Blair High trip to Malawi
Blairgowrie High School Joined: April 27th 2008
Logged in: February 6th 2011
Logged in: February 6th 2011
Going on the trip are, Danielle, Stef, Laura, Lindsey, Rachel, Lynsey, Michelle, Euan, Ben, Greg, Calum, Steven and Lawrence...and of course Ross and Mrs Clark!
Anyone want to add anything else??? :)
Just under 2 weeks left to go...it's mental! Can't wait for the big strap marks with our ball dresses ladies haha! Oh and guys...good luck with wearing trousers there!
Travel Blog Posts
After a very long and amazing two weeks in Malawi, we finally got home. We were all very excited and eager to see our friends and families who were there at the school to greet us off the bus. Luckily, we all received our bags on the way back and had a pretty smooth journey. Even the 6 hour wait in Kenya and the 4 hour wait in Amsterdam seemed to fly by! We passed the time in the airports buying final gifts for ourselves, families and friends, watching DVD's and playing cards. Our first day back was used to recover and catch up on sleep by many of us. It was an unbelievable two weeks and we learnt so much about the people we met and made friends with and of course ourselves. Im sure ... read more
Sunrise
After a few days of relaxation in Liliongwe, we set off for a 7 hour journey to Zambia. After about 2 hours we reached the borders where we spent roughly an hour filling in forms and getting our passports stamped. Soon after that we stopped for lunch, the safari company provided us with huge cheese sandwiches...we couldn't even fit them in our mouths! After we left from lunch, we soon hit dirk track roads and in the landrovers it was an extremely bumpy journey. The poor road conditions ensured that none of us got any sleep and were all knackered by the time we arrived at the camp. Our first safari was 15 minutes our arrvial (4pm - 8pm) and due to tiredness Ross and Mrs Clark didn't join us. We got extremely close to many ... read more
After a farewell meal with Rev Levi Nyondo and his family we left Mzuzu on Tuesday morning to go on another long bus journey back to Lilongwe. Here we are staying in the Sunbird Hotel, although our stay in Mzuzu was wonderful, it is lovely to get a proper bed and we are getting our clothes washed which is such a luxury. After the dusty road at Vwaza Marsh the day before it wasn't just our clothes we were needing to wash!! Today, we have done some shopping at the market - bet you all can't wait to see the presents we have bought you - now we've said that you won't sleep for excitement! We also went to two animal sanctuaries today the first one didn't seem to have any animals but the second one ... read more
The Girls
Today, Monday, we went to Vwaza Marsh Game Reserve. It was fantastic, we have never seen so many elephants together in their herds it was an amazing sight. We also saw hippos and monkeys. It was very dry and dusty and we were covered in dust from the road we were travelling on. It has been very sunny and hot today. This evening we have been invited to Rev. Levi Neyondo's home to have a meal with his family. Thanks everyone who is leaving messages and comments, its really nice to get them. Thanks. Speak soon! ... read more
Beach
We have been enjoying two days of rest. Yesterday (Friday) we went to the beach, it was truly the most beautiful beach we have ever seen, we wanted to stay there but the people we are staying with prefer it if we return back to base but that's fine by us. On the journey there we stopped off at a place where there were lots of wood carvings for us to buy as well as pictures and other gifts to take home. We did lots of bartering with the people selling the goods and, on one occasion, managed to buy a picture by handing over a small sum of money and a pair of shorts! Our meal last night was in a hotel. We have to be in by 10 pm, it is not allowed to ... read more
Netball
Yesterday we went Geisha school to continue working on the school block by painting it with lime protector.We then went back in the afternoon where the girls played netball with local Malawian girls and the boys played football against local malawian boys. Unfortunately both teams got beaten! At night we went out for tea to a indian restuarant, it was ok, service was a tad slow though. Today we went to Masasa high school and were given a tour of the premises. We were also given the opportunity to sit in a lesson of either RS or maths. We were given a very nice send off from staff and pupils. In the afternoon we went back to Geisha primary where we had a goodbye service from staff and local people. We are very proud of the ... read more
Children
Yesterday we went for orientation to the primary school to meet the children, teachers, head villagemen and important councillors of education. They performed a display of traditional African singing, dancing and poetry. We were presented with a gift. The gift turned out to be 60 eggs...and a live goat! The goat is, in fact, no longer...we had a BBQ last night! Not necessarily a good experience for all! Today we headed off to Geisha Primary School for our first day of work experience. The girls painted two classrooms and the office and the guys moved bricks and helped with building work. We also helped to plant some trees, one of which is named 'Blairgowrie High Tree'. This evening we met some teenagers from the local High School Masasa, and we spent some time getting to know ... read more
The group arrived at their destination in the early evening on Sunday the 8th June. They were given an amazing welcome by the people of the community who sang to them and prepared a wonderful meal. Everyone is very friendly. Monday - after a well earned sleep the group visited the school and met some of the children who were delighted with the gifts they had brought with them. There is a problem with the communication at the moment so the blog may not be updated just as often as they had hoped.... read more
Having arrived in Nairobi Airport 6.30 am (4.30 am Blairgowrie time) the group stopped for 2 hours before boarding another flight to Lusaka, Zambia where they stopped briefly before continuing their journey to Lilongwe, Malawi. All are well but very tired and "don't want to be bothered with airports and planes anymore". ... read more
The group arrived in Amsterdam early evening 7th June 2008 and will board a flight to Nairobi later tonight. They will arrive around 6.30 am Sunday 8th June (local time) and will then board another flight from Nairobi to Lilongwe (capital of Malawi) after which they will travel by bus to Mzuzu where they will be based.... read more
