Fried grubs and dried fish at the market in Lusaka.

Cheap Chinese knockoff, and/or most valuable possession.

It’s good to see that there’s an aspect of the World Food Programme that is definitely sustainable.

I was in India over winter break, and my camera was stolen, so I had to draw. Here are some relevant radical/ecological things that I saw.

Tiles with gods painted on them, placed at a strategic height so that men don't pee on the wall.

Simple wood-frame structure with twine used to hold up plants.

Facade made of branches cut laterally. This was probably a waste of material, but it was a beautiful use of natural material.

The rains bring the bugs, and the bugs are AWESOME. I could do without the flying ants, though I’m told they’re quite delicious.

I’m designing a small multifunction building to house both a nursery school and offices for a community-based AIDS services organization in Golomoti. The building will also function as a community center when the school is not in session.

MANET+ (Malawi Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS) is coordinating the project, and it will be built next fall by a group of engineering students from Canada (www.gcius.ca).

GOLOMOTI

Golomoti is a small village in Dedza district, close to the southern tip of the lake. It used to be an stop for the railway, back when Malawi used its rail lines for passenger transport. The center of Golomoti has now shifted to the main road that connects Salima to Monkey Bay. The old center has the feeling of an inhabited ghost town.

NURSERY SCHOOL

The nursery school is run by volunteer teachers (above). They teach about 260 kids between 2 and 5 years old. The school is open Monday to Friday, from 8 am to 11 am. Classes are currently held under a large tree. Students are sometimes taught all together as one group and sometimes split into smaller groups.

The typical weekly curriculum is as follows:

Monday: Calendar (days of the week), Gospel songs

Tuesday: Sculpting with clay, Hygiene

Wednesday: Alphabet

Thursday: Poems (English and Chichewa), English words, Counting

Friday: Songs

Prayers are taught everyday

GASO

GASO (Golomati Active AIDS Support Organization) coordinates 200 volunteers in Golomoti to provide services and support to HIV-positive individuals and their children. They currently rent two small rooms (3 meters by 2 meters each) in the building shown here.

PLAYING IN GOLOMOTI

The site will also have a playground. The nursery school teachers gave us a list of ways that kids play in Golomoti:

• Fish-fish (jumprope)

• Bao (a Malawian board game)

• Draft (Checkers)

• Fly (Cross between monkey-in-the-middle and dodgeball)

They also said that the kids would really enjoy having seesaws and swings. I haven’t seen to many jungle gyms around Malawi, but it would be easy to make a fun jungle gym out of blue gum branches.

THE SITE

The traditional authority in the village has donated a large empty plot of land for the building.

There are two structures on the building right now.

The first one is a run-down building without a roof. It would certainly need quite a bit of restoration and repair, but the walls are solidly built. It could house the offices of GASO. It might be a good idea to separate the GASO offices from the nursery school, which will get quite loud (with 260 kids singing, running, and playing).

OTHER FUNCTIONS

When the school is not in session, the building will also be a meeting space for different groups, such as:

• PLHIV (Persons Living with HIV) support group (40 people)

• Traditional authority meetings (30 people)

• GASO volunteer meetings (up to 200 people)

• Adult education classes in literacy and accounting (variable number of participants)

One of my projects while I’m in Malawi is to design simple furniture for the orphan care center in Namitete. I’ll also work with local carpenters to get the pieces built.

Malawi has very few orphanages; instead, the focus is on orphan care centers (OCCs). Most orphans live with members of their families, usually an uncle, aunt, or grandmother. OCCs take care of the orphans from morning until evening, providing them with food, activities, and in the case of younger children, pre-school.

The orphan care center in Namitete opened in 2006; the buildings are new and well-built. Unfortunately, with no furniture and little organization, the interior spaces do not match the exterior. Without a properly-considered interior environment, the center is far from living up to its potential.

In each of the classrooms, materials and toys are assembled in piles. The piles are disorganized, dirty, and dangerous, as they’re breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Each time I moved items in the piles, a crowd of mosquitoes came flying out. I never thought that shelves could be used to prevent malaria.

This last pile has the added problem of having two Chibuku beer cartons in the mix of toys (Yes, these containers are used as toys.)

The OCC in Namitete also demonstrates the value of shade. People flock to any shade available, and the community congregates most often in the central shaded pavillion.

Lastly, the playground is also a great start, but it could use some more work. (…and shade? Who said that all playgrounds had to be uncovered?)

Working list of requirements for the toys that I will develop here:

•Cool

•Cute

•Foward-looking

•Fun

•Free for village children 

•Made from local and natural materials

•Built by children themselves

•Engaging play patterns that involve construction, mechanics, imagination, storytelling

…so that they don’t have to play with (used) condoms (found on the beach).