These are some scenes from our trip to Malawi that may give an idea of daily life there.

First, here are some typical houses and landscape from outside of a village, and then the main commercial area of another village:

Here are some women from the village where we stayed. Note how the one woman in the first picture is holding her baby on her back. This was common throughout our travels in Malawi, and it didn't seem to slow the women down doing their (physically demanding) chores, including getting all of the family's water each day from the town well (down the hill!).

Almost all of the people in Chaima are subsistence farmers. Their main crop is maize, which they store in their homes to feed their families all year. Any extra is sold to help fund families expenses (including secondary school). If a farmer has the resources, they will try to grow tobacco as a cash crop, but they all make sure the family's maize is planted first.

Another way to supplement income/food was to go fishing. There is a small river near the village that provided fishing opportunities for the farmers -> very important at the time of year we were visiting (dry season, after a meager harvest year, a couple months away from planting the next maize crop). One of the leaders of the host organization managed to get several of the local men to demonstrate the types of fishing they relied on.

One of these men that was most reliant on fish to supplement his income had made quite an investment in a dugout canoe, and was very proud of the net that he had made himself:

Here is a more "commercial" outfit up the river. Note the two men in a dugout canoe (propelled by poling), and the men in the water setting up reed structures to attract fish (like an artificial reef).

For the rest of the people, simple fishing poles and reed traps were used to catch something dinner. One thing all of the fishermen agreed on was that there was no such thing as a fish that was too small. Any fish caught was sure to be eaten!

We were lucky to learn so much from the people of Chidedza, and they were so thankful that a group of people from the other side of the world came to help them address the lack of classrooms, and poor conditions of existing classrooms, in the village. Aside from the outdoor classrooms they have to use, the first two pictures below show the condition of the oldest brick classrooms in Chidedza.

The second two pictures show newer classrooms; the first is one from a previous BuildOn project in Chidedza (our classrooms will be going next to this one), the second is a classroom from a different village that was also built through BuildOn Malawi.

Here are some more pictures of the Gule Wankulu, traditional dancers of Malawi.