Here they are

Amai Anaselika watches the construction of the tapping point on her yard where people from the village can get their water 

The tapping point at amai Anaselika

Orphans and visiting Misuku

On 20 August we picked up Jürgen Arimond from the airport and together with him we left for Misuku. There, in the far north of Malawi, lives Maria Chilale. She has ca. 20 orphans under her care, of whom 10 live at her place. The others live with families in the area. For several years, we have been supporting her, together with Jürgen and his partner Nicole. The house of Maria is now equipped with a solar system. This gives them power for lights and to charge phones. In addition, she has now also a solar pump for water instead of a hand pump. All this is funded and organised by Natalia, a Spanish woman whom Maria has met some years ago.

We have had an extensive reception by the people of her village. They danced, there were speeches and there was a football match. We have played music for them in return.

They have shown us their Nursery School under construction. This building is created thanks to cooperation between the villagers. They used self-made bricks and one metal sheet bought per three families for the roof. However, there is still much to be done before it can be used. To help them, they asked for a donation. A delegation, consisting of the chief, his assistant, and two others came to visit us with a budget. We have looked at this and decided that we could take a large part of the budget for our account. The money has been given to them in cash.

We were invited for a regional dance festival. The traditional dance of the region is called Malipenga. Several groups had made up new choreographs to compete with each other. 

Dance Group at the festival

Maria Chilale and Sr. Josefa

(Foto: Benjamin Jordan)

Nazareth secondary school for girls

Last year, the idea to build a high school for girls in Mganja came from several sides. At the time we talked about it with Juliana Lunguzi, Member of Parliament (MP) for our region and with the local chiefs. Until now there was not yet an agreement on the best location for the school. We, together with Juliana, opted for an area near Nazareth. It is centrally located in the Mganja region. The chiefs, however, could not yet agree. That is why Josefa wrote a letter to the Traditional Authority (TA), to explain the problem. In our last week there was a meeting with all the chiefs and the TA. Unfortunately the TA herself could not come at the last minute, but she had her Secretary authorized to lead the meeting in her name and to take a decision. During the meeting everyone agreed that the place that we preferred was, indeed, the best place. So the decision was taken right then en there, that the school would be build near Nazareth.

 
In the meantime Markus Goeldner founded the GF Foundation, which aims to raise money for the building of this school. Before the end of this year there will be a fundraising. Markus is the father of Colin, one of the two young German volunteers who have been in Nazareth for nine months. He, Colin and relatives, were so enthusiastic about the idea of the school that they want to use their network and experience to help to build it.  

As already mentioned last year, Juliana Lunguzi, Member of Parliament for our region, supports the plans where ever she can. The cooperation with the Dedza Diocese takes shape in the support of Mr. Pengapenga, the educational manager of the Diocese.

In order to get an idea what a high school for girls is all about, we went to Bakhita College in Balaka. Here we had an extensive tour. Bakhita is a boarding school where over 600 girls study and stay. It is huge, with very high costs. Despite a large percentage of paying students, the school remains dependent on donors, for example to pay the teachers. We have therefore decided to make our school a "grant-in-aid"-school. That means there will be a private Board of Governors. Nazareth will be the owner of the school, in close cooperation with the diocese, but the Government will provide and pay the teachers. In this way, we will be autonomous without remaining dependent on donors to pay salaries.

The huge kitchen 

School of dreams and Paragliders

http://theschoolofdreams.org

This year, paragliders visited Nazareth for the first time. Benjamin Jordan, who visited us 4 years ago, convinced them that it is a wonderful place. Spread over several months a dozen or so came to stay and fly at Nazareth, working with the children at the same time. They remained mostly for two to four weeks. This meant a lot of work for Josefa and the other employees, particularly Beta. But also a lot of fun together.

 

Matthews accompanies the paragliders. He collects them in Lilongwe at the airport, accompanies them to Mganja and there he goes with them everywhere. He introduces them in the village and shows them the way to the place where they can fly, and flies with them. He has a small income out of doing this.

