Even though they don't have proper learning conditions they are happy and ready to learn.
Karen's ride for Malawi
Monday, June 29, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
We're home!! Here's some things we wrote along the way.
June 9, 2009
We are half an hour away from landing (writing this in open office). It has been a long 2 days... hard to know what to call it when the flight is 17 hours and then you lose 6 hours in addition to that!! The first flight was challenging because they gave us 2 meals in 15 hours' time.. for those of you who know me (karen) that was rough!!! :) The real journey begins when we land... hopefully we will be able to post this tonight with and update about the city, etc. Oh yeah!! It was about 45 degrees in Johannesburg, South Africa, and though we didn't leave the airport it was freezing in there... at one point I think I could see my breath!! Stephen bought a hat in case it is not warmer! Hopefully it will be a bit warmer in Malawi! More later!!
We've made it to Mabuya Camp in Lilongwe (thanks to a taxi) and we walked to the stores to get a cell phone but all the stores were closed (places close at 5:00 pm).. we get to do it all over again tomorrow, also no internet. Hopefully we'll get a phone.. then we're off to Liwonde. Not sure how we're getting there yet. Chicken curry for dinner.. tastes awesone! It's 6:00 pm and we can't wait to go to sleep!!
June 11, 2009
A lot has happened in 2 days... we were able to get a cell phone, and have used it to connect with the folks from HELP Malawi which has been wonderful!!! They have been extremely helpful and accommodating and we could not have asked for better hosts! We made the long ride from Lilongwe to Liwonde National Park in a little over 4 hours (thanks to the mini bus). We had a late dinner which was the most we had eaten all day - we had a scone in the city before we left and 2 cookies on the minibus, so we were pretty hungry by 7:00 pm!! We slept in a tent, which was real nice... and what made it especially interesting was the fact that there were unusual sounds all night, including the hippos on the river!! They almost sound like cows, but a little different.
June 12, 2009
This morning we went on a safari, on on the land and one on the water. We saw hippos, elephants, baboons, warthogs, crocodiles, impalas, gazelles and some other animals/birds that we can not think of right now!! At the time of writing, we still do not have internet access, so we are writing ahead of time to document some things. We hope to have internet access when we get to Zomba, where we will be headed tomorrow after visiting the school here in Liwonde and seeing their new medical clinic.
June 13, 2009
We have left Liwonde National Park, after going on our safari. We also visited the school and were able to see all the projects that HELP Malawi has in the works; they have done an amazing job and are doing wonderful work in the country of Malawi to help the people be able to sustain themselves, that seems to be a big part of what they are doing. We met some real nice folks who are in the Peace Corps in Malawi and will work with HELP Malawi after their commitment.
We have made our way to Zomba and found our accommodations where we wanted to stay. We were also able to meet our contacts for the project that we will start as soon as possible. The District Education Manager and his assistant; Michael and Oster are their names. We will be visiting the school and the village on Monday were we will be building a classroom block. We are very excited about that and look forward to starting this process.
June 14, 2009
We have hiked on Zomba Plateau and taken some pictures (that don't really do it justice) but there were some amazing views. That is all for now; tonight we are staying in a cabin at the Trout Farm that does not have electricity and it is about 5:30 pm and we have run out of light to be on the computer. Will write when we can and hopefully post some pictures as well.
June 16, 2009
It has been 2 days since the last post... we have done a lot!! We have visited the Namitsitsi Primary School in the village of Thulusa.. it is about 6 kilometers to the main road (which means that is is an unpaved, uneven, dirt road) and then 11 kilometers to the center of Zomba. We were met by the village head, school committee and parents, who were singing and shook our hands as we got out of the car. We met briefly with the headmaster to discuss the meeting and then proceeded to the formal meeting. The meeting took place under a tree, but despite that, it was formal and orderly. We met with the school committee, parents, village head, headmaster and the administrators from the education department. There were fomal introductions by all, then a prayer and the meeting proceeded from there. Withour going through all the details, it was an exciting and interesting process. It was decided that the school is in most need of a classroom block; they have 8 classes, 8 teachers and 4 classroom. There are 902 children in the school and half of them learn outside under a tree. A specific location was identified where the block will be built and agreements were made about the particulars of the project. Our job now is to raise the funds necessary to complete the project and we assured them we will do that no matter what! In addition to lack of classroom space the existing classrooms are in very bad disrepair, with craters in the cement floors, many rooms lacking any desks at all and some of the roofs are questionable in terms of soundness. Along with needing new classroom blocks they also need teachers housing.
