Malawi

(Here are some pictures of us in Malawi. We arrived in the capital (Llilongwe) by plane, and then took a bus to the village of Chidedza.)

To start, we were taught some customs and words (Chichewa) by one of our interpreters for the trip, Mary. Mary also taught us about local ceremonial skirts. Everyone we met in Malawi was very welcoming:

Once we were settled in with our host family in Chideza, we had a week of hard work. Our group dug the foundation of what will be a new school block (2-classroom building), plus 2 new latrines (one for the boys, one for the girls). So...we had to dig and move earth, move and stack bricks, move gravel (for concrete), and move lots and lots of water. Here are some pictures of us in action:

In addition to all of the work, there was tons of dancing! There were dances to greet us, dancing during work breaks, and dancing during our "closing ceremony". It was a lot of fun (but extra tiring)! There are even local dancing "spirits" called Gule Wankulu ("Big Dance") that not only came to inspire people to work, but they also worked themselves. They are considered holy people to the locals, and their actual identity is not known. They don't just dance -> they could run forever!

<NOTE: In the first picture below, you can see a straw-roofed structure behind the crowd, really just a roof over some desks. This is one of the current "classrooms" that will be replaced by our building! Keep in mind, we were there during the dry season, and Malawi gets a lot of rain -> grows lots of maize, just like Iowa!>

Our host family was the Pirrhi family, and the mother ("Amai") was not just a great host, and leader of a largish extended family, she was also part of the school board that will oversee both the building of the school and making sure that the goals that the community agreed to (to get the BuildOn project) will be met. Here is a picture of her dancing with Audrey, and one of her and some other board members holding up a bag full of items donated to the community by our group:

Finally, here are some crowd scenes from around the school/job site. This was a central part of the village of Chideza, and there were always interested people helping out, or just coming to see what all the excitement was about.