Malawi Visions

Sunday, September 17:

After church with Daniel, his family, and Peter Barbano's team members Fran, her son John, and Christine, we brought the MOH Center Directors Felix, Joseph, Jimmy, Gladys, and Dominic to the beautiful Kalipano Hotel, north of Mponela in the Dowa dirstict, for an afternoon of lunch, discussion, and Malawi Visions team togetherness. It was a fun filled and meaningful time of relationship as we envision a critical time of development of sustainability for our common purpose!

Paul

Saturday Night II: This year it turned out one of the greatest delays in our shipment occurred after the crates arrived in Lilongwe. First, Daniel was made to entirely unpack all 3 tons of materials from our 3 crates, so that the authorities could photograph each item. Then he, and a couple helpers had to repack the crates. This is a new procedure that began in Malawi just 2 months ago. Following that, a week was lost as the inspection report was circulated among several agencies for final approval.

Today the crates were delivered by lorry to MOH, the traditional forklift arrived, and the crates were opened and unpacked. Book boxes were categorized and stacked, lap desks, tables for desks, solar panels . . . . and on and on.

During the unpacking we also had run out to purchase the two 5000 liter tanks for our solar irrigation project at Khwamba, which will commence Monday. As we are far behind schedule, the Khwamba project will be our primary focus this year.

Paul

Saturday Night . . . how the week has flown by! I've been negligent in posting, but two nights we were without WIFI connection. All week we awaited the crates, which arrived in Lilongwe a day before we did, but were held up in inspections and for approvals all week. But finally they were released and were delivered by lorry today.

A bit of catching up. The previous days were spent visiting and surveying the 6 centers: Yesterday was spent at Chimwangombe, were we were greeted with throngs of children carrying welcome signs, and got to see how successful the sewing program is, while participating in feeding 1500 children.

Our first day was spent meeting with the MOH center directors, who had gathered at the MOH office with Daniel, Milca, (and Joshua) . . .

We arrived in Lilongwe at approx 5 PM today ! . . . it was so good to be met at the airport by Brother Daniel!

Our Malawi Visions Team left Friday at 5 PM from the church parking lot for Newark Airport, after receiving a warm sendoff from our faithful family, amidst the inclement weather. We're issuing this first post from Johannesburg where we spent the night after a smooth and comfortable first-leg flight. Off to Malawi today. Thank you for your prayers!

Paul

Our Malawi Visions Team this year will be Dave Frey, Ward Scheiderman, Stuart White, and myself. We leave Friday September 8th, departing on an 8:55 PM United flight to Johannesburg, and will arrive in Malawi Sunday. We'll be in Malawi for 2 weeks.

As in previous trips, I will do my best to post each day, with photos, of our activities.

Paul

Some overdue updates: after some complications, our shipment has arrived in Lilongwe, Malawi! This was our 12th shipment, and every year we experience another type of unexpected delays. But God is faithful, and it is there, only days before we are scheduled to ourselves arrive! Thanks to the Lord!

The government representatives insisted that every item be removed from the 3 crates for inspection! Considering it took several of us several days to load them, I can't imagine how Daniel and helpers managed to get all of the items reloaded after the inspection! The combined weight of the 3 crates is approximately 3 TONS! The final report is pending after duties are determined. Hopefully the shipment will be cleared and our cargo released before we arrive on Monday, September 11.

Saturday, July 22: a quick update. Mattina has rounded the tip of Africa and heading steadily to it's destination of Durban. All on schedule! Thanks to our Father!

Paul

Saturday July 15, making good progress crossing the Atlantic. Every year our route takes us midway between two fascinating remote islands in the middle of the Atlantic: St. Helena (indicated as "Longwood"), and Tristan da Cunha. That's about where we are now! Would make for an interesting stop!

Paul

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/travel/tristan-da-cunha.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pbzd-lLKBk

Thursday Night, 9 PM, checking in on our shipment. Well, here we go across the open Atlantic. I always find it intriguing when, on the map, there is a name out in the middle of the ocean, particularly the Atlantic. Longwood ?

Longwood the town on the island of St. Helena (population 756) , a British Colony virtually equidistant between Africa and South America. We'll pass within 500 miles of it, as we do each year. Sounds like a beautiful place to hibernate for awhile. To maybe get caught up, and reflect for awhile on life . . . . .

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20160512-the-island-ready-to-welcome-the-world

Tuesday Night: 10 PM. Our ship, the MSC Mattina is passing the tip of Brazil, the most eastern point of Brazil, South America, and the Americas in general, soon to head out into the open Atlantic.

Our prayers go with our shipment as the crossing begins!

