playgrounds and celebrations

Hello everyone

Hope you have had a good week. Here, the team from Ballycarry have been extremely busy as you will see from the photographs. This was the children who arrived for the Bible club!! Just a few.........

Owen, the driver having a rest after the many hours of driving........
Work begins at the site of the nursery school...

and here is the view I had last week with nothing on it - I hope that next week I will have the final products as we are officially opening it tomorrow.

Meanwhile Nicolas and myself went to Lwambaza CCAP to train some people about nursery school for a day - it was a good day but it was cold!!

Some of the team visited our nursery school in Mzuzu. Here you can see Gabrielle with some of the children.

Kachere opened the nursery school last week and I was delighted when I popped in one day for a visit to find that the kids were busy playing and had quite a lot of materials.

Some children playing with mud and water.......making what I wonder???

On Saturday after a hard week of work we took the team to Vwaza marsh - it was a beautiful day and the rocks you can see in the picture are hippos - there were many of them out of the water probably warming themselves up in the sun. I imagine the water is quite cold these days.
Some of the group decided to go for a walk with a ranger in the park...........

Church on Sunday was lovely with Gabrielle preaching and the minister translating.

On Sunday night the church had a celebration with the team where they prepared a beautiful meal and gifts. It was a special evening. Here you can see the two ministers hand in hand to celebrate the partnership in Christ.
The evening celebration... where we had choirs singing all in a festive mood.

In this picture is myself with the ministers and Rev Mwanza's wife to his left hand side.

So, its been another busy but fruitful week. People have had fun and also worked hard. Another team arrives this incoming week so its all go here!

Wishing you a great week whatever you do.

Blessings

Diane

travel and visitors....

Hello all...

I had intended to write last weekend but I was called away to another Curriculum workshop on Monday which meant I had to drive all day on Sunday. I left Mzuzu at 9am and arrived in Zomba just after 6pm. The journey was beautiful as I took the lakeshore road. In Mzuzu we still have much rain every day and its cold but along the lakeshore it was beautiful with the sun shining and the warm temperatures. The land is really dry as you can see in the photos.

I had a challenging journey - there were many people going to church so the roads were congested with people walking, and many goats running out in front of me, and cows crossing the roads......concentration is the key to driving in Malawi.

You can see how dry the terrain is here.

I was amazed - its only 3 years since I moved from Zomba to Mzuzu and yet there are many more new and beautiful mosques along the lower lake shore and along the road to Zomba.

As I approached Zomba passing malosa, it was getting dark and I took this rather dramatic picture - there was a large fire in the mountains - the picture does not do it justice as I had driven almost past it before I thought about taking a picture but it looked pretty ferocious and hot.

When I reached Zomba it was in total darkness - no electricity for a couple of hours - the next night it was the same!! Makes me glad to be in Mzuzu where we do have electricity usually in the evenings.

I was attending the second curriculum development workshop for Early Childhood Development in Malawi which was really good, challenging and gave us cause for many arguments about child development and the way forward for the country of Malawi. Here you can see some of my colleagues at work!

and some just relaxing!!!

On Friday I left at 5am for Lilongwe where I was picking up a team of 15 from Ballycarry Presbyterian Church who are in Malawi to work alongside Kachere CCAP doing a Bible club with the sunday school and building some play materials for the nursery school. We arrived home around 8pm on Friday night so they were all tired. The road was long because the minibus was feeling the strain with so much luggage on the roof!

Last night, we had a meal together and then there was choir practice as the group were singing in church this morning....

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of them singing in church. Maybe next week. It was a long day as there were two services so we began at 8am and finished around 1pm!!

Here you can see the minister of the congregation - the tallest man on the left hand side of the picture. He is standing in the site of what will be their nursery school.

This picture shows where the outdoor play materials are going to be built so if you check out the blog next week, you might see a different picture of the same site!!

We had a great service in church today - Rev Mwanza was preaching about life in the Spirit and he was fantastic - here you can see him in action - any ideas why he is hugging a cushion?? Answers on a postcard please! Only joking. You can ask any member of the Ballycarry team when they go back to Ireland!!

Wishing you all a blessed and joyous week.

Diane x

creativity in our centres

Hello and greetings from a wet and chilly Mzuzu - its a day for woolly jumpers and thick socks!

Much has been happening in Early Childhood Development and this week at our school we have had much creativity!

The children were moulding clay (at home you would use playdough or something similar but we use mud) and they were really enjoying making different shapes.

The finished products left to dry in the sun!!

The children made a lovely house in the playground during the week - the top picture shows the finished results. The one below shows the work in progress. This activity gave the children and the teachers a lot of pleasure!!

Last week two of the trainers travelled to Mlowe congregation on the upper lake shore to train the caregivers and committee of a nursery school. Here you can see them at work!

The view from the nursery school is stunning over the lake with the Tanzanian mountains in the distance - imagine waking up to that every morning!

On Thursday and Friday of the past week we have been at Kachere, a congregation within Mzuzu who are opening a nursery school. We were training the caregivers and committee the basics of Early Childhood Development and it will be exciting to watch the progress as the school develops.

A child was with us during the training and he enjoyed playing with this locally made football - here you can see him diving for the ball - maybe he will be a future world cup participant!!

It is always good to see folk from UK - this week there were several visitors. A group of teenagers from Scotland were visiting the synod and one of the teachers came several times for a cup of coffee which was nice - this was her second visit. Also a friend who used to work in Livingstonia stayed for a few days with a couple of others which was really nice.

Wishing you a blessed week!

Diane

lots happening..........

Hello everyone

Greetings from a chilly Mzuzu evening! Its definitely getting cooler, so if you are visiting in the next couple of months please bring warm clothes!

Excitement this week as we watched the school roof going on - its a real blessing to see this happening so quickly!

The school from the opposite side of the road!

This week I went to Karonga and we visited Kasoba village but also Karonga Girls Secondary School which was also damaged in the earthquake in December. In fact the tremors are still happening but thankfully the magnitude is not so great. Here you can see the girls hostel - it might not look too bad but its the structural damage which is difficult to capture in a photograph.

These are the tents the girls are using as hostels - you can imagine the lack of security and safety for the girls who return to school on Monday.

This week saw the second week of our training in Mzuzu - here you can see me in action teaching at the front!!

The two trainers, Nicolas and Enala looking smart.

The caregivers making materials for their schools.....

and some finished products.............

We were priviliged to have the Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Community Services to come to the finishing ceremony to hand out the certificates to the caregivers. She has a great heart for young children in Malawi and was a great encouragement to everyone who attended.

It was great this week also to welcome friends for a few days. I had a lovely time with Carson and Diane and actually had a relaxing day off with them. Thanks for a lovely time!!

Hope you all have had a great week too. Till next time..........

Blessings

Diane