Kande Beach Day 2

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Our big event for today was a visit to the Kande Beach village next to our camp. This included a tour of the village manual water pump, the hospital and school all supported by funds from the Canadian Government. Our guide for this tour showed us into his home where he lives with two younger brothers and a sister - brick walls and thatch roof and cement floor and two windows with glass with three rooms in a total floor space of 20 x 15 feet. He built this home himself.

We walked to the main village area and Kayla bought a cold soda from one vendor. Outside on the street, all the day's produce and all manner of other goods were laid out and displayed for sale. Kayla went over to one woman selling maize ( a type of corn) that will be ground into flour. She was admiring the woman's beautiful clothes. (The women dress to the 9's all over Africa). The woman unwrapped her African print kanga cloth to reveal a gorgeous red top and skirt underneath. Everyone speaks English in Malawi, so communication is easy. Kayla was bemoaning that all she had was a pair of not so beautiful drab khaki shorts on, so the woman raised her red dress to reveal a pair of shorts underneath! It was 33 c (95 f) in the sun this day according to the thermometer on Richard's pack. But a respectable African woman goes nowhere without her kanga cloth, which has all manner of uses, from wrapping up items to carry on the head, to a sling to carry a little baby around on her back. When not in use, the kanga is wrapped around as an extra skirt.

On we went to the hospital and school about a mile further through the village by foot. In the hospital waiting room were benches with about 100 waiting patients - mainly mothers and babies. We were ushered into the interview room and met a nurse and mid wife who obviously had a busy day ahead of them.  There is no village doctor. The biggest problem they deal with is malaria, and people do die from it every year. 

As we were leaving, two mothers with their new babies posed for a portrait photo by Kayla. All photos were free on this day so she took full advantage, always asking before taking a photo. The women asked for copies of the photo, so she will send prints to them once we get home. Kayla is still learning how to do portrait photos of people with dark skin. It's a challenge and you need a lot of light on their skin to capture facial expressions. 

The school supported primary students up to level 8 for 1500 students and 11 teachers with no electricity or running water. That's right 140 students to each teacher crammed into a Canadian sized class room. 

For both hospital and school, donations were requested and of course we contributed a bit of money and a package of pens, pencils and a sharpenee. The teachers were all properly dressed in shirt and tie, students all dressed in blue dresses or shirts, head master with twinkle in his eyes and skilled in fund raising. Primary school is government funded, secondary school requires student fees. 

Later on that night, Richard talked to a "student" who was a security guard at the beach who was paying for his secondary education as he could afford  from his security job. He was about 30 with two preschool boys.

The school was at mid morning break so we were surrounded by kids of all ages talking to us in english and acting up when Kayla took their pictures. There is no such thing as taking one child's photo, and invariably a whole group tried to crowd into each picture. Lots of fun for us, but the photos wont win any photography contests. Just good memories. The kids who were finished for the day grabbed our hands and arms, and clung to us for the walk back to their village.

We also toured a brick factory. Dirt is worked with water and scooped into wood forms then inverted on the ground to dry before being fired in kiln. These bricks from the outside face of all homes that we saw including very small outhouses. Richard tried his hand at dumping the wet bricks out of a mold, but drew the line at going knee-deep in the wet mud to fill the molds. Meanwhile, Kayla tried her hand at carrying a bucket of sweet potatoes on her head earning laughs from the women who do it so well, and the brick-making men who watched.

We were very hot at the end of this 3-hour walk, but it was a great experience. After a good foot-soak in Lake Malawi, we spent the rest of the afternoon avoiding the hot sun.

We should mention here that Lake Malawi (all fresh water in Africa) has a reputation for a nasty parasite that enters the body through all cavities, so we chose not to go in any high than our knees. Others in our group went right in and figured they would take a pill back home if the parasite shows up. Lake Malawi is a huge body of water, so maybe the chances of getting it aren't that high.

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