw that the wall was covered with photos of himself, family and the donors whom he had manaed to find ( through browsing on the internet ) to help with his handicapped bicycle organisation. Also on the wall was a blackboard with english words...it turns out that hes also trying to teach himself english. He has to be admired not only is he profoundly physically handicapped, is HIV positive ,has no education...but has managed to start a small organisation to get bicycles made for hanidcapped peoples. He also has a wife and 6 children...one now in secondary school.! Awe ! He is also now stuck for the internet as are we since the only internet “cafe” in the area has closed. I did wonder if a person such as he would have been able to live such a fulfilled life in our western world or would he have joined his friends in a “comfortable” institution and left on the outside of “normal” society.
We stopped at “The holy” market to get our maheu drink ( a sweet “pick - me-up” maize drink) and I asked one of the traders if the “Dancing man” was still around and was gratified to hear that he was.....and that he was still dancing there every day. He has been there for as long as I can remember...a tall man with long twists of hair and dressed in rags. No one seems to know his history but he has perfect english ( very unusual) the mark of being well educated but somehow “lost the plot” way back when. Hes also unusual since he wont accept charity and if you try to give him money he just gives it back. Luckily I think that the traders look after his food needs and he sleeps in the abandoned bus shelter full of rubbish.
Having forgotten to get phone credits and to recharge my radio batteries ... Despair...a long night ahead! However I had a call from Mthobwa in blantyre and he sent me credits through his phone ... I had forgootten that little” trick” ,can we do that at home.? And so I end in wonder!
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