More Art Club

Art club is painting these days. We just had our last meeting for a while because exams are starting and then a term break. We just received some more art supplies from Katie and Joe and our math department just got some calculators from The Willows via Karen and Jay. Thank you so much!

Weekend Activities at Site

Life is real exciting in the village on the weekends. Some of our exciting activities include burning our trash and roasting peanuts. We manage to find time to read as well.

Giving Water Treatment Demonstrations

Here I am giving a demonstration to village women on a new product put out by Population Services International, funded by USAID. We use their product, Waterguard, in our own water. The new procuct, Waterguard Wa Uffa (uffa meaning flour or powder) treats the water and makes all the sediment fall to the bottom. This is perfect for the village woman who get their water right from the river. Instead of giving out the product free, PSI charges a small amount and the rest is subsidized. The idea behind it is "social marketing". They have found that when they give out free procucts like Waterguard and mosquito nets, people don't value them and don't use them. When they charge a small price that villagers can afford they sell like hot cakes and people use them.
P.S. Brian had a role in this demonstration too. After all the sediment magically fell to the bottom of the bucket he would come over and look in the bucket excitedly saying "wonani! wonani! (look! look!)"

4th of July at the Ambassador's House

We tasted a little bit of Americana at the ambassador's house for the 4th of July, which we actually celebrated on June 7th. We celebrated early because the ambassador is ending his term in Malawi to move on to a new country. As you can see many games were played including a water balloon toss, potato sack races and a tug-of-war between Peace Corps Volunteers and missionaries.

Using Supplies

Here are Form 1 students using the crayola markers sent by various people (see previous blogs). Our school just few recieved a few more donations in some care packages. Cool pens and pencils from Jon and Mandy. They will become prizes for the students. A couple great multicultural lesson books, stickers, foamies and pencils from Kim and Rob. Thank you so much!

Hostels

This is where our boarding students sleep. These pictures where taken when they were on break, but when they are there they just sleep on mats. Right now we are in the process of writing a grant to Friends of Malawi, who Willows Community School donated money to, for bunk beds and mosquito nets.