Children of the Nations

One of the reason I wanted to come to Malawi was because I had connections through both Seattle and Atlanta.  One of these connections was Children of the Nations (COTN) where several of my friends had spent a Summer with COTN (http://www.cotni.org/).

Down goes Goliath!!

On my first full day in Malawi, I was picked up by Chris Adare.  I would later learn that Chris had graduated from U-Dub and even went to high school in Spokane with some of my friends.  He took me to go see what COTN was all about.  I visited one of the villages with a team from Colorado.  We play acted David and Goliath for the 1st grade class; I was the King.  At the break, we tossed miniature frisbees with the kids who derived such pleasure from such a simple game!

AWP Windmill

I later went around with Chris, who showed me the African Windmills Project (AWP).  They are in the process of perfecting a well driven by windmills that could be used for irrigation.  The one pictured here is missing the windmill, but can be hand cranked very easily.  The goal of the wells is to be constructed and maintained by locally found materials.  I journeyed with him to pick up wood from a Malawian lumber yard and to a welding shop as he worked on building another well.

Boiling some water!

I tried to ask Chris a lot of questions and also wanted to find out what COTN is doing about drinking water.  One thing he showed me was a solar heating system for boiling water.  The one here can boil water in an hour and forty-five minutes.  Chris is working on doing it in under an hour so that it will be more practical.

I finished up the day by visiting another village with the team.  We were welcomed by song and dance from the widows.  COTN has trained the widows with skills like crafts and baking and they have crafts available for purchase.  Afterwards, it was time to feed the children and we were welcomed by a song from them.  The children eat two meals a day -- one before school and one after school.  We helped them wash their hands and we dished their food.  We also had a Dentist and a Nurse in our group and we had an impromptu medical session where far more kids lined up for help than there was time for.

As for Chris, he got some unexpected time with my host Linga.  As we were wrapping up the day, we realized we could still catch the second half of one of the games.  The three of us went to the Four Seasons to unwind with some Carlsburg (there's a local plant).  Linga peppered him with questions about where he lived and what he was doing in Malawi.  It turns out the following day that we had to go pick up a credit card I lost from Chris.  We met him a local place far out of town where the power was out.  We sat on a porch under the stars and once again moved at the African pace.