May Day
I woke up a little early this morning, and was sitting reading Stephen Carr’s “Surprised by Laughter” (he gave a wonderful talk on his 60 years of experience working on food issues in Africa) when Shirley came up to me and said that Alexander, the carpenter, is here and wants to speak with you. He was distraught as his sister, age 28, had just passed away from Meningitis, leaving her husband and two small children. He had no money, but being the first-born had the main responsibility of providing a coffin; in addition, he had to travel to Blantyre, some hour and a half away. I called Paul and discovered his employer and the system often provides help for families in this situation. The news of the staff was upsetting to all of us, but every one to a person will assist in whatever way we can.
Today was May the First and a holiday in Malawi. The school was closed, but we worked, and we worked hard. The painters, led by Captain Brian Westlake, are doing a fantastic job, and all three rooms have been virtually painted at least once. The painting takes a bit longer, as the painting is much thicker than in past years. Rhonda, Shirley, and Doreen were our window painters—Julie, you’ll understand. Al, Jeff and Brian Westlake developed a real system and Frances and Michael helped them. Stella, Standard 1 teacher, and Ellen, the school inspector who rides school to school on her motorcycle also helped them, though they were off that day. Michael finished the window and the room is now decorated inside by some animal paintings by Frances. She and Rhonda also finished off the Standard 1 room so that tomorrow some 100 standard 1 children can put their hand in a paint pot and then put their handprint on the wall, representing their hands as leaves on the tree.
Brian and Paul, two very skilled carpenters, now have most of the doors hung. This was an amazing accomplishment considering the warped wood and uneven doorframes.
Tom and Chris built some teachers’ desks. Carpentry in Malawi is very manual and compounded by many small things that we are not used to doing at home. For example, the wood is wet, warped and every board must be planed and sanded. To join the boards together, the head is knocked off a nail, thus creating two points. These two points are then pounded into separate boards and glued and clamped together. We learned the Malawi way, which, to us, is backwards. The teachers will now all have desks. At the present time, only the headmaster has a desk and a workstation.
Andrew, a man of many talents and a mix of activities, found us some scrub brushes even though the markets were closed. We added this to some omo, and scrubbed the walls to clean the dirt put on by the children’s hands over the past year.
At lunch, Paul brought the president of the Limbe club, Fanwell Nkhono and his family. We have enjoyed a marvelous relationship with the Limbe club over the last 6 years.
We were able to sort the many things we have brought, which will be given mainly to several schools, Dignitas, and Kutchere. In spite of the many little obstacles and frustrations, not unsimilar to what Malawians go through every day, we finished the day with lots of laughter. We were not surprised.
– Chris Snyder