Day 16: Brand New School Buildings

We met Olipa, Mary and Esme at the K2 Taso clinic at 8:00 this morning. K2 Taso is a charity that strives to assist rural Malawians with the ideal that everyone deserves access to healthcare, good education, adequate nutrition, safe drinking water and a livable income. They run a a clinic that treats HIV/AIDS patients, and our Mthuntama cooperative is based in this building. After packing the van and meeting with Peter (the K2 Taso director) for a bit we left for a MoonCatcher kit distribution.

I’ve gone through today's photos and there is nothing that really describes how bumpy this road was. Poor Esme got so sick and if I hadn’t sat in the front seat I would have been the same. A ten mile distance took us over one hour to traverse.

The school called Kambira Cay Secondary School has an entirely new campus thanks to USAID. The buildings are beautiful and the classroom we were in had all new desks, chalkboards and bulletin boards. Everything was solidly built and fresh looking. It seems to make the students happy to be there.

We tag teamed our menstrual management curriculum and welcomed the voice of the male deputy principal who comfortably and confidently translated stuff for us. I loved seeing how he connected with this room of 68 girls and I told them how lucky they are to have a man in their lives who cares about this issue and is so willing to help them.

We even got to tour the science labs and one of the teacher’s houses. AND the view is to die for. I stood there saying I want to go to school here.

On the way back I noticed all the tobacco fields and tobacco drying sheds.  This is a major crop here, along with maize. We saw oxen drawn carts, roadsides of white cosmos, children everywhere stopping dead in their tracks to wave at us, and spectacular clouds. Other than the bumps and potholes it is a glorious drive.

When we got back we decided to grab lunch at a funky little stand selling chips (like french fries but a bit bigger), eggs and liver. Charlotte, Esme and I opted for the chips and eggs and were fascinated by the eggs being cooked in a plastic bag on top of the frying chips. When we expressed our amazement, Olipa laughed and said. “Welcome to Malawi.”

The afternoon was spent tweaking the sewing quality a bit, signing agreements with our tailors and talking about budgeting. We were all exhausted by the time we called it quits but felt like a lot had gotten done.

Charlotte and I hurried back to Andy and Alice’s house for a cooking lesson. We wanted to learn how to cook the dehydrated soya that we bought last time we were here and she showed us carefully from beginning to delicious end.

Hot bucket baths and clean clothes (courtesy of Alice) and now bed!