Children in their classroom

The conditions of the classrooms are crowded and they typically sit on the floor for 7-8 hours.  There is only natural light and no electricity or fans.  The children from the Makalani village attend primary school here.

Classroom conditions

Conditions of the classrooms we will be renovating in July 2011.

I am going back to Malawi!!

I couldn't be more excited.  I made the decision to take the trip scheduled in July with Be The Change Volunteers.  We will be going back to the same village and renovate the primary school where we visited the kids.  I remember the crowded conditions, lack of teachers and the poor conditions of the school buildings.  BTCV has partnered with Invest to rebuild the school and build a resource center in the village.  We are so excited as the team is developing.  More info later.  I am particularly excited because we are taking teenagers with us.  I know of at least 4 that have expressed an interest.

Team Photo

I thought I would post a picture of the kids we brought to the lake.  This is a very patient group - this was assembling took about 30 minutes and it was sweltering hot.  The kids waited and waited and waited for photos and this was one of the candid shots.  Do you remember when you would stop at the hotel or park and the kids just want to get in the pool?  Well these kids stood at the waters edge and didn't get in.

More later.....

Finally rested up

I think I have finally gotten my rest.  I wake up at about 3:30 AM and have checked with the other ladies and they are waking between 3 and 4 as well.  Then falling right to sleep between 9 and 10.

I have been messing with my pictures to try and figure out the best way to display them.  There are so many to share and so many to share with.  Also, different people are interested in different facets of the journey.  There isn't one part I don't relive when I review the pictures.  There are great pictures of the kids as well as the safari and all of Malawi.  Some are pretty special and I hope you enjoy the slide shows as well.

More later....

We are back!

Back in the USA!  We got into Detroit and had a short wait before catching our trip to KC.  We went through customs where they asked us if we had any animal products, fruits, vegetables, seeds, plants etc...  Sherry had claimed she had an elephant (wooden figurine) and that was the attraction for her - and my customs sheet claimed material and other wood carvings etc... but unclaimed was the orange in my backpack I had forgotten.  Because of that special distinction I got to go through additional screening with the agriculture department as they safely disposed of my orange from Zambia I had carried with me.

I made it through the additional screening and met back up with the team as we rechecked our bags to KC and got our boarding passes to come home.  We were all a bit tired and bedraggled.  You know the tired when everything gets "silly" and you laugh at stupid, insignificant things.  But I am pretty sure that in the past 3 days I had slept a total of 6 hours.  I couldn't sleep on any of the planes - others found no problem with cramped seats where they are in one position for such a long period of time.  The plane trips are not for the restless - the seats don't fit me correctly.  Even if we have unlimited music and movies, sitting there is not my favorite thing.  I also always got to sit with the lady in the cocoon, wrapped up in blankets, coats, minks and spilling over into my seat or the 6'5" Nigerian basketball player with knees up to the tray table.  My comfort was insignificant in comparision.  I am amazed at home many people can sit in that position for 9 hours with barely moving!!!  Next time, I have to figure out a way to get into business class.  We pass through those aisles where there two seats in the row and most of the trip they are laying down.  When you are going over to Malawi, I think you forget how uncomfortable it is as you are on an adventure.  But when you are returning you are tired and cranky and it isn't as fun....

I slept from the moment we got on the plane to KC - I didn't even see us waiting in line for the de-icing.  I had gotten on line in Amsterdam and noticed there were rows with no one sitting on that flight so I moved myself to row 22 in the back of plane by the engines and fell to sleep.  When I woke up we were descending into KC and my hubby was waiting for us to take us home.  By the grace of God, all 8 of our checked bags and tubs arrived and appeared to be unscathed.  Each of the tubs had at least three of their zip ties still on so we didn't have them opened.

We made our first stop at Taco Bell and had our "American food" - the wait was about 10 minutes which was long for the US but short for any of the restaurants we went to when we were gone.  We headed home, I got to talk to my mom, one of my daughters and text with others that we were back on our way home.

We said our goodbyes at the church and went on our way.  I don't know about updates in the future.  I have been encouraged by all the comments, FB messages etc.... thank you for reading and encouraging me along the way.  I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have.  Now that I am home, I will pictures, slide shows and other things that I can post on here.  So keep tuned in.

More later......

Farewell Dinner with the Team

We had a farewell dinner last night with our ABC interpreters and Makalani village team including Gracian and Timothy.  We have new interpreters, John, Mary and Aninafe.  They have been such a blessing to me.  They worked tirelessly with me as I talked with the kids.  I had taken a book with each of the kids names and their sponsors' name of which I shared with them.  Everyone wanted to see their face in my book (photos taken by the team last year) -and they swarmed me.  It really gave me an opportunity to get to know the kids a little better each day as I recognized them, said their name and found out about them.  It also allowed me time to find out their interests, what they want to do when they grow up and what their favorite subject is in school.

They have the same interests as our children - policeman, teachers, President, pilots, surgeons etc....They had "hope" as we have a black President that they also could be President some day.  Their biggest interest is soccer (football) with the World Cup or whatever being held in Africa this year the interest is peaked even higher.  I was amazed that there wasn't any explaining that game.  However, we had a few issues when I taught them kickball.  They "thought" I said that they ALL had to run around the bases when one kicked the ball.  I know I don't remember all the rules, but think I lost something in translation when explaining the game to John.  I was surprised when everyone ran around the bases 4 times when the ball was kicked.  Well, maybe next year they will catch on?  They also learned volleyball.  I wasn't good at that either - but at least I tried.  We had to play in the sand and they made me remove my shoes as well - there is no restriction of glass on the beach or anything else, so you can imagine what it looked like.  There are goats that run down the beach with the little goat hearder and I can only imagine what else was on the beach along with the lizards and chameleons.

One evening we broke after our devotions and it was dark and there were lights.  The kids RAN towards the lights which had swarming flying bugs and started to catch them.  I thought - oh, just like lightening bugs as we did at home?!  But, no, these are giant termites that come out at night with a wingspan of 2-3 inches.  They were catching them to eat - ALIVE!  Oh, yes it was a treat to see.

Then there was the "fishing" for small minnow-like fish in the lake.  They would catch them by hand, string them on a long reed and take them to the firepit where the cooks made dinner and roast them.  Eating them head and all.  This was also a treat to see.

Now, you would think, we weren't feeding them enough?  But no, we fed them three meals a day and they were large meals with fish, chicken, beans, rice, Nsima, etc.... and this is more than they typically get in a day - it is just that these were their delicacies.  I talked with a couple of the village elders (Gracian and Lawrence) and they said it was fine and common and quite a treat for them.  They weren't hungry - just something they like to do.

It was fun to see them happy, full and satisfied.

More later....