two weddings and a funeral....

Hello everyone and greetings from a beautiful sunny day in Mzuzu! This week has been very productive as school is on holidays, visitors are becoming less, and there is more time to do the small things which need done! And so on Monday and Tuesday, I was working with our volunteer Fidelis laminating pictures of animals and transport for our nursery schools throughout the northern region. We made 62 beautiful packs of pictures for schools.

On Saturday, I attended the wedding of Bright and Rebecca. In fact there were two weddings happening at the same time, but here you can see the happy couple I was there to witness take their vows.

With Rev Gondwe...

and how cute are these two...........

On Friday, some of our church officials including our General Secretary were attending a funeral of a politician. On Friday night Rev Nyondo was arrested and taken to the police station, apparently accused of saying something against the ruling party. On Saturday morning he was refused bail and so spent the weekend in Mzuzu prison.

This morning, an enormous crowd gathered outside the courthouse in support of Rev Nyondo, and just after lunch time bail was granted to an amazing noise of cheering and singing. The crowd accompanied Rev Nyondo back to the main church where he addressed the crowd amidst joyful singing and jubilation.

Some people celebrating from the rooftops...

the General Secretary thanks everyone who prayed for him and helped him through the last few days...

and so its smiles all around this afternoon for my colleagues and myself!!

Wishing you a blessed week,

Diane

some snippets....

Hello everyone

I hope this finds you all well. I am feeling more rested today after an eventful and busy couple of months. I went to church this morning, had friends for coffee, and then sat in the sun and read a book all afternoon which was lovely! Mind you, while I was in the garden, I spotted this amazing spider...........

and it had made a beautiful large web................

During the week while I was in Lilongwe I was called to see a container from PCI being unloaded in Lilongwe. Usually, they come to Mzuzu but because of the unusual contents, this one had to be unloaded in Lilongwe!! Here you can see some of the boxes which were taken out.

and here is Smile, who organises the containers which arrive in Malawi - he is busy directing operations...........

loading the boxes onto the lorry to head for the north................

and the reason the container was unloaded in Lilongwe...........because there were two vehicles on it, one of which is coming to my department in Mzuzu! Here you can see the vehicle which will be for Early Childhood Development......its so exciting...........

the back wheel has not been put on yet - it was taken off so that it could fit in the container and is currently inside the vehicle!

and the other vehicle was an ambulance which is heading to the Mission hospital in Livingstonia.

so...... a great trip to Lilongwe (where I also managed to have my hair cut - no photos of that!). The ambulance has arrived in Mzuzu, the other vehicle is still in the hands of customs but we hope to have it here soon!!

Throughout this blog, I have been referring to Nicolas, one of my trainers here in Mzuzu. He is currently studying for a Diploma in Early Childhood by distance learning through Montessori in London. At the end of July, he left for London where he sat for his practical exams yesterday. Here are a couple of photos of him in London. I am really proud of him as he is working so hard and I hope he does well in his exams.

The weather in London looks better than in Mzuzu!!

Wishing you all a blessed week,

Diane

whew....what a week....

Hello and greetings from a beautiful sunny warm day in Mzuzu!!

This has been quite a busy week with one thing and another as usual! It was a pleasure at the beginning of the week to spend some time with Peter Turton, the minister from my home congregation where I grew up in Armoy! We spent some time visiting nursery schools so that he could see what we are trying to do in Early Childhood in Malawi.

Can you spot Peter??


While Peter was here, we visited our school project which is coming on well. The plastering inside has been completed and here you can see the verandah at the front being plastered.

The plumbing............

Today, Friday is the close of the school year here in Malawi and we had an end of year celebration for our pre-school here in Mzuzu. Yesterday the children were busy practising the activities that they were going to show their parents and guardians. Here you can see one of the children teaching Fidelis, our volunteer teacher.

Here another child is busy practising with her friend in preparation for the big event!

This morning the children sang and danced as they crossed the road to the hall where the function was taking place.

Waiting for their turn.........

Yesterday's practice paid off as you can see the same activity as the picture above in action! It made me very proud to see how the kids can teach the adults!

Dancing and singing for the visitors...............

Unfortunately, we said goodbye to two of our staff members - here is Fidelis who is a student at Africa Bible College and is a volunteer at our school, receiving a gift from teacher Gift!

and Mary on the left, who has been filling in for a maternity leave, receiving her gift from teacher Enala.

Mrs Msowoya was our head teacher and she retired at the end of June on health grounds, so after the function today we went to visit her and present her with gifts from parents and staff. Here you can see her on the right accepting a gift from teacher Alice.

and..... no show without punch!! Yes, its me giving Mrs Msowoya one of the gifts. The picture is a bit shaky but it was a first time for the photographer so she did well!!

So, its been a busy week but very rewarding when you see the children performing so well for parents and guardians. Our guest of honour told the parents that the children were a gift from God and that they had a great responsibility to bring them up in the right manner.

I hope that you have had a great week too and I wish you a blessed weekend.

Diane

all work and no play....

Hello all

Its been another busy week for the PCI team. The week began with visits to some schools around the Mzuzu area where the team worked together with the caregivers in the schools to help them with some methods of teaching young children. There was a lot of fun both for the kids and the team as you can see by the photos.

However, as we all know all work and no play makes you a dull person, and so to finish the tour the team had a few days break. This began on the shores of Lake Malawi at Nkhotakota where a relaxing time was had by all. Here you can see the beautiful sunset which always makes for a good day.

Next stop was Mvuu camp at Liwonde National Park where the wheels on the truck went round and round....... as the team set off on our safari........

where they spotted majestic and amazing elephants..

hippos enjoying the cool waters of the shire river...

what an amazing sight - a monitor lizard perched high in a bush...

a cheeky vervet monkey or two, who attempted to steal Sharon's dinner...

warty warthog having a snack.......

a magnificent yellow billed stork........

and to finish off a perfect day........a perfect sunset!!

This morning we said farewell to the team at the airport in Lilongwe before travelling back to Mzuzu. I know that the team put a lot of effort into preparing for the trip before they came to Malawi and I want to say a personal big thank you to them as they may never know the impact that their efforts will have made on the children of this country.

Wishing you a wonderful week,

Diane