Hi! Hi! (a very Malawian greeting)
We are now into our second ‘quarter’ with AGREDS (Assemblies of God Relief and Development Services) and we are really excited about what’s to come during April, May and June. Here's an update of what we've been doing during April....
We are now into our second ‘quarter’ with AGREDS (Assemblies of God Relief and Development Services) and we are really excited about what’s to come during April, May and June. Here's an update of what we've been doing during April....
9th – 11th
April: Quarterly meeting
During these 3 days we met up with the AGREDS board and other office members across Malawi in order to debrief last quarters projects: what’s been learnt, what’s been challenging, progress made etc, and then looking towards the future: what is the work plan?
The previous orientation we attended was on our 2nd day in Malawi and I’ve got to say, we didn’t really understand what was going on.. at all! However, this orientation was very useful and interesting as we have a much better understanding of AGREDS’ projects and vision, and we were able to contribute with feedback, questions and suggestions.
During these 3 days we met up with the AGREDS board and other office members across Malawi in order to debrief last quarters projects: what’s been learnt, what’s been challenging, progress made etc, and then looking towards the future: what is the work plan?
The previous orientation we attended was on our 2nd day in Malawi and I’ve got to say, we didn’t really understand what was going on.. at all! However, this orientation was very useful and interesting as we have a much better understanding of AGREDS’ projects and vision, and we were able to contribute with feedback, questions and suggestions.
Here’s an overview of
some of the projects we’re going to be involved in:
•Follow up on… fuel efficient stoves, trees planted, adult literacy, eco-sanitation toilets & water points (this can involve practical assistance too such as building fences at water points, weeding, distribution of work books etc)
•Harvesting (which will also include building fire breaks for mulch protection and making manure(!!!))
•Office work e.g composing a brochure and document for prospective donors, writing short reports on field visits, updating the AGREDS website
•Climate change clubs – running sessions at 10 schools when they reopen in May after harvesting
•Follow up on… fuel efficient stoves, trees planted, adult literacy, eco-sanitation toilets & water points (this can involve practical assistance too such as building fences at water points, weeding, distribution of work books etc)
•Harvesting (which will also include building fire breaks for mulch protection and making manure(!!!))
•Office work e.g composing a brochure and document for prospective donors, writing short reports on field visits, updating the AGREDS website
•Climate change clubs – running sessions at 10 schools when they reopen in May after harvesting
14th – 23rd
April: Fuel Efficient Stove Training
In three rural villages (Phaka, Mlenga and Chindungwa) there has been a four day training on the construction of fuel efficient stoves. It’s been so interesting to attend these days and see how these stoves are made. Two professional trainers per village demonstrated the process and the the committee members were very quick in learning and were able to get on it with making their own stoves.
In Phaka village, the aim is that every household will have a stove and when that is done they will be able to build more stoves to sell for money. Up to now, the villagers in Phaka have made over 50 stoves and committee members have taken ownership of the project by teaching other village members how to make the stoves.
In three rural villages (Phaka, Mlenga and Chindungwa) there has been a four day training on the construction of fuel efficient stoves. It’s been so interesting to attend these days and see how these stoves are made. Two professional trainers per village demonstrated the process and the the committee members were very quick in learning and were able to get on it with making their own stoves.
In Phaka village, the aim is that every household will have a stove and when that is done they will be able to build more stoves to sell for money. Up to now, the villagers in Phaka have made over 50 stoves and committee members have taken ownership of the project by teaching other village members how to make the stoves.
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| Phaka's committee leader showing us how it's done! |
Building these stoves means an increase in safety whilst cooking and also means
cutting less trees down for burning. This in its turn have a very positive
impact on the village as cutting down trees has caused disasters of flooding.
Birthdays
Big birthday rampage with Lois turning 22 on the 13th April, Nia turned 19 on the 23rd and Ben will celebrate his 20th on May 5th! Both girls celebrated their birthday morning with presents and a pancake breakfast! Lois was deafened by the blows of birthday horns and Nia was barricaded by birthday banners and balloons across her bedroom door!
