June 18th, 2013
After more than 24 hours by land and air, Kim and I finally
arrived at the quaint village of Lifuwu on beautiful Lake Malawi. We are staying at a nice hostel called
the Friendly Gecko, a stones throw from the beach on lake Malawi. We fall asleep to the soothing sounds
of surf, wind, and the rustling of leaves.
Yesterday, when we arrived, we were told that there would be
a meal served for dinner, and it turned out to be…Knödel, Würste und Kohl (dumplings, sausages and cabbage, for those who do
not speak German). As it turns
out, there are three Germans staying at the hostel. There is one other American and two people from Ireland. Everyone is quite friendly.
Tomorrow we will start our volunteering with Help2Kids,
which assists in various projects around Lifuwu village, including a nursery
school, primary school, and clinic. We will help out wherever we are needed,
though our expertise in education will probably be of most use at the two
schools. The town that we are staying in is quite remote—about 10 kilometers
northeast of Salima. It is a
fishing village, so there is quite a bit of activity at the beach. A short 10-minute walk from our hostel
along a dusty track takes us to the local primary school (grades k – 8). I am sure that we will be spending a
good bit of time there in the weeks to come.
Our first impressions of Malawi are all positive. The weather is absolutely perfect; it
is about 20 degrees (70 Fahrenheit) with a pleasant wind coming off the
lake. It is winter here, so thankfully
we are spared the 35-degree heat in a cinderblock oven of a schoolhouse. The people are very friendly,
especially the children. All it
takes is for us to walk by and the children will yell Nzungu (white person), run up to greet us, ask us our names
and hold our hands as we walk.
Parental supervision and “stranger danger” don’t exist in Malawi, I
guess—not that we’d get far, being the only foreigners in about a 20-mile
radius.
Well, that’s about it for now. I will try to post at least 3-4 times per week, depending on
the electricity/internet situation, so keep tuning in. Cheers!
Testing
ReplyDeleteAren't you glad I figured this out?! My first thought was "nothing changes very much". When we first went to Sierra Leone the little children followed us around chanting "oporto, oporto" — "white man, white man". We would laugh and say, "Onebi, onebi" — black man, black man! Back then (41 years ago!!), many had never seen white people in their villages so not unexpected. But, even today in Kenya we get the same and we "white eyes" are everywhere. Must be a habit hard to break…
ReplyDeleteAwesome pictures guys! Have fun!
ReplyDelete