Team Mapiri works as a family. It is nice and interesting for a group of eighteen people working without fighting. This shows that Team Mapiri, which has UK and national volunteers, is a cooperative and a hard working team to the community.
On 24 July the team went to monitor goat kraals (enclosures) at Mthuzi village. The community was so happy to see the team to work together in their community, advising on how to ensure the welfare of the goats, which our partner organisation, the Small Producer’s Development and Transporters Association (SPRODETA), has provided them.
On 28 July, the team went to Wankhama to assist the community with sunken bed-making for crops. The community were so pleased and impressed at how hard working us volunteers were.
On 29 July, the team helped facilitate training on HIV & AIDS and gender in Chingelezi village. The training went well. The purpose was to discuss how the community can work to eradicate HIV & AIDS.
On 30 July, the team went to work with the people in Kavizombo for beehive monitoring, ensuring bees were using the hives, which we and SPRODETA taught them to hang. According to the community, they said that it is good to have bee-keeping because bees provide them with honey, which is important for their health and also as a source of income.
On 4 August, the team went to the irrigation system at Wankhama, to water the maize and vegetable field. This was a good and interesting activity. The community was so happy because the maize field is just too big for them alone and it takes more than three hours. It is nice that we help them watering their maize field.
On 6 August, the team went digging the pond at Kalindamalaro and monitoring fruit trees at Mpapalika. Digging the pond at Kalindamalaro is so helpful to the community as it is very labour intensive.
On 7 August, the team went to Wankhama again to irrigate the fields. The work went on well so good, and it is always good to work as a team because it makes the work so easy.
For me, Team Mapiri is the best team ever. It is really good to work and we are all feeling positive about what lies ahead in the coming weeks as we continue our work with SPRODETA. We are each day learning countless new skills, gaining knowledge and building all-important relationships within the communities we are working in, whether it is developing our language skills (both Chitumbuka and English), dancing with the locals in the villages. We are doing all these activities to change the community lives as well as challenging ourselves as volunteers to change the world.
Written by ICS volunteers Maria Mkinga and Charlie Rodrick
