Today we visited the Day Care centre for lunch. We intended to go for breakfast but we couldn’t find transport to get us there one time. Apparently the children came at 6 o’clock this morning. They ate porridge made from ground maize. At lunch they ate bread and tea with beans and the staple food nsima (also made from ground maize).

I was able to distribute the clothes to the children at lunch time. Some of the skirts I brought were too short as Malawian girls wear skirts at about knee length. The children are much larger than I had anticipated. Two girls are small, about the size of an 7 year old in Canada. The other girls are quite tall, some are taller than I am. The boys are also tall but all are quite thin.

We have now bought more serving bowls and one more plate. We have yet to buy a food warmer, a basket to hold the ground maize flour and some furniture for the place.

Today the children also ate vegetables including tomatoes, onions and greens (rapiea?) which cost about $150 for the nine children.

Some things I have bought so far are:

• Toothpaste @ $110
• Bar of soap @ $0.40
• Spoons @ $0.15 each
• Bowls @ 0.35 each
• A bunch of small bananas @ $0.20
• Notebooks @ $0.10
• Pencils @$0.10

The estimated cost of firewood is $20 for a month. Meat once a week should cost us about $20 a month.

The children seemed more relaxed today but are still didn’t speak to me. I feel shy around them too. I don’t know what they are thinking. Malawians tend not to express emotion which I find very frustrating.

Tomorrow I will go back to the D.C and say “hello”. On Monday we will begin to build a pen for the 30 chickens we will buy. 30 chickens for laying eggs will cost about $20 and will provide at least one egg a day for each child as well as some eggs to sell at the market. The sale of the eggs will raise money for firewood.

Things are coming together.

Tags: africa, itatu, itatu orphan care, malawi, orphan care

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Today we went to to the Day Care and interviewed 5 ladies for the position of cook. I have now hired two ladies. They have both attended some seconday school. Once claims to have attended grade 12 while the other says she has gone to grade 10. Neither of them speaks English very confidently nor do they understand me. I am hopeful that some of this is because of their nervousness. The ladies I have hired are Maemory and Kelita. One of them has a small boy of one year old while the other has no children. I was concerned that those ladies with children would not be able to resist taking food home to their children. I have not yet explained to them that they will be permitted to eat meals with the children. I will explain that when I meet them tomorrow. I chose the successful candidates because of their family status and because they both said that they would spend time playing with the children. One was very confident and said she’d have no problems helping the children with their homework.

I also met the children and some village elders today. I presented them with the blankets, notebooks and pencils. I had to hand the articles to the village elder who then held it out to a child who kneeled before him. Kneeling is a sign of respect and children kneel before elders as women kneel before men. The children seemed a bit less shy today although we still have not spken to one another. I did buy them some sugar cane and they laughed while watching me try to get the bark off of my piece.

Tomorrow the cooks will meet us at Mabvuto’s house to pick up some beans and maize. I will explain in more detail their job description and expectations at that time.

It is nice to see the project getting off the ground. Language will continue to remain a problem. Mabvuto was more open today to encouraging them to speak directly to me but Mrs Chataluka (sp?) still more eager to speak to him. This is my greatest frustration but it’s not so bad because mabvuto and I tend to agree on all aspects of the project so far.

Tags: africa, malawi, orphan care

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Yesterday we went to the village of Chitungu to meet the orphans. Eight of them showed up to greet me, one was busy playing. If he doesn’t come on Monday when we go to present the blankets and school supplies we will demand that another child be selected to take his place. One child has already been replaced because there was only one boy. A girl was removed and her brother has taken her place. He is a fairly sociable young man of 12 and is in standard 7. I am a bit concerned because his age means he will soon be in secondary school and will soon be asking for school fees. I don’t know what I will do about that issue.

We have decided to hire a cook from within the volunteers of the community based organization. We have requested that five candidates be identified and we will select 2 from those 5. The lady who is watching over the place and is taking charge of the key for the water tap has requested that we employ her as a cook. She made this request in a letter which she wrote in Chichewa and addressed to Mabvuto. Wil suggest to her that we are already entrusting her with the key to the water and we know she will benefit from easy access to water. I would like to employ some other members of the community as it is clearly a community with great need.

This morning we visited the Social Welfare office. The director there upset me greatly. He addressed many of his comments and questions to Mabvuto instead of to me and even went as far as to say the community will see this as Mr. Phiri’s progect. He insited that we should allow one of his staff to sit in on the selection of the cook and that I should pay a fee for training of the caregivers because caring for orphans is a special thing and requires certain skills. Because I was so upset that I was ready to cry I did not tell him what I was thinking which was that the people who will cook for us are surely already caring for orphans and probably know best how to deal with these children. Not to mention that the children will only be coming to the place for two meals a day. They won’t be getting care at this place.

I have continued to experience great frustration at the fact that people speak in Chichewa even though they can speak in English. I have now expressed this concern to Mavtuo who has begun to try to encourage his peers to speak in English. In fact, yesterday he actually told the man at the D.C to speak in English so that I could understand. I was very pleased at that.

I have conflicting feelings about this day care getting started. I am tremendously grateful to Mabvuto for all that he has done to get it started. He has bought maize and beans. He has identified and secured a home for the children. He has approached the social welfare people to get the necessary actions started. I am very grateful for all that he did before I arrived. Without his here I could not have started it so easily. Of course he knows the right price for goods in the market and the location of offices for bills to be paid. How would I survive without him? I can’t help but think of Christie though. I know she does all her work on her own. She has a car and drives to the bank and does all of her own buying. I wonder if it was like this for her when she first arrived? Did she depend so heavily on her friend as I do on Mabvuto? Should I be doing more since I want to feel like I am really important to this project? It makes sense for Mabvuto to have such a strong role and yet I can’t help feel like I am depending too heavily on him. It’s easier and more efficient that way but is it right?

Tags: africa, Chitungu, malawi, orphan care

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