Week 1 at Mchezi

It has been an eventful, slightly soggy week in Malawi. We have successfully navigated another week of village living. This time the school was not too far from Lilongwe in a charming hamlet called Mchezi that we will actually be returning to for our last week as well. The school sits on a slight hilltop giving a most excellent view of the surrounding area, and some of the coolest sunsets we’ve seen. Mchezi kept all of us busy. We are now working with the Community Based Organization on personal projects for this coming week. I think it is safe to say we are all fairly excited about next week. Mark, forever the Red Sox fan, is organizing a baseball game and providing the

youth groupwith homemade bats and balls for after we leave. He is also working with the secondary school students on their more advanced math skills. Christine and Cara are teaming up to work with the local HIV/AIDS support group to bring in some new perspectives and resources. I will work with farmers from the area on the permaculture

Last week we were also given the task of completing a cultural scavenger hunt - Boys vs Girls. I am not ashamed to say the girls won by a considerable margin, so tip of the cap in their direction. To win, they spent hours preparing the traditional Malawian dish of nsima, so they truly went that extra mile. I think I can speak for the group when I say that I hope it rains less this week than last. With a couple of well placed cracks in the roof you might be surprised how moist we got while sleeping. We are getting delicious Malawi tea in the mornings though, and that pretty much negates the nagging sogginess.lifestyle. So, in addition to teaching until two, we will also be filling our afternoons with these hefty projects. It should be fun, but we do anticipate drooping eyelids in addition to smiles come this Thursday.

In other news, we climbed a very cool mountain by the name of Nkohma on Sunday. It was a spectacular hike, and we hear that the views from the top are incredible, but somehow near the peak we found ourselves in a very persistent cloud, so our pictures from the roof of Malawi look remarkably like Scotland...

So, we are still all having fun in the sun. We are all excited to head out and teach and inspire for one more week. Time here has flown by so fast. I find it hard to believe that we will be prepping to leave one week from now. But until then, more kids, more songs, and more memories!

Submitted by: Tucker Johnson, January 2012 Intern