Selected scenes from 24 hours in the life of Edith Kapuka, a 13 year-old girl living in Ngwale Village at the base of the Zomba Plateau in Malawi. (8:48) more scenes...
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
"Pack and Go"
In our "search for that sign" photo diary of Zomba City we had a photo of "Heaven Bound Coffin Shop". There are lots of signs in Malawi that make you laugh or at least go "Uh?!" Coffin shops are everywhere, a sad testimony to how common death is in this part of the world because of AIDS, malaria, cholera, and other preventable diseases. This picture has been on a memory stick for a long time but I was just reminded of it and thought I would post it...
"Pack and Go Coffin Workshop"
Friday, March 27, 2009
Zomba City
We have finally taken some pictures of Zomba, the city we live in -- well, I should say, Alex has, and felt very awkward doing it and even got yelled at for taking pictures. This should give you a bit of a picture of life for us here, at least of where we do our shopping and such. Life in the city is such a huge contrast with life in the village. Yesterday I was at a meeting in Blantyre at a conference centre -- it felt like I was in a different world with the carpets on the floor, beautiful furniture, decorations and art on the walls, drinks served in wine glasses. Is this really the same Malawi? And then we're meeting about distributing food to people who don't have enough to feed themselves. The huge contrast between rich and poor is still something I struggle with very much and it's something we're confronted with every day.
ZAP, Magdalena, Isaac, James, Namasalima
A selection of pictures from March.
- [ZAP] Alex works for ZAP (Zomba Action Project). These are some pictures of a handover ceremony of a house that ZAP built for some elderly people.
- [Magdalena] We have assisted Magdalena some with her school fees. She invited us to visit her home, where she lives with her grandmother and younger siblings in a house that some friends are allowing them to stay in for now. She calls Alex "Mommie Alex."
- [Isaac] We visited our gardener's home for his daughter's 4th birthday. When we had asked him what he was doing for her birthday he said he couldn't buy her a gift and they wouldn't have a party because they had no tea or anything. We took them some gifts to help them celebrate their daughter's birthday.
- [James] Remember the story of James, an orphan we've been helping with college fees and also helped him build a house for his younger siblings? We went to see the house he has built, it looks quite nice.
- [Namasalima] EI is renovating a school with a team from Rotary Canada that's funding the project and coming to help in April. The project includes a new roof, a new floor, paint, school supplies, sports equipment, and library. We're also trying to find funding for toilets.
Monday, March 2, 2009
pang'ono pang'ono
I mentioned the tremendous challenges that the school I visited last week faces. Where do you begin? The needs here in Malawi are huge, they just don't seem to end. Like people who come knocking on our door all the time asking for help. Take this girl, for example, who stopped in at the office last week, desperately looking for assistance paying her university tuition because as an orphan with 5 younger siblings and grandparents to look after, this is the only way she can see that she can provide for them. There are problems all around but I guess all you can do is do what you can, little by little. So at the school, we gave school supplies. Yes, they also need toilets and classrooms, but at least they have some materials for teaching and learning. And as for helping this girl with her school fees, well, we'll put the word out to a few potential donors and see if we can do something. Like they say here, "Pang'ono pang'ono" -- little by little. Jesus can take our five loaves and two fish and do great things. The Kingdom of God is like a little yeast... like a mustard seed...
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