Back To Malawi

We ended our time at Kafunta River Lodge with another fantastic breakfast at 5:30am. Then back on the road at 6:00. I will always remember this experience and can hopefully came back some day. A short 6 hour ride and we were back in Njewa village, Malawi. After two nights in luxury, sharing a lodge with my beautiful wife, it's back to the 12X12 hut with four other dudes. Oh well it's only one night. Hard for me to believe the trip is over. We fly out tomorrow. 

We still had work to do before we left. COTN hosted a lunch for all of the children sponsored by our team members. Our team has committed to trying to find sponsors for another 20 kids when we get home. Ranie and I are looking for sponsors for four kids. Let me know if you're interested. Those 20 kids were invited to lunch also. 

We had a very nice time getting to better know our two sponsored kids, Binosi and Sevarina. We also learned about Maria, Falice, Rose and Betha. All girls looking for a sponsor. These girls generally get two meals a day, live in homes with no running water and if the have shoes, they have only one pair. We shared a nice lunch then gave Rose, Betha, Maria and Falice shoes or a clothing item before they had to leave. 

We gave Sevarina a bunch of school supplies in addition to a pair of shoes. We gave Binosi, who loves to play soccer, a soccer shirt and soccer ball in addition to his school supplies. Both of these kids are very shy but Sevarina couldn't help but smile. Binosi was literally jumping up and down he was so excited. These simple items are luxuries they would never see. I felt tremendous joy bringing some happiness into their lives. By the way, Ranie raided a Target sale before we left and paid less tha $20 for everything. 

After lunch we went to an outdoor market, called the post office, so people could by souvenirs. The "shops" are 4 or 5 foot long  3 foot deep spaces in the parking lot of several banks, near the Malawi post office (hence the name). These vendors are so aggressive they make lions look tame. When they saw a van load of Azungu (white people) pull into the lot it was like like a pride of lions after a buffalo kill. How do you like the safari references? Anyway, we all got out alive. Some even found bargains. 

We wrapped the day witha dinner hosted by the COTN Country Director at her " lodge". It was very nice with delicicious local foods. Then back to Njewa for lights out. 

I've attached a a couple photos from lunch. In the rush to leave for the post office, I forgot my camera and my phone was dead so I don't have photos of the feeding frenzy. 

For give my frequent spelling, grammar and format errors in this blog. Between writing late at night in bed and the auto-correct feature I have had a bit of a struggle. I was going to blame Ranie but figured you all know better than that!