So much had happened since I last updated the blog. It's definitely my laziness that resulted in this situation so I try my best from today to write more regularly.
Today, I will just try to write the highlights of the past 3 weeks.
THE PIG HOUSE is finally finished!!! I had to admit that I underestimated the amount of work and materials needed for this. Honestly, it took me a lot more time and money. My original budget proposal tripled in fact... In any case, it is DONE! We had absolutely no idea how to build a house, well, the pig house so we hired 2 local builders for help, Wilson and Adam. Anna and I definitely would not have been able to complete it without them. I learned how to make the foundation, mix cement, pile up bricks with cement straight, make the floor, attach fences, and put a roof with grass and bamboos among other things. The piglets are ready to move into our lovely pig house, I just need to pay for them... But big "yay!" for the first step. Now, we're selecting 15+ preschools with strong dedicated committees who will start up this Pig IGA. I'll organize a monthly pig committee meeting to educate the committee members about proper housing, feeding, vaccination, cleaning, and so forth. I will post the pictures shortly.
Amazing opportunities suddenly arrived for my preschool projects. First of all, I was finally able to meet with Mr. Misomali from Social Welfare Office in Blantyre to seek his advice about educating preschool teachers as I'm not specialized in that field. After a 20 minutes discussion and lots of persuasion, he agreed to co-host an official training by him and his colleagues to certify some of the teachers I work with. It may not make any sense but for me and those teachers, this IS a BIG project. This training will be 12-day long and now I'm working hard to compile all the information about each and every preschool under the supervision of the project. Another good news was with neighboring NGO Stephano's. DAPP (the organization I work for) and Stephano's haven't been in a good term ever since they started long story in short. I just had a chance to visit Mr. Mwikhoma one day and had a long discussion about our past and future collaboration.
In a nut shell, we will start working together for the preschool development project hand in hand and the first project will be to build one preschool together. Funding will come from both of us, 50-50, and I really look forward to working with them :) Lastly, again, long story in short, we "may" be getting support from an NGO Feed the Children to the preschools we supervise. Anyways, so many exciting projects are on the way and I just can't wait to see them happen!!!
Another big thing was my hiking rather mountain climbing and sliding down to Mt. Mulanji. Along with my fellow volunteer friends, we went there and hiked. Peter and I spent one night up in the mountain hut. Others stayed there for 2 or 3 nights. My legs were in so much pain, NO JOKE!! Going up was super hard but going down the steep and rocky hills for 4 hours was much worse after all. I need to post all the pictures from Peter. It was simply stunning!! When I woke up and got out of the hut, there was this huge mountain right in front of me, absolutely amazing view. I also enjoyed the fire place, a bucket shower and freezing mountain water. We're planning to go back there for a longer hike to the highest point sometime in July.
Finally, I want to share about my first "local beer" experience with you. Many people in the village told me about this local beer brewing and I was always curious about it. After I came all the way down to the entrance of Mt. Mulanje park, Peter and I went into the nearby village led by our guild Rhapson to "investigate" how they brew what they call "local beer". I was so amazed by it for its simple procedure. They had a big pot with water, sugar, and maize flour, which they kept for one week. Then they cook it with firewood. Attached to this pot covered by a plastic is a metal tube which is connected to another tank with water. The evaporated alcohol goes into the pipe. This pipe goes under this water to cool down the alcohol and lastly, the alcohol comes out from the other end of the tube. And what was amazing is that this drink tasted just like vodka but maize flavored... Anyways, it was a good learning experience for my future homemade beer brewing. P.S I didn't enjoy the taste of it and I don't think I will drink it ever again...
Okay, this IS a long update so I finish here....
Today, I will just try to write the highlights of the past 3 weeks.
THE PIG HOUSE is finally finished!!! I had to admit that I underestimated the amount of work and materials needed for this. Honestly, it took me a lot more time and money. My original budget proposal tripled in fact... In any case, it is DONE! We had absolutely no idea how to build a house, well, the pig house so we hired 2 local builders for help, Wilson and Adam. Anna and I definitely would not have been able to complete it without them. I learned how to make the foundation, mix cement, pile up bricks with cement straight, make the floor, attach fences, and put a roof with grass and bamboos among other things. The piglets are ready to move into our lovely pig house, I just need to pay for them... But big "yay!" for the first step. Now, we're selecting 15+ preschools with strong dedicated committees who will start up this Pig IGA. I'll organize a monthly pig committee meeting to educate the committee members about proper housing, feeding, vaccination, cleaning, and so forth. I will post the pictures shortly.
Amazing opportunities suddenly arrived for my preschool projects. First of all, I was finally able to meet with Mr. Misomali from Social Welfare Office in Blantyre to seek his advice about educating preschool teachers as I'm not specialized in that field. After a 20 minutes discussion and lots of persuasion, he agreed to co-host an official training by him and his colleagues to certify some of the teachers I work with. It may not make any sense but for me and those teachers, this IS a BIG project. This training will be 12-day long and now I'm working hard to compile all the information about each and every preschool under the supervision of the project. Another good news was with neighboring NGO Stephano's. DAPP (the organization I work for) and Stephano's haven't been in a good term ever since they started long story in short. I just had a chance to visit Mr. Mwikhoma one day and had a long discussion about our past and future collaboration.
In a nut shell, we will start working together for the preschool development project hand in hand and the first project will be to build one preschool together. Funding will come from both of us, 50-50, and I really look forward to working with them :) Lastly, again, long story in short, we "may" be getting support from an NGO Feed the Children to the preschools we supervise. Anyways, so many exciting projects are on the way and I just can't wait to see them happen!!!
Another big thing was my hiking rather mountain climbing and sliding down to Mt. Mulanji. Along with my fellow volunteer friends, we went there and hiked. Peter and I spent one night up in the mountain hut. Others stayed there for 2 or 3 nights. My legs were in so much pain, NO JOKE!! Going up was super hard but going down the steep and rocky hills for 4 hours was much worse after all. I need to post all the pictures from Peter. It was simply stunning!! When I woke up and got out of the hut, there was this huge mountain right in front of me, absolutely amazing view. I also enjoyed the fire place, a bucket shower and freezing mountain water. We're planning to go back there for a longer hike to the highest point sometime in July.
Finally, I want to share about my first "local beer" experience with you. Many people in the village told me about this local beer brewing and I was always curious about it. After I came all the way down to the entrance of Mt. Mulanje park, Peter and I went into the nearby village led by our guild Rhapson to "investigate" how they brew what they call "local beer". I was so amazed by it for its simple procedure. They had a big pot with water, sugar, and maize flour, which they kept for one week. Then they cook it with firewood. Attached to this pot covered by a plastic is a metal tube which is connected to another tank with water. The evaporated alcohol goes into the pipe. This pipe goes under this water to cool down the alcohol and lastly, the alcohol comes out from the other end of the tube. And what was amazing is that this drink tasted just like vodka but maize flavored... Anyways, it was a good learning experience for my future homemade beer brewing. P.S I didn't enjoy the taste of it and I don't think I will drink it ever again...
Okay, this IS a long update so I finish here....
Picture 1: Peter and view from Mulanje Mountain (on the way to the top)
Picture 2: A guy getting caught for stealing a blanket - this is how they do it- then he gets tranported to the police station
Picture 3: Local beer brewing
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