Malawi 2025 Blog

I started my trip Friday from uptown New York . I headed to Newark airport, it took me 3 trains and an hour to get there. Somehow I hopped on all three trains right before they left – a perfect NYC commute. Right at the baggage drop off I ran into Sophie, Will, Lucie, and Gordon. We dropped our bags off at the baggage drop off went through security and met Jaci patiently waiting for us at the Gate.

We took a smooth 15 hour flight to Johannesburg, and joined Mark at Johannesburg airport. We went to our hotel where we’d be staying the night, we freshened up and had dinner as Mark’s treat. We talked a little bit about our game plan for the next day, and had our last big bed sleep. 

Sun 8/17

We took our last hot shower, had a big breakfast and caught our 2 hour flight to Blantyre, Malawi !! We greeted by Sue and Steve from Joshua Orphan and Community Care. They drove us to our community Makwelani, where the chiefs of Makwelani and Solobala warmly welcomed us. 

We set up our mosquito nets and in no time we were out to Solobala which is a 15 minute walk from Makwelani. We looked at the area we’d be drilling and made the final go for the drilling. There were lots of children as we did this assessment, you can tell why Malawi is called the warm heart of Africa. 

To end our long day, we had two cooks make us delicious rice and veggies for dinner. And that was the end of our first day in Malawi!

Today was an exciting day here in Makwelani and Solabala. We started our day with breakfast at 7:00 am, prepared by Fanny and Shakira, our JOCC partners who are doing our cooking this week. Then we walked over from the school to our drill site in Solabala. There, we met the team from Water Way, the contractor we’ve hired for drilling and well development. After corresponding with them via email for a few months now, it was nice to put faces to names.

Drilling began shortly thereafter. Mark, our other mentor, worked closely with Mohammed, the Water Way lead, to ensure they were in agreement on each step of the process. Mark’s extensive drilling experience gave us confidence in the quality of the work being done. The Water Way team leveled the drill rig, connected the large generator truck they brought with

them, and began the process. Drilling went quickly, and we marked our progress by the addition of three-meter drill rods as the bit bored further in the earth. With every meter that they dug, the Water Way technicians provided us with a soil sample that they laid down on the ground for us to examine. Mark was able to point out details in the soil samples that were indicators of the likely performance of the well; for example, the presence of quartz in one of the samples suggested that we were boring through fractured bedrock, associated with high water productivity. Around 15 meters deep, we saw the first signs of water in the samples, and as we moved past the 20 meter mark, we started to see more significant amounts of water come up with the extracted dirt – somewhat earlier than we expected. By around midday, drilling was complete; we had reached our target depth of 60 meters. We decided with Water Way to install the hand pump at 30 meters deep rather than the originally planned 45 meters in order to make pumping easier, since the well appeared to be producing a lot of water higher up the shaft.

The next step was the installation of the casing. Using the rig, the drillers inserter PVC pipes down the shaft. The pipes that were in the water-bearing portions of the shaft have small slits in their sides to allow water to enter the well while keeping out sediment. When those were in place, sand was poured down the sides of the shaft, serving as our filter pack – essentially a barrier between the casing and the exterior walls of the shaft. Once that was complete, we entered the well development phase of the process, where pressurized air is forced down the well to force out water with sediment in it, also known as “fines”, much of which comes from the smaller particles of the filter pack. This process is quite exciting because it produces explosions of water into the air out of the top of the shaft. As that started to happen, members of the community of all ages gathered to watch and celebrate. There was cheering and dancing as the water rained down, and they also collected this sedimented water for immediate use for making mud bricks nearby. After about three hours of well development, Water Way poured chlorine down the well to sterilize it, and capped it for the evening. The installation of the hand pump and concrete pad will happen in the next couple of days. Though it isn’t finished yet, in Mark’s assessment this is likely to be the best well in the area, so we’re very excited by the initial results.

As drilling was progressing, we also split into groups and conducted community surveys in the immediate vicinity of the well. The aim of these surveys is to document the way people in the area gather and use water prior to the presence of the well so that we’re able to conduct follow-up surveys in later years and track the difference the well makes to the people who live there. In our surveys, conducted outside people’s homes, there was a common theme of challenges accessing a high-quality water source. Families were spending hours of their day collecting water from the more distant well in Makwelani, or in some cases were resorting to using river water for household use. Our interviewees expressed a lot of gratitude for drilling in their community and expected that it would improve their lives significantly. As we saw the water rushing out of the well, we were excited to know that this work would be so helpful to the people we’d talked to that day.

We have now eaten an excellent dinner of rice, beans, and cabbage, prepared by Fanny and Shakira, and are getting ready for our evening meeting. We’ll write again tomorrow!

