SI NEWS 2006 eng Country Report Africa
From SI Exco News
MALAWI
Wow have we had a busy year down here in Malawi – the slither of a country next to Zimbabwe – some of us have had babies, others managed to bake a cake without burning it and all while increasing our host member numbers! We now have 21 hosts, we had 7 incoming travelers and 3 outgoing, 3 newsletters, 2 national meetings, 2 social events and we managed to sneak in the painting of an orphan day care centre!
Within Malawi the highlight was a visit by two travelers from the island of Reunion who told us they heard all about our group from the SI No46 news! They arrived to take a tour of Malawi, join in a national meeting and made wonderful hot wine, which loosened our joints and made dancing at the end of the meeting quite easy! They flew up and hiked down Mulanje mountain with the national secretary's newborn baby in tow – best to start them young is our motto in Servas Malawi! The national secretary visited neighboring Kenya and after contacting all 1998 hosts to establish if any were still interested, managed to hash together a new host list and encourage ‘Charles’ to become the new Kenya National secretary.
One of our ‘2’ outgoing travelers aged 50 managed to make it to Edmonton-Canada and the World Masters Games, winning a Gold in the Team squash event for Malawi. The other, a 19 year old stayed with English hosts and is planning to visit Servas in America – it’s a shame he can’t get hold of our new recycled-homemade- paper ‘Servas Visitors’ book but he will be wearing our country T-shirt and badge! If anyone else would like one please do contact us about them on: benlewis[at]africa-online.net.
Demelza Benbow
Deputy Southern Africa Area & Anglophone Co-ordinator
From the Area Coordinator for Anglophone Africa:
1. A group of people in Sierra Leone would like to revive Servas there. Gambia is active but so far Ghana and Nigeria are silent.
2. We are not sure what has happened to Servas in Kenya. The lists for there and Tanzania are many years old. Servas is alive in Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana and South Africa.
Travellers with old lists with phone numbers — we would appreciate it greatly if you could contact a number of the people on them and let us know what is happening in dormant Servas countries.
So any assistance you can give would be appreciated.
If anyone is travelling south from Kenya? There are now buses between East Africa and Gaboro ne and trains go from Dar es Salaam to Lusaka.
Servas is now strongest in Malawi and Servas travellers are welcome there.
In peace, Sheldon Weeks, Botswana
BOTSWANA
Servas Botswana—First National Workshop
11-13 February 2005, Serowe,
Khama Rhino Sanctuary
The 1st Servas Botswana National Workshop was held
at a place in Central Botswana with the objective of
making it accessible in half-a-day’s drive to people in
northern and western Botswana. As a consequence,
because until now we had no members in that part of
the country, we rented a low-cost facility with ten beds
and space for tents within the Khama Rhino Camp, a
nature sanctuary. As a result we may have between
three and five new members from Serowe and
Palapye.
Our hosts. Are they Servas members?
This informal meeting was used to introduce people to each other. These Servas people are either born in Botswana or are long-term residents. It was noted that people from other countries are more interested than before to visit Botswana, and that publishing our host list through Servas may attract more Servas visitors. They will then benefit from the varied background of our hosts: journalists, teachers, health professionals, artists, and so on.
Servas International is worldwide and the General Assembly meets every few years, last in Barcelona. Sheldon attended that session. The meeting was problematic because of issues with funds unaccounted for. Africa is divided in Anglophone and Francophone regions. An Anglophone meeting for Southern Africa was held in Malawi in 2003. The report of this meeting was circulated.
Botswana as a host country is newly inaugurated with this meeting.
Servas Lunch in Tlokweng Botswana
A lunch was held for Servas members and people who had applied to become members to be interviewed. Regrets were received from five old members in the area south eastern Botswana. Three old members came and four prospective new members. People talked about themselves, their interest in Botswana, their other activities, life and travels. The four new members were interviewed and accepted with pleasure. We began at noon and the last person left at five p.m. It was a pleasant afternoon.