Paul

Saturday night, 9 PM Eastern DS Time. Our ship is cruising 500 land miles off the coast of Brazil. ETA in South Africa in another 12 days . . . July 21. Currently near the Brazilian state of Amapa, not far from where the mighty Amazon River meets the Atlantic.

So far we're making good time and on schedule!

Paul

Here we are, July 5 at 9 PM. Our crates, 3 tons of cargo, and their ship (Maersk Mattina) , have headed for open waters, hugging the islands and then along the eastern coast of South America to finally turn and head across "the Atlantic deep" to Africa. This is our 12th journey, but never without a bit of trepidation. Our books, tables, treadle sewing machines, first aid supplies, chairs, solar panels, handmade skirts and shorts, pocket cards, Tee shirts . . .all that love from so many of our Malawi Team, traveling slowly across the ocean to our orphan children 8,000 miles away in the most remote and impoverished country in the world! The excitement of being a small part of the Lord's fulfillment in this process never "gets old" !

Here we are, making our 12th shipment of supplies and items to our children in Malawi. After the terrific efforts of many teams building 3 crates (Daniel helped while he was here in May), packing, and trucking to our friends at nearby Farren International on June 6, our 3 ton shipment departed Port Newark on June 21. After stopping in Baltimore, and Newport, tonight our ship, the MSC Mattina, is en-route to Charleston, S.C. ETA South Africa is July 22!

Praying a much more delay-free trip than last year, when due to untold issues the crates arrived 60! days behind schedule.

Enjoy the process!

Paul

Last year we thought tables we were able to purchase at COSTCO could serve as classroom "desks" in our after school programs! Here are some photos of them! We shipped 36 last year, and are in the process of purchasing 42 more for this year's shipment.

3rd Malawi Visions Jazz Fundraiser
Saturday, March 11th at 7:30 PM
For more than 10 years, the Malawi Visions US-based volunteer team and Malawi, Africa-based staff have worked together to design and operate programs to transform the lives of thousands of orphans in one of the world’s poorest countries.
American Songbook Standards and jazz classics performed by:
Chris DeVito – piano
Audra Mariel – vocals
Greg Grispart – woodwinds
John Lenis – bass
Gavin Davies – drums
Purchase tickets here: https://ticketscandy.com/.../malawi-visions-jazz...

Received word from our freight forwarder that our 3 crates had been tracked to Malawi's Mwanza Border station on Friday when they were registered for international entry. Could be in Lilongwe Monday. Thanks to the Lord!

Good News!

Dave and Bob, while visiting the homes of several Khwamba TLIP students today, were fascinated when they visited David, and saw how he had painted a chalkboard on the hardened mud wall in his house and teaches his sisters and mother how to read and write English. What an amazing story! And what a great acknowledgement of our upcoming program to send "easy-reader" books home from our library at Khwamba.

Nice way to begin the day, posting to FB!

A short overnight at the Lake for a bit of relaxation . . .the sunrise over Mozambique, silhouetting the fishermen going out for the day, is always stunning . . . .

Good Night from Malawi

Good bye to Matapila for this trip

Final irrigation water distribution at Selengo

Math and English TLIP after school classes at Matapila. Chairs are needed for the math class . . .

Leaders and Gap kids "hanging out" at the Selengo library

Being welcomed to Khwamba by Chief Khwamba

Purchasing fabric at the Lilongwe market . . .

We were extremely dismayed, and unprepared, to discover that our underground wiring at Matapila, carrying solar generated electricity to the Malawi Visions library and learning center, had suffered significant damage during construction of the TLIP classrooms, last year. All power for lighting and laptop charging had not been available for this long time. Unfortunately this cost us two unscheduled days of work at Matapila. For unknown organizational reasons the reported damage had not reached us. After great efforts, repairs were completed, and power restored. But valuable time was lost for planned activities at this, and other centers. Direct communications must be improved to prevent such completely unacceptable issues, going forward.

Paul

We are happy to report that Karen Witt's tree is still intact!

We have been so very busy that postings have been slow. But we have the good news that our final installation of the solar powered pump at Selengo was successful. The tanks are filling well!

Dave and Milca have been busy hanging educational posters in the libraries and after-school English classrooms at Selengo and Matapila. Not only did these include the special alphabet strings Katie White created, but also a pair of posters Diana Sigmund created on one of her Malawi trips a number of years ago. These were blown up and laminated and will now be used to school children on the importance of nets as a protection against malaria carrying mosquitos.

One of the difficulties we are facing is a debilitating shortage of gasolene and diesel. The lines are long and often make roads virtually impassable! We are so thankful for our friends to wait in lines for hours to fill up. As I understand it, there is insufficient stable currency (U.S.) flowing into the country to provide hard funds with which Malawi can purchase fuel supplies.

Meeting with the village chiefs at Selengo