In November 2020, I visited WOVICCO for a week. Martha, the foundress of the organization, invited me to record interviews and write stories of local people’s daily struggles around Blantyre.
I stayed a week in Mzuzu to explore the town and relax after my adventure in Karonga with HYCF. I used Airbnb to stay at a guest house ten minutes on foot outside the city. I visited local markets, went to the barber and found a tailor shop to fix my backpack. Unfortunately, the zipper was severely damaged and it had to be repaired professionally. Once everything was settled, I took a bus from Mzuzu to Blantyre, where the team of WOVICCO picked me up to work with them.
Martha, the organization owner, lives in United Kingdom and we had a Zoom meeting a few days before. I met Aron and Barbara at the bus station and they took me to my accommodation outside of the town. I was astonished that I got a room in a hotel. At 05:00 PM, all five team members came to the hotel and shared with me the schedule of the upcoming days. I taught them how to fly the drone to assist me during our field session.
They left at 07:00 PM and I prepared the questions for the interviews and charged all devices.
Daily routine:
Every morning at 07:30 AM, Ammon picked me up and we went to all the areas where WOVICCO supports local communities. They use their sponsored money to buy school books for children at primary schools, buy medicine to fight diseases and COVID-19, support families with disabled children and do community fostering.
At 08:30 AM, we usually arrived at the village where we greeted the chief and started right away with our work. We took drone pictures and interviews of people who were the most in need of aid. There were many people, so we took lots of notes of all the interviews. We worked six hours straight and had lunch at 03:00 PM before they dropped me back at the hotel. For four days, we did as much as we could and the last two days, we met at the hotel to edit footage, write stories and translate all the content to English. In the evening, I was on my own and kept Martha up to date on how our fieldwork went.
Overview volunteering expenses from 25th November until 03rd December
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Bus from Mzuzu to Blantyre $31
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Volunteer Fee $0
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Total $31
The host provides one of the best accommodations you can get. I stayed in three different hotels. All meals included and for three nights, I got my suite, the most expensive room at the hotel. All the rooms have air-conditioning and an attached bathroom with warm water. Laundry was also included and WiFi was available but I had to buy vouchers to load data.
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