While today may have been a slow start for the other members of the team, especially Jaci and Will, two other students on the trip, who went for an early morning run, it was a very hurried process for Sophie and I. We woke up only seven minutes before breakfast was supposed to start (at 8:00 am) because I slept through my alarm. However, what was initially a very frantic morning soon became a slower one as we got ready quickly and all chatted outside before breakfast. Today again it was oatmeal prepared by Fanny and Shakira with a choice of sugar and peanut butter toppings paired with some tea or coffee. After breakfast, we all headed to the borehole site in waves as dishes needed washing and water had to be collected.

At the well, we discovered that the Water Way team was running late so we broke off into three groups to begin surveying. I headed out with Jaci and Rasheed, a field officer at JOCC, who served as a translator during our surveys. We walked around further from the borehole site for a little while, along the train tracks that run through Solobala, and got to talk to six different people/families before lunchtime approached. We met a tailor, many farmers, an elder, and fist bumped a bunch of children. Around noon we met back at the borehole where the yield test had recently started and excitedly learned that when they had tested the water height that morning it was at just 3.71 m below ground! This was extremely good news for the efficiency and water production of the well! The yield test continued to determine the standing height of the wells’ water. It consists of a mechanical pump being sent down the well and pumping at a steady rate for about three hours until the water level is no longer dropping.

We all then walked back to Kasupe Primary School for lunch where we had spaghet (spaghetti), soya (soy protein), and cabbage. After washing dishes and fetching water we checked back at the borehole and then minus Mark, our mentor and well expert, who stayed to keep track of the yield test we all headed out for afternoon surveys. This time I was with Will, Gordon, and Joseph, another member of JOCC who assisted with translating. We walked back to the working borehole in Solobala near Makwelani and wound our way down into another cluster of houses, passing a tailor and a bar as we went.

Back at the borehole, Mark let us know that the hand pump was going to be installed soon so our group hurried back and found the recovery test well underway with promising results. With the initial water depth of 3.71 meters and the yield test pump stuck a little below 30 m, Water Way was aiming for the standard 90% recovery. In this case that was the water rising back to 5.44 meters below ground. Within a couple of hours, they stopped the recovery test and began installing the pump. Starting with the pump pipes or risers which were lifted, cemented, and sent down in sections, before being affixed to the bottom plate of the pump housing. Followed by the plunger rods, hooked together and sent down piece by piece. Once that was done they mounted the middle section of the pump housing, cut the plunger to length, assembled the internal mechanisms, attached the handle, capped the pump housing, screwed it all together, and with that the pump installation was done in only 20 minutes.

As the sun set, a man began testing the pump and cheers erupted as water flowed out of the spout. Members of the community began to gather, continuing to celebrate as Mark, Sophie, Rasheed, and a group of Solobala residents tested the pump themselves. Celebration continued with dancing, singing, and cheering, including a song led by Rasheed thanking the construction team and encouraging the continued success of the well. After much celebration, we packed up for the night with a couple local masons staying to watch over the well and prepare to begin the civil works or borehole cement shell and drainage.

Back at Kasupe, we enjoyed mbatatas (Irish potatoes), cabbage, and Squash, a soda which we thought was the vegetable until learning that it was actually like Fanta. After dinner, we had our nightly debrief and a long night discussing the borehole cement construction, sketching a couple new plans, and going over and editing questions for the new places we will visit tomorrow!

All in all, it was another eventful day for the borehole with lots of interesting surveying and conversations had!

After a breakfast that included the suprise of mandazi, delicious fried balls of dough that are much like beneighs you get in New Orleans, I hiked to the borehole site ahead of the rest of the team. I arrive at an active site with many people working. Men were mixing sand, gravel, and portland cement and arranging bricks in the shape of the future concrete pad and drain channel, and women and children were carrying bricks to the worksite. Soon the rest of our travel group arrived and we were all quickly put to work carrying both bricks and sand. We were given buckets and directed to the storage sites for the bricks and sand which were both about 800 to 1,000 yards away. We were all game and quickly mastered the art of carrying a load on ones head. Realizing that everything that goes on in the village, including water collection requires carrying the item on the head is a humbling experience and not something we see in our world.

Seeing a young mother with an infant strapped to her back while carrying a load of bricks is something I will never forget.

After lunch the rest of the travel team visited the Chilewani primary school in Mulungu for the purpose of observing water catchments for possible future projects while I returned to watch the construction.

As the day progressed the pad and drainage channel continued to take shape. When I arrived back at the site after lunch (cabbage, eggs, and rice) the crew were starting to apply the top coat of cement to the pad and drainage channel. This gave the structure a smooth finished look.

In the afternoon I recieved a report from the professional that conducted the pump test the day prior. The results of the test indicated that the well we installed is suitable for mechanization and should be fitted with an electric solar pump and storage tank. The tank can be placed on a hillside above the village, and piping can be installed to carry fresh drinking water throughout the village. Taps can be placed strategically placed to provide quick and easy access to clean water which can be life changing for villagers that spend so much time and labor simply collecting water. Definitely a candidate for a future project.

