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Published: June 27th 2016
Today was our first day in the village. It was a good hour drive from our hotel by Lake Malawi to the village in Salima District. Twenty minutes of the ride was spent along a very bumpy rutted dirt road. Our arrival at the village was a treat. We were greeted by women from the village singing in beautiful harmonies. The a Capella music was rhythmic and uplifting. We were introduced to the village chief and local Habitat representatives.
Sousand, the site supervisor, recognized me from our previous trip to Malawi. It was good to be welcomed so warmly. After our building orientation, we split into two team and began work on our respective homes. Initially our brick laying was slow and often didn’t pass muster with the professional builders working with us. But after a slow start we found our groove and really starting making some progress.
As we worked we practiced our Chichewa (the main local language), by learning pleasantries and the words for our building materials: Brick, motor, water, plumb line. We were assisted by local villagers. The women brought water to the site and the teenage boys, mixed the motor (aka Matope), and
helped stack bricks.
By lunch time the curiosity of the local children could hold no more. They started coming in small groups and kept growing in numbers. There were tentative hellos, handshaking, and photo taking and even a game of tic tac toe. As we worked in the afternoon, the kids would be nearby waiting for one of us to turn their way and pay some attention.
Emily & I got it in our minds, that we wanted to learn to carry and balance buckets of water on our heads like the local women. These slight women, would carry up to 5 gallons of water in a tub on their heads without using their hands to balance the load!! Along with all the women on our team we trekked to the village water pump, waited our turn and finally got to use the hand pump to fill our buckets. When then took our ¼ filled buckets on our head and attempted to balance the load. I never made it past 3 steps and eventually dropped the bucket and spilled the contents. Emily had a local woman loan her headdress to her and was able to take about 10
steps before having to reach out and grab her bucket. Needless to say, our antics provided entertainment for all the women and children nearby.
I used my phnoe to do a video time lapse of building our house. It ended up draing al
Today was a full day. We are all exhilarated and exhausted. A great combination.
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Don Young
non-member comment
Great Day!
Sounds like a really good day. Getting the brick-laying started, communing with the villagers (especially the kids). You go, girl! How hot is it? Don