Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Originally posted September 6, 2012:

Hello from Makupo village in Malawi!

After a long flight through Dakar, Senegal and a night to rest in Johannesburg, we arrived in the village Thursday September 6.  Today it is Friday and we have already had such amazing experiences in and around the village. The 60 men, women and children of the village greeted us with dancing and singing and warmly welcomed the OPSEU delegation to Makupo village. 





 

Chief Makupo welcoming us to the village

The women who would be cooking for our group - wonderful and fun!

On Thursday we dropped our luggage in the 6 double rooms that make up the Guest House built with OPSEU funds.  There's a huge THANK YOU OPSEU just inside the door.  We were greeted by the vilage chief and then we were off to do the walking tour of the village.








 
 




 
 















We visited all of the villagers at their homes, witnessed first hand the projects supported by OPSEU over the last few years, including the very efficient water well and pump, the sparkling clean piggery and the solar lights on top of every house in the village.  We met with Doug Miller and the Makupo Committee representatives to plan our week in the village and after a delicious meal of chicken, rice and mustard leaves (like spinach), went to bed, safely wrapped in our mosquito nets hanging from the ceiling.





This morning, Friday, we began our day with Chichewa language lessons.  here is a photo taken of us trying very hard to master this beautiful African language.





Monday, October 1, 2012