Ruth: "The boys were so keen to try on the football strips today! Huge thanks to Bedford Free School who donated kit for a whole team including some substitutes. I work in this school as an Exam Invigilator and I was delighted that the Head of PE was so willing to donate tops, shorts and socks to the children at the Home of Hope. The queue of boys for the kit was very long! With much laughter, some girls also changed into it. Children are children, wherever they live in the world, and football is universal!"
Alysha: "Today was such a fulfilling day! I started off in the morning heading to Mchinji District hospital with the medical technician from Home of Hope. I was able to attend ward round and got a tour of the hospital. It was so wonderful to be able to hold one week old baby Jesse, who was in for her checkup!
The afternoon was also very eventful, assisting with the sponsorship admin of the children. I was delighted to be able to sponsor a 5 year old girl called Angella! I look forward to receiving updates from her and seeing her flourish. My parents fostered in me the idea of child-aid via sponsoring children in Kenya, so I grew up knowing the value in this. So to be able to independently continue now as an adult is very special.
Overall, such a beautiful day, and I feel so fulfilled. Every day brings a new exciting venture. I’m grateful to the Lord for this amazing opportunity.
I look forward to see what tomorrow brings!"
Carolyn: "The highlight of today has been spending time with the students who are going to university and sitting beside them as they got to grips with their new laptops and phones. Within a few weeks they will be on their way to universities in Malawi. Both of these students (above) are going to study education, specialising in humanities - which for me as a geographer is very exciting as they will be inspiring the Malawian Geography students of the future!"
Gillian: "An amazing afternoon with Lerato, taking photos of sponsored children who then enjoyed writing and drawing to their sponsors."
Helen: "It was an afternoon full of beautiful smiles, catching up with the sponsored children and sitting with other little ones happily colouring.
"And such a rewarding experience to work with the students ready to go off to university, helping them to set up their new laptops and chatting with them about their study plans. Benard (above) is off to study chemistry in Lilongwe."
Phil: "Picture of the day for me: VTC students and staff, joyfully thanking us for bringing mobile phones from the UK. I then had a lovely conversation with Easu, who teaches at the vocational training centre. His passion for teaching the young people was very evident."
Gill: "Today in the morning, I helped the university students to set up their newly acquired computers and mobile phones.
"In the afternoon, I gave three of the secondary school teachers a master class in using microscopes. I couldn't set up the distilled water machine as I had never seen it before! They agreed to return tomorrow and I joked that I would have it running 10 minutes after they left. And I did - much to my relief."
Sue: "The sun finally came out today so was warm in the sun.
I went to check on the Primary School project first thing, and it is making good progress. We hope to start the painting of the first classroom next week.
"This morning, I spent time with some of the young people who will be going to university. We have given them laptops so we were setting them up and giving them an introductory session on how to use them!
"This afternoon, we took photos of the sponsored children and I got to meet my two, Mary and Charles.
"We also played catch and did colouring, using some of the colouring books we had brought with lots of the children.
"P.S. today was also my first opportunity to pilot a drone near the guest house, and, amazingly, I managed to land it safely, too!"
Rafal: "Today marks yet another day of work, where the children exhibit keen interest as they closely observe the events unfolding within their school."
Alex: "After checking progress at the Primary School with Rafal and Sue straight after breakfast, a few of us went to meet with Matrida, Deliah and Carolyn. Over dinner yesterday evening we'd checked in with them about the small cookstoves used in the Home's many kitchens some years ago: on one of our previous trips, Ruth first experimented with a simple stove made out of about fifteen bricks and a square of sheet metal as a grate, then demonstrated it to Matrida once it was good enough to cook lunch for our team! It burns far less fuel than a typical 'three stone fire', and much more efficiently at that. At that time the design was adopted and developed at Home of Hope. We learned that all those made back then are now broken (when the kitchens were damage by storms), and for lack of resources not reinstated. We plan to address this while we're here, providing bricks for as many stoves as are needed.
We ate our first rice of the trip - thanks, Debbie! - a 'secret' and very delicious Nigerian recipe!
"After cooking that, Debbie rehearsed a choir of thirteen of the of the girls, ready to sing in especially made chitenjis (a colourful fabric wrap-around dress) at next Wednesday's morning devotional. They're keeping the song they'll sing a secret until then!
Universals: football, yes! And food, friendship, and family. All here.
Last word to the higher-level students: those at the Vocational Ttraining Centre (here are some of them assisting with the Primary School work this afternoon),
"and those off soon to university."
Alex
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