Blessings

The last two days have been full of many activities. It is difficult to recount them all. Yesterday, we met with the headmaster of the school, Esther Majawa, and we discussed the Malawi Chibale Project. Chibale is the Malawian word for friendship/relationship, and we want very much for it to be a sustainable partnership between the Malawian Schools in which we work and our universities. The project sees to it that children attending Malemia Primary School receive morning meals before school, complete with protein. Typically, the children at Malemia come to school with empty stomachs, for they only receive one meal a day from home.  Ten girls in Standards 7 and 8 have been identified as girls who have strong academic promise, yet they come from families who might be likely to pull them out of school to work or marry. The project provides consistent encouragement to the girls to continue in their studies, pen pals from the United States, as well as incentives for the families of the girls to keep them in school. We also sponsor two students from each of the three area schools to attend secondary school.


The headmaster reports that all is going very well with the project. The children are being fed and a shelter has been built for cooking the porridge. Grain and other ingredients are stored in the school office. The school children have also started a garden and provide many of the ingredients for the porridge with the garden produce. This is very exciting for us to see the teachers, children, and their families taking ownership of the project.

We also discussed other needs of the school. At the school, there are often more than 100 children per classrooms, with no desks or materials other than one chalkboard. There is no electricity. We are interested in having bookshelves made for each room so that the children’s books we bring each year can be in classrooms where teachers will use them daily. Today we met with a carpenter from the village, who is also the village chief, and he gave us estimates for this project. After our meeting, he asked if we could pray together. One of the teachers led us in the most beautiful prayer I have ever heard. He asked for God’s blessings upon all of the children and that this project would be used to glorify God and to bless the children and teachers who will use the shelves for books. He asked for God’s blessings upon us as well. I was so touched I cried and cried; Patti did as well. It is humbling for me to think about how they have so little in our eyes, yet they pause in the midst of busy meetings and days to ask for God’s blessings upon all they do and upon those they meet. There are many lessons to be learned from our Malawian friends.

Innocent, one of the teachers at the school, gave us drumming lessons today. He is a talented musician and a gifted teacher. We hope we’ll be able to learn enough to surprise the teachers with a performance of some sort (at least we’ll make them laugh!) before we leave.

I have also seen “my boys” this week. Alex, who is cute as a button, readily greeted me the first day. He knows I favor him (I can’t help it) and wanted to say hello to me again. They all call me "Jennypha". I also have connected with Roderick, the boy for whom we purchased glasses the last time I was here. He isn’t wearing the glasses, but he seems to be doing well. He remembers me, too. And, while walking around the path to catch our bus, I heard my name being called out from the top of a tree. It was Geraldi, my other ‘favorite’. He was very happy to see me and I gave him a big hug. He has been following our group ever since!

One of the workers here at the lodge told someone that "Jennypha is now a Malawian". This touched my heart, because I do feel like I am a part of these wonderful people.  I am blessed to know them and call them my friends.

It is amazing how little things mean so much here, and how much can be accomplished with so little as well. Most of all, I think people are people wherever they are, and we enjoy connecting with one another to build lasting friendships.