Tuesday 22nd. Arrive Lilongwe 12:45. Collect John's pick-up at the airport. Will meet Mathias Huaya, Synod Education Secretary, in Blantyre (300 kms away) tonight. I enjoy the first couple of hours on the open road south, but soon realise it's going to be dark about 1 hour before I get there. John and all available advice said don't drive in the dark, and with good reason. Apart from the difficulty of seeing the road, there's the half lit vehicles, unlit ox carts, almost invisible bikes (with wide loads) or walkers and the kids standing out on the road trying to sell their roast mice on sticks. I stay about 100m behind another vehicle with bright tail lights, reckoning that he'll hit any ox cart or swerve past any bike. By the time I reach Blantyre my gritted teeth and clenched hands are aching.

Wednesday 23rd - Friday 25th. Mathias conducts tour of 6 primaries and 4 secondaries. My already fragile emotions are taxed. I concentrate hard through my schedule of questions aimed at sketching out a profile of each school, visit a few classes and after a couple of hours in each place, wave a humble good bye.

Repeated tale of crumbling buildings, unfinished buildings, few teachers houses, broken windows, no windows, cut off water, pit latrines, few text books, no exercise books, desks for seniors only, no games equipment, families' subsistence farming, hungry and sick children, street children, orphans, little clothes, no soap, huge class sizes, etc. Now I know what a class of 200 P2s looks like! In every place people smile and laugh. Many have faith, hope and love.

Some kids work at home and don't start school till as old as 10. Others repeat years or the leaving certificate, so primaries 1-8 have kids from 6 to 18. Only a minority are selected for secondary schools which struggle to provide places. Many can't offer science facilities. Obvious differences to our primary curriculum: No computing, compulsory agriculture. I learn a little about orchards and fish ponds. 12 year old girls listen in horror to a science lesson on STDs. If they don't get into secondary school they will probably opt for the main career choice of motherhood and the dream of security with a man (who might be HIV+), swelling the ranks of 16 year old mothers and the 46% population who are under 15.

Wonderful memories: spontaneous roadside singing, those 200 singing about a hare, four girls staying behind after school to study the Bible and singing a gentle song about Jesus in Gesthemane, penetrating questions in S2, songs of welcome in my honour, [one with a verse telling that the school has many problems but that they are proud of their school (loud applause)], simple hospitality & dedicated teachers.

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