Finally the bucket stand was added to the concrete pad and drainage channel and the final coat of cement was smoothed to a professional finish. Sophie had the honor of adding the text “August 2025 – Donated by Tufts EWB with Joshua” into the final layer of cement. Tomorrow we will return to help with the cleanup and maybe the large french drain that will be installed at the end of the drainage channel.

We are all so pleased that the well and concrete pad went in so smoothly. All the prior planning by Sophie and Anaise paid off spectacularly and I am honored to be a part of this traveling team. Once we receive the final water quality results and the cement cures for one week there will be a ceremony, opening the well for public use. I can’t wait!

Today, we started our day the same way as always with breakfast at “7:00” (aka 7:30) with oatmeal, tea, and coffee. After breakfast as we got ready for the day, I met with Steve and Young to walk around a few classrooms and talked about the “murals” we’d be doing the next few days. Young is a local artist who has done many paintings with JOCC and even a periodic table at our past project! I learned that when we were saying mural, we were really referring to any painting on the walls which was not quite what I was imagining. We looked at the existing posters and subjects to see what we could add to help the students. When I returned to the rooms we’ve been staying in, the team has already left for the site to help so Steve and I quickly walked to catch up with them. 

At the site, we helped move all the leftover bricks, sand, and gravel and picked up the caution tape. The last steps now are to build a small stormwater retaining wall and dig some ditches to divert the flow of water from the borehole apron. Once done with the cleanup, we were picked up by John and were on our way with our next activity for the day. 

We drove to a nearby community called Daniel, about 4 miles away from Solobala, in order to get a better understanding of the area (called a group village head containing 9 different villages). In Daniel, we visited the CBCC (community based care center) which is a nursery school for kids aged 2-6 that JOCC helps organize. We were able to talk to two of the caregivers (teachers) about their experiences working at the CBCC, the children that they work with, and overall, Daniel as a place to live. We also toured the classrooms, where we saw some murals that had been done by Young many years ago, making us very excited to get to painting at Kasupe tomorrow! 

After talking with the caregivers, we split into 2 groups— one group talking with households and one group talking with the chief. I was in the group talking with the chief, and it was really interested to hear from her about the challenges Daniel faces. Daniel is a bit closer to the city of Blantyre, so it has many government houses and thus has many different experiences from the people we talked to in Solobala. If you know me, you know that I’m always late so our 12:00 sharp departure was maybe a little late, but luckily we promptly made it back to Kasupe school for our next meeting at 12:30! 

Kasupe primary school is the school where we are sleeping for our 2 weeks here, and where many of the children in Makwelani and Solobala attend. In Malawi, primary school includes grades 1-8. In their 8th grade year, students have to sit for exams to place into different secondary schools, so over the summer there are optional classes for those entering 8th grade. We had the opportunity to talk to these students and teachers about water access at the school, and how we could work together to design and engineering solution that made it easier for students. We learned current habits for handwashing and hygiene, what the typical school day routine is, and what their priorities were for their school. We also talked about the murals, and got requests for maps, the planets, circulatory system, the human heart, and more! Hopefully we’ll be done Saturday so stay tuned for pictures. 

After talking with the teachers, Lucie, Gordon, Mark, and I joined up with the rest of the team who had been chatting with the students. Since we finished all our questions, we all gathered in a circle and thought each other songs. They taught us their schools song among many others, and we taught some too, such as Miss Mary Mack. We ended with a song in Chichewa where you call somebody up to dance all in a circle, which was very fun to see everybody’s dance moves. 

After this, the students ended their day and went home, and we had our lunch break. Today was probably my favorite meal, soya pieces, rice, greens, garlic Nali sauce, and Squash (juice). By the time we finished, it was already nearly 4 and we had got so much done. Construction moved so fast (we finished in about half the time I expected!) that we are able to relax a bit more the next few days. We walked over to the nearby pitch and watched a football (soccer) game. We all (except Gordon) rooted for the underdogs of course, but unfortunately they lost 7-1. After this, we walked to the Maso (Makwelani-Solobala) CBCC and borehole and were followed around by a group of kids. Will was especially popular, leading some of the songs we had done earlier this afternoon with the children chanting “Azungu Will”! which made the rest of us laugh. 

We finished off the night with dinner and our nightly recap meetings. Everybody has done such a great job contributing to discussion about what we learn each day and making sure they’re prepared for the next day, truly the dream team. We finished of the night with some rounds of cards; this night we learned the game Hearts from Gordon for his last night here. We are so sad that he’ll be leaving, but have had a great time traveling with him as our mentor. And, of course, Will lost at Hearts and that was the end of the night! 

As project leads, Anaise and I have put a lot of time into planning this trip, and it’s been so rewarding to see it all coming together. All of the travelers are my favorite, and I am so lucky to get to travel with them all. So sorry for the late update today, but the activities never stop (and for me the planning) so it took me a bit to get to. We hope you’re enjoying the updates and hopefully we’ll get the next one to you all soon!

