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Published: June 29th 2016
Today was a great day! We made amazing progress on our houses. The walls are almost done and the interior doorways are complete. Today we added scaffolding and I enjoyed climbing up and working from the higher vantage point. If I can I will add a photo of our progress. Each day we are rotating team members and homes to have the chance to work with all our team members.
Our arrival in the village was greeted with less trepidation than the first day. The children came to see us, the women again, serenaded us with song. Many of us are learning the basics of Chichewa to help us communicate with our builders. Not the most useful of vocabulary, but it gets the job done and provides a chuckle for the locals who laugh at our attempts.
We went to the well again today to practice our water carrying skills. Today I used the cloth on my head which made it slightly easier to walk three whole steps without hands!
We have a handful of team members who are wonderful at engaging the children. They find ways to break down the barriers and connect with everyone. My techniques,
include funny faces, big smiles and silly noises. However today, I made a really cute little child cry. After putting sticker on his forehead, I ‘pressed the button’ and said “BEEP”. The outcome was not good. For all of the other children a simple sticker place on each willing child, brought about a big smile and a little chaos.
The highlight of my day was a game of duck, duck, goose with a group of about 20 children. With the help of our liaison we were able to translate duck into ‘ baka’, the Chichewa word for chicken, but we got lost at ‘goose’. So we just went with it! “Baka, Baka, Baka, Goose!” The children laughed, screamed and basically let go and had a great time. The moms came out to watch and cheer on the fun. Needless to say, Habitat team members were frequent, laughable targets. When someone calls ‘Goose” it takes me quite a bit of time to get off the ground.
When we got back to the hotel, we had no power. Good news, it made viewing the night sky AMAZING! Billions and billions of stars in the Southern Hemisphere and even the Milky Way.
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Melanie Rankin
non-member comment
You Go Girl!
Michelle, I love hearing all about your adventures. The house looks like it is moving along quickly! Stay safe!