Preparing for a busy week: From Nelly’s Guest House in Lilongwe to Boadzulu Hotel in Mangochi

By Cullen Mackenzie | September 25, 2011

Nelly's Guest House, Lilongwe

The CIE's Julie Dawjee and Cullen Mackenzie are conducting an educational needs assessment in the Mangochi Diocese of Malawi. They are working with the national education secretary for the Episcopal Conference of Malawi, Cleopas Mastara; the head of the Unit for Justice and Peace/Education at the Catholic Relief Services, Thomas Hollywood; and the Mangochi Diocese education secretary, Cyprian Tambala. This is the field diary documenting the research team’s experiences:

In the space of a single day, we’ve driven through at least four different climatic regions – river-plain, highlands, mountains and, unexpectedly in a landlocked country, the coast – as well as experienced at least five or six languages spoken by people of different faiths. As much as Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Africa (economically speaking), it is also one of the richest in its people – a small country with a language that is spoken in many other places.

Boadzulu Hotel in Mangochi

Along our journey, we’ve had the chance to meet the Malawi side of the team. Our drivers are Patrick and Francis, in a Landcruiser and a Prado, and our five enumerators are Patricia, Matthews, Lawrence, Verres and Linda. We couldn’t have asked for a better team – excited, critical and thoughtful all at once, which is the perfect mix for good research.

The last piece of our puzzle, though, was Cyprian Tambala, who arrived smilingly in his little Nissan bakkie and put all our niggling worries to rest. Whereas before we’d had ideas and plans and enthusiasm, he has brought a level of solidity and so now we know what we need to do tomorrow!

Here’s a peek at the plan: our enumerators will be working with Julie this morning, surveying head teachers and teachers in the Koche Parish, Mangochi, while Cullen interviews the District Education officials. In the afternoon, we’ll switch to focus groups with teachers, students and parent-teacher associations, as well as the traditional authorities. It’s going to be a busy day…