Earlier in the morning, we had a safety lock delivered to protect the borehole parts from potential theft. After everyone chatted for a bit, we headed out to the borehole site around 9:15 to install the mechanism. When we tried to put it on, however, we found that the welding on the borehole tap was making it just a bit too wide, so we had to file it down. Mark courageously volunteered and got to work sawing away at it. Have you ever seen a 60-year-old man use a saw? It’s impressive.

After that ordeal, we started heading back to home base but stopped at an old broken borehole on the way. While Sophie and one of our translators, Steve, talked to nearby locals to ask questions about it, the rest of the travel team and our other translator, Rashid, had a nice respite in the shade, chatting about everyone’s potential plans after graduation. Sophie relayed that she learned this was the first borehole ever drilled in the area back in 2001, and that it dried up because it was only dug 24 meters deep. Glad we’ve learned from that mistake!

Back at the school, we had an early lunch of beans, pasta, and cabbage. Today we got an extra special treat of delicious bananas in honor of Gordon! Speaking of, right after lunch we had to say goodbye to Gordon as he departed back to the United States this afternoon. We all were very upset that our Shayla was leaving us and even made a TikTok about it.

After that heartbreaking moment we needed a pick-me-up, so Shakira introduced us to some African pop music that was really good. Thankfully Bisrat started making a playlist so we can keep listening to them after the trip. After Lucie and Jaci finished cleaning the dishes, we began helping Young, the artist, paint educational murals in the classroom. Today we worked on the world map, which Young divided into very large regions, and I got to paint Canada green. After filling in the lines, we went back over them in black. I struggled with the lines—greatly.

By the time we finished painting and gossiping (because how else are we supposed to pass the time?) it was late afternoon and our planned work for the day was done. As it was beginning to cool off, Jaci, Bisrat, and I decided to go for a quick run. A group of young local kids saw us and decided to join, running with us and matching our pace for about half a mile. On the way up a hill, many of them stopped running, but on our way back we found the same group waiting a mile out from the school—and they ran with us all the way back!

When we got back, Bisrat and I took cold sunset bucket showers while Jaci ran again with Lucie. Since we had to fill our buckets at the borehole, they made it back before we even started. As we showered, Jaci ran around the schoolgrounds with a large gaggle of children following close behind. After I was done, some of the kids even challenged me to a race—which I won, of course.

After recovering from our runs, we sat down for a productive conversation about what we could bring to club meetings in the fall from the experiences we’ve gained here. Then we had dinner—pasta, beans, and sweet potatoes—and spent a long time chatting as we do every night. Sophie and I washed the dishes while everyone else hung out before our nightly meeting. We discussed our immediate plans for tomorrow and even began looking over our plans for hiking next week.

After the meeting, Mark went to bed and the rest of us stayed up to play Hearts. The game ended with Lucie “shooting the moon,” giving everyone else 26 points while she got 0, which knocked Sophie out of the lead and gave Lucie the win. We wrapped up the game early and I left to write this blog entry.

Hope you enjoyed the update, and stay tuned for tomorrow’s!

After working for a little, we looked over and Young had done three amazing murals on the walls, and we were nowhere near done. We took a break for lunch, which was cooked with the help of Sophie and Bisrat. While they were cooking, they decided to not tell us they were trying sugarcane and ate it all (I will never forgive them). Another thing I missed today was Sophie running across the courtyard and tripping up the stairs because she dripped paint and was running to get a wipe. Those were my two big regrets of the day. We finally tried Nsima, a staple Malawian food, and had more soya pieces and veggies. We also tried a new flavor of Sobo called Pineapple Squash, which is so far my favorite. After finishing our lunch and painting, Lucie and I went to check on Sophie and Young, who were painting the sign that said Welcome to Kasupe Primary School. We could immediately tell which words Sophie did and which ones Young did. After a long session of rest under the shade of a tree, we left on our hike to the neighboring village Kaliati at half two (2:30).  We hiked past the new Solobala borehole (yay!), another CBCC, two boreholes, and two wells. I took GPS points of each landmark for a possible project next year! One of the women who are staying with us, Fanny, is from Kaliati, and her brother was getting his vows renewed. We followed the music to the ceremony and met a lot of her family members. We participated in the ceremony, dancing and giving Kwacha, Malawi’s currency. Will and Sophie were called out for being the best dancers (not sure how that happened). Will also wrote down the song names to play again later. After making a scene at the ceremony, we went to check out a river that is the site of another chapter of EWB’s project. 

On the way back to Kasupe, we passed another borehole. I took out my gps tracker to mark the location and asked which borehole it was. I was met with laughter and was told it was the borehole have been working on the past week. I guess it looks different coming from the other direction! We passed another soccer match and then Rashid offered us lemon biscuits (or cookies). We walked back to the store to get more biscuits, and we tried lemon, orange, and chocolate. After having dessert, we had dinner of rice, vegetables, and my favorite, boiled eggs. After we ate, Young came in with a stack of beautiful paintings he had stayed up all night painting. We bought the paintings (my first souvenir!) I realized I had never brought my dinner dish to Will for him to wash because I was so distracted by the paintings, so it stayed the night in our room because I was too embarrassed to bring it to the kitchen after. 

