adventures......

Hello everyone from a beautiful sunny day in Mzuzu,

Its so nice to have a Saturday where we are not training or rushing somewhere!  Friday week ago we travelled to Lilongwe for a meeting with Lilongwe Presbytery on Saturday.  On the way we took advantage of meeting with one of our trainers along the road side.  This is Kettie with her lovely family and here you can see Nicolas doing some 'business' with her in the roadside office!

Kettie and her family.  The youngest boy was scared of me!! (are you surprised??)

We proceeded to Lilongwe where we were meeting the Presbytery the next day to sensitize them on Early Childhood Development and here you can see me in action!  It was a good meeting with many questions being asked.

We returned to Mzuzu on Saturday evening and then on Sunday these four ladies arrived from Karonga.  Some of you know Lucy on the right our trainer in Karonga presbytery.  Lucy brought three caregivers from the Presbytery to have some experience of Early Childhood Centres in Mzuzu.  it was a pleasure to have them even though it rained solidly for the duration of their stay.  On the first day I was taking one of them to one of our centres within Mzuzu and we got stuck in the mud - or rather the car just turned around by itself  - eventually I managed to right it and continue on our way!!  They enjoyed their time in Mzuzu and hopefully the centres they have come from will benefit from what they have learned.

Martha, Ireen, Bettie and Lucy

On Tuesday Nicolas and myself together with the Lucy and her caregivers travelled to Karonga where we dropped them and then we proceeded to Chitipa.  In the good old days it used to take 5-6 hours to reach Chitipa due to the road condition after Karonga.  However the road was tarred last year and it makes such a difference - in stead of 3 hours from Karonga to Chitipa it took 1 and an half hours.  Another plus is that as I was driving I did not arrive completely exhausted!!

Chitipa is in the far north of Malawi and borders Zambia and Tanzania.  I always enjoy going there - people are very welcoming and friendly and work hard!  When we arrived we were told there was no running water (which is quite a common occurrence and quite ironic considering the heavy rainfall we have had!  However, this was my bathing water for the night!!

I took a picture of the soap as I thought it was hilarious (and only in Africa).  It was a bar of soap cut in half!!  I was just thankful to have water and soap!

The reason we went to Chitipa was to meet our trainers from Chitipa district.  There are two from Wenya Presbytery, two from Chitipa Presbytery and one from the remote Misuku Presbytery.

Prescott, Dennis, Vibrin and Lyness

Dennis (second from left) comes from Misuku and he walked for 6 hours to get to the meeting - never mind that it rained heavily the whole time and he had to cross a fast running river in the process - he was almost washed away.  I was very thankful to see him in one piece!  

Lyness and Foster

Lyness and Vibrin come from Wenya and the road is treacherous at present due to the rains (its a dirt road) and so it was a slow journey for them that took almost a whole day.  We always give thanks for safe travelling in Malawi especially during the rains.

Part of the assignment we were doing with the trainers was monitoring two centres in Chitipa to ensure that they understand completely what we are looking for.  This is one of the centres which as you can see was a small room with 50 children when they are all present.  The teacher was standing at the front and it was all rote learning - a big disappointment for me, as we promote child centred approach and play!  

Outdoors was a bit better with some play materials available but inside there was nothing!

Children enjoying the seesaw made locally

At this time of year when its raining we have some incredible skies in the evening and on Wednesday night in Chitipa was no exception - it was as if the sky was aglow and someone was painting it in golden colours - it was fabulous and the picture does not do it justice.  The wonder of creation!

Another wonder of creation but this time by human hands!  I am always fascinated by some of our shops and I found another interesting one in Chitipa - the chips room where  I am sure you have guessed you can buy chips!  Notice the sign behind which is a welding and coffin workshop - you can get anything you need here!!

We came home on Thursday and passed  by one of our centres in Karonga which you can see in the top picture and in the two pictures below - it was great - the caregivers were doing a wonderful job and the kids were having a lot of fun.

Play materials inside the centre

Arriving in Mzuzu, I noticed that the outside our church beside my house it had been painted.  I thought maybe we were having a function on Sunday and they were getting ready for it.  However, I was not aware that March 1 was the Women's World Day of Prayer and the Guest of Honour in Mzuzu was the President of the nation - that was why everything was being cleaned up.  On Friday morning I went to work as usual at 7.30am to find that many people had already gathered at the church even though the function would not begin until 1pm.

In Malawi on special occasion there is a cloth printed and the Women's World Day of Prayer cloth is green as you seen the photo below.  

At lunchtime I had a phone call from one of my colleagues to see if I could take photographs at the function as her daughter was chosen to present flowers to the President.  Of course I readily agreed, and rushed over to the church.  Here you can see the lovely young girl with the flowers awaiting the  Presidential car to arrive.  Behind you can see the church leaders from different denominations.

Of course in Malawi no function which the President attends is free from her party supporters and these are the ladies dressed in orange lining the route into the church.

I was privileged to be allowed to take photos and  was one of few photographers allowed to take pictures.  Here you can see the girl handing over the flowers to a very gracious President, Her Excellency Dr Joyce Banda.

proceeding into the church

So its been an exhausting as well as an exciting week - we travelled from Lilongwe in the central region to Chitipa in the far north and were blessed with travelling mercies.  I hope you have had as exciting a week as I have whatever you were doing.

Wishing you a good weekend and week ahead - we have a public holiday on Monday so its a time to relax!!

Thank you for all your support for the blog - please do leave a comment as it encourages me to keep going!!

Blessings,

Diane