Friday, January 13th

Well here it is! Today was our last day in Malawi not counting the airport and things tomorrow. We got up and went snorkeling at a nearby island. We got to see the cichlids around all of the rocks. They were really pretty! We also got to do some "cliff" jumping off some tall rocks. That was fun. It gets deep really fast out there since its on the rift valley. Being the nerd that I am, I found it really exciting just to be on the Great African Rift Valley. I was thinking about how all of the mountains in the middle of the lake were formed and such. They lake is so huge! 3rd largest in Africa. I loved hanging out in the sun today. It was like it was summer again. Laying on hot rocks is one of the best feelings.

Sam talked to us today about all of the projects that she does with the community around her. If you didn't love her before you loved her after that talk. Some of her projects included a preschool, a health clinic, a crafting project for shut-ins, a youth boys soccer club, and so many others. She worked with the area schools to raise money for a library but refused to just give them the money so she taught them how to get the money themselves by having students collect plastic off the roads and ground. She was all about education instead of give-aways. 45% of her profits went straight to her projects. She is such an inspiring person. The community has really benefitted a lot from her being there.

After we left we went to the craft market on the way back to world camp. It was a way to spend the rest of our money so we didn't have to worry about exchanging it back to USD. The prices seemed lower there and I got a lot of things. Most of the stuff I got was for other people so it was fun to pick it out. That's the most practice I got in bartering. Tonight all we did was have our last meal out and packed up our things to get ready to leave tomorrow. It's sad that we are leaving but I am really excited to tell everyone back at home about everything we did here. I have a lot of pictures and stories to tell. The saddest part about leaving is that our group won't be together as one anymore after this trip. We can get together and hang out but we won't be living together anymore. This is the best trip I have ever been on and I made some of my best friends on this trip. I'm so glad that I decided to come. I'll miss it so much.

--Becky

Thursday, January 12

Today we traveled over to Lake Malawi. It is so gorgeous here. We had an option of going to the croc farm and cichlid farm or to just hang out at the lake. I chose to stay at the lake so I could go on the catamaran. It was really fun to hang out and the lake is absolutely beautiful. You can see straight through it. It seemed like this was our vacation part of the trip. We did learn some things like how they fish all by nets and man power. They put out huge nets and then there are men on the beach that pull it in by backing up and running to the front once they get to the front of the beach. I could tell that people around there were a little better off because of the fishing industry there. There were also a lot more trees around the lake. I think it's because they had a reliance on the fishing industry so they didn't have to have such a heavy reliance on farming. Today was one of my favorite days because it was just time to hang out and relax. That's nice since I'm tired so often. The lady in charge of Cool Runnings is a very inspiring lady. She has some of the best stories to tell. She has led a life that a lot of people could easily be jealous of.

Wednesday, January 11

Last night we stayed with our home-mother. It was really interesting. The lady that took care of us was wonderful and a teacher so she spoke English. That was great. She cooked us a huge meal and I was stuffed after that. She made the best traditional meal that we've had so far but I hope I don't have to eat nsima again. It just sits on my stomach weird. It tastes fine. Just sits in my stomach like a brick. We (me, Amanda, Ryn, Meredith) talked for a long time with the woman there. It seemed like the women eat together and then the men eat together. I thought that was weird. We did talk to her husband for a few minutes and he was really nice too. We had electricity in our house which was unexpected. We were watching tv while we talked! Haha. That night it was all four of us on a bed about the size of a full bed. It was interesting but the benedryll helped a lot.

After a really good breakfast we met back at the CBO and closed up our talk about the maize mill and headed back with all of the children yelling goodbye to us and trying to shake our hands. They LOVED getting their pictures taken. Especially if you showed them the picture afterwards.

