Patrick

It's Mother's Day here on 15 October. One of my guards, Patrick, has gone to visit his Mum this weekend, back in the village where he grew up. He hasn't seen her since March.

Patrick is 19. His Father died when he was five. To pay for his schooling, his Mother gradually sold off their herd of goats. When the goats ran out, Patrick dropped out of school. Last year, to help support his Mum - who, like most Malawians, ekes out a living from a small field, which she farms by hand - Patrick moved to Lilongwe to look for work. He moved in with his Sister, who was already living here with her husband and baby.

Patrick works for Ursa Security Limited (USI), which has operations in Malawi and Zambia. USI are contracted to protect all British Government properties in Malawi, including the High Commission and the residences of diplomatic staff.

Patrick earns around £37 per month, which is a difficult salary to live on Lilongwe. Of that £37, he sends around £15 back to his Mum every month (if he can find someone who is travelling back to the village, that he can give the money to) to help her buy basic goods. In the first year of working for USI (Patrick has been working for them for 11 months), staff do not receive any annual leave. So while he is away, two of the other guards will be covering his shifts - this will mean they will be working consecutive day and night shifts.

Patrick has just one year of schooling left to complete. All secondary schooling in Malawi is private, and paying school fees typically takes up a large proportion of household expenditure. Frequently, people will be paying the school fees of their own children, and those of their younger brothers and sisters, whose parents have either died or are unable to afford the fees.

Fees are around £13 a term (three terms a year). Patrick was very keen to return to school. The fees for the local school were £13 per term (three terms a year). When I arrived in Malawi, Patrick had managed to save £9 for school fees, but term started at the beginning of September and time was running out for him to return to school this year. I agreed to give him the remaining £4 so that he could return to his studies immediately.

He still needs to work to earn money, so on a typical week Patrick will work mostly night shifts at my house, while going to school in the day. The guards work twelve hour shifts, from 6pm to 6am and vice versa.

Patrick's Sister's house is a two hour walk from my house, so to help make his life easier, I lent him £45 to buy a bicycle. He'll be paying me back £7.50 a month.

On Thursday night Patrick brought home some geometry homework, so we had a fun evening on the veranda discussing the properties of cyclic quadrilaterals.

Nepear (left) helping Patrick (centre) with his math's homework on the veranda. Piliran is standing.