We had our nightly meeting, including Rashid this time, and then a very important after nightly meeting meeting with the night guards and Steve, where Will took the most in-depth notes I’ve ever seen him take. It was a later night than we intended, ending with teaching Steve Cotton Eye Joe, but we fell asleep to the sound of the initiation ceremonies going on around the community. Tionana mawa (see you tomorrow)!

I woke up at 6:34 am and started running at 6:40 am on the dot. So, another rushed morning for me if you remember my last update! Jaci, Will, and Bisrat on the other hand were all up and ready and graciously waited for me even though we were supposed to start running at 6:30 am. Let me preface this next part by saying that we’re about 2,000 ft higher in elevation here than around Boston to save a smidge of my pride. I barely made it a mile and a half before I tapped out. Poor showing on my part.

Afterwards, we all gathered for some stretching and yoga together including Sophie and Mark, who demonstrated a clean crow pose following Jaci’s impressive headstand. We then had our usual breakfast of porridge and slowly geared up to head back to the borehole. Today was an exciting day at the borehole, at least for me, because we all got to help dig a drainage trench for runoff from the hill behind the borehole. See, what I really wanted to do was use one of the hoes and I got to! After hoeing around for a while I think I made a decent contribution along with the rest of the travel team. The rest was quickly and expertly finished by the local community members working on the construction. I’m also happy to share that I left the borehole with a grand total of 7 blisters! Four on my feet from running in sandals this morning and three on my hands from digging the ditch. Good thing I’m a health and safety officer!

We returned to Kasupe Primary School for lunch and were greeted by a couple of local vendors. We all bought some souvenirs before enjoying homemade fries for lunch. Jaci only turned her back on her food and before she knew it, Steve was happily chomping away at her fries. So, Jaci started eating his and was shocked at finding hot sauce mixed in with his ketchup.

After lunch, we split up to take some final data on the school buildings and grounds while Sophie talked with Ester, the head teacher at the school, to discuss future possibilities and answer some remaining questions. Hours of measuring, with a break to have some yummy sugarcane, provided us with dimensions, elevation measurements, sketches, and lots of pictures of every building on the school’s campus. Sophie, Will, and Shakira all joined a group of kids to play netball for a little while, working up a sweat as Shakira displayed her skill from years of netball when she was younger. 

As the rest of us continued measuring, Sophie and Bisrat filmed an “MTV Welcome to my Crib” style tour of the school for future reference. Then, Sophie and Mark sat down with Rashid to ask more questions about the borehole committee that will be formed for the new borehole as well as about the mother group for girls at Kasupe and in the neighboring villages. Their conversation was interrupted by a pair of kids, as in baby goats, not children, racing into our room, which Sophie sadly had to shoo back out. 

Before dinner, Costa, our hiking guide for the next couple of days, arrived and we went over the plan for the next morning. Dinner was a great combination of mpunga (rice), mazira (eggs), and cabbage that will definitely fuel us for hiking tomorrow. Following a quick nightly meeting, Sophie, Jaci, and I set about washing some of our clothes in preparation before turning in for the night. 

This next part technically happened today, but since I woke up at 4:45 am to do it, I had to mention it. Early this morning, before the sun had risen, I headed to the kitchen to join Fanny and Shakira in making mandazi, which are like fried donut holes, and porridge for breakfast. I got to scoop the batter and plop it into the oil, fish them out when they were done cooking, and stir the porridge, but Fanny handled the timing and technique of rotating the frying mandazi. 

That’s it for my update! But I’m excited for tomorrow’s new adventures and the extra mandazi we’ll get to take with us!

I packed up my medium sized back up with no room to spare and no space left for my sandals. I guess I’ll have to go barefoot if I need to go to the bathroom at night in zomba — I’ve heard it’s good for health anyways. We had our breakfast which was porridge and Mandazi, which Lucie allegedly helped fry. I had requested Mandazi for our zomba trip for my bday, so Will had that in a tub so we could snack on it throughout our hike. We then left Kasupe Primary in a minibus with our tour guide Costa and a driver. We drove though the city of Blantyre, and saw lots of different businesses the bigger buildings being banks. Jaci was excited to see KFC as she is from Kentucky. The car ride was pretty smooth for the most part, but we did have to go through a few checkpoints driving through. 

We stopped at a mini-mart to get some groceries for our next couple meals. Then we arrived at the camp ground around 12 pm. We had a nice pb & j sandwich for lunch, set up our tent and headed out for our first hike. It was an uphill hike for 3 or 4 miles. The scenery was very different than the area we originally staying at. I would describe it something close to a rain forest. The first stop on our hike was the Emperor’s view. It was the spot where Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visited on his Malawi tour in 1964. I thought this was pretty cool as I’m from Ethiopia, and how much they valued the Emperor. The next stop was the Queen’s view, named after Queen Elizabeth’s mother visit. That was the final climb for uphill and the view was out of the world. 

