Safe and Sound

I arrived in Mangochi about 8:00 last night, ending a three day relatively pain free journey (I did have to survive a 14 hour flight sitting inbetween two babies).

Johnny Sibale (the director of MCV's brother) picked me up in Lilongwe yesterday and we drove 6 hours to Mangochi. I am staying at Chakunja Sibale's house, instead of the guest house as originally planned, b/c the guest house is currently housing some students. Sibale's family is wonderful, and I am happy to stay there. I have my own room and bathroom, and there is even another american staying there for a few months. There are lots of little girls around. (Sibale has three daughters, and has taken in a number of orphans as well) They are always smiling and laughing. Today I came to MCV with Sibale, and Felix the assistant director showed me around. It's great to finally see everything I've learned about for so long.

Two observations on Malawi thus far:

1. The roads are very busy, but not with cars. There are tons of people everywhere you go, walking, biking, selling things, tending goats, etc. The amount of people you see in a country much smaller than ours is really amazing.

2. The roosters do not wait until dawn to cry out. They woke me up in the middle of the night, but were silent at dawn!!

All in all everything's going great so far.

Salini Bwino (stay well)

Salini Bwino (Stay well)

I'm finally off! I leave tomorrow out of Rochester at 10am (Dec 26th) and arrive at MCV late afternoon (Dec 28th!!) I will be flying Rochester to Washington, DC to Johannesburg, South Africa. I will then spend the night in Johannesburg before flying to Lilongwe (the capital of Malawi) on Dec 28th. Thanks again to everyone who helped raise over $11,000 for MCV and Gracious Secondary School. (If you still want to donate, it's never too late; just follow the directions on the donation info posting) My next posting will be from Africa!

Read-A-Thon

About a month ago I went into Pat Mehls 5th grade classroom to teach the kids a little bit about Africa, MCV, and what I'll be doing there. Too my great astonishment, Pat Mehls came to our door today (on Christmas) with a wonderful delivery. The students not only made me a wonderful good luck card, but they also raised $430 in a Read-A-Thon!!! I am truly astonished that one 5th grade class helped out in such a big way. Thanks so much teachers & students!!

Calculators

Casey Cazer, Noah Hoch, and Brittany Walker (students at Canandaigua Academy) collected calculators for Gracious Secondary School. Graphing and Scientific calculators are now floating around my luggage and will make the trip to Malawi with me tomorrow. I can't say enough about what a great job they did. All I did was show up and collect them. Thanks Guys!! (photo provided by Kris Dreessen of the Daily Messenger)

CASTLE Middle School, NYC

I spent last weekend in NYC, visiting friends, going to a fantastic Christmas party, and continuing to raise awareness about AIDS orphans in Malawi. The pictures above are with the 7th grade students at CASTLE Middle School on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I taught many of these students math last year, and had a great time visiting with them and teaching them about Africa. CASTLE students will be raising money to support the school fees for some of the orphans at Gracious Secondary School. The PTA has already started a coin drive and there will be many more projects underway during the school year.

Donation Info

If you would like to make a tax deductible donation:

Make checks out to: Malawi Children's Village

Mail checks to: Garry Prime, Treasurer, MCV
20 Pond Park Rd. Hingham, MA 02043

Zikomo! (thank you)

Thanks to all of your contributions we have been able to raise $5,851 so far for Gracious Secondary School. As you all know, this money will be used to build desks for the students, and hopefully, (as the amount continues to grow) to provide the school with other needed supplies (textbooks, etc.) We're gladly still accepting donations.

I am continuing to raise money, and promote awareness before my departure. I will be giving a presentation/slide show about MCV and my future work there, at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday, December 10th. My talk will take place after services (around 11:30) and anyone is welcome to come. The church is located at 3024 Cooley Rd, Canandaigua.

I'll also be working with the 7th grade students of CASTLE Middle School in NYC (where I used to teach), who have generously volunteered to raise money for Gracious Secondary School. I'll be in NYC Dec 14-17 to teach the kids about Africa, go to a XMas party, and hopefully see all of you that live in NYC.

Gracious Secondary School

Gracious Secondary School opened in January of 2006 (the Malawian school year starts in Jan). The school currently has 49 form 1 (freshman) students, and will add another class in Jan 2007. 19 of these students are orphans from the MCV program and almost all come from within walking distance. The school currently has 6 teachers, but 2 will be leaving for further studies in January. Two of these teachers are orphans that were raised with help from the MCV program! The school currently has 4 classrooms, a science lab, and separate boy & girl lavatories. The classrooms are still without desks however (as seen in the picture), and I have offered to raise money for these. The funds that we raise will be used by the carpentry vocational school at MCV to construct the desks. That is what I call sustainable development!!