Books, books and more books

Last week we visited Kachere Primary in Rumphi district, around 60km north of Mzuzu. We delivered 3 large boxes of beautiful books and some lovely bright book bags which were donated by everyone from Caledonia Primary in Saltcoats.  The pupils and staff were delighted by our visit and they were overjoyed to see the colourful books.  The local radio interviewed a couple of pupils regarding their reactions to receiving the gift.

Watching the books being unloaded from the vehicle

Wonderful books

Beautiful book bags

The Head Teacher, class teacher and S7 pupils

Thank You

Once again, some of the primary children wish to thank friends in Scotland who have given them lovely new uniforms to wear at school.  Dorica, a widow at the Women's Development Centre in the Parish made the girls' uniforms while Mr January made the boys' uniforms.

Dorica and Howard from Standard 7

Dorica and some of the children with their new uniforms

Paul and Anne's Kitchen

We both enjoy cooking and baking here in Malawi.  There are many fresh vegetables and fruits grown locally, however they are seasonal and not available all year round.  We are fortunate we can afford to buy the different types of flour here for baking so we have made bread, cakes and biscuits. Some Malawian ladies here bake African cake; they have promised to share the recipe with me.

Homemade pita pockets

Last Sunday, the power was cut off all day so we decided to borrow a charcoal burner for cooking. At first it can be very smoky but very soon the kitchen was warm.  Unlike the Malawian ladies, I am unable to touch the hot pans with my bare hands.

Boiling up water

Grilling aubergines

Visit to Bandawe Point

Just as in Scotland, the month of May here has several school holidays.  Last week we had a lovely drive down the lakeshore to Bandawe Point.  We visited the old mission site; in 1880 Dr Robert Laws relocated the Livingstonia Mission from Cape Maclear to the hill overlooking Bandawe Point.  Alas, many of the missionaries died here due to the high incidence of malaria.  We visited the old Church which is now in need of repair, the Missionary graves which sadly are overrun with weeds and grass and a local museum which was very interesting.  Many of the missionaries were young men in their early twenties; we were surprised to see the grave of a Missionary born in Glasgow.

Mission Church CCAP

Heading towards the Missionary graves

Grave of Scottish Missionary from Glasgow

Conversational English Classes

Our Conversational English classes have started again at St. Peter's Secondary and Lunyangwa Girls Primary.  All pupils are keen to improve their English and in particular they wish to understand our accents better,  The film footage from Scotland has been very useful.

Lunyangwa girls watching film from St. Mark's Primary

Lunyangwa girls listening to Ellie talking about her school day at St. Matthew's Academy

Standard 8 get ready for exams

Today Standard 8 learners from Lunyangwa Girls' Primary, St. Peter's Primary and Royale Primary attended a special Mass in St. Peter's Cathedral, in preparation for the National Exams beginning next Wednesday.  The exams last for 3 days.  At the Mass Fr. Peter Ndolo blessed each pupil's writing implements and wished them well.

During the 3 days of exams, the rest of the school learners have a holiday, while staff members are drafted to various schools to invigilate.

Best wishes to our friends at Caledonia Primary

Katawa Primary staff and learners were delighted to  hear from their friends in Caledonia Primary, Saltcoats.  They were pleased to read the lovely letters, see the beautiful pictures and receive the wonderful gifts of friendship, particularly the silver quaich.

Everyone was very impressed with the beautiful pastel drawing of the Highland Cow by Jessica in Primary 1. The children were very interested to compare the drawing with the photograph of a highland cow. I was very relieved it travelled safely all the way from Scotland to Malawi.

The silver quaich was much admired and Katawa were pleased to receive the gift of welcome and friendship.

The footballs will be shared; one for seniors, one for middle and one for juniors.  All the children are very keen to look at and read the colourful books sent from Jessica at Caledonia.

Our wee friend Martin

Our wee friend Martin was baptised at the weekend.  You can see now how he is growing; now 1 year and 6 months.

Martin on his gran's knee.

Martin with his mum & his godfather.

Baptism

I was delighted to be asked to be Godmother to baby Jane Frances, first born daughter of Harris and Linda.  We have known Harris since 2009, when he was chosen as a member of the school exchange student group from St. Peter's Secondary to visit St. Matthew's Academy.  The Church Service lasted around 2 hours.  There were about 30 babies baptised. Afterwards we had a celebration in our house.

Waiting with Harris and Linda for the service to begin.

The Holy water being poured on Jane Frances' forehead.

Anointing with oil

Wrapping with the white cloth.

Placing small grains of white salt in the baby's mouth.

Harris and Linda with Jane Frances.

Paul and me with Jane Frances after the Service.

Party time

Women's Development Centre

Friday afternoons are when we visit the Women's Development Centre to see the children and usually chat and play games.  Just now in Malawi the price of food is expensive for people and much of the maize crop has been destroyed by the recent heavy rains.  We have therefore been sharing some snacks with the children.  Last week we had bananas which we bought in town and oranges picked from the garden at our house.

Gifts from a family in Scotland were distributed - skipping ropes, bouncy balls and coloured pencils.  The children also listened intently to the letters which were written by the children in the family; we read them in English then translated into Chitumbuka. Later, they all had fun playing.

This week Annie, former student of St. Peter's Secondary came to teach me how to prepare nsima.  We have known Annie since 2009 when she came on the exchange visit to St. Matthew's Academy. We also cooked  beans and chinese leaves which we later to served to the children at the Centre.  They all seemed to enjoy it!