We headed back to the camp ground and started making our dinner. We had bought rice and beans from the grocery store, but we forgot to buy oil. Soo, that meant no scrambled eggs for breakfast, and burnt rice for dinner. Sophie, Lucie, Jaci, Will, and Mark sang me happy birthday as I blew air into the fire wood that kept going out — thank you Shaylas. With our limited resource we did make a really nice dinner though. 

By 8 pm it was freezing cold and we decided to call it a night instead of playing our 2 hour card game that Gordon taught us. I wore my thermals and wrapped myself up like a cocoon and went to sleep in the cold and moist tent. 

See ya later — Tionana

When we were finished we set off on our hike with Costa while Mark stayed behind to wash the dishes and protect his knees. Although we started with our fleeces on, we quickly took them off because of the rising temperatures. As we continued on our escapade, we found a major source of this heat— illegal controlled fires on the mountain to drive animals out of their hiding spots! We continued up, but soon enough the smoke became too much for us to handle, and we had hiked for about an hour already, so we decided to head back to the site to pack up and leave. 

Once we got back, we rinsed our hair off at the tap, packed a bag for lunch, and got in the van for our long drive to Mujete. I took this opportunity to enjoy some downloaded music, but some of us decided to catch some z’s. After we stopped to make lunch, being homemade pb&j’s, we continued on our journey. I almost fell asleep this time but some well timed bumps in the road kept jolting us all awake. When we arrived at Mujete nature reserve we were elated to find that we had bathrooms with running water, a refrigerator, and even a gas stove! No more cooking on open flames for us! After we set up our tent and filled up our water bottles, we started out on our safari expedition. We saw some pretty cool animals— water bucks, nyalas, crocodiles, hippos, baboons, and even more. However, nothing topped when we came around a bend in the road and were met with the sight of an elephant walking towards us. Roll Bo’s! He hung out by our safari car for a while, munching on some leaves and politely walking around us. After this encounter we took a short break and enjoyed a quick popcorn snack. 

At this point the sun had gone down and we were using our flashlights to look for animals as we drove by. We saw a few cats, a porcupine, and a buffalo, but sadly no lions. We also performed group karaoke to keep ourselves entertained between sightings, much to Jaci’s chagrin. Well, she complained at first but it wasn’t too long before she was happily singing along. After getting back to the campsite we began cooking dinner on our top of the line stove. We made hard boiled eggs, rice, chick peas, and scrum-diddly-yum-yum hot & spicy chakalaka! For dessert we passed around a can of peach halves and a can of peach slices, while having a heated discussion about the optimal sleeping arrangements for the night. On the way back to the tent, Bisrat and Lucie stopped at a dying fire pit to revive it and sit for a bit. Sophie, Jaci, and I set up everyones sleeping mats and got ready for bed before I joined the other two at the fire. After chatting for a little bit more, we decided to play hearts before going to sleep. Total Sophie trip count for the day: 6 (they all happened in the first 2 hours, we weren’t really walking for the rest of the day)

It’s been such an eye opening experience having traveled to multiple parts of the country. When we first arrived here it seemed that most of the environment was a dry savanna, but after seeing towering mountains, beautiful lakes and rivers, and more wildlife than we’ve seen in our lives, we’ve come to appreciate the land of Malawi even more! Additionally, all this is coming from a place of only having seen parts of the southern most region of the country, and we know that Malawi has even more to offer than what we’ve been blessed to experience. We’re so excited to finish up our project this year in the upcoming days, and can’t wait for Solobala to start using their new borehole!

We then had a scrumptious breakfast of tea with hard boiled eggs AND oatmeal, separately that is for everyone except Bisrat. After cleaning up breakfast, we broke down the tent piled back into the minibus and were on our back to Makwelani (after picking up Jaci’s forgotten camera in the park vehicle). After the 3 hour drive back to Makwelani, we picked up Steve, Rashid, and Loderick and piled in, with only one seat breaking in the process. We were greeted by many of our friends in anticipation of the ceremony, and quickly sprung into motion. Lucie, Jaci, and I were given our chitenges, a wrap skirt often worn my Malawian women that Fanny picked out for us. I then ran over to the CBCC with Shakira to get plates and utensils for the upcoming lunch (35 more plates in addition to the ~10 we already had). I accidentally made us late doing this, but I needed to help Shakira! 

Also, as this running around was happening, Steve told me the order of the ceremony would go speech from Water committee then School Committee then EWB then JOCC then Chief Makwelani. Me and Bisrat rehearsed during the ten minute walk to the borehole, and then I was ”ready”. The ceremony was a lovely way the end the week with speeches from everybody about how impactful the borehole will be and how much we are all looking forward to the next steps in our partnership. After, we all moved to the borehole for song, dance, and pumping the borehole to signify it being open for use by everybody. Then, we headed back Kasupe for lunch with everybody. The Tufts crew helped Fanny and Shakira serve everybody a delectable lunch of rice, cabbage, beans, and chicken(!!). We chatted with everybody, had a few last closing remarks, and everybody went on their way. 

