Dear Friends and Family,

We have arrived safely and in great spirits to Blantyre, Malawi! After a 34 hour journey, we spent our first night in the Children’s Home sleeping under blue nets and listening to the sounds of Africa. We were welcomed warmly. Randy and the pastors loaded our 36+ pieces of luggage with school materials on a flatbed truck to journey to the Children Home. The boys in our group had the thrilling experience of riding on the back on the top of the luggage. We are grateful that all of our luggage arrived safely.

The Children’s Home is still under construction, but it is beautiful and well-designed. Our rooms were decorated warmly with woven grass mats, baskets, candles, and African fabric window coverings. We feel completely at home! Today we had a walking tour of NDirande, the village nextdoor to the Children’s Home. We walked along winding dirt paths with simple brick homes. The smell of burning wood and spices from the open market filled the air. The children flocked around us and giggled at seeing their pictures in our cameras. Their great joy and gratefulness despite their poor conditions, moved us to tears. We practiced our Chichewa. The children loved it and laughed at our attempts to speak their language. We hope to have a picture for youshortly.

So many remarkable people made this trip possible for us! THANK YOU! We are taking you on this journey with us. We will be setting up the classroom this week and we have eight teachers so far interested in being trained next week. The weather is a beautiful 70 degrees and sunny.

If you would like to contact us, please call one of our two cell phone numbers (between 6 a.m.-7 a.m. California time) 011-265-5-700-290 or 011-265-9-432-036. Please check with your long distance carrier before call. It will cost you between $1-$6 per minute depending upon your long distance carrier. Or you can post your comments here on our blog!

Love,
The Malawi Montessori Project Team