With Change In Mind provides travel packages and trip organization for humanitarian vacation adventures.

Jun

18

2013

A bonus…I had the time ;)

Blog | By Erin | No comments
Another busy beautiful day here in Malawi.
I still haven’t figured out how to stay awake late enough so that I don’t wake up at 3:30 or 4 each morning, but I’m trying! I suppose it’s still just my brain and body adjusting to the time change. For whatever reason it has been more difficult this trip. Couldn’t be because I’m getting older could it???
I was lucky enough to be able to watch the teachers from Teach For America get into the classrooms here in Malawi today and teach! It was awesome. These teachers all have such different styles, but also such immense passion. It truly was so cool to get to peek in on each of them and see how they were able to handle classes of up to 400 children!!!
After they taught one block they took a break to meet together in the library and discuss how the morning had gone. I sat and listened in :) as I sat listening to some of them reflect on the morning one of teachers (Shirley) came over to me with her eyes literally brimming with tears. She told me that after teaching for 30 years this was one of the highlights. She praised the program we have put together for them and went on and on about how wonderful her morning with the students had been. Once she was done and I had thanked her so much and told her how happy I was for her she stood and said “I’m just so happy I feel like I could dance!” This is a moment from this trip that I know I will treasure. I felt like quoting my good friend Dena and telling her that she had truly “just blessed my heart!” Once we came back to the village for lunch I did just that. I wanted her to know how much it meant to me for her to share her joy with me. Sometimes people don’t express these feelings openly and I was so very glad she had chosen to.
During my stay in DC the night prior to my flight to Malawi I met a man who began asking me about my work. We got into quite a debate because he told me that he couldn’t “buy in” to what I do unless I could prove that enough people were being helped. He wanted statistics and wanted me to prove that my program was actually helping “enough” people. I responded to him by saying that I may not ever know what impact this work has had and I may never be able to map it or graph it. I won’t ever know if one person who is touched ends up doing something that will then change the lives of millions or if 10 children who were touched will go on to do something they may not have. I do though have faith that this work is worthwhile and that people are positively affected both in ways that I know and ways I may never know. Today Shirley’s comments to me drove this truth home even further. A part of me wished that Shirley could call him herself and let him know that her life had been touched in a way she had never imagined. Who knows how the dominos will now fall simply because of just her experience. Those are the moments when it is clear that I am doing exactly what I am supposed to be. It is not necessary for me to prove anything to anyone. In my brief quiet moments of doubt I will add Shirley to the list of memories I draw strength from.
Hopefully this rambling made sense to a few a of you. It may still be to early in the trip for my blogging to have been dusted off enough from last year. Hang in there though! They will get better i promise!

Erin

Jun

18

2013

Bridge over the water..

