A note care of Darcy…

Muli bwanji everyone! We safely arrived here on Saturday, extremely tired I think it would be fair to say. After our initial excitement after following Steve Jones (T4 presenter) all the way to Lilongwe, we met Joe our project leader. Inevitably, someone’s bag had to get lost, and poor Darcy is still sat here in the same clothes she left America in on Thursday. Oh dear. But her bag should arrive tomorrow so we are making do! We got to Doogles backpacker’s hostel on Saturday night, rather disorientated and sleepy, after a hairy bus journey with a driver who clearly liked over taking vehicles even on the smallest roads… And then the bus broke down. Anyway, we made it to Nancholi the next day in one piece and since then all has been well!

Yesterday we had a welcome ceremony from the people in the village which was entertaining, but mostly for them watching us gappers trying to dance like them. Obviously we couldn’t dance like them and clearly looked ridiculous. It was fun nevertheless! This morning we met the children who go to Joshua and played lots of games with them which was quite sweet. They particularly enjoyed the hokey cokey, which again we probably looked ridiculous dancing to! We also helped with some of the foundations to the wall we’re building, mixing cement and carrying bricks. It was hard work but luckily we had a lot of people helping and the main builder Jophat there too. The most amusing part was watching Jophat trying to pronounce Elspeth’s name… Elspeth settled for Elizabeth in the end, it was easier.

Tomorrow’s building will be harder, we have to make a proper start on the wall surrounding the grounds. After the wall we should be well equipped with building knowledge to start building the playground!

A little note on food – Ida is feeding us well! We are all filling up on nsima and pumpkin leaves! Oh and all the skittles, starburst and chocolate we brought with us.
So that’s about it for now, will update with news on how our first showers with the bucket and cup have gone… We’ve coped with the long drop loo so we should be ok!

Tionana (See you later) x