Breakfast program in it's initial stages
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2004
1
31
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Trip End
Dec 20, 2005
Nkhoma, Malawi
Saturday, September 3, 2005
a breakfast program for the nursery schools around the
area in which I live. The idea is that there would be
a volunteer at the school to prepare porridge (a
combination of maize meal and soya - for added
protein) for the children. I see a real need for such
a program since we are entering into a famine year and
the hunger season has already begun (when it shouldn't
begin until November or December). In fact, I've
already heard that some families are down to one meal
a day which is terrifying since the next harvest isn't
until about April. Stores that sell the staple food
(maize meal) have started limiting how many bags
people can buy and the prices are starting to
increase. We hope that this program will help to make
sure that these children are at least receiving one
nutritious meal per day.
When I first looked at the program, I thought it would
be relatively easy to set up, as you may guess, it was
anything but! I honestly thought I'd have the program
up and running by the 1st of August. First, we were
held back because of the winter holidays; schools only
came back into session this past week. With this time
frame in mind, I decided I wanted to have all the food
distributed at the beginning of last week so it would
be available on the first day of classes. More than 4
weeks ago I started purchasing supplies. I bought the
soya and sugar (for sweetening the porridge). Then I
asked someone to organize volunteers to come roast the
soya. They were supposed to come on a Monday so the
Friday before I ensured that we had pans for roasting,
firewood, I purchased half the necessary maize (10
bags), made sure there would be money to purchase the
remaining 11 bags of maize and that the vehicle would
be available to pick up the maize and take it to the
maize mill for grinding. (Note that I had to really
negotiate to get the 21 bags since there is a limit of
1 (50kg) bag per person and my argument was that one
bag was going to each school and feeding at least
thirty children so it more than meets the stores'
requirements).
Since I was away from the office on Monday, I checked
the status on Tuesday only to find out that none of
the volunteers had been contacted. I spoke to the
person who was to organize this and he claimed that he
didn't realize I meant Monday ...which is crazy!
Anyways, he told me he would organize for them to come
on Wednesday or Thursday. On Wednesday, the
volunteers weren't here. On Thursday, I never saw
them either so I decided to organize people to do this
myself. I was able to find three women to help and
they arrived early Friday morning at my house so I
instructed them of where the supplies were and where
they could start working. I went to go check on them
about 1 ½ hours later to find them just sitting and
waiting. They informed me that there was too much
soya for them to roast and that it would need to be
boiled (and I have no idea why they didn't mention
this when I told them that I had 11 (50kg) bags to
roast and I needed help). Then one of my colleagues
told me that the other volunteers had come yesterday
and said the same thing and then left. I have yet to
figure out why no one mentioned this yesterday or why
they did nothing to remedy the problem and we still
had to deal with it the following day (Friday). It's
funny because these women were also ready to leave and
no one thought of just looking for a pot to boil it in
instead!?
I organized for a pot and by 11 am we finally had
started cooking the soya. Since we were boiling the
soya we also needed to dry it and thus needed mats.
We borrowed a few from some people and were able to
keep the cooking process going. I then went to the
store to pick up our maize that we had purchased the
week before and to buy the remaining amount. We had
been three times already by this point to pick it up
and IF the shopkeeper was there he told us he couldn't
let us pick up that many bags of maize and to come
back another time. Just to give you an idea of how
ridiculous this is the shopkeeper is standing in a
room full of more than a couple of hundred 50kg bags
of maize so why he couldn't release them is beyond me
(and if you ask me it's a pretty crazy business
practice!). Of course it was closed on Friday so I
arranged for one of the people helping to pick it up
on Saturday.
Saturday morning I had someone deliver a message to my
house at 7:30 in the morning. It seems that the
workers needed me to give them the okay to start
working. I went down to where they were working and
started to organize them once again. I found out that
they needed more mats to dry the soya so myself and
two other ladies went to the market to purchase them.
I actually carried the mats back on my head like the
local people do (it was hilarious and I really suck at
it!). Then I went to the shop to pick up the maize.
The shopkeeper told me to come back at 2 and when I
came back at 2 he told me to come back on Monday and
this time I said "No, I've paid for 10 bags and I'm
here to pick them up as well as the other 11 bags I
mentioned last time" He finally agreed to give me the
10 bags (but it took some serious negotiation) and
then he told me that I could purchase the remaining 11
bags on Monday but on that day the price will be
increased. I said no way...I've been trying to buy all
these bags for almost two weeks so he did agree to
allow me to pay for them that day and but I had to
wait to pick them up until Monday.
Monday comes and of course no one is at the shop. At
least we had the other 10 bags so we were able to mix
the maize with the soya and take those bags to the
mill. I went on Tuesday to the store and he told me
that today and tomorrow he's doing inventory so he
won't be able to give them to me until Thursday. Of
course I put up a fuss because so many children are
waiting on this food. He then told me that further
restrictions have been implemented and now a person
could only buy 1 (25kg) bag so he couldn't release 11
(50kg) bags at once. Again I explained that it was
going to schools not individuals but it didn't work.
On Wednesday, I ask my colleague, Christopher, to go
down there to argue our case. The shopkeeper told him
that we could pick up one bag per day which would take
us 11 days before we got all that we needed. I ended
up saying fine because what else was I to do?
Christopher than managed to get two bags that day
(since we had also come yesterday...but I ask what about
all the other days I had been there???). He also
decided to get all of our money back and start sending
people we know to go get a bag each but the shopkeeper
caught on after 2 people came and then we couldn't get
any more. I guess we aren't the only ones who have
tried doing that! Then Christopher said we'll buy the
rest of the maize at the market...what??? You can buy
it some place else and no one told me while I
struggled for almost 2 ½ weeks to buy the maize??? I
thought patience was a virtue but I'm beginning to
think it's getting me no where! Finally we bought
(and picked up) the rest of the maize at the market
and we have been able to prepare the rest of the
porridge.
I can't imagine having to go through this every month
in order to feed the children at the nursery schools.
I'm sure there must be an easier way (I just have yet
to find it!). I wonder how distribution is going to
go....