Blog | By Erin | No comments

Today felt like five, so we must have seen and done quite a bit! We had our first walk to the school which is about 2 miles from our village. Everyone was ready early and we all set out. This was the first chance the volunteers had to be in the local villages so I could see they enjoyed seeing all the children and local people greeting them along the way. The walk was more treacherous than some had expected. We had to cross the bridge in order to get to the school and i had not mentioned this to the volunteers. Turns out it was a good thing i didn’t because one of the teachers (Natalie) is terrified of crossing over a bridge. When we got to the edge of the bridge she felt that she didn’t have a choice so she just wobbled across carefully along with everyone else ( heart pounding knees shaking) When the day was done it was great to hear her say how proud of herself she was. She even mentioned that if she had known about the bridge prior to the trip she may not have come. Natalie was even able to say that she felt her fear had been faced and no other bridge would ever be an issue :) The bridge ended up being a highlight and i always love when things like that happen.
Upon arriving at the school the teachers learned that it was a school for grades 1 through 7 and there were 4,000 students. That alone was overwhelming, but then to find out there were only 23 teachers to serve those 4,000 students the volunteers became awestruck! As we toured the classrooms it was incredible to see sometimes over 200 students seated on the floor, eyes looking at the teacher and quietly learning.  We were invited to visit each classroom and our teachers could pick a class to stay in observe as they saw fit. This seemed to work out well. Everyone found a spot and Scott and I tried to make rounds and check up on everyone. Eventually I picked a class of younger children and taught a nice round of duck duck goose ;) I am not a teacher so what I have to give in this realm is limited, but the kids and I did have fun ;) we had some laughs and stumbles as we all played inside the concrete classroom.
It did rain a bit today which was interesting since this time of year that is rare. Not long after the rain stopped the sun was out and we all were able to shed our sweatshirts again.
Once we arrived back in our village we sat and ate lunch. The teachers were eager to have a meeting to discus their plan for the next day. Since today they had observed, tomorrow they would have the chance to take over for the Malawian teachers and actually teach a lesson. The group sat and planned for over 2 hours! I could tell they were excited at the opportunity. Listening to them plan was so cool. These 13 teachers have so much passion for their work and I can imagine tomorrow will be a big day for all of them.
After their meeting we all got cleaned up and gathered to play a game Sara had brought. This gave us some good laughs and also helped bring all of us together. It’s early in the trip but this group seems to be getting along well and I think the experience has been great thus far! We all went to bed early as the teachers had to gear up for their big day in the classrooms ;)

Erin

Jun

17

2013

Our travel and arrival!

Blog | By Erin | 4 comments
Hard to believe…YES! We are all here safe and well tucked into our huts for night #1! The volunteers are shuffling around and getting teeth brushed and last bathroom stops in before bed. We all arrived and 25 suitcases arrived also! That alone stands to be a wonderful start to this first two week journey. Seeing the faces of all the volunteers as they got their first glimpse if village made me so happy. Upon finally landing and finding every one of our suitcases it became very clear we in in malawi. Not only were the sights and sounds all different, but as i met our drivers outside the airport i was told that this week the bus that was to be used for our transport had broke down (of course it had). We were instead accommodated with 4 cars and a pickup truck with a trailer attached that would carry all of our bags. We all climbed in and headed off to the village. All of the volunteers had a tour of the village and unloaded belongings in to their assigned huts. We gathered together all had a cold drink and ran down the ins and outs of living here at Kumbali Village. It was about 5 o’clock and some people wanted to shower so since we only had about an hour and a half left of day light we got right to that. We then met at the table to for dinner around 6:30 and since now the sun was gone it began to get dark. Usually this is about the time the generator is turned on and all the lights in the main eating area flip on. It was then that I was told the generator was broken. Not really “broken”, but since it had been serviced yesterday and the man who did the servicing forgot to put the handle back on we could not i turn it on. Another reminder that we were in fact in Malawi :) a few of the staff were scrambling to get in touch with the repair man so we lit candles  ate a wonderful dinner. We also had our first Chichewa lesson! it was fun hearing everyone try their hand at the local language. I thought by now we would have been able to find the handle to the generator, but come to find out the repair man had had an asthma attack and had been taken to the local hospital so this was now taking longer than expected. No big deal though it seemed everyone was happy with the candle light and enjoying the evening. Right before our meal had ended the generator kicked on and we had lights!
I tried to write this blog before bed, but as I was about half done I clicked something on the iPad and everything I had written disappeared. I gave up and tucked in to bed. Now it is either the middle of the night or almost morning and I’m attempting to retype it all so that I can post it in the morning before we leave for our first day at the local school.  I failed to set my travel clock so I’m stuck not having a clue what time it actually is.
I’m so thankful that everyone arrived safe and with luggage and seemed to enjoy our first few hours in Malawi. I’m sure the next 2 weeks will bring plenty of stories so ill do my best to post here often. Thank you to everyone who sent prayers and good wishes for a good travel experience. It seems it worked! Now it’s time to get busy with the work these teachers have come to do.
 Please excuse typos as I am typing on an iPad and working quickly ;)