"Yes. Do you have the chocolate?"
"Yes."
"Good."
As Dan would say it, this will be our last night in civilization as we
spend our last evening in Lilongwe.
Our departing feast: Dan and David devoured their plates of beef, rice
and African curry while Cassie and I felt content in munching on our
Malawian special S'mores around a campfire in the dark.
I was fortunate enough to experience the 'African nod' on my first
night here in Malawi which is a moment so memorable that it will
define future moments.
We sat at a restaurant and attempted to order a pizza that is half
ham and mushroom, half ham (since I am the vegetarian of the group).
The server looked at Cassie with such affirmative conviction that we
were quite certain that this man grasped the concept of a 'half ham'
pizza. Rather than delivering what was promised to us by his nod and
"Yes, yes", we received a pizza that was half ham and mushroom, and
half mushroom with these two big slices of ham...which clearly was
half ham, quite literally.
I'm enjoying my first trip in Malawi tremendously and have so much
more to say than what I can ever put into a blog. We drove to Zomba
after a night in Lilongwe and met with Dennis. Cassie and Dan met
Dennis on their last trip to Malawi. He is the headmaster of a primary
school in a village on the outskirts of Zomba with a tremendously
successful passing rate – 100% this past year. We are hoping to employ
Dennis to head the community development program we are currently
researching. In our conversations with Dennis, he seemed very excited
to be a part of the program just as we are very excited to possibly
bringing him abroad. He has an amazing will to help others succeed and
has a beautiful talent to rally people into action, which is exactly
what we need.
Today we met with a representative from UNICEF and discussed ways to
keep children and adults in school, as well as tactics to mobilize the
community in which we want to implement our community development
program. I think we received amazing advice from Panji Chamdimba and
had a great conversation which has sparked more ideas and a possible
future with UNICEF.
Once we arrive at Ripple Africa in Nhkata Bay tomorrow afternoon, I
will begin talking to members of the Mwaya community as well as local
community leaders such as the chief, teachers and headmasters, local
doctors and church leaders as well as adults and children so that we
can design a program that will mold to the local community.
- Nina
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