June 25, 2009
So we are home now.. we arrived yesterday at JFK at 7:30 am. After we left Zomba (on the 17th) we made our way to Blantyre. We stayed at a great place called Doogles which was walking distance to the center of town, also to a coffee shop called Temptations, wonderful food there!! We did some relaxing while there. We had the privalege to see the Vice President driving through town (2 times) and also the President along with his army chaperones driving through town. We met with Mathews a lot (he was a great tour guide and a great friend) and we met with Liston a couple of times (also a great friend). We will post pictures soon. Still recovering from the long flight yesterday.
We are half an hour away from landing (writing this in open office). It has been a long 2 days... hard to know what to call it when the flight is 17 hours and then you lose 6 hours in addition to that!! The first flight was challenging because they gave us 2 meals in 15 hours' time.. for those of you who know me (karen) that was rough!!! :) The real journey begins when we land... hopefully we will be able to post this tonight with and update about the city, etc. Oh yeah!! It was about 45 degrees in Johannesburg, South Africa, and though we didn't leave the airport it was freezing in there... at one point I think I could see my breath!! Stephen bought a hat in case it is not warmer! Hopefully it will be a bit warmer in Malawi! More later!!
We've made it to Mabuya Camp in Lilongwe (thanks to a taxi) and we walked to the stores to get a cell phone but all the stores were closed (places close at 5:00 pm).. we get to do it all over again tomorrow, also no internet. Hopefully we'll get a phone.. then we're off to Liwonde. Not sure how we're getting there yet. Chicken curry for dinner.. tastes awesone! It's 6:00 pm and we can't wait to go to sleep!!
June 11, 2009
A lot has happened in 2 days... we were able to get a cell phone, and have used it to connect with the folks from HELP Malawi which has been wonderful!!! They have been extremely helpful and accommodating and we could not have asked for better hosts! We made the long ride from Lilongwe to Liwonde National Park in a little over 4 hours (thanks to the mini bus). We had a late dinner which was the most we had eaten all day - we had a scone in the city before we left and 2 cookies on the minibus, so we were pretty hungry by 7:00 pm!! We slept in a tent, which was real nice... and what made it especially interesting was the fact that there were unusual sounds all night, including the hippos on the river!! They almost sound like cows, but a little different.
June 12, 2009
This morning we went on a safari, on on the land and one on the water. We saw hippos, elephants, baboons, warthogs, crocodiles, impalas, gazelles and some other animals/birds that we can not think of right now!! At the time of writing, we still do not have internet access, so we are writing ahead of time to document some things. We hope to have internet access when we get to Zomba, where we will be headed tomorrow after visiting the school here in Liwonde and seeing their new medical clinic.
June 13, 2009
We have left Liwonde National Park, after going on our safari. We also visited the school and were able to see all the projects that HELP Malawi has in the works; they have done an amazing job and are doing wonderful work in the country of Malawi to help the people be able to sustain themselves, that seems to be a big part of what they are doing. We met some real nice folks who are in the Peace Corps in Malawi and will work with HELP Malawi after their commitment.
We have made our way to Zomba and found our accommodations where we wanted to stay. We were also able to meet our contacts for the project that we will start as soon as possible. The District Education Manager and his assistant; Michael and Oster are their names. We will be visiting the school and the village on Monday were we will be building a classroom block. We are very excited about that and look forward to starting this process.
June 14, 2009
We have hiked on Zomba Plateau and taken some pictures (that don't really do it justice) but there were some amazing views. That is all for now; tonight we are staying in a cabin at the Trout Farm that does not have electricity and it is about 5:30 pm and we have run out of light to be on the computer. Will write when we can and hopefully post some pictures as well.
June 16, 2009
It has been 2 days since the last post... we have done a lot!! We have visited the Namitsitsi Primary School in the village of Thulusa.. it is about 6 kilometers to the main road (which means that is is an unpaved, uneven, dirt road) and then 11 kilometers to the center of Zomba. We were met by the village head, school committee and parents, who were singing and shook our hands as we got out of the car. We met briefly with the headmaster to discuss the meeting and then proceeded to the formal meeting. The meeting took place under a tree, but despite that, it was formal and orderly. We met with the school committee, parents, village head, headmaster and the administrators from the education department. There were fomal introductions by all, then a prayer and the meeting proceeded from there. Withour going through all the details, it was an exciting and interesting process. It was decided that the school is in most need of a classroom block; they have 8 classes, 8 teachers and 4 classroom. There are 902 children in the school and half of them learn outside under a tree. A specific location was identified where the block will be built and agreements were made about the particulars of the project. Our job now is to raise the funds necessary to complete the project and we assured them we will do that no matter what! In addition to lack of classroom space the existing classrooms are in very bad disrepair, with craters in the cement floors, many rooms lacking any desks at all and some of the roofs are questionable in terms of soundness. Along with needing new classroom blocks they also need teachers housing.
