The group traveled back to the village together. The ride was quiet as everyone was tired from all the excitement of the weekend. The bump bump of the road and buzz of the wind seemed to put most of us to sleep. I was so happy to hear all the volunteers say how excited they were to get back “home” to our village. They all wanted to sleep in “their” beds and feel like they were home again. It’s great how after just one week they are all feeling as if this has become a sort of home to them. I think it not only speaks to the kindness of everyone here, but also the wonderful time they are all having together.
When we arrived back everyone was excited to unpack and have a shower. Clothes were being washed and everyone was getting ready for the evening. We had a Malawian dance troop coming to perform some local dance for us and we also had a local band that wanted to perform for us while we ate dinner. Slowly everyone gathered in the main area and the dancers began. I have been lucky enough to see this group of dancers for many years so the fun for me is watching the volunteers faces as they see them perform. Lots of laughing and then the group got to dance along with the dancers. Everyone participated which was great. There is nothing quite like dancing in the dirt under the big tree 😉
We went to eat together and candles were lit for us. We didn’t have the generator on so it was pretty dark. The band set up and played through dinner for us. Many of the volunteers wanted to order CDs from the bad so those will be delivered Tuesday. One food was finished we decided to play a game as a group. We had so much fun yelling and laughing! Good fun and competitive! Must because they are all teachers 😉 haha. Lucky for all of us one team won the first game and the other won the second. We all went to bed even so there was no gloating.
The group has become so comfortable with each other over this past week. Now when we all go off to bed there is alway joking, laughing and goofing off. I love to hear that outside my hut. It means the group is all getting along well.
We must have brought some of the warm lake air back with us because last night was the first night in the village that my nose wasn’t cold. Before last night I was snuggled down in my covers with just my face peeking out. Now it seems that cold stuff has blown over and we can sleep comfortably 😉 when we woke up this morning it was also much warmer than it had been.
Today was a big day since all the teachers had lesson plans and schedules. Hopefully it will all go well. It’s been nice that during the teaching sessions I am able to walk from room to room and watch everyone and take some pictures. It’s so cool to see how excited the students are when they see one of the American teachers come in the class. They cheer loudly and then ….silence. They all have eyes big just waiting to see what the lesson will be. Some of the teachers brought pencils t to give out as rewards today so I can’t wait to hear how that went. These kids LOVE a new pencil
I can’t stress enough how great this group has been! I am so lucky to have this team. I’m thankful for their amazing attitudes and sweet spirits. I have been told some amazing safari stories and those should be posted soon! We keep these teachers so busy they haven’t had time to write it out just yet. I know that Alix has a great monkey story and the entire group had a very cool elephant adventure! So  look forward to that post soon!!!