I made the decision to not post about the safari in Zambia. The next team of volunteers will be taking the same trip so I didn’t want to ruin it for them. Hope you all understand 🙁 I will say there was plenty of wild life and a bit of excitement…I will post about it after the trip possibly.

As I said in prior posts I was set to travel today to Mt. Mulanji and then on to Mumbo island. Unfortunately the trip had to be canceled. The reasons are complicated, but in the end it just wasn’t going to work. Instead I have been able to set up some meetings in order to get more things arranged for the next team.

I was off to bed early last night and the plan was for Scott and I to go into town for a few meetings. I woke up around 7am had some Jungle Oats (oatmeal) and a fresh ground cup of coffee. We made a plan for the day. I had to stop up at the lodge to pick up my camera battery as I ran it down on safari. Once we made that quick stop Scott asked me if I had my drivers license….seems at this time his is not valid so he wanted me to drive today. I have never driven a car with the driver on the right side and never driven on roads where you drive on the left hand side. I was a bit nervous especially since in town there are round abouts. My husband will attest to the fact that I am not good with my left and right and my brain gets a bit scrabbled at times when it come to turning things around. I told myself I could do this though and off we went! Just another “first” for me here in Malawi. I was surprised at how well I was able to adjust to driving opposite how I normally would.  First stop was wilderness safaris where we would attempt to get me a refund on the holiday I had booked for this week. That didn’t exactly go off well, but I think we can figure it out another way on our own. I have been given a credit for the full amount and it is transferable so I will speak to my friend who arranges weekend holidays for people and hope he can buy the voucher from me. Always a way around a problem here 😉

Then we went to a place called PumpAid where we needed to see about getting them to assist us in putting a water pump in at an existing well we have at Adziwa. If we can make this happen it will mean water for irrigation that won’t cost the community anything. We have a well it just needs to be deepened and then cleaned and then the pump added. This will be part of the next groups task. We then went to Feed The Children offices to see about getting the kids at Adziwa on the VitaMeal program. This is a program providing porridge that is vitamin fortified to needy children. We are confidant after the contacts we made last night and today that we can get our Adziwa community on the list and that the 600 or so children there will benefit from having some nutrition in the meal that is provided using the kitchen we built there several years ago.

We then went to an office which is marketing improved stoves. We are looking to improve the way we cook this meal so we no longer will have to use wood. We have a  brickett system already in place which is being mostly funded by the German government (we just got that funding news last week). Since that is funded now we will take care of improving the stove so we can use the bricketts instead of wood. We are doing our best to help with the terrible deforestation problem that this country now has. This is just one of they ways we think we can help. If the people at Adziwa no longer have to buy or use wood for their daily fire it will not only save them money it will also save a lot of trees.  In turn the brickett production will take place at Adziwa and that can then also become an alternate source of income for the orphan food program. They will produce and sell these bricketts to other locals (saving even more trees).

Tomorrow we will meet someone from PumpAid at the Adziwa site to asses the exact cost of putting on the pump and improving the existing well. We have told them we have 5 people coming that can assist with the labor and because it is a community project we are told they will meet us “half way” with the cost. Tomorrow we will work out the details on that. A lot of irons in the fire, but progress is being made.

Last Sunday in the village Scott introduced me to a woman who is working in Malawi to improve women’s rights and deal with abused women. Her name is Penny. She is having a function at her home in Lilongwe tonight and invited Scott and I to attend. Since I had planned to be traveling I had to decline, but she said if plans change I should come. As luck would have it plans did change and now we have a party to go to tonight. It will be a nice way to celebrate 4th of July 😉 (for me anyway) I’m sure no other Americans will be there, but ill throw up a toast to the good old US of A.

We just had lunch up here at the lodge and now I’m catching up on email and blogs. I may take a short rest here on the veranda upstairs as it is a beautiful day with a nice breeze.

A lot  happening and I think this next group will have quite a lot to be involved with. We are also planning to have the team plant 2,000 seedlings in a tree nursery that we will develop with the team next week. Lots of work ahead, but all amazing!
So excited to have the next group arrive!!! Saturday night I get to sleep at the lodge so I can be fresh and clean when the group arrives around noon. I counted this morning and I’ve been here around 18 days. 18 days of mud hut living is starting to wear me down a bit. I am enjoying my little hut though and have got a good system in place as far as organizing all my stuff. I’ve been having clothes washed and I even have a chair now on my “porch”! Not really a porch, but a ledge outside my hut 😉 starting to feel like home.

This trip has been strange in the fact that people ask me where I’m from and I almost have no answer. I am between homes and cities right now so it’s a strange feeling. The feeling of having no home base is odd. I know new adventures await when I arrive back in Illinois and I look forward to the journey 😉

Missing you all and sending my love.
Erin