Next, everybody took turns tackling the mountain of dishes from lunch as I went through my paperwork and plan for tomorrow- visiting our past project in Solomoni! This process took a bit longer than expected due to getting up a few times to learn some dance moves from Rashid. Some of us (Will and Lucie) were quick learners, I however was not. We then had our nightly meeting, where I caught everybody up on the Solomoni project (a solar powered pump that draws borehole water up to a tank, then distributes to 12 locations across the school). I was especially excited to go as I had been the year before as well, and was excited to show everybody around. We then had dinner, this time in a circle of chairs outside since our normal dining room/ classroom had been transformed for the celebration lunch. Our last task for the night was writing thank you cards for our wonderful partners that had made our stay so special. We sealed them and lined them up ready to give out when we left the next day, and it was finally time to really celebrate. 

Steve had organized a small going away party for us, and invited the people we worked closest with- the JOCC field officers, our cooks, night guards, teachers, and a nearby neighbor. Shakira cooked even more for us, making delicious braai chicken over the fire we were all gathered around. We all shared stories and memories of our time in Malawi, and talked about how much we’d all miss each other. Steve was feeling especially emotional, telling us how we were his favorite group to work with and even though he was excited to see his family, he’ll miss us very much (there were many hugs). There was lots of chicken and music, and it’s safe to say we all had a very enjoyable night…

We finished off the night with a quick 3 rounds of hearts, with me finishing in the lead and Jaci in last. We all got ready for bed for our last night sleeping at Kasupe, and quickly fell soundly asleep. 

Once our stuff was rounded up, we gave some going away presents to the class at Kasupe, and then said our goodbyes. The students sang us some goodbye songs, and a special song for Will. We were so sad to leave. We piled in two cars to travel to Solomoni, the site of a previous Tufts EWB project. We got a tour of the secondary and primary schools there. Lucie and Will inspected the rainwater catchment systems on the secondary school, we saw ventilated improved (VIP) latrines, and finally we saw the water tower in person. Tufts EWB has previously drilled a borehole on the school grounds, which was originally a manual hand pump borehole, but a solar pump and a water tower was added. The water tower has piping to handwashing stations across the primary and secondary schools. We assessed these areas for damages and talked to the teachers and board members of the school to discuss how the project has been holding up. We found some minor drainage issues and problems with the lock boxes that go over the taps, but the system is working and is very helpful to the schools. We then went over some paperwork and discussed the official handing over of the project. We got some important feedback about how the project has helped the community by making water readily available.

Tufts EWB has been working with the Solomoni community and schools since 2017. It is sad to say goodbye to many of the teachers there, but it was great to see how well maintained the system was and how ready the school was to take over 100% of the ownership. As EWB is so focused on sustainable solutions, it was really great to see that the teachers had already taken actions towards fixing the minor damages and how self sufficient the school is. We have full confidence in the school to maintain this system and enjoy it for many years to come. Kate, another field officer from Joshua, brought us to lunch at a coffee shop. Bisrat waited for his double cheeseburger so long that we were all done with our food (except Will who waited in solidarity) before they said there was never an order for the burger. After we had everything straightened out, we drove to the lodge. Steve was tired after our celebration last night, so he took a nap in the car. The lodge was absolutely beautiful.  We all stood looking at the view for a minute before taking our bags in the room. I was planning on having a nice hot shower, but Mark and Bisrat used all the hot water, so I took a freezing cold shower as fast as I could. We procrastinated packing until dinner time, where we had rice, meatballs, nsima, pasta, and vegetables. And for Mark, a special beer! Back in the room, Sophie finally figured out how to use the tea kettle, and we finished off the night with many glasses of tea… and absolutely no packing!

Lucie

From kabula to arriving in Johannesburg

Once Steve, John, George, and the two pickup trucks arrived, we piled our luggage and ourselves in and set off for Chileka International Airport to catch our flight to Johannesburg. We enjoyed our final drive through Blantyre and to Chileka, reminiscing on the trip and taking in our surroundings one last time. After a little more car karaoke, we arrived at the airport where we said our farewells to Steve, John, and George thanking them for all of their help on the trip and appreciating the conversations and experiences we shared with them. Then, we went through security, waited for someone to arrive to run the check in desk because we were so early and finally, after another round of security, made it to the gate. With nearly two hours until boarding, we all took the time to buy some last minute souvenirs and snacks including Nali hot sauce, Rab’s Classic Malawi Tea, passion fruit Fanta, and carved wooden shot glasses. Our boarding was delayed, but we made it eventually, squishing our oversized carry ons under seats and getting comfortable for our short two hour flight to Johannesburg. Despite the brief length, we still enjoyed a delectable in flight lunch before landing. 