Tuesday, January 10th

Today we traveled to the small town of Mchezi for a home stay. When we got there we passed right by a school so all of the children ran out of their classrooms to follow us to the local CBO. The board members of the CBO were there and taught us about everything that they do for the community. They do home-based care for HIV/AIDS patients, they have a pig-ery and poultry center, early childhood development, and programs for orphans and vulnerable children. They have over 5,000 beneficiaries they estimated. That's amazing for such a small CBO. They also told us about how they want to build a maize mill to make the CBO more self-sustained and have a more reliable cash flow. We ended up figuring out a business plan and we are going to help them get the money for their mill. It is really exciting! I hope it works out. I'm not going to let myself not get too excited though. A lot of things like this tend to fizzle out once we are all away from each other. I hope this time it will be different.

We got to play with the children a lot today. I enjoyed it so much! We were out there dancing with them and all of the people watching thought it was so funny when they saw us white people dancing. They were soooo  much better than us. Little girls that only as tall as my waist can dance like pros haha. They love to shake their little booties. I loved it. We are staying with our home-stay families tonight. I hope it's great!

Monday, January 9th

Today we got back into the "school" types of things. We started with a tour of new city center. It looked totally different than the rest of Malawi. The Chinese decided to build a 5 star hotel for some reason..., the parliament building was nice but we didn't go in. We stopped at the clock tower first and a man was there to tell us about it. It was a memorial for Banda made by the president now, Mutharika. We got to climb the clock tower which was really fun. I bit sketchy, but really fun. We visited Banda's tomb after that. The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and it didn't seem like we could ask him a question that he couldn't answer. We learned a lot about Banda while we were there. Banda believed in 4 disciplines: loyalty, discipline, courage, and obedience. The four large pillars around the replica of his tomb had those words engraved on them.

After the tours around town we came back to the compound. A man named Alex came to talk to us about the nonprofit called Jewish Heart for Africa. They work on putting up solar panels in rural areas to power water pumps and give electricity to health clinics. Clinics usually had to depend on kerosene lanterns or candles to do work at night but with Jewish Heart for Africa they had electricity and refrigeration for vaccines and medicines. JHFA makes the project sustainable by working with the community and setting up a cell phone charging station through the solar panels' power. They charge for each person to use it and then that gives the community enough money to replace batteries and other parts when needed. So by including the community in the project it is kept up by them and also sustained by the community. No outside help needed if successful.

January 6th, 7th, and 8th

This weekend we went to Zambia to go on Safari! We went on three different safaris throughout the weekend (2 night 1 morning). I was very surprised at how nice the accommodations were at Croc Valley. We got treated very nicely and it was more like a vacation than a study abroad trip. We saw all different kinds of animals. I'm going to list them. Elephants, giraffes, zebra, impala, puku, crocodiles, eagles, rabbit, mongoose, female lions, leopard, wart hogs, water buck, hippos, birds, nocturnal "cat" (forgot its name), baboons, and other things. It was a trip of a lifetime. I LOVED seeing all of those animals in the wild. It was so much cooler than going to a zoo. The best part was that it seemed like all of the animals had babies. They were so cute!

Croc Valley talked to us the last morning we were there. Or night? I don't remember. They told us how everything that they do supports the local economy. They buy building supplies and food from the nearby town and their employees are also from the local area. Many of the other camps around do the same thing as well. The locals can train to become a game driver and guide in the town as well. They have to pass a test and then they are allowed to take tourists on tours. The money that the tourists bring in to the area have made the town grow and made the locals have a better financial situation. I like how everything is based locally. You know that you are helping the locals by just being there.

Thursday, January 5th

Today was pretty interesting on the environmental side of things. We visited a family "organization" called Never-Ending Food. It works on permaculture in the region. They originally came over through the Peace Corp to work on aids but found that the Malawians thought that food security was a bigger problem. They researched the native species that past generations used to eat for nutrition. When Banda was president he decided that he wanted Malawi to be known for maize production. That was the beginning of the stigma against the native "poorman food" that they need to eat to be healthy. Their yard looked like a jungle and they knew many ways to make the most use out of a little piece of land. So many plants are edible that have survived in Africa for centuries. The  most interesting stories were about how people would approach the family asking for food because they were starving and then would refuse a whole basket of mangoes because it wasn't maize. This trip was really interesting to me because I'm always interested in the environmental things and gardens. It was great to go there and see everything they are doing.