Malawi First Full Day

Arrived on site at 8 to a huge welcome from the women of the village singing and dancing for us. Aldo welcomed by the village Chief and local HfH staff.

We were given an intensive course on bricklaying by the contractor, shown the pit latrine, given a bricklaying trowel and gloves and started work.

The bricks are local mud bricks which have been fired and, instead of mortar, matope is used - a mixture of water and earth which is worked into a thick paste. We were supported by the local contractors and everyone did really well. We managed to impress our hosts! The village women brought water from the well to make the matope and things got really exciting when the children got home from school mid afternoon.

We are building the houses for 2 families - Regina Mtambalika, a disabled widow, who is looking after Moffat, Precious and John, and for Estina Banda, also an AIDS widow, who looks after Petra, Hopson, Ivan and Stern.

In the afternoon Regina, Estina and the children showed us their current houses. Unfired mud brick walls, mud floor and a thatched roof which leaks when it rains. About 4 by 3 metres, the houses accommodate them and everything they own, a bit of food, a few clothes and a mat to sleep on. Their diet is mainly nmasi (mazes flour) and they live on less than a dollar a day. True poverty, so a new and bigger house and new pit latrine will be fantastic for them. Everyone very tired and dusty by 4.30 so back the the Lodge and a well earned shower with a 7.30 start tomorrow.