Will 

From arriving  in Johannesburg to New York 

After landing in J’burg, we followed the advice that Gordon left us on navigating the airport to claim our bags, exit, and go back into the correct terminal. However, as Mark was flying back to London before heading home, we sadly had to say goodbye to him before re-entering through security. After checking our bags to Newark with the help of a very friendly agent who compared all of us (except Sophie) to celebrities, we headed for our gate. Once we made our way there and confirmed where the gate was, our next objective was food. We went to a diner that the 2024 travel team went to and Sophie suggested, and we all got burgers and drinks such as mango juice, smoothies, and caramel milkshakes. It was all very tasty! Before we left in the morning, Mark had generously donated to us some extra rand he had exchanged for, so we all thanked him in spirit for buying us dinner! We also took the opportunity to fill up our water bottles, which we discovered upon returning to the gate was a mistake. Who knew there was going to be another security check at the gate and that we couldn’t bring water on! Once we finished chugging what we could of our bottles we boarded our flight to Newark. By pure coincidence (mostly) Jaci, Bisrat, Lucie, and Will all ended up sitting in a little cluster, with Sophie just a few rows back with the whole row to herself. The flight was smooth, allowing most of us to get some sleep and enjoy favorite movies such as Harry Potter and The Greatest Showman to pass the time.

Jaci 

Say where everyone is headed and they should arrive to their final destination

After getting off the plane and getting into the passport control line, Sophie caught up to us and we were all shortly reunited! We got our bags and then took a bathroom break to brush our teeth and refresh. We walked Will to recheck his bag for his flight to Boston, and the rest of us got on the AirTrain to ride to the airport train station. Sophie, Lucie, and Bisrat bought their train tickets, and I was picked up there by my mom. We are spending the day/night in New York and then driving to Boston tomorrow morning, because there wasn’t enough time to go home (Louisville, KY). Sophie and Lucie took the train to the bus station, and rode a bus back to Boston. Sophie is already moved in to her house at Tufts, but Lucie and Will have a lot of packing to do at home in the next day! Bisrat took the train to his sister’s apartment in New York and is catching another train today at 2 to go to Boston and move in. We are all so excited to be back together so soon (even though we are slightly stressed with starting classes in 3 days)!

Sophie

Summary

Writing this from our bus back to Boston, I can’t believe this is the end of the travel blogs. We hope you have all enjoyed reading them, we had a lot of fun (and a little stress) writing them for you each day. While we couldn’t include everything that happened each day, I hope you feel like you got a good glimpse into what the travel experience and Malawi is like. We couldn’t have done this without your support, so thank you! 

I don’t want to compare the travel groups from last year and this year, but it’s safe to say that we truly had the dream team this year. Every single person on this trip should be so proud of all the work they put into planning and executing it, Anaise and I couldn’t have done it without them. All coming from different places in the club, it’s been amazing to see how each person has stepped up and come into their own. Anaise, who just completed her first semester as project lead and put in countless hours over the summer preparing for this trip, and then helping to keep us all on track (and all of you in the loop) while in Malawi. Bisrat, who we’ve had the pleasure of working with as a tech lead for the last year and who’s now moving into being a tech lead mentor. Jaci, who was our borehole design tech lead this spring and got the borehole implementation off its feet (and will continue to be a tech lead this year). And Lucie and Will, who were some of our most enthusiastic members this past year and will now be tech leads as they begin this semester. With a bit of a crash course into what being a tech lead means this summer, I can’t wait for what these 3 have in store for the years to come. 

It’s incredible how much we were able to accomplish in 2 short weeks. We oversaw the borehole drilling and well development, helped construct the concrete apron and drainage for the borehole, and completed 40 household surveys for people who will be using the new borehole in Solobala. Then, we visited two neighboring villages to gain a better understanding of the GVH (group village head— think of like a county of towns in the US). In Malunga, we were able to talk with two teachers about their rainwater harvesting system and borehole, and take meticulous documentation and measurements of the system. In Daniel, we were able to tour the CBCC nursery and talk to two of the caregivers, survey two households, and survey the Chief about water needs in their community. In Makwelani, we were able to interview the headteacher, 5 teachers, and around 20 students at Kasupe Primary School about the WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) needs at the school. We learned valuable information from the future users of the system we’ll be designing this year. Lastly, we got to enjoy the beautiful culture and landscape of Malawi through soccer games, hikes, game park rides, dancing with Rashid, learning to cook with Fanny and Shakira, and finally celebrating with Steve. 

We are excited to keep this momentum going into the semester as we continue communicating with our partners at Joshua and Kasupe school while our members join in for our weekly design meetings. I can’t wait to share all that we’ve learned with the rest of the club, and see where the tech groups take the project from here! 

Thank you all again for your support, it means the world to us! Thank you also to our wonderful mentors Gordon and Mark for their help getting us here. And lastly, as was said during the borehole opening ceremony, Tufts EWB would not be the same without the support of Joshua. I hope you all keep following along with our work over the year, and don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or comments!