Blogs from Lake Malawi, Malawi, Africa - page 2

We were overjoyed to finally reach lake Malawi- after a long day on the road, this place looked like heaven. If I'm honest I didn't see the lake until the next morning as I was to preoccupied with pitching the tent and having a much needed shower. That evening we were dinner guests to our hosts at Kande beach. We had a lovely dinner in a local home before we were treated to the local children singing and dancing for us- we of course ended up joining in! If it wasn't illegal I think I may have stolen one to bring home! The next morning we were up and ready for our walk around the local village. As soon as we left the compound we were staying in we were literally run at by local guys- ... read more

Our arrival in the village today was different. We were not greeted by song, boisterous children were scarce, and energy was missing. We were quickly notified by our liaisons that a village member had died during the night and so began a period of mourning. The village chief agreed we could continue our work, but to do so in a quiet and respectful manner. Before beginning our work, several of our team members walked to the home of the bereaved to offer our condolences. We were told to quietly sit on her porch. After a few minutes we each offered a word or two of sympathy and excused ourselves. We commenced our work without the usual cacophony. We quietly climbed our scaffolding and worked on finishing the last, more technical part of our interior and exterior ... read more

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 ... read more

Part of what drew me to this trip was Habitat for Humanity Malawi's focus on orphans and vulnerable children. Below is the description of the program from Habitat for Humanity Malawi's website. HFH MALAWI ORPHANED AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN PROGRAMME BRIEF 1.0 Background The HIV&AIDS pandemic, compounded by high levels of poverty and other social challenges such as food insecurity, is the main threat that has subjected many households to loss of sustainable livelihoods and incomes. HIV&AIDS-related deaths have negatively affected the economic production capacity of individuals and families and led to increased household poverty. Children have found themselves bearing the biggest burden of the HIV & AIDS pandemic and its consequences. According to the UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic (2010), Mal... read more

Day 7 saw us arriving at a giant lake that takes up 80% of the country of Malawi. The lake is also called Lake Malawi and it is a fresh water lake with bilharzia in it lol. Apparently that nasty little parasite which is something like a worm that travels to your brain is only in the southern part of the lake where the water isn’t moving. That was according to our driver for our guide said sometimes its there sometimes its not. He seems to say things like that a lot. Either the wifi works or it doesn’t. Thanks for the info….But we were in the middle section of the lake and 4 of us decided to hire a boat that had some fishing gear and snorkel stuff and of course beer to head out ... read more