During their time in the school, they joined a variety of classes and all pupils had the opportunity to meet with them and ask questions to learn more about Malawi. Two joint projects are being undertaken by the schools, one on The Environment and the other on Health. Some of the pupils involved spoke with the visitors about the projects, and work that has been completed so far was exchanged. At other times, our visitors enjoyed new experiences on the climbing wall, toasting marshmallows with S1 in SMART, surfing the internet and playing basketball, as well as the more familiar football. They also managed afternoon tea with the Parent Council and visits to several of our associated Primary Schools to meet pupils and teachers at Kinlochewe, Gairloch, Poolewe and Inverasdale. Unfortunately, a planned visit to Bualnaluib was thwarted by wintry weather. Towards the end of their visit, they joined the school in two highlights of our Christmas celebrations, a performance of A Christmas Carol and the school dance.

Out in the community, they switched on the Christmas lights in the Library, met with the ATC, attended St Maelrubha’s church and the Shipmates Carol Service and played football with Wester Ross Youth Football. One Saturday, they travelled to Invergordon, where they tried judo, and Dingwall, where they met Elaine Maclennan who collected over 1000 toothbrushes that were taken to Mlozi School in October by Mr Hulme and Anna. Another day, they visited Coulin Estate, courtesy of Neil Morrison, where they got the opportunity to see deer at close quarters. They also visited Two Lochs Radio for an interview which you may have heard. We are very grateful to all the members of the community who invited them to and entertained them at these events – as well as demonstrating to our visitors the warm welcome of our community; this evidence of community involvement in our partnership strongly supports our grant applications for such visits.

Visits from Malawi to Scotland are restricted largely to when their school is on holiday and ours are not, i.e. August or December. Concerns beforehand that they would find it very cold here in December were largely unfounded – they had to be positively encouraged to put on warm clothes and were thrilled to experience snow for the first time in their lives. They thank everyone for the very warm welcome they received here and have lots to tell their families, colleagues and pupils back in Malawi. We look forward to further collaboration between the schools and the return visit of Mr. Hulme and Mrs. Johnston to Mlozi School in June.

Click here to see photos associated with the visit.

It was good to see developments within the school. All pupils now have desks to sit at and all rooms have doors so resources can be kept secure.

A number of projects were planned for this visit. We taught three more Scottish country dances, two of which were demonstrated by the learners at an assembly on our last day. We captured all aspects of school life on video and photographed progress with Kinlochewe Primary School’s orchard now ready to be planted with over 250 saplings. These pictures have already proved useful in developing our pupils’ understanding of life in Malawi.

Mr Chimtali had obtained two old bicycles for us. Despite having a few deficiencies (no gears; one brake that usually worked, if you were lucky; tyres repaired with tyres within the tyre; stiff chain links; frames welded in the oddest places; crooked chain wheels and grinding noises from all moving parts), these proved very useful for travelling about the area to continue another project started last year, the compilation of the first detailed map of the area. They also allowed us to make a number of visits to the nearby market town of Mayani where replacement parts could be purchased.

Another project was to experiment with solar cookers. A dozen were bought in Lilongwe, the capital city, before travelling to the school. The intention was to spend the first week on trials and then, in the second week, to demonstrate their use to interested people. Unfortunately, and unusually for the time of year, the first week was cloudy so progress was slow. However, in the second week, potatoes, eggs and rice were cooked successfully. Mrs Chimtali took an interest, reading a booklet on the subject and keeping an eye on what I was doing. Hopefully, she will make use of the cookers and spread the word. Solar cooking is not widely practised in Malawi which is a great shame as it has so many advantages: destruction of tree cover is lessened, it is virtually free and there is no danger of smoke inhalation, to name a few.

A Dingwall barber, Elaine Maclennan, collected money to buy toothbrushes for every child in the school. A large holdall of 1300 toothbrushes was taken to Malawi and these were handed out to every child. The remaining hundred were presented to the Health Centre to be issued to pregnant women. Already Elaine is thinking of a follow-up effort. We also delivered five footballs donated by Wester Ross Youth Football Team; without these, football has to be played with a string-bound clump of plastic bags.

As with all visits from Scotland, the welcome received is wonderful. Everyone in the villages was so pleased to see us. I, therefore, look forward to another, official, trip next year to continue our work with the school. Already, Anna is pressing me for another trip to visit our friends in Malawi.

Nevis Hulme

Mlozi School continues to change and improve. The classroom repair project, funded by our community, has been completed and the old classrooms are looking much smarter. Now that they have doors that lock, teachers are able to put up posters, learners work and other learning resources on the walls in the way that we take for granted here. They have recently received a large number of desks from Unicef, who built the new classrooms last year, so none of the pupils have to sit on the floor now.

The teaching staff continues to change – teachers in Malawi can be sent to a different school at very short notice, and it is common for this to happen. At the moment, Mlozi School has 9 qualified teachers and 3 auxiliary teachers, having received 3 newly qualified teachers earlier this year, a big change from the 5 qualified and 2 auxiliary teachers of three years ago. These teachers are responsible for around 1200 learners in 8 classes, with extra staff being allocated to the largest classes. Of course, this could all change again when their new school session starts in September.

