Hey everyone, Adda again! Today, I woke up to Sophie yelling at me. Just kidding! My alarm was being annoying and I wasn’t waking up so it was warranted. Then I fell back asleep and Annie re-woke me up at 7:15 to see if I wanted to go on their hike to the waterfall that we didn’t have time for yesterday. Sophie, Hudson, and I didn’t originally want to go on the hike (because we were so tired and sore) but we all ended up getting up and going.
After some granola bars, we started the 25min incline walk to the falls. Funnily enough, we were walking on the same road yesterday in the dark, so we had no idea that we were walking on a downhill at night. So, after a nice little cardio workout, we got to the falls and just relaxed for a bit. We then planned our day and headed back on our way.
When we got back to the camp site, Gordon started boiling water because the rest of us all had to pack all of our strewn about stuff and change. We tried to move quickly but were finding it kind of hard lol.
We then made instant oats. Natasha and Gordon ate theirs with coffee powder… and the rest of us ate ours with canned peaches! It was a pretty hearty breakfast. “Hearty” meaning it lasted us a while because we couldn’t eat lunch.
We finally set off for Chilawene around 11am. We stopped at some vendors to get souvenirs, so y’all should get excited!! Then we went back to the FPI office to check on the vials we left from the water tests from the Naisi school. They both looked positive for Coliform, so there could be E. coli in their water but we also could have done the test wrong by using bottles we had previously drank out of. Either way, if we choose to do a project at Naisi, this is a clear indicator that we should do a more in-depth water test.
Then we FINALLY left for Chilawene at 12. I took a nice little nappy in the car, so I’m unsure what the travelers talked about. We then snacked toward the end of the ride, which counted as our lunch.
We arrived at Makwelani village/ Kasupe school around 2:30pm. We did get slightly lost along the way, but our driver was pretty good at asking villagers for directions.
They welcomed us so kindly and generously. We first started by meeting a small group of faculty staff, the chief, and the head teacher. Then we rushed to pay Costa and Jordan (hike guide and driver) because the whole community was waiting for us in the JOCC nursery school. We also learned that Malawi cannot take USD older than 2013! So we had to sort through our money and make sure all of it was newer than 2013.
The community itself in Makwelani was incredibly welcoming! We started with a meeting prayer and then welcomed the chief with slow claps. We then got to ask lots of questions about the community needs and learned a lot about where the community sees itself in 10 years (as opposed to Natasha’s initial timeline of 50 years hehe). They mostly talked about their need for water taps in the dry season and bridges during the flood season. We have lots to brainstorm about which project we should approach from this point on.
We then wrapped up and headed to the Kabula Lodge in Blantyre. Hudson and Gordon headed to Sue’s house to grab our luggage while the girls relaxed. I then got to take a nice hot shower and wash my hair 🥰🥰! Then we had a nice second meal-of-the-day dinner, which included rice, meatballs, veggies in red sauce, and chicken drumsticks (finally some MEAT- but also non-meat for the vegetarians lol).
Now we’re just relaxing and talking and gonna head to bed soon, since we’ll be waking up at 6:30am tomorrow to meet MUBAS (Malawi University School of Business and Applied Science)! Make sure to check out some of the pics from today!