June 25, 2009
So we are home now.. we arrived yesterday at JFK at 7:30 am. After we left Zomba (on the 17th) we made our way to Blantyre. We stayed at a great place called Doogles which was walking distance to the center of town, also to a coffee shop called Temptations, wonderful food there!! We did some relaxing while there. We had the privalege to see the Vice President driving through town (2 times) and also the President along with his army chaperones driving through town. We met with Mathews a lot (he was a great tour guide and a great friend) and we met with Liston a couple of times (also a great friend). We will post pictures soon. Still recovering from the long flight yesterday.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Our trip is almost over but the journey continues..
Well today is Friday. We leave Blantyre on Sunday for our trip back to Lilongwe. We won't have internet when we leave so we'll post some more when we get home. (we've kept tabs of our trip from just before landing)
We went shopping at the market today. Talk about CRAZY!!!! Once the vendors see you they all swarm you. Luckily we went with Mathews and Liston, our Malawian friends. Mathews set us up with someone he knows there to take us through the market and pick out what we wanted. Then the fun part came. We had to pay.. sounds easy right? WRONG!! We had to barter. Not a strong point of ours. We did get some great deals on paintings, jewelry and keytags along with coasters. We'll post more before home if we can.
We went shopping at the market today. Talk about CRAZY!!!! Once the vendors see you they all swarm you. Luckily we went with Mathews and Liston, our Malawian friends. Mathews set us up with someone he knows there to take us through the market and pick out what we wanted. Then the fun part came. We had to pay.. sounds easy right? WRONG!! We had to barter. Not a strong point of ours. We did get some great deals on paintings, jewelry and keytags along with coasters. We'll post more before home if we can.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Third update from Malawi...actually FROM Malawi!
Thank you to Shannon for keeping the blog going in our inability to do so. we are now in Blantyre and have access to the internet for the first time. We have enjoyed our trip so far and the school has a lot of needs; the community is very interested in completing the classroom block and have started working on it already! We will post pictures of all our stops as soon as we get to a different computer where we are able to, so stay tuned for that!!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Second Malawi Update (from the US)
Hello, Shannon again. Today I decided to call my Mom to check in on her and Stephen to see how things are going over there. As you may have guessed, they have yet to find an internet connection. They are currently in Zomba (where the building should begin in a week or so), and will be arriving in Blantyre on Wednesday. There they hope to find a reliable internet connection, which shouldn't be a problem. So far they have dropped off two large bags of supplies - one at a school in Liwonde and another at the school in Zomba. I will let my Mom and Stephen update on their own adventures later in the week. Their current plan is to leave Zomba on Wednesday and stay in Blantyre through Saturday. While there I am positive they will be updating us all on what they have been doing in the past week.
Stay tuned!
Shannon aka Wafupi
Stay tuned!
Shannon aka Wafupi
Thursday, June 11, 2009
First Malawi Update!
Hello everybody, it's Shannon here. My Mom called earlier in the day to say that her and Stephen have not been able to get internet access yet. They are doing well and seem to be loving the country already. Tonight (it is almost 6 am over there as I type this) they are staying at Mvuu Wilderness Lodge, where they have already gone on a boat safari. They were lucky enough to see an elephant (or two?) along the Shire River along with hippos and a warthog...and I'm sure countless monkeys/baboons. As we talked on the phone they were enjoying the tea and cake that Mvuu serves daily so I can assure you that they are safe and comfortable. Tomorrow they will be heading to Zomba which is where we intend to begin construction for a classroom block. They hope to find a reliable internet connection around there to update us all on their most recent adventures. Keep coming back to check this site, there should be more news from Malawi soon!
Sincerely,
Shannon aka Wafupi
Sincerely,
Shannon aka Wafupi
Sunday, June 7, 2009
9:00 Sunday morning...this time tomorrow we will be waiting at JFK to get on the plane!!! Stephen and I are very excited and just anxious to get on the plane to start this journey...we have our bags mostly packed, about 150 pounds of supplies to bring with us to the children at the schools we will visit. I only hope we can carry it all; that will be the challenge!!! Next time we write we will be in Lilongwe where we will stay overnight upon arrival in the Country. Be well all!! Much love, Karen and Stephen
Monday, June 1, 2009
Bike-a-thon - 5-30-09 (written 6-1-09)
This was us on our way home from VT!! One thing we did not plan very well on this ride and this event was to get pictures!!! We only have a few of other riders and some of the volunteers, so we decided to take this with the camera phone on the way home!! Kinda funny!
It was a beautiful ride and the volunteers were all wonderful as were the riders!! We look forward to next year and having more fun and raise funds for Malawi!
Speaking of which, we will be in the air this time next week!! We are very much looking forward to starting the project in Malawi and helping the wonderful people there. We hope to use this blogspot from Africa to keep people informed about what and how we are doing!
More later....thanks again to all who supported us in the many ways that you did!!!
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