Most of these visitors were in one way or another working with the School of Dreams. Some learned people to paraglide, others took some Malawians on a so-called tandem flight. Still others kept themselves busy with groups of children. All showed they were involved in the village, the people and the environment. 

 

The sewing workshop of the School of Dreams is doing well. Mrs. Moyo makes bags of paraglider cloth. These are sent to Benjamin Jordan in America where they are sold. Of the proceeds Mrs. Moyo gets her share. Matthews is also handy on the sewing machine. He helps her regularly. 

Matthews in the air 

Amai Moyo and Vodya at work in de School of Dreams

Foto: Benjamin Jordan

Employees

Because of all the visitors and activity in Nazareth we needed to employ more staff. Beta has worked from early in the morning until late in the evening for months in a row, cooking and caring for the guests. To help him we now have a new cook, who is still on trial.

Also, we have employed Veridiana, a single mother with 3 children, to do cleaning work in both houses and to do the laundry. She was a few weeks on trial and proved to be very reliable. 

We have also employed two new watchmen, whom we already knew from our time in Mua. One of them seems to be a good choice. The other one we had taken on because we wanted to help him. We know him as a very friendly, honest man, who with his family (with small Ineke one of his grandchildren), has a very poor existence. He had a badly paid job and therefore we wanted to offer him something better. But it turned out he is, because of his old age, no longer able to work. In addition, when staying with us he is far from his family and his wife is often ill. That's why we have sent him back home and we will see how we can help his family in other ways.

Davy, the skilled carpenter from Mganja, who has made some new furniture and exterior doors

Work on the houses

We made some improvements on the guesthouse. New exterior doors with good locks, a fence of chicken wire, a beautiful natural stone terrace at the rear where the sun shines in the mornings and where it is shady in the afternoon.

The first House now also has a solar shower. Made by Mr. Maluza, who also installed the shower in the guesthouse. 

The new solar installation for the shower

In November the cacti bloom on the veranda

Social activities

Of course we visited June Walker's place several times. She is still an important friend of us and of the project. She is doing well. With her 84 she has even flown as a passenger with a paraglider.

We have also visited Mrs. Gubuduza, the mother of Richard and also the grandmother of Nicoline, our godchild. Like every year we have given her money for the orphans Evi and Embe.

We have been to the wedding mass of the daughter of Josef and Ruth Gama. Ruth was one of the informers of Ineke during her research, and Josef is the assistant to Fr. Claude Boucher.

We also went to the memorial service of Fr. Andreas Edele. He was a German priest who has worked in Mua. He died in Germany in July. We have met him several times, in Malawi and in Germany.

A Dutch couple with two small children have visited us. They run a bakery in Bembeke.

Little Ineke, the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mbewe has stayed with us a couple of days. Just like last time she especially likes to help in the house. She began to wash the dishes before we had finished eating! And to think that they not even have a table at home, no water and no dishes!

Juliana Lunguzi, the MP for our region, has visited us with her adopted daughter of several months. With her we talked about the nursery schools in Mganja and about the plans for the secondary school for girls in Mganja.

After our visit in Misuku Maria came with us to Mganja, where she has had a week's holiday.

On 2 August we celebrated Ineke's birthday, together with Jennifer and Alan, two American paragliders, and Josefa. With Josefa we went in the afternoon to the Dedza Pottery.

Students

Thomas finished his second year at the Bunda College successfully. It's been tough, but he made it and goes to the third year. During his holidays he has done some volunteer work in the village and Jürgen gave him some guitar lessons.

 

Chisomo had a great review for her first year at Andiamo College in Balaka. She is the best of her class.

 

Evelina: school results showed a wonderful report. She is of the 167 pupils number 2 or 3. She is still not completely satisfied. She has a laptop by Rob Pijpers and is very happy with it. In addition, she has made a so-called tandem flight with a paraglider. No fear at all! She was also with us on the journey to Misuku. She was a very nice and inquisitive travel companion.

We have given two other laptops to university students from Misuku, whom we have come to know through Maria.

 

Mary Chikadza is a new name among the students that we help. She goes to Malamula nursing college .

 

Finally, there is Francis, who lives in Misuku. He does well on a Secondary Boarding School.