Earlier this year, pupils at Kinlochewe Primary School raised some money for an orchard of fruit trees at Mlozi School. When mature, this will enable the school to provide fruit for pupils and to sell fruit to raise money for the school. The learners have already cleared the site and, during Dr Caley’s visit, an agricultural advisor came to the school to tell them about cultivation methods and types of trees to grow. It is likely that the orchard will be planted towards the end of this year.

During the visit, plans were also made for the joint projects to be carried out by pupils in Gairloch and Mlozi in the coming session. These are on the topics of human rights, health and the environment and are a result of our successful application for a Global Curriculum Project grant from Global School Partnerships through the British Council. This grant will also allow for more teachers to visit the partner schools and we hope that two more teachers from Mlozi, Mr Chabwera and Mr Maseko, will visit Gairloch later this year.

Meanwhile, pupils in both schools, and in many of our associated Primary Schools, will continue to develop the relationship between the schools through letter-writing. This term, the theme of the letters will be the climate of our respective countries.

Members of the community and older pupils of the school may remember that in the latter part of 2008 and during 2009, we raised almost £2000 for repairs at our partner school in Malawi. Events included the Homecoming Evening, a quiz night at the Rockvilla Hotel in Lochcarron, a concert by Gaudete and a non-uniform day. Roxanne Ramsay raised several hundred pounds by baking and selling cakes and many members of the community made personal donations. This money was used to buy materials and members of the Mlozi School community played their part by providing labour. The work was carried out during 2010 and Dr Caley and Mr Hulme saw some of it in progress during their visit in October. The project is now complete and the school now benefits from secure classrooms where learning resources may be displayed on the walls and books may be stored – just as we take for granted. A report on the project has been provided by Link Community Development and may be viewed on the noticeboard outside the library or read here in full (Final report 2011 – pdf). Once again, we would like to thank everyone for their generosity.

Impact of the project

“The project helped a lot. We are now able to hang teaching and learning materials on the walls which we could not do in the past because the doors were [always] open” said Winnex Chintali, the Head Teacher. Teachers are now able to leave books securely in the classrooms as they can be locked.

For the last two weeks of October, Dr Caley and Mr Hulme visited Malawi to meet up with Mr Chimtali and Ms Ajawa who had visited Gairloch in August. For Dr Caley this was her third visit to Mlozi LEA School; in contrast, this was Mr Hulme’s first visit to anywhere outside Europe. Time was spent working with ‘learners’, especially those in the later years in this primary school. Pupils in these classes varied in age from around ten to eighteen, with progression between classes dependent on success in the end of year exams. Despite the many problems, often from unexpected sources, the children had a great desire to learn and took every opportunity even when teachers were not present. This was one of the problems; teachers were often, even in the two weeks of the visit, called away to meetings or to work for the Government in enrolling electors. With no other teachers to call on or money to pay them, the school is frequently without adequate numbers of staff.

The school has changed greatly since Dr Caley’s last visit. Two new blocks have been built providing four lockable classrooms and two offices. The rest of the school, comprising three blocks of two rooms, await doors and, in some case, steps into the rooms. The recent improvements now allows for the storage and display of resources and it is hoped that Gairloch High School will continue to help increase the provision of these.

Time was spent working with the teachers to help improve the educational provision. The staff were keen to hear from their visitors and readily accepted their suggestions; it is intended to keep in touch to check if the advice is being taken up!

Mr Chimtali took to Scottish country dancing on his visit here and one of the tasks given to his visitors was to teach the youngsters a dance. The Orcadian Strip the Willow was chosen and the learners had soon grasped it. Not content with one dance, Mr Chimtali insisted on another so the Military Two Step was taught (by two novice dance instructors!). The learners were happy to turn up after school to practise and even came along on a Sunday afternoon and into the darkness of the early evening. The culmination of this dancing was to perform in front of dignitaries and other schools at the National Day of Education at an adjacent school. Mr Chimtali intends to further the Scottish dancing skills of his school and has been seen teaching his wife outside his house.

In addition to the professional aspects of the visit, there was time to visit a number of events. The community came together to welcome the visitors from Scotland. The appreciation of this visit was clearly displayed. There were two ceremonies for the installation of chiefs and very colourful affairs these were. One included the use of a Ross County scarf! As well as these, Dr Caley and Mr Hulme were privileged to be invited to a memorial ceremony for a chief who had died last year. This included ‘gule wamkulu’ or ‘big dance’ where people, with faces hidden and dressed in elaborate costumes, performed a variety of dances. One man ran fire up and down his body while another did acrobatics on a five metre pole placed at most fifteen centimetres in the ground. A truly amazing spectacle. Mr Hulme took the opportunity at the weekends and afternoons to explore and map the district surrounding the school. His guides, four learners from Standards 7 and 8, the upper classes, willingly instructed him in farming techniques and uses of trees and plants.

Mr Chimtali and his family hosted both visitors in his new house, built along with the new rooms in the school. It was fascinating to join in rural Malawian life. With no electricity, it was marvellous how food was produced and how clothes were washed and ironed to such a consistently high standard. The shower, from buckets of hot and cold water mixed in a large mug, was always welcomed at the beginning and end of the day when temperatures did not fall below 21 deg C at night and reached more than 30 deg C in the shade through the day.

Photographs and video clips are available by clicking here.