ICS blog

Poor waste management is one of the biggest problems affecting Malawi’s Environmental sector. Imagine the consequences: people throw litter regardless of where they are, even if there is a waste bin nearby, people still choose to throw litter anyhow. On public transport you see people throwing litter through the window, walking down the streets you see people throwing litter anywhere. Have you ever wondered what will happen to that litter if it piles up? Who is responsible for keeping Malawi clean?

On Saturday 8 November, over 250 attendees packed out Santa Marta’s ‘Casa Comunal’, for an afternoon that marked the village’s second successful eco-festival. The festival was organised by ICS volunteers with a view to increasing awareness of the many uses, or indeed, reuses of Basura (rubbish).

There was a buzzing excitement with a tinge of unbelievably and muted sadness among both sets of volunteers, as we made our way from Masaya to Managua for our mid-term review. On the one hand, we got to exchange the intense heat of the sun while constructing, but as well as critically evaluating our performance as volunteers so far, and working towards our next few weeks here. But it was still understood at the same time by all the volunteers that our incredible journey was soon coming to an end.

Over the past four weeks, my compañeros and I have had the absolute honour of experiencing first hand the remarkable Salvadorian ability to overcome the arduous situations that, from time to time, life tends to coldly throw our way. 

Week six brought about a productive week where we finished off the remaining eco latrines for the week and continued on with our English lessons at the El Pochote School. We now do lessons every Tuesday and Thursday, which is great as both the children and the UK volunteers equally get a buzz out of it. The experience has been so rewarding for some of the volunteers that it has confirmed their feelings towards teaching as a career.

As an outsider it’s difficult to understand not only that this beautiful country we are learning to call home was once torn apart by war, but also to comprehend how such kind hearted people could have advanced to a state of war in the first place. To understand the pre-war situation better, we interviewed one of the local residents in Nuevo Gualcho, an ex-Guerilla whose role it was to speak to rural communities about the political crisis of the time in order to gain support during the revolution.

In a previous team blog, we spoke about micro-organism soup (not the scientific name). This yeast-smelling concoction has been a recurring theme during our agricultural activities and this week we were taught how to create the base for the solution.

This week we said goodbye to our host families for a few days and headed off to Managua for our mid-term review. We spent a lot of time as a group reflecting on our experiences so far, evaluating our progress and setting out some new aims and objectives for the second part of the cycle.

The Progressio in-country staff asked us to answer a few questions as a way for them to evaluate the ICS programme. One question which our group feels has been answered for us this week was: Is it worth being a volunteer for ICS?

As we enter our fifth week in Honduras and fourth in Guayape, we are at a loss as to where the time is going. November is upon us already, yet it seems like only yesterday that we boarded our plane at Heathrow. However, when considering a topic for this week’s blog, and the huge amount there is to choose from, I realise the huge amount we have achieved… reflected in the 1,589 photos we have already taken!