Malawi 2007 Cont'd.

This was the morning and afternoon of September 3, 2007. Shannon was saying good-bye to one of our dogs at the house. The picture of me is at JFK airport; we bought some Toberlone for the flight...we made them last for quite a while and even gave some to a security guard at the South Africa airport!

Reading back through my entries from my journal made me smile. I wrote at 9:54 p.m. that we had been flying for about 4 hours and had 13 hours to go! We had had dinner by this time which I thought was very delicious. Between 1:12 a.m. and 5:12 a.m. I wrote:

"Well we have lost our first 4 hours during travel. We are landing in Dakar, Senegal before going to Johannesburg. I slept for a very little bit -very hard for me to get comfortable in these seats - my back hurt a lot!! I'm thinking in would be niceto have breakfast now. Some people had a second dinner only half an hour ago!...."

As it turned out, I did not sleep except for about those 20 minutes in 20 hours of flying. In re-reading my journal entries, it was rather limited in detail, really. Shannon was sick for a lot of that first leg of our journey. The first time I was almost asleep she woke up crying and saying she was going to be sick. She said she had been dreaming about her boyfriend and woke up feeling very sick...so I think from then on it was hard for me to completely relax and sleep. Plus, sleeping in a sitting position on a plane is very difficult (for me). There were people who were snoring...maybe they were the people who drank all the wine that was being offered...I should have paid attention!

We stayed overnight in Johannesburg at a hostle that Shannon had stayed at in 2005, Shoestrings, and I slept so great!!

We were very excited and feeling pretty good so far about accomplishing this first leg of our journey! I have traveled to Malawi 4 times as I sit and write this, and I feel that the flying there is as much a challenge as any part of the trip! I wrote the morning before we departed Johannesburg:

"I keep thinking about all the people at home who put so much faith and encouragement in us - I'm feeling like it's pressure...I need to keep my faith in order to combat that! Fear and anxiety will not serve me at all while I'm here. Shannon seems to be feeling better than yesterday".

We boarded the plane in Johannesburg on our way to Blantyre, Malawi on September 5...excited and nervous to land and be in the country of our destination, we excitedly boarded.

I will close this post with a small note for the continuation of these entries. It may sound 'funny' or unusual, but the remainder of the posts will be strictly about our experiences and feelings of being on this journey. We were doing volunteer work but the organization we were working with have asked us not to talk about them in any of our Educate Malawi work (which is what this blog is associated with, technically). Unfortunately, I can say no more than that. I am grateful to have had this opportunity and without it would not be doing this work that I am loving for a country I came to care about.

Peace for now!!

Karen

Happy January 2012

The new year is here and Educate Malawi is in full swing! We had a board meeting in December and have 'mapped' out our year's fundraising events. They are soon to be posted on the website and also in a newsletter...we have some great events and look forward a successful fundraising year. Our project is really, really nearing completion. There were some issues with the cement that we had sent funds for, and the classroom floors needed to be re-done. This was a bit disappointing but the last we heard things are back on track and we have one of the classrooms left to complete before we can say we are entirely done with construction. We have not raised funds for desks, etc. at this point, but our initial goal will be met which was to secure a place out of the elements for students to remain indoors during the rainy season! Hoorah!


***********************************************************************************

I have been looking back at some old emails about the first trip made to Malawi...that's a little ahead of where I left off in my last blog - 2 months ago!! That is not how I see this year going; my hope is to update more frequently on the blog to keep folks posted, etc.

Shannon and I planned our trip to be for the Fall of 2007, that was when she would be completin high school and she decided she would forego college for the first semester to go back to Malawi! I requested a leave of absence from my job at the prison, and was granted it, and we began fundraising. Our trip was 2 years away and we decided we would need to raise about $10,000, maybe more, in order to cover travel costs, living expenses while in Malawi, and bills that were not put on hold at home. We held fundraisers, set up a special account to save our money, and we did a weekly Sunday newspaper route together for 10 months! Without knowing it, that paper route was a good indication of our time together; I wish now I had paid a little closer attention so I could have been better prepared! (more on that later)

We received some support from local businesses and organizations including the Rotary Club and a local Episcopal Church. We felt blessed to have the support of people who we did not know and who did not know us. Those 2 years were a little bit of a blur, and events unfolded continuously that let me know we were on the 'right' path. Our decision to travel to Malawi and volunteer was what we were 'meant' to do. We also received support from family and friends and our goal was realized in September 2007!
I have saved some of my emails from that first week of our journey and it took me a long time to be able to look back at them...again, I am getting ahead of myself and my story, but I am better able now to read them. There were a lot of emotions we went through and it was a challenging time for both Shannon and I, for our own reasons. I can best speak about mine, obviously, and will. In my next post!

Peace to you all for now!

Karen