Final Camp and Homestay

The last week and a half of camps have practically flown by, and as we drove away from the screaming, waving, Malawian school children this afternoon it was difficult to believe that it was for the final time. Last week, we ran two three-day camps at Kalamba and Mpemba FP schools, and we rounded off the session with a two day program this week with city children at a center called YOSSA. The highlight of the past week, however, definitely had to be our homestay experiences Friday Night in the villages outside Mpemba FPS.

Volunteers helped shuck corn, learned to tie babies to their backs, toured the villages on bicycles, and even got to stir the nsima in the many different houses in which we stayed. None of our evenings would have been complete, however, without the community dance circle in which the “azungus” were the stars of the show. In front of a huge crowd of women and children, volunteers were called out and invited to sing or to dance. For many of us, this mini jam session went on forever, as the villagers never seemed to run out of songs to sing or enthusiasm for watching us try to dance.

The sense of being a special guest to the whole villages was one of the common threads tying together a myriad of homestay experiences, which ranged from crowds of staring children to surprise goat and chicken guests in the middle of the night. The people went out of their way to accommodate the large crowd of volunteers that needed homes. Overall, it can safely be said that the homestay was one of the more interesting, and at times, eye-opening, experiences that we have had this session and everyone came back to the house safe and content, although a little bit tired and extremely dirty.

As we head off to spend some relaxing days of rest and self-evaluation on Lake Malawi tomorrow, it seems weird to think that, come Sunday, the majority of us will be on our way back to our homelands. At the lake, we will be able to spend the next couple days reflecting on the things we have done, the people we have met, and the experiences we have shared. Malawi has been our home for the past four and a half weeks, and the country has offered something different to each and every one of us.

-Heather