Big birthday rampage with Lois turning 22 on the 13th April, Nia turned 19 on the 23rd and Ben will celebrate his 20th on May 5th! Both girls celebrated their birthday morning with presents and a pancake breakfast! Lois was deafened by the blows of birthday horns and Nia was barricaded by birthday banners and balloons across her bedroom door!
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| I don't know about yoooooou, but I'm feeling TWENTYYY TWOOOOOOO |
With Malawian tunes blaring (check out Skeffa Chimoto on youtube!) we travelled
to Sunbird Hotel at Senga Bay for a day by the lake for Lois’ birthday where we
had an incredible three course meal and swam in the pool (with a satisfied ‘food baby’). We celebrated Nia’s birthday on
bank holiday Monday 21st because her birthday was mid-week, and so
spent the day climbing rocks and chilling out by the lake. On the 23rd
Nia spent the whole day at Chindungwa village making fuel efficient stoves with
Lois.
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| The start of Nia's 20th year with her hands caked in clay |
The day was a lot of fun working alongside villagers and getting stuck in
with clay caked hands! Afternoon tea and cake on both birthdays was a lovely
bit of British tradition and a girly film to end the evening (Mean Girls- Lois,
Bridget Jones’ Diary- Nia) was a must!
22nd – 23rd
April: Harvesting
It’s harvesting time in Malawi now and as part of the Food Security project we have been assisting the elderly with harvesting. Huge stacks of maize crops are seen scattered around fields all across Salima and the process of harvesting involves removing the maize cob from the rest of the plant.
It’s harvesting time in Malawi now and as part of the Food Security project we have been assisting the elderly with harvesting. Huge stacks of maize crops are seen scattered around fields all across Salima and the process of harvesting involves removing the maize cob from the rest of the plant.
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| This widowed lady is 93 years old and by using the Farming the Gods Way methods taught by AGREDS, she is able to continue farming, even in her old age |
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| These huge piles of maize take ages to work through |
The
remains of the maize plant will be used for mulching and the individual corns on the maize cob
will be handpicked into a bowl and grinded to separate the corn from their
shells. After separating the corn from their shells they will be taken to a
mill so that it can be ground further into maize flour for nsima (their main
staple food).
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| Lois giving grinding a try - YOU GO GIRL! It will take two hours to grind this corn to separate it from it's shell- it's possible to do this at the mill but many villagers cannot afford to pay for this and so have to do it by hand |
Helping out with the harvesting made us realise how demanding the
work load is and it shocked us that these elderly ladies work for hours in the
heat of the day. The villagers were so hospitable and grateful that AGREDS have
been aiding them by providing fertilizer and they expressed how their harvest
has been much more plentiful this year in comparison to last year which means
that they will have enough food for the rest of the year. The villagers were so
hospitable and gave us incredible tasting food like roasted ground nuts and
roasted pumpkins mmmmmm!
A little exciting addition to this is three of the village children received a Samaritans Purse box that day too! Seeing the children open their boxes was lovely and made us appreciate how much we have at home and that making something as simple as an Operation Christmas Child box is a blessing and source of joy to children in third world countries such as Malawi.
A little exciting addition to this is three of the village children received a Samaritans Purse box that day too! Seeing the children open their boxes was lovely and made us appreciate how much we have at home and that making something as simple as an Operation Christmas Child box is a blessing and source of joy to children in third world countries such as Malawi.
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| The excited children showing us what they received in their boxes |
Gideons Bibles
We have been very blessed to have been able to link up with Gideons and have received hundreds of Chichewa and English bibles for distribution. So far we have distributed to staff workers at our lodge and at 3 rural villages. At Village Plaza Lodge (where we’re staying) we hosted a 20 minute outdoor meeting with around 12 members of staff, shared the gospel message, explained how to use the bibles, led a prayer of salvation and we had the opportunity to pray with individuals too. It was a really blessed time and it’s really exciting for us to be building a stronger relationship with the staff here too.
