By Prince Kumar

The last day at school for Brian and me turned out to be a day full of determination of all and executive decisions by ‘task wardens’. We kicked off with a group shot at the Annie’s Lodge, supporting the Jays in snug t-shirts – perfectly sized for an average Malawian build.

With 1 member down with the stomach bug we were off. The bus had serious planning discussions around efficient use of our time, Chichewa music with our trusted driver Alex hoping to drive a little faster, only to be slowed by a friendly herd of cows.

Alfred (the self-proclaimed ‘the Almighty Flame of Africa’) mentioned that when the kids go home for the weekend, some are back without eating anything. Over the weekend, they go to their religious institutions –a Church or a Mosque, help on farms, at their homes and in the gardens. When they are back, the teachers make them sing joyous songs to forget their weekend worries – the same songs greeted us as we pulled in.

Norma – the ‘painting warden’ kept the volunteers going and got 3 classrooms and a cricket painted. Her favourite encouraging quote, “I’m astonished how well things are going today”. She was even spotted lifting a 50 kg bag of cement to make room for painters.

David – the ‘garden warden’ inspected his avocado trees and involved the students in digging out holes.

Brian’s dedication was admirable as he chiseled the doors to perfection to fit the new classrooms.

Andrew and Chris set up the netball poles as excited players looked over. Andrew’s keen sense of fixing things carried forward in the evening, as he installed a switch for the porch light for the team to relax. This helped an impromptu mobile wood carver setup shop and make a deal with some of the team members including bartering for a pair of Canadian running shoes.

Brian quoted, “I’m quite impressed with the school and the graduates that they will put out… kids can only be helped with good quality education, and maybe if we have changed the lives of a few by providing hope in a small way, we have had success… to us, what we do may seem so little, to them it may be the world”.

As I head back to Toronto, I’m left with a bitter sweet symphony – the teachings from the hopeful and smiling children of Mbidi school – despite their lack of basic facilities, new friendships with teachers and volunteers, and looking forward to getting reunited and share this experience with loved ones back home.

~/~

By Doug Stewart

Today was overcast for the most part – the first of its kind since our arrival. By local standards, this was considered a cool day but for us it was most pleasant and enabled us to do our work more efficiently out at the school site.

Andrew seemed to be everywhere today: on the ground where with the able assistance of Abby, he mounted some of the world maps on plywood for classrooms and continued with the construction of bookshelves; up on the roof of a new classroom installing a skylight; and on top of a ladder repairing the hoop for net ball. Abby showed just how skilled she had become at the end of a saw cutting many pieces of lumber for the bookshelves.

The painters, who today included Dave, Norma, Julie, Chris, and Doug, mounted a major push to finish the walls in the new classrooms. The upper half of the classroom walls are white and the lower half ivory, and with the final coats of paint now on the interior both classrooms look great. And, while the headmaster’s request to have the geometric structures in the classroom windows painted blue and pink – the school colours – raised a few eyebrows initially, all agree that the windows are quite attractive. Even the inside walls of the two existing classrooms got a much needed face lift and they certainly look the better for it.

Karen was in charge of organizing some classroom teaching. At one point she could be seen in the middle of the playground working with her teaching materials and six Standard Three students while many other students looked on. Her objective was to teach the children some basic logical thought using geometric shaped blocks while Norma was working with the Standard Six class on English vowel sounds and pronunciation.

Meanwhile, classrooms need doors and once again Brian could be seen persistently chiseling and planning away in order that good fits with door frames would be assured.

The highlight of the day was seeing the expressions of joy on the children’s faces when the sports equipment we brought for them was handed out. In front of the school, the girls could be seen playing a spirited game of net ball while on the backfield the boys were engaged in a robust game of soccer on an uneven dirt field in bare feet – they couldn’t have been happier. Unfortunately, the local carpenters did not show up today so no progress was made on the desks for the school classrooms.

Our final activity was a most interesting presentation by Dr. Jamu on the fishing industry in Malawi. He pointed out that Lake Malawi was the most species diverse lake in the world but that the number of species is in decline due to overfishing. He helped us to understand some of the current challenges and how the government, fishermen, and consumers are addressing these.

By Chris Snyder.

Today was an educational day. First a visit to Kachere then to several Savings and Loan/micro enterprise projects sponsored by Emmanuel

Kachere: It was wonderful to see Mary and Florence et al again. We were met by the women singing and dancing. These women all have Aids and have been on ARVS for some time. All would be dead without them. Several years ago we built a childcare/office/storage building. I am happy to report the building is in wonderful shape and well used. There were about 30 children there when we arrived. After several speeches the chief arrived and thanked us profusely for the work we did several years ago. He spoke about climate change and the lack of water this rainy season. Mary led us to their fish ponds and past their newly created cotton fields.They did not do well because of the winter rain. One of the women with us was bottle feeding a baby. This was unusual . The child was orphaned at 3 months and the women were looking after the child. Upon returning to the centre we gave them hats that Robbi Howlett had some women make, some mats brought by David and soccer balls, children’s toys, firisbees brought by Abby, Karen and Prince. David bought 7 avocado trees to plant at the school..Stephen Carr had suggested this in his talk last night. We also left with some napkins made on the sewing machine purchased by Maureen several years ago. It was great to see them making some money from this. We plan to return on Sunday to go out with them on their home based care visits. We also brought back with us 2 bicycles that had been bought by Jack Robertson to repair

On to Chilongga. and Kanjuli It was impressive to see the difference the water makes. The water combined with fertilizer gives them an extra crop of maize and tomatoes. The water is pumped by a treadle pump which works like a bicycle. The money from their saving is loaned to some women who buy seeds, plant, look after the crop and sell it. The loan is repaid and the women pocket the difference.
The same concept is used by the marketing group with whom we met. They plant and sell peas and chills. Chilies are a new crop initiated by Emmanuel. After 2 years they are making money. Most of the people in the first 2 groups are women

The fish farm is run mainly by men. It has been stocked with over 2000 fish. To date none have been harvested. The savings and loans programs have been very successful and is funded in the main by the local peoples own money. It underlines that with a small amount of money working with an organization who knows what they are doing it can make a huge difference.

These programs to date have impacted over 1000 people. Like ourselves the money earned is used for such things as housing and children’s education. 1 woman had made about $1000..this is in an area where the average income is less the $2/day We ate our boxed lunch on the steps of a building

WE returned to Annies via downtown witnessing a long lineup for gas. There has been a fuel shortage for sometime. It is hoped with the new Pres and devaluation this will end soon. In summary a great learn ing day and reinforcing that people here are working hard to improve their lot in life. WE are pleased to be a small part of it.