When plans go awry.

March 8th, 2011

You can never anticipate how many ways your plans can be thwarted.  Today it is deaths in the village and student riots in Blantyre, yesterday it was petrol.
Yesterday when I awoke and told my lovely wife I loved her, her affectionate reply was “I want petrol”. So while I met with the District Medical Officer in the morning, [...]

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MCV Sewing Project Annual Report 2010

March 4th, 2011

Nettie’s 2010 Report on the MCV Sewing program is here.  Click on the image above to read about Nettie’s visit and the challenges and successes of trying to turn a profit in Malawi.  You can also read past reports here.

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Welcome Home

February 26th, 2011

Two of our Malawian neighbors were already sitting on our Khonde (porch) waiting for us when we arrived at our thatched roof cottage at Palm Beach at noon last Saturday.  Over the next 6 hours until nightfall, we (mainly Ruth) held court for total of 15 visitors
A blown tire from jumping off the road to miss a truck [...]

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Nighswanders’ 2011 Visit day 1

February 21st, 2011

You have to love a country when in the midst of a national fuel shortage; the parliament is debating legislation making flatuance a crime.  “Since the country embraced multiparty politics 16 years ago, people have felt free to fart anywhere” said Constitutional Affairs Minister George Chaponda.  “Public farting has been encouraged by democracy”
We arrived two days ago. The first [...]

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The Allstar Composition Group!

October 10th, 2010

It seems that I have become the composition maven around here. As soon as it became clear that writing is a strength of mine I was commissioned to teach almost exclusively that. (Stop. I need to take a moment to offer up appreciations, respect, and probably humble apologies to those skilled and [...]

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Out and About with ‘Together! ACT now!’

September 18th, 2010

Last Saturday I went on tour with MCV/Gracious’ touring HIV/AIDS awareness theater troupe…
We were ‘supposed’ to leave at 1:30pm, but sat and waited around until finally our transportation huffed its way into the driveway an hour late (which is really pretty prompt by Malawi standards). At the same time as the truck chugged to [...]

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A newly arrived volunteer’s First Impressions

September 16th, 2010

It is not an exaggeration to say that I have wanted to come to Malawi almost as long as I can remember. My mother lived in and around Blantyre (the largest city) while her father taught at the university there. I grew up hearing stories about the ‘Warm Heart of Africa’: of [...]

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