On Friday 25th April, we visited three villages where we did a similar introduction to the gospel message and read John 3:16 (classic!) and Romans 10:9. The members present were then asked to read a verse from 1 John 4 and were given a bible. Those who were illiterate complained that they wanted a bible too because their literate children could read it to them. It was great to see that these people has such a desire to own a bible and that they wanted to read it with their families. On that day 80 Chichewa bibles were distributed and we pray that these villagers will know the love of God through reading their bibles.
We have been very blessed to have been able to link up with Gideons and have received hundreds of Chichewa and English bibles for distribution. So far we have distributed to staff workers at our lodge and at 3 rural villages. At Village Plaza Lodge (where we’re staying) we hosted a 20 minute outdoor meeting with around 12 members of staff, shared the gospel message, explained how to use the bibles, led a prayer of salvation and we had the opportunity to pray with individuals too. It was a really blessed time and it’s really exciting for us to be building a stronger relationship with the staff here too.
On Friday 25th April, we visited three villages where we did a similar introduction to the gospel message and read John 3:16 (classic!) and Romans 10:9. The members present were then asked to read a verse from 1 John 4 and were given a bible. Those who were illiterate complained that they wanted a bible too because their literate children could read it to them. It was great to see that these people has such a desire to own a bible and that they wanted to read it with their families. On that day 80 Chichewa bibles were distributed and we pray that these villagers will know the love of God through reading their bibles.
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| Village members started reading through their bibles as soon as they were given one |
Office work
When we’re not doing field work we’re busy with office work. Some of these office tasks include
•making two Food Security brochures: one in English for prospective donors and one in chichewa as a guide for farmers
•making a short ‘transformation story’ video on how fuel efficient stoves has changed the life of one villager called Alice
•finding solutions to the issue of termites destroying crops by researching biological prevention
•composing teaching packs for climate change club classes
•collecting data and putting them into dash boards
•finding out whether we can introduce ‘Health and Sanitation Clubs’ to Salima. We have ideas to introduce malaria prevention programmes and female hygiene to AGREDS’ project list. These could possibly include educating people on malaria, how to prevent it, distribution of nets etc, and we hope that AGREDS will be able to educate women on how to make their own sanitary towels. These projects are unlikely to be launched before we leave but we believe that they are very relevant projects and we’re really excited about the prospect of them starting up.
When we’re not doing field work we’re busy with office work. Some of these office tasks include
•making two Food Security brochures: one in English for prospective donors and one in chichewa as a guide for farmers
•making a short ‘transformation story’ video on how fuel efficient stoves has changed the life of one villager called Alice
•finding solutions to the issue of termites destroying crops by researching biological prevention
•composing teaching packs for climate change club classes
•collecting data and putting them into dash boards
•finding out whether we can introduce ‘Health and Sanitation Clubs’ to Salima. We have ideas to introduce malaria prevention programmes and female hygiene to AGREDS’ project list. These could possibly include educating people on malaria, how to prevent it, distribution of nets etc, and we hope that AGREDS will be able to educate women on how to make their own sanitary towels. These projects are unlikely to be launched before we leave but we believe that they are very relevant projects and we’re really excited about the prospect of them starting up.
Some prayer points
•thank God that we've been able to distribute so many bibles already and pray that we’ll have many more opportunities
•thank God for the increase in people’s harvest and that AGREDS have done such a great job in distributing fertilizer and teaching villagers new methods of farming
•pray that we will be useful in our office work and that there will be progress in starting up the Health and Sanitation Clubs
•thank God that we've been able to distribute so many bibles already and pray that we’ll have many more opportunities
•thank God for the increase in people’s harvest and that AGREDS have done such a great job in distributing fertilizer and teaching villagers new methods of farming
•pray that we will be useful in our office work and that there will be progress in starting up the Health and Sanitation Clubs
We're all buzzing about all the stuff that's going on here and the things yet to come. We have some exciting blog posts coming up with what we call 'transformation stories' and we will keep you posted with everything that we get up to.
David, Lois, Ben, Nia, Laurie and Jonny
(The six ‘sweatzungus’)
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