Hello everyone, thanks for reading our trip updates! My name is Gordon and I’m the travel mentor for this trip.
Today was our first full day in Malawi, and it was productive. We ate oatmeal for breakfast, thanks to our local cook, Angel, and split off for our first activities of the day.
Hudson and I went to Blantyre with Joe, our driver, and Kate, one of our JOCC partners, to shop for cement and three SIM cards. First up were the SIMs for Adda, Annie, and Hudson since their phones weren’t working here. We walked down a long line of stands specializing in cell phone services like digital payments until we found one that sold SIMs. All of our travelers are now at least intermittently online, with the exception of Natasha whose phone still won’t start. It was cool to be in Blantyre, which is a small but very busy city.
Next, we stopped at a roadside construction store and bought three bags of cement. Those were essential to some work we did on the water distribution system today. A couple times today, we walked around with Chikimbutso, our local contractor for repair work on the system, and Paul, a secondary school teacher at the school who is working with us to improve water access at the school. We identified some known issues, like broken taps, and some new ones, like water bubbling up for the ground at the location of a buried T junction. Some of these issues are caused by wear and tear on the system and might be alleviated by better education on how to use the taps, so better training on usage is going to be a high priority for us going forward. Chikimbutso began work with his crew promptly, and repairs are well on their way to complete.
The other major event of the day was community interviews. We asked students, parents, and teachers about utilization of both the distribution system implemented by the Tufts chapter along with their general practices around water use and sanitation. We received a lot of positive feedback about the impact the system has had on people related to the school. We also learned that the need for reliable clean water is still significant; water for sanitation is particularly lacking and may be the subject of some upcoming work for the chapter. Some conversations today were challenging and included stories of sickness and loss due to illness, some of which may be linked to sanitation and water quality. Others were lighthearted cultural exchanges, as with our new friend Jaeson who likes Jackie Chan and is now in touch with us through his friend’s WhatsApp account.
Finally, we had another great dinner courtesy of Angel. We had spaghetti, chicken, and vegetables along with nsima, a local corn-based dish that you eat with your hands. Kate and Angel showed us the technique for rolling it with your hands before using it to grab food.
Now we’re writing thank you cards and sorting through soccer jerseys to donate to the school’s soccer team tomorrow. Tomorrow we head to Zomba for another exciting day! We’re continually impressed by the warm welcome we’ve been given here.