Day 12, April 19, 2018
Today was great! After a typically long Malawi wait we set off for our day at Chamama Secondary School.
I sat in the front seat, next to Brian (Dr. Brian Lisse), though I had remembered to take a Dramamine. I was fine the whole way even with the roads being all dirt and mighty bumpy. It was fun to catch up with Brian as we rode along. Even though we do these trips together we hardly see each other because of the nature of the work we do. You can find Brian in the hospital and me in the sewing room on the opposite side of the village.
At the school we sat through numerous introductions, speeches, and skits. I was anxious to see the girls and start teaching them our curriculum but enjoyed the program that had been prepared for us.
We squeezed 180 students into one classroom. Every bit of space was filled even with girls standing outside leaning in through the doorway. We had plenty of questions and answers and lots of laughing. It went really well. I think I was channeling Phoebe, our partner in Uganda who is the all-time pro at this. It went smoothly and we all had fun. The girls were delighted with their kits which of course made us feel wonderful.
While sitting under the trees waiting for the computer teachers to finish their classes we were joined by about 12 of those girls who came to ask more questions and tell us things about themselves. In short, we had an impromptu focus group of very willing participants. What a lovely gift.
We got back in the dark and walked Mary to the main road to catch a ride to her sister’s house. We all hugged and felt sad to be parting but so pleased that we’d made a new wonderful friend and partner for The MoonCatcher Project.
Tomorrow we leave at 6:30 am for a jaunt to the beach, souvenir shopping and an overnight at a nice hotel right on the water. It will be fun to spend a day relaxing before flying home on Saturday. The moon tonight is crescent shaped just like a MoonCatcher pad. Perfect!
The girls of Chamama Secondary School
The girls loved seeing me model the MoonCatcher pad
A student plots her cycle